What is WordPress?
WordPress is a simple blogging platform started in 2003 to help publishers, bloggers and businesses quickly build, publish and maintain websites without having to hire a technical team to do it, but WordPress has since transformed into much more.
Most people who are interested in starting a blog will hear the name WordPress pretty early on in their research. And during that research phase, the next natural question is often, what’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
Firstly Find your Question and get all answer below.
1. Short Answer: (Main Difference)
WordPress.org is a free CMS that powers blogs and websites (like mine). WordPress.com is a hosting service that uses WordPress software to create a blog or website.
This guide will show you the meaningful differences between the two.
I’ll also help you understand what WordPress is and how to pick which option is best for you and your blogging goals.
Before diving into more details and specifics though, let’s look at the bare bones difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
WordPress.org is a content management system (CMS) that’s open-source and self-hosted. It’s totally free and it can be installed on your own web host.
WordPress.org was created before WordPress.com and is often the version people are referencing when they recommend using WordPress. It’s also often referred to as self-hosted WordPress, when reading through guides about how to start a blog.
WordPress.org offers a very high level of customization, thousands of WordPress themes to make your blog building process easier, and access to over 55,000 plugins.
WordPress.com is essentially a website builder that also provides the hosting service for you (for a monthly fee).
One benefit of using WordPress.com, is that you won’t need to use different third party web hosting company to get started.
However, a drawback is that while WordPress.com uses the same software as WordPress.org, it doesn’t provide the same level of customization (more on that later).
There is a limited free version of WordPress.com but the paid plans offer more features and flexibility than the free version.
Now that we’ve done a brief overview, let’s dive deeper into the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
2. The Long Version: More differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
In order to get a clear idea about the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, it’s helpful to compare multiple aspects of the two.
While there are similarities between the two platforms, there are some pretty significant differences as well. Here’s a point-by-point guide explaining key similarities and differences between the two options.
In this section, we’ll start by covering the cost to run a blog on each platform, the WordPress themes & WordPress plugins available to install, ease of use and customization capabilities.
3. Cost differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com
There’s a long-standing debate about which platform is cheaper to run overall.
Not everyone is in agreement, so I’ll break down the typical costs you should expect to see with both (depending upon which features you want to activate).
The cost to set up a WordPress.org blog
At first glance, WordPress.org seems like the obvious choice financially.
The software is free to the public, and WordPress requires no upfront money to get started. You can run a fairly sophisticated website without paying any fees to WordPress.
However, as I mentioned before, with WordPress.org, you’ll need to pay for a hosting service. You’ll also have to find a name for your blog and pay for the domain name where your website will live.
I personally use and recommend Bluehost, one of the longest-standing players in the WordPress web hosting space for getting your domain name and hosting set up.
As I mentioned, Bluehost is one of the most established companies in the WordPress hosting industry, and offer plans for as little as $3.95/mo (billed annually). Their hosting plans also come with a free domain name for the first year.
Another nice feature about Bluehost, is that it works really well with WordPress. They have a 1-Click install option that makes spinning up your blog easy and straight-forward.
If you end up going with Bluehost, the plan I recommend is their Choice Plus plan, because it comes with a Domain Privacy feature. This keeps your personal information as a website owner private, and withholds it from being publicly visible online. You can choose any of the options, though, and just add domain privacy in the checkout process for about $1/mo.
Bottom line, self-hosting your WordPress blog with a company like Bluehost is the most affordable option.
The cost to host your own blog is really quite minimal compared to any other popular website builders—around $65/year.
It’s actually quite a bit cheaper than using WordPress.com’s paid plans (which unlock the kinds of features you’d actually want if you’re hoping to grow a blog as a business).
When you use WordPress.org, there are a lot of free themes and WordPress plugins that new bloggers can hit the ground running with. Free themes and plugins are still a very viable way to build a good looking website on a budget.
If you want to have more control over your blog though, you may ultimately opt to buy a premium plugin or theme (like the OptimizePress or Elementor themes that power my blog).
We’ll discuss plugins (most of which are free) more soon, but there are times when a paid plugin is worth your money.
You may also choose to pay for a more fully-featured WordPress theme if you’re unable to find a free option that suits your needs.
A self-hosted blog on WordPress allows you to be as simple or as complex as you’d like with your site.
If you’re not an experienced web developer, but you have a specific look in mind, you can still always find a professional on a freelance site to customize your blog on a budget.
4. Is it cheaper to go with WordPress.org or WordPress.com?
A self-hosted (WordPress.org) blog that’s powered by a hosting company like Bluehost will almost always be cheaper than a WordPress.com plan with the same features.
