Why isn't my free domain '.com' instead of '.wordpress.com'
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Hi,
It is my understanding that under my free account subscription the ‘.wordpress.com’ had to be part of my domain. However I have a number of friends also on a free wordpress account but their domains are simply ‘xxx.com’. I have tried to change my domain but it seems the only way to have a .com site is by paying for / registering a domain. I also did some research and apparently there are two different ways of installing wordpress, one of which enables a domain that is just ‘.com’. I don’t understand this and why I cannot change my address to omit the ‘.wordpress.com’ part.Any help would be appreciated please. Thanks.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there
This can be confusing but hang in there.Under the free plan, your blog is a subdomain of WordPress.com. There are no provisions for making your own domain under the free plan, nor can you upgrade for just a domain. You need one of the upgraded plans. That is explained here
It is possible that your friends have blogs hosted somewhere other than WordPress.com, and that their hosting plan includes a domain. Ask then where their blogs are hosted. Many hosting companies include WordPress software as part of their hosting package. That means that “WordPress” is “free” in that context. How can that be?
WordPress is the company wrote the WordPress software. It powers over 25% of the pages on the web! The software is Open Source, which means anyone can use it at no cost. No wonder so many hosting companies like it huh? Here on the forums, we call those self-hosted blogs.
WordPress the company also hosts many many blogs and pages as another part of their business. That’s where WordPress.COM comes into the picture.
Hope that helps!
dave -
Hi there,
If you have friends with older accounts, they would have been able to buy domains for their sites without purchasing a plan first.
However, that is no longer possible. Since last year you can only add a domain to your site if you have a paid plan. Sites that already have domains can keep on renewing just the domain, but for any new domain registrations you need to purchase a plan.
You can view the available plans and what each include here:
https://wordpress.com/pricing/
After adding a plan you can go to My Site ->Domains to add your own domain.
WordPress is the company wrote the WordPress software
This is not entirely accurate. There is no company called WordPress. The WordPress software is written and maintained by the WordPress.org community. It does not belong to, nor is it created by, any company.
WordPress.com is a hosting platform owned and operated by the company, Automattic. We are also involved in the WordPress.org community, but we don’t own or control the WordPress software.
See the Our Story link in the forum footer for some more information on this.
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@kokkieh thanks for explaining. My friends have a free account and their site is just ‘xx.com’. They didn’t have to BUY any domains, they simply did what I did and signed up to wordpress to start a blog. They only signed up last year as well so I still don’t understand why this is. Thanks!
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@julesterx
There is no way to just get a domain for free. Domain providers like us need to pay what is called the domain registry for any domains we register. It would be very bad business to pay for a domain only to give it away for nothing. “Free” domains are always something that’s part of paid upgrade or hosting plan.
The only way to get a domain for free on WordPress.com is as part of a paid plan. A WordPress.com site with no upgrades at all will be on a *.wordpress.com address, no exceptions. If you give me the addresses of some of the sites you refer to I can make sure what’s going on there, but I can assure you we don’t give away custom domains for free.
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