WordPress: Self-Hosted Software or WordPress.com Plans

Two products share one name

When people say "WordPress" they can mean either of two things. WordPress.org is where you download the WordPress software, which you then install on a web host you choose. WordPress.com is a hosting service run by Automattic that installs and runs that software for you on its own servers. The editor looks much the same in both. The difference is who runs the server, who applies updates and who sets the rules about what you can install.

The software itself is open source. WordPress.org states that WordPress is licensed under the "General Public License (GPLv2 or later)", which grants the freedom to run the program for any purpose, study and change it, redistribute it and distribute modified versions. In practice that means no license fee and no vendor that can switch your site off. It also means nobody is responsible for your copy except you or the host you pay.

What a self-hosted WordPress site needs

WordPress.org publishes recommended server settings. As of November 4, 2026 its requirements page recommends a host with PHP 8.3 or newer, MySQL 8.0 or newer (or MariaDB 10.11 or newer) and HTTPS. The same page says WordPress still runs on PHP 7.4 and MySQL 5.5.5 and up, but warns that those older versions are past their official end of life and can leave a site exposed. Ask any prospective host which PHP and database versions your account will run, and check them against these figures.

Beyond the server, a working self-hosted site has four moving parts:

• The core software, which receives regular updates, including security releases.
• A theme, which controls the design. Free and paid themes exist; a theme built for the block editor lets you change layouts without code.
• Plugins, which add features such as forms, search engine settings, bookings or a shop.
• Backups and security, which some hosts include and others sell as extras.

Each plugin you add is code from a different author, so the number of plugins is worth watching. Fewer, well-maintained plugins are easier to keep updated than many small ones.

WordPress.com plans and prices

The pricing page also lists two-year and three-year terms at lower monthly equivalents, and an Enterprise tier with no public price. The fee column applies to paid subscriptions and payments collected through WordPress.com's payment features, and Stripe's own processing fee is charged on top. The page notes that Business and Commerce carry 0% transaction fees for WooCommerce payments.

Plugin installation is where the plans split most clearly. The pricing page says the Personal plan lets you install plugins from the WordPress.com marketplace, while the Free plan does not include plugin installation.

Self-hosted or WordPress.com: how to decide

The choice comes down to who you want doing the maintenance work and how much control you need.

Self-hosting suits you when:

• you or someone you pay is comfortable applying updates and restoring a backup;
• you need a plugin or server setting a hosted plan does not allow;
• you want to move between hosts freely, since the whole site is a database and a folder of files.

WordPress.com suits you when:

• nobody on the team wants to think about servers;
• the plugin rules on your chosen plan cover what you need;
• a predictable yearly bill matters more than the lowest possible hosting price.

Selling online with WordPress

WordPress has no shop built into the core software. The common route is WooCommerce, a plugin that WooCommerce describes as "free to download and use". The costs come from elsewhere: hosting, paid extensions and payment processing. WooCommerce's own pricing page estimates hosting at "$25 to $350/month for most stores", extensions at "$29 to $299/year per extension", and lists card processing through WooPayments at about 2.50% to 2.90% plus 30 cents per transaction. (We have written those ranges with "to" in place of the dashes on the original page.)

WooCommerce publishes its own server list, which its documentation describes as the minimum for a store to run correctly and securely. For WooCommerce 10.8 and later it names WordPress 6.9 or newer, PHP 8.3 or newer (tested up to PHP 8.4), MySQL 8.0 or newer or MariaDB 10.6 or newer, HTTPS, and a WordPress memory limit of at least 256 MB. The Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison works through the trade-off with a hosted store.

Strengths and limits in plain terms

Strengths. Ownership of your files and data; a very large choice of themes and plugins; a content editor that suits regular publishing; and a large pool of people who can work on it, which keeps you from depending on one supplier.

Limits. Self-hosted sites need ongoing care, and a neglected site with outdated plugins is exposed to security problems. Quality varies widely across themes and plugins. Performance depends heavily on the host and on how many plugins are active. On WordPress.com, the cheaper plans trade some of that freedom for less work.

Who WordPress tends to fit

In our reading of the facts above, self-hosted WordPress fits content-led sites that publish often, businesses that want to own their platform outright, and teams with a developer or a managed host. WordPress.com fits owners who like the WordPress editor but do not want to run a server. If you mainly need a polished brochure site and never plan to publish articles, a hosted builder such as Squarespace or Wix may ask less of you, at the cost of portability.

Sources for this page

1. WordPress.org: About. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
2. WordPress.org: Requirements. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
3. WordPress.com (Automattic): WordPress.com Pricing. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
4. WooCommerce: WooCommerce Pricing Puts You In Control. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
5. WooCommerce Documentation: WooCommerce Server Recommendations. Official source, read November 4, 2026.