domain with a free account

• 

  ritu7rajan · Member · May 26, 2020 at 10:08 am

  • Copy link
  • Add topic to favorites

  Hi,
  Can I purchase a domain from your website for £15 but still keep a free account?
  I don’t want to upgrade to a plan as I’m just starting out and don’t have the funds or need for the premium features.
  If my purchased domain name is typed into a search engine or address bar, will they be directed to my wordpress.com site? And will this mean I can stay on the free plan?

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

• 

  obt28 · Member · May 26, 2020 at 10:39 am

  • Copy link

  Hello @ritu7rajan –

  You can use a domain name you already own by doing a domain mapping to WordPress.com. However, you’ll need an upgraded WordPress.com plan on your website such as a Personal, Premium or Business plan for a domain mapping to work.

  Please see more details about mapping your domain: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/map-existing-domain/

  You can also find the list of available WordPress.com plans and pricing from this link: https://wordpress.com/pricing

  I hope this answers your question.

  Best,

• 

  staff-doublebassd · Staff · May 26, 2020 at 10:09 pm

  • Copy link

  Hi @obt28 – there was a recent update to domains with a free plan and we’re currently updating support documents to reflect the change.

  You now can absolutely use your custom domain with your WordPress.com site with or without a paid plan. You don’t need to buy a paid plan to have a custom domain here. You only need to upgrade to a paid plan if you need the features of that plan.

  One of the features of all of our paid plans is to allow users to set their custom domain as primary. If your custom domain is not primary, people will still end up at your site if they type your custom domain into the address bar.

  For more information, please visit:

  https://wordpress.com/support/domains/#set-a-primary-address

  Thanks,

• 

  obt28 · Member · May 27, 2020 at 4:56 am

  • Copy link

  staff-doublebassd this is good news. Thanks for the information!

• 

  obt28 · Member · May 27, 2020 at 5:05 am

  • Copy link

  staff-doublebassd I just discovered that setting domain as primary still requires a paid plan from the documentation. Is this article going to be updated too?

  Set a Primary Address
  Your Primary domain, or site address, is the site address people will see in their browser’s address bar when they visit your site.,
  Your site must have a paid plan attached to it in order for your custom domain to be set as primary.

• 

  kokkieh · Staff · May 27, 2020 at 7:06 am

  • Copy link

  I’m not sure what you want to update. The support page is correct in that regard.

  You can buy a domain without having a plan, but to set the domain as primary requires a plan. That is also what Darnell said above.

• 

  obt28 · Member · May 27, 2020 at 11:00 am

  • Copy link

  Hi @kokkieh I just needed clarification about the update as stated above by staff-doublebassd. Thanks!

• 

  ritu7rajan · Member · May 27, 2020 at 11:05 pm

  • Copy link

  staff-doublebassd
  Thank you for your reply. Is it possible to connect a domain you already bought from another provider to your blog (but not make it your primary domain) without upgrading too?

• 

  staff-blorbo · Staff · May 27, 2020 at 11:37 pm

  • Copy link

  Yes, for that you have two options:

  Mapping allows you to keep the domain registered with your current domain registrar and direct it to your WordPress.com site: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/map-existing-domain/

  A transfer would allow to manage both your site and domain from the same place: https://wordpress.com/support/move-domain/incoming-domain-transfer/