WordPress.com Website Builder Review

What has the WordPress website builder (WordPress.com) got to offer?

Being the world’s most popular website building tool, is it the right tool for your needs?

4.1

Simplicity

Design

Features

Pricing

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WordPress.com Review Conclusion

WordPress.com is a one-stop website building tool where services like website building, editing, hosting, and technical website support get bundled together to simplify using the main WordPress software to create a website.

Compared to other builders, it gives you more flexibility, customization, freedom, and access to an unrivalled number of website building features. However, its ease of use and simplicity falls behind.

That’s right, with no drag and drop feature, the website editor is not very beginner-friendly (lots of technical details). Ultimately it ends up having a steeper learning curve, and implementing some features requires having coding knowledge.

As a note, you can build and host your site using WordPress themes for free but paying for a plan unlocks advanced customization, premium themes, and WordPress plugins to make your dream WordPress website a reality.

Website Builder

Total score

4.1

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Here is a table of content to help jump between different sections.

Despite being dominantly used, the WordPress website builder has stiff competition in its space, competing against effortless to use and hugely popular tools such as Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, and more, is no easy task.

It’s essential to understand everything about a website builder – in this case, WordPress.com – before you pay a penny and hop onto the platform.

We’ll go through all the features you get in this extensive WordPress website builder review. So sit tight. Let’s get to the details.

WordPress got started in 2003 as a simple blogging platform that evolved into a powerful website creation and development framework.

Later on, in 2005, the website building service WordPress.com got launched by Matt Mullenweg. He was among the original developers of WordPress.org; there’s a difference between the two WordPress versions, but more on that later. At the start, the WordPress website builder operated only on an invite-only basis. As they say, from there the rest is history; it currently powers 37 million websites.

Now, WordPress.org and WordPress.com are very different, as I just told you; lets us clear up their differences before we continue.

WordPress.org is a self-hosted version of WordPress – the open-source Content Management System (CMS) software – created by Automattic Inc. To use it, you register a domain name, pay for your preferred hosting from any provider, and use the WordPress software to create and manage multiple websites of any kind for free without any restrictions. Awesome, right?

The problem is you have to handle all technical server and website management aspects, including website, themes, plugins, and security updates.

Upsides:

• It’s 100% free
• You can add any WordPress plugin or use any WordPress theme (even from 3^rd parties)
• You get full control to create the website you want
• There are no customization limitations

The above requires having professional webmaster skills such as coding (or paying for a developer), which scares away the majority of users looking for:

• Simpler interfaces better for beginners
• An effortless website editor (excellent ease of use)
• Technical website support (security, and updates management)
• Dedicated customer support

That’s where the WordPress.com service comes in. It ticks all the above boxes and other features offered by most modern website builders.

You pay for a subscription, unlike WordPress.org, but you can also use its free tier with basic features to test everything first.

Anyone from a beginner to a professional webmaster, designer, and web developer can use it. However, a novice might have a little harder time before getting to grips with how everything works.

Despite the WordPress website builder being hugely popular mostly for blogging sites, there are many more types of websites you can build; it’s so flexible you’ll be amazed.

We recommend it for:

• Small businesses websites
• Online portfolios
• Simple sites for family, or events
• Podcasting sites
• Online stores (use WooCommerce)
• Nonprofits and religious websites
• Membership sites
• Job Boards
• Business Directories
• Online Communities

As you can see, the possibilities are huge, but there are situations which we would urge you to steer clear of WordPress.com i.e.

• Very complex websites
• Big eCommerce sites

Why?

First, there are better options for these types of websites like self-hosting using WordPress.org, using a dedicated online store builder or going for managed WordPress hosting is much better.

Second, there are some restrictions and limitations, e.g., on Plug-ins with WordPress.com. This hinders you from implementing some functionality of such websites.

Lastly, do you have advanced skills (coding) or money for hiring a web developer?  If your answer is no, know that you also require either of those, even on WordPress.com.

For such sites, it would be better to go with WordPress.org at once.

