There are so many blogging platforms today that honestly, it can be a bit of a headache figuring out which to use.  And if you’ve narrowed your options down to WordPress, you now have even fewer options and can start to look at WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

Is there a difference between these two, and which should you choose to host your site?

The obvious answer is YES, there is a HUGE difference between even these two WordPress platforms.

There are benefits to both, but in the following video, I’ll be giving you some comparisons of using WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. I want you to see the difference between these two and why there are some great perks to running your online business on WorPress.org, hands-down.

I’m quite biased when it comes to WordPress.org, and here’s why.

You have complete control over your virtual territory.

You have the ability to add your favorite plugins.

With a self-hosted site, you can add and delete plugins at your discretion.  Plugins will play a major role in how your site functions so you’ll want to be sure you free up your virtual domain for the ability to select plugins.

Plugins are what make your site so much fun- it’s the bread and butter of your blog and allows you to build it to your heart’s content.  Some of the plugins I use help me to make this blog function at its best-including adding on podcasting (using the Blubrry plugin) and batch scheduling my posts and sharing them.

Sorry, WordPress.com- but you don’t offer unlimited plugin options.

You can select your favorite themes and templates.

Your choices for templates are limited on “.com”.  Extremely limited.

Switching to self-hosted allows you the freedom to install themes by companies of your choice. Suddenly, a world of thousands of templates are available at your fingertips- many of them free.

I use Genesis themes by Studiopress which offers excellent customer support.  It’s not free, but the support is so worth it. Thesis is another great option, although I’ve never used it myself.

You can’t advertise on WordPress.com sites.

On a self-hosted “.org” site, you can advertise as much as you like because it’s your domain, your space, and your territory.

You’ll find so much freedom on WordPress.org that is just simply not available at .org.

When choosing WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org, these are just a few reasons why I like self-hosted sites, and have chosen to host all my sites on WordPress.org!

 If you have any questions about this video, I’d love to hear from you.  Thanks for watching the video.