wordpress.com vs wordpress.org – Exclusive comparison

We everyone know that WordPress is the best blogging platform, with managing over 35% of sites on the internet. WordPress has more benefits than other blogging platforms. But the problem is wordpress.com vs wordpress.org, what to choose.

WORDPRESS.COM VS WORDPRESS.ORG - difference between Comparison

This is a really interesting comparison.

WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org

Though we are familiar with the website building platforms, still there are many concerns in our minds about such platforms. 

When we need to select the best Content Management System (CMS) for our website, we must be cleared with all the doubts to make our website building process easy.

For example, if you search for WordPress on search engines, then you come up with two different options, which are WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

You might be confused about how they are different from each other, and what are the features that differ between WordPress.com and WordPress. org?

If you are having doubts related to both of these website building and CMS (content management system) platforms, and then you have reached the right place. 

Today, we are here to clear all your doubts related to these platforms. Choose the best platforms based on your need.

wordpress.com vs wordpress.org

So, have an eye on the information below.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is normally a content management software, where you can edit and manage your website and content.

What is WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is the most powerful hosting services and CMS provider founded by WordPress. WordPress.com is free to use but restricted with some features. Later also you can upgrade it.

Most of the hobby bloggers use WordPress.com, which is a free platform to start their blogging.

What is WordPress.org?

WordPress.org is also known as real WordPress, it offers the website owners the to host (self-host) and build their website. 

If you are looking for a self-hosting platform, then it is the best choice for you. WordPress.org allows you to create software with WordPress and let you host it separately.

Read – Why Self-hosted WordPress is best for Websites

Features WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

If you think that both WordPress.com and wordpress.org have the same features, then you are wrong.

There are massive differences between the features of both of the platforms. 

So, check out some of the significant features of both of the platforms.

Features of WordPress.com

  1. WordPress.com is the best platform for beginners and joining wordpress.com is entirely free.
  2. While you will have wordpress.com, you will get 3 GB of free space to store stuff, but users can also move to any of their other packages to access its services. 
  3. With the change in technology, they update their tools or their features to offer a better experience to their users.
  4. Get a free domain. But the domain name looks unprofessional.
  5. You can get a pre-installed SSL certificate.
  6. Basic jetpack features (plugin)
  7. Free access to a wide range of free themes.

Features of WordPress.org

  1. If you use wordpress.org, you only need to invest your money in buying a domain and hosting website hosting and domain name. Therefore, it is called a self-hosted platform.
  2. For your goodness, there are some free hosting providers and cheap WordPress hosting also available in the market. If you want to use wordpress.org from affordable hosting, they serve you better. But whatever it is free to have some restrictions in using. Because no one was ready to give everything free.
  3. Controlling and customize the website is very much easy.
  4. Being your website owner, you can also run ads, free, or customized plugins on your website. It will add more features and offers a better interface to the visitors.
  5. There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes available to use on WordPress.org. So, you can also your desired design for your website to make it look more appealing.
  6. If you are getting a lot of traffic on your wordpress.org blog, then you can quickly run ads on your blog, while not sharing your earnings along with the others.
  7. You can also create multiple users for your website. So that your team of members does their work simultaneously. 
  8. Creating e-commerce and Selling products with the help of wordpress.org is very much easy.
  9. The important thing that differs WordPress from other platforms is its plugins. With over 50,000 plugins in WordPress, it rules the content management. For your every need there is a plugin. For example – if you need link building, broken link checking, SEO enhances, and many more then will be at least 10 plugins for every particular need.
wordpress.org vs wordpress.com themes

Cost of WordPress.com vs Cost of wordpress.org

Depending upon the cost of both of the platforms, a website owner can choose any of the platforms. 

Here we have a quick overview of the difference between the cost of both of the platforms.

 Cost of wordpress.com

wordpress.com pricing - wordpress.org

The most significant advantage of using wordpress.com is that it is free of charge. 

But if you want to use wordpress.com for your professional or commercial purpose, you have to pay anywhere around $8/month. Sometimes it could be based on the features you needed.

Cost of wordpress.org

The wordpress.org is based on the hosting providers you are choosing.

You can choose between Best WordPress hosting providers and also free hosting providers

But there are some reasons why you should avoid free hosting, go for these cheap hosting providers.

If you are choosing a good hosting, It will cost you only $3 to $4 per month. At this cost, you can get good shared hosting from good WordPress hosting providers.

If you are a beginner, then shared hosting is best suitable for you.

Bluehost and the GreenGeeks are some of the premium hosting providers at an affordable cost that are highly suitable for everyone.

If you need dedicated hosting (private server) then, basically it will cost you more than $50/month. Dedicated hostings are needed when your monthly traffic goes over 50,000 visitors.

