If you’ve ever built your own website, if you’ve ever even thought about building your own website, we’re almost positive you’ve heard of the content management system WordPress. That’s because WordPress dominates the website builder market. In fact, as of 2024, over 800 million active websites have been built on WordPress. That’s over 43% of websites on the internet that use WordPress. For comparison, the three most popular website builders behind WordPress, Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, account for roughly 151 million active websites combined.

There’s no denying WordPress’s popularity. But even though it is a profoundly popular content management system, not everyone knows everything they should know about it. For example, did you know there’s a WordPress.com and a WordPress.org? Both are official WordPress platforms and both give you access to the WordPress website builder software, but they’re not identical. And the one you choose can fundamentally alter how your website comes together.

If that’s all news to you, then you’re in the right place. Because here, we’ll do our best to highlight the similarities and differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org and help guide you to a better fit for your website.

TL;DR

WordPress.org and WordPress.com are both content management platforms. Both provide access to the software that powers hundreds of millions of websites. However, WordPress.org is a free download that, while more challenging to use than WordPress.com, gives users more freedom in building their content.

Meanwhile, WordPress.com is a paid subscription that comes with some built-in features that make WordPress’s tricky editor slightly simpler and safer to use. It can cost much more to run than WordPress.org, but the advanced functionality will be worth it for some users.

But for a more in-depth look at WordPress.com and WordPress.org, we have to dive into the specifics.

What’s The Difference?

In short, WordPress.org is a way for you to download the WordPress software and use it with unlimited access. WordPress is different than some simplified website builders in that it’s you’ll need to install a lot of third-party plug-ins to get the most out of it. The base editor is pretty limited but its compatible with thousands of outside platforms, so you can accomplish a lot with WordPress.org provided that you know what you’re doing.

WordPress.com uses the same WordPress software but, unlike WordPress.org, hosts websites internally and includes some built-in features and security functions that aren’t initially included with WordPress. On WordPress.org, you’ll download the WordPress web builder software and just get the software. There are no additional bells and whistles and very few advanced features. It just includes the ability to add some fundamental blocks to pages like text, images, videos, and so on. It falls to you to install many of those features yourself through third-party plug-ins or write custom code to enhance your website manually.

But with WordPress.com, your editor will have much more functionality, provided you’re willing to pay extra for those extra features. While WordPress.org is a free download, WordPress.com is an at-cost subscription, with different tiers priced based on how much access you’ll get to those features.

For example, with a free plan from WordPress.com, you can really only gain access to the software’s fundamental features. Plus, WordPress will display ads on your site on the free plan. You can upgrade to a more expensive plan to remove those ads and unlock more features, but by the time you get to WordPress.com’s highest-priced subscription, the monthly costs will begin to add up.

WordPress.com Pricing

WordPress.com has five subscription plans, each allowing different access to WordPress’s more advanced features and functions. You can learn more about what’s included in each plan, but we’ve previewed each option in the sections below.

Note: The prices below reflect the monthly subscription costs for each plan. However, you can save up to 55% on your subscription if you pay for your plan as one yearly sum rather than a monthly charge.

• Free: $0 a Month

• Starter: $9 a Month

• Explorer: $18 a Month

• Creator: $40 a Month

• Entrepreneur: $70 a Month

The Free, Starter, and Explorer plans are all pretty limited relative to the two pricier monthly subscriptions, which is why there’s such a gap between what you’ll pay for Explorer and Creator. Those first three plans feel optimized for blogs rather than fully-functioning websites for a handful of reasons, primarily because you can’t install third-party plug-ins or themes with any of them. As we looked at with WordPress.org, plug-ins are what elevate WordPress to a top-level website builder. And without access to them, you can’t do much with your pages other than add text and images.

The Creator and Entrepreneur subscription plans get you closer to the more traditional WordPress experience you’ll get with WordPress.org without sacrificing the user-friendliness that WordPress.com works to cultivate. With either plan, you can install and use plug-ins and themes to get the most out of your WordPress build. The most noticeable difference between the Creator and Entrepreneur plans is the access to e-commerce tools. While the Creator plan has next to no advanced e-commerce features, the Entrepreneur package has a lot of e-commerce functionality built in. 

