Hey y'all, welcome to another WordPress Wednesday.
My name is Kori Ashton and it is time to finally figure out,
what is the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org?
If you are brand new to the WordPress world that might be totally
confusing to you.
Are there two different versions? Is one more expensive than the other?
What's actually the difference? Let's talk about it.
Alright, for the sake of this tutorial, I'm gonna go ahead and start with the
dot org version; because, that's really the one that gives you more flexibility.
But, even though WordPress is free to use, the dot org version does require
you to basically come here and download WordPress
and put it on a server space, somewhere.
So, that would be a hosting company. Like WPEngine, like GoDaddy,
like HostGator.
One of those companies out there that can host a WordPress website.
Some of those companies even offer one-click install.
Where you can skip coming over here to this website and clicking download; but,
you actually go purchase your hosting on their website and click a button
and it installs it all for you.
That's super slick. We love that.
It also gives you a lot of flexibility when you're using the dot org version.
You're able to add free themes, as well as premium themes.
You're able to add in all sorts of plugins.
It kind of just opens up the box to let you do whatever want to your website.
Allowing you to do customization. Allowing you to do a shopping cart.
Allowing you to do incredible photo galleries and video galleries and
awesome social media.
You really just have a whole lot of customization options, if you're able
to spend some money and go ahead and do the dot org version.
Now, the dot come version.
Free is always in the budget, right?
You hear me say that all the time on our YouTube channel here.
Free is always in the budget. So, this is your free option if you really
want to use wordpress.com.
Just come over here and click create a website.
Basically, what they're gonna allow you to do, is in just a couple of clicks,
you're gonna fill out some information, totally for free, you can start your
WordPress website, right here.
They basically give you the server space for free.
BUT, you will have something like...let's say I did one...my name of my blog
would be, if I chose to name it "WebTegrity" after my company,
it would be webtegrity.wordpress.com
So, that's how you get a "free" totally free version of WordPress.
If you wanted to have it point to a different address and not have
"wordpress.com" in there. You can do an upgrade for that.
If you wanted to use some higher end premium themes, you can do an upgrade
for that, and there's all these little charges that start to play into effect
that ultimately no longer have you in a budget of "free'.
If you really wanted to be totally free you can just go over here and tinker
around and play and say "Hey, I wanna build a website and I'm gonna talk about
travel."
So here would be some of your theme options that you're able to use.
Again, totally for free; but, you will be limited to just choosing from a very
limited amount, preselected amount of themes, if you're using the dot com
version.
So, that's why we definitely suggest going over to the dot org version
and having fun.
I hope that this helps you.
If you're logged into your dashboard and you're not seeing a lot of theme options.
If you have no ability to upload a theme that you might have purchased from a
third party.
More than likely, you are over on the dot com version.
So, if you've already built there and you want to go ahead and transfer over to the
dot org version, there is an option for you to pay.
I think it's about $130 to have WordPress dot com engineers move
your whole website over to the self-hosted version and that
will kind of open it up and allow you to do some of that fun customization
and creativity.
I also want to send you to another video here on YouTube, and this is
by, just an awesome guy, over on WP101 and I talk about them all the
time.
WP101.com, check them out.
This is one of his really great videos that talk a little bit more about
the difference between dot com and dot org.
I'll put that link in the description box below.
I hope you're having a great day.
I will see you next WordPress Wednesday.
Bye, bye y'all.