30% of bloggers use WordPress;

Want to join them?

Or  rather;

Why do they prefer to go with WordPress?

Simple, It’s the best blogging platform.

Generally, it’s better suited to blogging than other types of websites because of its incredible in-built blog features. You can build a standalone blog or add a blog page to your fully-fledged site. And you can bet it will be a fantastic looking blog because most WordPress themes are blog-focused.

To add content (posts), you have;

• The Classic Editor with a simple interface, where you can start typing and share your thoughts.
• The modern block-based content editor which allows you to make block-specific changes.

On the Posts Tab, you can quickly add, manage, or delete posts, and writers, as well as save drafts. You can also schedule posts. The provided text editor allows you to create titles, change fonts, and format your post easily.

When it comes to the must-have blog features, out of the box, i.e., without any 3^rd party integration, you get:

• A Blog search tool
• Social bookmarking features and RSS feeds support
• Social media sharing and social feeds integration
• Setting Subscriber-Only Content (for paid plains)
• Password-protection for individual posts.
• Improved support for adding and hosting podcasts on your blog
• Site Analytics powered by JetPack
• Blog posts features including related posts, adding categories, tags, a featured image, author(s), and date are supported
• A robust comments system where you can set email notifications, comment adding conditions (name and email provision), intelligently allow comments from trusted posters, and set comments page display conditions (comments/page and nesting levels)
• Polls and rating features
• Posts SEO tweaking options

What if your WordPress website is new, and you’re concerned about traffic?

Worry not; you can get it from the community of blogs hosted on WordPress.com network (under the Reader Tab). Everyone using the WordPress website builder can find and follow your blog.

When it comes to blog monetization, everything is made easy. As long as you got a paid subscription, you can collect payments from your subscribers and also display Ads and earn from them (Premium and higher plans).

As long as you’re in the US or Canada, you can easily open an eCommerce Store for selling products worldwide. All you require is a Business plan subscription.

You get access to a product editor that you can use to:

• Add product images
• Set prices in different currencies (60+ for the eCommerce plan)
• Add star ratings to top products and support product reviews
• Create Product categories
• Add Payment methods: PayPal and Stripe are supported, but you can take offline payments via cheque or cash-on-delivery.
• Use the supported Automatic Tax Calculator
• Add Shipping methods and rates
• Create Coupons

What about promoting and marketing your WordPress eCommerce store?

You get free integration with the Mailchimp plugin, where your buyers can sign-up for newsletters straight from your website.

If you’re outside of the US or Canada, you’ve got to use a custom eCommerce plugin to host your online store. For e.g., WooCommerce, which powers 30 percent of all online stores. Also, note, you’ve got to integrate Payments like PayPal via code if you go that route.

The last option is only adding a simple Paypal payments button for accepting one-time payments, say for digital products, but it’s only possible with the Business plan and higher.

With WordPress, 3rd party plugins, apps, and integrations are supported. However, they are limited to their highest-priced plans only, i.e., Business plan and up.

To add a WordPress plugin, go to the “Tools” Tab, where you’ll find specific instructions for each plugin, and supported integrations. One major downside is that some plugins may require embedding code or using the not so beginner-friendly WP admin dashboard.

But on the other hand, once you’ve installed a WordPress Plugin, you can allow automatic updates, which makes future management easy.

Some of the best WordPress plugins we recommend looking at include:

• Yoast SEO
• WooCommerce for online stores
• Google Analytics (more on that in a bit)
• Mailchimp
• Google Language – translate your website language-based your visitors IP location

What can we say about WordPress.com SEO;

Well, it’s good but not great.

Why?

Starting with the positives:

After building your WordPress website, it comes with the essential SEO basics (80-90% of the mechanics of SEO) taken care of through the JetPack plugin. All WordPress themes get designed to optimize your site rankings on Google.

What’s more, your site gets indexed easily with any plan because of built-in sitemaps, which you can submit through the WP Admin page.

