You may be familiar with WordPress and its uses. But do you know there are two different platforms of WordPress? Yes! You got it right. Those two different are wordpress.com and wordpress.org. Though both are called WordPress, it is different, and knowing the difference between these two terms will allow you to make accurate decisions when setting up your new website. You might get confused between these two and not be aware of the differences between them.
To clear the confusion, let’s go through the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.com
WordPress.com is a service that helps the user to create a website using WordPress software. WordPress.com is similar to renting a house or space for your website.
Whereas, WordPress.org is where you can download WordPress software to use on your web hosting account. It is similar to owning a house of your own but for the website. It is self-hosted. They are just one click away and are easy to install. A self-hosted site like wordpress.org has almost no restrictions in comparison to a .com site.
WordPress.com is an open-source and free hosting system that is hosted on WordPress. It is free in the beginning unless you wish to use the software with additional features out of the default offered by WordPress itself. If you want your own domain you can pay $12 a year. WordPress.com offers a custom domain name only for paid planWordpress is both free and monetized; free up to a certain limit and monetized for premium services.
The main thing that should be taken into consideration is selling products via e-commerce on wordpress.com is not possible and is equally forbidden to do so.
Whereas, on wordpress.org, You get the benefit of promoting ads of your own choice, unlike wordpress.com. This also allows you to monetize your site which is great news to the ones willing to earn as it can be your business too.
Wordpress.com has limited free themes and limited plugins for your site. This means you won’t be able to install your own plugin or themes unless you pay for premium packages.
Unlike wordpress.org which allows you to upload plugins and your blog is hosted on your own domain. This further provides you with better customization options and you’re free to do anything you want to your website. You are allowed to have your own custom domain name.
Moreover, WordPress.com only provides you with 3GB of space or data and also a subdomain. Example:- (example.wordpress.com). WordPress.org also allows you to access all the backend code, database, and files.
Now, to clarify it let’s go through some of its pros and cons
Pros of wordpress.com
Free service forever
To look after the positive side of wordpress.com, it offers you free service as long as you desire to use it. however, if you require any additional features like your own domain name, audio & video uploads, or custom side template, it offers you a special plan which is to be purchased.
No maintenance required
WordPress.com takes care of the site and all the maintenance of your site is done itself. Hence, you never have to worry about your site maintenance, performance issues, or timely update of your site.
Always live & fast
As mentioned earlier, wordpress.com is hosted by WordPress itself. This is a positive side of wordpress.com as it has amazing hardware that keeps your site alive. Further, maintains the speed of the website.
Cons
Frequent plugins and themes update
Frequent updates are very important and crucial to the health of WordPress. WordPress plugins and updates help to maintain the proper security of the WordPress websites. However, updates might bring minor problems to your website due to which you have to revert back to the older WordPress state.
Website vulnerability
As mentioned above, WordPress is open-source software. hence, it is more vulnerable to attacks from unauthorized malware and viruses. WordPress is a popular target for attacks, data breaches, hacking, & trojan attacks, etc. Hence, this is one of the major cons of WordPress.com. Thus, every user should have details regarding plugins and themes to stay away from vulnerability.
Customization is expensive
WordPress consists of added plugins, generic codes, and oversaturated databases that result in slower websites. Page speed is a crucial thing for a website. The viewer’s impression first falls on how fast the website runs. As, large size images, & themes slows down the website it results in an impatient audience quitting your site.
Pros of WordPress.org
complete control
As you own your websites and all the data, you have full control over your website in wordpress.org. further, this means you can customize the site as you wish and there’s no compulsion to follow rules and regulations of wordpress.org. Here you can enjoy the freedom of displaying your own custom domain name.
monetization is possible
WordPress.org allows you to make money from your site. If you have a small business, wordpress.org is the best option as it offers full e-commerce support via free plugins. Furthermore, you can make money running your own ads without sharing revenue with anyone.
create membership sites
you can create membership sites and further sell them for premium content too. Moreover, you can build anything you want on wordpress.org. It is as easy as installing a WordPress plugin. Along with creating membership sites, you can have access to google analytics for custom analytics and tracking.
Cons of wordpress.org
WordPress.org might collapse
You have to pay attention to your site as it may crash or go down anytime and you may not even notice. Further, this may negatively impact your business, and hiring an agency for the backup will further increase your expenses.
You’re responsible for updates
Though updating is simple via the update button in the WordPress dashboard, you’re responsible for updating WordPress themes & plugins. Also, you’re responsible for backups which can be done through WordPress backup plugins.
securing websites is your job
There are tons of security plugins available to secure the site. Also, web hosts have built-in security and features. hence, you are responsible for the security of your websites and for the backup of your content.
In conclusion, these are some of the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. Now let’s take a look at some of the reasons to use WordPress in 2022.