When comparing WordPress vs Wordpress.com, the Slant community recommends WordPress for most people. In the question“What are the best blogging platforms?” WordPress is ranked 4th while Wordpress.com is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose WordPress is:
If you set up WP on your own server, you can change every single aspect of it as you see fit.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Complete control if needed
If you set up WP on your own server, you can change every single aspect of it as you see fit.
Pro Widely used
According to some statistics, WP powers a fifth of the Internet. It means there are resources for everything. Community support, tutorials, extensions and a plethora of customization options.
Pro Self-host & WP-host options
For free WordPress can be hosted by yourself on your own server, or as a subdomain of wordpress.com. You can also pay to use a custom domain with WP hosting.
Pro Open source
Anyone can view the code of WordPress since it's under a libre/open source license.
Pro RSS feeds for everything
Including tags and categories.
Pro Post-level privacy controls
Each post can have a different access level.
Pro Huge collection of free and paid themes out of the box
Pro Pretty easy to create and maintain a blog
Pro Import from other blogging platforms
Such as blogger.
Pro Bulk media options
Pro Widget management
Pro Support sort post by name
Pro Powerful analytics out of the box
Pro Plugins for every occassion
There are a wealth of plugins that can cater for just about every requirement you may have, and many of these plugins are free.
Cons
Con A bit of bloat and complexity
WP has grown past being just a blogging platform and as such it's not as lightweight as it used to be. It also considerably more complex due to many more customization options compared to other solutions.
Con Dated
The code is a mess, uses dated conventions, and relies on dated technology.
Con Post must has category else it will be labeled as uncategorized
Con Freemium
Plugin cannot be used, custom html/css, Date Permalink cannot changed on free wordpress
Con Slow Speed
Navigating between action took around 3-5 seconds and longer for bulk action.