That said, if you’re only looking for an online store and don’t need more traditional website elements, we recommend Shopify over the WordPress Entrepreneur package. Shopify is designed for online stores and is compatible with more e-commerce features than WordPress. You won’t receive as many standard page-building features on Shopify as you will on WordPress, but if you don’t need those features anyway, Shopify is the way to go. Plus, Shopify subscriptions start at just $39 a month, a much lower rate than WordPress Entrepreneur $70 monthly charge.

WordPress Enterprise

Another crucial difference between those five subscription plans is their available storage. You will receive 1 GB of storage with the free plan, but the availability scales up to 50 GB with the Creator and Entrepreneur plans, with those last two also including at-cost upgrade options to reach 150 GB.

But larger businesses with large staffs or customer bases will need more than 150 GB of storage, which is where WordPress Enterprise comes into play. WordPress Enterprise plans start at $25,000 yearly and scale depending on the business’s specific needs. To be clear, most people will not need a plan this expansive or expensive. But for those that do, WordPress Enterprise is a great solution.

Ease of Use

WordPress is not known for its ease of use in either form, but WordPress.org is the least user-friendly of the two. 

It’s important to note that the people who like WordPress don’t like it for its DIY accessibility as much as they do for its design flexibility. WordPress is the best way to build a website in your image, and you’ll have much more customizability with WordPress.org. You won’t need to pay extra for access to plug-ins, you can purchase your domain however you want, and you won’t have to deal with unwanted ads on your free-to-build website.

We recommend just going through WordPress.org if you have the technical expertise or coding experience needed for a platform like WordPress. It’s the best way to get all the traditional benefits of the WordPress software for free and without any restrictions. However, if you don’t know much about WordPress and its editor, WordPress.com will likely be a better fit.

WordPress.com is a much more accessible version of the WordPress software because it reduces the need for many extra steps you would need to build a website through WordPress. Because they provide hosting, you won’t need to go through a registrar to get a domain. And because WordPress.com includes built-in features not available on the WordPress.org software download, there’s much less demand for third-party plug-ins. 

Security

WordPress.com’s emphasis on ease of use also makes the platform a safer way to build a website than WordPress.org. Because you won’t need as many plug-ins with a WordPress.com subscription, there’s less of a risk of installing a tool with poor security that compromises your entire website. Similarly, because you don’t need to purchase a domain from a registry, you won’t need to worry about the quality of your domain or the place you're buying it.

On the other hand, those security risks will always be present with WordPress.org. There are ways to minimize those security risks, for example, by downloading security plug-ins like JetPack and doing extensive research on the reputability of the tools you install. But that security concern will always be greater than it is on WordPress.com, and especially greater than it is on a platform like Squarespace or Shopify.

Should You Choose WordPress.com or WordPress.org

With all that in mind, should you start your website on WordPress.com or WordPress.org? There isn’t really a right or wrong answer here - it more comes down to your comfort level with the WordPress software. With all things equal, we would recommend WordPress.org before WordPress.com. 

The appeal of a website builder like WordPress is the flexibility and ability to approach your projects exactly how you want. But there are limits to WordPress.com that detract slightly from the freedom of expression you would get with WordPress.org.

In other words, WordPress.org is the purer, unrestricted version of WordPress. And when most people talk about WordPress, this is the version they’re talking about. WordPress.org lets you download the WordPress software and then hands you the keys. There is no need to debate subscription plans or worry about features or functions you might be missing out on. But because WordPress.org is so open-ended, it can be much harder to use than WordPress.com. And you have to figure out security, downloads, and hosting on your own. And that’s on top of learning how to use WordPress’s complex editor or writing code if you’re capable.

WordPress.com, on the other hand, minimizes a lot of those obstacles. They’ll host your website for you, they’ve built in several helpful features you won’t get with WordPress.org, and their security is much more reliable. So if you’re new to building a website, only need something simple, or don’t even know what you need, then WordPress.com might be the way to go.

The good news is that regardless of which platform you choose, you won’t be locked in forever. WordPress allows users to import their websites from one platform to another, so even if you build your website on WordPress.com and later decide you want the extra flexibility, you can transfer it over to WordPress.org without having to rebuild your site entirely.

Still not sure if either version of WordPress is a fit for your website? Book a consultation call to chat with a member of NAV about your project.