As both a 15 year veteran webmaster and WordPress expert, one of the most common questions I get from new users is: what is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
This confusion is understandable – after all, they both have "WordPress" in the name and share some common history.
However, WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two distinct platforms, and which one you choose can have a major impact on your website capabilities.
In this comprehensive beginner‘s guide, I‘ll explain:
- The history and origins of WordPress
- The key differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com
- When to choose one platform over the other
- Available features, customization and community support
- My professional recommendations for new site owners
Let‘s start at the very beginning and unpack where WordPress came from…
Contents
A Brief History of WordPress
WordPress was created in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little as a fork, or off-shoot, of an existing open source blogging platform called b2 cafelog.
The founders wanted to create a more user-friendly publishing tool focused on web standards. So they built WordPress as an open source blogging platform using PHP and MySQL.
Open source means the source code is accessible for anyone to use, modify, extend and distribute. This allows for collaboration between developers and the greater community.
This open source, accessible model was key to WordPress‘ rapid growth and popularity. It quickly evolved from a blogging platform into a full content management system (CMS) capable of powering diverse websites.
Today WordPress powers over 40% of all websites – from personal blogs to major news publications like CNN, Forbes, and more. Its extensibility and active open source community has made it the CMS of choice for site owners and developers alike.
| Year | WordPress Market Share |
|---|---|
| 2006 | 2.5% |
| 2012 | 17.0% |
| 2018 | 33.6% |
| 2021 | 41.4% |
WordPress market share over time. Source: BuiltWith
But within that overall WordPress ecosystem, there are two distinct products – WordPress.org and WordPress.com. So what exactly sets them apart?
Key Differences Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com
When folks refer to "WordPress" in a general sense, they typically mean WordPress.org – the self-hosted, open source WordPress software.
WordPress.org is the fully customizable, free WordPress software that you download and install on a web server or hosting account. This gives you full control over your site and content.
In contrast, WordPress.com is a free, hosted blogging service created by Automattic – a company founded by Matt Mullenweg.
While WordPress.com uses the open source WordPress software at its core, there are some major differences:
| WordPress.org | WordPress.com |
|---|---|
| Fully customizable code and UI | Limited customization options |
| Install themes and plugins | No plugin or theme installs |
| Self-hosted on your own server | Hosted on WordPress.com‘s servers |
| Full control and ownership | Restrictions on features |
| Advanced functionality like ecommerce | More basic blogging features |
| Monetization options | WordPress.com ads |
| Access to full WordPress community | Limited community support |
As you can see, the capabilities are quite different. WordPress.com is a more limited, hosted platform. WordPress.org gives you full flexibility and control.
So why choose one over the other? Let‘s explore some common use cases in more detail.
When to Choose WordPress.org vs WordPress.com
In general, I recommend WordPress.org for most sites – especially businesses, professionals, and advanced users.
The ability to fully customize your codebase, design, features and content without restriction is invaluable.
Here are a few examples of sites that would benefit from WordPress.org:
- Ecommerce stores – install plugins for shopping carts, payments, shipping
- Membership sites – gate content behind paywalls, limit access
- Forums and social networks – build custom community features
- Sites monetizing with ads – serve your own ads without limits
- Media publishing sites – customize image galleries, embedded media
- Sites requiring SEO optimization – use SEO plugins and customization
However, WordPress.com can be a good choice for:
- New bloggers who want a quick setup without technical tasks
- Basic hobby or small personal sites with minimal needs
- Users who don‘t want to manage updates or security responsibility
For many folks, WordPress.com is a great way to start out before migrating to the flexibility of WordPress.org. It eliminates the hosting and installation burden.
But for fully customizable sites, especially for businesses, WordPress.org is almost always the better choice long-term.
Comparing Features and Functionality
Beyond just use cases, let‘s look at some of the nuts and bolts around features and functionality differences:
Plugins and Themes
One major advantage of WordPress.org is the ability to extend your site‘s functionality with plugins and themes.
