Are you looking to host among all the different types of WordPress hosts out there?
Here's a quick table summarizing the main differences.
Significant note and update dated September 24, 2024: We are aware that there is an ongoing dispute between the parties mentioned on this page. The purpose of this page is not to comment on this public dispute. Our goal is to clarify the differences between these various publicly available Web services. All of these products are paid products or have a paid product component that anyone can purchase at any time without restriction.
Comparison table between WordPress.com, WP Engine, Pressable, Automattic, and WordPress.org
Nothing better than a good old-fashioned comparison table with quick summaries:
| Service | Quick summary | Basic features | Does not include | Lower price range | Upper price range | Parent company |
| WordPress.com | A hosted WordPress platform for easy website creation and management. | Managed hosting, custom domains, themes, plugins (at higher levels), built-in SEO tools, and automatic updates. | Full server control, unrestricted plug-in installation at lower levels, and SFTP access (at lower levels). | Free (with restrictions and ads) | Up to $45 per month (billed annually) | Automatic |
| White Phosphorus Engine | Premium managed WordPress hosting focuses on performance and security. | Managed hosting, development tools, staging environments, automatic backups, security features, high performance, and 24/7 support. | Email hosting, domain registration, and support for non-WordPress sites. | 25 dollars per month | Customized pricing for enterprise plans | White Phosphorus Engine |
| Compressible | Managed WordPress hosting is geared towards agencies and developers. | Managed hosting, free SSL certificates, CDN, staging environments, automatic updates, malware scanning. | Email hosting, domain registration. | 19 dollars per month | Customized Enterprise Plans | Automatic |
| Automatic | The company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and more. | Offers a range of products and services related to WordPress. | Automated hosting services. | there is no | there is no | there is no |
| WordPress.org | The homepage of the open-source WordPress program for self-hosted websites. | Free program, full control over the site and hosting environment, access to all plugins and themes. | Hosting, domain registration, and customized support outside of the community forums. | Free (Software) | there is no | WordPress Foundation |
What is the main feature that all these services have in common?
The primary feature common to all of these services is the WordPress.org open-source framework as the core value engine for all of these services. All of these are paid services except for WordPress.org.
Where are the main differences between the two fundamentals?
This section includes a careful compilation of these different categories of services.
For example, WP Engine and Pressable's goal is to provide high-quality web hosting services for the open-source WordPress framework.
Automattic is a suite of services and is the parent company of WordPress.com, and Pressable is the translation and commercial implementation of the WordPress Foundation. Matt Mullenweg is the founder of both of these entities, which is important to note.
Also note that WP Engine and Automattic are the names of the parent company and both are for-profit companies.
WordPress.org is a non-profit organization.
This part is currently under discussion, but both WordPress.com and WP Engine are making feedback adjustments to the default WordPress.org core framework. Each of these companies do it in different ways. WordPress.com's unpaid subscription wall system is free plugins if you're going to host it elsewhere, like WP Engine. WP Engine makes other changes versus WordPress.org on another host, which blocks a certain number of plugins for resource and security reasons, as well as changing reviews by default out of the box.
List of automatic subsidiaries and date of acquisition
Automattic has a series of subsidiary companies and services that it created internally or acquired. You can see them on their main site:
Watch this space for more updates.
Last updated on September 24, 2024 by Joe
