What’s the difference between buying wordpress through a company like siteground and using it for free directly from wordpress.org?

  • Unknown's avatar
    bdahmen20 · Member ·

    I’m trying to do more research into what the best option for developing websites for clients would be using WordPress. I’ve only ever used WordPress purchased through companies such as GoDaddy or Siteground, and I’m seeing information online that WordPress can be free and it’s the same thing.

    I’m getting really confused on how I should go about creating a website for my customers. Whenever creating my past 5 websites for my own projects, I’ve simply purchased it through one of those companies, and the interface usually looks the same, even though it’s purchased through different companies.

    I want to make sure A. I’m not paying for anything unnecessary, and B. I’m not suggesting my clients to pay for anything unnecessary.

    My objective is to be able to talk about this eloquently with my customers, and right now I can’t seem to find any information online that really explains what I’m confused about.

    What’s involved with using a free version of wordpress? How would that translate into being an actual website online if it’s just a piece of free software? Why should I spend money with a company like siteground or godaddy if its free? Can someone clear this up for me please so I can be a resource for my clients?

    Thank you!!!

  • Unknown's avatar
    donaldsonem · Member ·

    Hello!
    WordPress is actually an open-source software that allows you to create, manage and update your website. What this means is that you can use this software for free to create your websites with little or no coding required.
    However, this software needs to be hosted on a server. There are two ways to do this, either you host it on your own with hosting providers like the ones you are mentioned or on WordPress.com servers. The former will require that you manually do all your theme and plugin updates yourself while the latter gives the flexibility of having those updated manually.

    You can read on the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com at https://wordpress.com/support/com-vs-org/

    I hope I was able to address your confusion. Feel free to let me know if I was not clear enough.

  • Unknown's avatar
    bdahmen20 · Member ·

    I was confused by the sentence where you said “The former will require that you manually do all your theme and plugin updates yourself while the latter gives the flexibility of having those updated manually.” As far as reading that, it tells me either way I have to update them manually, so what’s the point…?

    If I “host it on my own” with hosting providers, I’ll have to manually update everything, but if I get it through WordPress servers… it gives me the flexibility of having them updated manually..? That doesn’t seem like a feature, sounds like either way I’m updating it manually.

    Unfortunately I’m still pretty confused. What appeal is there to buying wordpress through siteground versus doing everything through word press?

  • Unknown's avatar
    donaldsonem · Member ·

    Sorry about that I meant to say using WordPress.com will give the flexibility of the updates to be done automatically.

  • Unknown's avatar
    bdahmen20 · Member ·

    Thank you for clarifying!

    So the primary differences between paying an additional cost to a hosting company for wordpress, and using wordpress.org for free, is:

    1. The fact that I’m paying money to not have to install and set it up myself
    2. I don’t have automatic updates with a hosting company, only with wordpress

    that’s it? Something inside me tells me there’s a bigger difference here that I’m not aware of. I find it hard to believe they’d charge a decent amount for these differences. If it’s really that simple, I’m pretty upset.

    Would anyone be able to tell me what the exact steps are, or link me to resources that can help me understand how to go from downloading wordpress.org for free, using that software to build a legitimate website with plugins etc, and putting it online so it’s actually useable? I’m a designer trying to learn how to do backend stuff too because I’m a one person business and I’m interested in offering the whole package, not outsourcing parts of my process. I understand the difference between .com and .org, I just don’t understand how it all works.

    Thank you for the info!!!

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