Buying Guide
WordPress.com vs Self-Hosted WordPress — the short version, up front
A direct answer for newcomers to WordPress who are understandably puzzled that two different versions exist: how to weigh the field, what to rule out early, and the setup we would take ourselves.
The short answer
If one line is all you read, make it this: self-hosted WordPress on managed hosting: exactly the same software with every restriction already lifted, at roughly what .com charges for its still-restricted tiers.
The rest of the page shows the working behind that call: which checks to run, the mistake to avoid, and how to verify every claim yourself before money moves.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 18 August 2026
99.9%
Uptime commitment
24/7
Humans on support
Free
SSL, every plan
NVMe
Drives as standard
This page is written for newcomers to WordPress who are understandably puzzled that two different versions exist. If that is you, the decision does have a right answer — it simply rarely matches what commission-funded ranking tables are paid to print.
Both options run precisely the same open-source WordPress code. What separates the products is who holds the administrative keys and what the installation is contractually allowed to do. Hold that in mind and the noise in this market separates from the signal quickly.
The checks that settle it
Put every contender through these, top to bottom:
The right to install any plugin or theme, which is the wall between the two models.
The honest cost at whichever .com tier finally unlocks what self-hosting gives you on day one.
Who owns the site as a transferable asset, and whether it can be picked up and carried elsewhere.
Freedom to make money from it, since platform terms limit what a .com site may run.
The mistake this market is built on
Climbing the .com tiers one locked feature at a time, paying repeatedly for permissions a self-hosted installation grants free within an hour of being created.
Once it has been named you see it everywhere in this market — and steering around it does more for you than optimising any other figure on the page.
What we would buy in your position
Self-hosted WordPress on managed hosting: exactly the same software with every restriction already lifted, at roughly what .com charges for its still-restricted tiers.
In concrete terms that is our Sprint WordPress option: one flat rate carrying the essentials (SSL, migration, copies, mail) this market prefers to bill separately, with in-place upgrades ready when the work picks up.
Order an annual plan and the first year of the name's registration is on us.
Ten minutes of checking, well spent
Put us through the same checks: write to support before paying and see who answers, compare the renewal rate with the order rate, read the refund terms in full, and look the company up — ours is UK Health Care Support Ltd, registered in England and Wales, on the public record.
Then let real use decide. Two working weeks inside the money-back window beats every review roundup ever written, and trying us costs the minute it takes to file a migration request.
Why we can afford to answer straight
This is a host writing about hosting, and we would rather say so plainly. No manufactured neutrality, no leaderboard paid for by referral cheques. Honesty traded for trust — and it reads better anyway.
Mailboxes at your own name are part of the plan — mail is included, not sold back to you at the checkout.
- Checks you can run again yourself
- Renewal rates published, not footnoted
- A free migration makes the trial easy
- Refund terms with no small print
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
A refund without an argument
If we are not the fit, leaving is one request rather than a negotiation — which is why we invite the test.
One rate, published in the open
What you order at is what you renew at — the only comparison that counts is one we win by default.
Support you can test before paying
Put a hard question to us before you pay — how a host behaves pre-sale is the best it will ever treat you.
An upgrade path that is real
Shared, VPS and dedicated on one platform — today's choice never boxes tomorrow in.
NVMe and LiteSpeed as standard
The hardware other hosts keep behind premium tiers is simply the baseline build here.
The verdict, turned into an order
The Sprint WordPress plan is this page's conclusion in product form — one rate, essentials inside, upgradeable in place.
Prices Side by Side
Our figures beside the big names
What the market typically charges to join and to renew, set beside ours, including the renewal figure most comparison charts leave out.
| Feature | Hosting & DomainsMost popular | Typical household-name host | Typical bargain host | Typical loss-leader deal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price / mo* | $2.42/mo | $4–$6 | $2–$4 | $1–$3 |
| Renewal price / mo | $2.42/mo | $10–$15 | $8–$12 | $4–$6 |
| Cheapest plan renews at its sign-up price | ||||
| SSL as standard | ||||
| Migration done for you | ||||
| NVMe drives on the cheapest tier | ||||
| Daily backups from the first tier | ||||
| Real humans on support, 24/7 |
*The figure in our column is the cheapest annual plan we sell, read live from the catalogue behind our pricing page, so it cannot drift out of date. The three columns beside it give the ranges hosts in each bracket tend to advertise: opening offers that usually want one to four years up front, then rise when the term ends. We stopped naming competitors and printing their prices, because a number we cannot check on the day you read it does not belong here. Set us against whichever host you are genuinely considering, and read the renewal row hardest of all.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Write the job down in one sentence
Write the workload and the audience in one line — for newcomers to WordPress who are understandably puzzled that two different versions exist, that line alone usually removes half the candidate plans.
- 2
Compare on what year two costs
Introductory rates are the oldest device in this market; rank hosts by the second year instead and the order rearranges itself at once.
- 3
Run a real trial inside the refund window
Putting your own site on the platform answers what no review can, and free migration plus the refund terms take the risk out of trying.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- People on the support desk every hour of every day
- PHP versions set per site from the control panel
- cPanel, which is what most of the industry already runs
- Spam and virus screening on every mailbox by default
- Free SSL on every plan, reissued before the old one lapses
- Upgrades applied in place, with no migration when you change plan
- 99.9% uptime as the target, watched around the clock
- DDoS filtering absorbed at the network edge
- SSH, Git and Composer on the developer plans
- No set-up charge at any point, and no joining fee
Frequently Asked
The questions that come up most
What can a WordPress.com site not do?
On the lower tiers it cannot install arbitrary plugins and themes, run custom code, or monetise freely. The Business tier removes most of those limits at a monthly cost above managed self-hosting, which grants the same freedoms from day one.
Is self-hosted WordPress harder to run?
Hardly, on managed WordPress hosting. Installation is one click, updates and backups run for you, and support covers the platform underneath. Unmanaged servers earned the 'difficult mode' reputation, and this arrangement did not.
What is the uptime commitment, and what happens in a month that misses it?
99.9% — and if a month falls below that through a fault on our side, our terms entitle you to a pro-rated credit; ask and we apply it. Calling it a target rather than a contractual SLA is a deliberate choice. Hardware and network faults surface through platform monitoring, usually before the first customer notices.
Will you move my existing site free of charge?
Yes. Open a ticket with the login for your current host and we bring the lot across — files, databases, mailboxes, configuration. You check the copy before DNS moves, and the old site keeps taking traffic right up to the moment the new one serves it, so nobody meets a gap.
Keep reading
Let's Encrypt vs Paid SSL
A buying brief without spin, written for site owners wondering whether a paid certificate delivers anything the free one misses.
Addon Domains vs Separate Accounts
A buying brief without spin, written for multi-site owners deciding how much isolation their portfolio genuinely needs.
How to Speed Up WordPress
Step by step, with every snag flagged before you get to it.
WordPress Hosting
WordPress looked after for you — LiteSpeed caching, staging copies and a daily backup.
VPS Hosting
KVM virtual servers — root access, DDoS filtering, one flat monthly figure.
Changing hosts? Run through our checklist first.
A plain order of work for a move nobody visiting will notice: which files go over first, how to carry the mail across without losing a message, when exactly to repoint DNS, and the two mistakes behind nearly every outage we are asked to rescue.
The name is waiting.
From a first website to a rack of machines, moving up is a change to the account rather than a migration.
View WordPress Hosting plans