• Home
• /
• Hosting & Domains
• /
• WordPress
• /
• WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What’s the Difference?

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What’s the Difference?

by    Tribulant Software   /   July 16th, 2015

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management software (CMS). It’s used for blogging and to create websites, whether personal or ecommerce ones. According to Torque, WordPress sites hosted by WordPress.com or external hosts* published 17 posts every second in 2014.

Here’s a staggering update in 2025: As a WordPress community, we’ve now reached over 2.3 million posts published every day using WordPress.com and WordPress.org!

That’s a lot of websites! Have you ever wondered who’s providing all this WordPress hosting?

There are a lot of website hosting services out there.

But, before we get into that, it’s important to understand the distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com and why and how it ties into hosting.

What’s the Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

WordPress.com provides a hosted version of WordPress. Meaning, they install a somewhat limited version of WordPress in their own servers. They take care of your hosting and that WordPress version. The ability to install your own themes and plugins depends on the plan you choose; higher-tier plans offer this option, while lower-cost plans do not. You don’t have to think too much about it, just buy a plan with them and WordPress will be ready for you, albeit a more restricted version.

On the other hand, WordPress.org offers the self-hosted version of WordPress for free. With this option, you can set up WordPress on any hosting provider and enjoy complete freedom to use any WordPress themes and plugins, without being restricted by plan limitations. The hosting provider may also offer managed hosting, where it would install WordPress and take care of most aspects of your hosting for you. Some even offer hosting with WordPress installed automatically. This ensures that WordPress.org overtakes WordPress.com in value.

You cannot use any WordPress version or any CMS (or anything online) without hosting it somewhere. Decisions, decisions…

Not All WordPress Hosts are Equal

According to WordPress itself, most web hosting services are capable of hosting a WordPress site. Basically, in 2015, the minimum requirements are PHP (the hypertext preprocessor) version 5.2.4 or higher, and MySQL (structured language query relational database) version 5.5 or higher. In 2025, WordPress recommends PHP version is 7.4 and MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.5 or greater. Hosts should also use an Apache or nginx server.

This isn’t enough, especially for businesses and eCommerce sites in particular. They require WordPress hosting that works closely with the software. Their host must be on top of the latest updates, well-versed in WordPress plugins and security, and able to provide skilled WordPress managed hosting.

Perhaps the biggest question is price. Individuals may be willing to put up with the limitations of free website hosting, but many businesses may find them untenable. Buy cheap, buy twice. After all, better services, and the best things, cost money.

WordPress.com Hosts for You, For Free

Unfortunately, it comes with lots of limitations and restrictions.

If you use WordPress and want free hosting, it makes sense to use WordPress.com. This is fine if you are simply blogging and don’t need much in the way of graphics, video, slideshows, and special effects. It’s for those who are truly doing the old weblog thing (the original word for blogging).

But like anything free, you’ll have a lot of limitations. Here are the major ones:

• Just 3 GB of storage (1 GB of disk storage in 2025). That means you can’t use a lot of graphics or video, which eat up too much space.
• Limited to free themes WordPress has selected. You may not modify any of the codes.
• Limited to plugins included in these themes – no uploads allowed.
• If you don’t want to have a URL that is a WordPress subdomain, you have to pay for your own domain name. In other words, you will be www.wordpress.com/yoursitename.

WordPress.com hosting may be too constrained for most businesses.

On the plus side, WordPress.com performs all your site maintenance for free. You also have access to the WordPress.com network, which might choose to feature your posts as one of the “blogs of the day” or tag it. Plus, if you get more than 25,000 page views each month, you will be allowed to sell ads on your blog (as of 2025, we’re unsure of the validity of this 2015 statement, since their free plan has changed).

WordPress.com offers additional features you can add on for a price, by upgrading your free plan to a paid one, like additional space, access to paid themes and plugins, and CSS upgrades. But for the price, it makes sense to look at a WordPress.org host.

WordPress.org is Self-Hosted WordPress

WordPress.org is basically everyone else outside of free WordPress.com hosting. Tribulant is a managed WordPress hosting service.

Managed hosting allows site owners to take advantage of WordPress’ extensive plugins, modify themes they purchase or upload for free, and sell ads on the site. They often come in packages that are cheaper than WordPress.com upgrades.

For example, our basic, single-site managed hosting comes with the following:

• 10 GB of space, daily backups
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Secure hosting account accessed through our website
• Access to our expert Help Desk
• Install any WordPress themes and plugins

Many WordPress.org hosts provide additional support like customisation services, plugin development, domain research and registration, and encryption (SSL) services.

Businesses in particular need managed WordPress hosting for the flexibility it offers. Prices are very competitive and some hosts specialise in areas such as ecommerce or news. Check around for specials, free trials, and guarantees before selecting a WordPress hosting service.

*defined as hosts using the Jetpack plugin

Photo credits: carnagenyc, Thiago Lopes, Flickr

Tribulant Software

We at Tribulant Software have a great passion for WordPress, development, blogging and the Internet in general. Building useful plugins to improve WordPress’ functionality is our goal.