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When most people think of WordPress, they think of just one website-building platform but this is not the case. There are actually two WordPress platforms: WordPress.org and WordPress.com. In this blog post, we’re going to compare the two and tell you which one we prefer. Let’s get into this.
WordPress.org
WordPress.org is most likely the platform you’ve heard amazing things about. All you need is a domain name and a hosting service. We want to list the pros and cons of the platform so please feel free to read on.
Benefits
- The software is free, open-sourced, and easy to use.
- You are the rightful owner of your website and its data. You are in full control. Just make sure that you follow the platform’s terms of service and you should be totally fine.
- You can add free and paid plugins to customize your website. We will be making a post about essential plugins and plugins we love so look out for that.
- You can customize your web design as needed. This is where we can come in. We can search up a free theme for you or have you search up a premium theme you like. We can customize the colors, layouts, fonts, and more to attract potential clients for your business or increase traffic for your blog.
- You can make money off your website by running ads like Google Adsense. This we can do for you if you believe that we’re the right ones to design your website.
Drawbacks
- You will need a web hosting service. We use Bluehost for our web design services because it’s the hosting service we use for our own websites. Learn more about Bluehost here. If you hire us as your web designer, we can set up SSL and set up your website so you can log into it from the Bluehost portal. We are 100% open to using other hosting services!
- You are responsible for backups. There is one plugin we swear by. As we mentioned above, We have a blog post all about plugins. Check it out here.
WordPress.com
Benefits
- It’s free for up to 3GB of space. After that, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the paid plans they offer. We will go more in depth about the plans after listing the benefits and drawbacks.
- You don’t have to worry about updates or backups.
Drawbacks
- WordPress places ads on all free websites. You may be thinking, how can that be bad? Well, you don’t make any money from these ads.
- You can’t sell ads on your website.
- You can’t upload plugins or custom themes.
- You can’t create a custom domain. Free sites will have .wordpress.com at the end of their domain names. You will need to upgrade to a paid plan if you want a custom domain.
The WordPress.com hosting service has the option of 5 plans:
- Free — very limited.
- Personal — $4 per month, billed annually.
- Premium — $8 per month, billed annually.
- Business — $25 per month, billed annually.
- eCommerce — $45 per month, billed annually.
The Battle Has Come to a Close
So, which platform is the best option? WordPress.org or WordPress.com?
In our personal experience, WordPress.org is the best option because there are so many options as far as installing plugins of your choosing, customizing your web design whenever needed, making money off your site, creating an online store, and so much more! WordPress.com is very limited. It’s great that you can make a website for free but if you want to do more, you really can’t unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
We hope this post is informative and helps you decide which platforms fits your needs. If you decide to make you own website and you have no idea where to start, click here.
