Should you use WordPress.com or WordPress.org for your website? In this comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, we’ll go over the major differences and the pros and cons of each platform to determine which WordPress is better for your situation. WordPress is great, but be sure to choose the right version for your sites.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Differences
With WordPress.com, you go to the that site to create an account and build your website. With WordPress.org, you either download the software from that site and upload it to your server, or (what most people do) you sign up with a web Hosting provider that includes WordPress as one of the platforms they support.
WordPress.com
Advantages of Using WordPress.com:
- Can Start for Free
- Web Hosting is Included
WordPress.com is Best For:
- Some Beginners
- Those Already Familiar with WordPress
- Less Technical Users
- Creating Your Website Faster
WordPress.org
Advantages of Using WordPress.org:
- Can be Less Expensive
- Can Choose the Best Web Host for You
WordPress.org is Best For:
- Some Beginners
- Experienced Users
- Tech Savvy Users
- More Control of Your Website
- More Freedom to Move Your Website
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: WordPress.com Website Plans
WordPress.com Plans
- Free $0
- Starter $4 mo.
- Explorer $8 mo.
- Creator $25 mo.
- Entrepreneur $45 mo.
If you want to use WordPress.com, you have five different website plans to choose from. The Free plan is a great opportunity to try it out at no cost. However, be aware that your features will be limited and your website will contain ads. The Starter plan gets rid of the ads and gives you a bit more features. With the Explorer plan, you get live chat support and better premium themes. The Creator plan is the best option for serious website owners that gives you the same type of features available in Managed WordPress Hosting plans. And, the Entrepreneur plan is suited for E-commerce website owners.
WordPress.org Options
- cPanel Hosting Plan $2.99 mo.
- Managed WordPress Hosting Plan $35 mo.
- WooCommerce Hosting Plan $14 mo.
If you want to use the WordPress.org self-hosted version of WordPress, you’ll need to get a hosting plan. Your primary options are a Shared Hosting Plan that preferably includes the cPanel dashboard, a Managed WordPress Hosting Plan for critical websites, or a WooCommerce Hosting Plan if you need an online store. See the next section below for recommendations for WordPress Hosting plans.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: WordPress.org Web Hosting
Currently, the WordPress.org site has Bluehost and DreamHost on their hosting recommendation list. While those are two good choices, I would recommend the following web hosts that I’ve had great experiences with hosting WordPress:
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is an excellent choice for lower-cost WordPress Hosting. The best part about A2 Hosting’s plans is that they include many features that you usually find in more expensive managed hosting plans.
Kinsta
If you’re looking for the ultimate premium Managed WordPress Hosting experience, you should consider Kinsta. While it does cost more, Kinsta provides an outstanding combination of premium WordPress Hosting features, lightning fast website performance, and responsive customer support.
Nexcess
If you want to create an online store, then I would definitely recommend you check out the Managed WooCommerce Hosting plans from Nexcess. Nexcess is one of the best web hosts for WordPress Hosting, and they are my number one choice for WooCommerce hosting.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Creating Your Website
WordPress.com does streamline and simplify the website creation process more than the traditional WordPress.org self-hosted software approach. However, while experienced WordPress users will be very comfortable working within the WordPress.com environment, there still may be a bit of a learning curve for absolute beginners that are completely new to WordPress.
While not identical, the user dashboard interfaces of both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are fairly similar. The WordPress.com dashboard does have quick links to website functions. So, while it may take a bit to get accustomed to the environment, even newbies should find the learning curve not that steep.
The bottom line here is that while WordPress.com does make it a bit easier to get started with your website, there are other alternatives with WordPress.org such as using a web host that offers a free WordPress website builder. Personally, I feel that newbies might actually find using WordPress with Bluehost or DreamHost easier.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Speed and Performance
Obviously, when testing and comparing speed and performance with a WordPress.org site, the results are going to vary widely depending upon the web host that you choose. For our comparisons here, we matched up our WordPress.com website with WordPress sites hosted by a quality cPanel web host (A2 Hosting), and a premium managed WordPress host (Kinsta).
As you can see from the results below, WordPress.com definitely held its own against both competitors. While I would give a slight edge to both WordPress.org hosts, this category is very close.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Customer Support
While it’s easier here to evaluate the support you get with WordPress.com, keep in mind that when using self-hosted WordPress.org software, your customer support experience is totally reliant on your hosting provider. However, I have personally used all of the web hosts listed above and have had excellent response times and resolutions.
That being the case, I have to admit that we were a bit disappointed in the live chat support offered by WordPress.com. While they do provide good automated chat assistance, we were not actually able to connect with a live support agent. Live chat support was either unavailable or no one ever came online. The chat support box lists a message stating that if the wait is over 10 minutes, they will contact you by email. Unfortunately, we never received any message.
Therefore, when it comes to customer support, we feel that WordPress.org is the better choice.
Recommendation – Choose This Version of WordPress
Quite honestly, we were surprised by the results of our comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. I had expected WordPress.com to be much better for beginners that haven’t used WordPress before. However, that scenario isn’t necessarily always going to be the case. While WordPress.com does make the process of creating a WordPress site easier than if you had to install the WordPress.org software yourself, the process isn’t as streamlined or provide as much guidance as I had thought it would.
Although WordPress.com guides you to creating your first blog post, it doesn’t provide the same type of hand holding or guidance for the other parts of your website. Also, finding the right button or link to launch a certain function is not always evident in the dashboard—at least for first-time users. Compare that to some WordPress.org web hosts that provide their own WordPress website builder such as Bluehost and InMotion Hosting, and the better choice for newbies is not such an easy choice. In fact, at this time I would recommend using Bluehost over WordPress.com if you’ve never used WordPress before.
On the other hand, if you’re an experienced WordPress user, you’re probably still better off using self-hosted WordPress.org with a quality web host such as those I’ve listed above. You’ll have more customized hosting options to choose from, and ultimately better control over your websites.
Overall, in this comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org the winner is still self-hosted WordPress.org—with the right web hosting provider.
