Blogger Custom Domain: Setup Guide After FTP Publishing Ended (2026)
Want to use a Blogger custom domain? In January 2010 Blogger announced it would stop FTP publishing on 26 March 2010. FTP had let bloggers write in Blogger but publish the files to their own web host and domain; only 0.5% of active blogs used it, yet it took a large share of Blogger’s engineering time. Google pushed everyone to custom domains instead, and we ran several small Blogger blogs that had to move. Here’s how a Blogger custom domain works in 2026 and when it’s time to move to WordPress instead.
Quick answer: To use your own domain on Blogger, go to Settings > Publishing > Custom domain, enter your www address, then add the two CNAME records Blogger shows at your domain registrar. Point the root domain to Google’s IP addresses and turn on “Redirect domain” and HTTPS. FTP publishing ended in 2010 and isn’t coming back; if you need your own hosting, move the blog to WordPress.
Table of Contents
What happened to Blogger FTP publishing?
- Blogger ended FTP and SFTP publishing on 26 March 2010.
- Google offered a migration tool to move FTP blogs to a blogspot address or a custom domain, with redirects from the old URLs.
- Custom domains let Google host the blog while the address stays on your domain.
How to set up a Blogger custom domain
- Buy a domain from any registrar.
- In Blogger, open Settings > Publishing > Custom domain and enter your address with www (for example www.example.com).
- Blogger shows two CNAME records: one for
wwwpointing toghs.google.com, and a unique verification record. Add both at your registrar’s DNS settings. - Add A records for the root domain pointing to Google’s IP addresses, as listed in Blogger Help, so example.com also works.
- Back in Blogger, save the domain, turn on Redirect domain and, once available, HTTPS availability and HTTPS redirect.
DNS changes can take a few hours. Blogger’s custom domain help page lists the current records. Then add the new address to Search Console; see how to add Blogger to Google Search Console.
Blogger custom domain vs moving to WordPress
| Blogger with custom domain | Self-hosted WordPress |
|---|---|
| Free hosting by Google; no server to manage | You pay for hosting and handle updates |
| Limited themes and plugins | Thousands of themes and plugins |
| Fine for personal blogs | Better for business sites, SEO tools and monetization |
We moved QuickOnlineTips from Blogger to WordPress in 2006. If you’re thinking of doing the same, see how to import Blogger to WordPress and redirect Blogger to WordPress without losing traffic. Whatever you choose, back up your Blogger blog first; even Google once deleted its own blog by mistake.
FAQ
Is a Blogger custom domain free?
Blogger hosting is free; you only pay for the domain name.
Can I still publish Blogger to my own server by FTP?
No. FTP publishing ended in 2010. Use a custom domain or move to WordPress.
Does Blogger support HTTPS on custom domains?
Yes. Turn on HTTPS availability and HTTPS redirect in Settings once the domain is set up.
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So is there any way I would be able to transfer my blogger content to a wordpress for example? Like if I back up the posts and the template I should be able to recreate it else where correct?
Wow.. this is the best read I could find on the net about this issue. I was left completely confused as to how to do many of my previous tasks with blogger which im only learning now are completely impossible to do now. I’m assuming blogger is now a dumbed down version of what it used to be. That’s not really an improvement at all. I’m incredibly disappointed and now its even harder to help my clients with solutions about things like this. I guess its best to move to wordpress. end of story.
So few people use the ftp functionality of Blogger it’s no wonder they are stopping that part of the service.
This is a good piece of writing, I was wondering if I could use this blog post on my website, I will link it back to your website though. If this is a problem please let me know and I will take it down right away.
Google has made a terrible mistake and will only realize the impact of this mistake in the future. Google wants us to to move to cloud computing but I’m only going to move to cloud computing on the premise that If we set up something now Google will support in the future. However this blogger fiasco has proven that Google will not do this, so why would I be stupid enough to trust them with a core business process or data.
FTP is an old technology but I’m sure they could have come up with an alternative solution that would have met the needs of current FTP users.
To be fair they did give 6 months notice which is a reasonable amount of time.
Moving to WordPress, Google lost another one.
https://benfrain.com/migrating-from-ftp-based-blogger-to-wordpress/
I’m planning to cut and paste the blogger templates and recreate the look and feel of my html blog. My blog should look more or less identical to what it is currently, and I’m going to change the weekly archive URLs to something more SEO friendly.
I figure an hour or so extra work a month to cut and paste.
As I understand it, moving to Google hosting will really impact your site ranking, seo and stats. I don’t see the upside of staying with blogger.
Looking for other solutions, but might just go with WordPress. Definitely will not stay with blogger.
So if you have a full HTTP site that you want to embed a blog into (i.e. not just a dedicated blog site) can anyone recommend the best way of achieving this? (i.e. hosting the rest of the content on your own server while linking transparently to your blog page on another)?
Very annoyed about this, especially as this article is the only one that managed to explain what was happening in a way I could understand.
I run three blogs, all of which are ftp and part of other sites so I will be moving them all to WordPress.
Is there any software that can do the publishing like blogger? It should be great if I can find one. Otherwise, WordPress should be a good alternative.
Yup, I’ve been happily using FTP with blogger for 6ish years… and now, finally, I think it’s time to fully switch to WordPress. While I can’t fault Google (they are providing a free service after all)… I can’t be bothered with someone pulling the rug out from under me again!
Also, will be able to have correct XHTML again.. which will be nice! ;)
It sounds like the effect on SEO will be devastating. Lost inlink juice, organic search, points for updates and site breadth…shall I suggest all my clients switch to wordpress?