Even though WordPress.org is the topic of this book, there are still valid reasons why some users might be interested in WordPress.com. The main advantage of using WordPress.com (https://wordpress.com/) is that, it's them who take care of all the technical details for you. You're not responsible for anything else but the management of your content. A major disadvantage is that you don't have full control over your website. The other advantages and disadvantages are as follows:
- WordPress.com will not let you upload or edit your own theme, though it will let you (for a fee) edit the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of the themes that are already there.
- WordPress.com will not let you upload or manage plugins at all. Some plugins are installed by default (most notably Akismet, for spam blocking, and also plugins supporting Google Sitemaps, caching, carousel slideshows, image galleries, polls, site stats, and some social media buttons), but you can neither uninstall them nor install others. Additional features are available for a fee.
- A major advantage of working with the software from WordPress.org is that you have control over everything. You can add and edit themes, add and remove plugins, and even edit the WordPress application files yourself if you wish to (however, don't do this unless you're confident about your WordPress skills).
- The disadvantage of WordPress.org is that you'll have to keep the WordPress software up to date on your own, and in some cases install it by yourself as well, but that's relatively simple, and we'll cover it in this chapter.