Comparing WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

Today, we will be comparing WordPress and self hosted WordPress. By the end of this post you will have the information to make the best decision for your blog. This post will have multiple sections, including advertising, pricing, domain and customisation of both editions of WordPress.

Useful Terms

WordPress.com Hosted Service WordPress.org Self Hosted

These terms may be used interchangeably.

Pricing & Limitations

WordPress Hosted offers a free version of there software hosted within there platform. Upgrades start from £36/Yr to remove some limitations and can go up to £430/Yr to remove all limitations from the platform. WordPress Self Hosted on the other hand will cost you £40-80/yr to keep online. However, even the lower end of this budget scale will allow you to fully utilise WordPress, including displaying your own adverts and installing custom themes and plugins.

Domain Offerings

WordPress Hosted allows you to host your blog using there .wordpress.com subdomain suffix. However this is incredibly limiting for most users, since it makes it more difficult for there blog to be found on the major search engines. Usually you have to manually submit a website to the major search engines, that can still take weeks for your website to be found by using a simple search engine query. However, you can purchase your own domain and link it to your WordPress account, although you will be required to upgrade to the £36/Yr plan for it to connect.

WordPress Self Hosted usually requires you to own a domain to be able to publicly broadcast your blog which start from £5/yr. Although, some web hosting providers offer free domain registrations on certain billing terms. Selected Hosting providers may even offer Free Subdomains to utilise.

Advertising Options

WordPress Hosted currently only supports external advertising on premium accounts, which cost a minimum cost of £85/Yr. Additionally, Free WordPress Hosted Accounts displays WordPress adverts, whilst on the other hand WordPress self hosted does not participate in the same practices. WordPress Self Hosted is a free for all in relation to advertisements, you are in full control. The only thing you have to setup for advertising is an advertising account, there is no need to upgrade any WordPress accounts to gain access to this feature.

Customisation Options

WordPress Hosted sadly does not allow the option to use plugins, however they do this for the security of there users. Customisation it self is relatively similar on both platforms when your using the front end editing, however on the other hand if you want more advanced customisation you will be required to purchase the CSS upgrade. WordPress Self Hosted allows plugins, however some WordPress verified hosting providers can disable this feature on there own accord; they can either completely disable plugins or they can stop you from installing new plugins that they do not have activated on your account. WordPress self hosted customisation is unrestricted, you can simply access your file manager provided by your web hosting provider to gain the ability to edit and customise CSS files, no need to pay for a ridiculous service upgrade to access a feature you can get for free if you self host.

Conclusion and Recommendations

WordPress Hosted is best for small personal blogs, where you can make posts to pass time and to share with your friends and family. WordPress Self Hosted is recommended for business or development teams that require customisation, unrestricted plugins and the ability to earn money from advertisements.