MEET THE EXPERT
Shubham Gupta
Updated: Today 9:04 AM
Overview
You must have already heard like a thousand times about WordPress being the most popular website builder. But apart from being the most popular website builder its also a really powerful and flexible website builder with no restriction You can code anything the way you want but obviously, that requires a bit of a learning curve, but that's totally worth it if you are a freelancer or a student or a web developer or you want to get jobs in IT company WordPress is for everyone.
Pros and Cons of WordPress.com
Pros
✔️ Hosted by WordPress
✔️ No setup required
✔️ Pre-installed WordPress
✔️ Excellent free plan
✔️ Excellent SEO
✔️ 24X7 technical support via email
✔️ Best for Blogging
✔️ Tons of themes and plugins.
Cons
❌ No drag & drop feature.
❌ Not user-friendly.
❌ Expensive eCommerce plan
What to Expect?
WordPress.com offers a variety of website building options it is suitable for blogging, e-commerce as well as designing websites using various themes. Back in the year 2003, WordPress.com started purely as a blogging website but now WordPress.com now handles most website building needs, including commerce, social integrations, and mobile presentation. The Website Builder obviously lags lacks the drag-and-drop simplicity that many competing services offer, but it's the best, low-cost option for people who want to get online really quick.
WordPress is one of the most widely used content management systems in the world. Apart from being the world's largest CMS, it's also one of the best-known web hosting company too.
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Why WordPress?
WordPress.com is a hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that allows you to build a website using WordPress building blocks. More than 42% of all websites on the Internet are created with WordPress. Almost any type of website you may need can be built using this platform. Here we are going to discuss compelling features of WordPress.com
SEO & Analytics
WordPress.com handles almost 80% of the SEO mechanics so you don't have to. All topics are designed to optimize your ranking. This means you can sit back and focus on creating a great website. If you want to customize your SEO 100% using the WordPress mechanics, you can upgrade to one of the premium plans and get your custom domain. Search engines love a custom domain, so if you really want to rank on a search engine like Google. It is best to get a custom domain. That way, you can customize what appears on the results page and more, and give your website a much bigger chance in the world of rankings and SEO magic.
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Site Speed & Performance
WordPress.com provides a fast as well as reliable website builder and hosting. Although it lacks few user-friendly customizations but that's okay if you are a techy as it has been designed more for professionals.
WordPress also provides various plugins to boost up your site speed. It's most helpful for beginners as the plugins are most probably going to take care of boosting up your site speed. We personally recommend using Jetpack by WordPress. We personally tested it and proves to increase site speed by 1.4sec which is really great.
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Free WordPress Themes
Wordpress.com Offers you themes for blogs, portfolios, news & magazines, wedding websites, travel planner, food and restaurant websites and a lot more. All WordPress themes come with the same basic essential plugins depending on the type of themes you choose to make the creation of your website even easier.
When you start creating your website with WordPress themes the website creation could be accomplished in a matter of minutes with just a few clicks and little customization. If you are a beginner or a start-up we would recommend you to start with a free theme depending on the niche you are following. Have a look at some Free Themes by WordPress.com
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What's WordPress Best For?
Whether you have personal or professional goals, WordPress.com can help you build the perfect website for your needs. If you want to monetize your website now or later, you can use WordAds, the WordPress.com ad program that can help you generate ad revenue. (If you have a business plan, you can also use Google AdSense.) WordPress.com is a great option for all types of users. However, its best used for:
Blogging
The basic idea behind the building of WordPress.com was Blogging. They thought everyone will start blogging at some point of time. Well since the aim was to create a blogging friendly website builder hence the design and themes still revolve around that. Have a look at some FREE Blogging Themes.
Hence, if you are a blogger or planning to start a blogging website maybe your research ends here you could just start with a Personal plan if you are new, or you could go for the premium plan if you are looking for scalability. Since the WordPress sites are most SEO friendly hence you really don't have to worry about the SEO. Also, you get some pre-installed plugin WordPress plugins essential powered by Jetpack when you start with WordPress.com. They really try their best to give you all the essential plugins required for starting your website.
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eCommerce (for brands)
Using WordPress.com for e-commerce is neither beginner-friendly nor is good for your pocket hence if you are trying to start an e-commerce website maybe you should start with something easy like Shopify.
But if you are a brand that requires full control over their website and for that you are willing to spend a little extra on plans and hiring a developer then WordPress.com eCommerce is the right choice for you. With the e-commerce feature of WordPress, you could really design your e-commerce website the way you want.
Although the e-commerce plan of WordPress.com is overpriced still it justifies its value up to some extend. It allows you to accept money from 60+ different countries, so in case you are looking to scale your e-commerce business, WordPress is a solid option.
Pricing
WordPress.com has got a customized plan for everyone, whether you are a personal blogger, freelancer or business owner WordPress.com carters all needs for everyone.
WordPress.com Plans start from ₹160 per month for personal bloggers or portfolio site designers and goes up to ₹1152 for eCommerce site owners. Since we don't recommend using WordPress.com for eCommerce, hence our top recommended plan is Business Plan which is suitable for small business and startups. But due to cost, we recommend Premium Plan to our budget buyers as a value for money option.
Plans & Comparison
Plans
Features
Offers
Free Trial
Website builder
Free Templates
Limited Features
WordPress Ads
Personal
at ₹160/mo
Free Domain
Best-in-class hosting
Remove Ads
Collect payments
Email Support
Value for Money
Premium
at ₹280/mo
Features of Personal
Live Chat Support
Earn ad revenue
Premium themes
Upload videos
Google analytics integration
Expert's Choice
Business
at ₹640/mo
Features of Premium
Install plugins
Advanced SEO
Automated backups
Database Access
Ecommerce
at ₹1152/mo
Features of Business
Accept payments
60+ countries
Integrated Shipping
Premium design
eCommerce Features
Experts Verdict
Website Builder Experts have given WordPress.com an overall rating of 4.7 stars and trust me it mostly goes for its best blogging experience. When it comes to blogging WordPress.com has no match. So if you are really want to start a blog WordPress.com is the place for you to start.
WordPress.com has got the highest ranking in our search engine optimization ranking list. With 80% SEO handled by WordPress itself you really have to worry less about your website's SEO. All you need to do is install few plugins sit back and wait till magic happens.
Being the world's most popular website builder WordPress.com came last in our ease of use rankings. It is not beginner-friendly and you will feel limited if you’re creating anything other than a blog. If you want to expand or develop your site you will need to use basic coding, which is a big turn off for most people.
If you’re nervous about technology, want a highly customized site, or want to set up your business site easily, we don’t recommend WordPress.com for you.
WordPress Alternatives
In case if you are still unsatisfied with WordPress and trying to find out some alternative then you should consider creating your website with Webflow. Though many people suggest Wix as the best alternative to WordPress but it's not, as Wix doesn't offer responsive web designing at the moment which is a major miss.
SITE123 is the second-best alternative to WordPress due to its simple and super user-friendly editor. And Strikingly comes as the third-best alternative to WordPress because of its professional and designer themes.
