Tag Archives: wordpress.org

Difference Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com

Posted on by • Posted in blogging, Wordpress • Tagged , , , , , , , • 1 Comment

It has always been a great deal for newbies in the Internet Domain asking: “How To Start?”
Here You go! You have come to the right place to find out what you require and what is not required yet.

Get in the Competition:

WordPress has always been a great platform for publishing as well as Content Management Systems (CMS). It is also now gaining reputation as the plugin developers at wordpress and the Automattic is funding this organization even more and getting it in the Ecommerce competition.
Identify Your Requirements:

The main and the foremost objective being a developer or a blogger is that you must identify your requirements first. It was the first thing I did when I wanted to start my first website.

I would not ask for lengthy estimations or even calculations; provided you are a starter in this field.

  1. If you are a starter(like I was, when I wanted to have my first website), you will need to have an overview of How Many visitors you are going to have on this platform. It can be any number between (0-Unlimited); but you must have some rough idea of your visitors.
  2. Are you a Professional/Starter?

    • If you’re a Professional, with some great business around the market, having a self-hosted website i.e., wordpress.org, will add value to your business and will act like a great communication platform amongst you and your customers.
    • If you’re a Starter, wanting to share your views, visits and experiences with your family and others, a free blogging platform (like wordpress.com) will work like a charm for you.
What are we WORRIED ABOUT?

This was the point where I was myself much confused about a good startup. I had to go through dozens of articles to find out the right place for me. Here are some of the points I was ignorant about:

  1. SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is a factor that drives much of the traffic to your website. However, this feature is available in every free blogging platform. Since, we cannot use custom plugins in a wordpress[dot]com website, they are optimized by WordPress.com itself.
  2. Themes, especially custom themes are not allowed in wordpress.com blog. We are provided with hundreds of free themes in our WP.com Dashboard already, so, we can choose any of them to use on our website. However, using Widgets and custom HTML in our pages, we can somehow customize the blog interface according to our requirements.
  3. Everything you could wish for will be available to you in a free wordpress[dot]com blog. However, there are some limitations according to the TOS(Terms of Service) of WordPress.com varying due to security and user agreement issues.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO:
If you’re a Starter, you are not required to worry about these things as we can overcome them later by using self-hosted[wordpress.org] or using our dedicated servers for our valued visitors and customers.

Wordpress.com vs WordPress.org

CostFreeDepends on your Hosting Providers
ThemesFree(No Code Customization)Fully Customizable
AdvertisementYesYes
Website ControlLimited(read TOS)Full Control
UpgradationAuto(By wordpress.com) Manual(User Dependent)
PluginsNot Allowed(read TOS)Allowed(usage at your will)
BackupAutoManual(User Dependent)
SSL(Security)Auto(Pre-provided)Manual(User Dependent)

As you can see in the above comparison chart, wordpress[dot]com is providing us with more ease to focus on the content we want to blog. Everything is being managed by the hosting company itself, leaving almost zero pressure on the website owner. Moreover, you have to pay nothing for a free wordpress[dot]com domain and hosting. So, you can also test and sharpen your skills at this platform.
What I would recommend is:

If you are a startup blogger and passionate about your success, you should take start at some free platform(like I did!), and after you learn enough skills and expertise and get your hands on it, go for some self hosted websites.

I hope that you are now clear about the difference between wordpress.com(free) and a wordpress.org(self-hosted) website. If you still want to know more, you can contact me through our Contact Us page, or email me with your queries. I assure you, I reply to all my visitors. 🙂

If you think this article is helpful for others, do share on Facebook and other social media to let the knowledge spread. Do you have had similar experiences? Have a similar thing to share with others? Do comment and let others know.