WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: The Pros & Cons Of Each

If you are thinking of starting your own blog and want to use WordPress as your blogging platform, you have several options. You can use WordPress.com or WordPress.org

Both methods are based on the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) platform. However, there are significant differences between the two that you should understand before making a decision.

WordPress.com is a platform hosted and operated by WordPress and WordPress.org is where you can download the WordPress CMS to install in your hosted website account.

What is WordPress.com?

If you are not very computer savvy, the idea of ??creating a web hosting account and installing your own WordPress CMS platform can seem very daunting. If this is the case for you, then WordPress.com would be your perfect choice for starting your own blog.

WordPress.com is a community of blog owners who use the WordPress platform that is hosted and operated by WordPress. When you first register for a WordPress.com account, you will see two menu items – “My Site” and “Reader”.

On the Reader tab, you can use the search box to find other bloggers who have created blogs on WordPress.com You can follow their blogs and come back to this tab to read new posts every day.

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Reader is the social area of ??WordPress.com where you can follow posts and discussions taking place on the WordPress blogs you subscribe to.

Create a site with WordPress.com

To start your own blog, simply select the “My Site” tab at the top of the page. If you’re new to the site, this page will indicate that you don’t have any WordPress sites yet.

Creating a new website with WordPress.com is as easy as clicking the “Create Site” button. WordPress.com offers pre-existing themes for building a business website, personal website, and even an online store.

You can choose any of these templates, or just create a website with a basic template.

On the next page, you will need to find the main topic of your blog and then select Continue.

The next series of steps will guide you through creating a header for your website and choosing the URL for your site. You will have the option to purchase a real domain name or take advantage of the free option, which is a URL subdomain of the parent home.blog domain.

Editing posts on WordPress.com has the same look and feel and the same tools that are available when self-hosting with WordPress.org

From the main WordPress.com dashboard, you will also have access to tools that you usually have to add and configure yourself when you use the WordPress.org self-hosting option.

These tools include:

Browse your website and publish statistics.
Customize the look of your site.
Access WordPress plugins, view blog marketing options and select blog income options.
Access to WP Admin dashboard.

The WP Admin dashboard gives you access to an identical admin dashboard that you have access to when you install WordPress on your own hosted website using WordPress.org

As you can see, running a WordPress site using WordPress.com is fully functional and gives you the same functionality that you can expect from your own WordPress blog.

There are several pros and cons to consider before deciding to migrate to WordPress.com

Pros:

Quick and easy blog setup.
It’s easy to quickly start blogging.
Strong social inclusion.
Just a user interface.

Cons:

Free account is hosted as a subdomain.
Less flexibility to change your own blog themes.
Cannot access your own hosted website. files.
Harder to rank in Google search results.

What is WordPress.org?

If you can install the software on your computer, you will be able to install WordPress on your own website.

WordPress.org is where you will need to download the entire WordPress CMS platform that you will use to install WordPress on your site. When visiting the site, simply select “Install WordPress” to get started.

To download the installation files, simply click the Download WordPress button and download the zip file containing everything you need. Before you can install your own self-hosted WordPress platform, you will need to select an available web hosting service where you can upload your WordPress CMS.

Once you have registered a web hosting account, use your web host’s instructions to connect to the root of your website using tools-to-transfer-files-to-your-websi/”>an FTP tool like FileZilla. Unzip the WordPress zip file to your computer and then upload all files and folders to the directory containing wp-admin, wp-content and wp-includes.

Upload all of these files and folders to the root directory of your web hosting account. Once you’ve downloaded all the files, you’re ready to start the process of manually installing WordPress on your own domain.

After you have installed WordPress on your new web hosting domain, you will need to download and install a WordPress theme to customize the style of your website. If you choose the Themes link on WordPress.org, you have access to hundreds of free themes to choose from.

The selected and uploaded theme will need to be uploaded to your account in the wp-content themes folder.

With WordPress installed on your site, you can access your WP Admin dashboard by adding / wp-admin / at the end of the domain name in the browser address field.

Once you follow this link, you will see the WP Admin dashboard, which is identical to the one you would have if you used WordPress.com to launch your blog.

After you have uploaded the theme folder to your hosted website account, you can select Appearance and Themes from the WP-Admin dashboard menu to view and activate that theme.

Once you’ve set up WordPress on your own hosted domain, creating new posts for your site is identical to how you add posts using WordPress.org

The interface looks identical, but you have access to a lot more customization features and plugins than with just WordPress.org

As you can see, in most cases everything looks the same whether you are using WordPress.com or WordPress.org However, there are several advantages to using WordPress.org over WordPress.com

Pros:

Full access to customize any aspect of the WordPress theme you want.
Free, no matter how much traffic your site gets.
Image storage is only limited by your web host’s storage.
You can customize the way Google search crawls your website.
Easier to get into Google search results.

Cons:

Slightly higher level of computer knowledge required.
You are responsible for maintaining and updating your WordPress installation.
If your site is hacked, you are responsible for restoring it.

WordPress.com or WordPress.com are acceptable methods for launching your own WordPress site. The one you choose depends on your level of expertise when it comes to managing a stand-alone website. WordPress.org provides people with no technical skills with the ability to start a blog if they want to.

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What is WordPress.com?

Create a site with WordPress.com

What is WordPress.org?

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