What is the best free or minimal plan that includes plugins?

  • Unknown's avatar
    davee8e17a9814d · Member ·

    What is the best free or minimal plan that includes plugins at WordPress or elsewhere? Hopefully something cheaper than the $25/mo Creator plan since I just want to create a demonstration site for our HOA which already has a minimal WordPress website. I don’t want to create a new domain since eventually my website would be merged in and use the existing domain. I want to show the HOA how a decent WordPress site might look with features we currently do not have.

    To do that I need some plugins such as –

    • Restricted membership
    • Discussions that can be private according to groups and members
    • Ability to post questions and things for sale within the community – no payments
    • Surveys and questionnaires
    • Announcements
    • Events w/ RSVP

    Thanks for any and all suggestions. This would be a low bandwidth site!

    Dave

  • Unknown's avatar
    themagicrobot · Member ·

    You appear to want a site that does far more than a basic Blog so the Creator plan would be needed to use any of your own plugins here at WordPress.com. You’d need to reach out to other companies directly to find out their charges.

  • Unknown's avatar
    aisajib · Member ·

    Hi there!

    I recommend the WordPress.com Creator plan, which allows plugins and third-party themes. The Creator plan also comes with many advanced hosting features, such as real-time automatic backups with one-click restores, malware and spam protection, SSH, SFTP, edge-caching, and more. You can get started with the WordPress.com Creator plan using the button below or see the full list of features here:

    When you get started, you’ll get a WordPress.com address to start building your website. You can use your own domain when you’re ready. Just let us know, and we’ll be happy to help. :)

    As for the features you mentioned, those will require separate plugins. Some of the features, like restricting content with membership tiers, are built into WordPress.com, so you won’t need any additional plugins. But some of the others, like private discussion boards, surveys, events, etc., might need plugins.

    You may already be aware that there are many free and paid plugins out there. I wanted to clarify that with the WordPress.com Creator plan, you get the ability to install plugins on your site. However, some of those third-party plugins may have their own paid plans. I recommend searching on Google to learn more about available plugins and whether they are free or paid.

    You can search using a query like this: Events plugin for WordPress. You can then review the results to choose a plugin that has good ratings and reviews. Some plugins have a free version you can try before upgrading to the paid one. In most cases, you can read the plugin descriptions to see what’s included in each version.

    Hope that helps! Feel free to let us know if you have more questions.

  • Unknown's avatar
    davee8e17a9814d · Member ·

    Thanks for the replys. Not sure why I did not get email regarding the responses. I was hoping for something cheaper to experiment with or put a prototype together since the HOA would eventually pay for the hosting if they like my prototype.

  • Unknown's avatar
    aisajib · Member ·

    Hi there!

    You’re welcome! We have a 14-day refund period on the yearly plans. You can also upgrade for a month, build the website, and show it to the HOA. I recommend not registering a domain during this time, as domains have a shorter refund period of 96 hours.

    Feel free to let us know if you have more questions.

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