Difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

Last updated December 6th, 2023 06:05

WordPress is a very popular open-source platform for managing websites, currently used on more than 40% of all websites on the internet. When talking about WordPress, we often come across two different terms – specifically, “WordPress.com” and “WordPress.org“. These two terms refer to two different platforms, each with their own distinct features, functions, and usage methods. In this article, we will look at the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, as they are crucial to understand.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is an online website hosting service offered by Automattic, the company behind the development of WordPress itself. It is a fully managed platform, which means that you don’t install or manage WordPress yourself. WordPress.com offers various levels of service, both free and paid.

The free version of WordPress.com offers limited features and tools, and is suitable for small and simple websites. With the free plan, you have limited customization options, and can only use a limited number of plugins or templates.

For larger web projects or for full control over your website, you can purchase one of the paid plans, which offer advanced features, more storage, and a custom domain.

The individual plans that are offered can be divided as follows:

• Free Plan – This plan is free and offers basic features to create a website, including 3 GB of storage, basic templates and plugins, WordPress.com ads, and a custom subdomain.
• Personal – This plan costs $4/month and offers 6 GB of storage, a custom domain, the ability to remove ads on WordPress.com, and email support.
• Premium – Here you pay $9/month, for which you get 13 GB of storage, advanced analysis tools, the ability to use custom plugins and templates, customizable CSS, and support is provided via both email and chat.
• Business – This plan costs $25/month and offers 200 GB of storage, unlimited plugins and templates, an application firewall (WAF), CDN for better website performance from multiple locations, faster server hosting, DDOS protection, and much more.
• Commerce – With this plan, you’ll be paying $45/month and it offers all the features of the Business plan, plus advanced e-commerce tools such as the ability to create your own products and offerings, online payment gateways, support for shopping carts, and more. The data capacity is the same as that of the Business plan, i.e. 200 GB.