19

Sep

Choosing Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org

Posted by: Carolyn Young

We’ve mentioned before that your modern business website should be built to utilize some form of content management system (CMS), and that our favorite CMS is WordPress…because of its extensibility, scalability, aesthetics, price (free), and its massive community of dedicated users providing support to each other. If you’re a web publisher, WordPress may be a great solution for you, too…but before you decide to use WordPress as your CMS, you’ll need to decide between the two primary “flavors” available – WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

The main difference between the two is that the “.com” version of the software is hosted by WordPress for free (meaning not only the software is free, but so is the hosting). The “.org” version, also called the “self hosted” version, is the one you download and install on your own web hosting server (or one that you rent). This might sound like WordPress.com is more appropriate for newbies or smaller websites, and while is probably the case, both versions are equally capable of handling the needs of very busy web properties. With that in mind, here are some other notable differences that can help you decide which would be best for you.

A quick comparison…

WordPress.com:

• Little or no technical skillset required – incredibly simple to get started with a basic website or blog that is hosted by WordPress
  • The site can be styled like a blog (that’s the default layout), but what more people are now taking advantage of is that you can also change the layout to look more like a business website, with a home page, service description pages, and a blog
  • By default your domain will include ‘wordpress.com’ in the URL (ie: mysite.wordpress.com), but you can purchase a unique domain name from WordPress (about $15) and use that as your website domain, which does away with the ‘wordpress’ part of the address (ie: mywebsite.com)
• No upgrades or maintenance required! Any time WordPress upgrades their software, your website gets any new features or bug fixes automatically.
• You have access to hundreds of themes (predefined visual styles) that you can use to make your WordPress site look unique and represent your brand. By default, WordPress.com themes are less customizable than their “self hosted” cousins, but you can upgrade your WordPress.com account (for a fee) to have full CSS (what is CSS?) editing access. Basically this means that, with the proper technical know-how, you’ll be able to do more creative customization of your site design.
• You’re limited to using features included in the ‘core’ version of the WordPress software (you can’t add new features called ‘plug-ins’ or customize the code of your website beyond what is allowed by the ‘theme’ you use). This makes WordPress.com less optimal as a CMS, and more appropriate as just a blogging platform.

WordPress.org:

• Requires more technical skill to install than does WordPress.com. To get started you have to download the software and install it on a web server of your own. The software is free, but hosting costs from $10/month on up. As web development goes, the WordPress install is very easy…and some hosts actually offer a “one click install” of the software, which virtually eliminates this technical requirement.
• All the basics of the ‘core’ WordPress platform are included, just like on WordPress.com, but whenever a new version of the software is released, you have to do the upgrade yourself. The good news is that even these upgrades have been made easier in recent versions – with a “one click upgrade” now available.
• You can use any WordPress theme you like – the ones that come included, ones that you buy from 3rd party designers, and even themes you design yourself. With design knowledge (or a design budget), you or your designer can make your site look and function however you like.
• There is a massive library of ‘plug-ins’ (pre-built customizations) that are only available to WordPress.com users. You can tap into the collective knowledge and experience of WordPress users all around the world, and download the fixes and customizations they’ve made publicly available for use on your own site.
• Maintenance required. The ability to make all these customizations does come at a cost, however. As with any customized software, maintenance is generally required to keep everything working smoothly together. That maintenance cost typically corresponds to the amount of customization you’ve done.
• You can also develop (or have some develop) original custom features just for your site! The WordPress.org platform is incredibly flexible – giving you the ability to build any fancy features you want. This makes this self-hosted version of the software more appropriate for custom websites that publish much more than just blog posts.

Both Versions Offer:

• Multi-user capabilities: you can have multiple contributors, authors, editors, and administrators, with different levels of authority for adding or updating website content.

WordPress.com is an awesome web publishing tool that provides you with an easy to use platform to build a simple and functional website on your own, or with the help of a consultant. It is often the choice for those who are budget contrained, or who don’t have access to design or technical talent…but there are some incredibly large websites that run on WordPress.com (see: iCanHazCheezburger and GigaOm). On the other hand, WordPress.org gives you the ability to fully customize your website and add the types of advanced functionality that you may need to distinguish yourself from all the rest. If you opt for the latter, we highly recommend getting help from an experienced WordPress development team (we recommend us to help).

Visual Comparison:

This ‘info graph’ from wpbeginner.com illustrates much of what we outlined above. However, we don’t fully agree with the conclusion at the bottom, that businesses must use the self-hosted version of WordPress (see previous paragraph). This is, however, a nifty graphic that gives you a quick overview comparison.