Maybe I'm a little picky about naming, but I've always found it so confusing that "WordPress" is the self hosted open source project and "WordPress.com" is a project like Squarespace/Wix that uses WordPress. In addition to confusing, I even see it as somewhat misleading. It would be so much better if WordPress.com was called, I don't know, Spot. I think that for the branding of both projects it would be healthy.
The CMS project is hosted in Wordpress.org. The commercial service as Wordpress.com. It's perfectly clear which is commercial and which is the community/project.
It's just that both use Wordpress, the technology, and both were started by the same person, who created Wordpress the project.
Same with Ghost. The service is also hosted in Ghost.io, and called "Ghost" - same as the open source project CMS.
I mean, WordPress has been around for decades. Substack came along and basically made “WordPress with subscriptions” - so now WP has that functionality too.
Does WP.com still syndicate your content across the internal network? I was using it in 2012 for a blog about creative writing and very quickly amassed over 2,000 followers because of the said syndication.
I haven’t touched it in years, have spammers obliterated the platform?
If you're paying wordpress.com $300/year for all their features, I can highly recommend switching to AWS Lightsail for 90% savings. Exorbitant pricing.
Not sure who your comment is targeted to, but I've been working with a friend's mom - 55ish - on her WordPress website. With no tech experience she was able to spin up a site with a custom domain and get very close to launching but got bogged down in some WooCommerce details. She was also using Elementor which seemed to not play nice with WordPress.com's hosting. I suspect this is why Elementor now has their own hosting.
My point: this highly motivated but completely inexperienced woman was able to build a website on her own and get very close to launching.
I have no experience with AWS Lightsail. I'm sure it's a fine platform, but to me WordPress.com is really making the web accessible to a lot of people that otherwise wouldn't have access. Maybe it's not worth it to many with a tech background, but for her, WordPress.com is making her dreams come true.
One may complain about the prices for specific SaaS offerings, but mentioning Lightsail as a alterantive to a completely managed offer is not exactly an apples to apples comparison.
I got burned by Lightsail: did you know that if your instance exceeds its CPU "burst" quote for too long they disable the instance, without offering a clear way to get it working again?
[+] [-] pentagrama|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldtea|2 years ago|reply
It's just that both use Wordpress, the technology, and both were started by the same person, who created Wordpress the project.
Same with Ghost. The service is also hosted in Ghost.io, and called "Ghost" - same as the open source project CMS.
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] westondeboer|2 years ago|reply
10% fees for the free plan is not to bad
[+] [-] wouldbecouldbe|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orthros|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] btgeekboy|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gtirloni|2 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] skilled|2 years ago|reply
I haven’t touched it in years, have spammers obliterated the platform?
[+] [-] gtirloni|2 years ago|reply
I family member uses it routinely and I haven't noticed anything like that.
[+] [-] toddmorey|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iBotPeaches|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] tiffanyh|2 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] very_good_man|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lemonberry|2 years ago|reply
My point: this highly motivated but completely inexperienced woman was able to build a website on her own and get very close to launching.
I have no experience with AWS Lightsail. I'm sure it's a fine platform, but to me WordPress.com is really making the web accessible to a lot of people that otherwise wouldn't have access. Maybe it's not worth it to many with a tech background, but for her, WordPress.com is making her dreams come true.
[+] [-] moooo99|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonw|2 years ago|reply
Some notes on how I recovered from that here: https://til.simonwillison.net/aws/recovering-lightsail-data
Maybe they've fixed that issue now? This happened to me in 2021.