One of the common questions I am asked by people wanting to blog is what is the difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org, so in this post I will give you some guidance on the differences
Wordpress.com
Wordpress.com is a complete wordpress publishing environment that is actually hosted by the company behind the Wordpress software. This means that you do not have to worry about hosting fees, backups or system upgrades as that is all taken care of for you. All of this is offered completely free of charge, simply sign up, pick a name for your blog or use a name that is already not in use and away you go. Within a matter of minutes you will be writing content and publishing to your blog all free and hassle free. As Wordpress.com is heavily trafficked you will find that the major search engines will soon notice your blog and start indexing your site very quickly, which is ideal for improving your web presence.
As part of the service your blog will have the following installed:
- Askimet anti-spam (prevents comment SPAM)
- Stats – Full stats engine so you can monitor the traffic to your site
- Fully mobile optimized – Ideal for blog readers using iPhone or Android mobile devices
- Backups – All handled by Wordpress themselves
Wordpress do impose some constraints on the type of blog that you can run on wordpress.com they are as follows:
Allowed
- Personal
- Business
- Schools
- Non-profits
- Politics
- Military
- Private
- Sports
- How-to, tips and reviews
Not Allowed
- Scraper blogs:
- SEO blogs:
- Affiliate marketing blogs:
- Warez blogs:
- Automated blogs:
On the downside, you will not be able to add many custom features to your blog, other than those listed and you cannot on the free programme use a custom domain name which could be a little limiting if you want to brand the blog in line with your business. Its very much a horses for courses approach. Less hassle to manage but limited in functionality and you will need to weigh this up when making a choice.
So in summary Wordpress.com is a quick, cheap and easy way to get your blog site up and running real quick.
Wordpress.org
Wordpress.org is the self hosted version of Wordpress. This requires you to supply your own web hosting and before you rush in and order up some web hosting please check that the hosting provider meets the minimum requirements for a Wordpress blog. I have listed some good web hosts on my good stuff page!
To install the Wordpress software you can either download the package from the site and install manually using the instructions on the wordpress.org site, it is very simple and quick to do, having said that it does require a rudimentary knowledge of FTP and editing text files, so I would suggest that if you are not comfortable with doing this seek advice from a somebody who has the required knowledge (Cough – Like Me 
).
Alternatively some web hosts offer a 1 click install utility from within the hosting control panel which will auto install Wordpress for you. Check with your web host to see if this functionality is available and be aware that some hosts only install a stripped down version of Wordpress, which is not ideal!!
Once installed you have full control over the look and feel of your blog site so you can change themes or add specific functionality onto your blog as you see fit. If you are looking for a decent theme for your site then I would whole heartedly recommend The Thesis Theme for WordPress
You are not restricted to the type of content you upload to the Blog (assuming it does not breach the Web hosts TOS) and you can run advertising as well with no restrictions.
You can install plugins to ensure that your blog runs effectively, I have recently wrote about 5 must have plugins that I recommend you use for your blog site
To summarise Wordpress.com is a little like renting a house whereby you have limitations as to what you can actually do with the site and Wordpress.org is like owning a house, you can pretty much do what you want with it.
This is a nice post… is usefull for my site!nice job.
I went with the Wordpress.org option and hosted my own blog.
This was a little bit tricky until the last few releases of Wordpress, but now pretty much everything, including upgrades and widget updates is handled within Wordpress, no need to use FTP manually any more, except for the initial intallation.
I have read about people losing their Wordpress.com blog because the did something that |Wordpress did not approve of. You are completely in control with hosting your own, and the cost of hosting is less than $10 a month these days.
Thanks Tony for the feedback and your experience. I agree that wordpress.org provides a more flexible approach and at least you have full control over your site.
I have heard a number of occurences of wordpress.com sites being closed recently for violating the TOS so its wwll worth being aware of that!