WordPress: wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org

WordPress: wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org

So, you've read and understood my previous post and you've made up your mind to use Wordpress as your blogging platform. That's very good, and you're doing great! You've taken the first step which is known to be the most difficult of them all. But then you're suddenly in a dilemma about Wordpress.com & Wordpress.org, and you don't know what to do or which one to choose. That's obvious and by the time you reach the end of this post, you'll be totally aware of the two Wordpress and the major differences between them. 

WordPress.com :

WordPress.com is a hosting service which was created by the co-founder of WordPress, and because of the same founder people always confuse wordpress.com with wordpress.org .Let's take a closer look about wordpress.com

Benefits of wordpress.com :

• The free WordPress.com platform is a good choice for newbie bloggers, hobby bloggers and those starting a blog for their family or anything else that's personal.
• It’s free for up to 3GB of space, after that you will have to switch to a paid plan for more space.
• One major benefit of using wordpress.com is that you will not have to worry about updates or backups at all. WordPress.com is going to take care of it.

Limitations of wordpress.com :

There are several limitations of using the free wordpress.com.

• WordPress places their ads in all free wordpress.com websites. These ads will be visible to you and to your visitors. If you want to get rid of these ads, then you'll have to subscribe to their paid plans.
• One major disadvantage is that you cannot place 3rd-party ads by yourself, that can be a major turnoff for to-be-bloggers who are willing to earn from 3rd-party ad agencies like PopAds or PropellerAds .
• If you are fidgety about the look of your website, then you're going to be a bit disappointed by the fact that you cannot upload custom themes or plugins, as free plan users can only choose among the themes provided there by WordPress, although the number of themes is not very less.
• WordPress.com does not offer any eCommerce features or integrated payment gateways, so you know what that means, no selling or buying in a free wordpress.com website. In case you blog violates some of their "Terms of Service", wordpress.com has the full right to delete your website like it didn't even exist, so be careful about that one. 

As you can see, wordpress.com hosting platform is quite limited when you are on their free plans. To unlock more of their features, you'll need to opt for their Business Plan or the VIP Plan.

WordPress.org :

You'll meet bloggers who actually vouch for something like "wordpress.org is the real WordPress" so if you want to believe them you know what that sentence mean. According to them this is the world's most favored blogging platform and they're somewhat correct. It is an open-source platform which is open for use to anybody and everybody, all you need is a domain name and web-hosting and that is why it is referred to as "Self-hosted" as the user is responsible for the web-hosting.

Benefits or wordpress.org :

• The greatest benefit is that it is 100% free and that's true.
• The website and all the data are owned by you, you will be the sole owner and WordPress cannot delete your website just because you may have "accidentally" done something that doesn't go well with their "Terms of Service".
• You can add any kind of WordPress themes you want to your blog, paid or free. If you want, you can even add custom themes of/by your own. Similarly, you can add any plugins you want. free or paid.
• If you are willing to earn from your website, you can do it by displaying any kind of ads, and the best part is that you won't have to give anybody their share of the revenue, it's all your money. You can choose any online ad providers like PopAds or PropellerAds .
• Another major benefit is that you can actually have a proper web-store or online shop by using wordpress.org. You can buy, sell, accept payments of all types, even ship your products and get them delivered to the doorstep of the buyers. 

Limitations of wordpress.org :

To be honest there are very very few limitations of wordpress.org.

• One major turnoff is that you'd need a domain name and web-hosting services, neither of  which would cost you more than a few bucks a month. But as your website becomes popular, and you get more and more traffic, then you will need to get better plans, but that's not even a problem because you'd be earning enough more for all of that.
• Since you are the real owner of the website so you'd need to do all the updates, which isn't much of a deal as it takes just a few minutes to do that. Backing up may be a problem for few people, but you can use one of the several wordpress backup plugin to do so.

Therefore, nothing is impossible for you, and like they say "the sky is the limit for you"..

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org : Which one to choose?

If you are just a hobby blogger whose main concern is about the blog and doesn't care about making money from your blog, then feel free to go with wordpress.com. You'll get more benefits than you've ever expected. There are several plans too which you can choose for going "no-bonds" up to a certain extent.

But if you're the owner of a business or a blogger who'd very much like to earn money from your website, nothing can be better for you than wordpress.org. It may cost you a few bucks here and there, but you can full freedom to do anything you want with your website. 

 WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org : Summary

The difference can be explained as owning a car and renting a car. WordPress.com is like renting a cab, you can't do anything other than taking a ride. But it is actually like owning a car all by yourself if you choose WordPress.org. You can do anything with your car, change the upholstery, buy fancy bobble-head toys to out on the dashboard, get fatter tires or those weird accessories, heck you can even get it re-painted every single week just because you can.. But you can't do any of those on your rented car like Uber now, can you? 😉

That's all for this post. We'll meet again next time about something else. Until next time..

Take care and please subscribe, share this to anybody to wants to be a blogger, comment and follow this blog.. Happy Blogging !!

• P.S. Disclaimer: I do not own any of the pictures used here. The rights belong to their respective owners.