WordPress is the most popular web publishing platform with around 75 million websites. Most blogs are using it as their content management system.
With such a wide popularity, it becomes the go-to option for anyone looking to make a new website for their business or personal use.
But what makes WordPress such a great option for kickstarting a website? Let us explain:
With all these benefits, it’s hard to ignore WordPress as a suitable online platform for your new website. But there’s a catch!
WordPress is offered in two variations. WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Most people are initially unaware about the differences between the two and which one will suit them better.
It is important to understand the key benefits of both options, because it will then be highly convenient for you to choose the better one for yourself. Let’s explore them.
We will use WPORG to depict wordpress.org and WPCOM to depict wordpress.com.
WPCOM
The dot com version of WordPress is an online blogging and website development solution that allows you to create a website hosted by WordPress’ own servers.
It is provided by Automattic Inc., the company that originally developed WordPress and gives you free as well as paid access to WordPress, depending upon your requirements.
This means, your website won’t need any kind of code, files or images to be uploaded anywhere, in order to make it come alive. It’s all figured out at once place and can be managed according to your needs from your browser.
WPORG
In contrast to the dot com version, the dot org version provides the downloadable Open Source WordPress software written in PHP to be independently used (for free) at any website that is not hosted on WordPress’ servers.
We at Dikonia, have used WordPress software in a number of projects. View our portfolio to gain better understanding about it.
WPORG also acts as a forum for WordPress community and a place where you will find various WordPress plugins made available by developers. You can ask questions, seek information and know more about WordPress - the software on this website.
As WPCOM provides the website hosting as a service, it is a paid option. While the most basic plan provided by WPCOM is free, it won’t fulfil the needs of a business website.
(Prices depicted in INR)
The Personal and Premium plans offer higher web storage of 6GB and 13GB respectively with additional features like UI customization, removing ads and removing WPCOM branding.
The Business plan offers all the advanced features from WordPress including the provision to use externally developed themes, customizing them and taking full control over the website.
Business Tip: If you don’t have inhouse staff for developing and managing your company website, consider using WPCOM as it requires the least amount of web design knowledge. You can also contact us to get it made for you on demand. (Fastest option) |
WPORG, on the other hand needs you to know the basics of a website such as server storage, FTP, domain name etc. WPORG provides the free and open source copy of its software, which means you can look for other hosting providers such as GoDaddy, Site Ground etc, that might better suit your business requirements.
You also get all the features of WPCOM’s Business plan for no cost. You only pay for your hosting service. You get the liberty to customize the website to your heart’s content and add as many plugins you like using WPORG provided software.
If you have a developer or IT team inhouse, this is the most cost effective option. You can subscribe to our services as well, to get an outsourced IT team.
WPCOM gives you a subdomain address of wordpress.com for the free plan but you can add a custom domain name in all the proceeding plans.
The free one looks like mybusiness.wordpress.com. Again, un-recommendable for a business website.
You can alternatively, buy a separate domain name such as www.mybusiness.com and use it with WPORG software with no problems.
WPCOM is a great for you if you want to use WordPress offered website functionality features. Business websites often need extra bits such as optimized web forms, integrated web apps, an e-commerce store or may be a provision to avail logins to the users.
Such features are available through WordPress plugins that can be used in WPCOM website. You can choose from the given lot and there won’t be much room for meeting highly specific business needs.
Using WPORG, you can do all that WPCOM offers and go even further into custom website development. This gives the liberty you to add a range of specific things to the business website. For instance, an online calculator to estimate EMIs etc
This will, however, need the support of the IT team, a web developer or a web design agency, depending upon how complex the requirement is.
Business Tip: Going for custom development using WPORG provided WordPress software is the best option for businesses seeking to create a solid impact with their website. It gives you the best control of various features that your business can benefit from. |
In a nutshell, WPCOM is the best option for people who seek to take the responsibility of the website completely on their own. You pay for hosting and support, hence your tasks are minimized by doing so.
This takes away the provision for creating out of the way functions on the website and you can only add things that are available in WordPress repositories.
On the other hand, WPORG, has no limits to its use case but needs you to understand the concepts associated with it. In most cases, you will need a hired developer to run and manage the website.
In return you get a super-customized site that will do what you want it to do, no strings attached. If the developer fees is not an issue, this is the best option a business can consider.
Insightful !!!
Thanks for writing this post, now I can make the difference between both types of wordpress
Like most of the readers, I was unaware that Wordpress has two versions.
Interesting post
Enlightening read
Chhavi is the Founder and Partner at Dikonia. She is passionate about delivering beyond expectations and crafting rewarding experiences. Her company provides innovative IT solutions including custom SaaS offerings that streamline workflow as well as development and design services in keeping with latest buying and market trends. Chhavi holds a Master of Computer Applications from Punjabi University.
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