WordPress is the most popular CMS on the market. Its popularity is due to its simplicity and modularity, which means development opportunities. Due to its simplicity, it attracts beginners on the internet who are thinking about creating their first website. One of the basic questions they ask is: is a WordPress blog free?
Unfortunately, the answer is not that simple. The confusion is caused for two reasons. Firstly, the official WordPress website is WordPress.org, while parallel to it, there is also WordPress.com, which is not a CMS but a separate commercial platform based on WordPress. These two pages are commonly confused with each other.
Secondly, to the question “Is a WordPress blog free?” you have to answer both “yes” and “no”. Why? In short, both WordPress.com and WordPress CMS are seemingly free, but they generate costs. How does this happen? You will find the answer in this article, so keep reading!
What is WordPress.com?
WordPress.com is not a CMS (Content Management System). What is CMS? I will explain that in a moment, for now, let’s stick to this first solution.
WordPress.com is a blogging platform based on WordPress. It means that its creators have developed their own CMS that allows their users to launch simplified versions of WordPress. You create an account on it, choose an address, and you can start blogging, and it’s free! So, this is the first point at which we can answer the question “Is a WordPress blog free?” with “Yes.”
However, remember that this is a commercial solution. It is created by the company Automattic and operates based on a popular and very profitable freemium model. The basic package is free but very limited. You can use only a few templates, have limited customization options, and practically no possibility to install additional plugins.
This solution will be insufficient even for amateur bloggers. Nonetheless, WordPress.com has the advantage of no costs to start. You can check whether blogging is for you without risking anything, but you will quickly feel too limited and will want to take advantage of the additional possibilities that WordPress provides.
Disadvantages of WordPress.com
Unfortunately, WordPress.com has quite a few drawbacks. It is worth considering carefully before creating a trial blog. When blogging becomes a habit, and the blog itself attracts a regular readership, transitioning to your hosting can be problematic or involve additional costs.
No custom domain in the free plan
Firstly, you do not have your domain. Your blog will have an address like “yourblog.wordpress.com”. If you want a different domain name, you’ll have to pay for it. Upon obtaining your domain, you will encounter two options: either select a paid plan for $48 per year or acquire your domain name.
You can register a domain elsewhere and connect it to your account, but it will cost and require an additional redirect, which may slightly (by about half a second) increase the loading time of your page. A .com domain costs $13-18 per year.
Limited customization
Another drawback is the limited number of add-ons. You can choose one of only about 100 themes, which is a small number. With WordPress CMS, you have several thousand available in the official repository and even more outside of it. The same goes for plugins. With WordPress CMS, you install what and when you want it.
The cheapest WordPress.com plan (Personal) adds some additional options, but it still doesn’t have premium themes or advanced configuration options, and it costs $48 per year. To have the ability to customize, you would have to buy the Premium package for $96 per year. However, you are still limited because the premium package has less than half a thousand themes available.
One could argue that this is a significant number of themes, and everyone will find something for themselves. In practice, however, it is not about the number itself. It is about independence and range of possibilities. WordPress CMS has so many themes and plugins that your customization possibilities are infinite.
Limited disk space
The free WordPress.com package also has a storage capacity limitation. 3GB is enough to start with, but you will quickly fill up this space when you start blogging regularly, enriching your content with high-quality photos. The Premium package has more disk space, with 13GB.
A small degree of translation into foreign languages
The primary WordPress.com language is English, and only 33% of the site is translated into other languages, which can be a significant problem for some users.
Advertisements
Lastly, there are advertisements. So, with the free version of WordPress.com, the platform will display ads on your blog, but the earnings will not go to you but to Automattic.
What is WordPress.org?
WordPress.org works differently. It is a Content Management System – the aforementioned CMS. It is not a ready-made platform but software you can install on a server.
A CMS is a software application used to create, manage, and publish digital content, typically for websites. CMS allows users with little or no programming knowledge to create and manage content on a website, including text, images, videos, and other multimedia elements. WordPress is one of the easiest-to-use CMSs.
However, it is only software, which means it needs a server to function. In theory, you could create your server, but in practice, this would be an impractical solution. It is more advisable to purchase hosting. It is not a substantial expense because hosting plans can cost as low as $30 per year. The WordPress CMS itself, however, is free.
Buying the cheapest WordPress hosting will cost you less than the Personal plan on WordPress.com and give you more possibilities than the Plus plan, which is three times more expensive. The cheapest WordPress hosting in terms of capabilities is more similar to the Business plan on WordPress.com, for which you would have to pay as much as 10 times more!
Moreover, you can manage your WordPress yourself without any limitations. Thanks to this, you can enrich your blog with new functionalities. You can also receive assistance with managing your hosting from a team of hosting and WordPress specialists. The price includes the service of managing your WordPress hosting.
Greater possibilities for expansion
CMS WordPress gives you much more than WordPress.com, and it is cheaper. By using WordPress hosting, you have total independence. You can install any extensions, including graphic themes. The most famous store with WordPress templates and plugins is Themeforest, which gives you thousands of themes and plugins.
But Themeforest is not the only option. You can use Envato, CodeCanyon, or Elegant Themes and find thousands of other themes and plugins there. It’s a sea of possibilities. You can even add e-commerce functionality to your blog (WooCommerce plugin). The possibilities for personalization are almost endless.
So is a WordPress blog free or not?
As you can see, it’s hard to answer the question: is a WordPress blog free unambiguously? The WordPress.com platform offers a free package associated with significant limitations. After learning the basics of blogging and familiarizing yourself with the platform, you will want more possibilities.
In the end, you will have to purchase the Personal package for $48 per year. It is better to buy your hosting right away. You will pay $30 for it per year, and the possibilities you will receive will be enormous.
Ultimately, blogging won’t be free, but it doesn’t have to be expensive either. WordPress CMS and your hosting give you scaling capabilities, virtually limitless. You can increase your WordPress hosting plan as your site grows.
And when you’ve already created a large, thriving business, you can move to VDS hosting from the same provider, which will allow you to install other CMS scripts. You can thus create a real eCommerce empire consisting of many different systems, applications, mail servers, or file exchanges.
The final step will be to purchase a dedicated server with unlimited scalability. You will always be able to add additional disk space, RAM, or more processing power.
Conclusion
The answer to the question “Is a WordPress blog free?” is both yes and no.
WordPress.com is free to start with, but its functionality is limited, and you will need to pay for additional options such as a custom domain, more themes, and disk space. Moreover, the platform displays ads on your blog, and you will have no control over them.
WordPress.org, on the other hand, is free to use, and you can install it on your hosting. This option provides more freedom and unlimited customization opportunities, making it more suitable for professional bloggers. Although it requires more effort and knowledge, it is a better long-term investment.
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