WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
When you’re first considering WordPress, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out all of the options given to you. A lot of people wonder whether a free WordPress.com site or a self hosted WordPress.org site is better for them.
We’ll compare both the free WordPress.com and self hosted WordPress.org options so you can make the right choice for your site.
Free WordPress.com
To begin with, we will be talking about free WordPress.com sites. WordPress.com does have some optional upgrades for a fee. You can find out more about those here, but we will not be talking about them in this post.
Pros
The biggest pro for WordPress.com sites is that it is free right out of the box (without the upgrades). It is very easy to setup your WordPress.com account and start working on your site. You get 3GB of storage and there are hundreds of free themes you can choose from to customize your site. WordPress.com is also SEO friendly. Another upside to using WordPress.com is that there is virtually no maintenance required on your end. They take care of things like automatic backups, updates, and optimization and they have a built in analytics tool. WordPress.com also has a “blogs of the day” section and a “tags” section where your WordPress.com site could be featured which can help drive more traffic to your site.
Cons
While WordPress.com sites are free, they do have quite a few cons to them. First off, the reason these sites are free is because WordPress.com places ads on your site. If you want to have an ad free site, you can upgrade to that. A lot of the other cons have to do with the lack of customization you are able to do on your site. WordPress.com does have features that resemble plugins, but you cannot actually upload any kind of plugin, free, paid, or customized, to your site. You also cannot use a custom theme or customize any of their themes. You can only use their database of themes that they provide. There’s also not much you can do if you want to make money by selling ads. WordPress.com will only allow you to sell ads on your site if you have more than 25,000 pageviews per month and you have to agree to give them 50% of your profits. If you want a custom domain rather than just a subdomain, you can get one but there is a domain registration fee you have to pay. WordPress.com does have community support, but it is limited and you do not get much support if you’re having trouble with one of their themes. One last major con is that if WordPress.com thinks that your site might be violating their terms of service, they can just delete your site at anytime without much notification.
Self Hosted WordPress.org
Pros
WordPress.org itself is free to download and install and they are famous for their 5 minute install. WordPress.org is easy to use and gives you full control over all of your data. You also have a ton more options for customizing the look and feel and structure of your website. You can turn it into practically anything that you want. For themes, you can use free themes, custom themes, premium themes, build your own theme, and even modify and change existing themes to make them look exactly as you want them to. You are allowed to use whatever plugins your heart desires so you can customize your site even more and really tap into the advanced functionality that WordPress has to offer. If you’re wanting to sell your own ads, you are also able to do that on a WordPress.org site and the best part is, you get to keep all of the profits. Also, no one can terminate or turn of your site (as long as you’re not doing anything illegal). WordPress.org allows you to use outside analytics and tracking tools, as well, to help you better monitor your traffic on your site.
Cons
Even though WordPress.org is free to download and install, you must have a hosting provider setup to host your website on. This usually requires a monthly/yearly fee. We recommend using WP Engine or SiteGround for your hosting. Once your site starts growing, you hosting costs will eventually go up as well. You are also responsible for all of the maintenance on your site which includes backups, updates, spam prevention, SEO optimization, and security. WordPress.org sites also aren’t within the WordPress.com network, so you cannot take advantage of the featured blogs section to get more traffic. WordPress.org sites can also be a bit tricky to get setup and start managing your site and content and can have a bit steeper of a learning curve. We offer our WordPress Fundamentals Class to help you get started.
Now that you’ve seen the comparison between free WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, we hope that you can now make an educated decision on which platform will be best for you and your website. If you blog for personal reasons and you don’t really see yourself monetizing anything on your site, a free WordPress.com site would be a good option for you. But, if you see yourself blogging for your career, setting up a business website, wanting to sell your ads, or wanting to start your own online store, you will benefit much more from WordPress.org website.
If you need help choosing WordPress.com vs WordPress.org or what kind of site you should setup, we have instructors that are ready to help you. Call 512-593-1621 or email rick@wp-learningcenter.com to schedule a consultation today.