On the negatives, you’re allowed minimal tweaking to improve SEO; you can edit metadata, but to edit page descriptions, titles, and more, you require the Yoast SEO plugin. To add Yoast you’ve got to be a Business and eCommerce plan subscriber.

Apart from the above, there’s not much more you can do from your end.

Similar to SEO, you get built-in Analytics powered by the JetPack plugin from WordPress. Stats you get shown feature colorful charts and graphs which are visually appealing and easy to understand.

You can see information such as:

• The content your readers, like and their comments
• Posts performance, e.g., latest posts
• Traffic sources, e.g., countries
• Pageviews
• Stats on referrers
• Numbers of site visitors
• Search terms
• Referrers
• Clicks
• Authors
• And more…

To access the above stats, click on the “Stats” Tab on your dashboard’s left sidebar.

But that’s not all; there is also an Insights area where you can see:

• Follower totals
• Posting activity
• Historical views
• Top days and times
• Top posts and products.

For most people, especially Pro Webmasters, the above Stats tools may not be enough. Google Analytics is the best; however, note that you must have at least a business plan to add it.

During the sign-up process, after submitting your site name, the setup Wizards ask you choose a domain name for your WordPress website. After that, you get redirected to the domain options page to select a paid or free domain.

If you go with the free plan option, you can only use a subdomain. It is good for getting started, but for any serious business, it should be a big NO.

For those not sure on the domain name to use, there’s a domain search tool to help you land on one and buy it directly from WordPress.com. With any paid plan, you get a free domain name (1^st year only), so you will save some money here.

To connect a custom domain, you have to use a paid plan. Once you set everything up, you get easy to use tools that make domain management effortless.

Compared to other website builders, you get unmatched robust protection which includes:

• A pre-installed SSL certificate even with the free plan.
• A password-protection feature for  individual pages and posts.
• Automatic Monitoring of websites to check for suspicious activities on the network.
• Spam protection powered by JetPack.
• 2FA option (2-factor authentication) to increase log-in security.
• Business and eCommerce clients get an automatic Backup & One-Click Rewind feature to restore their websites to a previous stable version in case of any problem. Also, these plans  have SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol).
• WordPress.com uses secure hosting and has multiple data centers spread globally for higher redundancy and reliability.

Finally, WordPress has a dedicated security team that creates and manages its built-in firewalls to improve site protection for all their clients and fight account takeovers.

As you know, WordPress.org is totally free, and you can do anything with the software as its open source. However,  with the WordPress website builder, you get 4 plans, 3 paid, one is free forever, no trial period, or such conditions.

All subscriptions get billed annually – no paying month-to-month. The charges get mainly shown using monthly pricing, though. We recommend first trying out the free plan then upgrading later when you get a gist of how everything works and what exactly you need from their plans.

If you pay and change your mind later, you’ll be glad to know; a 30-day moneyback-guarantee covers all plans. It’ s one of the best in the web building space as many are below 14 days.The cancellation process is automatic; no human intervention is required, which a big plus. And you get your full refund in under an hour.

Now, Let’s break the plans down in detail below.

Free

• Only basic design features and customization supported
• 100% free forever
• supports hosting multiple websites
• Jetpack Essential Features, Pre-Installed SSL Certificate and access to free themes included which are all available for every plan
• Embedding code, Videos, custom domain (only subdomains), and 3^rd party plugins is not supported
• Has WordPress Ads
• You get 3GB of storage space

Personal ($4)

• WordPress Ads get removed but not all branding
• Free Domain for One Year and custom domains get support from this plan onwards
• You get a few Basic features  but not full Advanced Design Customization
• Email & Basic Live Chat Support
• Payments, Subscriber Only Content, and Paid Newsletters supported from this plan
• 6GB storage

Premium ($8)

• 13GB of storage space
• WordPress Ads get removed but not all branding
• Google Analytics Integration, Pay with PayPal, WordAds, Advanced Social Media, VideoPress Support are available from this plan onwards    

Business ($35)

• 200 GB of storage space
• 24/7 Priority Live Chat Support
• SEO Tools, Installing  and Uploading 3^rd party Plugins & Themes, Automated Backup & One-Click Rewind, SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), and Database Access available (even for the eCommerce plan)
• No WordPress Ads or branding

eCommerce ($45)

• Personalized Expert Support Sessions
• 200 GB of storage space
• 24/7 Priority Live Chat Support
• No WordPress Ads or branding
• Advanced eCommerce features available:
• Accepting Payments in 60+ Countries, Integrations with Top Shipping Carriers, Selling Unlimited Products or Services, eCommerce Marketing Tools, and Premium Customizable Starter Themes provided.

