The popularity of WordPress in the digital space has increased the likelihood of beginners to easily confuse WordPress.com with WordPress.org or use both interchangeably without really understanding the difference between the two. This is a challenge that almost everyone coming into the digital world in the past decade has had to struggle with at a point in time. So, if you’re wondering what the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is, well you’re not alone. In this article, we are going to examine the difference between both platforms so that you can better understand which one is best suited for you to start with.
Overview of WordPress.com
WordPress.com uses the open-source WordPress script to provide free blogging/website services for users. Freely hosted blogs are assigned a WordPress.com subdomain. However, a user can decide to upgrade to a paid plan which gives the user access to a custom domain name. When using a free plan on WordPress.com, your site address will be something like this: www.mynollycritics.wordpress.com
WordPress.com has a free plan as well as paid plans ranging from Personal plan, Premium Plan, Business Plan and so on. What this means is that users interested in the free plan only get access to limited features, which includes:
- A 3GB storage space
- Access to tons of non-premium themes, which you can further customise some
- Publicize tool for a direct social media connection
- Statistics on visitors to your blog
- Backend access to your blog from mobile devices
For additional features such as increased storage space, custom domain name and additional design features, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan.
Pros of WordPress.com
Whether you’re interested in a free or paid plan, WordPress.com certainly have some interesting features that are worth pointing out.
- Free To Use: To start your blogging on WordPress.com, you do not need to spend a dime on hosting or domain name. Although there are paid plans, which allows you to access more features, the free plan gives you more than enough features needed to get your blog running.
- User Friendly: You do not have to know anything about web design or be a developer to set up your blog on WordPress.com. To kickstart your blog, all you have to do is to create an account by visiting WordPress.com, provide the details of the blog you want to set up and you’re ready to start blogging.
- Easy Upgrade: When you’re ready for more such as access to features like WordAds, Google Analytics and Premium Themes, you can easily upgrade to any of the available paid plans.
It is vital to note that WordPress.com is not the only free blogging platform out there, as there are others such as Blogger, Wix, Weebly, Ghost, Medium. For more on this, feel free to check out our article on 8 Best Free Blogging Platforms To Create Your Blog
Cons of WordPress.com
WordPress.com comes with lots of limitations, especially when you’re using the free plan. These includes:
- Zero Monetization: Irrespective of the amount of traffic that you’re generating on your blog, you are unable to utilise ad services such as Google AdSense to generate income from your blog. Also, the free plan does not allow you to generate revenue through affiliate links and although you might be allowed to use the WordAds programme, however, you will have to share your revenue with WordPress unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
- WordPress Ads: When you’re using a free WordPress.com plan, WordPress will always be displayed ads on your blog, which you cannot remove unless you upgrade to a paid plan. While visitors to your blog will always see these ads, you however do not get paid for them.
- Limited Features and Customization: Using a free WordPress.com plan gives you access to only free themes with very limited customization and features. You will need to upgrade to a paid plan to unlock other futures, access premium themes and be able to customize your blog.
- No Custom Domain: The free WordPress.com plan does not allow for a custom domain name. So even if you have a custom domain from a third-party domain registrar such as GoDaddy, you will not be able to use that custom domain name without upgrading to a paid plan.
- Zero Plugins: Plugins are a good way to extend the functionality of your site and give it your desired outlook. WordPress.com does not allow users to instal or use plugins on the free plan. To use plugins on WordPress.com, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan.
- Doesn’t Support Membership functionality: The free plan of WordPress.com does not allow you to build a membership site. In other to do this, you will have to upgrade to a paid premium plan.
- No eCommerce functionality: If you’re hoping to build an eCommerce website then WordPress.com is certainly not the best choice for you as its free plan does not support eCommerce shop. So, unless you’re interested in investing in a paid plan, then I suggest you stick with WordPress.org.
Overview of WordPress.org
WordPress.org is a free and open-source Content Management System (CMS) that currently powers up to 33% of the entire world’s website, thereby making it the most popular website builder in the world today. Although WordPress.org is open source and 100% free, however, users need to invest in a domain name and web hosting in order to be able to use WordPress.
A domain name is simply your site’s address. It is the URL that visitors use to locate your site. For instance, www.empricon.com is the domain name that anyone can use to visit our website. On the other hand, A web hosting the server where the files and data of your website are stored. After purchasing a domain name and a web hosting service, you can then proceed to install WordPress. With that done, you’re ready to start building and designing your website.
Pros of WordPress.org
There are tons of advantages to using WordPress.org to develop your website. The following are some of its benefits.
- Customization and Design: With a vast pool of free and premium themes, plugins and widget settings, WordPress provides limitless possibilities to design and customize your website to your desired taste. If you’re a developer and would like to create custom themes or designs for your website, WordPress.org make this easy to achieve.
- 100% Control: WordPress.org give you 100% control over your website. You can use your custom domain and do not have to follow WordPress.com terms of service. Hence, you completely own your website.
- You can monetize your website: Since you have 100% control over your website, you can easily make money from your website either by running ads, using affiliate links or simply building an eCommerce store. WordPress.org gives you tons of ways to monetize your passion.
- Membership functionality: With WordPress.org, you can build a membership website and easily grow your online community. This also provides additional revenue opportunities as you can decide to sell membership access to premium contents, forums courses and so on.
- eCommerce Functionality: With WordPress.org, you can create an eCommerce website, accept online payment and expand the reach of your business.
Cons of WordPress.org
Despite the huge advantages of using WordPress.org, it is not without its few pitfalls, which includes:
- You Have To Pay for Hosting and Domain Name: Without a domain main name and web hosting, you cannot use WordPress.org. So, although the WordPress.org is open source and free to use, you still have to pay a hosting provider and a domain registrar before you can use WordPress.
- Involves a bit of Technicality: Although you do not necessarily have to know how to code to be able to use WordPress, however setting up your website and designing it to your desired taste requires a little bit of technical expertise. Without adequate knowledge of what you’re doing, you can easily “break” your website.
- Updating, Securing and Backing up your website is your sole responsibility: When using WordPress.org, you are solely responsible for up updating, securing and backing up your website. This will require a constant visit to your dashboard to effect necessary updates. Also, there are tons of security and backup plugins (both free and premium) that you can use to secure and regularly backup your website.
Our Recommendation
If you’re interested in getting a website for your business, activity, organization or just a personal blog, we recommend using WordPress.org. Irrespective of your actual website need, WordPress.org has tons of features to help you achieve your desired goal. With our affordable Web Design services, you can easily get a WordPress.org website at an affordable fee. Click here to get started on your affordable website.
To know more about our web design services, click here
Do you have any question about WordPress.com or WordPress.org? Let us know in the comment section.
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