WordPress.com
Automattic's hosted WordPress service, from a free tier up to managed, plugin-enabled business plans.
Overview
WordPress.com is Automattic's hosted WordPress service, spanning a free tier up to managed, plugin-enabled Business plans. Paid hosting starts at $9 per month on the Personal plan, which runs a single WordPress site with 6 GB of storage. It runs on Automattic's own datacenters across four site-placement regions (US West, US Central, US East, EU West) on an NGINX stack, with PHP up to 8.4 selectable. The platform manages WordPress core and security updates automatically.
Operational and security basics are included on every plan rather than sold as add-ons: a global CDN, free auto-provisioned SSL, a persistent Memcached object cache, daily malware scanning with automatic fixes, and a web application firewall with DDoS protection. WordPress.com publishes a 99.999% uptime SLA. There is no free trial, but annual plans carry a 14-day money-back guarantee (7 days on monthly). The platform uses a custom dashboard (Calypso) rather than cPanel, and offers agency tooling through Automattic for Agencies.
Best for
- Buyers who want managed WordPress with security and performance built into every plan, including a CDN, free SSL, object caching, malware scanning, and a WAF at no extra cost.
- Operators who want a hands-off platform, with WordPress core and security updates managed automatically and a 99.999% uptime SLA.
- Single-site owners on a modest budget: the $9-per-month Personal plan covers one WordPress site with 6 GB of storage and a current PHP 8.4 stack.
- Agencies managing multiple client sites, via Automattic for Agencies' unified multi-site dashboard, consolidated billing, client referrals, and bulk discounts.
Less ideal for
- Developers who need SSH and WP-CLI access or staging environments, both of which require the Business plan and are unavailable on the entry Personal plan.
- Teams that need automatic daily backups and 24/7 support on a low-cost plan: real-time backups/restore and 24/7 priority support are both gated to the Business plan, with Personal limited to email and live chat.
- Anyone running a WordPress Multisite network: Multisite is not supported, and each site needs its own plan.
- Buyers who want bundled mailbox hosting: email is not included on the entry plan and is a paid add-on, and full plugin/theme site migration also requires the Business plan.
- Buyers who want to trial the service before paying or expect a cPanel interface: there is no free trial, only a money-back guarantee, and the platform uses a custom dashboard instead of cPanel.
Pricing
Performance & infrastructure
WordPress management
Support & security
Platform & integrations
Alternatives to WordPress.com
Bluehost Budget-friendly, WordPress.org-recommended hosting aimed at first-time site owners.
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Cloudways Managed cloud hosting that runs WordPress on your choice of DigitalOcean, AWS, or Google Cloud. Owned by DigitalOcean.
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DreamHost Independent host whose DreamPress tier is managed WordPress hosting; WordPress.org-recommended.
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