You typed “WordPress” into Google, landed on WordPress.com, built a site, and now someone’s telling you that’s not the “real” WordPress developers keep recommending. That confusion is fair — the two are related, but they are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one costs real time to undo later.
This isn’t the Wix-vs-WordPress question. If you’re weighing a proprietary website builder against WordPress as a category, our Wix vs WordPress comparison covers that. Here, both sides of the comparison run the exact same WordPress software — the difference is entirely about who hosts it and what that changes.
WordPress.com is a hosted service that runs the WordPress software for you on its own servers, with plans that restrict plugins, themes, and monetization below the higher tiers. WordPress.org is the free, open-source software itself, which you install on hosting of your own choosing with no restrictions on plugins, themes, or how you make money from the site. Everything below unpacks what that split actually means in practice.
What’s the Actual Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
WordPress.com sells you hosting plus the WordPress software bundled together, the way a landlord provides both the building and the utilities. WordPress.org gives you the software alone, free, and you supply the “building” — a hosting account — yourself.
That single distinction cascades into everything else: who can install plugins, who owns the data, what a free plan can and can’t display, and how much a site costs to run long-term.
| WordPress.com | WordPress.org | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted service running WordPress | Free, open-source WordPress software |
| Hosting | Included, managed by Automattic | You choose and pay for your own host |
| Cost to start | Free plan available; paid tiers $4–$45/month | Software is free; hosting runs $3–$100+/month |
| Plugins | Blocked on Free, Personal, Premium plans; unlocked on Business+ | Unlimited — full plugin directory, any theme |
| Ownership | Automattic’s terms of service apply; can suspend accounts | You own the site outright, on your own server |
| Monetization | Restricted below Business plan | No restrictions at all |
| Best for | Personal blogs, hobby sites, zero-maintenance writing | Business sites, stores, anything that needs to scale |
How Do the Plans and Pricing Compare?
WordPress.com’s pricing (per its own pricing page, as of mid-2026, billed annually) runs across five tiers: Free (WordPress.com branding, ads, no custom domain), Personal ($4/month, custom domain, no plugin installs), Premium ($8/month, more design tools, still no plugin installs), Business ($25/month, unlocks the full plugin directory), and Commerce ($45/month, full WooCommerce support).
WordPress.org’s own cost structure looks different because you’re pricing hosting, not software:
- Shared hosting — roughly $3–$12/month, fine for a low-traffic starter site.
- Managed WordPress hosting — roughly $25–$100/month, with performance tuning and support built in. Our guide to managed WordPress hosting breaks down what that tier actually buys you.
- Domain name — around $12–$15/year, purchased separately either way.
- Premium theme or plugins — optional, pay-once or subscription, entirely your choice.
The comparison that actually matters: WordPress.com’s Business plan runs about $300/year for plugin access alone. For close to that same $300/year, WordPress.org gets you quality managed hosting plus room to buy two or three premium plugins outright — with zero feature restrictions on any of them.
Who Owns Your Site and Content on Each Platform?
On WordPress.com, Automattic’s terms of service govern your account. That means content policy enforcement, plan-tier feature gates, and — in edge cases — account suspension are all decisions made by the platform, not you.
On WordPress.org, the site lives on hosting you pay for and control. There’s no external company that can gate a feature behind a higher tier or suspend the account for a policy dispute. You carry full responsibility for backups, security, and updates, but you also carry full ownership — nobody else’s terms of service sit between you and your site.
What Are the Plugin and Theme Limits on WordPress.com?
This is the restriction that surprises new users most. WordPress.com’s Free, Personal, and Premium plans don’t allow plugin installation at all — you’re limited to whatever built-in tools and Jetpack modules the platform ships with.
Plugin installs only unlock on the Business plan and above. Even then, you’re pulling from the same WordPress.org plugin directory that self-hosted sites use for free — you’re paying $25/month for the privilege of accessing something WordPress.org gives away.
WordPress.org has no such gate. Every one of the 60,000+ free plugins in the official directory, plus any premium or third-party plugin sold anywhere, installs the same way: upload and activate. Custom-built plugins and themes work the same way too — see our breakdown of WordPress theme options if you’re also deciding between a template and a custom build.
Which One Should You Choose for a Business Website?
Choose WordPress.com only if the site is a personal blog, a hobby project, or writing-only content where you genuinely never plan to add a contact form, a store, custom branding, or third-party integrations. Its appeal is real: zero server maintenance, zero update responsibility, and a low barrier to publishing your first post.
