WordPress.com VS WordPress.org - What Aspiring Bloggers Should Know

Having a prior knowledge of anything before we commit our time is very important so as not to err in the process. To ensure my own aspiring blogger have the needed info before s/he jump into hosting his or her website, I have decided to talk about the difference between hosting on WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Enjoy!




Hello friend, before you venture into blogging or hosting your domain on the publishing platform called WordPress, it’s very important you understand the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Although both are from the same parent, they offer relatively different services.

I am going to explain the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com so you have a better understanding on which platform to host your domain.


Let me quickly brief you on the history.



Brief History of WordPress.com and WordPress.org



WordPress.org is a free publishing platform which is often referred to as an open source content management system. What this means is that it is a software that anyone can download and use for free to build a website without having any knowledge of codding. It is basically What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG).

As time goes by, users of WordPress.org started demanding for more features like automatic backup, security, auto update and so on. Matt Mullenweg, the Co-Founder of WordPress observed the users demand, and in order to meet their wants and desires, he created Wordpress.com

WordPress.com is a shared hosting platform. WordPress.com is responsible for handling all of the updates, backups, and security for its users. WordPress.com is managed by dedicated employees whose duties spans from developing, maintaining to offering a 24/7 support on the WordPress.com platform.



What are the basic differences?



Hosting

Hosting your domain on WordPress.com is done on WordPress.com server(s) while hosting your domain on WordPress.org is done on another host server like GoDaddy, HostGator, BlueHost etc.

Tools

Security, auto backups etc. are offered automatically on WordPress.com for your site while you need to perform security, auto backups for your WordPress.org site.

Social Media

WordPress.com is integrated with built in social media networks while WordPress.org require you to have a plugin to enable sharing functionality with your website.

Website Stats
WordPress.com is integrated with features such as your domain’s stats, sharing, poll etc. while WorPress.org requires you to install plugins to increase your site’s functionality

Theme Design

WorPress.com allows to you to choose from various theme’s design while WordPress.org requires that you install custom themes. You can even build you’re theme and upload

Registration
Installing WordPress on WordPress.com requires you register and abide to the rules and regulations while no ‘serious’ registration is done on WordPress.org. Registration is done with your host server and it requires a one-time installation from the cPanel.

Technical Support

Personal technical support is offered on WordPress.com while support on WordPress.org is usually through WordPress forums.