Below, we’ll dive into some popular plugin options and discuss their ideal use cases.

Editor’s note: WordPress.com websites on the Business plan and above include built-in backups via Jetpack VaultPress Backup at no extra charge.

If you are a WordPress.com user and you’re interested in other third-party plugins, you can install them from the plugin library. All plugins listed in this article are compatible with WordPress.com, but you may find backup plugins that are not compatible; see all incompatible plugins here.

What exactly is a backup plugin?

Backup plugins are additional software you can install through the WordPress Plugin library to create backup copies of your site template and data. If something goes wrong with your website, you can restore it using these backup files.

Backup plugins are critical if you “break” your site, which can happen when installing a new plugin, updating WordPress core software, or changing your site template or styling. If things go awry, a backup makes it easy to revert your site to an earlier (working) version.

Backups are also useful when migrating your WordPress site from one hosting provider to another — a full site backup transfers all of your site code and content in one go.

10 WordPress backup plugin options for all use cases

Once you’ve answered the questions above, you can start to evaluate different plugin options. Below are our top plugin picks with recommended use cases.

1. For easy, real-time backups: Jetpack VaultPress

Jetpack VaultPress offers real-time backups at an unbeatable price. VaultPress is a great choice for sites that need regular, reliable updates, like e-commerce stores, online businesses, news organizations, and online communities. It’s included with all WordPress.com websites on the Business plan and above; if you’re a WordPress.com user, you can learn more about it here.

Price: Included with WordPress.com on the Business plan and above at no extra charge; $59.40 for the first year for other hosts

User friendliness: There is no configuration required for VaultPress, and you can restore previous versions of your website in the WordPress admin with just one click.

Backup configuration: VaultPress will automatically create a full site backup (including WooCommerce databases) upon installation, and continues to create real-time, incremental backups every time you edit your site. Backups are stored on a secure network of servers around the globe.

Performance: The incremental backup system means that Jetpack doesn’t require many server resources, and a distributed network of servers ensures backups are always available. For multi-site installations, each website needs its own Jetpack installation.

User review: The ability to restore to automatically-created restore points is invaluable. Every time you hit the save or publish button, a restore point is created. This makes it easy to restore to a point, say, just before the last page you updated. This is much more flexible than just restoring a previous full backup. Highly recommended! –@bobfalk 

2. For free, local backups: Backup Migration

Small sites looking for affordable, easy-to-use backups created daily, weekly, or monthly will love Backup Migration’s free tool and competitive annual pricing for their paid personal and commercial plugin, Backup Bliss.

Price: Free, up to 4GB of storage; Backup Bliss less than $40 a year (non-commercial sites) or $60/year (commercial sites)

User friendliness: Backup Migration does a good job of walking users through setup with accessible language that avoids technical lingo. It also offers one-click restore.

Backup configuration: You can set your backup frequency to hourly, daily, or weekly, and choose which parts of your site to back up, with advanced rules and triggers on premium plans. Backup Migration’s free tool focuses on local backups and does not offer cloud backups, though they recently started offering cloud backups on paid plans.

Performance: Depending on whether you choose to back up your full site or only a partial backup, server performance may be reduced during the backup period.

User review: I gave this a go and it worked flawlessly and restored my site to the exact condition it was prior. While I can do server backups it’s good to have one of your entire WP site just in case. In my case, I changed servers, so this helped. –@uniqf0x

3. For fast-scaling websites: UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus offers a solid, free backup plan that allows users to create backups as frequently as every two hours. We like that Updraft offers incremental backups to paid users, which is a great upgrade as your site grows.

Price: Free; $70/year for Personal (up to two sites) or $95/year for Business (up to 10 sites)

User friendliness: Updraft Plus tries to compensate for a busy and complicated user interface with tooltips that point non-technical users to the right buttons and settings. Logging into cloud-based storage systems with Updraft and finalizing backup locations can be unintuitive, but the restore process is fairly simple and only requires a few clicks.

Backup configuration: Users on every level, including the free tier, can automatically back up their site as frequently as every two hours. Paid plans also enable you to utilize incremental backups on a separate schedule and back up database content. While free users can only backup to one location, they can save to popular services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3. Paid users have additional location options, like Microsoft OneDrive and Google Cloud.

Performance: Full backups, the only option on the free plan, can strain server resources and slow down your site. Paid plans benefit from less intensive incremental backups, which only back up the changed sections, leaving more resources available for site traffic. Encryption and premium support are only available on paid plans. Multi-sites are also supported on the paid plans.

User review: I maintain other people’s websites for a living, and when I get a new client, I always install Updraft if it’s not already there. It is, far and away, the most no-nonsense, reliable, powerful backup solution for a WordPress site that is out there. A lot of hosting services provide backups, but almost none of them will bring a site back as quickly as you can with a click or two in Updraft… – @cmkl

4. For a one-time site migration: All-in-One WP Migration

All-in-One is our favorite tool for full-site migrations from one web host to another. It’s also an option for ongoing backups.

Price: Free up to 128MB; $69+ for larger sites and cloud extensions

User friendliness: We love All-In-One for its one-click export and import options, which make it easy for any user to download and move their site from one host to another. Just be sure to download the plugin on both sites.

Backup configuration: All-In-One creates full site backups for site migration. By default, backups are stored locally to your computer or hard drive, but you can purchase extensions to send the backups to popular cloud storage services like Dropbox, GDrive, and Amazon S3 (for $99).

Performance: Because All-In-One creates a full site backup for local download, it may temporarily slow down your website. Premium extensions come with dedicated support.

User review: I haven’t found anything better for backing up your entire WordPress yet. – @milan574

5. For multi-site backups: ManageWP Backups

If you manage multiple websites, you may benefit from ManageWP’s separate multi-site dashboard, where you can review and restore all of your sites from one place. However, ManageWP only runs backups at most every hour, which can lead to data loss on extremely active sites.

Price: ManageWP pricing is based on the number of websites you manage. Backup add-ons are $2/month for each website and $75/month for 100 bundled websites.

User friendliness: ManageWP offers a separate dashboard on its website for multi-site management.

Backup configuration: ManageWP allows individual site backups and backups for a whole multi-site network. It offers hourly, incremental backups stored in US/EU-approved cloud storage or locally (for paid plans only).

Performance: ManageWP’s incremental backups reduce server load because less data needs to be saved on each update. Additionally, ManageWP claims that 95% of the backups are done on their servers to reduce server load. ManageWP backups are automatically encrypted. 

User review: We use ManageWP as a simple dashboard to oversee all our companies websites. Currently it is only being used by our web development department as an easy interface to login to our websites (as it bypasses 2FA requirements), update our websites plugins & themes, and watch or any issues on our sites. –Darian Chaffart

6. For staging backups: WPVivid Backup and Migration

If you want to use your existing website while working on a new version of the site behind the scenes, you’ll need to use a staging website. Like a live website, it’s important to create backups for staging sites to avoid any data loss. WPVivid is a great tool for managing staging site backups.

Price: Free; $49+/year

User friendliness: WPVivid has an easy-to-use staging environment built into your WordPress dashboard, making it easy to back up and migrate staging sites. However, if you want to push your staging site live, you’ll need to upgrade to the paid version.

Backup configuration: The free plan includes monthly scheduled backups saved to popular cloud services, while the paid version offers incremental backups and additional cloud options. If you are actively working on your staging site and making frequent updates, you may want to opt for the more robust incremental updates. WPVivid also allows you to make multiple cloud-based backups on the paid plan. 

Performance: Because WPVivid backups are stored on your server, this can impact server speed during your backup period. Encryption is available on paid plans, but must be configured in your settings.

User review: I really appreciate that, when my website homepage turned up inexplicably broken today, the restore process — including the instructions (since I’d never had to do a WPVivid restore before) … simply worked perfectly. – @jrgeek

7. For tried-and-true results: Solid Backups (formerly Backup Buddy)

Solid Backups is one of the oldest backup plugins still in use today and maintains a solid reputation. It is one of the most expensive options on this list, but you are paying for a reliable and established tool with a robust feature set.

Price: $99+/year

User friendliness: Solid Backups is feature-rich, which may be overwhelming for first-time users. If offers good walkthroughs and documentation on both setup and restore processes, but there is no one-click option for restores — you have to run a separate script called ImportBuddy to retrieve a backup.

Backup configuration: Solid Backups is highly customizable in terms of backup storage frequency and backup location. In addition to other popular storage options, it offers a proprietary storage option called Stash Live. Incremental backups are also available.

Performance: Thanks to its incremental backup feature, Solid Backups is less resource-intensive than some other options after the initial full-site backup. All backups are encrypted with SSL and password encryption.

User review: When trying to restore a client’s website, I learned that SolidWP’s legacy backup product, Backup Buddy, has been replaced by a more reliable one. As a non-technical, 14-year subscriber to the original product, that caused tremendous complications. (OK, so I was panicked.) The committed customer service techs held my hand with step-by-step instructions in personalized videos and helped me accomplish the mission within about three days. –William Alexander

How often should I back up my site?

You should run backups whenever you change your website’s design or content. If you have a backend customer database or e-commerce store, that information should also be backed up.

