The WordPress name is becoming more well-known outside industries who work with technology. It’s not as popular as the Facebook name, but more and more I run into people who have heard of WordPress. However, many of those people don’t know the difference between creating a website with WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org. It’s not too apparent either when you visit the home page of either site. You have to dig a little deeper to find an explanation.

Before I guide you on which WordPress road to travel, it’s important to know that both the WordPress.com and WordPress.org solutions contain the same core features for blogging and content management. You can create a blog in both. You can create a full-blown website using both.

They are also both free.

The choice boils down to this:

• If you are managing your website and you have no programming experience or desire to learn, WordPress.com is for you.
• If you do not want to pay for and/or deal with hosting, upgrades, and backups, WordPress.com is for you.

Simple enough, right? Aside from techies, who wouldn’t go with WordPress.com? If you dig a little deeper, the decision can get complicated.

While WordPress.com is a robust and fantastic solution, the WordPress.org solution is much more flexible. For example:

1. You are limited to about 70 themes (designs/layouts) on WordPress.com. There are over a thousand themes that can be used with the WordPress.org solution.
2. You cannot install plugins on a WordPress.com site. A plugin is an additional piece of functionality that enhances your WordPress website, which has already been programmed. For example, lets say you want to add a form that people must fill out to contact you. Contact forms are pretty standard on websites. The WordPress.org solution offers plugins that allow you to add a contact form to your WordPress site.
3. The WordPress.com solution forces you to have a web address with wordpress.com (unless you upgrade to a premium account). You can have whatever domain name you want with the WordPress.org solution.
4. You have access to all the code behind a WordPress.org solution, which is not the case with WordPress.com.

There are several other minor differences between the two solutions that I haven’t included, but most of the differences have to do with flexibility.

Going with the more flexible WordPress.org solution does create more responsibility and requires a cost investment though. A hosting plan is required, which typically costs between $7 – $20/month. You also must understand how to install WordPress and create a database in your hosting account. Some hosts, such as GoDaddy, provide you with their own easy to use tools that help you with the set up. Then, if you want to customize themes or plugins, you will need to know how to do that in the code. Keep in mind, that customizing themes or plugins is not necessary to have a nice looking and fully robust WordPress.org powered site, but many people do so they can have a completely custom looking website.

The bottom line is that you don’t have to be a programmer to work with the WordPress.org solution, but you need to be somewhat tech savvy. If you do happen to get stuck and can’t fix a problem or come up with a solution, WordPress.org has fantastic support forums.

You can also contract a developer or firm to do these customizations. There are thousands of resources out there to choose from.

In summary, you can’t go wrong with using WordPress as a blogging platform and/or a Content Management System. It’s easy to use and there are plenty of design options and features. WordPress.com is a great solution for someone who does not have technical skills or resources and does not need complete flexibility over the site. If you want the flexibility, then I encourage you to use the solution offered on WordPress.org. If you have further questions, feel free to email me at todd@businessbullpen.com.

Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Business Bullpen, Todd Wickersty, Wordpress, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Blogging, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.