Is there a real difference between creating a free WordPress Blog and one that uses paid hosting? The answer is definitely yes. The biggest differences will be what you can do with your site and while your site may start off small, expandability is important and with a self-hosted site, you have many more options as your online business evolves and grows.
Free WordPress Blogs
If you have chosen to set up a free WordPress blog (with a URL that is something like www.yourblogname.wordpress.com), your options for style, SEO features, plug-ins, layout / themes, and monetisation will all be limited.
For one thing, there is only a page or two of generic theme templates to choose from. You will be able to select from some very basic options regarding style, colour, and layout.
If you are just blogging for yourself without commercial concern, these themes might be fine. But if you are using your WordPress site as part of a commercial venture, you will want to be able to utilise your own branding and logos.
Self-Hosted WordPress Accounts
A WordPress Blog that is hosted through your own domain is definitely the preferred way to ensure that your site is not only completely optimised for search engine ranking, but it provides the highest level of customisation and ways to monetise it.
First of all, the theme templates you can use with a self-hosted account are limitless. There are many great free themes that have been created by third parties that allow the user to easily change them and you have the option of having a customised or premium theme used as well. If you want to use a different colour on the sidebar or a personal photo for the heading, you can do that. Do you want to include your logo at the bottom of every page? You can do that, too. Add another column? This is easily accomplished when the site is on your own domain.
Another nifty feature is that many of the available free themes come SEO ready. They contain all the necessary features and code to make search engine crawlers find them and give the site a higher page ranking. Little, if any, effort on the part of the domain owner is required. You are able to add plug-ins such as Comment Luv, extra social bookmarking buttons, and meta tags, along with other many, many other options.
Monetising a self-hosted site is not difficult, either. You are allowed to add a shopping cart and any number of plug-ins for tracking, click-throughs, and other widgets that generate revenue.
When it comes to deciding between a free and self-hosted WordPress Blog account, it should be abundantly clear that for any commercial enterprise, there really is no choice. Without paid hosting, your WordPress blog cannot be fully customised or optimised.
You can often host a blog for as little as $5 a month on its own and if you have a website already, you can often add a blog to your domain (such as yoursite.com/blog) for no money at all.
You can continue to use free WordPress blogs for link love and promotion of your other sites but a hosted blog is a much better solution for those looking to make money online.
About Sean Rasmussen
Thank you so much for this information Sean been searching google for a while for key difference comparing wordpress free version vs wordpress hosted version, now l can share once and for all the truths with family and friends whoa are not tech savvy
Another great tutorial! Thank you so much for taking the time and being so clear in your step by step instructions.
Hi Brian & Mikey,
Thanks for your comments, I am glad that you are finding the information helpful. A free blogging platform is great for anyone new to blogging, as it doesnt matter so much if you “blow it up”
After becoming familiar with the free blog, you can move on to a hosted blog with confidence.
Everything that you have said in your article is spot on.Could be very valuable
Sean,
Excellent article. I’d like to post it on my blog and give you credit for it and a linkback (of course). You can shoot me an email and let me know. My readers need this info and rather than just rewrite it, i thought I’d help you out.
Mike
I think the biggest benefit for using a self-hosted Word Press blog would have to be the amount of plug-ins you can implement for it.
I have a self-hosted Word Press blog and I have many great plug-ins like the All-In-One SEO pack, Twitter poster, and WP-Cumulus.
Plus, you can use your own branded domain name for it.
Definitely go with a self-hsted WP blog if you can!
Thanks for your input & kind comments.
I totally agree that a hosted wordpress blog is definitely the only real way to go, as it has many advantages & options over a free blog.
However, for people who are new to blogging and just want to have a trial run and learn the basics before outlaying any money, the free blog is a great option.
I started with a WordPress.com blog site in August, but moved on to a self-hosted “.org” version by October. There’s just no comparison in terms of the freedom you experience on the self-hosted end. Sure, there was a bit of a trial and error factor on the WordPress.org / self-hosted side – but it’s totally worth it!
Host your own wordpress blog for sure. Having full control is so much better to work with,, not to mention more rewarding.
Great point and very interesting food for thought. I’m not sure I have any clients I can replicate this with, but will bear in mind for the future. Regards
Here are a few points you need to keep in your mind while you host your own blog:
* Choose your host well. You don’t have to spend excessively on your hosting service, but a few things that are very important are their server uptime, availability of the latest PHP & MySQL databases, number of add-on domains allowed, number of sub domains allowed & their back-up procedures.
Free is a word I love to hear. I have found in Real Estate SEO that the free stuff works every bit as good as the paid sites.
Hello Sean, it’s been a while since we spoke. This is good info and while I don’t use free wordpress blogs, there is at least a case for utilising various free blogs to gain linkbacks from different ip’s and platforms.