Besides this, there are many packages available for hosting companies. You can choose any of the packages depending upon your budget and need.

Disadvantages of wordpress.com vs WordPress.org

To choose any of the platforms we believe that you must have an idea about the disadvantages of both of the platforms. Therefore after using it, we have found the disadvantages between both of the platforms.

Disadvantages of WordPress.com (free)

While you are getting wordpress.com, you will not need to purchase a hosting plan every year, customizing or maintaining your website. You can find out a free plans in wordpress.com. But still, there are many disadvantages of using wordpress.com, which are here below;

  1.  While you have free plans, you cannot remove the WordPress ads on your website, which are quite disturbing.
  2. You cannot place ads on your wordpress.com website. Because most of the ad companies don’t accept the free hosted websites. Sometimes, WordPress policy also restricts you.
  3. In the free version, you can’t add the plugins.
  4. Uploading a new plugin on the wordpress.com website is restricted. To upload plugins into your wordpress.com you have to upgrade to the premium plans.
  5. Selecting your desired WordPress theme with wordpress.com is very much easy. Being a free member, you can only use free themes available with wordpress.com. To access the premium themes, and you have to use their business plan. 
  6. Besides this, you can customize only a few things available while you are a free member of wordpress.com.
  7. The owner of wordpress.com can delete your website anytime. If there will be a violation of their terms and conditions.
  8.  If you are a free member of wordpress.com, you cannot make your eCommerce website.
  9. You cannot add google analytics to your website.
  10. No customer support, less security, and no more backups and more things on the list, that highly affects you.

Disadvantages of wordpress.org

Unlike wordpress.com, wordpress.org has limited disadvantages. So, have a quick look at those disadvantages.

  1. To have a website on wordpress.org, you have to pay on hosting plans, and it cost around $3-$10 each month, and need to buy hosting. In this case, if your website traffic increases, then you have to pay more for the hosting plans.
  2. While you are using wordpress.org, then you may receive updates on a regular basis. You should pay attention to those updates and get that done regularly.
  3. Initial setup is required for the first time buying hosting, and it takes some time to understand the control panel and their feature placement. If you ask us which is better for bloggers, I will definitely suggest the Bluehost hosting, which is highly recommended by WordPress and comes with auto-installed WordPress.
  4. You must perform a backup of your website regularly. To perform a backup, you can also use plugins available with wordpress.org. Sometimes low-cost hosting providers don’t provide you backup plans. If you post blogs daily, then it becomes more critical for you.

WordPress.org recommended hosting providers

  1. Bluehost
  2. Dreamhost
  3. Siteground
wordpress.org recommended hosting providers

Even though there are hundreds of WordPress hosting providers in the market, these three are the WordPress recommended. Among this SiteGround is much costlier for beginners.

Which is better WordPress.com or wordpress.com?

After making all the necessary things related to wordpress.com and wordpress.org, now you think that which is better.

You want to choose between wordpress.com or wordpress.org. 

But you do not get worried, I’m here to give you a perfect answer related to your problem.

If you a new blogger and do not want to make money blogging, then choosing wordpress.com will be enough. 

But on the other hand, if you want to make money with your WordPress blog, you should choose the platform for wordpress.org. WordPress.org is highly-designed for professionals.

It is the self-hosted website building platform, which is very much beneficial for you.

If you don’t have enough budget, you can also choose cheap WordPress hosting providers for your self-hosted website, which starts from only $0.99/month. Later also you can upgrade the plans once your website grows.

In our opinion, you should choose the wordpress.org platform. These hosting companies also offer you free migration for your websites, done by experts.

 Whether you want to earn money from your blogging or take your offline business to an online platform, it is the best idea.

I personally suggest you go with a self-hosted blog. Hosting companies like Bluehost offers you a free domain when you buy their hosting, in which you can save more.

How to start working with wordpress.org?

I know, now you are curious to know how to start working with wordpress.org. 

Well, I’m here to provide you all the detailed information related to it.

To start with wordpress.org, you must have a domain and hosting.  There are some things you need to know when starting a blog and consider these things before choosing a hosting.

You can choose any of the domains depending upon your business type or depending on the purpose of making a blog and related to your niche.

Website hosting is the place where you store all the files on the internet.

check out my step by step guide to starting a blog in wordpress.

You can check from the internet about the best hosting services provider and compare its features. 

But we recommend you to choose Bluehost for the best hosting. You can also grab the benefit from their promotional coupon codes.

The Ultimate Winner – WordPress.org

For a beginner, it is always difficult to select the right blogging platform. But we believe that after reading the above post, you have cleared with all the things, that WordPress.org is the best.

Thank you for reading this article, if you find this blog useful kindly share it.

Did I miss any point in the comparison points between wordpress.com and wordpress.org? Comment me below.

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