Table of Contents
What is WordPress.org?
What is WordPress.com?
Shared Lineage
File Access and Plugin Installation
Theme and Design Flexibility
Monetization
Security Management and Backups
Domain Name Handling
WordPress.com Plans and Pricing Tiers
If you have some familiarity using a WordPress website, you may have confused WordPress.com and WordPress.org being the same thing. Although these two share the same name, the .com vs. .org is what separates them as totally different entities. So, in this article I will explain some important differences between the two.
What is WordPress.org?
Managed by the WordPress Foundation, a non-profit organization, WordPress.org, that provides free, open-source software that you can download and install on a web hosting provider’s server of your choice. In this way, you control everything in an account (at a provider such as Godaddy.com) under your name. Using this “self-hosted” setup gives you more control over your files, themes and database, but takes a little more time to set up than using the fully-managed service from WordPress.com.
What is WordPress.com?
Managed by Automattic, a for-profit private company, WordPress.com is a hosted, subscription-type service that hosts your WordPress website and takes care of updates along with any other maintenance behind the scenes. With WordPress.com, you can sign up for a free account and then easily begin to create and post content within a relatively short period of time.
WordPress.com’s all-in-one approach trades some freedom/flexibility for ease-of-use. Thus, you get a ready-to-go platform without worrying about web server setup or maintenance.
Shared Lineage
Both WordPress.org and WordPress.com come from the same roots in the open-source WordPress project started back in 2003. The .org side stayed true to the free software idea, letting anyone use and modify it. Automattic built the .com private company as a software-as-a-service, hosted solution to make WordPress more accessible to those without tech skills. This history explains why WordPress.org and WordPress.com share the same “W” logo as well as the same founder, Matt Mullenweg.
That said, over time, WordPress.com added paid, premium business features via plugins and themes while WordPress.org kept growing as a self-hosting, open-source home for free themes and plugins.
File Access and Plugin Installation
A significant difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com is in the way you add tools to your WordPress website. Specifically, on WordPress.org, you get full access to every file and can install any plugin from their extensive plugin repository.
WordPress.com on the other hand, locks down file access and limits plugin choices on their lower-tier and free plans restrict you to their built-in tools or approved add-ons. If you need advanced integrations and greater flexibility, WordPress.org is the more appropriate option.
Theme and Design Flexibility
As of the moment, WordPress.org reportedly offers well over 10,000 free themes and countless paid themes. This gives you great flexibility to find a theme that you like and can customize to your needs.
On WordPress.com, options shrink on lower-tier plans, particularly their “free” plan, offering far fewer themes with limited flexibility. In order to unlock premium themes or add CSS tweaks, you must pay for higher tier plans.
Monetization
Making money online varies wildly between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.com sets strict rules such that you join their WordAds program for basic ads or upgrade to Business plan or higher for third-party ad networks such as Google AdSense.
WordPress.org lets you do it all right away. Drop in Google AdSense, add affiliate links, or sell digital goods with no approval needed. This lets you retain full control over earnings.
Security Management and Backups
WordPress.com handles all security and backups. This means they push security updates, scan for threats, and back up your site daily requiring no extra effort from you. If something goes wrong, the WordPress.com team fixes it.
With WordPress.org, those jobs fall on you. It is up to you to select a web host, manage security, install plugins like UpdraftPlus for backups and stay on top of any other updates as well.
Domain Name Handling
By default, on the free plan for WordPress.com, you get a free subdomain, like yourname.wordpress.com. To switch to a custom domain, such as yourname.com, you must upgrade to their Personal or higher-tier plans. At the moment, pricing starts at about $4 per month.
With WordPress.org, you need to get your own, custom domain, such as mydomain.com. These can be purchased though a domain registrar like GoDaddy for a relatively nominal annual charge.
WordPress.com Plans and Pricing Tiers
As of February 2026, the WordPress.com website offers the six plans. Please note that you have the option to pay these plans on a monthly basis, albeit at a significantly higher monthly cost. All paid plans include a custom domain free for the first year only (after the first year, you must begin paying for the domain annually), when billed annually. Disclaimer: plans, pricing and features of all WordPress.com plans are subject to change at any time. Please visit the WordPress.com website to get the most up-to-date and accurate information for plans, pricing and features included.
- Free plan: for basic blogging and a subdomain. No custom themes or plugins, but it is zero cost to test play with.
- Personal plan: for $4 per month (billed annually), you get to add a custom domain and no ads on your website with some essential Jetpack plugins are now included or pre-activated.
- Premium plan: for $8 per month (billed annually), in addition to the features from the Personal plan, you also get access to premium themes, fast support, connect to Google Analytics, video uploads, color and font customizations.
- Business plan: for $25 per month (billed annually), in addition to the features from the Premium plan, you also get access to third-party plugin installation, 24/7 priority support and SFTP/SSH.
- Commerce plan: for $45 per month (billed annually), in addition to the features from the Business plan, you also get access to eCommerce tools and optimized WooCommerce experience.
- Enterprise plan: for $25,000 per year, you get access to the WordPress platform with enterprise-level scalability, security and data-driven capabilities.
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