When you recommend WordPress.com to your audience, start with what they want to accomplish rather than the features of each plan. The right plan depends on their goals, the type of site they’re building, and the tools they’ll need as their site grows.
This guide helps you match your audience’s needs to the WordPress.com plan that’s right for them. For more information on how to position WordPress.com for different audiences, see how to position WordPress.com for different audiences. For a feature-by-feature comparison of the plans, see WordPress.com hosting plans breakdown.
Start with their goal
A quick way to narrow down the options is to ask what your audience member needs their site to do:
- Start a simple website or blog: Recommend Personal.
- Create a polished site and grow an audience: Consider Premium.
- Run a professional business or more complex website: Consider Business.
- Build and grow an online store: Recommend Commerce.
WordPress.com also has a Free plan that lets people try WordPress.com and get a feel for building a site. When you’re recommending a plan to your audience, focus on the paid plans, which offer more features and capabilities for people who are ready to build and grow their site.
Users don’t need to know how their site will grow in the future. WordPress.com lets them change their plan at any time. For current plan features and pricing, see choose a WordPress.com plan.
For writers and bloggers
Writers, bloggers, academics, and book reviewers often want a simple site that lets them focus on creating and sharing content rather than managing the technical side of a website. They may also want to build a community around their work through newsletters, social media, or basic ways to monetize their content.
Recommend Personal when they want:
- A custom domain
- An ad-free site
- More storage for images, audio, and other content
- More design options
- The ability to install plugins
- A professional home for their writing or blog
Personal is a good fit when the main goal is to publish content and establish a professional presence without needing advanced site management tools. See Personal plan features for the full list of features.
Consider Premium when they also want:
- More design options and access to premium themes
- More detailed site statistics
- Google Analytics
- Additional SEO tools
- Video uploads
- Newsletter tools
- Social media sharing features
- Basic ways to monetize their content
These features can be useful for writers and bloggers who are building an audience or turning their content into a larger business. See WordPress.com Premium plan features for more details.
For creators and influencers
Content creators, artists, designers, YouTubers, podcasters, influencers, coaches, journalists, marketers, and educators often use their websites to showcase their work, build their personal brand, and grow their audience.
Recommend Premium when they want:
- A polished, highly customized site
- Premium themes and additional design options
- More detailed audience and traffic insights
- Google Analytics
- SEO tools
- Video uploads
- Newsletter tools
- Tools to monetize their site and content
- Social media sharing features
Premium is often a good starting point for creators who want their website to be part of their brand and audience-growth strategy.
Consider Business when they need:
- Advanced performance and security
- Real-time backups
- A staging site
- SFTP or SSH access
- Database management
- Advanced developer tools
- More control over themes, plugins, and integrations
- A site that needs to handle more complex requirements
- Tools to monetize their site and content
- Social media sharing features
- Newsletter tools
Business is a better fit when the website has moved beyond a primarily content-focused role and needs more advanced hosting or development capabilities.
For small businesses and service providers
A business website has different needs from a personal blog. Businesses, restaurants, physical stores, agencies, coaches, course providers, and other professional services often need their websites to support their brand, customers, and revenue. They may also need more performance, security, scalability, and integrations as their business grows.
Recommend Business when they need:
- A professional website with room to grow
- Advanced security and backups
- Strong performance and scalability
- Staging and developer tools
- SFTP, SSH, or database access
- More advanced forms and integrations
- Email marketing tools
- More storage
- A site that needs to support more complex business requirements
Business is designed for professional site owners who need more control and functionality without having to manage their own hosting infrastructure. See WordPress.com Business plan features for the full list of features.
If they’re building a straightforward informational site and don’t need these advanced capabilities, Personal or Premium may be enough.
For online stores
If your audience member’s primary goal is to build and grow an online store, recommend Commerce.
Commerce includes everything in Business, plus a set of ecommerce tools and WooCommerce extensions designed to help businesses sell and manage products online.
Recommend Commerce when they want to:
- Sell physical or digital products
- Manage a growing product catalog
- Process and manage orders
- Customize their store’s checkout experience
- Offer product recommendations, bundles, or gift cards
- Manage inventory
- Automate marketing
- Connect with shipping carriers
- Sell through social media and other sales channels
- Use advanced WooCommerce extensions
Commerce is designed for businesses that need a full set of ecommerce tools and not just a way to accept payments.
Keep in mind that WooCommerce and plugins aren’t limited to Commerce. WordPress.com supports plugin installation on all paid plans. Commerce adds a broader set of ecommerce tools, extensions, and store-management features for businesses that need them. If you’re helping someone decide between Business and Commerce, compare the two plans to see which one fits their needs.
For developers and agencies
They often care the most about performance, scalability, security, site availability, and access to advanced development tools.
Recommend Business when they need:
- Staging sites
- SFTP and SSH access
- Database management
- WP-CLI
- GitHub deployment
- Advanced hosting configuration
- Access to plugins, themes, and integrations
- A hosting environment that can support complex or high-traffic sites
- Access to Studio, WordPress.com’s local development environment
Business provides these advanced capabilities while WordPress.com manages the underlying hosting infrastructure, security, backups, and priority support. Both WordPress.com and Pressable can be a good fit for agencies in particular, depending on the type of sites they manage and how involved they are after the site launches. See WordPress.com vs Pressable for help comparing the two.
A simple way to make the recommendation
When you’re creating content for your audience about WordPress.com, you don’t need to walk them through every plan. Start by asking what they’re trying to accomplish.
If they want to…
- Create a personal website or blog, recommend the Personal plan
- Build a polished content or creator site and grow an audience, recommend the Premium plan
- Run a professional business or complex website, recommend the Business plan
- Build and grow a full online store, recommend the Commerce plan.
If your audience doesn’t know which plan is best for them, they can always start with what they need now and upgrade as their site grows.
For the complete list of features included with each plan, see the WordPress.com hosting plans breakdown.
