It could be confusing and curious for the beginners to know about two different WordPress platforms WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. Since there are huge variations in both the blogging platforms, it is very important to know the differences before starting your small business blog. In this article you will find detailed comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org to help you choosing the right blogging platform for your successful blog.
What is WordPress?
WordPress which is also known as WordPress.org and introduced in 2003 as a self-hosted blogging platform and has dominant the market share of Content Marketing System (CMS) by more than 35%. WordPress gains the popularity in short period of time with its flexible features and easy to use dashboard. In 2005 WordPress.com introduced as a blog hosting services. You can see this detailed guide to know what is WordPress. Let’s see the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
We have compared all the benefits and downsides of both the blogging platform. Find the differentiate between two platform and choose the best for your successful blog.
WordPress.org
WordPress started in 2003 known as WordPress.org which is free and open source which needs to download and install in the hosting server. You need to have custom domain name and WordPress hosting to installed WordPress. Since it is self-hosted and can use independently without restrictions, WordPress.org gains the popularity and become one of the trusted blogging platforms across the globe. Many popular companies such as Microsoft, Techcrunch, thewaltdisney, Mercedes, Mozilla are using WordPress.org as their blogging platform.
WordPress.org Pros
WordPress.org is loved by the millions of successful blogger. It is chosen for the long runs blogs that makes money via Advertisement, Affiliates, Selling Products or creating professional companies blog. Let’s see the benefits of choosing WordPress.org for your small business blog.
- It is self-hosted and can use independently without any restriction.
- You have full control on your website.
- It is flexible and has easy to use dashboard.
- There are thousands of free themes, plugins in WordPress directory. There are also premium themes and plugins available as per your requirement.
- You can create your own custom design blog and customize everything you want.
- You can monetize your blog to make money online and sell ad spaces in your blog.
WordPress.org Cons
- You need to manage your website. You have to install and update themes and plugins yourself which is easy to do.
- Need custom domain name and web hosting which cost upto $7 per month.
- You have to keep your website backup manually by your own. You will find many best WordPress backup plugins that makes easy to take backup of your site.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is the blogging platform hosted online by Automattic. It provides both free and premium service. The free service is limited and soon need to upgrade the hosting plan that will be expensive comparing to another hosting companies.
Let’s see the pricing of WordPress.com
- Free Plan: Limited (disk space limited to 3GB, Not allowed to make money)
- Personal Plan: $48 per year (disk space up to 6 GB)
- Premium Plan: $96 per year (disk space up to 13 GB)
- Business Plan: $300 per year (disk space up to 200 GB)
- e-Commerce Plan: $540 per year (disk space up to 200 GB)
WordPress.com Pros
WordPress.com is good for the beginners who wants everything thing to manage by the services providers. You can learn how to customize the blog and create a basic blog such as family blog.
Some of the pros of using WordPress.com
- It is free to start. You do not have to install or download to start a blog, just sign up and setup easily. It provides upto 3GB disk space and later you need to add more disk space upgrading premium plan which starts from $36 per year.
- It will manage all the blog’s security updates, themes and plugins updates or upgrades as well as backup your website.
WordPress.com Cons
It’s free plan allow you to start a blog easily but there are many downsides that you will realized soon.
- It will not allow you to monetize your blog to make money online.
- It will display their own ads for all free blogs. You need to upgrade the paid plan (starting from $36 per year) to stop their ads to display.
- It give disk space upto 3GB for free blogs and soon you need to upgrade to paid plan that extends the disk space.
- It will only provide sub-domain name e.g. myblog.wordpress.com adding wordpress.com at the end. To use custom domain name e.g. www.myblog.com you need to upgrade the plan.
- You cannot install custom themes and plugins. You can only install few themes and plugins that is available by default.
Now you know why small business bloggers are choosing self hosted WordPress.org. If you are planning to switch your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org easily, you can refer to this guide on how to move the blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.
We hope this article has help you to know the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. You may also like to see the step by step guide on how to start a blog in 30 minutes using WordPress.org. If you find this guide helpful, please share and follow us on facebook and twitter.
