When comparing Tumblr vs WordPress, the Slant community recommends WordPress for most people. In the question“What are the best solutions for a personal blog?” WordPress is ranked 7th while Tumblr is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose WordPress is:
If you set up WP on your own server, you can change every single aspect of it as you see fit.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free
It costs nothing to create a Tumblr account.
Pro Community-driven
It is built around sharing and discovering new, short-form content.
Pro Good customization options
Tumblr allow users to customize their website with many built-in themes. In addition to theme selection, user can also further customize their website either through a customization editor wizard or through a HTML and CSS editor for advanced users.
Pro Supports responsive design & mobile-friendly websites
Tumblr supports responsive design for the website as it will be fitted with the same theme based on which device the user is using to view the website. It can also vary by theme with responsive design availability.
Pro Great mobile apps
Easy to use Windows Phone, iOS and Android are available.
Pro Custom domain support
If you want to use your own domain instead of *.tumblr.com, you can.
Pro Complete control if needed
If you set up WP on your own server, you can change every single aspect of it as you see fit.
Pro Widely used
According to some statistics, WP powers a fifth of the Internet. It means there are resources for everything. Community support, tutorials, extensions and a plethora of customization options.
Pro Self-host & WP-host options
For free WordPress can be hosted by yourself on your own server, or as a subdomain of wordpress.com. You can also pay to use a custom domain with WP hosting.
Pro Open source
Anyone can view the code of WordPress since it's under a libre/open source license.
Pro RSS feeds for everything
Including tags and categories.
Pro Post-level privacy controls
Each post can have a different access level.
Cons
Con A bit of bloat and complexity
WP has grown past being just a blogging platform and as such it's not as lightweight as it used to be. It also considerably more complex due to many more customization options compared to other solutions.
Con Dated
The code is a mess, uses dated conventions, and relies on dated technology.