HostRight vs WordPress.com for WordPress ownership and flexibility

WordPress.com is a managed publishing platform. HostRight is general web hosting with WordPress Manager, PHP controls, database access, Redis, email, SSH, Git, and Cron Jobs. Both can run WordPress, but they give you different levels of ownership and operational control.

WordPress.com pricing snapshot

The supplied WordPress.com reference shows annual-billing equivalents of Personal $4/month, Premium $8/month, Business $25/month, and Commerce $45/month, with displayed renewal prices of $5, $9, $28, and $50 respectively. The plans include managed WordPress features, storage, themes, support, and different plugin/commerce capabilities.

HostRight Starter is $2.99/month and includes one site, one MariaDB database, five email addresses, 1 GB storage, SSL, daily backups, Redis, Git, SSH, and Cron Jobs. WordPress is installed through WordPress Manager or Softaculous, but you retain conventional access to the site files and database.

Feature comparison

Need	HostRight	WordPress.com
WordPress	WordPress Manager or Softaculous	Managed WordPress platform
Plugin/theme control	Conventional files and database access	Depends on the plan
Database access	Included MariaDB/phpMyAdmin	Platform-managed; access varies
Redis	Account-level Redis included	Not a general user-managed Redis service
Cron jobs	Included	Not a general hosting Cron Jobs workflow
Email	Mailboxes included	Plan/provider dependent
SSL and backups	Included according to plan	Managed by platform with plan policies
Other applications	PHP, Python, Node.js, one-click apps	Primarily WordPress and related products

Choose WordPress.com when you want the most managed publishing experience and do not need general server-side application access. Choose HostRight when you want WordPress plus email, database, Redis, Cron Jobs, SSH/Git, and the option to run other frameworks from the same account.

Read A better alternative to WordPress.com for self-hosted WordPress.