In the current scenario, more and more people are coming up with a plan to start some online work, whether it’s a website, e-commerce, blog etc. Since there are so many platforms for website creation, people often get confused about which one to choose. The most widely used one is WordPress which provides both free websites hosting as well as hosting platforms too. You can WordPress for the creation of websites, e-commerce, blogging, etc.
WordPress is divided into two segments:
- WordPress.org
- WordPress.com
Due to confusion, people often choose the wrong way to start with their online business. Now we will distinguish b/w WordPress.com and WordPress.org:
WordPress.org
WordPress.org facilitates self-hosting features meaning you yourself can host your own website, and you don’t need hosting by others. This is free of costs. And if you are starting with your work, you should prefer WordPress.org in the initial stage till the time you get traffic on your website.
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As we all know that self-hosting is being provided by WordPress.org. In self-hosting you should be ready to face all the technicalities and responsibilities, it’s not easy than it appears from outside. You can download the wordpress.org only on the webserver. And then it may be fun hosting your site.
In wordpress.org the usage is free of cost, but as the traffic begins to increase at your site, you will need to upgrade your website. In the beginning, it will cost you around $3 to $10 /month. And the cost will keep on increasing as your website grows further. The cost of the site varies as per your content. If you are planning to Startup in the form of E-commerce, then it would cost you more than the usual blogging costs. You can easily avail all facilities at $46 per year. Also, see the best possible way to minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML in WordPress.
Merits and demerits of WordPress.org
The merits of WordPress includes as follows:
- Firstly, the major advantage in WordPress.org is that it provides the platform free of cost. As your website is to be expanded and traffic increases, you will have to upgrade your website which would cost you just $46 a year, which is nothing as compared to the plans provided by WordPress.com.
- In WordPress.org, you can easily monetize your website to earn money. You can put ads to make you money. Now there are platforms like Google ads through which you can easily make money through your websites.
- You can customize your website as per your wish. There is no limit as to the customization. You may also use the available themes also or may add one of your own.
- You can track the audience on your website through Google Analytics or other such platforms.
- You can upload plugins as per your wish.
- You can start your e-commerce business through WordPress.org and make easy money. You will have to upgrade your plan, which would cost you a very little as compared to $540 a year in WordPress.com.
The demerits with respect to WordPress.org are as follows:
- Hosting your website requires too much technical knowledge which has to be managed by yourself. You also need to get a hosting platform of your own.
- You need to take care of all the updates available. You just need to click the update option, and your version would be automatically updated.
- WordPress.org does not provide the backups. Though there are numerous ways, you can get the backup of your site.
WordPress.com
In WordPress.com, you are provided with the hosting by WordPress itself. This is not a free platform. After a certain period, you have to take one of the various paid plans provided by WordPress. You get domains of your own when you upgrade your plan.
Managed hosting is totally different than self-hosting. Here you just have to pay for the hosting and rest of the job would be done by WordPress. In this, you are free from all responsibilities, and you just need to focus on the content aspect of your site. There is a disadvantage as to managed hosting that you cannot earn money through this. You cannot monetize site per your wish. You also need to follow the terms and conditions of WordPress.
The managed hosting will cost you money as per the plan you choose in wordpress.com.
Basically, wordpress.com had five plans as enumerated below –
- Free plan – Limited (Up to 3 GB of space)
- Personal Plan which would cost you $48 per year.
- The premium plan would cost you $96 per year.
- The Business plan costs $300 a year.
- E-commerce plan would cost you $540 per annum.
There is also a VIP plan which starts at $5000 per month.
WordPress.com: Merits and Demerits
The merits of WordPress.Com are as follows:
- The ones who don’t have the intension to make money through blogging may avail the free plan provided by WordPress.com, which is available up to 3 GB of space. In case you want to expand your website then you need to avail the personal plan which provides space up to 6 GB.
- In wordpress.com you don’t need to worry about the Updates and backups as everything would be the responsibility of WordPress.com.
The demerits as to WordPress.com are enumerated below:
- In this, you cannot monetize your website to make easy money. Although WordPress places their own ads, you are not benefited from it. In case you want to remove those ads, then you’ll have to upgrade your plan.
- You cannot add or customize your website as per your own wish. You need to choose amongst the limited themes provided by WordPress.
- You cannot track your website or use Google Analytics on your website, which further adds to the various limitations. Only business plan users may avail google analytics.
- WordPress.com provides the same domain name to the free plan users. You may avail a custom domain on the paid plans provided by WordPress.
- You cannot build a membership website through this platform.
There is a doubt as to the platforms which they must choose in order to get the desired results from their websites, blogging etc.
If you are doing blogging just for the sake of writing your views, then you may go with WordPress.com which provides a free plan up to 3GB of space. In case you are willing to expand your website then you must go with WordPress.org as it is free of cost for the beginners and when traffic increases you may upgrade your plan at just $46 per year, which is nothing compared to WordPress.com.
In case you are planning to start an e-commerce network then you should go with WordPress.org because as you will be expanding your business in the initial stage, it would be free of cost. Later, when your websites or business expands, you can upgrade your plan at $46- $100 a year. And if we see in WordPress.com the same would cost you a hefty amount of $540 a year this case you will not be worried about hosting and other technicalities as those are managed by WordPress itself.
In the beginning, people often go up with WordPress.com, but soon they realize that they can’t continue with it due to the limitations. So they always want to switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. For switching to WordPress.org, you just need to get to the option ‘WP Admin’ in which you open tools and then download all the export files. Then you open up your WordPress.org account wherein you just need to go to the import option, and you will get access to the free and compatible WordPress.org account.
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