How to Choose the Right WordPress.com Plan

When you first land on the WordPress.com pricing page, the mix of Free, Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce plans can feel overwhelming. Each tier promises more features, but it’s not always obvious which WordPress.com plan you really need right now versus what would just be “nice to have.”

In this guide, you’ll walk through a simple process to clarify your goals, understand what each plan actually includes, compare real costs, and confidently choose the right WordPress.com plan for your website. By the end, you’ll know which plan fits your current situation and how to leave room to grow later.

If you’re still deciding between WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted), start by reading WordPress hosting explained so you understand how hosting, platforms, and pricing fit together in the bigger picture.

Prerequisites

Before you pick a WordPress.com plan, you don’t need any technical skills, but you do need clarity about what you’re building. Having these basics in place keeps you from over- or under-buying.

• A clear primary goal (blog, portfolio, brochure site, membership, or online store).
• A rough 12–24 month growth plan (small audience, steady growth, or high-traffic ambitions).
• A realistic monthly or yearly budget for your website.
• An idea of how you want to earn money (or if you’ll monetize at all).
• Your comfort level with technical features like plugins, custom code, and analytics.

Step 1: Clarify Your Website Goals

Every good plan decision starts with “what is this site for?” WordPress.com offers generous free features for simple sites and powerful tools for serious businesses—but you only need some of that power.

1. Choose your primary objective. Is this mainly a blog, a simple personal site, a portfolio, a lead-generation site for a business, or a full online store?
2. Define your time horizon. Think about where you want the site to be 12–24 months from now, not just at launch.
3. Decide on monetization. Will you run ads, sell products, use paid memberships, or collect donations and tips?
4. Note any “must-have” features. Examples: custom domain, no WordPress.com ads, plugin support, advanced SEO tools, or deep design control.

Step 2: Understand WordPress.com Plans and Limits

All WordPress.com sites—Free and paid—include managed hosting, automatic updates, responsive themes, built-in stats, basic security protections, and tools to help you grow an audience and accept payments. The paid plans stack more design freedom, storage, monetization, and developer-level tools on top of that shared foundation.

Free plan (good for trying things out)

The Free plan is ideal for testing ideas and learning WordPress.com. You get a yoursite.wordpress.com address, basic storage, built-in stats, essential SEO, and simple design options. In return, WordPress.com may show ads on your site and you won’t be able to use a custom domain or remove the branding.

Personal plan (starter full-featured website)

The Personal plan is your entry point for a “real” site that uses your own domain and removes WordPress.com ads. It adds more storage, email support, daily backups, and the ability to install plugins, upload themes, and add custom code, while inheriting everything from the Free tier.

Premium plan (design and content creators)

Premium includes everything in Personal, plus more premium themes and design controls (styles, fonts, colors), better video/media options, and more ways to earn (including ads and extra monetization tools). It’s aimed at serious bloggers, creators, and freelancers who want a polished site without going full developer mode.

Business plan (power users and growing companies)

The Business plan unlocks advanced SEO tools, custom code everywhere, SFTP/SSH and database access, staging sites, and more developer-level controls. It’s the sweet spot if you expect heavy traffic, need specialized plugins, or work with developers who want deeper access.

Commerce plan (full online store)

Commerce builds on the Business plan with everything needed to sell online: product catalogs, payments, tax and shipping tools, and store-specific management features. If your primary objective is an online store on WordPress.com, this is the tier to target.

Step 3: Map Features to Your Use Case

Now match your goals from Step 1 to the plan descriptions in Step 2. You’re looking for the lowest plan that fully supports your next 12–24 months, with a bit of headroom for growth.

Use case 1: Personal blog or hobby site

• Start with: Free if you’re just experimenting and don’t mind a .wordpress.com address and ads.
• Upgrade to: Personal once you care about branding (your own domain), no ads, and better backups and support.
• Watch for: Whether you’ll need paid subscriptions, more advanced design, or plugins in the future—those can push you toward Premium.

