WordPress is a platform powering more than 25% of websites and blogs on the internet. The 2 most popular blogging platforms are: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. We have other Platforms like BlogSpot, Wix etc. BlogSpot is powered by its parent company: Google. The company behind WordPress is Automattic. Automattic offers two blogging platforms:
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org (Mostly associated with Self-hosted WordPress)
Note that Automattic offers other services and products like Jetpack, Gravatar, VaultPress, VideoPress and WordPress VIP.
WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
WordPress.com
WordPress is a free blogging platform offered by the Automattic. Anyone can create a blog for free. With the free plan, you can only create a web address that is in the form of:
The Blog will be hosted on the WordPress server which is perfect for those people who would like to blog as hobby or just to share their thoughts.
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If you want to buy a custom domain name and use paid themes, then they are plans like the, Personal Plan and Business plan.
WordPress.com may be useful to people who don’t want to worry about the technical aspect of setting and maintaining a blog since the team at WordPress, takes care of everything from the structure of the blog, updates and backups. But there are many limitations that come with using it.
Some of these limitations include:
- You may have very limited choices for themes
- You can’t install 3rd party plugins
- Very limited ways to monetize your Blog
Related: The 4 types of Hosting, you need to know about as a Blogger
If you have no prior experience of using WordPress, then it is recommended you start with a free blog at WordPress.com then with time you can switch to self-hosting with WordPress.org.
You can also Read: How to Improve the Loading Speed of a WordPress Site
WordPress.com (Free plan) is for people who want to blog as a hobby with no intention of making money on the blog.
WordPress.org
WordPress.org is for people planning to make money online through blogging. With this platform you are free to use any of the ads networks of your choice like Media net, Google Adsense, affiliate networks like Maxbounty etc. You have a full control of your site. You are also free to use any theme, install plugins of your choice etc.
Summary of the Key Differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
| WordPress.com | WordPress.org |
| Free Version with Paid upgrades available. | Only Paid Version available. |
| No Technical knowledge required to set up and run. | Requires technical knowledge to set up and run a blog or website. |
| The set-up, upgrades, backups, security is taken care of by WordPress team. | You are responsible for the Set-up, Upgrades, Backups, Security hence you need to have some technical knowledge. |
| Your posts are backed Up Automatically. | You set-up the backups on your end. |
| They don’t allow plugins from 3rd parties but provide some of the best plugins for all blogs. | You are free to install plugins from 3rd parties. |
| Custom Themes are not allowed. | You can use any Theme. |
You can also read: How to create a WordPress Blog with iPage Hosting
This is awesome. Great info. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, thanks for reading.
Thank you for this! It can be so confusing to differentiate the 2 platforms, especially since they have the same name but a different extension.
Yeah, thanks for the feedback.
This was great explanation becouse people get confuse about WordPress.com. and WordPres.org. I was just a week on .com and decide to go premium because you have a lot mor option with it.
Hi Jelena, thanks for your input.
I used to get the two confused with each other. However, I finally learned the difference after I moved one of my blogs to a self-hosted WordPress platform.
Thanks for reading.
I appreciate your insight on the differences between wordpress.com and .org. It’s very helpful for anyone trying to figure out where to start their blog.
True, thanks for your feedback.
Again, such a concise, yet simple explanation that totally makes sense to me. Thank you, as usual. I have .org, but that was by chance as I had no clue the difference when I started blogging. What a learning curve in the past year.
Hi Jenny, am glad you found this post helpful. Thanks for visiting.
Is .net the same as .com? And, there any chance to monetize your blog even by staying in the .net? I really have zero technical knowledge and I hardly find the time to post regularly, so I don’t know how could I mantain my own blog even on the technical espects…
You can monetize your blog with .net is just that .com sites are most popular.
I never knew the difference. Thank you!
Thanks Alicia! Welcome.
Thanks John. I have both – one was a hobby and one is a business. Somehow they are linked and it confuses the hell out of me, but I think I’m figuring it out with the help of posts like yours. Thanks again.
Hi Emma, thanks very much for the positive feedback.
Thanks for clearing this up, John since difference tends to confuse many. I started out on .com and then switched to .org within a few months. It was much easier than I thought and with many tutorials out there it’s easy to follow along.
Visiting from #ThoughtfulThursdays
Hi, Thanks for visiting and for the feedback. Yes, this confuses mostly newbies bloggers, the earlier they know the differences, the better.
Useful post. I’m .com rather than .org but would like to migrate at some point.
Hi, WordPress.com is useful especially when you are starting out, and if you don’t want to worry about maintenance and other technicalities then buying their business plans can still work but if you want to control everything on your side, then you can self host with WordPress.org.
Good breakdown John. Definitely a huge dot org fan here for owning the blog and for branding potential. You can really gussy it up with minimal investment, with plug ins, cool themes and even bespoke themes.
Hi Ryan,True! if you are serious about blogging, then Making some small investment in terms of say Themes, Site design isn’t a big deal otherwise thanks for visiting.