Now that you know what WordPress is, you like what you’ve learned, and you want to start creating your own website, you go to Google animated, you search for “wordpress”, and…
Surprise!
Two pages appear whose name is WordPress, but they are different pages:
wordpress.com and wordpress.org
Although in both you can find what you need to create a website, are completely different concepts of websites.
Both belong to the same person: the co-founder of WordPress, but there are big differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
WordPress.org
This is where you can officially download WordPress for free and then install it on a website.
When people talk about “WordPress”, it usually refers to the software that is downloaded from this page, and not to the other page (WordPress.com).
In fact, the entry where I explain to you what WordPress is, is directed exclusively to the software that you are in this page.
To install it, you need to have a domain and a contracted hosting, and upload the files that come inside the .zip file there.
Once you have it installed, you can put the theme you want, install the plugins you want, make the changes you think convenient … come on, you can do whatever you want to get out of the nose. As if you want to load all the code beating the keyboard with your head.
You have to be in charge of WordPress updates, your theme and plugins, you have to be in charge of optimizing your website, you have to be in charge of backing up your site, you have to be in charge of ways to get economic return on your website …
You, you and just you.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a service that allows you to have a website or blog using your own domain and hosting.
You enter their website, you register, and you are assigned a space of their hosting with WordPress already installed, all for free and without having to do anything yourself.
Your blog will be part of the WordPress.com blog network.
Do you know Blogger, Google’s blog network?
Well, this is the same thing, but instead of belonging to Google, it belongs to the company Automattic, which is the company of the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg.
As positive parts, you don’t have to download anything, or buy a domain, or hire a hosting, or pay anything.
But it has big negative parts: with the free plan your address will be tuweb.wordpress.com, you can not customize your website 100% to your liking, you can not install any plugin … among others.
Another of the biggest negative points is that it will never be your property: your website will be WordPress.com, and you will always depend on them.
If you go through the checkout and buy some of the extra services they offer, you can customize your website a little. But since I have to pay, I prefer to do it for something that is 100% mine and allows me total control.
Main differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com
You already know what you will find in each of the pages, now we will see the main differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, in case you have any doubt about which one is best for you.
Property
When you download WordPress from the official WordPress.org site and install it on your hosting with your own domain, you are the master and lord of your web, and nobody will be able to take it away from you.
It is yours forever, or at least, until you want it. You give it the name you want and you do and undo as you please.
If you create a website or blog from WordPress.com, it will be owned by WordPress.com, and therefore, Mr. Matt (Automattic). If Mr. Matt doesn’t like what you publish on it, he closes it for you. If Matt-san spins the pot, he closes it for you. If the Automattic company disappears… effectively, it closes it for you.
Also, the name of your blog will be something like tublog.wordpress.com. If you want to remove the “wordpress” from the middle and your address is tublog.com, you have to check out.
Personalization
In your website with WordPress installed, you can put the theme you want to give it a look or another. You have to choose thousands of themes, both free and premium paid, from lots of developer agencies that exist in the market.
But also, if you have programming knowledge (HTML, PHP, CSS …), you can further modify your website from top to bottom. As if you want to put the whole pink fuchsia squeaky (please don’t do it).
If your blog is made on WordPress.com, you can choose from a variety of free themes offered by the web itself, but you can not install any premium theme from any agency that you like.
You can not make changes in the style of the page, you have to pay $ 30 a year. And you can only add CSS code.
Plugins
If you have your website with WordPress installed, you can install the plugins you want, whenever you want, expanding the functionality of your website. And if you also want to modify the code of the plugins, you can do so without any problem.
In WordPress.com you can not install any plugin. You don’t even have the option to pay to install them. You have to manage with the features that WordPress brings by default, let’s go, with just enough to create pages, entries and little more.
Monetization
On your website with WordPress, you decide how to monetize it. If you want to show advertising on it, you are totally free to do so whenever you want, but by default, WordPress comes without integrated advertising.
On the other hand, when you enter your WordPress.com blog for the first time, you already find advertising that is shown to your readers without eating or drinking it.
Guess what? You can remove advertising if you check out and pay $30 a year. Then Mr. Matt will kindly remove it from your blog.
And if you want to add your ads, you can only do so if you exceed 25,000 page views per month, and give half of the earnings to WordPress.com.
Maintenance
I have already explained it before, and it is that in your web page with WordPress, you will have to take care of all the updates, as much of WordPress, as of subjects and plugins, to take charge also of buying a domain, to contract a hosting, and to renew both things, to take care of the security of your web, étc.
In your WordPress.com blog, you only have to take care of generating content. They take care of everything else. You won’t have to update WordPress, or worry about the security of your site, or renew the domain or hosting … anything.
Cost
Let’s talk about money. If you want to own a website with WordPress, you will have to pay for the domain and hosting, although many hostings give you the first year of domain.
Normally, a .com domain can cost you between 7 and 14 euros a year, more or less. And to contract a good hosting, it oscillates between 70 and 150 euros per year in the most basic plans (which are enough in most cases).
From there, it depends on whether you want to use a free theme or a Premium paying theme (more than recommended) or use a payment plugin to add a specific functionality to your website.
Having a blog on WordPress.com can be completely free if you do not want to customize it or care to show advertising to your users. If you want to have a custom URL, add CSS code, get more storage space, etc., you will have to pay the price for each of the improvements.