Introduction: This article focuses on Internet website building technology – What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? , providing tutorials on making websites, operating websites, SEO, and website promotion to help small and medium-sized webmasters grow quickly.
WordPress is the most popular self-service website building program in the world. One out of every four websites is built with WordPress.
WordPress has almost subverted the website building industry, allowing people without code foundation to build their own websites and allowing foreign trade people to cross-border do Internet.
Whether you are building a personal website (blog, community) or a commercial website (foreign trade independent website, display station, multilingual website, cross-border e-commerce), it is all right.
If you are new to WordPress, you may not know that WordPress is actually divided into .com and .org, and they are both called WordPress. What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? Let Babubu show you how to understand it today!
Note: Whenever someone talks about WordPress (abbreviated as WP) online, 99% of them are referring to WordPress.org.
Directory
What is the relationship between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
The main differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
Which one should I choose between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
What is the relationship between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
Because they have the same name but different suffixes, many people confuse them.
WordPress.org is a non-profit open source program that anyone can download and use for free. You only need to purchase a domain name and hosting space to use it to start a website. Because it is an open source program, it is very scalable and you can use it to build any website you want.
WordPress.com is a for-profit company owned by Automattic and uses the open source program of WordPress.org. You can create a blog for free without purchasing a domain name and hosting space. It is similar to Sina and NetEase blogs and is a third-party hosting.
In addition to free services, it also includes paid services. Because it is a third-party hosting, it has poor scalability and few people use it now.
Why are they both called WordPress? Because Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Automattic, is one of the two founders of WordPress.org and the CEO of WordPress.com, so his company can also be called WordPress.
The main difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
Although the core structures of the two are basically the same, there are great differences in their use, mainly including the following aspects.
1. Different hosting space
There is no doubt that the main difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is the different hosting methods of the website.
WordPress.org is self-hosted, and you need to purchase the domain name and hosting space by yourself. As for the hosting cost? It depends on your specific needs. For domain names, use the cheapest foreign domain name registrar namesilo, which costs about 50 yuan per year.
For hosting space, take SiteGround, the most cost-effective hosting service provider on the market, as an example. The minimum cost of hosting a website is about 360 yuan per year. If you use a higher-end hosting service provider, such as FlyWheel, WP Engine, Kinsta, the cost ranges from 1,100 to 8,000 yuan.
As for non-hosted VPS bare metal like linode, DO, and vultr, I will not discuss them too much. They are not suitable for newcomers without code foundation and technical background. You will only have endless problems to solve with them.
WordPress.com is fully hosted, which means that WordPress.com hosts your website for free. You don’t need to consider domain names and hosting space, but you have no choice in terms of hosting, which is not as flexible as WordPress.org.
2. Different autonomy
WordPresss.com is a third-party hosting, and there are many restrictions on its use. When you use WordPress.com, you cannot use a custom domain name, but a subdomain name (xxx.WordPress.com).
You should know how important a unique custom domain name is for building a brand. If you are doing a commercial website, such as a foreign trade website, customers will definitely turn around and leave when they see that your company’s domain name is a subdomain. This is a very big limitation.
Suppose you sell machines, which of the following two domain names do you think is better?
- machine.com
- machine.wordpress.com
I believe no one will choose the second domain name, because it is a subdomain and has no commercial value at all!
In addition to the domain name, WordPress.com has more restrictions, such as the free service only provides 3GB of storage space, and will show visitors some ads that are not related to your website itself. The profits from the ads belong to WordPress.com, and you will not get a penny.
If you want to remove these restrictions, WordPress.com will charge you $99/year. Even so, compared with WordPress.org, there are still many restrictions, especially in terms of scalability.
3. Different scalability
The following is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com in scalability.
| Extensibility | WordPress.org | WordPress.com |
| Themes | Themes have unlimited possibilities (PHP, CSS, HTML code modification) | Only dedicated themes can be used, and they need to be paid, and third-party themes cannot be used |
| Plugins | Unlimited use of various plug-ins | Only built-in plug-ins can be used, and third-party plug-ins cannot be used |
| Maintenance | Backup, update and security are handled by yourself | WordPress.com is responsible for it |
| SEO | You can use any SEO plugin | You need to pay extra if you need SEO function |
| Cross-border e-commerce | Free use of WooCommerce plugin | You need to pay to activate it |
It is clear at a glance that WordPress.org has no restrictions and is highly scalable.
But WordPress.com is different. It charges fees everywhere. If you want to open e-commerce functions and install third-party plug-ins and themes, you have to pay $300 per year. This is one of the main disadvantages of WordPress.com. If you pay these fees, it will be much more expensive than a website made with WordPress.org.
When it comes to scalability, WordPress.org users can use Google Analytics normally, but WordPress.com users cannot, which is a big limitation.
Which one should you choose between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
After this introduction, everyone should have a choice in mind. WordPress.org is the final choice for everyone who needs self-service website building services. There is no doubt that it is much easier to use than WordPress.com.
You can not only have a custom domain name, but also have full control over the hosting space, themes and plugins to meet your needs in all aspects.
Regarding website maintenance, especially website security, you may have some concerns. After all, WordPress.org is self-resolved, but I want to tell you that WordPress.org has unlimited security plugins to choose from and install, and security issues are actually not a big problem.
If you use SiteGround, which is known as the most secure virtual host, it will strictly control various vulnerabilities and bugs, so that your website will no longer worry about being hacked. If you don’t have SG, you can use its 60% discount code to buy it.
Summary
If you want to build a website by yourself, you can ask yourself the following questions. After thinking about these questions clearly, it will be easier for you to understand the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
- What kind of website do you want to build? Personal or commercial?
- Do you need autonomy over your website?
- What is your purpose for building a website?
- Do you need full control over the website’s themes, plugins, and database?
- How much are you willing to spend on a WordPress website?
Finally, whether you are doing a blog or a commercial website (such as an independent foreign trade website), WordPress.org is my first choice.
After reading this article, let’s summarize what knowledge points this article involves, including knowledge about WordPress.com, WordPress.org, differentiation and connection, etc. I hope these can help you better understand the topic of the article.
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