This post is a part of a series post named “Start A Blog“, which contains following parts:

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: Which Blog Platform is used

Whenever we think to start a blog, we need a platform to start with and we have multiple options available to start from. Some of the popular platform are Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, BlogSpot, etc. Selection of blog platform depends on the type of blog you have and what you want to do with your blog.

If you are blogging for fun or personal journal, then you can use WordPress.com, Tumblr, or BlogSpot because they are Free and easy to manage.

If you are blogging to Promote your Business, or to make money online, then best option is to use a self hosted professional platform such as WordPress.org.

In this post, I will tell you all about what WordPress is, and emphasize the difference between the two variants of WordPress.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a platform used for blogging. It was started as a blogging tool and later on get evolved into a full Content Management System. The first version of WordPress was released in 2003, as an open source project licensed under GPLv2, which later envolved into one of the most popular platform for creating blogs and website.

WordPress is based on PHP and MySQL, founded by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. It is project backed by their parent company Automattic, which offers various products and services related to WordPresss like VaultPress, VideoPress, BuddyPress, JetPack, Akismet, Gravatar, etc.

The two important things for beginners to know about WordPress:

1. WordPress Themes:

One of the biggest challenge for a webmasters of any sites today is to create a design template and theme, WordPress themes rise from these challenge very well. WordPress is backed by a huge community of freelance designers and developer companies who are offering Free and Premium themes of WordPress.

Anyone can download a free WordPress theme of his/her choice from the official WordPress theme collection or from third party website or upload a theme. You can a little amount to get a Premium Theme of any theme. With few clicks and editing, you can change the design and modify the appearance of your theme. You can change or customize WordPress theme easily without having any knowledge of real coding.

2. WordPress Plugins:

WordPress Plugins helps to extend the core feature of WordPress Platform. Plugins helps to add new features to your existing WordPress powered website. There are numbers of Plugins available for almost everything. All you need to find the correct once which you needed and when you add any plugin, you are adding those feature to your website.

Due to huge number and variety of WordPress Plugins available, one can easily get confused that which one is to use. For this reason, I created a separate post for Essential WordPress Plugins for every Blog.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: What is the difference?

Automattic offers two variation of WordPress software:

1. WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a free blogging platform offered by Automattic, which allows anyone to create a website for free. When you create a site on WordPress.com, you will get a web domain name like “name.wordpress.com” and your blog is hosted on WordPress Server. This platform is perfect for someone who want to have a blog without having any investment, simply for the purpose of hosting his/her personal writings.

There are many paid add-on options available for WordPress.com, with help of which you can buy custom domain names, use paid themes and do many more things.

Limitations of WordPress.com

You have limited theme choices.
You can’t install third party plugins.

WordPress.com is good for:

Individuals who want to start a personal journal blog.
Companies needing to have a web space for announcements where design and branding are not important.
someone who just want to become a blogger without any initial investment.

WordPress.com is not good for:

People who are aimed to make money from their blogs.
Companies who use contents for marketing their Channel or Products.
Individuals who want total control over their website.
Anyone want to use Ad networks and Affiliate Marketing.

2. WordPress.org

WordPress.org is a self hosted platform with complete solution for blogger looking to start a blog for the money making purpose, promoting their business, or any other such reasons like creating an e-commerce site.

To use WordPress.org you have to download a copy of WordPress from its official download page and install it on your own web hosting server. Since WordPress.org is one of the world’s most popular platform, many web hosting companies offers custom solutions or scripts like Fantastico which lets you install WordPress on single click.

WordPress.com and WordPress.org both platform has similar dashboard interfaces. However, WordPress.org removes all the limitations of WordPress.com and offers a complete control over your website.

Now you Can Use it:

To create a custom theme and install third party themes.
To install third party plugins
Monetize your website in any way like Ad Network, Affiliate Marketing, Paid Reviews, etc.

Comparison Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org:

That’s all guys, I hope that this post will helped you to understand the WordPress more as well as the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Thanks for visiting and stay connected for more updates.