As of 2023, about 43% of websites have been built on WordPress. Web development jobs involving WordPress continue to be plentiful, even though WordPress is now 20 years old. Boot camps and other development training programs often teach the latest tech stacks (e.g., MEAN, MERN, MEVN) and fail to cover older technology (e.g., WAMP, LAMP) that utilize WordPress, which is still used by many companies around the world. Since I've seen some confusion as to what WordPress is by both web developers new to the field, as well as by tech recruiters, I'd like to give the TDLR on WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.
WordPress.com is a hosting company and platform for self-publishing websites and blogs. It does not require the user to download any software and limits what themes and plugins the user has access to, at least for the free version. Free websites built with WordPress.com have limited CSS styling captabilities. WordPress.com is responsible for managing the security and backups for WordPress.com websites. For WordPress.com, the user does not need to know any programming languages.
WordPress.org, or self-hosted WordPress, is a free and open source web content management system (CMS) that can be installed on any web host or on a user's server. It gives developers access to thousands of themes and plugins for free. Websites built with WordPress.org can be styled with CSS. Users are responsible for managing the security and backups for a WordPress.org website. For WordPress.org, the user needs to know some HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, and knowing some MySQL can also be useful.
- What is the difference between WordPress .Com and .Org? on Learn WordPress
- WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (2023) — Which One to Pick? by B.J. Keeton