Web hosting providers offer technical support for only your hosting server, while website builders customer service mainly focuses on the website creation. WordPress.com covers everything, including website management and updates.

It gets done through:

• An extensive Knowledgebase filled with helpful pages and articles for self-help (all plans). It even has a search feature and Video tutorials.
• Email (under 2 hours replies). Email support is available from Monday to Friday for 24 hours.
• Basic Live Chat (under 10 minutes replies) is available for paid plans only. But Business and eCommerce clients get 24/7 priority Live Chat support.
• Community forum support, which is available even for free plan members. You get quick responses from other WordPres.com users (not the developers), which is great.

Unfortunately for all plans, there’s no phone support.

 The eCommerce Plan customers additionally get personalized support sessions where they connect on a 1-on-1 video call with a WordPress expert and get tips on setting up and running their WordPress site.

At the risk of making this detailed WordPress website builder review too long, I have to cover some significant sections:

• How to create your website using WordPress themes
• WordPress Design Tools
• Ease of Use and Simplicity

Here’s a breakdown of all you see on the WordPress editing dashboard.

There’s a top bar where on the left you get:

• MySites button – clicking on it takes you back to home.
• Reader button – here, you can connect with the whole of the WordPress websites network. There’s a feature to discover, search, follow,and comment on other blogs and websites.

On the right:

• Write button – for adding a blog post
• Visit Site Button – This is a preview button for getting visitor view of your whole website.

Account Management Button – It gets broken down into:

• My Profile button – manage and edit everything about your profile including First & Last name,and About me. You can also add a Profile Photo and Profile links for your other websites.
• Account Settings – add and manage the username, email, interface language and color theme for the dashboard.
• Manage Purchases – for taking care of subscriptions, billing, and seeing upcoming charges.
• Security – change password, set up 2 Factor Authentication, manage Social log-ins (Google & Apple accounts), and Connected Apps, set recovery email and phone number.
• Privacy – for management of privacy settings like enabling the sending of information to WordPress Analytics tools.
• Notifications – for enabling desktop, and email notifications reporting on comments, likes, the site follows, achievements and more.
• Blocked sites – see blog and sites you’ve blocked.
• Get Apps – for finding WordPress desktop and mobile apps direct links.

My Home Tab – Includes tips on various aspects of your site you need to work on when starting (setup steps) and also quick links to helpful how-to guides and videos tutorials on WordPress features from its knowledgebase.

Stats Tab – for seeing all the Analytics Data

Plans Tab – see your current plan, upgrade and see Pricing FAQs relating to all offered subscriptions e.g. payment methods

Sites Tab –  for managing published content. It’s broken down into:

• Pages – manage all pages whether published, drafts, scheduled or trashed. Contains functions to help you add new pages, view page stats, edit pages, copy pages, and copy page links.
• Posts – manages posts (add new, view,copy or delete pages, its stats, comments, and copy page links).
• Media Manager – Upload media via a button, drag and drop style or link URL. Manage functions for documents, images, video, and audio also included.
• Manage comment system – approve, keep them pending, flag as spam, trash.

Feedback Link Tab – see all feedback from contact forms and polls. Also, see comments from posts, pages, and comment ratings.

Design Tab – access the WordPress themes customizer. From here, you can browse, search, select and activate any WordPress theme.