Some websites, like informational websites for small businesses, rarely change and don’t need frequent backups. Sites with regular content additions, like blogs, need backups when new content is added.

Busy e-commerce sites and community websites can benefit from automated, real-time backups to ensure every order and comment is accounted for.

Do I need a backup plugin if my hosting provider includes 30-day backups? 

A common rule of thumb is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of your data stored in two different storage locations (like a local computer and a hard drive) and one “offsite” copy at another physical location or on the cloud. Your hosting provider counts as one of your three copies, but we highly recommend a dedicated backup tool for your website.

Considerations when choosing a backup plugin

There are a variety of backup plugins available, ranging from free, basic plugins to robust subscription plans. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to backup plugins, but you should consider:

• User friendliness
• Backup configuration
• Performance

The number of its active users and its last update date are good indicators of whether the plugin is reliable and being maintained.

User friendliness

Investigate how easy it will be to use your backups when you need them. Some backup plugins work within the WordPress interface, while others require a separate platform. While flexibility benefits advanced users, it can create unnecessary confusion for everyday users.

Key considerations include:

• Setup process: Do you need to configure your backup schedule or storage locations before you can start backing up your website?
• Restore processes: Some plugins have one-click options while others use wizards that walk you through more complex restore processes.
• Support: Check when the plugin was last updated and whether their team has an active and helpful support option available for users.

Backup configuration

There are different types of backups and storage locations available. Not every site needs complex backup configurations, so consider what factors are necessary for your site.

Things to look for:

• Frequency: More frequent backups are useful when your site changes frequently, but they can also slow your site down and require a lot of file storage.
• Automation: Some backups happen automatically, while others must be manually started. Manual tools are generally cheaper and may be sufficient for sites that don’t have frequent updates.
• Storage locations: Consider storing multiple copies of your data in different locations, such as locally on your computer, on an external hard drive, or in the cloud.
• Backup types: Consider what data gets updated regularly. Full-site backups take longer and require more storage. Some plugins solve this problem by allowing you to manually select the content to back up, or use “incremental” backups that only save the changed component.
• Backup content: What site content is included in your backup? If you have backend databases, ensure your plugin supports backups of that data.

Performance

Backups can impact server capacity and site speed. If your backups are stored directly on your server and you create frequent backups, this could take up a significant amount of bandwidth and slow down your website.

Other things to be aware of include:

• Compatibility: Some plugins are optimized for specific hosting providers, or are incompatible with a host because they offer identical functionality to built-in tools. If you have multiple sites to back up, look for a plugin that supports multisite backups.
• Security: Does your site store sensitive data, like customer information? If so, you want to ensure your backups are encrypted. You can also check WordFence to evaluate your plugin for any vulnerabilities.

Get JetPack VaultPress with WordPress

If you’re interested in getting real-time site updates with Jetpack VaultPress, consider hosting your website with WordPress.com. Since WordPress’ parent brand Automattic also owns Jetpack, many Jetpack security features — like spam protection, site activity logs, and automatic updates — are included on all WordPress plans (including the free ones). VaultPress and one-click restores are included on the Business plan and above. 

At just $25/month, WordPress Business plans offer exceptional bundled value with built-in backup features and more. Plus, you don’t have to download or install anything additional — Jetpack plugins are pre-integrated in our software.

The best backup strategy starts with the right host

If you’re ready for top-of-the-line backup features, you can get started building (and backing up) your website today with WordPress.com.

While there are many ways to back up your WordPress site, choosing the right one can be difficult. Each option has its own features and user experience. 

This guide covers the important features to look for in a backup tool. It also looks at some of the best backup tools available and includes a quick walkthrough of how to back up a WordPress site. 

What are WordPress backups?

 A WordPress backup is a copy of your website’s files and database. The backup lets you restore the whole site if something goes wrong. There are two types of backups:

• A full backup restores the entire site to the state it was in when the backup file was created.
• An incremental backup only restores new or recently modified items, such as updated pages, new plugin settings, or altered media files.

While the WordPress editor autosaves your posts and pages, giving you a way to restore earlier versions of your content, this isn’t the same as backing up an entire WordPress site, including its files and database.

• A database backup includes your site’s content, such as all posts and pages, the site settings, user information, and comments.
• A file backup typically includes the themes, plugins, media uploads, and core WordPress files of your site.
• A partial backup only includes some files or parts of the database and its tables.

Partial backups

If you want to restore the site’s content, without overwriting any changes you’ve made to the site’s files since the backup was created, you can make a partial backup.

For example, maybe you want to restore a deleted blog post, but you’ve changed your site’s theme since the post was deleted. Restoring just the database will restore the post (and other database contents) without affecting the site’s files.

Manual vs. automatic backups

Backups can be created manually or automatically, depending on the features of your backup tool.

Basic WordPress backup solutions often don’t back up your site in real time, necessitating a manual backup prior to changing your site. While a manual backup offers more control, the downsides include:

• Not always knowing when to make a backup
• Having to remember when you should make a backup
• Role-based restrictions on who can make the backup

Automatic backups happen on a regular schedule, such as once per day, or as changes are made to your site. Due to the importance of having a recent backup, it’s a good idea to choose a solution that automatically creates backups. 

Why WordPress backups are important

Reasons you might need to use a backup to restore your site include:

• Hacking or malware: Although WordPress is a secure platform, a clean backup allows you to quickly recover your site if it gets hacked or infected.
• Server crashes or hosting failures: If your host loses data or has a server error, a backup can help you get your site online again quickly.
• Accidental data loss or deletion: We all make mistakes, and whether you’ve accidentally edited a blog post, deleted an image file, or changed a key setting, a recent backup lets you undo those changes.
• Plugin or theme conflicts: Installing or updating a plugin or theme may introduce errors to your site or cause a conflict. A backup enables you to return your site to how it was before the issue arose.
• WordPress software updates: New WordPress releases are thoroughly tested, but you might need to roll back to a previous version due to a conflict or introduction of a new feature you’re not ready for.

To mitigate against the above situations, backups must have been recently created, safely stored, and be easy to restore. 

Some websites need more robust backup solutions than others. For example, if you have a site that rarely changes, making a manual backup on a daily or weekly cadence should suffice. 

However, you’ll need a more feature-rich, automatic backup solution if you’re regularly making changes to your site, such as frequently publishing new blog posts, or you often receive comments or messages via your site’s forms. 

Those selling items or subscriptions through their WordPress site will also need robust backup solutions to prevent the loss of orders and other key data.

Additionally, if you have multiple users working on your site, there’s a higher chance of mistakes being made. This means you’ll need to create backups more frequently than once daily.

What to look for in a WordPress backup tool

Your main options as a WordPress site owner are using the backup service provided by your web host or a plugin.

The quality of the available plugins and options provided by hosts vary considerably. Some solutions are very robust, feature-rich, and comprehensive, while others are basic and challenging to use.

Some key points to consider when choosing a way to back up your WordPress site include:

• Automation: Can backups be automatically created on a set schedule, such as daily, or in real-time whenever a change is made?
• Frequency: How often are automatic backups created, and can backups be created manually on demand?
• Breadth: Is your entire site backed up, including the files, database, and email provision? 
• Restoration options: Can you restore part of the backup, such as the database or a specific post, or do you have to restore and overwrite your entire site each time?
• E-commerce-friendly: Is the solution compatible with online stores and does it give you the option of keeping order details while restoring other parts of your store?
• Storage: Are the backups stored separately from your website, such as on another server or in your cloud storage? Can you download the backups to your computer? Are multiple copies of the backup files created for redundancy, and how long are they available?
• Security features: Are the backups encrypted and stored securely?
• Ease of use: How easy is it to access and restore the backups? Is the interface user-friendly?. 

Use your host’s backup solution

Most web hosts provide a backup solution. However, the functionality of the system varies significantly between hosts. Some might have a powerful in-house tool, while others rely on the cPanel backup functionality.

If your host provides a backup solution, try it out and see how easy it is to restore your site. Check its features and how useful they’d be if there’s a problem. If your host’s backup solution isn’t good enough, you should be able to switch to a plugin.

Use a WordPress backup plugin

There are many backup plugins for WordPress. The best options automatically back up your site on a custom schedule or in real time. 

Make sure you closely check out the features and test any plugin you install to see if it works as expected, especially the free options. 

Top WordPress backup plugins

Here’s a quick overview of some popular free and paid plugins you can use to back up your WordPress site:

Jetpack VaultPress Backup

Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a paid service available as a stand-alone WordPress plugin or as part of the WordPress.com Business and Commerce hosting plans, at no extra cost. 

The service includes key backup-related features such as real-time backups, full and partial restoration, and an activity log that makes it easy to undo site changes. 

Jetpack VaultPress Backup has good support for WooCommerce, so you can safely restore your site to any past state while keeping all order and product data.

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a very popular plugin available in free and paid options. 

The free version covers all the essentials, including automatically creating backups, saving them to cloud storage, and the ability to easily restore them. However, incremental backups, automatic backup creation before installing WordPress updates, and database encryption are paid features.

Using UpdraftPlus is straightforward, but like most other WordPress backup plugins, it lacks the useful Activity Log feature of Jetpack VaultPress Backup.

BackWPup

BackWPup is another popular plugin with free and paid versions. 

The free version lets you choose exactly what parts of your site to back up. Backups can be automatically created as frequently as every hour. Saving backups to a selection of cloud storage services is another free feature. 

However, restoring backups with the free version isn’t as user-friendly as UpdraftPlus and JetPack VaultPress Backup.

BlogVault WordPress Backup Plugin

The BlogVault WordPress Backup Plugin connects your site to the BlogVault backup service rather than integrating a backup tool into your WordPress dashboard. 

Once set up, all backup and restore actions take place in your account area on the BlogVault website. 

The free version allows you to create backups, but you can only restore them with the relatively expensive paid plans.

Which WordPress backup plugin should you choose?

Out of the above options, the free version of UpdraftPlus is an excellent choice. Frequent automatic backups are included, and you can restore them without upgrading to a paid plan. 

If you’d like a more robust backup solution and don’t mind paying for it, the ease of use and Activity Log feature of Jetpack VaultPress Backup make it an appealing option. 

Whichever one you choose, be sure to thoroughly test the backup and restore functionality now, rather than waiting until it’s needed.

How WordPress.com handles backups

If you host your site with WordPress.com and choose the Business or Commerce plan, you have access to real-time backups powered by Jetpack VaultPress Backup.

Once you’ve signed up for either the Business or Commerce plan, Jetpack VaultPress Backup automatically starts backing up your site in real time. Manually creating a backup at any time is possible, too. 

Backups are available for up to six months while you’re subscribed to an eligible plan. They’re also kept for 30 days after your subscription expires. 

Let’s walk through how to use Jetpack VaultPress Backup with WordPress.com hosting.

Accessing your backups

You can view your backups from your WordPress dashboard. 

Once logged in, go to Jetpack → VaultPress via the sidebar menu.

The last time a backup was created is shown on the Jetpack VaultPress Backup page.

Restoring a WordPress backup

You can restore a backup from your WordPress dashboard or download the file for safekeeping.

You can also view and restore the individual components of the backup, for example if you need to restore an image file that was accidentally deleted.

You can also use the staging site feature available on the Business and Commerce plans to handle more complicated restoration of a backup. 

This is handy if, for instance, you created many blog posts after your last backup, and don’t want to lose those blog posts. You can restore the backup to the staging site, then restore the specific content to the live site.

Although the above is an advanced aspect of Jetpack VaultPress Backup, you never know when you might need it.

Using the Jetpack Activity Log

The Jetpack Activity Log is another way to access your backups. The log displays a detailed list of activities on your site from the past 30 days.

You can undo a change or restore your site to a specific point in the log, if needed.

Jetpack also has a mobile app so you can easily access the Activity Log and restore backups on the go.

As you can see, backing up and restoring your WordPress site can be very straightforward, depending on the tool you choose. 

WordPress site backup best practices

To get the most out of your WordPress site backups, consider the following:

• Frequency: Set a frequency that covers the important changes to your site, such as form submissions, content publication, and customer orders. Even better, opt for real-time backups.
• Storage: Make sure the backups are securely stored and not on the same server as your website. 
• Retention: Ensure enough backups are retained for long enough that you can recover a specific version of your site, rather than only being able to restore to when it was last backed up.
• Test restoring backups: Test your backups occasionally to ensure they are easy to restore when needed. 

If you follow the above advice, you’ll never have to lose sleep over whether or not your WordPress site is backed up sufficiently.

Is your WordPress site backed up?

You don’t want to wait until you need a backup to find out whether or not your site is backed up. 

If your site is being backed up, make sure everything is functioning as expected and that you can successfully restore a backup. If you’re not backing up your site, now is the time to choose a solution.

If you don’t yet have a website, WordPress.com’s managed hosting makes it easy to start one. Depending on your chosen plan, you get access to feature-rich backups, premium themes, and a fast, secure hosting environment. Ready to bring your site home? Start your site migration to WordPress.com here.

The quick answer: you don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other. Web hosting companies host your site’s files so they are accessible online, while website builders are software services for creating websites. For most new users, the best solution is to choose a hosting company and a website builder.

In this post, we’ll dive into what the terms website hosting and website builder mean in more detail, explain how they work together, and help you choose the best services and options for you based on your skills, budget, and long-term goals.

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is a service that stores your website’s files, such as code, images, and content, on a server. When someone types in your domain name, this server sends the files to their browser, allowing them to view your site.

How web hosting works

Think of web hosting like renting an empty apartment. This server is your space, and you can use it to store your site’s files, images, text, design elements, and more.

You also get full control over how you build your site. You can install a free tool like WordPress or write code using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create your website. You’re not locked into a single system.

Tip: Different hosting providers offer different types of hosting plans — shared, VPS, cloud, and dedicated. Learn more about each option and explore which one suits your site’s size, budget, and technical needs.

What is a website builder?

A website builder is an all-in-one platform for building, customizing, and hosting a website. You get a drag-and-drop editor, pre-designed themes, technical support, and built-in hosting in a single subscription.

How does a website builder work?

A website builder offers a more user-friendly interface for creating a website. 

Log in to your platform of choice and pick a theme for your site. Then, use the visual editor to design each page with text, images, buttons, custom code, and other features. 

Note: A website builder isn’t the same as a content management system (CMS). A CMS gives you a flexible backend to manage your website’s content, themes, and plugins, but you’re responsible for setup, hosting, updates, and security. In contrast, a website builder manages everything automatically. In short, a CMS offers more control and customization, while a website builder offers more convenience and ease of use.

Common website builders to explore

Here are three platforms to see how a website builder works:

• WordPress.com: Offers managed WordPress hosting and a website builder functionality, all under one roof.
• Squarespace: Design your website with clean templates using built-in tools for blogging, ecommerce, and scheduling.
• Wix: This website builder offers many templates and AI tools to build your site quickly. It’s suitable for small businesses, freelancers, and personal brands for designing websites without coding.

Now that we’ve discussed the basics of website hosting and builders, let’s discuss how they’re similar and where they differ. 

Similarities between website hosting and builders

At first glance, web hosting and website builders seem totally different, but they share a lot of common ground. Before we discuss what sets them apart, let’s look at what both options help you do behind the scenes.

Store and manage all your website files

Your website is made up of many files like text, images, code, a database, and more. All this content has to be stored somewhere.

Website hosting stores these files on a server and gives you direct control over managing them. You can access folders, upload assets, and organize everything the way you want.

Website builders, on the other hand, store these files on their own server. You can’t access or organize them directly, but they’re stored safely and displayed to visitors when they land on your site.

Handle secure domain connections

Your domain name (like example.com) should be linked to the server where your website’s files are stored. You can do this through DNS settings. 

With traditional hosting, you can connect your domain manually by updating DNS records through the registrar. Website builders simplify the process. They often guide you step-by-step or handle it automatically if you purchase the domain through them.

Either way, hosting services and builders ensure your website shows up when someone visits your domain.

Keep your site secure 

Uptime, backups, and updates are critical to your website’s maintenance and security.

Whether you’re using a hosting provider or a website builder, the platform you choose is responsible for keeping your website running smoothly and securely.

Most hosting services offer tools like SSL certificates, regular backups, malware scanning, DDoS protection, and server firewalls. Website builders also offer similar protections, but you don’t need to configure anything manually. 

Web hosting vs. website builder: how are they different

Both of these approaches have a similar end goal — getting your website online, but the way they work is quite different. 

Let’s break down where web hosting and website builders go their separate ways, and what those differences mean for you.

Level of control

Quick answer: Web hosting lets you modify anything, like plugins, code, and more. Website builders limit changes and customizations to what the platform offers.

Web hosting gives you complete control over how your website works behind the scenes. 

You can choose a hosting software like WordPress, set up your website, add plugins or themes, and customize your code. This setup works well for developers and teams looking to build custom features on their sites. 

With web hosting, you can decide on different aspects like speed, security, and how much server power your site gets.

On the other hand, website builders give you a closed environment. 

You can change the design and use the add-ons available on the platform, however, it limits the extent to which you can tweak your site. Basically, you can’t customize the underlying code of your site. 

With this approach, it’s much easier to design a website. However, if you need a feature that the platform doesn’t offer, you can’t add it yourself.

Ease of use

Quick answer: Web hosting can require multiple steps to complete the setup. Website builders provide a quick workflow to get started.

With a hosting service, you need to manage multiple systems manually. You have to:

• Set up your hosting account.
• Install a CMS like WordPress. 
• Back up your site manually. 
• Manage files through FTP. 

This approach requires more technical involvement at every step. It’s more suited for developers who can manage these tasks independently, but it can be frustrating for those who don’t have the necessary technical expertise.

That’s where website builders offer convenience to anyone who doesn’t know the technical side of web development. 

A website builder gives you everything in one place: 

• Themes and templates. 
• Design tools. 
• Security. 
• Hosting. 

It requires a shorter learning curve, and you don’t need to write code.

Speed to launch

Quick answer: It can take more time to launch a website if your web hosting doesn’t include a website builder or CMS. Choosing a hosting option with an included website builder make it easier to design and publish websites.

Launching your site takes many steps when you use a hosting service.

You have to pick a hosting platform, buy a domain, install software, and customize your site. It can take a few days to finish your design, especially if you’re figuring everything out as you go forward. 

In contrast, website builders are made for fast results.

Most builders offer a user-friendly interface and guide you through the process of designing a site. Pick a template, add your copy and images, and publish when you’re ready. For one-pager sites, you can even go live the same day. 

Cost structure

Quick answer: Web hosting alone can look cheap up front, but you pay extra as your website grows. Website builders roll everything into one bill: higher entry price, simpler bookkeeping.

Using a hosting service means you pay separately for different elements — themes, plugins, extra storage, and more. While basic hosting plans seem cheap at first, the total cost can add up once you factor in upgrades or outside help.

Website builders charge a bundled price inclusive of hosting, design tools, support, and security. Choose from tiered plans based on your requirements.

While builders look pricier upfront, they simplify your billing process. Plus, the cost of hosting plans can add up when you factor in upgrades in the long term. 

can be tough because you might have to rebuild your site from scratch.

Make the right choice 

Choosing web hosting is ideal when you:

• Need complete control over your site’s code, plugins, and server settings to work with a custom tech stack.
• Want to create a one-of-a-kind design or special features that off-the-shelf templates can’t deliver.
• Expect to see significant traffic spikes or reach international audiences, and need the flexibility to adjust your site’s bandwidth.
• Have in-house technical expertise to manage updates and troubleshoot issues.

Website builders are ideal when you:

• Want to go live with your site quickly with a minimal setup (for side hustles, portfolios, or small businesses).
• Prefer a simplified billing process with fewer moving parts and everything like hosting, analytics, and CMS in one package.
• Have limited technical knowledge and no time to learn web development and maintenance tasks, 

WordPress.com offers the best of both worlds 

With WordPress.com, you don’t have to worry about choosing one or the other option.

WordPress.com uses the same powerful WordPress engine that powers 40% of all websites globally. This means you get the familiarity, flexibility, and plugin support of open-source WordPress, without too much manual effort.

Here’s what you can do with WordPress.com:

Easy design with block editor and themes

Use the block editor to design pages by simply dragging and dropping elements. Create custom block styles to build visual consistency across your site.

Plus, you can access hundreds of professionally designed themes for multiple industries and use cases. These themes automatically adapt to different screen sizes and don’t require any coding.

Thousands of plugins for added features

Pick tools from the WordPress plugin marketplace to improve your site and expand its functionality. You can add plugins to:

• Improve SEO.
• Create forms.
• Connect to CRM.
• Build a multilingual site.

Fully managed hosting and security

Unlike the self-hosting approach, you don’t need to worry about setting up servers, installing SSL certificates, or handling updates.

WordPress.com takes care of all the maintenance tasks, like site security, uptime monitoring, automatic backups, and performance optimization. You can focus entirely on your website design and business growth.

All WordPress.com websites also come with built-in security features like SSL certificates, domain privacy, spam protection, malware detection, DDoS protection and mitigation, and more.

24/7 support and safe testing tools

WordPress.com offers real human support around the clock on every paid plan. Or get free advice from experts in the active user community.

Plus, you can experiment within your site in staging environments to test changes privately before going live. 

Built to grow with your website

Whether you’re building a small website or have big dreams for the future, WordPress.com grows with your goals. 

You don’t need to switch platforms even if you want to switch your approach from no-code to code. The platform has everything you need to customize and enhance your site. 

Pick the best path forward

Rather than pitting website hosting against website builders, now you know you can have both together (and WordPress.com delivers both with one platform). You get a builder’s ease and a hosting provider’s flexibility without the hassle of migrating your site to a different platform.

Ready to get started? Build and host your site WordPress.com today. 

Short for “favorite icons,” favicons don’t just appear in browser tabs; you’ll also find them next to bookmarks, history results, search bars, mobile browser screens, home screen shortcuts, and SERPs.

Favicons are often overlooked when creating a website, but they can make a big impact on how polished your website feels. In this article, we’ll cover why you need a custom favicon, how to create one, and how to add it to your website.

Why should you add a favicon to your website?

Favicons are one of those small things that make a big difference. Here’s why:

• Favicons improve the user experience: Favicons help people quickly navigate to your website when they have multiple tabs open. It also allows visitors to recognize your site in search results. This instantly elevates the website experience and enables people to find your website easily whenever they need.
• Favicons boost brand recognition: Favicons make your website instantly recognizable in a jungle of tabs or SERPs. Visitors will soon start associating and remembering your website with your custom favicon, regardless of the device they’re on. If you’ve used an iteration of your logo, favicons will also reinforce your brand identity and allow you to maintain consistent branding across marketing channels.
• Favicons lend your website some credibility: Generic favicons (like the globe sign) can make a website look unfinished or poorly maintained. Custom favicons, on the other hand, can instantly make a site look more reliable and professional.

Now you know why favicons are an essential addition to elevate any website. WordPress makes connecting them to your site easy, too — more on that in the upcoming sections.

Do favicons impact your website’s SEO efforts?

Not directly, no, but favicons still influence SEO. How? Google crawls your website and looks for the favicon file to identify your website. Your website visitors do the same thing — they spot familiar favicons in search results, leading to a better click-through rate.

Don’t take my word for it: a blogger shared on Reddit that they witnessed a drop in organic traffic because Google wasn’t showing their favicon in SERPs.

How to create a favicon for your website in three steps

There’s a lot of conflicting and confusing advice about creating a favicon — should you use SVG or PNG? Is 16×16 the right size or 48×48? Here’s a step-by-step guide that cuts through the noise and clears up what you really need to know:

Step 1: Design your favicon

Ideally, your favicon is a variant of your logo. This ensures your brand identity remains consistent and memorable. If your website doesn’t have a logo, you can either hire a graphic designer to create one for you or DIY it using graphic design tools like Canva or Photoshop.

Once you have a logo, you can export it in the right size (512×512) directly from Canva or Photoshop. Or you can also upload your logo to a favicon generator tool to convert it into a favicon. Here’s a list of five useful favicon generators:

• RealFaviconGenerator
• Ionos Favicon Generator
• Favicons generator
• Favicon.cc
• Favicon.io

These tools provide your favicon icons in both PNG and ICO formats. For example, in RealFaviconGenerator, you can upload your image, see how your favicon appears across different devices, and download your favicon package. You can also customize how your favicon appears on browsers with dark themes enabled.

Tip: Use a transparent background for your favicons so they blend seamlessly with browser backgrounds. If your logo isn’t already transparent, a tool like Remove.bg can help you make the background disappear in seconds.

Step 2: Optimize your favicon size and format

If you have built your website using WordPress, you need to ensure that you meet the site icon image guidelines.

• Aspect ratio: Your favicon should be a square image.
• Dimensions: For WordPress websites, your favicon size needs to be at least 512×512 pixels.
• File type: WordPress supports any valid favicon format — the most common file types are PNG and SVG.

Should you use PNG or SVG? It depends.

• SVG stands for “Scalable Vector Graphics,” meaning your favicon in SVG format will be made of paths and shapes, not pixels. This feature makes it infinitely scalable, without losing your favicon’s crisp quality. The issue is that SVG isn’t fully supported for favicons by all browsers.
• On the other hand, PNG is not only widely supported by all browsers and devices, it’s also easier to use since most of us have already used this format.

If you want to understand which browsers support which favicon formats, head over to Can I Use to resolve all your doubts instantly. You can see which browser versions are compatible with PNG and SVG formats.

Note: Depending on a user’s browser and device, your favicon will appear in different sizes. For example, favicons usually appear in 96×96 dimensions in a desktop shortcut. The shortest dimension is 16×16. Choose a favicon that remains in good shape once it’s shrunk to those dimensions. It’s also a good idea to stay up-to-date with Google’s guidelines to ensure your favicon displays optimally in SERPs and browser tabs.

Step 3: Add your favicon file to your website

If you are using WordPress, there are two easy ways to add your favicon to your website:

• Using the WordPress general settings.
• Using the WordPress customizer.

Let’s cover each method.

Using the WordPress general settings

This is the fastest and most straightforward method to add a favicon to your WordPress website. All you have to do is ensure you have a square 512×512 pixels favicon — WordPress will take care of the rest.

1. In your site’s dashboard, navigate to Settings → General.
2. Click on the “Choose a Site Icon” button.
3. Upload a new file or choose one from your existing media library.
4. Click the “Set as Site Icon” button after choosing your image. If your favicon needs cropping, WordPress will ask you to adjust the dimensions of the image.

You can see a preview of your favicon after saving changes:

Using the WordPress customizer

Similar to the previous method, using the WordPress customizer is a pretty simple way to upload your favicon.

1. In your site’s dashboard, navigate to Appearance → Customize.
2. Click on “Site Identity.”
3. At the bottom, you’ll find the “Select Site Icon” button to upload your favicon.
4. You can also crop your image if you need to after uploading.

Another way to add a favicon to any site (regardless of whether it’s on WordPress or not) is to edit your theme code files. Follow these steps:

1. Upload your favicon file to your website builder’s media manager or library.
2. Copy the URL of the uploaded file.
3. Insert the following piece of code inside the <head> of your HTML:

<head>
…
<link rel="icon" href="https://yoursite.com/favicon.png" type="image/x-icon">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://yoursite.com/favicon.png" type="image/x-icon">
…

</head>

However, I wouldn’t recommend using this method because most website builders have easier ways to upload the favicon, and messing with the code can disturb your website’s functionality and appearance if you’re not careful.

Three best practices for designing a great favicon for your website

Here are a few best practices you should follow to ensure your favicon looks professional and loads reliably:

1. Keep it simple

Don’t use overly detailed logos that contain too much text or elements. If you have a big company name, for example, don’t spell out the whole name. Keep it concise and limit it to a letter or an acronym. Why? A favicon is a small icon — you want to make sure it’s clearly visible across all browsers and devices. Use a bold symbol that’s crisp and easily recognizable.

2. Color-check your favicon

With the new variety of browsers and increasing popularity of dark mode, ensure your favicon looks great against all types of backgrounds. Test it on white, gray, and black backgrounds. Keeping your favicon transparent by removing the background also helps here.

3. Test your favicon after uploading

Check how your favicon appears on various browsers, mobile devices, iPads, bookmarks, and pinned tabs. If it is warped in any device or browser, troubleshoot and reset the dimension to the right measure.

Small but mighty

A favicon is a small detail that can make a big impact on the brand identity and user experience of your website. Hopefully, this article helped you understand how to create them quickly and give your website the polish it deserves.

Favicons aren’t the only thing that elevate your website experience, though. A fast speed and a clean user interface also go a long way. Get started with WordPress.com (or migrate your existing website) for excellent website performance, maintenance, managed hosting, security, and much more.

WordCamp Europe 2025, one of three WordPress flagship events, took place in Basel, Switzerland from June 5th to June 7th. Close to 2,000 attendees came to listen to talks, learn, connect, and contribute to the WordPress project.

If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry. While nothing beats the experience of actually being there, this post will give you a detailed summary of some of the most impactful presentations held at the conference. That way, you can stay in the loop with what’s happening in WordPress until you can go yourself.

By the way, all of the presentations from this year’s schedule are also available on Youtube:

• Day 1 (Track 1)
• Day 1 (Track 2)
• Day 2 (Track 1)
• Day 2 (Track 2)

Opening Remarks

Lead organizers Laura Sacco, Steve Mosby, and Uros Tasic greeted 1700+ attendees from 84 countries with a message of unity and connectedness.

Something that stood out this year was the number of newcomers. 26% of attendees had never been to the event before.

After a quick introduction and thanks to the sponsors (WordPress.com and Jetpack supported the event as Super Admin sponsors), the first presentations started right away.

WordPress without borders — The fight for digital freedom

In the very first presentation, Human Made founder Noel Tock discussed the important role of open-source software in humanitarian challenges. He currently lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine where his charity helps evacuate dogs from the frontlines.

Tock explained how WordPress, open-source software, and global collaboration have played a significant role in past crises:

• Arab Spring (2010): People shared ideas and reported on events on the ground through blogging and other online channels.
• Earthquake in Nepal (2015): Contributors around the globe analyzed satellite data to help first responders know where to focus their efforts.
• COVID (2020): Scientists exchanged genome data, open-source dashboards kept track of important statistics, and helpers around the world provided 3D-printing models for medical equipment.

In short, the open-source ethos helps people find each other, have a voice, and work together. At the same time, they stay available when proprietary solutions close up to de-risk themselves.

WordPress in Ukraine

The important role WordPress plays in Ukraine is best exemplified by comparing the number of global new WordPress sites per quarter to new Ukrainian sites based on WordPress.

Furthermore, half of Forbes’ top 50 Ukrainian charities are on WordPress and the platform has enabled them to raise more than half a billion dollars in donations in one year.

These charities include:

• East SOS: Helps people on the frontlines, especially women, children, and people with disabilities.
• To Ukraine With Love: Builds new homes for those who have lost them in the conflict.
• Superhumans: Provides prosthetics and rehabilitation to Ukrainian military personnel and volunteers who have lost limbs in the war.
• Repair Together: Organizes music events during which they clean up and rebuild homes.
• Caritas: Provides shelter, food, and water to Ukrainians.
• Save Ukraine: Works to bring back Ukrainian children who have been separated from their parents.
• Dog Help Kharkiv: Noel’s own charity.

According to Tock, WordPress provides a mature and stable starting point for anyone to begin working and publishing online. Through that, it helps create real human outcomes.

If you contribute to WordPress, this is where your efforts go and where they make a difference. Keep that in mind. As Noel said, “you should all be incredibly proud of your work.”

How to make your website more sustainable

The Internet has an enormous environmental footprint. Information and communication technology (ICT) was responsible for 10% of electricity consumption in 2023. Charlotte Bax, a sustainable web designer at Digihobbit, focused her presentation on what website owners can do to mitigate that.

Estimating website emissions

Websites create emissions both from server-side processing (data traffic) and client side processing (rendering websites in the browser). The open-source sustainable web design model provides a digital carbon rating scale to estimate the impact of individual websites.

The short version is that, if you want a page to be rated A+ to B, it needs to be smaller than 1MB.

Use these tools to understand where your website stands:

• Green Web Foundation
• Website Carbon Calculator
• Beacon
• Ecograder
• Are my third parties green?

Sustainable choices you can make

Besides testing, there are concrete steps you can take to improve your website’s carbon footprint:

• Pick a sustainable hosting provider: Some hosters power their data centers with green energy, re-use the waste heat from servers, or run on refurbished hardware to reduce e-waste.
• Improve the site architecture: Reduce elements on your pages, use simple and clean architecture, and correct semantic code.
• Streamline site design: Choose a lightweight theme, for example, Astra or Kadence. Add simple functionality with code rather than plugins, limit plugins on your site, don’t use unnecessary animation.
• Set up caching: Every bit of data your visitors don’t have to re-download from the server for repeat visits saves energy. (By the way, all WordPress.com plans come with caching built in.)
• Optimize your content: Use images only when they are valuable, resize and convert them to WebP/AVIF, choose vector graphics whenever possible. More image optimization tips here.
• Use media mindfully: Only use functional and valuable graphics. Include preload=”none” into your header. Include image thumbnails that open embedded videos in a modal to prevent unneceesary preloading.
• Improve font usage: Use system fonts for body text and custom fonts only for headings. Include single icons instead of entire icon fonts and convert any fonts you use to woff/woff2
• Grid awareness: Cater your website experience to the local energy grid of your visitor. Fershad Irani is working on this currently together with the Green Web Foundation

If you’re interested in this topic, Charlotte also recommended this 2022 WordCamp Nederland talk from Joost de Valk.

Modernizing WordPress with new web platform features

Google developer relations engineer Adam Silverstein used his presentation at WordCamp Europe 2025 to report on new features already available or coming soon to Baseline.

In case you don’t know, Baseline is an initiative started by the Google Chrome team to share information about which web platform features are supported by all browsers. This includes features and technologies you can use on all websites, including sites built with WordPress.

Some of the examples below are not yet part of Baseline but likely coming soon. If you want to know what web platform features are currently being worked on and their state of implementation, visit the Interop Project.

Features for helping developers

All the following features are native browser functionality and CSS driven without the need for JavaScript:

• Popover API: Newly landed in baseline, it allows developers to easily implement popovers, dialogues, lightboxes, tooltips, and dialogues.
• Scroll animations API: You can use it to trigger scroll-driven animations. Find many examples here.
• CSS carousels: Create many different kinds of sliders without JavaScript.

Want to see in-progress demos of the features Adam shared? Watch his video or check out his presentation slides.

Improve user experience

The next set of features are aimed to make the user experience better:

• Customizable select: Allows you to use HTML directly in select elements to make them easier to use and interact with.
• Speculative loading API: Adds the ability to tell browsers to pre-fetch a resource before the user navigates to it. That way, it appears faster when someone clicks on it. A version of this shipped in WordPress 6.8.
• View transitions API: Offers CSS animations for navigating from page to page, which allows for an app-like experience.
• Modern image formats: There is work being done to convert HDR images taken by phones and other devices to SDR image displaying on websites without loss of quality.

Opening up new experiences

The following features open up website experiences that weren’t possible before:

• Passkeys: Allows you to log into WordPress sites using biometrics like fingerprints. This is already widely available across browsers.
• Web assembly: Makes it possible to run programming languages like C or C++ in the browser. This enables using software that’s not present on the server, for example, the latest version of image libraries. It’s part of what powers WordPress Playground.
• AI in the browser: Thanks to web assembly, it’s possible to run AI models directly in the browser for an offline and privacy-friendly solution Transformers.js is a good place to start.
• AI as a helper: Assistants and agents can help with coding, tuning website performance, site building, onboarding, and more. A new AI Team has been formed to steer the integration of AI into WordPress.

Tips for hosting a successful WP meetup in your city

Héctor de Prada, a meetup organizer in León, Spain, a city with just 120,000 inhabitants, shared how his city runs one of the most well-attended WordPress meetup groups in the world:

• On average 60 attendees per meetup.
• 85% attendance rate.
• Biggest ever meetup had 100+ people.

What’s even more impressive? This meetup had been abandoned for three years and used to only attract around 15 people per meeting. Here’s how they turned it around:

1. Meet the community

Come to WordCamps, go to meetups, learn what the community is like and how these meetings are supposed to feel. This also helps meet potential sponsors, mentors, and speakers.

2. Create an organizing team

Don’t do it by yourself, but with a team. Try to find people with complementary skills and who are motivated and committed. Divide responsibilities among the team, that way, nobody is indispensable. Rotate responsibilities, so if one person is missing, the meetup can still happen.

3. Get local partners

One of the hardest things is to get a venue. In León they have always managed to get free space from the city, universities, or private companies. Reach out to universities and schools to get young people to the meetups, but reach out to the teachers, not the students directly. In addition, do collaborations with business organizations, content partners, and media.

4. Find sponsors

Try to land both a local sponsor and WordPress community sponsors, there are many companies looking to support events. Make good use of the money and invest it in food, it’s what everyone wants.

5. Speak to everyone

Don’t only make the meetings about WordPress. WordPress covers so much of the digital world, you can pretty much talk about anything. Know your audience and what they want. Include talks that allow people to both learn and be inspired. In addition, cover trending topics.

6. Make it fun

Make sure you feature interesting talks and cultivate a casual vibe. Offer food and drinks to make networking easier.

There are 660 active meetup groups in the world. Find yours or organize the next one!

Client-side Web AI agents for building smarter user experiences of the future

Jason Mayes, Web AI lead at Google, explained how to run machine learning models in the browser to allow “agentic behavior” while interacting with web applications. He predicts that this will be the future of the internet.

What is an agent?

An agent is a system that autonomously performs tasks on behalf of the user. It’s basically one or more large language models (LLMs) with access to tools that allow it to complete its objective.

A tool can be a function, an API, or another source of data. They can be available directly on a website or application or outside of it.

Thanks to the underlying models, agents can:

• Break down tasks into steps.
• Delegate subtasks to the best model to get the job done.
• Access necessary information to complete the work.
• Remember contextual information for follow-up tasks.

They can do all of the above without the need for human intervention and, if needed, can repeat the cycle as often as necessary.

Using web AI agents

In the future, you will be able to talk to a website naturally through an AI running in your browser in order to achieve your objectives. You don’t have to learn a new user interface of each site, it all happens through an agent. Here’s a video of the example travel site from the presentation:

This may become the new SEO. Websites will likely contain a file that tells agents exactly what users can do there so they can achieve it faster. Websites that aren’t AI compatible may have a hard time competing on the web.

For this to work, a website has to make the necessary information available to the agent. Because it’s based on JavaScript, you can use website functions you’ve already written and existing logic. There’s a detailed data-flow diagram and explanation in the video of the talk.

Agents run locally on the machine of the user. As a consequence, they are more privacy-friendly than cloud AI. As hardware improves, more and better models will become available. Plus, browsers may already contain their own models—Chrome is already working on this.

It’s the start of a new era, an agentic internet. Start exploring it today.

Fireside chat with Mary Hubbard & Matt Mullenweg

No recap of WordCamp Europe 2025 would be complete without the traditional Q&A with Automattic CEO and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg. He was joined by WordPress Executive Director Mary Hubbard.

The lively discussion addressed both prepared topics from the organizer crew as well as live questions from the audience, among them:

• European data protection regulations
• Whether the WordPress foundation should establish a presence in the EU
• The announcement of the FAIR project
• The future of the Five for the Future initiative
• Bringing back the WordPress Sustainability team
• The development of a new ticketing system for WordCamps
• A possible WordPress 6.9 release in 2025
• Replacing Meetup.com as the tool for organizing WordPress meetups
• The short and long-term plans for WooCommerce
• Creating a dashboard with community analytics
• The allocation of funds left over from WordCamps
• Differences between managing a private company and an open source organization

Two important announcements were made during the session: the launch of WordPress Campus Connect and the establishment of the WordPress AI team.

WordPress Campus Connect

WordPress Campus Connect is a global community program that aims to help students learn about WordPress and its many possibilities through workshops, classes, and training. The program will launch a pilot project in collaboration with the University of Pisa on June 25, 2025. In it, 5000 students will do 150 contribution hours to the WordPress project worth six credits to graduate college.

This opens up great opportunities to bring younger people on board, provide mentorship and internships, foster new ideas, rejuvenate WordCamp demographics, and win long-term members of the WordPress community. It’s also very scalable, with opportunities to expand the program to other majors and universities.

AI in WordPress (and beyond)

The WordPress project recently established an AI team. One of the things the team will figure out is where to apply its initial efforts. AI is already being used to automate testing for the plugin directory. 

Aside from that, it’s hard to imagine a screen in WordPress that couldn’t be enhanced with AI:

• Text, image, and video creation
• A chat interface
• Programmatic ways for AI to interact with Core functionality

In addition, it’s great for developer productivity and project administration. We’re also seeing a lot of hosting providers integrating AI, such as the WordPress.com AI Website Builder.

The influx of AI plugins in the WordPress directory is also huge. A search for “AI” already turns up more than 1500 results. What’s helped is that the plugin review team has cut down the approval backlog. It’s now at about a week instead of six to eight months. As a consequence, plugin submissions have doubled since last year.

Generally, AI represents a major revolution. And we are just at the beginning. Matt called the current state of AI its “command-line phase.” Other ways of interacting with it are already on the way, including hardware versions such as wearables or materialized AI like robots and self-driving cars.

See you in Krakow in 2026!

WordCamp Europe 2025 was a success and I had a blast as a visitor—just like every year. If you’ve never been to a WordCamp before, it’s one of the best ways to meet other people from the community, make friends, and learn.

If you are interested in joining, you can find all the info at WordCamp Central. Besides the flagship events, there are also many meetups and smaller camps happening all the time. They’re a great first step. Hope to see you at one of them!

Just in time for Pride Month 2025, a small group of Automatticians, including me, participated in the Out in Tech Digital Corps Hackathon, held in our office in New York City a few weeks ago. 

During a Digital Corps Hackathon, groups with 8-10 volunteers spend the day building a full, multilingual website for the nonprofit to which they’re assigned. My group was assigned a youth advocacy group in West Africa.

A few days before the event, we were added to a shared Google Drive and a dedicated Slack channel, giving us a clear picture of what would be needed before we even arrived. We even connected with the organization’s executive director over video early on the day of the Hackathon.

My group consisted of UX designers, illustrators, marketers, digital strategists, copywriters, and expert site builders. Honestly, I felt like I was back in college working feverishly on a class assignment, and I loved every minute of it. The camaraderie, intense collaboration, and our shared sense of mission all contributed to a joyful experience, complete with inside jokes and new friendships.

At the end of the day, each group presented their finished website during the closing showcase, and then we celebrated with snacks and lively conversations. By the time I’d left later that evening, I’d already made a mental note to volunteer for the next Hackathon in September. It’s incredibly meaningful to use our skills to amplify the missions of LGBTQ+ organizations worldwide.

Interested in volunteering or learning more about Out in Tech? Head to their website to find out how you can get involved and attend an event near you. 

Ready to turn the page? Here’s how to claim your bookish home on the web.

What is a book blog?

A book blog is any blog focused on reading, writing, or the publishing world, whether it features long-form essays, author interviews, reviews, recommendations, or industry insights.

Even if blogging feels overlooked in 2025, the past year has proven the value of owning your content and controlling its distribution. Whether platforms are shutting down, changing their terms of service, or updating their algorithms, having a standalone blog on an open-source platform like WordPress makes your content more resilient to a changing media landscape.  

Plus, blogging doesn’t prevent you from having a thriving presence on #BookTok, Bookstagram, BookTube, r/books, or other popular social media platforms; a book blog simply gives your content a home base that you own.

Planning your book blog

Before jumping into blogging, you should spend some time deciding what your blog is about and how you will set yourself apart from other book blogs on the web. 

Choose your niche

A niche is a unique topic that the majority of your content is focused on. It can be broad, such as “romance novels,” or specific, like “cozy mysteries set in 1920s England.” 

When choosing a niche, passion matters. You want to pick something you’ll still be excited to write about months from now. It’s also helpful to select a topic you have some experience with or insight into—it’ll make creating content easier and more authentic.

Whatever you choose to focus on in the book blogging universe, your blog should be specific, memorable, and easy to explain. If you can’t explain your blog in one sentence, you may need another edit.

Set your goals

Setting realistic goals for your blog’s first few months or first year can help you stay focused and motivated. However, be aware that it may take time to find your groove and grow your blog’s audience. Small, well-defined goals can keep you on track.

Your goals could be related to the number of posts you publish each month, your monthly website visitors, or your newsletter subscriptions. Start small and talk with others in the community to ensure you’re setting yourself up for success from the get-go. 

Monetizing your blog

Book bloggers are often paid in the most precious of resources: books! In fact, established bloggers may be asked by publishers or writers within their focus area for a book review in exchange for an advance copy of their book. This is an amazing opportunity to get an early look at some of the hottest books in your industry and write one of the first reviews. 

Beyond free books, there are several other popular ways to monetize your blog (or fund your reading habit).

• Donations: Many creators are adopting donation-based models to support their art. One benefit of accepting donations on your own website is not having to pay for third-party services or implement tricky embed codes. For example, WordPress.com allows you to accept donations and tips directly on your website with drag-and-drop blocks.
• Subscriptions: Another monetization option is subscriber-only content, either in the form of “locked” posts on your blog or via a subscription newsletter. If you’re interested in offering subscription-based content now or down the line, make sure your platform supports it. With WordPress.com, paid content and newsletter functionality are included in your hosting plan at no additional cost.
• Ads: If you have a large bookish community, you can host ads on your site to bring in extra income. Ad income is generally based on ad views and clicks, so the more traffic your site gets, the more ad income you’ll make. 

These are just three options for monetizing a book blog, but the opportunities are endless. If your blog is built on WordPress.com, you can add additional monetization options to your site via blocks.

Your blog setup

Once you have your plan, it’s time to choose where you’ll actually build your blog. While this may sound overwhelming, there are just three main components: blogging platform, web host, and domain name.

1. Choose a blogging platform

A content management system (CMS) is the underlying software you use to create and publish content on your website, without coding everything from scratch. 

Not all blogging platforms offer the same flexibility and ownership. That’s why we recommend bloggers use WordPress, the free and open source CMS that powers over 43% of all websites. 

Unlike other proprietary publishing platforms that are owned and maintained by private hosting companies (like Squarespace, Wix, or Substack), WordPress allows you to maintain complete control and ownership over your site and its content. If you ever want to change your hosting provider, you can easily download and move your website and content without hassle or restriction. 

Plus, even non-technical users can build beautiful, highly responsive drag-and-drop websites that can grow to meet their evolving needs.

2. Choose a web host

While WordPress is the tool you use to create and manage your blog, you also need a web host to put your website online so others can see it. All websites are located on physical servers, a type of computer that remains online and sends your website data to visitors when they click on your website’s web address. 

Companies that manage these servers and connections are called web hosts or simply hosts. Hosts fall into two categories: unmanaged hosting, which is cheaper but requires the website owner to control the technical setup and maintenance, and managed hosting, where the host manages the setup and maintenance of your site’s server and security on your behalf. For peace of mind and ease of use, most non-technical users choose managed hosting.

Whatever direction you choose, make sure to review a potential host’s uptime (how often your website is online and working as expected), built-in security features, and speed. You’ll find a few more important considerations in our guide on types of web hosting as well.

For managed hosting, WordPress.com offers fast, reliable, and secure managed hosting. Our hosting scales with you, and even our free plans include essential managed features. Plus, all plans come with unlimited traffic, so you’ll never have to worry about extra fees for being successful.

We manage infrastructure, updates, backups, and security so you can focus on content, not upkeep. This means that once you sign up for a WordPress.com hosting plan, you’ll get a WordPress site that’s ready for your own design, ideas, and storytelling.

3. Buy a domain name 

Once you’ve selected your hosting provider, you’ll need to purchase a unique address on the web for your blog: a domain name! You can use a domain search tool, such as our domain suggestion tool, to determine which domains are available. 

However, domain pricing depends on your domain name provider, so be sure to shop around and compare options. If you decide to host your site on WordPress.com, a domain of your choice will be free for one year with any annual hosting plan. 

Check if your domain includes features like domain privacy and SSL certificates. Some providers may surprise you with additional charges for these services at checkout, but all domains sold on WordPress.com come with free domain privacy and SSL certificates included. 

If your first domain choice isn’t available, there are some alternatives. For example, while .com URLs are most popular, they’re not the only option; you could consider alternatives like .net, .blog, or even .page!

Designing and launching a WordPress blog 

Once you’ve decided to move forward with using the internet’s most popular website builder, WordPress, let’s get you from outline to launch.

Select a WordPress theme

With WordPress themes, you don’t need to be a professional designer to have a beautiful blog. 

Themes are pre-packaged designs created by WordPress designers and developers that contain pre-selected fonts, colors, and layouts for a cohesive website experience. If you want to venture outside of those pre-selected fonts, colors, and layouts, you can—a theme just gives you a starting point so you don’t need to design your site from scratch.

If you host your website on WordPress.com, you get access to free and premium themes that are responsive and fully customizable. With plenty of blog-specific themes to choose from, you’ll be able to customize your blog’s aesthetic to match your style and brand.

When choosing a theme, focus on more than just the visual: ensure that your theme offers comprehensive layouts for all your pages and is responsive for optimal viewing on mobile devices, as most website traffic now comes from mobile devices. 

To view a WordPress.com theme’s responsiveness:

1.  Click on the theme’s Preview button.

2. Use the drop-down menu in the preview window to view a mobile and tablet version of the theme.

WordPress.com offers new, custom themes to paid users each month. In addition to these themes, you can also buy themes from third-party designers and install them on our Business plan and above.

Install essential plugins

One of the coolest things about WordPress is its vast library of plugins, or add-ons that extend your site’s functionality. 

Even though users on the Business plan and above can install third-party plugins, many WordPress.com features come built-in, like SEO tools, security, social sharing, and performance optimization, powered by Jetpack. That means you may not need extra plugins to get the functionality most bloggers rely on.

If you aren’t using WordPress.com’s Jetpack-boosted hosting, or maybe you’re still interested in using third-party plugins, here are some plugin categories new book bloggers may be interested in: 

• Security: Protect your literary haven from hackers, malware, and other threats with security plugins like WordFence, All in One Security, and the standalone Jetpack Security.
• SEO: Tools like Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, and Rank Math help optimize your content for search engine rankings.
• Social sharing: Social sharing plugins, such as AddToAny and Blog2Social, make it easy to distribute your blog content across multiple social networks and encourage readers to follow you on various platforms.
• Optimization: If your site loads too slowly, potential readers may leave before they get a chance to read your best takes. To ensure fast website speeds, consider using plugins for image compression, such as ShortPixel, Smush Image Optimization, or Jetpack Boost.
• Book blogging tools: Plugins like WordPress Books Gallery and Osom Author Pro provide layout and feature options specifically for book bloggers. 

When comparing plugins, consider reviewing the plugin’s ratings, the last update date, and the number of active installations to ensure it is comprehensive and well-supported.

Many plugins offer free versions with premium upgrades available as your blog grows. Only install the plugins you need, as too many plugins can slow down your site.

Create website pages

In addition to your blog content, you may want to consider adding a few additional sections or pages to your blog:

• Homepage: You can use your homepage to display a ton of different information about your website’s purpose. It can include your blog feed, or it could be more of a static landing page that helps new visitors understand what your site is about and the kind of content you’re hoping to publish. On WordPress, you can edit your theme’s default homepage or set a custom page as your homepage.
• Blog: By default, WordPress shows your latest blog posts on your homepage, no additional setup required. If you decide to use a static homepage instead, you’ll just need to assign another page to display your blog post feed. You can configure this by going to Settings → Reading in your dashboard and selecting your desired blog feed page in the Posts page setting. You can then navigate to the Posts area in your dashboard to start publishing blog content.
• About: Here, you can explain the focus of your blog and what kinds of content you plan to post there. This should be easily accessible from your homepage. 

If you aren’t sure what other pages you need, take a look at other blogs you love for inspiration. Add new pages any time by navigating to Pages → Add Page in your WordPress dashboard.

Create excellent content

Create a few initial posts that capture the essence of your blog’s theme and goals. While you don’t need to write a Tolstoy-length post, blog posts around 1,500-2,000 words tend to perform best in Google search rankings.

Starting with your first blog post, establish a clear content structure using categories (like book reviews, author interviews, or recommendations) to help readers navigate your growing content library. Plus, for sites hosted on WordPress.com, your content can appear in relevant channels in the WordPress.com Reader to get in front of even more people.

Plan to publish consistently—whether that’s weekly, biweekly, or monthly—and consider creating an editorial calendar to keep yourself accountable. 

For more tips, check out our guides on how to write a blog post and how to write a blog post outline.  

Give your posts some visual flair

Even though your readers may be a bit more word-forward than your average internet user, you still need to ensure that your site is visually interesting if you want to capture readers’ attention.

Most book reviewers choose to include photos of the covers of the books they’re discussing. Using images of the cover you find online could get you into copyright trouble, so consider taking your own photographs. You can use simple photos of the cover or include simple props, but keep the focus on the book and avoid clutter. You can also create custom graphics using popular design tools like Canva.

Spread the word

Even the most brilliant book blogs need to build a reader base! Cross-post your content on social media and join bookish communities on the web to build your brand and reputation.

Book blogging is particularly community-focused, so don’t forget to read and comment on fellow bloggers’ content to create a thriving and supportive community of book lovers. 

Remember that building a following takes time. Focus on consistently creating high-quality content to keep readers coming back. 

For a more in-depth breakdown of setting up your blog, check out our companion post on how to start a successful blog.

In (book) review: start a book blog with WordPress.com

While starting a new blog may feel overwhelming, the book blogging community is supportive, passionate, and always ready to welcome new voices to celebrate the authors, stories, and worlds they love. 

And by starting your book blog on WordPress.com, you get a second support system on your creative journey, with hosting, domains, performance, and support all in one seamless platform.

Whether you’re job-hunting, applying to grad school, or figuring out next steps, now’s the time to build something that sets you apart: a personal website. It’s your digital home base for showcasing your skills, experience, and what makes you you.

Show potential employers, collaborators, or admissions teams what you bring to the table with a site that grows with you. We’re giving graduates 25% off a new website for a limited time.

The smartest move you haven’t made yet

Chances are, your future employer or admissions officer will Google you. Do you know what they’ll find?

Whether you’re a job seeker, grad school applicant, freelancer, or creator, a personal website allows you to proactively manage and curate your online presence. It serves as a centralized platform to present a professional image to potential employers or academic institutions, and tailor how you present your skills and experience for each opportunity.

Your future, your website, your rules

Whatever you’re working on next, WordPress.com helps you share it with the world.

From portfolios to blogs to passion projects, here are just a few ways grads are putting WordPress.com to work:

• Build a digital resume: Create a standout online resume that goes beyond a PDF. Share your story, showcase your work, and prove why you’re the right choice.
• Showcase class projects and portfolios: Bring your best work together in one place. Whether you’re designing, writing, coding, or researching, your portfolio deserves more than a shared Google Drive link.
• Start a blog or newsletter: Turn your interests into opportunities. Whether you’re into travel, tech, or hot takes, a blog or newsletter helps you build credibility, showcase your expertise, and grow a following that sets you apart.
• Promote your research or passion projects: Working on a passion project or your next big idea? Your site can help you share it, fund it, and grow your audience. Add donation buttons, sell digital content, and build momentum with every visitor.
• Teach what you know: Use tools like Sensei LMS to create and sell online courses, whether you’re helping underclassmen get ahead or teaching your niche to a wider audience.
• Document your school experience: From first-year memories to final exams, preserve your college story in your own words and photos. Your friends can follow along and leave comments, too.

A little graduation gift from us

Every grad deserves a personal site, so we have a graduation gift just for you.

New graduates (K-12, college, and graduate) can snag 25% off an annual Personal, Premium, or Business WordPress.com plan today through June 16. 

Plus, with the purchase of your discounted annual hosting plan, your first year of a custom domain is on us. This means you can build your brand-new site with a domain (like yourgroovydomain.com) that reflects your personal brand, perfect for resumes, portfolios, and more.

This offer’s only here for a limited time, so don’t wait around. You’ve already done the hard part (hello, diploma), and now’s your chance to launch your site and show the world what’s next. Future you will thank you.

Make a site that says, “this is me”

Never built a website before? No problem. 

When you build a website on WordPress.com, hosting, performance, and security are all handled for you, so you can focus on presenting yourself in a true-to-you way.

Not only that, all WordPress.com sites are built with the most popular website builder in the world (WordPress), and the drag-and-drop editor, stylish themes, and custom domains help you build a site that aligns with your ambitions.

And if you want even more guidance to help you build a site you’re genuinely proud of, our new Create your website on WordPress.com course was made for you. 

This free course walks you through every step of the website-building process. You’ll learn how to:

• Find and activate a theme.
• Build a homepage and add content using blocks and patterns.
• Create additional pages for your site.
• Customize your header and footer.
• Style your site for a cohesive look and feel.
• Edit templates for structural changes.
• Launch your site for the world to see.

If time is of the essence, you can also use our new AI website builder to help you get your site up and running in just minutes.

Your future is calling, answer with a website

Take control of your future and own your online presence with a personal website. Show what you’ve done and be ready for whatever comes next: job interviews, applications, or unexpected opportunities.

With WordPress.com, we take care of hosting, performance, and security for your site, so you can tell your story the way you want it to be told.

Fine print: Graduating students with valid institutional email addresses (K-12, college, and graduate) qualify for this promotion. The discount ends June 16, 2025, and is valid for 25% off one full year of a Personal, Premium, or Business WordPress.com hosting plan. Only for annual plans and new purchases.

As a proud Filipino-American who only arrived here as part of the wave of Asian immigration to the U.S. in the ‘70s and ‘80s, I’m thrilled to showcase some of my favorite Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) creators and bloggers who have made WordPress.com their home. 

Food, glorious food

Millions of us make up the global Asian diaspora in nearly every country in the world, hailing from one or more of the 48 Asian countries. We may come from unique cultures, but there’s one thing that binds us all together: our deep and abiding love of food. 

Check out these mouth-watering food blogs, complete with step-by-step recipes and, of course, plenty of colorful photos to inspire you to break out your favorite wok or kawali. 

My Bay Kitchen

Although this blog hasn’t been updated in a while, with literally hundreds of recipes in the archive, you’ll never run out of dishes to try. Inspired by his years learning traditional cooking techniques from his mother, the author, a San Francisco-based Filipino-American, weaves personal stories into each meticulously developed recipe. 

Jama’s Alphabet Soup

An eclectic mix of book reviews, poetry, recipes, and personal essays, this site is a whimsical journey through the writer’s culinary and reading adventures. 

Pop culture

These sites dive into the vibrant, ever-evolving world of AAPI pop culture, amplifying voices, dissecting trends, and celebrating representation.

Nerds of Color

The dazzling mosaic of pop culture-infused images in the header of this site lifts my mood every time I visit. Although it’s not specifically positioned as an Asian-American pop culture site, a quick perusal of its posts makes clear its creative roots in our community. 

Generasian

Yes, this blog is written by and for students at New York University, but it’s really for anyone who shares their passion for AAPI representation in pop culture, especially among Gen Alpha. 

Add to your TBR

I think just about every other site publishes “to be read” listicles of AAPI authors and books in May. Let’s give it up to those creators and bloggers who focus their reviews on our community’s literary output year-round. 

READING (AS)(I)AN (AM)ERICA

Thirty-something Taiwanese-American blogger Shenwei shines a spotlight on YA, adult fiction, and middle-grade books through an “Asian-Americanist lens.” She doesn’t just provide quick summaries; she also includes author interviews and curated playlists for select books. 

Little Corner Reads

There is a specific subgroup of book lovers who love books about books. And bookstores. I’m a card-carrying member of this special subgroup, and when I saw this particular post show up on my Reader feed, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit. She’s a voracious reader, and I love her joyful and authentic voice. 

Stories that stay with you

When identity spans countries, cultures, and histories, stories like these delve deeply into questions of culture, family, and what it means to find one’s place in the world.

Red Thread Broken

This blog powerfully documents the singular experiences and challenges of transracial adoptions. The writer, herself one of 80,000 adoptees from China who now live in the US, is a professional social worker, prolific author, and speaker on the topic. 

I’m always looking for more blog recommendations about the AAPI experience, so please share your favorites in the comments!

And if you’re feeling inspired to start your own, WordPress.com has everything you need to bring your story to life, like beautiful themes, powerful tools, and a community that’s got your back.

What are the .ORG Impact Awards?

Hosted by the Public Interest Registry, the .ORG Impact Awards recognize the changemakers and community builders behind some of the world’s most inspiring .org websites. From fighting hunger to promoting education, the honorees are celebrated for the powerful work they do both online and in the real world.

This year, awards will be given across seven categories, including Health and Healing, Environmental Stewardship, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. One outstanding finalist will be named .ORG of the Year and will receive a total of $50,000 donation to support their mission. Category winners receive $10,000 each, and all finalists are invited to an in-person celebration in Washington, D.C.

In 2024, the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation from the Philippines earned the top honor for its creative solution to a basic challenge: getting kids to school. 

Their answer? Boats. The foundation provides transportation for children in remote coastal villages, making education accessible, one ride at a time.

Stories like these remind us of the power behind every .org site and company.

How to participate this year

If you are doing meaningful work through a .org site—or if someone you know is—nominate yourself or them. Visit the .ORG Impact Awards site to submit your nomination.

Here are a few key dates to keep in mind:

• Nominations close: June 4, 2025
• Finalists announced: August 12, 2025
• Awards ceremony: October 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

Should you get a .org domain?

If you’re on a mission to make a difference, a .org domain is your digital badge of purpose. It’s trusted globally by nonprofits, open-source projects, grassroots campaigns, and values-driven brands. 

A .org domain tells your audience you’re here to serve, support, and inspire—not just sell. Whether you’re starting a new initiative, launching a community project, or building credibility for your cause, a .org domain gives your message the home it deserves.

Get your .org domain at WordPress.com and start building your impact today. It’s free for the first year with any annual hosting plan, or you can register one to use anywhere at our lowest-ever price, as part of our commitment to supporting mission-driven organizations and democratizing publishing. In fact, we currently host over 80,000 .org domains!

And if you need a website to promote your organization, our AI website builder helps you launch your site fast. 

Let’s celebrate the web’s potential for greatness because every click, story, and site can spark change.