Is WordPress Free?

Does WordPress cost money? Is WordPress free to use? Are you asking yourself these questions in your search of starting your own site? Let me explain the answer to your questions and recommend the best one so you can start blogging today. There are two types of WordPress. Both are free, but for one of them, you have to pay for your own hosting. The debate between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org has been going on for a long time, but self-hosted WordPress always comes out victorious and no true blogger should ever even think about using a free WP site.

 

Is WordPress.com free hosting, Yes – But

If you plan on making money in the future with blogging then you have to buy your own hosting. Pro bloggers and serious website owners always get their own hosting because of the great benefits. Hosting is very cheap. You can buy Bluehost hosting for a little over 3 dollars a month. It won’t take long for just an Adsense banner alone to make you over 5 dollars a month. This is fairly easy! The potential money you can make from your self hosted site can pay for your monthly hosting bill and more. I would not choose the .com version over the .org version just because it’s free. You have to put everything else into consideration. A few months down the road instead of saving you will be gaining.

 

Do you want plugins for your site? If you do don’t choose WP.com.

We all need plugins. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have some plugins. Plugins have saved my blogging life and have made many things easier for me. One of the worst things about WP.com is that you cannot upload any plugins, which is a real drag to website owners. This is actually hilarious. Many people are shocked to find out that they can’t use plugins. I’ve seen many what do you mean I can’t use plugin comments. This is especially bad news for those seeking to open an online store. There is no FTP access to free hosted WP sites. Plugins will only work with self-hosted sites using the software from WordPress.org.

 

Do you want to be able to sell ads on your website?

If you want to sell ads on your site, then WordPress.com creates a problem for you. This platform won’t all you to. The only way you can is if you have 25,000 pageviews a month for your site. Even then you have to apply for Ad control and you will receive 50 percent of your earnings. The free platform takes half of the earnings that you have worked hard for. How would you feel if you labored day in and day out at your job just to get half of your hourly pay? You would go on strike. You would start making phone calls immediately.

 

Say bye to themes and those artistic ideas that you have in your head.

That’s right to say bye to all those designs that you have been thinking about in your head. Say bye to those great Genesis themes that you have always wanted. Say bye to SEO friendly themes that help you increase rankings. With WordPress.com you are given a limited number of themes to choose from and they will not add the uniqueness that you desire. You can add a premium theme, but then you have to pay 50 dollars and up, but with this, there are still some restrictions. If you want more options, then you have to shell out some money. It’s not worth it. You are better off getting your own host with WP.org.

 

Your domain name will look terrible.

Free WP hosted domains are so easy to spot. They usually look like this, domain.wordpress.com. We all have to admit this looks ugly and is terrible for branding purposes. You must always think about the future of your site and the extra subdomain is just not cutting it. Yes, you can add a custom domain name, but you have to pay 13 dollars a year. The different customization fee just keeps on adding up.

 

Is limited space worth it?

Yes, that is correct there is limited space on WordPress.com. All blogs from this platform come with 3G of space. You won’t be able to add audio files. Think about it. You need space to add files, images, and videos. I have no problem with uploading anything on any one of my websites. You can add 10 more GB with WP.com by using WP Premium, but that will cost you 100 dollars a year. If you want unlimited storage with WordPress.com, then there is a WP business option, but that will cost you 299 dollars a year. If this is this is the case you might as well get your own hosting.

 

No one wants pesky ads!

The free hosted WP sometimes shows advertisements on your site and you have no say so in this. You can’t stop it. The ads keep everything free. The only way you can stop this is if you pay a 30 dollar yearly fee or once you choose the premium or business option these pesky ads will be removed.

 

No professional email

When you have a free blog you can’t make your own company email. For example, people can email me at [email protected]. My email looks professional because it is with my domain name. Guess what! It was free and I made it in seconds. When you have the free WordPress option you have to use Gmail, AOL, etc. I would not want to buy something from a company that used a Gmail as their email address. It just seems fishy to me. Of course, you can pay a monthly fee to have your own email hosting, but why go through all that trouble?

 

Here today gone tomorrow

The sad truth for WP.com bloggers is that nothing is certain. Your blog can be up one moment then at the blink of an eye it’s gone. All that hard work down the drain. All that dedication has gone. This has happened to a huge number of people. This is one of the main reasons I never recommend to get any free hosting platform. Number 16 in WordPress terms of service page says that Automattic may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. You have to always make sure that you have full control of your site and the only way that this can happen is if you go the WP.org route and pay for hosting. Every blogger wants to complete freedom to express their artistic ideas. If something is mine, then I want it to fully be mine.  Imagine if you just made your 1000th blog post. Now imagine your site gets deleted for some stupid reason. In your mind, you would be saying, noooooooo! Even something as simple as promoting someone else’s products can get you removed as seen in the WP affiliate page. Once again I’m going to say these words. It’s just not worth it at all.

 

Lastly

There are so much more benefits of having your own hosting. Don’t only think about now think about the future. Don’t worry a self-hosted WordPress is not difficult at all, which is what many newbies think. You don’t have to be a techie at all. I started a WP.org without any experience at all. It’s very easy and you can set up your site in minutes with Bluehost, which is cheap and the recommended hosting company for WordPress. If you want to start a brandable site and start blogging in less than 20 minutes, then click this link. Start today by signing up with Bluehost and allow it to walk you through the quick install.