Limitations of wordpress.com for small business website?

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  tomundone · Member · Dec 5, 2011 at 3:40 am

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  Hi.

  I’m new to wordpress & wordpress.com. I want to create a website for a small business – something fairly simple but more then just a blog.

  It appears to me that wordpress.com would be a suitable choice for a host – I can host on my own domain, I can add pages and widgets to build out a complete website, and I can use the Custom Design upgrade for full control over the look-and-feel.

  And yet I see people referring to wordpress.com as if it were a more limited hosting option more suited to blogs then full websites? Are there some limitations of wordpress.com that I should be aware of?

  Thanks,
  Tom

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  airodyssey · Member · Dec 5, 2011 at 4:17 am

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  Hi Tom. I would say the biggest limitations of WordPress.com for a small business are the inability to install plugins – which means no shopping cart or payment processing, only a “Donate” button:
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/

  …and the terms of service which prohibit certain commercial operations:
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/

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  raincoaster · Member · Dec 5, 2011 at 4:30 am

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  It entirely depends on the NATURE of the small business. If the revenue model is advertising, flash development, gaming, or ecommerce, then WP.com is not even a viable option. If the revenue model is different, it becomes possible.