.com (free)
Is good for family or hobbyist bloggers – who just want to focus on creating content.
pros:
- is free (for basic blogging) and is for anyone
- is easy to setup without any prior website design knowledge
- there is no need to download software, pay for hosting, worry about maintaining and updating WordPress or managing a web server
cons:
- by default your address will be something like yourblog.wordpress.com (unless you upgrade to a paid version)
- it’s a commercial site hosted on the WordPress server, so you don’t ‘own’ your blog
- links advertising WordPress.com and themes cannot be removed (unless you upgrade to a paid version)
- storage space is limited (unless you upgrade to a paid version to increase)
- unable to install third party plugins, and limited theme choice
If you’re not interested in paying for your own hosting, managing your own web server or paying someone else to handle that for you, you’ll probably want to use WordPress.com. It’s free and easy to set up and you have lots of options for customising your site.
.org (self hosting)
Using a self-hosted version of WordPress means it’s much more configurable, it looks more polished and performs more functions, so it’s best for professionals and commercial businesses.
Pros
- own your blog
- opens up more control and flexibility for your WordPress site, including its layout, theme choice, functionality, plugins, search engine optimisation, advertising revenue, additional functions, and more
- you’ll be able to buy a domain name and call it whatever you want, for example myblog.co.uk or mysite.com
cons:
- you’ll need somewhere to store your website’s files and database with a third-party host – and hosting is not free
- control and flexibility also means more responsibility setting up, maintaining and keeping your site secure
With WordPress.org you have complete control over the look and feel and the functionality of your site. You can choose to upload and install ready-made themes and plugins. Or you can build your own themes and plugins, or hire developers or designers to create an ecommerce site, blog, portfolio site, online community site, business directory; the choices are really unlimited.
LJC can help with this myriad of options including buying your preferred domain name, registering it for you, hosting and setting up your own WordPress site to suit you. We can also support and supply training if required.
