DO YOU NEED WORDPRESS.COM OR WORDPRESS.ORG?
WordPress provides two types of platform, they are WordPress.com and WordPress.org. From WordPress.org you need to download and install a software script called WordPress. This way, creating a website or blog is a bit time consuming and needs a bit of hard work. Because, after downloading the WordPress script, you need a web host service to host that WordPress site.
On the other hand, WordPress.com enables you to create and start a new website or blog within seconds that doesn’t require much effort and time. In this service, WordPress itself provides the hosting facilities. But when we make a comparison between the two WordPress services (WordPress.org and WordPress.com), WordPress.org is more flexible and expandable than WordPress.com. If you are confused about making a choice between the two platforms, I personally recommend everyone to use WordPress.org if you are serious about website creation or blogging.
Next, let’s check the differences between the two platforms.
What are the differences?
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
WordPress.com
- Free to join and also has upgrade options for advanced customization.
- It provides more than 200 themes with limited customization options, but it does not allow for customizable themes.
- You can not use any third-party plugins, but it has some plugins which provide extra features for your blog.
- It provides free hosting but with limited space of up to 3GB.
- Develop new features on a regular basis by maintaining the existing codes.
- Even if your blog has a huge traffic flow, it will not go down as your blog is under many servers.
- Backups and primary security functions are automatically handled.
- All technical issues are handled by the WordPress team. But, we can not say when they will solve the issue.
- You can get a free subdomain (eg-www.name.worpress.com). Upgrade options for the domain are available.
- No ads are allowed.
WordPress.org
- To install it, you should be aware of basic technical steps.
- It doesn’t offer a domain. You need to get a domain from another domain registrar service.
- You can use any third party theme as well as any theme from the WordPress.org directory. You can also create your own theme if you have coding knowledge.
- It has its own free and premium plugins that you can download from the official plugin directory and you are allowed to use third-party premium plugins which are essential for advanced features.
- You need to find a web hosting service by yourself and pay for it.
- If you have a great technical skill, you can make whatever changes you want.
- You have to use a good hosting service to keep your website from going down due to the enormous traffic.
- In terms of security and backup, only a small portion is done by web hosting and the majority has to be done by yourself with WordPress security and backup plugins.
- By installing plugins and editing codes (if you have the knowledge), you can solve technical issues.
- You need to find a domain name by yourself and pay for It separately.
- You can monetize your site by many advertisements.
- Using FTP or Cpanel, you are allowed to edit your files
Check Pros & Cons of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
WordPress.com
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Bottom line
WordPress.com is suitable for those who want to start a blog as a part of their hobby without the intention of customizing the blog to add extra features and monetizing it.
WordPress.org
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Bottom line
The WordPress.org platform is suitable for those who want to start a professional blog with the intention of customizing it by installing premium themes for a great look, adding advanced features, and making money online by monetizing a blog.
WordPress .com and .org differences explained in detail.
With the .com version your site is not 100% yours.
This is the first and probably the most important point. If you start a free hosted site, then guess what, you don’t own it. It’s not for you. Your content is really their content. There have been so many cases where blogs have been shut down for no apparent reason or a simple mistake. Guess what happens to all the words that you have spent hours typing? It’s gone forever. You won’t be able to get it back. Believe me, this is not something that rarely happens. This happens to a lot of people every year.
WordPress makes it clear in their TOS page # 16 that they can shut down your site without warning and without a cause at any time immediately. A wise person, after reading their terms of service, would say I’m not willing to take that chance. With WordPress.org, everything is yours. You own it. You don’t have to worry about your site being terminated. You don’t have to worry about anyone taking your house because they don’t like your artistic decorations. You’re free to express yourself. The sky is the limit. The more you write on your blog and the more it grows, the more you will fall in love with your blog. You’re going to be happy with your accomplishments. Don’t make the mistake of the many owners who have shut down. Don’t risk it.
WordPress.com offers a limited amount of themes.
Not only do bloggers who use WP.org have a bigger selection of themes to choose from for their site, but we can also upload themes. You can’t do this with WP.com. That means you can’t choose SEO-optimized themes such as Genesis and Thesis, which is what most bloggers use. I know you have been wondering about how your site will look. When I started my first blog, I was always wondering what theme I would use. I spent hours fantasizing and checking out different themes at Envato Market.
Imagine you’re looking for the right outfit and soon you will find it. You say this is the one. This is what I need. I will look good in this. When it’s time to purchase it, the owner says sorry, it’s not for sale. Go check out the generic rack with only 12 items to choose from. WordPress.com is throwing your theme dreams down the drain. WP.com does allow you to go premium, which enables you to get more themes, but that’s still a problem. Why do you ask? Because then you have to pay $49 and up, and even with that, there are still some limits on customization. Why go through all that when you can choose from thousands of fast themes for your WP.org site?
With WP.com, you only get a few built-in plugins.
You can’t upload plugins to the free hosted WordPress. One of the best benefits of the.org version is that you have access to over 30,000 plugins for your site. I have plugins that increase my page speed greatly. Plugins have revolutionized the way we blog. They have made blogging more fun, and they have saved bloggers like me a bunch of headaches. In some cases, a plugin makes our whole website, such as eCommerce sites and some gaming sites. If you choose the free WP, you can’t get those plugins that you desire or always hear about. You will be on the outside looking in. Plugins are a central part of blogging. You name it, there is a plugin for it. You’re going to miss out on a lot and, in the end, you’re making your blogging journey much harder on yourself.
Please see also: Top 40 Must Have WordPress Plugins [updated 2020]
You can’t use your own CSS on your site with WordPress.com.