I wouldn’t use them for any other purpose but there’s no real reason one couldn’t monetise them, it will just be harder than with those you own yourself.
Andrew Blachut
Coffs Harbour
Well written article. I really enjoyed it. Keep up the good work.
There are advantages to both. I like to use the free ones for little mini sites for link building power. I will host the blogs myself so that I am in full control of everything.
Definitely recommend hosting your own blog though.
Excellent article. Thanks a lot!
my blog is free-hosted on wordpress and i am happy with the tmplates, but i can see that i will come to a point when i want more features. till then, free is good!
Excellent explanation! In short, free one is limited but paid is not limited. In paid, no longer to put myname.wordpress.com but just myname.com. I used free one now because i am not afford to do now. I am planning to have myname.com from wordpress.
great post ….thanks alot
Completely agree with you that high level of customisation is a huge advantage of self-hosted WP blog. Another advantage I would highlight is that with free wp blog there is a risk of an account being suspended, whereas with self-hosted blog only domain can be suspended, but fortunately such things rarely happen.
regards,
Andy
I still have a few free wordpress blogs from my days as a beginner in blogging but there is nothing compared to having your own domain name and self hosting it. You can more easily tailor the site to your needs. After doing this , I will never go back to the old days again.
Thanks for the information, it was very useful in my decision as to whether to host my blog, which is the way I went. Many thanks
Great informative article, which makes it very clear between a hosted and free blog.
Sean -
What you say is absolutely trues. But from an SEO perspective, the level of capability is even more significant between self-hosted and cloud-based. WordPress is not naturally good at SEO- you need a series of plugins that really help remove “holes” in the platform that do not help you get ranked. These include All-in-One-Seo, seo title tags, and nofollow.
If you want to use your blog as a business platform that needs to get ranked, then you need to use a slef-hosted WordPress platform.
Hi Arthur,
Great comments! Using an SEO friendly theme and SEO plugins like All-In-One SEO Pack is very likely to help your WP self-hosted blog stand out from the rest as far as search engines go.
Regards – Sean
Thanks for the advice Sean.
BP – The quiet achiever.
No worries Bruno…always happy to help.
Regards – Sean
I agree Sean. The hosted blogs give so many more options and the sky is the limit. I don’t like the limitations with free Wp. There is little choice with the themes let along the plugins.
Hi Sean,
Great information.
Thanks for pointing out the differences between the two options.
Hi Sean,
I agree that the best way to go is by using a self-hosted blog. It does give you a lot more options and freedom to do what you want. Still, I think the free blogs have their place. You can make all of your training mistakes with a free blog and move to a self-hosted blog when you are more confident with what you’re doing.
It is true that free blogs have their place. I started on a free blog and I know that I can develop it as a sub niche to my niche blog and link them.
Also the free ones are good to cut your internet marketing teeth on
Hello Sean,
I am starting to realise that to make money online, and to look professional than a Hosted WordPress blog is the way to go. I can see how with a hosted website that in the community of the web world you would be taken seriously, with a free wordpress blog it would be consider more as a hobby.
Cheers
Lisa
Hi Sean,
I started with a free wordpress site but very quickly went to a self hosted as I felt I didn’t have enough control, it was not at all expensive something like $12 AU for name then only $12 a month hosting with hostgator not expensive at all and so much more freedom.
Rita
I was only wondering this morning what the difference was between a self hosted wordpress site and a free one. I have a self hosted site but was looking at starting another one and was wondering if I should just use the free option. This blog has clarified that I should go for the paid version.
Hi Sean
Agreed self-hosted is the way to go. Especially because (assuming you have your own domain as well) that your link building efforts are going towards your own domain authority and not wordpress’ domain.
Good clear explanation of the differences/advantages/disadvantages of the two solutions and how a small outlay can make a big difference.
Hi Sean
I now have a self hosted blog with WordPress installed. I really like all the cool features and the ease of navigating the dashboard.
I don’t know that much about the other alternatives, but the free blogs can be used, linked up to the self hosted one, and attract more SEO. Nothing is ever wasted.
Thankyou
I have wondered what the difference between a free and a self hosted word press blog was, so thanks for telling us. Hosting is so cheap, you would be mad to use a free service with all the options you can get with a self hosted one. I have yet to create my new self hosted blog but have the domain name purchased and hosted.
I am working with a realtor who isn’t quite ready to do a self hosted blog, and I’m hoping to increase his SEO on the free site in the meantime, but I’ve only done self-hosted blogs before so I’m not sure what there is that I can do — any advice?
Usually, I utilize free worpress blog for my money site instead of adding blog pages to the same website.
Thanks for the great comparison