WordPress.com is a hosting company that utilizes the free software which is produced and maintained by wordpress.org. wordpress.org is the organization which produces and maintains the WordPress free blogging software. A third-party host is a company which provides hosting services to websites as part of getting them on the internet. WordPress.com could also be considered a third-party host even though it shares a similar name to that of the wordpress.org produced software. Some other third party hosts are Bluehost, GoDaddy, Cloudways etc.
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What you need to run a WordPress site
In order to run a WordPress site you need three things at a fundamental level.
Hosting:
A host is the place which stores your WordPress software (essentially a set of files) and is connected to your domain name.
Both wordpress.com and thirdparty hosts as described below offer this service at a cost. wordpress.com hosting is considered rigid by most users. wordpress.com uses WordPress software which is free.
There are various kinds of hosts these days including shared, dedicated, VPS and Cloud which all have various pros and cons but in essence they all hold your site files to be served to your users.
WordPress Software:
WordPress software is the free software which you can download from wordpress.org. You do not need an account at wordpress.com in order to run wordpress software.
Domain Name:
You also need to choose a Domain Name in order to have a website. For eg, yourwebsitename.com which you can purchase either separately from your host or from your host.
wordpress.com
wordpress.com is a private company which hosts the free WordPress software. They charge their users for hosting the free software and for additional services related to running a WordPress site. Compared to other third party host companies they are considered rigid and expensive in their plans.
wordpress.org
This is the site where you can download the free WordPress software and install it on a host and connect it to a Domain Name to launch your WordPress site.
Thirdparty hosts
A third party host is the phrase used to describe companies like wordpress.com, Bluehost, GoDaddy, Cloudways etc etc which offer website (including WordPress) hosting as a paid service. People pay monthly or yearly for renting out space on a server computer in order to keep your WordPress software there and have it accessible on the internet to the public.
We built a ‘WordPress Host Plan’ Selector tool which allows you to easily sift through the various hosting plans offered by the various companies.
