Does WordPress.com support advanced site customization beyond CSS?

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  erunamo114 · Member · Jan 17, 2015 at 10:20 pm

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  I am currently considering upgrading to either Premium or Business for one of my blog sites. In reading the support forums, I have noticed there is a lot of mention regarding advanced customization on the blog site’s CSS. However, what capabilities would I have to use other programming languages on the user side or backend like Javascript, PHP, etc.? Does the advanced customization option in the Premium and Business package only apply to CSS?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  jeremeylduvall · Member · Jan 17, 2015 at 10:34 pm

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  Does the advanced customization option in the Premium and Business package only apply to CSS?

  Yep! Users cannot modify their site with other code like Javascript, PHP, etc regardless of the bundle upgrade. You would need to move to a self-hosted site using WordPress.org if that’s something you’re looking for:

  WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

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  erunamo114 · Member · Jan 17, 2015 at 11:42 pm

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  Thanks for that information. The site I am building will be just an informative startup site at first that won’t require an exorbitant amount of media or anything like that. For starting out, what would be the recommended way to go? Managing security is my primary concern. It seems WordPress.com could get more expensive with adding upgrades for basic website development functionality. However, using WordPress.org might require a service like Vault Press for managing security.

  I am not adept on the security side like the development side so I wanted to see which method you might recommend initially?

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  jeremeylduvall · Member · Jan 19, 2015 at 2:19 pm

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  It really depends on what kind of control you’re going to want over your site. WordPress.com offers security and some basic customizations, but if you’re looking to install plugins are write PHP, you’re going to want to go to WordPress.org.

  I normally recommend individuals start at WordPress.com. If it turns out you need something a bit more customizable, we have a handy guide for moving over to a self-hosted site:

  http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-org

  How does that sound?