Have you ever been baffled by the question that are “WordPress.com” and “WordPress.org” one and the same? The long and the short of it is that despite having “WordPress” in common, these are essentially entirely different from each other. Before delving into the differences between “WordPress.com” and “WordPress.org”, it becomes imperative to gain brief but comprehensive knowledge about WordPress to aid the uninitiated.

WordPress Explained

In layman’s terms, WordPress is the most convenient and powerful website builder that exists at present. It is an open-source website creation platform that is available for free. It is an extremely versatile CMS (Content Management System) that uses a MySQL database and is written in PHP.

Any website that makes use of WordPress as its content management system is referred to as a WordPress website. As an outstandingly efficient platform for a variety of websites, WordPress can be used effectively to build e-Commerce websites, business websites, portfolio websites, e-learning websites, forum websites, membership websites, event websites as well as blogs. WordPress powers both, the frontend and the backend of the website that is using it.

WordPress not only does away with the need to know coding for creating websites but also offers innumerable options with regard to the customization of a WordPress site. Various WordPress themes and plugins are available in it for bringing forth new design options along with additional functionality. It is possible to expand the core WordPress software with WordPress plugins. This open-source software, which is free, renders publishing and building website content simple. It is flexible enough to support the creation of many types of websites and can be used easily to build and manage any WordPress site. Moreover, there is a helpful community of WordPress users and developers that is always coming up with innovations to aid improvements.

The Major Differences

The most obviously noticeable difference between “WordPress.com” and “WordPress.org” is the domain extension (“.com” and “.org”). The domain extension “.com” stands for “commercial” whereas “.org” stands for organization. The key difference between these two has to do with the web host. To digress, a web host is a company that provides the service of web hosting, wherein server space along with all the necessary technologies are provided to websites for the purpose of storing and delivering their files. Web hosting is of many types and the most renowned web hosting service providers are usually referred to as the “Best Windows Hosting Company” or as the “Best Website Hosting Company” or as the “Top Cloud Hosting Company”.

With regard to their respective web hosts, “WordPress.org” entails one hosting one’s site by oneself by choosing a web host. On the contrary, “WordPress.com” takes care of one’s hosting on one’s behalf and one doesn’t have to look for a hosting service provider.

Let us shed light on the other major differences between these two. “WordPress.org” requires some technical skills for it to be used. For “WordPress.com” possessing technical skills helps. The former can be customized totally, whereas the latter offers limited customization options. The e-Commerce capabilities for the former are scalable. Basic e-Commerce capabilities exist for the latter. There is more flexibility with regard to installing new plugins on a WordPress.org site and that too without the need for any extra payment. WordPress.com allows installation of plugins in its Business and eCommerce plans.

With regard to the process of setting up a WordPress site, it is much easier to do so in the case of WordPress.com than with WordPress.org. Moreover, it is more cost-effective to opt for WordPress.com when one wants to build a basic personal website. WordPress.org is value for money when everything in totality is taken into account. WordPress.com is easier to maintain and comes equipped with the most basic security options, which is yet another difference between it and a WordPress.org site. In terms of monetization options, with WordPress.com it isn’t possible to monetize free and personal sites. A WordPress.org site can be monetized at will.

Last but not the least, these two differ in terms of the support that is provided and which is extremely important for any website’s seamless performance. WordPress.com doesn’t provide any support for the free plans but email as well as live chat support are made available in it, starting from its Personal plans. WordPress.org doesn’t offer any official support and the support received in this case is from the respective third-party web hosts.

Evidently, there are many differences between “WordPress.com” and “WordPress.org”, which are often assumed to be one and the same.