WordPress – The Advantage of a Self-Hosted Press
When starting a blog website, there are a number of options to choose from. one of the most popular blogging platforms available is the WordPress blogging platform. this is due to the ease of use, the abundance of add-on programs (called Plugins) and the strong development support of the platform itself. however, one of the biggest decisions with WordPress is whether to use the free WordPress.com hosted version, or to have a free self-hosted WordPress installation on your own server. while using the online service hosted at WordPress.com is really easy, after a while you begin to realize that there are limitations to what you can do with your blog. using a self-hosted version gives you a lot more flexibility, especially in terms of plugins, customization and theme choices.
WordPress.com allows the use of a few specific plugins and themes and a few small customization features, but with a self-hosted WordPress installation the options are indeed endless! As of the writing of this article, there are over 6800 plugins and over 1000 themes available. this does not account for the extensive number of “premium” themes and plugins that are also available, which can transform a standard WordPress blog into a full fledged content management system website.
In addition to the additional plugins and themes available, you get the advantage of using your own WordPress hosting, which gives you additional flexibility and security. Flexibility comes in the options of structure, domain names (including additional domains for each install) and the ability to host your own email accounts with your blog. Security comes in knowing that no matter what, you are in total control of your WordPress account, so no matter what WordPress.com decides to do in the future (like change features, charge for hosting, etc) you can still do whatever you want to do.
Of course, with a self-hosted WordPress installation, you do have more responsibility. this includes making sure that your WordPress site is configured properly (and optimally), is secured against hacking and that everything remains up to date. The good news is that updating and upgrading is pretty much a point and click function, with only the occasional need to mess with files directly. Security does require some additional attention however. although WordPress itself is a fairly secure software, there are system settings that many people do not know how to address which could leave your website vulnerable to attacks. The good news is that if you are willing to either do some homework, or pay a small fee for someone to do it for you, you can secure your WordPress website quite nicely.
All in all, a self-hosted WordPress website will give you more flexibility in options, more choices in plugins and themes and provide you with more control over the future of your website. Given the choice between the two options, unless you are totally scared of making decisions in hosting and configurations, the self-hosted version of WordPress is the best option available.
