Uptime & Reliability

Exceptional stability with very few problems

This is one area where the WordPress.com hosting really shines.  Whether you are using their free hosting or the premium packages, you will find that your site almost never has any issues.  This is likely due, at least in part, to the fact that everything is configured to run with the WordPress platform. This minimizes any changes or other things that often cause down time.

In addition, it allows their technicians to become experts in this area, which helps them to avoid mistakes and help ensure that their equipment is always working well.

Features

Lots of WordPress focused features

When you sign up with hosting for WordPress.com you will have access to many different features.  While many of them are very powerful, they are all focused specifically on their own platform.  So, if you are are looking to host something other than a WordPress powered site, they don’t have much to offer you.

Some examples of the features include lots of free themes to help make your site, almost instant automatic installation of the WordPress platform and responsive servers that are configured specifically for WordPress sites.

They also have an almost endless amount of help available for those who want to develop a great website on their platform.  You can use all their widgets and other tools as well, which can be very helpful depending on the type of site you are creating.

Support

Limited live support but lots of self-help

This is one area where WordPress is really struggling.  While you won’t often run into technical problems of any kind, it can be difficult to get help if you do.  They limit their live ‘premium’ support only to their paying premium customers, which leaves any of the .wordpress.com sites almost entirely unsupported with any official technical help.

On the other hand, however, they do have excellent forums available where other WordPress users can provide assistance.  They also have a lot of guides and tutorials on their site.  When it comes right down to it, however, you are basically going to be left with a ‘self-help’ style of support if you opt to host with WordPress.com

Pricing

Best free sites available. Premium hosting is a bit pricey.

If you are an individual who is looking to put up an inexpensive site that still looks great, and you don’t mind having the .wordpress.com extension, this is clearly the host for you.  There aren’t really many other free hosting providers that can compete with the perks that WordPress.com can provide.

If, on the other hand, you are thinking about using WordPress.com for premium hosting, it isn’t such an easy decision.  First of all, their premium hosting services, while nice, are typically more expensive than other hosting companies that provide similar services.

While you aren’t technically limited to only putting WordPress powered sites on your hosting, it is what almost everyone will do.  Everything about this host is focused on people who use the WordPress content management system.

Speed

Surprisingly fast at all hosting options

Since virtually all of the customers that use this hosting are running a WordPress site, they are able to optimize everything for this specific type of software.  The result is that in addition to being stable, you will get a surprisingly fast loading site from all of their hosting packages.

Whether using their free hosting services or one of their premium packages, you aren’t likely to run into any issues related to load times.  The one exception to this is if you begin activating a large number of the WordPress add-ons, which can be very taxing to web servers if they aren’t coded properly.  This, of courses, is not the fault of the host (whether you use WordPress.com or not) so it is not something most people need to worry about.

Summary

An exceptional choice for WordPress hosting

When it comes to their free hosting services, you won’t find a better option out there (assuming you want your site powered by WordPress).  Their premium hosting may be a little overpriced, but with all the features you get and the no-hassle uptime and reliability, it still may be well worth the extra little bit of money for each person.

While not the most powerful or the most advanced web hosting option in the world, they are still a great choice for many people who are just looking for simple hosting.

Pros:

• Excellent WordPress focused features
• Extremely simple website setup (on WordPress platform)
• Very reliable with few service interruptions
• Optimized for WordPress sites
• One of the simplest web hosting options

Cons:

• Mostly limited to WordPress powered sites
• Premium technical support is really only for paying customers
• Premium hosting services are overpriced