The WordPress.com vs WordPress.org is one of the hottest debates. Why? Ask any blogger, which platform is best among these two? They will say WordPress. Agreed, but which one? WordPress.com or WordPress.org. Some of you might not know that they are different. One day my friend asked me “Are wordpress.com and wordpress.org the same?”. No, they are not same. Let us jump into the details.
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WordPress.com VS WordPress.org :
The WordPress.com and WordPress.org are owned by Automattic inc. It is a open source project and many developers are contributing in improvements. Now look at how WordPress.com is different from the WordPress.org.
What Is WordPress.com?
When you look at the WordPress.com blog, you find it is similar to the Blogspot. The WordPress.com is absolutely free to use. You just focus on the content creation and WordPress will take care of everything. The URL structure would look like this : https://sitename.wordpress.com.
On the other hand, they are offering domain, hosting and lot many features. You could see them compelling every time to buy a custom domain.
The WordPress.com offers 4 plans :
- Free : As we told earlier, you do not need to pay towards domain and hosting. When you go WordPress.com, you were either asked to add a new site or add the existing website hosted on WordPress.org.
- Business : The business plan is categorized into 2 plans : 1. Blogs & personal sites – Personal and premium and 2. Business sites & online stores – Premium, business and eCommerce.
- Domain
- Email : It works only when you have a custom domain.
There is no hard rule to buy a domain from WordPress. You might have bought from some other registrar. But, it works.
Earlier the WordPress.com was not worth to try, but they have come a long way. They strongly recommend you to move from a traditional .wordpress.com to a custom name. Of course it comes with a price. They are giving a free domain with every plan that you opt. You can get 6 GB to 200 GB storage space as per the plan. The best part is they are offering monetization. Do not assume that you can straightaway make money from their ads. Your must be eligible for it. Look at the eligibility criteria.
What Are The Pros Of The WordPress.com Free Plan?
- It is free for life. No one will delete your blog. You can anytime update it or upgrade to the premium plan.
- The free WordPress blog will be helpful to the newbies in their beginning days.
- You get the free help on forums. The WordPress.com community is huge.
- They allow affiliate marketing. You can try Amazon.
What Are The Cons Of The WordPress.com Free Plan?
- The free blog comes with the ads. You cannot avoid them. If you do not need them on your blog, you must upgrade to the premium plan.
- You cannot make money from your free WordPress blog.
- The blog do not rank well in the search engines. Mostly the free blogs go unnoticed.
What Is WordPress.org?
The WordPress.org is a software that helps to build blogs or websites. For installing WordPress, you need a custom domain and hosting. If you need a domain name for a cheaper price, then buy from Namecheap. Do you need reliable hosting? Then go with the Bluehost. It is one of the leading hosting companies and a partner of WordPress.
The hosting means hiring a web server for storing your website. What does the role WordPress.org plays here? You can develop, design and manage your blog. That too effortlessly. Once you setup WordPress, you can start blogging.
Which Is Best – WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org :
If you look at WordPress.com plans, only Business and eCommerce would have no branding. That means WordPress.com brand name will be in the footer. Even the 3 paid plans comes with branding. This is weird, isn’t it? You are paying money and you get the branding. They are offering enterprise plan (VIP) for large businesses.
We have seen many VIP websites having branding in the footer. On the other hand, you do not find such restrictions with WordPress.org. However the prices offered by WordPress.com are affordable.
The WordPress.com is ideal for everyone. Be an individual, medium sized business or a large enterprise. You get the best support. Coming to the WordPress.org, if you face any issue, either you should fix it or hire an expert.
If you needed any help, either you get the support from plugin author or community members. The downside is sometimes your questions get unnoticed. You can always hire someone on the Fiverr.
Our favorite is WordPress.org. If we ask you, which is best – WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, what is it? If you love our article, then share with your friends.