Tools Tab –  Helps you handle WordPress plugins and supported integrations. It further breaks down into these sections:

• Plugins – browse, search, access and add plugins. There are 4 categories to choose from; Engagement, Security, Appearance, & Writing.
• Import – for getting content from other sites. Supported sites include WordPres.org, Blogger, GoDaddy, Wix, Medium, Squarespace and more.
• Export – save and move all your website content or media library.
• Marketing – here you create, add and manage everything to help promote your website. You can hire experts from UpWork, create a logo, start social sharing and managing social network connections.
• Earn – a place where you can activate, and manage monetization (Earn Ad Revenue), accept subscriber payments, donations and tips. In addition, you can send newsletters from here.

Manage Tab– take care of all hosting configuration (backups and STFP transfers), domain names, people (your team, followers, email followers and invites).

WP Admin – It is a website management tool that takes you to the more advanced WordPress.org dashboard used by Professional webmasters.

Having got the gist of the function of everything on the WordPress Editor dashboard, here how to use all the available tools to create a stunning site.

Once you go to the official site, it’s pretty much easy to know how to get started.

Click the “Start Your Website” button in the middle of the page to get to the sign-up page.

You have an option of using

• Your email address, username, and password
• or a Google or an Apple account

Next is domain selection. Enter your preferred domain name (site’s name or relevant keywords).

Here’s where I need your attention:

You get lots of suggestions, some for premium domains, free domain offers for your 1^st year, and a 100% free subdomain name. To use the WordPress website builder without paying, go with the 100% free domain. If you go with the other options, you only get to choose from their premium plans in the next step.

On the next step,

• Choose your Premium plan
• Or click on the “Not Sure Yet? Start With A Free Plan” button to use it for free

That’s it, finally you get redirected to the WordPress website builder “MySites” dashboard.

Good news;

You get a default pre-installed WordPress theme, which you can start editing. It looks nice but a bit generic.

If you’re happy with the default WordPress theme, you can just start editing it by

1. Going to Sites > Pages
2. Clicking on one of the theme’s page

But we recommend browsing all WordPress themes to find what fits your site. Go to Design > Themes by using the left placed sidebar.

From there, you can see the current theme at the top, browse other WordPress themes, and click “Customize” to fine-tune the one you choose.

Let me break down the features you get with all WordPress themes

• Free and paid options available (over 293 in 26 categories). With the Premium and higher plans, you get access to unlimited premium themes.
• You can search themes using filters like Layout, Column, Subject, and Style
• Aesthetically pleasing, modern, and professionally designed
• Responsive (Mobile optimized)
• Previewing (Live Demo) is supported with modes for desktop, tablets, and phones.

After clicking the “info” button of your preferred theme, you get:

• An Overview Tab with more information on it and its features.
• A support tab for forum help (Questions and CSS code)
• Open Live Demo button for previewing it
• “Activate this Design” button

Immediately you activate a WordPress theme; you get a prompt to customize it. Alternatively, you can also access this option by going to Design > Customize on the main dashboard.

Everything you need to add gets done on the left side, and the edit settings at your disposal depend on the WordPress theme your using.

For our WordPress review, my theme customizer had the following options:

• Site identity – Add the site title, site tagline, site icon(favicon), your logo, and footer information. Remember to use the preview modes for different screens on the bottom left.
• Featured Prompt – Add a title for your prompt features, e.g. Pop-us, their descriptions, images, and links.Also, name your CTA button, and add its link. Furthermore, you can also adjust the background overlay level.
• Contact Information – select the placement of the header and footer, Add site contact information like address, phone, email, and available hours.
• Style Packs – choose the main menu style from the options given
• Colors and Background – set background patterns, and colors of your pages
• Font – change headings and theme fonts
• Menu – create a site primary navigation menu, set the menu location on your same. You also get the same options for social icons menu
• Content options– enable or disable displaying of Author bio, Blog Post details (date, categories, tags, author, and comment links). You can also enable or disable featured images for single posts, pages, and archives
• Widgets – for editing footer widgets
• Homepage Settings – used for setting the page to get used as the Homepage and the page to include posts you add to your site
• Additional CSS – for doing further edits to your WordPress theme’s CSS code.

