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WordPress.com Review: Price, Features and Score

WordPress.com at a glance: Free plan; paid from $48 a year, on web and iOS. Below are its plans, what its own site says it does for an author, its score and the products to compare it with. We did not test it ourselves; the data was checked on October 14, 2026.

Prices and data checked October 14, 2026 · Author Score computed by a published formula, not paid for

WordPress.com on the BookBird Author Score

Author Score · author website builders · #2 of 7 ·

Best for: Authors who blog or send posts as a newsletter on WordPress

BookBird Author Score8.2/10 #2 of 7 author website builders. Worked out from WordPress.com’s own pages, its price and US searches for its name, not typed in. Author jobs50 pts42.9/50Each of the 7 author jobs on the author website builders list is worth an equal share of 50 points, and counts only when WordPress.com’s own pages confirm it. 6 of 7 confirmed = 42.9 points. A job the vendor does not mention earns nothing.Cost25 pts25/25A free plan, or a platform that takes no upfront fee, earns all 25 points.Adoption25 pts14.4/25Searches, 20 points: 6,600 a month for “wordpress.com”, against Squarespace, the most searched in this category (673,000), on a log scale = 13.1. Trend, 5 points: down 24% (last three months against the first three of the year) = 1.3; a fall of half or more earns 0, no change 2.5, a rise of half or more 5. 82.3 of 100 points= 8.2 out of 10 The full method, with every product’s points →

Author jobs, from WordPress.com’s own pages

  • Not stated: Book pages with store links (not stated)
  • Yes: Templates made for authors
  • Yes: Newsletter sign-up
  • Yes: Your own domain
  • Yes: Blog or news page
  • Yes: Sell books from the site
  • Yes: Search settings you control

WordPress.com pricing

Free plan + paid plans. There is a free plan. The plans as WordPress.com’s own site listed them on October 14, 2026, in US dollars:

  • Free (site on a .wordpress.com address with WordPress.com ads shown to visitors; custom domains need a paid plan)
  • Personal (annual): $48 a year (USD 4/month equivalent; cheapest plan for connecting a custom domain; free domain for the first year; no ads; plugins and premium themes)
  • Personal (monthly): $9 a month (same features billed monthly; no free domain year (that needs an annual or longer plan))
  • Premium (annual): $96 a year (payment buttons via PayPal and Stripe, SEO title and description tools, video uploads)
  • Premium (monthly): $18 a month (same features billed monthly)
  • Business (annual): $300 a year (priority support, MailPoet email marketing to 500 subscribers, backups, SFTP/SSH)
  • Business (monthly): $40 a month (same features billed monthly)
  • Commerce (annual): $540 a year (WooCommerce online store)
  • Commerce (monthly): $70 a month (same features billed monthly)

USD prices from the vendor's public plans API (public-api.wordpress.com/rest/v1.5/plans?currency=USD), which returns list prices only. The pricing page served to Poland shows PLN with a first-year discount (e.g. Personal PLN 144 first year, then PLN 168), so the US page may also show a first-year discount that this API answer does not include. 2- and 3-year terms are also sold.

What WordPress.com offers

From WordPress.com’s own pages, checked on October 14, 2026:

  • Free plan on a .wordpress.com address, with ads
  • Theme filter for author and writer sites, with free and premium themes
  • Every site can collect subscribers and email new posts as a newsletter
  • Connect a domain from another registrar free on any paid plan; first year free on annual plans
  • Payment buttons for PayPal and Stripe from Premium; WooCommerce store on Commerce
  • Automatic XML sitemap; editable SEO titles and front-page meta description from Premium
  • Plugins and premium themes from Personal upward
  • Affiliate program covering WordPress.com hosting and other Automattic products

Runs on: web and iOS. Needs an internet connection.

Who WordPress.com suits, and what its pages do not say

Best for: Authors who blog or send posts as a newsletter on WordPress.

Not confirmed on WordPress.com’s pages when we checked: book pages with store links. That is what the vendor states, not a test; a feature can exist without being described, and the score only credits what is.

About 6,600 people a month search Google in the US for “wordpress.com”, down 24% over the past year (Google Ads data via DataForSEO).

WordPress.com alternatives

SoftwareScorePrice fromBest for
Wix9.7Free plan; paid from $17 a month (billed yearly)Authors who want author templates and a free starter site
BookBub Author Websites8.1Free plan; paid from $7.99 a month (billed yearly)Authors wanting a free author site with built-in email sign-ups
Tertulia author websites7.5$7.99 a month (billed yearly)Authors selling ebooks and audiobooks direct without per-sale fees
Weblium7.4$132 a yearAuthors on a budget who want an e-book store template
Carrd7.3Free plan; paid from $9 a yearAuthors who need a single landing page with an email sign-up

Compare: All author website builders · All software for authors

WordPress.com questions

How much does WordPress.com cost?

Free plan; paid from $48 a year. WordPress.com lists 9 plans; the full list is under Pricing above.

What does WordPress.com run on?

web and iOS, according to its own site.

How the score is computed: the formula, step by step. Prices and features were read from WordPress.com’s own site on October 14, 2026; nobody pays to be listed.