Is a WordPress account the same as hosting?

Published January 17, 2012 | By AJ

Question:

You can get a free account, but there is also the option to set up a domain name for $ 17/year. Does that mean WordPress is offering to host my website should I take them up on this offer, such as including MySQL databases, cPanel, etc. And if that’s the case, would that mean WordPress comes automatically installed to the database and I wouldn’t have to go through the huge hassle of installing it than if I chose to use another hosting service – one.com, hostgator.com, etc. – where I would have to manually install it. Thanks!

Answer:

Actually, it’s $12, not $17 and no, that’s not real hosting, it’s only a redirect. You can do it one of two ways, buy a domain name from them (not a good idea because it costs too much) or buy your own domain name for cheap at NameCheap and redirect the name to point to your WordPress.com blog. They’ll give you the nameservers to do that. It’s not hosting at all. You still can’t put your own Adsense ads on your site, run a business or ANY type of monetization at all. You still won’t be able to upload your own themes and plugins and you’re still bound by their dumb ass rules. It’s a great place to learn how to use WordPress, but all you’re doing is writing content so THEY can server the ads and make money off your content.

Get Real Web Hosting

If you want freedom to do your own thing, then you need real web hosting. I personally think WebHostingHub offers the best cPanel (my favorite) web hosting. WordPress runs hella fast on my Hub account. Another good option is iPage. They use the vDeck control panel, not as geeky as cPanel.

Nothing to Upload

You DO NOT have to download the WordPress software, upload it to the server and then install it. Both of those hosts already have the WordPress software in the control panel. On WebHostingHub you’ll find it in Fantastico and on iPage you’ll find it in SimpleScripts.

Moving WordPress.com to a Web Hosting Account

Here are instructions on how to move your WordPress.com blog to your own hosting account.