Its been a while since we’ve had a WordPress post! That’s my fault, things have been crazy ever since SNAP! (which by the way was a blast and I loved meeting so many of you!), but I’m back and ready to roll!
For this post I wanted to go back to basics a little and talk about the difference between WordPress.ORG and WordPress.COM. When I first started learning about WordPress this was really confusing to me so hopefully I can clear up any confusion out there for people interested in using WordPress.
WordPress.COM is a similar set up to Blogger, in that your url is “mysitename.wordpress.com.” Its free and you don’t have to pay any hosting fees. You go to their site, set up an account and get started instantly. You can have a domain name pointed to your blog like you can on Blogger, but your site is still under their umbrella and you don’t have access to your core files. There are also limitations, the biggest one being you can’t use outside plugins. There are some that come with WordPress.COM but you can’t upload your own. So all those wonderful plugins you hear about that make your life as a blogger so much easier, like this one? Can’t use them on WordPress.COM. You also can’t upload any theme you want, you have to use the ones they have available. You can pay extra to customize them but its much more limited.
WordPress.ORG is the site where you can download the free WordPress software to than self host through a hosting company, like our host, RFE. So you do have that monthly cost of hosting your site but you also have complete control and ownership of your site. You are able to use any plugin or theme that you want. You also have that custom domain name from the beginning. In my opinion if you are serious about blogging and want to make any money doing it you should be doing the self hosted version of WordPress. Also, MOST designers will only work with WordPress.ORG.
The dashboard looks very similar with either option of WordPress so if you’ve been using WordPress.COM a lot of the functionality will be the same if you switched over to WordPress.ORG.
Ok, so to summarize…
Hopefully this helps the people out there who might have been a little confused! 🙂
I’d also love to know what YOU want to learn about in these WordPress tutorials so PLEASE leave a comment telling me what you would like me to teach you.
Tauni Everett
Creative Director at Tauni Everett
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I am thinking about making this switch but I have no clue about it. Can I download the software and play with it for free before hosting the blog?
Sheena, You could download the free version, but you wouldn’t be able to download the self-hosted version to play with…It’s not hosted anywhere. –Tauni
Tauni, I have my blog currently hosted at wordpress.com. When you say the free version that is what you are referring to right? I don’t have anything downloaded though. I just go to http://www.wordpress.com and login for everything.
Sheena,
At WordPress.org you can download the WordPress software for free, but it has to be hosted somewhere to be used so thats where the cost of monthly hosting comes in. The dashboard for WordPress.com and WordPress.org are identical as far as writing posts, pages, etc. you just can’t add your own plugins or themes on WordPress.com
If you need help with the switch let me know! amy (at) lexilynstudio (dot) com
Thanks!
I tried to leave a comment on the post about working with brands, but the comments don’t seem to work. yikes.
Shoot Natalie. Maybe try leaving a comment again? There are loads of them now so it’s definitely working 🙂 xoxo Tauni
This was so helpful! I wish I had read this a week ago when I was trying to upload a custom template. So confusing…but you really helped clear this up! Love the info-graphic!
Glad we could help. Good luck with your site!