The primary difference in the way pricing is structured, is that with WordPress.com, everything is packaged into one monthly fee. You choose the plan that fits your needs, get all of those features and you pay a more premium price for the simplicity of it.
With a self-hosted (WordPress.org) blog powered by a hosting company, you don’t have to spend any more than your hosting cost + domain name. Your costs can stop right there, making it a far cheaper option to go with.
However, where the costs can begin to stack up is if you opt for premium for themes, plugins, security features, a professional web developer or other extras. So at the end of the day if you’re not careful (and willing to do some learning), you could possibly end up spending more with a WordPress.org blog than with one of WordPress.com’s lower-priced plans.
5. What is a WordPress theme?
A WordPress theme is a series of page templates and stylesheets that are used to dictate the appearance of a WordPress powered blog.
Themes are what control the visual look of your WordPress blog—and the best ones will allow you to do that very easily (without touching any code).
Alright, now let’s explore WordPress themes as they relate to the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
One of the main reasons people are drawn to a self-hosted WordPress.org blog, is that it provides access to literally tens of thousands of theme options.
WordPress.org offers thousands of free themes that are often designed to fit the type of blog topic idea you’re considering focusing on.
You can also purchase premium themes from third party companies that’ve already built more visually appealing themes.
WordPress.org even gives you the option to upload your own themes (build by a web developer), giving you near limitless potential with your blog’s visual appearance.
WordPress.com on the other hand, offers some themes, but not as many as you can get through WordPress.org.
There are currently 140 free themes and 184 premium themes, which is still quite a lot for a new blogger to choose from.
And you can upload your own custom-built theme on WordPress.com—if you pay for a Business plan (or higher).
6. What is a WordPress plugin?
A WordPress plugin is a piece of software you can upload, that contains functions you can add to your WordPress blog. They typically add more functionality or enable brand new features on your WordPress website.
If you’re not already familiar with WordPress, you may not know what a plugin is or why they’re so incredibly awesome.
Simply put, a WordPress plugin is a bit of code that can be uploaded to your WordPress website, thus enabling your blog to do new things and enable more features.
Here’s a short list of some just a few of the best WordPress plugins available on the market today:
- 1. Jetpack: Jetpack was created by WordPress and it helps with things like security, website performance, and traffic growth.
- 2. Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO helps you create content that ranks higher on search engines.
- 3. WooCommerce: WooCommerce is a powerful option for people interested in using their site to sell something.
- 4. Elementor: Elementor allows your WordPress page to perform like a drag-and-drop website builder. This is helpful for people who want the ease of a website builder like Wix, but the customization features of WordPress.
- 5. Instagram Feed: Instagram Feed lets you display your Instagram feed on your website.
- 6. WP Forms: WP Forms is a helpful plugin for those who want to include any kind of form on their blog.
- 7. WP Fastest Cache: WP Fastest Cache is a plugin that keeps your website running quickly even when you have a lot of traffic.
- 8. Table Press: Table Press allows you to create and manage tables for your site.
7. Ease of use between WordPress.org and WordPress.com
One thing you might be wondering about is how easy are these platforms to use?
Let’s say both WordPress.org and WordPress.com sound great… but how easy is it to get started? Which one is easier to use?
There are a lot of people who want to have a professional looking blog, business, or portfolio website, but aren’t experienced with website development.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be a website building master in order to get started with either version of WordPress.
Here are some of the main differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com when it comes to their ease of use.
8. Is WordPress.org or WordPress.com better?
Now that you have a better idea of the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, the real question is… which one is better?
If you’re thinking about creating a mostly static website for something like a local business or portfolio that won’t be changing very often, you may want to use WordPress.com and their free hosting plan option. It could also be a good choice for a very simple blog if you want to get started and begin testing things out, but don’t want to pay anything while you’re still learning.
For almost every new blogger or website owner, I recommend a self-hosted WordPress.org blog over WordPress.com.
With a self-hosted WordPress.org blog, there’s so much more versatility, customization options and freedom with future monetization.
You can also create your blog by paying only for the hosting (with a WordPress hosting company like Bluehost) and yearly domain name renewal fees, which is usually the most affordable option—think $100 to $200 a year maximum.
If you already have a WordPress.com website, or you want to try it out because it’s free—you can always switch your website over to WordPress.org later.
You’re not locked into either choice forever if you’d like to make a change.
Once you’ve made a decision about which one works for you, the next step is creating awesome content.
WordPress is a vehicle to get you to where you’re going, but what you choose to do with it, is what builds a real blogging business.
Now, the real work fun can finally begin.
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