Thinking of creating a WordPress website for your business or portfolio and wondering whether to go with WordPress.com or WordPress.org? Being an open-source and easy-to-use platform WordPress powers over 43% of all the active websites across the globe. With the help of WordPress, anyone can create a professional website without any prior knowledge of coding. When you Google the term “WordPress” you will get to see two websites that rank on the first page. Those two websites are WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Both of them can help you build and run a WordPress website. But which one is best? And which one will work best for you? Let’s find out the answer to those questions in this article in which we are going to compare WordPress.org and WordPress.com. We will also discuss the top reasons you should choose WordPress.org over WordPress.com. So stay tuned and read this blog till the end. WordPress.org is the URL for the self-hosted WordPress, it is an open-source and free content management system that allows you to build professional websites without typing a single line of code. It is totally free to use but the only thing you need to pay for is a hosting and domain name to make your website functional and appear on the internet. The best thing about WordPress.org is that it gives full access to the website owners to control every single aspect of the website. WordPress.com is a managed hosting platform that makes it easy for someone to create a WordPress website in minutes. Unlike WordPress.org, here you don’t need a hosting and domain to get started with website creation. All you need to do is to sign up with WordPress.com and create your account. After creating the account, you can easily and immediately get started with website creation. WordPress provides you with a subdomain for your website. There is also an option to add a custom domain name of your choice but that can be done only when you purchased the premium plan. With a free plan, you can only use a subdomain offered by WordPress.com and also can’t add plugins or various functions with a free plan. WordPress.com is not a self-hosted platform hence the freedom to change different aspects of a website is restricted for the website owner. They can perform only those actions that are included in their premium plan. As we talked about earlier, both of these platforms help you to build and run a WordPress website. The thing that makes them different is the hosting and features provided by each platform. On WordPress.com you just have to register, create your account and start building your website. There’s no need to purchase a separate hosting and install WordPress software, as it is provided by WordPress itself. On the other hand, with WordPress.org you have to purchase a hosting service on your own and then install the WordPress software on that hosting. On WordPress.org you host your own website with freedom. At first, it might seem that WordPress.com has more ease of access as WordPress itself takes care of hosting, but it comes with a lot of limitations without any freedom to the website owner. It’s totally different in the case of WordPress.org because here you host your own website and that too with a lot of freedom and features. Reasons Why You Should Choose WordPress.org over WordPress.com There are various reasons that will make you choose WordPress.org over WordPress.com to build your website. Some of them are mentioned below. WordPress.org is a great option for you if you are looking forward to earning by monetizing your website with Ads or affiliate links. There are various ways through which you can monetize your websites such as displaying online advertisements, placing affiliate links or starting a premium or exclusive membership on your website. You can also signup with an Ad network or display third-party ads on your WordPress website. With WordPress.org you can use all of those monetary ways easily without any restrictions on your website. On the other hand, with WordPress.com you can’t really monetize your website on a free plan. To start using monetary benefits on your website you need to have a business plan or higher subscription plan to access those monetization features. There are various guidelines of WordPress.com that prevent website owners to use websites that primarily promote affiliate products, and show a lot of sponsored content on the website. Due to the low monetary options, it is advisable to go with WordPress.org if you want to monetize your website. WordPress.org gives you full freedom to make changes to the appearance and functionality of your website. It provides you with a lot of free and premium WordPress themes and plugins that you can install on your website to change its look and make it more user-friendly. You can give a more personalized touch to your website according to your brand palette by directly making changes to the HTML and CSS of your website. It is very easy to make small changes with WordPress.org and make it fit your brand’s appearance. On the other hand, WordPress.com get limited customization options for your website. You can get access to install a plugin or premium WordPress theme on your website only if you have purchased a premium or business plan. The advanced design customization features are only limited to users having higher plans. Hence, if you want to try your hands at different site customization options and give a personalized touch to your website. It is always advised to go with WordPress.org instead of WordPress.com WordPress.org avails you with various premium and free WordPress themes and plugins that you can choose from. There’s no limitation in installing a plugin or a theme if your site is built with WordPress.org. You can try your hands at various plugins ad themes available on the official WordPress directory to enhance the look and functionality of your website. With WordPress.com you cannot install every plugin and theme from the WordPress directory. You can only install and use a plugin and theme on your website if you have purchased a premium or business plan. Free plans don’t have access to plugins or themes. Hence, if you want to try your hands on various plugins available in the official WordPress directory it is advisable to choose WordPress.org to build your WordPress website. Disk space is the amount of storage capacity a web host provides to your website. Well, in the case of WordPress.org it is entirely dependent on the web host you choose. Hence you have full control over how much disk space you want for your website. While on the other hand, WordPress.com provides disk storage on the basis of the plan purchased by the user. The free plan comes with 1GB of disk space, the personal plan includes 6GB and the premium plan provides 13GB of disk storage. It is limited to some extent and not enough to build a solid website. WordPress.com is not copyrighted means anyone can use the original content posted on your website such as blog posts, visuals, videos etc without your permission. WordPress is licensed in a way that allows everyone to use your content without any consent. There are no content copyright issues that occur in WordPress.org because it is a self-hosted service hence you totally own all the content created by you on your own website. You can even sell that content or monetize it with the help of online advertisements or membership features. WordPress.com comes with a free subdomain and hosting by WordPress but with certain restrictions that adhere to your website building capacity. If you want to build a professional and solid website, then WordPress.com is not an option to look for. But it’s a great option if you are just getting started in the world of website building and want to know how things work without putting much attention to the technical side. WordPress.org is a fully loaded free open-source platform that allows you to explore your website-building abilities without any limitations. It is a great platform that will help you build a solid and professional website by providing you with a lot of customization and monetary benefits.What is WordPress.org
What is WordPress.com
Difference Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com
Can’t Monetize
Added Cost for Customization
Limited Themes & Plugins
Limited Disk Space
Content and Copyright Issues
Conclusion
