Is wordpress free?

  • Unknown's avatar
    gjetley · Member ·

    I have had a free wordpress site for some years (www.musicholidayitaly.com) hosted with GoDaddy. I now wish to explore having a basic second site, also using a free version of WordPress. This second domain is also hosted on GoDaddy and is prepaid for some years ahead. Therefore it does not make sense to transfer it to WordPress at this time. But the only options I can find are either to pay an annual WordPress fee to keep my domain on GoDaddy, or to transfer it to WordPress presumably also for an annual fee which is not shown. Is there no longer an option for a free wordpress site as before?

  • Unknown's avatar
    torres126 · Member ·

    Hi there, the Free Plan has always been available on WordPress.com and still is! You can compare the differences here: https://wordpress.com/pricing

    The issue is that if you wished to transfer or map a domain to WordPress.com, it would require a domain credit, which comes with any paid plan. The pricing are on the previous link, so let us know if you have any further questions or issues. :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    gjetley · Member ·

    Thanks for the response but I don’t quite understand. These are stages I just went through

    1. I try to build a new blog using the “Start with free” option
    2. I enter my GoDaddy domain (www.giljetley.com)
    3. It asks me if I own it and I reply yes
    4. Then I get the two options I mentioned before, either pay to transfer the domain to WordPress, or pay to map it to WordPress

    So how do I continue building the site with the free option?
    Sorry if this is a dumb question

  • Unknown's avatar
    gemmacevans · Member ·

    Hi gjetley,

    This second domain is also hosted on GoDaddy and is prepaid for some years ahead.

    It is possible to keep the domain registered with GoDaddy and connect it to a WordPress.com site with domain mapping:

    https://en.support.wordpress.com/map-existing-domain/

    Domain mapping is a feature of paid plans and you can choose between Personal (the cheapest option), Premium or Business. The domain itself will remain registered through GoDaddy so you will need to continue renewing it there once the prepaid term runs out. After that time, the domain could be transferred to WordPress.com and renewed with the plan (as one cost) if you prefer.

    Is there no longer an option for a free wordpress site as before?

    There is yes, we still provide the option to create a free site with “.wordpress.com” in the address.

    Please let me know if you have any questions.

  • Unknown's avatar
    gemmacevans · Member ·

    Hi gjetley,

    It looks like we were working on our replies at the same time :) In answer to your question:

    So how do I continue building the site with the free option?

    You will need to choose a free address containing “.wordpress.com” rather than entering a custom domain or selecting the mapping option (you already own giljetley.wordpress.com). That should give you a free site.

  • Unknown's avatar
    gjetley · Member ·

    Hi again, I’m still a bit confused.
    I created my existing website (www.musicholidayitaly.com hosted on GoDaddy) about 4 years ago using wordpress. As you can see it has a .com suffix but I didn’t have to pay for domain mapping then, or in fact since.

    Can I not do the same now with my second domain “www.giljetley.com”?
    Why do I have to use a new domain (giljetley.wordpress.com) instead of the one I already have on Godaddy – “www.giljetley.com”?

  • Unknown's avatar
    gjetley · Member ·

    BTW, my existing site has “Proudly powered by WordPress” at the bottom of every page, and I have no objection at all to that. But I need to use my http://www.giljetley.com domain/url, exactly as it is

  • Unknown's avatar
    gemmacevans · Member ·

    Hi gjetley,

    As you can see it has a .com suffix but I didn’t have to pay for domain mapping then, or in fact since.

    musicholidayitaly.com was created with WordPress.org software and is hosted by GoDaddy rather than WordPress.com. WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two separate entities:

    WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

    This site isn’t connected to WordPress.com in any way, which is why the process of adding a custom domain was slightly different (and didn’t require one of our paid plans).

    my existing site has “Proudly powered by WordPress” at the bottom of every page

    That’s correct, giljetley.com was also created with WordPress.org software and isn’t connected to WordPress.com.

    Circling back to your original plan — do you want to keep giljetley.com with GoDaddy for the moment but start working on a free site here (with an address containing .wordpress.com)?

    Or would you like to transfer the contents of giljetley.com over to WordPress.com and map the domain here?

  • Unknown's avatar
    gjetley · Member ·

    Hmmm, it is rather confusing, the difference between wp.com and wp.org – but thank you for trying to clear it up :) If I understand you correctly I’ve already started to create a blog “giljetley.com” using wp-org. If I did it was so long ago that I’ve forgotten all about it!

    I’ve just tried logging in to giljetley.com/wp-admin which is how I would log in to http://www.musicholidayitaly.com to edit pages. I would have expected I’d use the same login and password for both blogs but the musicholidayitaly ones don’t work for giljetley.

    Is there a way I get back on to giljetley to edit some pages, without knowing either the username or password?

  • fstat · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    Without the login credentials, it’s impossible to alter any content in that website. I suggest contacting your hosting provider, GoDaddy and ask them to help you recover access to your site.

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