WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two options that users get to start a fresh WordPress website. Both offer WordPress site-building mechanism along with content management systems but still have a lot of differences.
WordPress is a website building software, widely used.
WordPress.org provides a free WordPress download channel as an open-source to create a WordPress website as part of your choice of web hosting. WordPress.com, on the other hand, is a commercial company owned by Automattic, it provides hosting services for WordPress sites, which means that such sites do not require a WordPress installation.
This guide enables you to look deeper into the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

Difference Between WordPress.org and WordPress.com

Before that you jump into knowing the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, you must analyse while choosing between these. A web developer or webmaster must look over the pricing plan, set up options, themes, plugins, customisation and monetisation options along with support and back up channels.
This guide compares all the above-mentioned features of WordPress.org and WordPress.com comprehensively.

Pricing Plan:

WordPress.org is a completely free platform that allows WordPress installation. The charges to install and set up a WordPress are nil, but you need a hosting plan to make it work. To enable things, you need to purchase a hosting plan as well as domain.
WordPress.com in contrast, hosts your WordPress website and deals with all matters of hosting and security. It furthermore, provides disk space of 3GB free. If you choose WordPress.com to begin with your WordPress website, you will have to set up your website as a subdomain of WordPress example, www.mysite.wordpress.com which is free.
WordPress.com lets you choose between four pricing plans extending from free, personal, premium, business and commercial, costing $4 to $45 with a variation of features and customisation options.

Set Up Options

You might just think that installing WordPress from WordPress.org is all that you need to do to begin with it, but that’s not it. Setting up WordPress using WordPress.org is a complex task. One either must install WordPress using the hosting provider’s control panel or link it to one after a simple installation. This process of exporting files can be tricky and might require one to use an FTP- file transfer protocol.
WordPress.com, on the other hand, is simple to set up. One just needs to access WordPress.com and click the ‘start your website’ button and follow steps one after the other to set up a WordPress website.

Theme Options

Themes make our lives easy as a web developer. WordPress.org facilitates its users with 7500+ free WordPress official themes which can be accessed through its official directory. Moreover, you can use other directories to import themes of your choice without any limitations from WordPress.org.
WordPress.com, on the other hand, does facilitate its users with themes but restricts their access according to the plans purchased. Free and Personal plans let user access almost free 150+ themes whereas, with other plans, users can access free themes with addition of 200+ other premium themes.

Plugins

Who would ever say no to plugins? These enhance a website’s functionality.
With WordPress.org one gets to utilise 50,000+ WordPress plugins with multiple others provided by other companies.
On the other hand, the WordPress.com only lets its users with a Business or Commercial Plan to install and utilise 50,000+ plugins.

Customisation Options

A website does require customisation especially when it is being created to cater to some specific needs. WordPress.org lets one customise every detail of the WordPress website being created.
Whereas WordPress.com, limits its users with customisation options, as a result, you can only perform tasks that WordPress.com allows you to.

Support Options

If choosing WordPress.org you may not find official support from their side. To get your queries answered, you might have to go through various blogs and conversation threads.
But with WordPress.com, users except free subscribers get support via email and live chat.

Monetisation Options

Just as WordPress.org facilitates its users with customisation options, it also provides them with easy monetisation options. A WordPress website can be easily monetised in any way a developer feels like.
However, to monetise with WordPress.com, you will at least need a Premium Plan.

Back-Up and Security

Back-Up and Security of a self-hosted WordPress website with WordPress.org is dependent on plugins. One needs to install and use plugins to create backups and make a site secure. Once that you install plugins you need to keep them updated time to time to prevent data breaches.
WordPress.com on the other side provides complete internal website security. It also takes care of all relevant software updates to keep a WordPress website updated.

Conclusion

With multiple differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, web developers often find difficulty in choosing between them, yet both are WordPress operated. However, WordPress.org stays a step ahead of WordPress.com due to its pricing, themes, plugins, customisation and monetisation options.
This guide must have provided you with a comparison of all relevant features of WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Want to know more? Start a conversation, comment below!