Is mapping a domain the same as hosting?

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  pxdrums · Member · Oct 30, 2014 at 9:18 am

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  Is mapping a domain name the same as hosting? Or are there any other hosting costs to my wordpress website?

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

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  alexjgustafson · Member · Oct 30, 2014 at 3:09 pm

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  Hi pxdrums,

  WordPress.com is a shared hosting environment and the hosting is effectively free, but we offer paid upgrades for other services. You can run your site on pxdrums.wordpress.com and that is us hosting your site, but free.

  The domain mapping upgrade allows you to continue using WordPress.com services (including the free hosting) but readers will see your custom domain name (like example.com instead of example.wordpress.com) that you’ve purchased elsewhere. If you’ve not yet purchased a domain name, you’ll need the Domain Registration upgrade instead.

  On some level you can think of the domain mapping as paying for the hosting, since you pay to register the domain somewhere else, and then pay for service here. It’s just technically a little different. ;)

  If you have someone telling to you to “talk to your hosting service” or the like, then yes WordPress.com is your hosting. But the domain mapping upgrade isn’t particularly paying for hosting.

  Sorry if that’s a little confusing!

  Let me know if you have any more questions about your domain mapping and I’m happy to help.

  Best,

  -Alex G.

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  pxdrums · Member · Oct 30, 2014 at 5:46 pm

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  Hey Alex,

  Thanks for your answer. it’s clear to me! I just bought a domain name http://www.janvanvolendam.nl and it’s already up and running! thanks

  I still have another question: I heard that there’s a difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org? Why so? I build me new website on wordpress.com. I want to build the next one on wordpress.org because of the plugins. Do both systems work the same?

  Thanks anyways Alex!

  Louis (PXdrums)

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  pxdrums · Member · Oct 30, 2014 at 5:47 pm

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  http://www.janvanabvolendam.nl

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  alexjgustafson · Member · Oct 30, 2014 at 6:43 pm

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  Hi Louis,

  Yes, WordPress.org and WordPress.com are a little different.

  Since you’ve built a site here, you’ve seen how WordPress.com lets you get a blog or site up-and-running quickly, and we handle all the hosting for you. WordPress.org is a software for self-hosted sites. With WordPress.org, users are provided access to all back-end files and can upload custom themes and plugins. It’s a little harder to setup, because you need to handle registering a domain, signing up for hosting, and then installing the WordPress software. But once you get going it’s a very similar experience creating posts and pages, but the plugins let you make sites fully customized.

  Check here to learn more about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org:

  WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

  We do offer tools for helping to make your WordPress.org experience as awesome as WordPress.com. Jetpack supercharges your website with features like easy video embedding, stats, and Twitter and Facebook sharing tools. VaultPress provides realtime, continuous backup and scans your website for security and performance. More information on both can be found at these links:

  http://jetpack.me/?ref=happiness

  http://vaultpress.com/?ref=happiness

  Best,

  -Alex G.