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WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org

Are you thinking about starting a blog?  It’s exciting!  But where do you begin?  If you’ve already begun researching where to start your blog and what type of Hosting you want, then you may be feeling overwhelmed, to say the least!

Starting a blog can be a whirlwind!  There’s so much information to take in if you’re new to the blogging world. As you start doing research on how to start your blog, you will likely come across WordPress, the number 1 most used content management systems available which powers over 25% of the entire internet! It’s hard to ignore those powerful statistics, which is why it’s no surprise that a large number of new bloggers consider WordPress.

You might have already noticed that there are two sites dedicated to WordPress: wordpress.com and wordpress.org. But which one is right for you? Well, that depends on what you want from your blog. We’re here to help you decide and to clear up any and all confusion that you might have about their differences.

Before digging too deep into comparing the services, you need to have a good understanding of the purpose of your blog and your expectations. Are you starting your blog as a hobby or outlet to express your thoughts and love for writing, or are you creating a blog with the clear intent of trying to make money? Whether or not you want to make money from your blog is the most important factor in making your decision.

WordPress.com is best for pursuing a hobby, when you do not have any interest in making money, while WordPress.org is best for creating a blog to make money through various avenues. This is the quick and simple answer, but we’ll go into the details of why this is the case to help you feel confident that you are making the right decision.

At its base, WordPress.com provides a free platform and hosting to create and publish a simple blog. As a content management system for allowing you to create a blog without needing to know HTML or CSS, WordPress provides a lot of tools and features. Under this free version, these tools and features are very limited, however.

First, with the free version, you are not allowed to place ads on your website. WordPress places their own ads on your site and they cannot be removed. You do not make any money from these ads, but WordPress does.

Second, you cannot use any plugins on your site. Plugins provide additional functionality, typically from third-party services. For example, if you want to create an email subscriber list, you typically need a plugin installed in order to provide this solution. While you can install any plugins, you’d like using WordPress.org, WordPress.com does not allow any plugins with the free version. Also, you are limited by the number of themes available, choosing from the free themes that WordPress.com provides.

Additionally, you do not actually own your site or URL with the free version. Your site is owned by WordPress and as a result, they own the rights and can delete your site without warning if they believe that you are violating their rules. Since they own the URL, you must have wordpress.com in your URL address, such as http://myblog.wordpress.com instead of http://www.myblog.com.

To better understand WordPress.org, you need to know that there are two components of a blog: the physical site, and the hosting of that site. Without the hosting, nobody will be able to view your site. WordPress.com combines the site building platform along with hosting to provide everything you need to create and publish your blog, with limitations.

WordPress.org only provides the site building platform called a content management system. But that doesn’t mean you’re all alone with hosting! There are a number of hosting services available that work with WordPress, such as Bluehost, HostGator or SiteGround, to name a few.

By using the standalone content management system to build your site, you have complete freedom and control of your website. All of the features are unlocked and with plugins and other custom coding options, the possibilities are endless!

The main benefits of choosing WordPress.org include:

  • Access to thousands of third-party themes – If you want a professional looking blog, you want a premium theme beyond what is provided to free sites through WordPress.com. You’ll find thousands of themes built by professionals that you can purchase relatively cheap to bring your blog to the next level.
  • Plugins – While the free WordPress.com site does not allow you to install plugins, you have complete freedom with WordPress.org to install and try any plugin you’d like. This includes plugins for email lists such as MailChimp, SEO optimization through Yoast, Google Analytics and much more to help you customize your blog.
  • Marketing – WordPress.org allows you the freedom to place any ads you want anywhere on your site to help monetize your blog. You can work with ad networks such as Google Adsense or Gourmet Ads to easily place ads and make money off of them.
  • Other Benefits – In addition to the above benefits, WordPress.org provides the capabilities for eCommerce features or payment gateways, as well as the ability to create membership sites.

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons why WordPress.org might be your best option.
Wordpress.com also provides upgrade plans at various levels for a specific yearly fee. They include 3 plans and each level unlocks more features of WordPress and provides hosting as well. The first two plans, Personal and Premium are still too locked down, in our opinion. The third plan, Business, still includes some downfalls compared to WordPress.org.

While the Business plan includes eCommerce features, you are still bound by the WordPress Terms of Service which may limit your number of affiliate links or sponsored posts. The Terms of Service, in general, appear to be more strict than other hosting services. The interface and other limitations are the reasons we still strongly recommend WordPress.org.

In addition, hosting services often provide great promotional prices to get started. On average these prices are usually around $3.95 a month. Wordrpess.com’s Business plan is currently $24.92 a month. You can expect third-party hosting services to increase after a year, but they are typically no more than $25 a month and the first year provides a good opportunity to give blogging a try without investing a lot of your hard-earned money.

We hope we have cleared up any confusion about choosing between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is the better option if you want to start a blog as a hobby. If you want to become a professional blogger and bring in income from your blog, then WordPress.org is the way to go.

As mentioned earlier, with WordPress.org you will also need hosting. We recommend Bluehost, as we have had a great experience with them and they are very popular among bloggers. They also make it extremely easy for you as they will install WordPress for you. Therefore, you never actually need to visit WordPress.org. Just visit Bluehost, select your plan and get started! Click below to check out and sign up for Bluehost:


In addition, if you need help figuring out more about hosting and which Bluehost plan is best for you, check out our post on How to Start a Blog!

The post WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org appeared first on The Frugal Sisters.



This post first appeared on The Frugal Sisters, please read the originial post: here

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WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org

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