WordPress.com offers two modes of WP: WordPress and WordPress MS. For free and lower-priced accounts it runs a version of WordPress called WordPress MS, or WordPress Multisite, which is designed for super-efficient multi-tenant usage, which is what has allowed it to introduce hundreds of millions of people to WordPress and run at a huge scale. (It was initially called MU, for multi-user, but we had to change it because someone squatted the name WPMU and built a business on top that was confusing users with commercial products. Such is my curse.) It revolutionized the hosting industry in a number of ways, including acclimating customers to per-site pricing instead of unlimited domains and raising the bar for what a host would manage for users so they didn’t have to worry. It has also provided a highly secure base login, which allows us to offer popular SaaS services, such as statistics and anti-spam, to all WordPress users, regardless of where they’re hosted.
At higher-priced plans you’d get access to not just a curated set of plugins and themes but the ability to install anything you like from the ecosystem, which invisibly switches your account to WP.cloud in the backend that supports unlimited plugins and themes and custom code, in a way that’s still multi-datacenter and maintenance-free. This has been very successful and works great for a ton of customers, but it still puts an asterisk when you recommend WordPress.com to someone because they’d need to be on one of the higher-priced plans to get an experience of WordPress with custom plugins and themes.
For the first time ever we’re running a summer special where every single paid account gets that full WP.cloud experience with full customization and control. It’s a test we’re running until August 25th. It’s WordPress, without the asterisk, without limits, implemented in a way that’s intuitive and safe for novice users, while also being extremely powerful for developers. If you haven’t checked out WP.com in a while, it’s a great deal starting at just $4 per month. I’m curious to see the results of how this goes. We also have a number of more radical things I’m eager to try out! It’s a great time to reimagine what you’re doing from the ground up and question your longest-held beliefs, as AI has really put people in a more experimental and open mindset.
This is great. I hope the test run proves to be a success in a way that plugins can work for customers and the platform as well on all plans.
It’s still confusing. Are we able to run a WordPress multisite install on wordpress.com or not?
WP.com is one site at a time per plan, but you can manage infinite sites on it. If you want a MS install of your own, I suggest Pressable or VIP.
I’m always reading cooments that WP is overly complicated and often requires third party plugins that then stop working and/or have to be upgraded or replaced. Maybe it’s directed at large orgnizations that can easily handle the ongoing adminstrative burden?
There are millions of small businesses running on WordPress and dealing with core, plugin and theme updates as necessary. It’s actually not that hard.
Yes, a SaaS alternative takes care of all that. But it comes with limitations.
With WordPress, you’re future-proofing yourself. Your website can grow as needed – introduce eCommerce, eLearning, Memberships, etc…
You can structure your content as you wish, and create the navigation that makes sense to your users.
You can integrate with anything.
On a propriety platform, the future of your website is dictated by the commercial imperatives steering the development roadmap.
I’m curious if you feel the confusion around “WordPress”, generally, is over MS vs non MS instances of WP? Having done this for close to 20 years, my experience is that the confusion generally lies in the difference between self-hosted WP vs .com WP.
As it relates to both clients and agencies, very few users express concern, or even need to understand the nuanced difference of MS vs non-MS WP, and explaining it only overwhelms them more (again, in my experience), because WP MS is a real thing, but they’re not able to use the features that make MS distinctive on the .com platform. In other words, most users don’t care how the sausage is made, or the fact that you’re using MS to serve shared hosting customers.
The difference you seem to be explaining is, again, the difference between .com and “self-hosted” and the only benefit to explaining it the way you have is to avoid the point that .cloud is a similar experience to any other WP self-hosted experience. This confusion has been a long brewing and discussed issue that has felt ignored, to be honest, so bringing it up now is great, I’m curious if perhaps you’d be willing to consider that we need greater tools to distinguish these types of WP.
Wow, this is definitely going to be big news in the WordPress world! Will it be possible to change permalinks for both Premium and Personal plans?
I just wanted to share with you that from Mexico we are actively promoting WP.cloud across Latin America. We see a lot of potential in this region, and we’re positioning WordPress.com and WP.cloud as a powerful solution for scalability, customization, and ease of use.
We believe this summer special and the “WordPress without limits” message resonates strongly here, and we’re excited to help expand its reach in LA.
Best , Sergio.
I just started using the Personal plan and I’m really enjoying it.
It’d be great if events like this happened more often, as I’d love to see more people in Korea have the opportunity to own their own websites.