On the podcast today we have Michelle Frechette and Jonathan Desrosiers, and we’re here to unravel the key differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. We explore the historical development, technical distinctions, and user experiences of both platforms, including issues of ownership, ease-of-use, open-source philosophy, community contributions, and the evolving feature sets. The discussion also touches on…
WordPress.com announced that it is giving away 1,000 free premium websites exclusively to university students. This offer is a fantastic opportunity for students to build their online presence. The first thousand students who sign up will receive a premium WordPress.com website for one year, complete with a free custom domain name, SSL certificate, 13 GB…
WordPress.com added support for ActivityPub today, a decentralized social networking protocol that is now available for across free and paid plans. This allows users to join the fediverse from their WordPress.com sites, and interact with content across federated platforms like Mastodon (and many others) with replies automatically published back to the blog as comments. The…
WordPress core developer John Blackbourn sparked a heated discussion yesterday when he posted an image of his WordPress User Switching plugin ranking higher for the WordPress.com listing than the page on WordPress.org. Blackbourn later apologized for the inflammatory wording of the original post, but maintains that .com plugin listings being displayed higher in search results…
WordPress.com is now selling a 100-year plan, one of the longest available in the industry, for a one-time payment of $38,000. It includes managed WordPress hosting (whatever that looks like in 100 years), multiple backups across geographically distributed data centers, submission to the Internet Archive if the site is public, 24/7 dedicated support, and a…
WordPress.com is making a strong bid for Google Domains customers after the the product was sold to Squarespace in a deal reportedly worthy $180 million. Shortly after the sale was announced, WordPress.com pitched Google Domains customers, reminding the public that the company is also a domain registrar, but the call to action didn’t include much…
WordPress.com has been known to experiment with its pricing from time to time, and the platform announced another major change today. Users on the Free plan are now able to use monetization features without upgrading. In the past, WordPress.com users who wanted to earn money on their websites by collecting donations, creating a newsletter, or…
Automattic is bringing Tumblr’s Blaze ad tool to WordPress sites with its launch today on WordPress.com and Jetpack. Blaze made its debut in April 2022, to the delight of Tumblr users who will gladly shell out cash to get people to look at their cat or promote a game they made. It’s an affordable way…
WordPress.com has launched a newsletter product just in time to capture those escaping Gumroad’s price increase and editors displaced by Revue shutting down. Newsletters, which were already booming as a communication tool in recent years, have become more critical than ever, as the uncertainty around Twitter has people scrambling to find reliable ways to stay…
WordPress.com has expanded its library of blocks to include a new Pocket Casts block that makes it easy to embed any show or episode in the WordPress editor. The block is branded for Pocket Casts and will display a podcast player and a selection of episodes when the show URL is selected. Alternatively, users can…
Automattic published its bi-annual transparency report this week, which highlights the different information and takedown demands received across the company’s services. Historically, Automattic has used these reports as an opportunity to publicly reaffirm its commitment to actively pushing back against requests that violate users’ freedom of speech and bring attention to abusive takedown demands. In…
WordPress.com announced a new “Starter” plan today for customers that bridges the pricing gap between the free plan and its $15/month Pro plan. The Starter plan is $5/month and includes a custom domain name, along with 6GB storage, and the ability to use payment collection blocks (Donations Form, Premium Content, and Payment Button). When WordPress.com…
WordPress.com officially announced its new pricing yesterday, after rolling it out on April 1. The lack of communication about the changes, and the free plan’s severely pared back storage and traffic limits, alarmed and frustrated many users who for years have considered WordPress.com their go-to platform for simple blogging. WordPress.com has simplified its offerings from…
Over the weekend, a post regarding WordPress.com’s as yet unannounced pricing changes went viral on Hacker News. In a post titled “What are you doing, WordPress.com?” one user identified as “VM” expressed concerns about the pricing, which has changed from five plans to two plans, and slashed storage on the free tier from 3GB to…
Donna Cavalier announced the vision of WordPress.com’s marketplace earlier today via the site’s news blog. This future will include bringing more premium themes, plugins, and services to users. Automattic, the company behind the site, will be partnering with third-party developers to bring these commercial offerings to its customers. Plugin developers, theme designers, and WordPress service…