WordPress.com Review: Easy Blogging and Hosting, With a Few Site-Building Tradeoffs

WordPress.com Review: Easy Blogging and Hosting, With a Few Site-Building Tradeoffs | PCMag

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3.5 Good this.$refs.template.innerHTML, onCreate: (instance) => this.tippyInstance = instance, onShow: (instance) => { this.escapeHandler = (e) => { if (e.key === 'Escape') instance.hide(); }; window.addEventListener('keydown', this.escapeHandler); }, onHide: (instance) => { if (this.escapeHandler) { window.removeEventListener('keydown', this.escapeHandler); this.escapeHandler = null; } }, onMount: (instance) => { const closeBtn = instance.popper.querySelector('[data-tooltip-close]'); if (closeBtn) closeBtn.addEventListener('click', () => instance.hide()); }, }; }, }">   What Our Ratings Mean 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies. The Bottom Line WordPress.com is a high-quality, low-cost blogging option, but competitors with more up-to-date tools make it easier to build custom websites. MSRP Free $0.00 See It PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Pros & Cons Many blogging options Attractive free and premium themes Free option Lets you transfer sites to other hosts Useful video tutorials Lacks WYSIWYG editing Weak photo editing tools Lacks phone tech support WordPress.com Specs Name Value tr:nth-of-type(n+6)]:hidden" :class="{ '[&>tr:nth-of-type(n+6)]:!table-row': open }"> Free Version Offered Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers With All Plans Unlimited Storage With All Plans Web Store Blogging Tool Download Selling Basic Image Editing Site Portability Site Membership More Specs

Although it started life as a pure blogging play and still includes many blog-focused community features, the updated WordPress.com now handles most website-building needs—including e-commerce, social media integrations, drag-and-drop functionality, and mobile presentation. Editors' Choice winners Duda and Wix are more capable, better all-around website builders. But I found WordPress.com to be a good, low-cost option for people who want to get online relatively quickly and don't mind its limitations, such as a subpar image editor and no phone support.WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org: What's the Difference?From the outset, it's important to make clear that WordPress.com is not WordPress in the commonly understood sense. Rather, WordPress.com is a service from Automattic Inc. that uses code from WordPress.org, the popular and free, open-source blogging and site-building platform. In fact, WordPress.com hides the server code and handles hosting. That's why it resembles website builders more than sites built using the open-source WordPress.org code, which requires you to sign up for a WordPress hosting service. You can learn more about the WordPress.com and WordPress.org differences in our How to Get Started With WordPress primer.Plan