Choose WordPress.org for anything that functions as a business asset — a company site, a WooCommerce store, a lead-generation funnel, a site that needs SEO plugins, page builders, membership tools, or custom code. If growth, plugins, or full ownership matter at all, WordPress.org is the only option that doesn’t eventually force a migration anyway. Our overview of why businesses choose WordPress covers the broader case beyond just this .com/.org split.
How Do You Migrate From WordPress.com to WordPress.org?
Moving a site from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress.org typically takes about an hour of hands-on work, plus DNS propagation time. The path is the same regardless of site size:
- Export your content. From WordPress.com, use Tools → Export to download an XML file containing posts, pages, and media references.
- Set up self-hosted WordPress. Choose a host, install WordPress.org software (most hosts one-click this), and configure your domain.
- Import the XML file. Use WordPress’s built-in importer to pull posts, pages, and media into the new install.
- Redirect the old URL. Set up WordPress.com’s paid site redirect (roughly $13/year) so old links and search rankings carry over instead of dead-ending.
The step people skip is verifying every image and internal link actually transferred — exports don’t always carry media cleanly, and a partial import quietly breaks pages nobody notices until a visitor hits a 404. If that step feels like more risk than you want to carry solo, our WordPress website migration service handles the export, host setup, import, and redirect chain as one job, with a pre-launch link and image audit included.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Which Wins for SEO and Growth?
WordPress.org wins on SEO and growth for one structural reason: it supports the full range of dedicated SEO plugins — schema markup, XML sitemap control, redirect management, Core Web Vitals tuning — none of which WordPress.com’s lower tiers permit you to install. A business site that needs to rank has to be able to install and configure these tools directly.
Growth follows the same pattern. Adding a store, a membership area, a booking system, or custom functionality on WordPress.org is a plugin install. On WordPress.com below Business tier, it’s simply not possible, and even at Business tier it costs more annually than owning the equivalent stack outright.
Ready to build or move to self-hosted WordPress the right way? Our team has shipped 500+ WordPress projects across 23 countries and holds a 5.0 rating on Clutch from 41 reviews. Whether you’re starting fresh or migrating off WordPress.com, our custom WordPress development team scopes the build around what your business actually needs — not what a plan tier allows.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is WordPress.com the same software as WordPress.org?
Yes — both run the identical open-source WordPress core. The difference is entirely in hosting and access: WordPress.com bundles hosting with the software and restricts plugins below its Business plan, while WordPress.org is the same software installed on hosting you choose, with no restrictions at all.
Can I install plugins on WordPress.com?
Only on the Business plan and above ($25/month as of mid-2026, billed annually). Free, Personal, and Premium plans block plugin installation entirely, limiting you to built-in Jetpack modules and whatever the theme itself supports.
Is WordPress.com free?
There’s a genuinely free tier, but it displays WordPress.com branding and ads, blocks a custom domain, and offers no plugin access. Most sites that start free upgrade within months once they need a real domain or a contact form plugin.
Does moving from WordPress.com to WordPress.org hurt my SEO?
Not if the migration is done correctly. Setting up WordPress.com’s paid redirect and verifying every URL, image, and internal link transferred cleanly preserves search rankings. Rankings typically only drop when redirects are skipped or links break silently during the move.
Which is cheaper long-term, WordPress.com or WordPress.org?
WordPress.org is usually cheaper once a site needs any real functionality. WordPress.com’s Business plan costs roughly $300/year just to unlock plugins you’d get free on WordPress.org — money that on self-hosted WordPress buys quality managed hosting plus premium plugins outright.
Can I use WooCommerce on WordPress.com?
Only on the Commerce plan, priced at $45/month as of mid-2026 (billed annually), and even then you’re working within WordPress.com’s hosting environment rather than a fully open WooCommerce setup. Self-hosted WordPress.org runs WooCommerce with no plan-tier restrictions on extensions or payment gateways.
You Might Also Find Useful
- Wix vs WordPress: an honest comparison — the platform-vs-platform question, not the .com/.org one
- Why businesses choose WordPress — the broader case for WordPress as a platform
- WordPress themes explained — template vs. custom build once you’re on WordPress.org
- Managed WordPress hosting — what to look for once you’re self-hosting
- WordPress website migration services — a managed move off WordPress.com with a link and image audit included
