There’s a lot of confusion going around about WordPress.com and WordPress.org. I will try to explain quickly the difference between the two.
WordPress.com first
WordPress.com is a hosted and managed solution to setup a blog or website. It is mostly used to setup free blogs and places to share content. It is free to start, and your website name will be something like http://name-you-picked.wordpress.com Notice the “wordpress.com” part there. That means it is hosted with that name.
You can upgrade and use your own domain name. And your website would use your own domain, like http://example.com WordPress.com also offers other upgrades like additional storage or the ability to modify the theme beyond the normal theme options.
And WordPress.org is up next…
WordPress.org in the other hand is the website that represents the software that you can use to run your own WordPress website. You can download it from there, unzip it and upload it to your own webhost and start running WordPress. The main difference between using WordPress.com and WordPress.org is that you have more freedom.
With WordPress.org, you can install whatever plugin or theme you need. You can also customize the theme as much or as little as you want without restriction. You can sell advertisements, or not. You can run an eCommerce website, or not. You can create a portfolio to share your magnificent art, or don’t. Emphasis in, yeah, you can do whatever you want with it.
So which one should you use?
If you want to test blogging out and use it occasionally. If you don’t mind that your options are limited but all is taken care of for you, then go to WordPress.com. Just remember that as you grow, WordPress.com generally doesn’t work well for most businesses.
If you want to start a blog, show off a portfolio, sell your wares, or put your business online, you need wordpress.org because you’ll be able to grow it to do whatever you need without having to start from scratch.
Posted in: General Website Questions
