If I'm using the 'free' version of wordpress, can I buy a premium theme for it?

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  drysider · Member · Jun 7, 2014 at 8:04 am

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  Hey all, I’m putting together my artist portfolio website. I’ve bought a domain name for it, and now I’m eyeing off some beautiful premium themes.

  I can’t seem to find a definite answer for this anywhere so I want to ask before I shell out $60~ for a paid theme that I might not even be able to use:

  I’ve signed up for a free wordpress account, and not the premium subscription. Can I buy this theme for my blog, and install it? Or am I expected to pay the $99 premium subscription fee to upgrade my account before I can install the paid theme?

  Thanks in advance!

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

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  timethief · Member · Jun 7, 2014 at 5:05 pm

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  The answer is no your cannot use a third party theme like that one on any WordPress.COM hosted blog – period.

  The only themes we can use on free hosted WordPress.com blogs like your blog are the themes found here http://wordpress.com/themes/

  There is no FTP access to free hosted WordPress.com blogs for security reasons and we cannot:

  upload any third party themes,
  create child themes,
  create our own themes,
  edit templates,
  create own own layouts,
  or use stylesheets from other themes.

  http://en.support.wordpress.com/ftp-access/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/adding-new-themes/

  There is no upgrade you can purchase that changes that. WordPress.org offers free software that you can install on a web server. You can create themes, upload and install themes and plugins, run ads, and edit the database, etc. Learn about the differences here. http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

  If you want FTP access and to install plugins or third party themes into a site then you will have to hire a web host http://wordpress.org/hosting/ and set up your own WordPress.org install.

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  drysider · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 6:19 am

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  Hey, thanks for the reply! I managed to find out about the difference between wordpress.com and .org before your reply, it’s a good thing I decided to doublecheck before jumping in and buying a wordpress.org theme accidentally.

  I think I’m more interested now in having a .org website. The problem is I’ve already registered a domain name for my .com site. I’m not sure if you’ll see this reply, but do you know how I should go about unlinking my wordpress.com from this domain so I can register it with another host and set up a wordpress.org?

  Sorry for the pretty vague and dumb questions, I’m very new to web hosting so I’m not really sure what exactly I should be searching for to answer my questions.

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  raincoaster · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 6:45 am

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  http://en.support.wordpress.com/?s=move+a+domain

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  drysider · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 6:49 am

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  Thanks so much, exactly what I was looking for!

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  raincoaster · Member · Jun 9, 2014 at 6:53 am

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  You’re welcome. Don’t forget to export the content as well.