Yeah, that’s right. You can’t add style to your site. Well, actually you can, but you have to spend some more cash. If you don’t pay 30 dollars per blog per year, then you can’t customize fonts or add your own CSS code to change your theme’s appearance. Think about it. If you have more than one blog, that’s going to add up. With WP.org, you can customize all of your sites for free.
You can’t change your permalink structure.
Bad news if you want a good looking URL without the subdomain name. Permalink changes are only available for self-hosted sites. Say Goodbye to branding. Your website domain is going to look very unprofessional and ugly, which will hurt you in the long run. It’s going to look like this: mywebsite.wordpress.com. You have to admit the subdomain ruins the whole presentation of your website. People just won’t look at your blog the same. You are able to add a custom domain name, but once again, there is a catch. You have to spend 13 more dollars a year to remove the ugly WP subdomain.
WP.com is able to advertise on their site.
Have you ever wondered why WordPress is free? Since you don’t own your site, to keep your blog free, WP.com will display annoying ads on it. Don’t worry, you can remove the display ads if you want…… But once again, you have to pay a fee. This time it’s a yearly fee of 30 dollars, or you also have the choice of choosing their premium and business plans, which are both over 99 dollars a year. By now, I know you are starting to see many of the pains of having a WP.com site, but it’s not over yet. There is more stuff to talk about below.
You will have limited storage space.
If you want terrible storage space, then WordPress.com can handle your needs. For your site, you will only get 3G of space. All the things we want for our blog take up space. Think about images, videos, audio files, etc. Above, I was telling you about their business and premium plans that you can purchase, but is it really worth it? You have to pay 100 dollars year round for premium and that will give you an additional 10GB. At this point, you have no choice but to get your own hosting platform for your blog.
You can’t make money with ads.
We all want to monetize our blogs. One of the best things about starting a blog is that one day, with hard work, you can make a living out of it. If you were hoping to one day sell ads on your site, then you can, but you have to have at least 25,000 pageviews a month. You might be thinking in your mind that it doesn’t sound so bad, but that’s not the bad news. The bad news is that you have to split your profit with them 50/50. With self hosted WP, all your earnings are for you, as it should be, but with free hosted they want to basically take half of your money. I don’t know about you, but I have a serious problem with that. This problem all comes back to the fact that it’s not your site.
Ugly footer
With the free WP, you get the ugly footer treatment. What I mean by this is that you will have to have a blog at WordPress.com credit link forever. This is what it says on their custom design page at the bottom. “All WordPress.com bloggers are required to maintain the Admin Bar (the dark bar that appears at the top of WordPress.com sites when logged in) as well as credit links in the footer, even our VIP bloggers”. You can’t pay to have it removed from your blog. It’s like having an unremovable watermark in a photo.
They can switch your theme.
Yes, this is true. WordPress.com can and has switched themes in the past because of a dislike for the person who developed them. We see this in the case of the Cutline theme removal. I have placed a link for verification. With WP.com, the site is not for you, so they can do whatever they want, even if that means screwing over their users who were happy with a theme that met their needs. Free hosted sites are just not good for business. That is why most people go the.org route.
You can’t make a company email with WP.com
One of the first things I do when setting up my blogs is immediately add my company email address. For example, mycompany@domain.com. All professional websites have company email addresses and, believe it or not, they will help you in the long run. Having a company email address establishes trust and it shows professionalism. Would you want to buy something online from a seller with an email like girl@hotmail.com? As humans, we take notice of these little things. These days, it’s hard to trust people. Don’t make it harder for yourself and your brand. WordPress.com lets you down in this area. It leaves you with no choice, but to go find somewhere that offers monthly email hosting for your blog, which can add up. Why do all that when it should be free?
You can’t use affiliate links.
One of the best ways to make money with a blog is through affiliate links, which promotes other people’s products within your niche for a percentage of the sale. When you choose WP.com, say goodbye to that money making avenue. Promoting links is an easy way to get your site shut down.
- You can’t use Google Adsense.
If you were saying to yourself, well that’s OK I will just use Google Adsense you will be very disappointed because you will not be able to use this feature either. It is made clear on the WordPress.com advertisement page in which it states that, “Advertisements, including those from third-party advertising networks like Google AdSense, OpenX, Lijit, BuySellAds, and Vibrant Media are not allowed on WordPress.com”.
Let’s talk about the advantages.
Before I continue on why you shouldn’t get WordPress.com if you want to be a serious blogger, let me explain some quick advantages of having it. The advantages are that it’s free and they manage things for you. They back up your site for you and they do maintenance work for you. With WP.org, while you do have to do these things on your own, you don’t have to worry because it’s not hard. You don’t have to be computer savvy to do it. I did it with no blogging experience. It’s easy to backup your site and WP.org is so awesome that you can install backup plugins for your blog. Now let’s go back to the disadvantages of the.com version.
If you are looking for a custom domain name for your blog or website, you can signup for their premium plans under which you can buy a domain (or host your own domain purchased from somewhere else) and host it with them with their extended services like CSS editor, domain mapping, removal of ads, video upload, extended storage, and more. (These services are not available with the free version).
The only true advantage that WordPress.com has over.org is that it is free. That’s what it comes down to. Serious bloggers will never recommend WP.com. When I first started blogging a couple of months ago, I was able to throw up a simple adsense ad that paid for my hosting for the current month and some months in advance. I highly recommend that if you’re serious about making a site, then you have to choose WordPress.org. I will help you if you need any help. Don’t make the mistake of starting off free with the intention of later getting your own hosting. This will only create more problems for you. Start now.
About The Author
Nohman Habib
I basically work in the CMS, like Joomla and WordPress and in framework like Laravel and have keen interest in developing mobile apps by utilizing hybrid technology. I also have experience working in AWS technology. In terms of CMS, I give Joomla the most value because I found it so much user freindly and my clients feel so much easy to manage their project in it.
