The WordPress software itself is free. Some of the premium plugins and themes are offered at various costs.

WordPress.org is anyone can obtain the WordPress software, plugins and themes for self-hosted WordPress websites. That is essentially where we get them for you when we set up your WordPress website. This gives you a lot more flexibility with themes, plugins, being able to customize the code to make the site look and function the way you want it to. This is the part we do for you and what you pay us for. We also have access to the database, giving you much more control, like uploading videos, or having an e-commerce site. We also perform backups of your site every night, and update the themes and plugins as needed (which is very important for security reasons, and functionality).

WordPress.com, however, comes with a limited number of themes and plugins. And you have limitations on many of the things you may want to do on your site – like upload videos, or sell products, or change some of the design. WordPress.com also displays advertisements on your site, which is what makes it FREE. If you don’t want the ads, they offer upgrades with a price (up to $24.95 per month – higher than CharlesWorks). Your domain name would also have the WordPress.com domain attached to it. So your URL wouldn’t be yourowndomain.com, it would be something like samplesite.wordpress.com.

If WordPress is what you are looking for, we can provide hosting and support for that.

If you choose the “free” WordPress.com, the good news is that you can always migrate that site away from there to CharlesWorks when you are ready. We can help you do that!