If you are considering to publish a blog using WordPress software, you should know that there are two main options for hosting it. Below we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each one

On one side, there is the possibility of hosting it in wordpress.com. Main things to bear in mind:

WordPress.com hosting:

• Free if you use a wordpress subdomain, such as myblog.wordpress.com
• Not possible to install new themes
• Not possible to install new plugins

WordPress.com hosting:

• You need to pay for a server
• Use your own domain, without restrictions
• Install your own themes
• Install your own plugins

And what is a theme and a plugin

A theme is the look and feel of your blog. But it is a lot more, since there is some code in it, you can use your theme to achieve different behaviour in your content. For example, you can decide what categories are listed in the home, if there is a slider or not, and many more things that just the fonts or the css styles.

A plugin is an additional module that brings new functionality to your blog, allowing you for example to embed tweets in your blog with Twitget. There are a lot of plugins in https://wordpress.org/plugins/, and most of them are free to use.

Conclusion

Normally, if this is the first time you are going to blog, and you have no budget to spend, our recommendation is clear, go for a free wordpress.com account. It will also allow you to grow with their premium options.

Going for a self-hosted WordPress site requires that you have knowledge about servers and a bit of programming. You will need to configure a database, upload things to an ftp account and so on. If all of this sounds new to you, then bear in mind that you will have to learn it. It is not complex, but you need to like it or it will be heavy task. There are of course lots of professional agencies that can help you out and have a lot of experience in building a professional WordPress site.