Self Hosted WordPress VS Free Hosted WordPress
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
While starting a new website, the frequent question that comes in everyone’s mind is what is better? Which one to choose? Is it better to pick up the self hosted one or the free hosted one?
Self Hosted WordPress (WordPress.org) or the Free Hosted WordPress (WordPress.com)Well the difference between the both platform causes confusion for newbie bloggers. In this article I am going to show a brief overview of both the WordPress.org and the WordPress.com,which will help you choosing the right one.
WordPress.Org
WordPress is actually a free and open source content management system (CMS). Its called open source because the user have full rights to do whatever he wants to do with his self hosted WordPress site. No copyright issues,nothing at all. For using the WordPress.org you need a web host and you need to download the WordPress script from the official site WordPress.Org . That’s why it is called self hosted. Well its an off topic thing,I am not here to show you how to use WordPress.org. Below are some of the main advantages of WordPress.org which I have listed out.
- Self Hosted – You are your own boss, like having your own house. You can do whatever you want to do with it. It lives independently on its own.
- Maintenance - Its your own responsibility to keep your site updated and maintained, because its hosted on your own hosting. Mostly, the optimization of your site will be your own responsibility.
- Customization - Like I said before, you have full control on your site’s appearance, looks. You can use tons of free themes that are available inside you site. Even premium themes are also available for you. If you have some knowledge of PHP or CSS you can build your own theme or modify an existing theme according to your need.
- Extended Features – By using self hosted WordPress.org you can extend your site’s features as much as you want. No limitations at all. Just install the plugin for that specific feature. Plugins are easily available to install. All you need to do is just browse to the plugin page inside your website’s admin panel,and click on the plugin and you are done. As simple as that.
- Regular Expense – As I said before,for using the self hosted WordPress you need a web host. Web hosting costs vary. However, you can find some cheap yet good web hosting providers around the internet. You have to pay for the web hosting every month. For high traffic sites, the cost of the hosting can get too expensive.
- Monetization Freedom – In the self hosted WordPress site you can use any ad services of your choice. Even you can sell your own ads. No restrictions at all. You can run affiliate business on your site too.
WordPress.Com
WordPress.com is free for up to 3 GB web space for a single user. No installation is needed , you don’t have to pay anything for hosting. Along with the hosting you will get a sub-domain like yourname.wordpress.com . To started using the WordPress.com you need to create an account on WordPress.com and abide by their T&C’s. You have no control on your site’s appearance at all. However a custom design package will let you get limited control over your choose theme’s design for $30/year.- Free Hosted - No control on your site,its like you renting an apartment. Fully managed and controlled by WordPress.com
- Limitations - As your site’s are maintained and controlled by WordPress.com you have to freedom to customization of your own. Its all up-to them. There are a few themes available for free users,but you need to upgrade to a premium user to create your own theme which will cost you $30/year. No plugins supported, but you will get support from WordPress.com and the forums.
- Free - The WordPress.com blogs are free for up to 3 GB web space and you can add your own domain name too. But you have to pay for the domain name though.
- No Maintenance – You don’t have to worry about maintaining your site,as your site’s will be maintained by the Automattic staff. They will take care of each and every issues of your site,including updates, backups, optimization and more.
- Limited Monetization – You are not allowed to show or sell any type of ads on your site unless you receive 25k page views per month. In which case you have to apply to try Ad Control,while the approval process does not cost you any money you have to share the revenue 50/50 with Automattic.
Which One Is Better For Me?
After reading both the overviews,its quite difficult to choose the right one for you. As both of the WordPress having their own pros and cons newbies gets confused to make the right choice. While none of the paid services are required to use the WordPress.com, we believe no one can maximize the potential of their blog until they have additional features like plugins,custom themes etc. If you want to make money using your blog then you should go for the self hosted WordPress.org as you can get 100% of the revenue made by your site. There are many advantages of self hosted WordPress.org over the free hosted WordPress.com ,we have discussed those above. It is always better to have full control over your site, because no one knows how and when WordPress.com will suspend your site for breaking their T&C’s. On the other hand by using the WordPress.org you are your own boss, no rules, no T&C’s to follow. No one can suspend your site unless you want to do so.So,we recommend you to use the self hosted WordPress.org instead of the free hosted WordPress.com and let your website grow. If need help learning about WordPress go through our site. If you are currently using WordPress.com and want to migrate to WordPress.org you can do that anytime. You can move your site to Hosting Fever they provide high performance WordPress Hosting with 99.9% up time & 24/7 Technical Support. You can also contact us by comments or by using our contact us form for further assistance,we will be glad to help you.