Use case 2: Portfolio or freelancer site

• Recommended minimum: Personal, but Premium is often a better fit.
• Why: Premium gives you more design options, better media support, and more ways to earn from your work, which matters for client-facing sites.
• Consider Business: Only if you need very specific plugins, advanced SEO tools, or custom integrations that rely on code access.

Use case 3: Small business brochure site

• Recommended minimum: Premium, often Business.
• Why: A business site usually needs strong branding, fast performance, solid SEO tools, and marketing integrations—features that live in Premium and Business.
• When Business makes sense: If SEO and integrations are critical, or you know you’ll eventually hand the site to a developer, Business gives future-proof flexibility.

Use case 4: Online store

• Recommended minimum: Commerce.
• Why: While you can take simple payments on lower plans, a serious online store needs dedicated e-commerce features for products, shipping, tax, and order management.
• Think ahead: If your store grows, Commerce and other high-tier options give you room to scale before you ever consider moving off WordPress.com.

Step 4: Compare Pricing, Billing, and Value

WordPress.com pricing varies by currency and billing period (monthly vs. yearly), but broadly, paid plans start at the low single digits per month for entry-level tiers and go up through mid-range and premium options for stores and high-traffic sites. Higher tiers bundle in more value: a free domain for the first year on annual plans, more storage, advanced tools, and better support.

As you compare, look at value per feature, not just the sticker price:

• Does the plan include a free domain for the first year, and how much will renewal cost later?
• How much storage do you get, and is it enough for your content type (blogs vs. video-heavy sites)?
• Are SEO, analytics, and monetization tools built in, or will you need extra services?
• How much support access (forums vs. 24/7 live help) do you get, and how important is that to you?

For a bigger picture of domain, hosting, and add-on costs beyond WordPress.com itself, check out our breakdown of how much it costs to build a WordPress website so you understand the total cost of ownership, not just the plan price.

Step 5: Choose, Purchase, and Configure Your Plan

Once you know which plan makes sense, it’s time to actually buy it and switch on the features you’re paying for. Here’s a simple click-path you can follow from inside WordPress.com.

1. Sign in or create your WordPress.com account. Go to WordPress.com and click “Log in” or “Get started” if you don’t already have an account.
2. Open the pricing page. From the main navigation, open the “Plans” or “Pricing” page to see the current plans available in your region.
3. Select your plan tier. Click “Choose” or “Get [Plan Name]” for the plan that best matches your needs (Free, Personal, Premium, Business, or Commerce).
4. Pick a billing cycle. Choose monthly if you want flexibility, or yearly/multi-year if you’re ready to commit and want the best effective monthly price.
5. Connect or register your domain. Either register a new domain (often free for the first year on annual paid plans) or connect an existing domain you already own.
6. Review the summary and complete payment. Double-check the plan, billing period, and domain, then enter your payment details and confirm.
7. Turn on plan-specific features. After checkout, go through your dashboard to:
   • Confirm your primary domain and SSL (https) is active.
   • Explore plugins and themes available at your plan level.
   • Configure SEO, analytics, newsletters, or store settings as needed.

Before you pay, quickly check whether there are any active promotions or WordPress.com coupon deals available so you’re not missing out on easy savings.

Smart Next Steps for Your WordPress.com Site

Choosing the right WordPress.com plan is less about chasing the biggest bundle of features and more about honestly matching your goals, skills, and budget to what each tier offers. If you’ve followed the steps above, you should now have a plan that covers your next 12–24 months without overpaying.

As your traffic, income, and technical needs grow, revisit your plan once or twice a year. Upgrade when it actively removes friction—like hitting storage limits, lacking key SEO tools, or needing advanced integrations—rather than just because a higher tier looks impressive. And remember: if one day you outgrow WordPress.com entirely, you can always migrate to self-hosted WordPress.org with more control but more responsibility.

Further Reading

• What Is WordPress?
• How Does WordPress Hosting Work?
• How to Choose WordPress Hosting
• How to Make a WordPress Website for Beginners

Frequently Asked Questions