With over 55,000 free plugins and thousands of premium options, WordPress.org sites can add just about any feature imaginable. Popular plugins include:
- WooCommerce – build a shopping cart and online store
- Membership plugins – offer exclusive member access and content
- Contact form plugins – create forms for lead capture
- SEO plugins – improve site speed, metadata and discoverability
- Security plugins – protect your site from attacks
- AND endless others – forums, social, media, design and more
Most plugins are completely free. And you can install as many as you need!
With WordPress.com‘s hosted plan, any plugins require upgrading to a Business or eCommerce plan at $25-45 a month. The free option includes zero plugin installs.
The same goes for themes (site design templates). WordPress.org offers thousands of free and premium themes to customize your site‘s aesthetic. WordPress.com limits you to their free built-in themes unless you upgrade.
This customization control is why many businesses prefer WordPress.org – no limits on enhancing your site‘s functionality exactly how you want it.
Content Management & APIs
WordPress.org also provides superior content management capabilities and APIs for developers to build custom integrations.
For example, WordPress.org allows you to:
- Create custom post types beyond just blogs – portfolios, events, products etc.
- Assign custom metadata to any piece of content for improved filtering
- Build custom fields that capture specific data – like event details
- Access and integrate with WordPress‘ REST API for custom apps
- Import/export all site content using the built-in tools
With WordPress.com, your ability to manage content types, metadata, and APIs in a customized way is very limited unless you upgrade to a Business plan.
So WordPress.org provides much more robust CMS features for developers and site owners managing large amounts of content.
Hosting, Performance & Security
When using WordPress.org, site owners have to consider web hosting themselves separately. There are many great WordPress hosting providers to choose from.
The benefit of managing your own hosting is full control. You can:
- Optimize hosting settings for speed and performance
- Add caching plugins and other optimizations
- Choose where your site is physically hosted
- Switch between hosts any time without affecting site ownership
However, hosting does add responsibility for:
- Maintaining security updates
- Managing backups
- Monitoring uptime and site performance
So there is some additional management overhead with WordPress.org. But for most experienced site owners, the control over hosting is worth it.
With WordPress.com, all hosting is handled for you by their infrastructure. However, you have little visibility into performance metrics or ability to optimize. Their uptime and support is generally very good, but can vary for different sites.
So in summary:
- WordPress.org – more hosting control, but more responsibility
- WordPress.com – handled for you, but less visibility or customization
Getting Help and Support
One of the best parts of using WordPress is the vibrant open source community behind it.
For WordPress.org users, there are forums on WordPress.org, Facebook groups, blogs, local meetups and more opportunities to connect with other users.
Some key ways to get WordPress.org help and support:
- WordPress.org support forums – search existing threads or ask questions
- WPBeginner – one of the largest WordPress blogs with tutorials
- Facebook groups – WordPress communities by interest area
- Meetup groups – find or join local WordPress groups
- WordCamp events – official local WordPress workshops and conferences
- Hire contractors – developers, designers, digital agencies and consultants
The WordPress community is full of people willing to help just remember to:
- Search existing questions before posting
- Provide steps to reproduce your issue
- Ask good questions that have clear answers
- Don‘t ask for custom plugins, themes or code
For WordPress.com users, there are official support forums, documentation and customer support agents available to paying users. But the community is smaller than the open source WordPress world.
Making My WordPress Recommendation
So when people ask me "should I use WordPress.org or WordPress.com?" – what do I recommend as a 15-year webmaster?
For most use cases, especially for businesses and professional sites, I suggest starting with WordPress.org.
The flexibility, customization and ownership over your data is invaluable. You want to build your brand on a platform you fully control.
However, here is my typical advice:
-
Start with WordPress.com to try it out first, especially if you‘re a total beginner. It eliminates the technical burden.
-
As your skills and needs grow, migrate to WordPress.org for more capabilities. Here‘s a great guide on migrating from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.
-
For hosting WordPress.org sites, use a managed provider that specializes in optimized WordPress hosting. Kinsta and WP Engine are great options.
-
Take advantage of the WordPress community for help! It‘s one of the biggest assets of the open source platform.
The great thing about WordPress is there is room to grow – you can start with WordPress.com and move to WordPress.org. Or even run sites on both!
I hope this detailed beginner‘s guide has helped explain the key differences between the two platforms. Let me know if you have any other questions!