To make more edits to everything on your site as well as add new blocks, go to MySites > Site > Pages. Click on the page you want to edit or add a new blank page.

A cleanly designed page editor pops up. It has simple and easy to reach editing tools all on the top bar.

On the top left, there’s:

• Add block button – It gives you access to all  Blocks, e.g., slideshow, paragraph, table, the image you can add to a page. They’re categorized into New, Text, Media, Earn, Design, Widgets, Embed, Coblocks. What’s more, there’s a search tool to help you find a block easily
• Undo and Redo functions
• Information icon – click on it to see information on the content structure of your site, e.g., number of words, headings, blocks used.
• List view  – shows you all blocks and elements included in your site in a list view

On the top right:

• Preview button – for getting a visitor view of your site and checking how your edits look
• Update button – for saving all edits you’ve made.
• Block and Page setting button – shows you all page and block settings you can change. E.g., to see the Gallery settings, click on the Gallery on the page, and then this Setting Button to see relevant options. They are unique for each block.
• Global Styles Edit button – for making changes that apply to the whole site, mostly its only fonts
• Jetpack plugin button

To edit a page, just customize the placeholder content; for example, if its text, click on the text to get a text editor tool to change and format it. In sections with empty spaces, you see an add sign (+), i.e., block inserter tool. That’s all. Do this for all pages.

To go back to the dashboard, click on the WordPress icon on the top left, then View Pages.

WordPress websites get published as soon as you’ve started creating them, but once you added edits, you’ve got to republish

Go back to MyHome, click the “Visit Site” button to check whether you’re satisfied with your WordPress edits as well as customizations you’ve made.

To publish, click the “Launch Your Site” option under the Site Setup Section.

This builder is not as simplified and effortless to use, like Wix, SimpleSite, Squarespace, Strikingly, and other competing tools.

Reasons it falls behind?

It gives you lots of functionality you can include, which can be a bit overwhelming for beginners but a positive for more advanced users.

Also, its editor is not a WYSIWYG or drag-and-drop-based, which fit most beginners skills. You require a little bit more time to get familiar with how it works.

You cannot edit/customize your website’s pages on the same dashboard you edit your WordPress themes; each gets done separately.

Some changes require the use of WP-Admin, e,g, third-party plugins, and editing CSS code. WP-Admin better fits advanced users.

Overall, despite the steeper learning curve, the WordPress website builder isn’t hard to use.

• It has a clean and straightforward dashboard which is user friendly, and more streamlined than WordPress.org WP Admin area. Menus and tools are well labelled, allowing easy navigation.
• You get A Setup Bar  for showing you progress as well as setup steps completion.
• There’s a website creation wizard with useful tutorial messages and pop-up tips.
• You get a Help icon button for searching guides quickly or contacting support staff when editing.
• There is a WordPress Desktop App which enables you to edit, upload items, and update your website by creating an offline copy of it.
• There are iOS, and Android App versions for editing themes, menus, and even integrating 3rd party plugins. It also helps you add blog posts and media.

As you’ve seen, the WordPress website builder does a lot right like allowing advanced customizations and exporting websites. Moreover, it is the best for blogging.

However, since it falls short in simplicity, it won’t fit for everyone. We recommend it for people with a little experience in website building or beginners ready to learn. Also, it’s not excellent for all types of websites; a good example is eCommerce stores. You’re better off with a dedicated online store like Shopify or BigCommerce.

Despite WordPress Plug-ins being the main reason people are interested in it, we would like to point out that you can only install it with only 2 paid plans.

All in all, don’t be hesitant to use WordPress.com; lots of people trust and use it for their websites.

Here are direct links to other solid website building alternatives.

• Wix Review
• Squarespace Review
• Strikingly Review
• Site123 Review
• Jimdo Review
• Weebly Review
• Webnode Review

Do you agree with Our WordPress website builder review?

Anything you would like to add?

Let us know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading