You can open a fresh WordPress instance with a single link and start experimenting right away.

If a theme is available in the WordPress repository, you can preview it in Playground by adding the theme’s slug to the URL, for example:
?theme=kiosko.

That said, each Playground site starts with a clean WordPress install, so themes load with no existing pages or demo content.

If you want your theme to appear exactly as you’ve designed it — with sample content, navigation, and settings — you can use Playground Blueprints.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to get started with Playground Blueprints and create a complete, interactive demo site for your theme.

For this exercise, you’ll use a GitHub repository to store assets, such as .xml and blueprint.json files, to build your demo. For Playground to have access, it needs to be a public repository.

What are Playground Blueprints?

WordPress Playground Blueprints let you create preconfigured demo sites in JSON format.

Each Blueprint describes how the Playground instance should be built — what theme to install, what content to import, which settings to enable, and more.

You can browse the full documentation here: WordPress Playground → Blueprints

With Blueprints, you can share a single link that launches a fully configured demo of your theme — complete with pages, patterns, and media — so visitors can explore it directly in their browser.

Let’s explore the process step by step.

1. Create your demo website content

First, build a demo version of your theme locally — complete with pages, posts, navigation, and settings — to show how it looks in a real site. 

You’ll later export this content and use it inside Playground.

If you’ve worked with the Site Editor before, this part will feel familiar. You already know what combination of pages, posts, navigation, images, and WordPress settings makes your theme shine.

For this post, I prepared a demo site using the Twenty Twenty-Five default theme, applying one of its style variations and modifying some templates.

The example mimics a travel blog demo with a homepage, blog page, about page, and example templates and patterns:

I’ve also included a 404 page template:

As well as an ‘About Us’ page:

And more.

2. Handle images and patterns

While you create your content, you might use Patterns that come with your theme. 

Often, images used are part of the theme and stored in the theme’s assets folder.

You would need to upload those to the Media Library and pull them from there into your pages or posts — or replace their URL references in the content with relative links pointing to:

/wp-content/themes/{yourtheme}/assets/{filename}

…and remove the https://{domain.ext} part of the URL.

It’s best to use WordPress tools to automatically add them to the Media Library to save or from the image block toolbar.

This gives you a self-contained content file you can reuse with other themes or Playground instances.

3. Export your content

Once you’ve built the demo content on your local site, export it using the WordPress Export feature:

Go to Tools → Export, and select All Content (or make specific choices).

You can learn more about the Export feature in the documentation.

Before importing the .xml file into Playground, make sure your images and other assets are ready. 

You’ll also need to update the image references in your content file.

4. Prepare your export for Playground

Before importing your exported .xml file, make sure Playground can access your media files and that all image links point to the correct locations.

To do this:

• Upload your demo images and assets to a public GitHub repository (for example, to a /media folder).
  
• Update the image references in your .xml file so they point to those GitHub URLs.

Upload your demo images and assets

Playground uses the WordPress Importer plugin, which automatically resizes images and updates URLs for the new site. 

However, the importer tries to fetch images from their original URLs — and most web servers block these requests because of Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) policies.

To fix that, host your demo assets on GitHub.

GitHub’s raw.githubusercontent.com domain bypasses these restrictions, making it ideal for serving demo media.

Upload all your images to a /media folder in your GitHub repository and keep their original filenames to speed up the import process.

Update the image references in your .xml file

Next, replace the image references in your .xml file with the new GitHub URLs, under the <wp:attachment_url> tag.

Use this pattern:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/{organization}/{reponame}/{branch}/media/{filename}

For example:

<wp:attachment_url><![CDATA[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wptrainingteam/tt5-demo-blueprint/main/media/random-headshot-1.jpg]]></wp:attachment_url>

And here’s what each part means:

• Organization: your GitHub organization (for example, wptrainingteam)
  
• Repository: your repo name (for example, tt5-demo-blueprint)
  
• Branch: main
  
• Folder: media
  
• Filename: the original file name
  

Search your .xml file for <wp:attachment_url> (keeping the <![CDATA[…]]> tags intact) and replace each reference with the correct GitHub URL.

Tip: In the Twenty Twenty-Five demo site example, there were 17 replacements in total.

Your integrated development environment (IDE) probably allows you to find the particular string in your .xml file, no matter how big it is. You might see other image references in the file when you use the same image in different sizes.

I added a small Bash script to the repo; you could modify and use it at your own risk.

The WordPress Importer will resize the new images from the attachment URLs and replace the references in other places. You only need to change each image reference once.

5. Create your Blueprint

Now that your demo content is ready, it’s time to configure your Playground site using a Blueprint.

A Blueprint defines how Playground sets up your demo — which theme to install, which content to import, and which options to apply.

Understand the Blueprint structure

The Blueprint file has two main parts:

• Settings – placed in the root of the document.
  
• Steps – actions listed in an array that Playground runs in order.

You can learn more in the Blueprint documentation.

Here’s an outline of a starter JSON file:

{
"$schema": "https://playground.wordpress.net/blueprint-schema.json",
"login": true,
... more settings,

"steps": [
	{
        	"step":"installTheme" {
            }
    },
	{
            "step":"importWXR" {
            }
    }
	more steps... 
	]
}

The first line ($schema) is optional.

Adding it helps your IDE validate syntax, suggest properties, and catch possible errors.

Add basic settings

The first setting is “login”: true.

If you don’t need specific credentials, this shorthand automatically gives visitors admin access on the demo site.

If you prefer more control, review the Blueprint step documentation and the Blueprint Gallery for different scenarios.

Clean the default WordPress content

Each new WordPress install includes sample content — a post, a comment, and a page — which can interfere with your demo.

You can add a step to the Blueprint to remove the content by executing a WP-CLI command:

      {
        "step": "wp-cli",
        "command": "wp site empty --yes"
      },

Import your demo content

To import the content specifically, leverage the importWxr step — using the raw.githubusercontent.com domain to point to your *.xml file.

  {
     "step": "importWxr",
     "file": {
       "resource": "url",
       "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wptrainingteam/tt5-demo-blueprint/main/playgroundcontent.xml"
         }
  }

Install and activate the theme

Next, install and activate the theme you want to demo.

It can come from the WordPress repository, a ZIP file, or a directory of theme files.

This example uses the default Twenty Twenty-Five theme:

    {
        "step": "installTheme",
        "themeData": {
            "resource": "wordpress.org/themes",
            "slug": "twentytwentyfive"
    },
    "options": {
        "activate": true
    }
    },

Set Site options

You might also want to set a few Site options. You can use a step or the shorthand to setSiteOptions:

• For the links to category pages and navigation menus to work, you’ll need to enable pretty permalinks.
• You can also set values for the blog name and description to make it more enticing.
• To fully set up your demo, you’ll probably also want to configure your front page and blog page.

The snippet below shows how to implement these settings:

"setSiteOptions": {
       "blogname": "Twenty-Twenty-Five",
       "blogdescription": "The WordPress default theme",
       "show_on_front": "page",
       "page_on_front": 80,
       "page_for_posts": 26,
       "permalink_structure": "/%postname%/"

   }

The numbers for page_on_front and page_for_posts match the post IDs in your imported content.

This works because the site was emptied before import.

Optional: Add plugins

You can also include plugins — for example, block collections or WooCommerce.

Here’s the shorthand for installing the “Block Visibility,” “Public Post Preview,” and “Gutenberg” plugins and activating them. 

To add more plugins, just add them to the array:

{
"plugins": [ "block-visibility","public-post-preview", "gutenberg" ]
}

Combine everything

Now that you’ve added each step, it’s time to combine them into one complete Blueprint file.

This final JSON defines your entire demo site setup — from cleaning the default content to installing your theme, importing posts, and setting site options:

{
  "$schema": "https://playground.wordpress.net/blueprint-schema.json",
  "login": true,
  "steps": [
    {
        "step": "wp-cli",
        "command": "wp site empty --yes"
    },
    {
      "step": "updateUserMeta",
      "meta": {
          "admin_color": "modern"
      },
      "userId": 1
    },
    {
        "step": "installTheme",
        "themeData": {
            "resource": "wordpress.org/themes",
            "slug": "twentytwentyfive"
        },
        "options": {
            "activate": true
        }
    },

    {
      "step": "importWxr",
                    "file": {
                            "resource": "url",
                            "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wptrainingteam/tt5-demo-blueprint/main/playground-content.xml"
}
    },
    {
      "step": "setSiteOptions",
      "options": {
        "blogname": "Theme Demo ",
        "blogdescription": "A preview of a theme",
        "show_on_front": "page",
                "page_on_front": 80,
                "page_for_posts": 26,
        "permalink_structure": "/%postname%/"
      }
    }
  ],
   "plugins": [ "block-visibility","public-post-preview", "gutenberg" ],
}

6. Test your Blueprint

Before sharing your demo, test the Blueprint in Playground to confirm that every step runs correctly and your theme appears as intended.

Open your Playground URL to launch the demo site and check that:

• The theme installs and activates properly.
  
• All pages, posts, and menus from the .xml import display.
  
• Images load from the GitHub /media folder.
  
• Permalinks and front-page settings work as expected.

If something looks off, review your blueprint.json for typos or missing commas.

Blueprints are declarative, so even a small syntax issue can interrupt setup. Fix any issues locally, upload the corrected file to GitHub, and refresh the Playground link to test again.

7. Share your Blueprint

Finally, upload your blueprint.json file to GitHub and share the Playground URL with the Blueprint query parameter.

You can use a URL shortener such as Bitly to track usage.

For example:

https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wptrainingteam/tt5-demo-blueprint/main/blueprint.json

The complete theme demo is available on GitHub and includes:

• The content to import
• Images and assets in the /media folder
• The blueprint.json file
• The Bash script to help with the attachment URL replacements

Tip: The Blueprints documentation offers many ways to configure your Playground instance for your or your clients’ needs.

Learn more about Blueprints and Playground

Now that you’ve learned how to use Playground to showcase your products, explore these guides on the WordPress Developer Blog:

• Introduction to Playground: running WordPress in the browser
• Exploring the future of web development with WebAssembly and PHP
• How to use WordPress Playground for interactive demos

You can also apply this knowledge in WordPress Studio, which now supports Blueprints.

In this guide, you’ll learn what WordPress includes for free and what you should realistically expect to pay for when running a full website.

Is WordPress really free? Yes, but with a caveat

WordPress core software is free and open source under the General Public License (GPL). You don’t pay to download it, install it, or build with it.

What does cost money is putting your website online. To publish a full site, you’ll need at least:

• A domain: your site’s address
• Hosting: the service that keeps your site running and available to visitors

Everything else — premium themes, plugins, or advanced features — is optional depending on what you want your site to do.

Want to test the waters first? Start free on WordPress.com today. 

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com: How the cost differs

Both options let you start a WordPress site for free — the difference is how hosting, maintenance, and site setup are handled. With WordPress.org, hosting and technical setup are your responsibility; with WordPress.com, they’re covered at the platform level.

Here’s a quick summary:

• WordPress.com provides free access to WordPress software. You can then upgrade to paid plans to benefit from managed WordPress hosting that handles security, updates, backups, and performance for you.

• WordPress.org also offers the free WordPress software, but you’re responsible for finding a hosting provider and buying a domain, as well as setting up any additional tools or services you want to use.

What you get for free with WordPress — and why

The WordPress software is free because it’s open source, and the GPL license ensures it will always be available to use, study, and modify at no cost.

Anyone can publish, build improvements, or add new extensions — continuing the project’s mission of open, community-driven web publishing. 

Overall, you can access:

• The WordPress website builder; there is no license fee to download or use it
• Hundreds of free themes and plugins available in the WordPress ecosystem
• The ability to export, move, and reuse your site’s files wherever you choose
• WordPress Studio, a free local development app for building and testing sites on your computer

What costs extra when you use WordPress

Running a fully functional website always incurs costs regardless of the web builder or host you use.

Here’s what you need to budget for.

Domain name

A domain name usually costs under $30 annually. Most web hosts, including WordPress.com, offer free domains in the first year on any paid annual plan. 

On WordPress.com, popular domain extensions like .com, .org, and .net average $13 per year.

Web hosting

Web hosting can cost anywhere from a few dollars per month to hundreds for higher-traffic or enterprise sites. 

The price depends on the type of hosting you choose, the resources included, and how much traffic your site receives.

As your traffic grows and you exceed your plan’s limits, you may also need to upgrade — e.g., going from 35,000 to 105,000 monthly visits can raise costs from about $35 to $90 per month, adding roughly $660 per year.

WordPress.com takes a different approach. Every paid plan includes unlimited bandwidth and visits for a predictable monthly price (from $4 to $45 with annual billing), along with security protections, backups, updates, and expert support.

Premium plugins and themes

Premium WordPress plugins and themes come with annual license fees — these are optional upgrades offering advanced functionality or more professional designs. 

Prices vary widely, with most plugins falling in the $20–$200/year range and premium themes costing $20–$100+, depending on the provider and features. 

For example, the Sensei Pro plugin ($9/month) lets you create, manage, and sell online courses — a useful upgrade for creators growing their knowledge businesses online.

Development and maintenance costs

Hiring third-party professionals for custom development or ongoing maintenance can range anywhere from $15 to over $200 per hour, depending on their experience and the complexity of the work. 

This is common in WordPress setups where hosting, updates, backups, security, and performance are not handled at the platform level, and responsibility ultimately sits with the site owner.

On WordPress.com, advanced security, performance optimization, and automatic updates and backups are included in your plan — saving you the effort of paying separate services.

You get SSL certificates, DDoS protection, encryption, brute force prevention, advanced firewalls, and more.

Tip: If you prefer a hands-on workflow, WordPress Studio is a free tool that lets you build and test WordPress sites locally before publishing them anywhere. It’s useful for developers and creators who want full control during the building phase.

Other considerations (email, ecommerce, monetization, etc.)

Hosting covers the basics, but many site features — especially for email, marketing, monetization, and ecommerce — typically add $5–$60+ per month.

These can include:

• Business email, SMTP, and newsletter tools
• Payment processing and subscription features
• Ecommerce add-ons like shipping tools or advanced WooCommerce extensions
• Performance and marketing upgrades, such as CDNs, analytics tools, or SEO assistants

On WordPress.com, many of these extras are already included, so you get built-in tools for ecommerce, newsletters, social sharing, memberships, performance, and AI content generation — without stacking add-on fees.

You also get access to the AI website builder that lets you generate and set up your entire website using simple text prompts. 

Here’s what it looks like:

Benefits of using WordPress

After breaking down what different parts of a WordPress site may cost, let’s look at what you get in return. 

Here are the key benefits of using WordPress:

• Scalability and performance: WordPress is a great choice for any website, and WordPress.com’s full-stack performance infrastructure keeps your site fast even during traffic spikes.

• SEO friendliness: WordPress uses clean, crawlable code, and WordPress.com automates essential SEO tasks, including generating sitemaps.

• Themes and plugins: You can choose from 100,000+ themes and plugins to add features — like crowdfunding, quizzes, memberships, etc. — without hiring developers.

• Customization and ownership: As open-source software, WordPress gives you full control over design, functionality, and long-term ownership — which is also true for WordPress.com.

• Support and community: WordPress has a huge global community, and WordPress.com paid plans include 24/7 expert support from our Happiness Engineers.

Tip: WordPress.com also includes essentials like Jetpack for security, backups, and analytics, so you don’t need multiple add-ons and extensive experience to successfully grow your website.

Start your website journey with WordPress.com

The WordPress software itself is free, but running a fully functional website always involves costs — hosting, a custom domain, and the premium features you need to operate your site reliably.

If you want everything handled in one place, WordPress.com simplifies the entire setup. 

You get managed WordPress hosting with automatic updates and backups, built-in security monitoring, unmetered bandwidth and visits, a free domain for the first year, expert support, and tools like the AI Website Builder.

This guide explains what WordPress hosting is, how it differs from other hosting options, and what to look for in a provider.

What is WordPress hosting?

WordPress hosting is a specialized type of web hosting built and optimized for running WordPress. It gives you the right environment and features to keep your site fast, secure, and low-maintenance. 

WordPress hosting becomes relevant as soon as you create a WordPress site, since it’s prepared for how WordPress works.

Such hosting plans typically include:

• WordPress pre-installed or one-click installation
• A domain name (often bundled in the plan)
• Built-in security features like backups or malware scanning
• Performance optimizations for WordPress (PHP versions, caching, database tuning)
• Support teams familiar with WordPress

Tip: WordPress.com offers a fully managed WordPress environment with automatic updates, built-in performance tools, and a secure infrastructure designed to scale with your site.

How does hosting actually work?

Hosting stores your website on a server and shows it to people when they visit your domain.   

When someone types yourblogsname.com into their browser, their device requests your website’s information from your hosting provider’s server — a computer that is always online.

The server then locates your site’s files and sends them to the visitor’s browser so the page can load.

In turn, the page’s loading time depends on your hosting plan and provider. 

The bottom line: every host follows the same basic flow, but not all of them optimize it for WordPress. 

Tip: If you’re curious to know what powers that speed, this behind-the-scenes tour of WordPress.com’s data centers explains it really well.

WordPress hosting vs. regular web hosting

Regular web hosting gives you a standard server where you set up WordPress yourself, while WordPress hosting provides an environment already optimized for it.

This usually means WordPress is faster to install, performance settings are already tuned for it, and getting started takes less work.

Tip: Web hosting comes in different types (e.g., VPS, dedicated, cloud), which describe how server resources are allocated. WordPress hosting works on top of these by optimizing the environment specifically for WordPress.

Here’s how regular web hosting and WordPress hosting compare across key areas:

These differences explain how WordPress hosting compares to general hosting, but there’s another important layer to consider: how much of the ongoing work the host handles for you.

Managed vs. unmanaged WordPress hosting

Managed WordPress hosting handles updates, security, backups, and performance for you.

With unmanaged WordPress hosting, the host provides the server, but you handle WordPress setup, updates, and maintenance yourself.

The key is choosing a level of management based on how much time and responsibility you want to take on for updates, security, and performance.

How does managed WordPress hosting make things easier?

Managed WordPress hosting gives you a smoother, more predictable experience because you’re not dealing with the technical issues that usually slow site owners down.

Instead of troubleshooting errors, comparing plugins, or fixing problems after updates, the hosting environment prevents most of those issues before they happen.

What this means in practice:

• Fewer surprises: Updates and changes don’t break your site unexpectedly.

• No plugin juggling: You don’t need extra tools for speed, backups, or security.

• No firefighting: Errors, threats, and performance drops are handled before you ever see them.

• Consistent stability: Your site behaves the same day-to-day without tuning settings.

• More time on real work: You spend your effort building pages, writing content, and improving the site experience — not managing the technical side.

Tip: Plenty of hosts label their plans as “managed WordPress,” but many are just shared hosting with a few extras. WordPress.com delivers true managed hosting with expert support, built-in security, a global infrastructure, and a 99.999% uptime guarantee.

How to choose the best WordPress hosting provider

The right WordPress host gives you speed, reliable uptime, strong security, and support so you can run your site without extra work.

Here’s what to look for when comparing WordPress hosting providers:

• Fast loading speed: Built-in caching, CDN, and servers optimized for WordPress.
• Reliable uptime: Consistent availability with fast recovery and alerts if issues occur.
• Built-in security: SSL certificates, malware scanning, and automatic backups at no extra cost. 
• Ease of use: Simple UI and automatic updates, without touching code.
• Expert WordPress support: Access to support teams trained specifically in WordPress.
• Room to grow and transparent pricing: Plans that can handle spikes and long-term traffic. WordPress.com, for example, includes unmetered traffic on every plan, so your costs don’t rise as your audience grows.
• How much work you avoid: Check how much setup, maintenance, performance tuning, and security the host handles for you versus what you’re expected to manage yourself.

Go with WordPress.com’s managed hosting

Choosing between hosting options ultimately comes down to your priorities and how much work you’re willing to handle yourself. 

The differences we outlined are straightforward:

• General web hosting: You get a standard server and install/configure WordPress yourself.

• WordPress hosting: The server is pre-tuned for WordPress, so setup is quicker and fewer settings need manual adjustment.

• Managed WordPress hosting: Ongoing updates, security, performance, and backups are also handled for you.

If you don’t want to deal with technical upkeep, WordPress.com gives you a fast, fully managed WordPress environment backed by automatic updates and expert support.

For many WordPress agencies, the challenge isn’t shipping great work; it’s getting every team member working the same way, on the same stack, without losing time to process.

WordPress Studio was created to remove those slowdowns so agencies can spend more time building and less time wrestling with overhead — giving every developer a consistent workflow and helping agencies deliver higher-quality work in less time.

Watch the complete walkthrough of these agency workflows below, and keep reading to see how each fits into modern agency development with Studio:

Spin up identical development environments for all

Every agency knows the pain of onboarding a new developer, configuring a stack from scratch, or replicating a teammate’s environment. 

You can start a clean local site, restore from a backup, or use a Blueprint, a reusable site recipe that defines specs such as which themes and plugins to install, which PHP version to use, and which content or settings to apply. 

Using Blueprints means every project starts from the same proven foundation, not from a blank slate, which, for agencies, results in faster onboarding and better handoffs between team members, turning hours of setup work into seconds of standardized automation.

Once you start a Studio site with a Blueprint, you and your team can build from your desired specs rather than a blank slate. This alone compresses hours of administrative work into seconds.

To start a site with Blueprints in Studio:

1. Click the “Add site” button.
2. Select “Start from a Blueprint,” and you will see a gallery of featured Blueprints and an option to choose your own custom Blueprint file.
3. Select a featured Blueprint that fits your needs or “Choose Blueprint file” and select the JSON file from your computer.
4. Click Continue.
5. On the setup screen, give your site a name. You can open “Advanced settings” for more options.
6. Click “Add site.“

Behind the scenes, Studio will build the site from whichever Blueprint you selected or added. To keep your team aligned across projects, check out our guide to creating custom Blueprints.

Share “always-online” snapshots for faster team and client approvals

Once you’ve created a site in Studio, you can keep your team and clients in the loop with reliable, shareable, and fully online preview sites.

Preview sites allow you to share snapshots of your local builds publicly. They’re built on a temporary domain powered by WordPress.com, and each Studio user can spin up 10 at a time. 

The beauty of preview sites is that they’re fully hosted sites — they’re not tunnels that require you to be online for your team and clients to see them. Not only that, you can share login credentials with your team or clients so they can explore the backend as well.

Preview sites are temporary and automatically deleted after seven days. This feature ensures that preview environments are used for short-term feedback and review purposes.

To send a preview site to your team or clients:

1. Select the local site within the Studio.
2. Click on the Previews tab.
3. Log in to WordPress.com if you haven’t already.
4. Click on the “Create preview site” button.
5. Once the preview site is created, copy your preview site domain and share. You can provide login credentials to folks by clicking the Settings tab in the Studio and copying the username and password under WP Admin.

While preview sites are intended for sharing with clients and gathering early feedback for up to seven days, a hosting plan is required to make your site permanently accessible. Use the Studio Sync or Import/Export features to connect your Studio site to a hosting plan.

Stay in sync with staging and prod

When it’s time to go live, Studio Sync helps you move updates with confidence, without wrestling with exports, plugins, or fragile workflows.

Studio Sync allows you to synchronize a WordPress.com or Pressable-hosted staging or production site with your Studio sites in either direction. 

Not only that, sync functionality is selective, meaning you have precise control over what gets transferred between Studio and any connected production or staging sites. No more accidentally overwriting the plugins already running smoothly in production or having your local test content affect the live database.

To sync with staging or production: 

1. Select the site you wish to synchronize from the Studio sidebar.
2. Open the Sync tab.
3. Locate the WordPress.com or Pressable-connected site or connect to another one. Making this connection won’t transfer any data; it simply tells Studio which hosted site you want to pull from or push to.
4. Click Pull or Push to open the sync modal.
5. Choose to sync “All files and folders” or “Specific files and folders.”
6. Select the elements you want to synchronize from or to your production or staging environment. You can expand the plugins, themes, and uploads folders to select individual items.
7. Decide whether to include the Database in the sync.
8. Click the Pull or Push button.

Sync is an excellent accompaniment to preview sites for agencies. You can pull a live site into Studio, use preview sites to demo your local work for others, and once you’re happy, you can push the changes to staging or production.

There are some requirements for Studio Sync, so be sure to check out the full documentation to get the most out of this feature.

Set your preferences to get into the work faster

A “small but big” feature in Studio is Preferences, allowing you to quickly work on Studio site files in the editor and terminal application you rely on every day.

Once you have a Studio site running, you’ll notice some buttons under the “Open in…” heading on the Overview tab.

You can specify which code editor and terminal app you use in your everyday workflows in the Studio preferences menu — click on the user icon in the top right corner to open “User Settings,” then click the Preference tab and make your selections.

Work on development sites locally

If you’re part of our free agency program, Automattic for Agencies, you have access to five free development sites. 

These are fully-hosted WordPress.com websites that act as staging sites, and if you want to work on them locally in a safe, isolated environment, you can use Studio’s sync feature.

To spin up a development site and sync it to and from Studio:

1. Log into your Automattic for Agencies account.
2. Click the Marketplace button from the sidebar, then click Hosting and Standard.
3. Scroll down to find the Start building for free section, and click on the “Create a development site →” button.
4. Specify your site address, PHP version, and primary data center, and click “Create site.” This will be a fully-hosted development site on WordPress.com.

Once the site is created, it can be synced into Studio by following the syncing instructions above.

It’s a workflow that keeps everything aligned — your local builds, your development site, and your final production push — without the tool mismatch, manual migration steps, or “which version is this?” confusion agencies often battle. 

This means fewer unknowns and faster turnaround times across your entire portfolio.

Streamline your agency’s workflows with Studio

When your team moves fast, every slowdown compounds. The tools you use can create friction or remove it — and Studio is built to remove it.

From spinning up consistent environments to sharing always-on previews and safely syncing with staging and production, it gives agencies a clearer path from first draft to final delivery.

It cuts through the messy parts of WordPress development so your team can stay focused on the work clients actually see.

Plus, the WordPress.com team supporting Studio ships updates fast and often, so you can always expect new features and performance enhancements to streamline your workflows further. And if you have any feature requests for the team, we encourage you to open an issue on GitHub.

Try WordPress Studio for free and give your team a faster, more reliable way to build and ship on WordPress.

On August 28, 2025, Typepad announced it was shutting down. 

Creators who’d been blogging since the early 2000s suddenly faced an impossible deadline: save everything or lose it forever in 30 days.

We couldn’t let that happen.

A race against the clock

By September 30 — Typepad’s official shutdown date — 3,684 blogs had successfully migrated to WordPress.com.

And here’s the thing: these weren’t small archives. 

Some creators brought over 3,400+ posts, thousands of images, and nearly 10,000 comments dating back to 2005.

The migration wasn’t always smooth. Typepad’s export files often didn’t include media. Some archives were massive — multi-gigabyte files that required special handling. 

But we worked through each case, one by one.

More than websites

For many creators, this move was about preserving a body of work — not just keeping a site online.

Book launches chronicled post-by-post. Family milestones captured over the years. Niche communities that had grown over a decade or more.

Most were individual bloggers. Many had been writing for 10, 15, even 20+ years.

One blogger with 3,400 posts, 9,000+ images, and 7,000 comments going back to February 2005:

“Truly bowled over by the level of service and the courtesy and friendliness! Wish I’d made the move long ago.”

Another with a similarly massive archive shared:

“I see all of my Typepad posts on WordPress! I am so happy I am crying! Thank you so very much! This feels huge for me!”

That’s exactly why we do this.

How the migration worked

The process was straightforward in theory: export your Typepad archive, import it to WordPress.com, done.

In practice? Not always that simple. 

Typepad’s exports often arrived without media. Some archives were enormous — we’re talking decades of posts crammed into multi-gigabyte files.

Our team worked through the tricky cases hands-on, making sure nothing got left behind.

Once the dust settled, many creators took the opportunity to pick a fresh theme or finally clean up years of messy categories. 

A forced move turned into a fresh start.

Your archives deserve a stable home

Platforms come and go. Your work shouldn’t have to.

WordPress.com is built for the long haul — with speed, security, automatic backups, and support whenever you need it. 

Whether you’re running a personal journal or a publication with thousands of posts, there’s room to grow.

We’re honored to welcome thousands of Typepad creators to WordPress.com. Your archives matter — and now they have a home built to last.

Thinking about moving your blog? Get started here or reach out to our support team — we’re happy to help.

It works — until the workflow starts getting in your way.

Small issues, like inconsistent configurations, overwritten files, and repetitive setup tasks, can all add up and slow you down. 

WordPress Studio simplifies all of that. 

The free, open-source tool lets you spin up local sites quickly, share previews instantly, and move changes between environments without the usual hassle — helping you focus on creating rather than configuring and troubleshooting.

Here’s how you can use it to manage multiple client WordPress sites.

Step 1: Set up a new local site

You have three options for creating a new site in WordPress Studio:

• Start with a blank site: Create a fresh WordPress installation.
• Start from a Blueprint: Build a preconfigured site using a “recipe.” 
• Import from a backup: Use the backup of an existing site. 

Here are more details on those three options.

Start with a blank site

Starting with a blank site creates a fresh WordPress installation using the default out-of-the-box configuration.

This option works well for one-off builds, but Studio can save even more time once you start using Blueprints.

Start from a Blueprint 

Blueprints are reusable JSON files that act as recipes for creating preconfigured local sites — they’re one of the key ways that Studio helps you save time and reduce repetitive tasks.

Instead of setting up each project from scratch, you can create Blueprints for various website types (e.g., blogs or online stores) — defining everything your site needs, from WordPress and PHP versions to themes, plugins, settings, and content.

The Studio Assistant and interactive builder help you generate these automatically — simply tell the AI-powered assistant the site configuration, and it will create the Blueprint.

To use a Blueprint in Studio, choose “Start from a Blueprint” and either pick one of the featured options or upload your own Blueprint file.

Studio currently offers three featured Blueprints (you can preview each in WordPress Playground):

• Quick Start: A WordPress.com-like setup with the plugins and themes included on new Business-plan sites.

• Development: A configuration for theme and plugin developers, with debug settings and tools like Query Monitor, Plugin Check, Theme Check, and Create Block Theme.

• Commerce: A WooCommerce-ready setup with companion plugins for building online stores.

You can also browse the WordPress Blueprints Gallery for community-created configurations.

Import a site from a backup file

Note: Sites on the WordPress.com Business and Commerce plans don’t need to be imported from a backup. Instead, they can use the Studio Sync feature. This is more powerful and efficient than importing from a backup file. 

You can also import a WordPress site into Studio from a backup file. This is useful if you have an existing site you’d like to work on locally.

Follow these steps to import from a backup file:

Install one of the supported backup plugins, such as the free All-in-One WP Migration and Backup plugin, on the site you’d like to import into Studio.

Then, create a backup of the site (WP Admin → All-in-One WP Migration → Backups → Create Backup).

From here, download the backup file and load it into WordPress Studio.

When you’re done working on the local version, use the plugin to create a new backup and import that backup into the live site.

Step 2: Configure your local site

Studio lets you configure each local site to match the hosted environment, making sure they’re compatible. 

The local site’s environment can be configured from the “Advanced settings” panel.

Whether you start with a blank site, a Blueprint, or a backup, Studio lets you adjust a range of optional settings for your local environment. For example, you can:

• Set a custom local path: Define where the site folder is stored on your computer.

• Change the WordPress version: Use the latest release, a specific version, or a Beta/Nightly build (useful for testing upcoming releases).

• Change the PHP version: Match your hosting environment or test different versions.

• Use a custom domain (must end with .local): Make accessing your local site in the browser easier.

• Use SSL to enable HTTPS: Enable HTTPS on your local site so it closely resembles a live environment. 

Tip: You can change these settings after you’ve created a site.

After configuring the environment, you can also set up the tools you want Studio to use while you work.

These settings can be accessed from Settings → Preferences.

Your preferred tools will be used when accessing the site from the “Open in…” section of the Overview tab.

Step 3: Develop and collaborate

Once your local site is configured, you can begin developing and testing changes. 

WordPress Studio applies updates instantly as you work, so you can move quickly and collaborate without delays.

Build locally

Your local site updates in real time — whether you’re editing files, adjusting settings in WP Admin, or adding plugins and themes.

When you do need to add plugins or themes, you can install them through WP Admin just as you would on a hosted site, or drop the files directly into the site’s folders.

If you use certain plugins or themes regularly, keeping them on your computer makes adding them to each new project even faster.

Tip: If you reuse the same plugins across projects, Blueprints (from Step 1) let you spin up sites preconfigured with your preferred plugins, themes, and settings. Studio’s AI Assistant can also help you make updates to your local sites.

Edit individual files

Beyond installing plugins and themes, you can also edit your site’s files directly. 

Studio gives you quick access to those files from the Overview tab.

The “Open in…” section gives you quick access to the site’s files and folders. 

This is useful if you want to edit a local site’s files, including plugin or theme files, in your preferred code editor. 

Each time you edit and save a file, your local site will immediately start using the updated version — there’s no need to wait for files to upload to a server.

Tip: Our blog post on Local WordPress Development Workflows Using WordPress Studio includes a helpful section on the ideal development workflow, whether you’re creating sites, plugins, or themes.

Share a preview of a local site

While working on a site, you can also use the preview feature to get client and collaborator feedback.

Previews are a useful addition to any workflow because they help you get more accurate feedback, faster. 

This way, your clients get to experience the site for themselves, instead of relying on inefficient screenshots or video walkthroughs. 

All you need to do is share the temporary URL with clients and team members, and they can inspect the site snapshot remotely. 

The preview feature is powered by WordPress.com and uses a temporary domain (wp.build).  

The main aspects of the preview sites feature include:

• One-time snapshot: Any changes you make to the site after creating the preview won’t be applied to the preview (unless you update it). This lets you continue to work on the local site without affecting the preview. 
• WP Admin access: Anyone with a WordPress user account on the site can log in to the preview to access WP Admin. 
• Free functionality: You don’t need hosting to create a preview site, just a free WordPress.com account. 
• Create multiple preview sites: You can have up to 10 preview sites at a time.
• Seven-day access: Preview sites are temporary and are deleted after seven days, but updating a site restarts the seven-day expiry period.

Step 4: Connect and sync with a remote site

After building locally, use Studio’s Sync feature to synchronize your local and hosted sites in either direction (push or pull). 

The user-friendly interface and ability to selectively sync reduce the risk of accidental overwrites that can happen when transferring files manually.

Tip: Sync is available on WordPress.com Business and Commerce plans. These plans have Jetpack enabled by default, so your hosted site can connect to Studio and use Sync without any extra setup.

You can synchronize between a local site and the hosted production and staging environments.

Synchronizing with the staging site is especially useful as it lets you test your work in a private hosted environment before moving it to the live production site.

As Studio supports selective sync, you can push or pull only the files, folders, or database tables you need.

Thanks to selective sync, it’s easy to push just a theme from your local site to your hosted WordPress.com site and vice versa, leaving the rest of the site intact. 

A backup is created when you initiate a sync, so you can restore your site if necessary. An email notification is also sent when the sync completes. 

Step 5: Test on staging and push changes

Now it’s time to test the site in a staging environment — a feature available to WordPress.com Business and Commerce plans. 

This gives you a safe place to identify issues before they go live. 

For the best results, follow one of these workflows after creating a WordPress.com staging site: 

• Go to your Sites list in the WordPress.com dashboard. 
• Select the site you want to create a staging site for.
• Open the Overview tab and click the “Add staging site +” link.

You can use the switcher to change between the production and staging environments.

See the WordPress.com documentation to find out how staging sites work. 

Now that your staging site is set up, here are two workflows that show how to use WordPress Studio when working on client sites:

Workflow for new sites

This workflow for building a new client site involves creating a local site, sharing a preview, pushing to the staging site, and then pushing to the production site. 

Follow these steps:

• Create a new local site in Studio.
• Use the Preview feature to share your work with the client.
• Once the client approves the work, push the local site to the staging environment. 
• After testing, push the staging site to the production environment to make it available online.

WordPress.com has a built-in Coming Soon mode with a preview feature that’s useful for controlling access to sites in development. 

Workflow for existing sites

This workflow lets you update an existing live site without overwriting important content or disrupting anything outside the changes you’ve made.

Selective Sync ensures you don’t overwrite important live content — such as form submissions, comments, orders, or anything added while you were working.

For this scenario:

• Use Studio’s Sync feature to pull the entire live site to a local site.
• Update the local site, such as editing the theme files. 
• Use the Preview feature to share those changes with the client.
• After client approval, selectively sync the theme files to push them from the local site to the staging site.
• Test the staging site. 
• If everything works as expected, push the relevant files and folders from the staging site to the production site without syncing the database.  

The live site now includes your theme changes, and any other updates made while you were working locally won’t be overwritten.

Step 6: Scale across multiple clients

Once your workflow is in place, WordPress Studio makes it easy to scale your process across multiple client projects. 

Instead of repeating setup work or jumping between disconnected tools, you can reuse configurations, switch between projects instantly, and keep each site organized and isolated.

Use Studio’s core actions to stay efficient as your client list grows:

• Create: Set up a separate local site for each client — start with a fresh installation, use a Blueprint, or import a backup.

• Switch: Move easily between projects by switching between local sites.

• Share: Use the Preview feature to share work with clients and collaborators.

• Sync: If you’re on WordPress.com Business or Commerce plans, use Sync to transfer work between local, staging, and production environments.

Streamline client projects with WordPress Studio

WordPress Studio is a fast, open-source, and free way to build and manage local WordPress sites. 

It helps you save time, share work with clients more effectively, and reduce errors when transferring files. 

Blueprints let you spin up consistent, pre-configured sites in seconds, reducing setup time and repetitive work — so you can receive and apply client feedback with ease.

If you’re using WordPress.com’s Business or Commerce plans, Sync adds an extra layer by letting you move work between local, staging, and production safely and with confidence.

The bottom line: No matter where the final site is hosted, Studio helps you manage multiple client projects with less overhead and more control.

Our new course — Grow Your Website’s Audience — is here to guide you through the strategies and tools that help you attract visitors, build trust, and turn casual readers into loyal followers. 

It’s fully self-paced, so you can jump into any lesson at any time and spend more time on the topics that matter most to you.

What you’ll learn

Across seven practical lessons, you’ll learn how to:

• Create content that builds trust and engagement — craft posts that show expertise, clarity, and personality.
• Get found in search results — master SEO basics and make your content discoverable by both search engines and AI tools.
• Leverage social media — connect your site to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn with Jetpack Social, and make it easy for readers to share your work.
• Build an email audience — set up a newsletter and keep your readers coming back with every new post.
• Advertise your content — use Blaze to promote posts directly from your dashboard and reach new audiences across WordPress.com and Tumblr.
• Use your stats for smarter decisions — track what’s working, identify your most popular content, and refine your strategy.
• Plan for long-term success — set realistic goals, stay consistent, and keep evolving with your audience.

Why you should take this course

Your website won’t grow on its own — you need a clear strategy for attracting the right people and keeping them engaged, and this course gives you that foundation.

It gives you a simple framework to move forward, with practical steps, real examples, and tools you can start using right away.

More video resources to explore

If you’re new to WordPress.com or ready to keep leveling up, check out our other popular courses and video tutorials:

• Intro to SEO course
• Create a Website course
• Start a Blog course
• Create and edit menus in WordPress
• Learn the WordPress Editor
• Speed Up Your Design with WordPress Patterns
• Master WordPress Images, Galleries, Slideshows & More
• How to Accept Payments on WordPress.com (No Store Needed)

It can drive traffic to your website, boost your career or business, help you learn valuable skills, or simply give you a creative outlet.

Even after 10 years of blogging for myself and others, I still find it enjoyable, meaningful, and one of the most effective ways to earn web traffic.

So come along and see why you should start a blog in 2026.

1. Be visible in search engines

Search is changing in 2025 — but blogs are still one of the best ways to ensure people find you online.

Traditional search engines like Google still send huge amounts of traffic to the posts and pages that rank — and the same content often gets cited or summarized by AI tools like ChatGPT.

Here’s a quick snapshot:

• In 2024, Google alone received more than five trillion searches (around 14 billion per day).
• Website visitors from AI search are projected to surpass traditional search visitors in 2028, while being worth 4.4x the value of traditional organic search traffic because visitors come more informed.

Consequently, it’s not surprising that 81% of marketers continue to see results from their blog posts, 21% even report strong results. 

Blogging is an essential tool to showcase your expertise, which is key for both Google and AI search tools. 

So, if your goal is to attract website visitors from those sources, starting a blog is definitely a step in the right direction.

2. Attract long-term, sustainable traffic 

Unlike the short-lived bursts of social media content, blog posts continue to create value and bring in visitors long after they’ve been published. 

Blogging efforts compound over time.

On most social networks, your visibility often declines quickly when you stop posting.

However, the content you publish on your blog is a long-term investment that keeps paying off.

For example, below is a screenshot from an article on my own website:

Published at the end of May 2025, you can clearly see that its rank, impressions, and clicks have slowly improved over the months. Six months later, it has become one of my top five pages for organic traffic.

This goes hand in hand with insights from Databox, where nearly half of the people surveyed stated that older blog posts bring in 61-80% of their organic traffic.

This research also highlights the value of consistency and patience: 32% of survey respondents said it took them four to six months to reach 1,000 monthly visitors. 

Blogging is effective because once you’ve reached a certain level, you can expect your efforts to keep paying dividends.

3. Build a brand and attract clients

A blog helps you sharpen your online profile and build a reputation, both for a personal website and/or for your business. 

It’s the perfect vehicle to demonstrate your expertise, skills, values, personality, and what you want people to associate with you.

According to HubSpot’s 2025 State of Blogging Report:

• 66% of businesses that blog do so to boost brand awareness
• 53% do it for customer engagement
• 49% do it for lead generation

Half of marketers said their ROI from blogging increased in 2024, and 45% were planning to expand their blogging budgets in 2025.

Blogging isn’t just for companies, though. 

Even a personal blog can create real-world opportunities. Think paid writing gigs, speaking engagements, consulting jobs, or media and brand partnerships. 

Some bloggers, like Chris Guillebeau and James Clear, even translate their blogging into book deals:

I’ve experienced this myself. 

In my 10+ years as a freelance writer, I rarely had to do active outreach. I got my start by writing a blog, then used that body of work to land my first client. 

For the past decade, I have continued to find work because of articles I had already published on my clients’ sites, as well as my own. 

Blogging has allowed me to demonstrate my expertise and build a reputation — and it can do the same for you.

4. Generate a stable income

Besides opening doors to paid opportunities, a blog itself can be a direct source of income. 

Blogging has low overhead, can be done from anywhere, and offers many paths for monetization.

Here are the most common ways bloggers earn money:

• Services: Write about the problems your target audience faces and let them hire you to help. For example, SEO agencies and consultants may publish SEO tutorials and upsell their services.

• Affiliate marketing: Recommend products or services using special links. When someone buys through your link, you earn a commission.

• Digital products: Create and sell your own ebooks, templates, courses, or downloads. You keep 100% of the profit.

• Advertisement: Reserve space on your site for ads, either through ad networks or direct deals, and earn money through clicks or impressions. For example, users on the WordPress.com Premium plan and above can join WordAds — the platform’s built-in ad network for monetizing site traffic.

You can see this in action in the food blog The Fig Jar.

In the last quarter of 2024, its owner earned nearly $7,000 in net profit from a mix of display ads, affiliate marketing, and digital products.

Another example is Meal Prep Manual, which, you guessed it, mainly publishes meal prep recipes.

It’s monetized through affiliate marketing and digital products. 

While the site doesn’t publish income reports, Semrush’s Traffic Analytics tool estimates it received over 120K total visitors in September 2025 alone:

That’s a solid traffic base for a blog that has been around since 2020, especially when paired with its YouTube channel.

Using these tactics, a blog can grow into an income stream — or even a full-time business — that gives you independence and the ability to be your own boss. For example, you could start a content writing or web design agency.

5. Own your presence and audience

Unlike a social media profile, your blog can’t be taken from you. It’s an online presence you actually own, which makes you far more resilient to changes.

Influencer culture has made it seem like being present online means massive followings on Instagram, TikTok, or other social networks. 

You should never lose sight of the fact that your profiles on these platforms are assets you don’t really own:

• When platforms change their algorithms, designs, or priorities, your reach can evaporate.
• Your account could be suspended for an accidental violation of the terms of service.
• Legislation or policy changes could shut the network down — or block access in your region.
• A company or person you don’t want to support might acquire your favorite platform.

In simple terms, when you don’t own the infrastructure, everything you’ve built can disappear overnight, including your audience, income, and archive of work. 

Just look at the responses in this Reddit thread about a potential ban of TikTok in the US:

Owning your blog gives you complete control over your content. That said, you can always combine multiple channels and grow your presence — just don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

With a WordPress-based site, you own both your content, data, and design. You can export it, download it, and take it with you wherever you want. Including your audience, especially if you build an email list alongside your blog.

6. Build a content foundation for repurposing

A blog not only gives you a hub for all your content efforts — every post you publish is raw material for dozens of other content pieces. 

Blogging allows you to do the hard work once and then repurpose it for the rest of your marketing channels.

This is why so many creators, marketers, and businesses build their content strategy around long-form blog posts. One article can become:

• One or more YouTube or TikTok videos
• A series of Bluesky or Threads posts
• An email series for your newsletter
• The basis for an infographic
• Podcast material

For example, I turned a book summary I wrote for my own blog into a LinkedIn carousel:

Sure, repurposing takes time — but a large share of the work is already done. 

Why waste it? Each new article you publish can fuel your social feeds, nurture your email list, and reinforce your expertise across platforms.

7. Learn, grow, and inspire others

Running a blog is a powerful tool for learning — and teaching. It forces you to truly understand the topics you cover and also lets you contribute to the success of others in a meaningful way.

If there’s something you are deeply interested in or passionate about, starting a blog about it is a great way to expand your knowledge and competence in that area. 

It takes a lot of research to understand something to the point where you can explain it to other people.

For example, much of what I know about SEO, CSS, or how to customize WordPress through code comes from writing blog posts about these topics.

In addition, sharing what you learn is very satisfying. It allows you to help other people. In fact, many bloggers start out because they want to make a difference and contribute to society.

8. Build a valuable skill set

Besides expanding your knowledge, running a blog teaches you a wide range of valuable skills, both technical, creative, organizational, and interpersonal. 

Many of these make you a stronger employee, collaborator, freelancer, or creator.

Naturally, one of the main skills you’ll sharpen is your writing ability. 

In addition, here is a sampling of the design and marketing skills you’ll use regularly when producing blog content:

• Coming up with blog topics and ideas
• Keyword research
• Outlining and structuring content
• Research skills
• Editing and revising
• Content management
• Content formatting and readability
• Using header tags correctly
• Retouching images with tools like Photoshop
• Creating visuals (e.g., with Canva)
• On-page SEO
• Image optimization

Besides that, you also learn a surprising number of soft skills: self-motivation, goal setting, discipline, time management, and putting yourself in your readers’ shoes. 

Running a blog is an education in its own right.

9. Enjoy yourself

You don’t have to blog with a financial goal in mind or to achieve a strategic outcome. 

Blogging can also be a deeply personal activity you simply do because it’s fun, meaningful, or provides you with a creative outlet.

For example, you might start a blog to:

• Share your ideas
• Document a journey (emotional or physical)
• Chronicle your everyday life
• Build a creative habit
• Claim your own little corner of the web
• Clarify your thinking
• Explore hobbies
• Confront fears or shyness
• Share your passions
• Grow as a person
• Champion a cause you care about

These are just a few examples. When you look online, you will find that people have many reasons to start a blog. 

For example, this blogger turned to writing and sharing recipes online after losing her restaurant during COVID, using a blog to keep her passion alive and reach people worldwide:

How to easily start a blog with WordPress.com

Does the list above have you feeling motivated and wanting to start a blog right away? 

Good news: You can have one up and running in less than 15 minutes. 

Just click on Get started in the top right corner of this blog or the WordPress.com homepage.

Every WordPress.com hosting plan comes with automated backups, updates, performance optimization, and security features. 

That way, you can fully concentrate on creating content, learning, and connecting with your audience.

Once signed up, pick a blog theme in your admin panel under Appearance → Themes to choose what your blog will look like.

Customize your design using the Site Editor — from colors and fonts to individual page elements. Access it under Appearance → Editor.

You can also create new pages, add them to a menu, and define your blog page if you don’t want your posts to appear on your front page.

That’s basically it. All that’s left is to start creating blog posts and putting them online.

If you want more details and step-by-step instructions, check our detailed article on how to start a blog. We also have instructions for how to properly write a blog post and how to increase blog traffic.

Your blog starts here

So, why should you start a blog, even in 2026? 

The better question is: Why not? 

Everything that made blogging successful is still relevant today, even if the online environment is changing.

Running a blog allows you to attract long-term traffic, make a name for yourself or your business, and monetize your audience.

It’s also a way to build knowledge, learn valuable skills, or simply do something enjoyable.

If you want a partner that makes it easy to start a blog at any skill level and without a technical background, sign up for WordPress.com.

Whether you run an online store or a blog, plugins can transform your site into a festive experience that delights visitors and boosts engagement.

From falling snowflakes to advent calendar giveaways, we’ve rounded up 10 holiday plugins that add seasonal charm and set you up for holiday success. 

1. Christmas Panda

Christmas Panda lets you add festive Christmas decorations to your site with just a few clicks. 

In the Christmas Panda tab in your WordPress admin panel, you can select from a variety of decorations.

The plugin offers a merry mix of header and footer banner designs, bold snowflakes that drift down your pages, and holiday pop-ups. 

You have the option to add just one Christmas design element, or you can add all three for a maximalist Christmas extravaganza.  

Our favorite features 

• Intuitive admin panel: Christmas Panda’s admin tab is extremely intuitive, with just a few buttons to configure. Even beginning website owners can set up decorations within minutes.

• Lots of banner options: Whether you want garlands, bows, or plain pine needles, Christmas Panda’s banners will suit many different site designs. 

• Snowflakes: If your site has a background color, the snowflakes feature adds a bit of cheer without overwhelming your content. 

How to use Christmas Panda on your site

• Add a Christmas mood to your site: Create a small seasonal moment that turns static layouts into something visitors instantly recognize as festive and intentional.

Tip: If you’re a WordPress.com user, you can add falling snow without installing a plugin — check out this quick guide on how to do it.

2. Super Advent Calendar

The Super Advent Calendar plugin adds a customizable block featuring flippable cards for each day leading up to Christmas. 

You can add as many days as you’d like to your advent calendar — e.g., the traditional 24 days of flippable cards or a custom number.

You can also customize both the front and back text, as well as the colors, creating a calendar that matches your site’s styling. 

Our favorite features

• Calendar Customization: We like that this holiday plugin lets you customize each Advent card individually. Because you control the text on both card sides and can add as many days to the calendar as you’d like, you can create a truly unique experience.

• Opportunities for daily engagement: You can set each Advent block’s start and end dates to offer site users daily perks. The 24-hour window for each gift can incentivize shoppers to complete their orders and encourage them to return for more.  

How to use the Super Advent Calendar on your site

• Create an Advent Calendar of deals: If you run a WooCommerce or other digital store, you can create a “12 (or 24) Days of Deals” page with your calendar. This seasonal addition gamifies the shopping experience and rewards daily visitors. 

• Share other fun content behind each card: If you don’t sell anything on your site, you can still get creative with the advent calendar. Consider sharing subscriber-only content, fun facts relevant to your blog topic, and more.

3. Woo Store Vacation

Woo Store Vacation is a plugin that automatically pauses your WooCommerce store for a set vacation period, because website owners deserve a break over the holiday, too! 

It’s meant to support a variety of business needs. You can close your store completely (don’t worry, this won’t affect your SEO thanks to the plugin’s settings) or simply alert customers that there will be a processing delay before their order is fulfilled. 

Our favorite features

• Site banner: You can customize the text and color of your vacation announcement. This banner shows up at the top of all of your store pages. 

• Customize what products are disabled: You can also decide which products and shipping options are disabled during your vacation. Find this option in the “Conditions page,” which shows up once you’ve disabled purchases. 

How to use Woo Store Vacation on your site

• Add a banner with vacation dates in advance: Transparent communication with customers is vital. If you fulfill orders manually or need to do backend admin for fulfillment partners, communicating your vacation dates sets clear expectations and keeps customers happy.

• Only disable products you fulfill manually: If external providers fulfill some of your orders automatically or you offer digital products and gift cards, you can continue earning income on these items while you’re away.

4. Weather Effect

The Weather Effect plugin is another way to add a holiday twist to your site with falling holiday emojis. 

Choose from several sets of icons, including a Christmas set — snowmen, ornaments, candy canes, and more — or customizable snowflakes. 

Our favorite features

• Multiple holidays included: There are various occasion sets available, giving you multiple opportunities throughout the year to add a little movement to your site.

• Works well on white backgrounds: Because most of the icons are colorful, you can use this plugin even if your site has a white background (though the round snowflakes are only available in white). 

• Adjust speed and density: You can also adjust how fast your holiday icons fall and their density for greater customization.

How to use it on your site

• Add Christmas or winter decor: Dust your site with snowflakes or snowmen for a touch of winter charm. 

• Keep it clean: Keep the density and speed low to minimize clutter.

• Add effects for upcoming holidays: Then, change up the icons to celebrate New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, or to mark the start of Spring. 

5. Santa’s Christmas Countdown

Santa’s Christmas Countdown is a simple plugin that lets you display the number of days until Christmas on any page of your site. 

On Christmas Day, the Santa icon wishes visitors a Merry Christmas.

Use a shortcode block with the code [countdown] to add Santa and the number of days until Christmas to any page.

You can also format the element to the center, left, or right by expanding the shortcode to [countdown-center], etc.

Our favorite features

• Simple and lightweight: This plugin has just one preset icon (Santa) and his countdown. This simplicity means it’s easy to set up and lightweight to run. 

How to use Christmas Countdown on your site

• Add a countdown across your site: Use the countdown as a header or sidebar widget to keep visitors excited about the upcoming holiday. 

• Use the countdown year-round on relevant pages: If you have Christmas-themed content pages — like a Christmas recipe collection or Christmas DIY — leave the widget up year-round. 

6. WooCommerce Gift Wrapper

WooCommerce Gift Wrapper lets WooCommerce stores offer holiday wrapping services as an add-on purchase. 

This is a great upsell opportunity for e-commerce stores, which adds convenience for shoppers who may prefer to ship gifts directly to friends and families. 

You can also add a gift note to complete the Christmas package.

Our favorite features

• Flexible add-ons: While the plugin is called “Gift Wrapper,” it doesn’t limit you to offering just gift wrap. You can also use it to sell other holiday add-ons such as greeting cards, gift messages, and more.

• Seamless setup: The plugin integrates seamlessly into your WooCommerce checkout flow, making the upsell more helpful than pushy.

How to use WooCommerce Gift Wrapper on your site

• Offer seasonal gift wrapping services: Offer gift wrapping at checkout to increase your average order value during the holiday shopping season. You can set a flat fee for wrapping or create tiered pricing for different wrapping styles, like basic, premium, and luxury.

• Plan your wrapping services accordingly: You can also choose whether you want to charge for wrapping the whole order or per item.

7. Snow Fall

If you’re looking for a subtle holiday addition, the Snow Fall plugin adds just a glimmer of snow to your web pages.

Simply activate the plugin, and a light dusting of shimmering white flakes will appear across your site — no configuration required.

Our favorite features

• A lightweight plugin: Snow Fall is just a few lines of code, so you’ll get snowflakes without any freeze on your load time.

• One-click activation: Once you activate the Snow Fall plugin, you’re all set! No additional configuration is required.  

How to use Snow Fall on your site

Because the snowflakes are white and it’s not possible to adjust the color, this plugin will only work on sites with a colored background. 

If that applies to your site, activate Snow Fall and enjoy a little holiday spirit on every page. 

8. Poptin Popups

Poptin Popups offers customizable, gamified popups and forms that can be triggered on a variety of customer clicks or views. 

Use these pop-ups to encourage users to sign up for your mailing list or to complete checkout from your store. 

While Poptin Popups is a powerful integrated marketing tool that can be used year-round, a holiday-themed campaign is a great place to start. 

Our favorite features

• Powerful feature set: Poptin is extremely powerful and flexible, which makes it a great tool for marketing teams who want tons of control. 

• Pre-made templates and campaign ideas: Poptin offers a ton of pre-made templates and resources, including a list of Christmas pop-up ideas.

• Intuitive dashboard: Poptin’s simple dashboard, template collection, and built-in WordPress integration make it easy for first-time users to experiment with smaller campaigns. 

How to use Poptin Popups on your site

• Design a holiday-themed campaign: The sky is the limit when it comes to building a holiday pop-up campaign. For example, create a pop-up offering 15% off for visitors who sign up before Christmas Eve, or use a countdown timer pop-up to remind shoppers of your shipping cut-off for holiday orders. 

• Continue using pop-ups for future events: After the holidays, consider other themed campaign opportunities.

9. RS Christmas Trees

Like Christmas Panda, the RS Christmas Trees plugin offers holiday-themed banners and snowflakes.

If your Christmas style is truly maximalist, this holiday WordPress plugin might be perfect for you. 

It’s the most robust decor plugin on this list, offering a trove of banners, countdowns, snowflakes, and more — including holiday music.

Our favorite features

• Automatic scheduling: If you upgrade to Ultimate, you can decide how many days you want to activate your Christmas features. Once it’s set up, you’ll get automatic Christmas cheer without any admin.

• Snowflakes that work on white backgrounds: We like that their snowflake colors can be customized, so even sites with white backgrounds can get in on the holiday fun.

How to use RS Christmas Trees on your site

• Create a cohesive design: Add header and footer banners to your site in coordinating styles and match your snowflake color to your brand palette for a polished look.

• Test your banners: If you’re using sticky footer banners, be sure to test them on multiple pages to ensure they don’t block critical text.

10. The Events Calendar

The Events Calendar plugin lets you publish events and offer tickets directly on your site.

It includes features like custom ticket types, venue details with maps, multiple organizers, and event search — all available in the free version.

Our favorite features

• Easy setup: The Events Calendar walks you through setup in five simple steps, including adding a venue, an organizer, and ticketing. You still need to navigate the WordPress admin, but the onboarding makes each required field clear.

• Ticketing: You can create free tickets or enable paid ticketing with the free Tickets Commerce. Ticketed events can be a great source of income, and using an integrated app like The Events Calendar helps you keep all your data in one place. 

How to use Random Christmas Facts on your site

• Add upcoming holiday events: Whether you host in-person or virtual events for the holidays, you can add them directly to your website with the Events Calendar. 

• Create a discount or deal calendar: If you prefer a true calendar-style layout instead of the simpler Advent-style list, you can use The Events Calendar to showcase holiday discounts or daily deals. It takes a bit of creativity, but one approach is to create a “deal event” for each day, limit RSVPs to that date, and then send everyone who RSVP’d a special discount code.

Light up your site for the holidays

Preparing your site for the holidays doesn’t need to be as complicated as untangling your Christmas lights. 

You can add plugins to any WordPress.com site on a plugin-enabled plan, so choose just one or multiple ideas from this guide to experiment with this December.

Don’t forget to check your site analytics afterward: Did your calendar giveaway increase repeat visitors? Did the sprinkle of snowfall increase your average user session? If you’re a WordPress.com user, you can explore these stats right in your admin panel using Jetpack stats.

Consider these plugins your gift to your visitors — a festive site means happier users, better engagement, and a merrier holiday season.

I’m an experienced website designer, but I’m not a software developer. 

Vibe coding has been a fun, seemingly magical way to turn ideas into working mini-apps, but that “magic” comes with limits. The tools I’ve created work well for my internal team, yet I don’t understand the backend deeply enough to share them publicly or monetize them safely.

After building dozens of prototypes, I’ve learned that AI prototyping tools are great for fast experimentation — but some fall short in powering the backend of long-term business websites.

In this article, I’ll break down what AI site generators can do, where their limitations show up, and why WordPress.com’s AI website builder takes a very different approach.

What are AI website builders?

The term “AI site builder” refers to the use of AI tools and plain-language prompts to generate a website.

There are two major categories of these tools:

• Lightweight AI builders: Similar to Lovable and Framer, which are also referred to as AI prototyping tools. They’re great for simple landing pages or MVPs, but their limitations show quickly when you need security, SEO, integrations, or room to grow. This is what people refer to when talking about “vibe coding.”
• Full-featured AI builders: Similar to WordPress.com’s AI website builder. They package prompt-based website generation backed by the stability and proven track record of managed platforms like WordPress.

The reality is: If you want something more than an MVP or single landing page, vibe coding alone isn’t enough. 

You need a platform that can support performance, reliability, security, and growth.

The limitations of AI prototyping tools

AI prototyping tools are great for quick ideas — but not for lasting websites.

They deliver instant results: Describe what you want, and a site appears.

That speed makes them perfect for brainstorming, testing concepts, or validating ideas without friction.

Unfortunately, that’s also their limitation.

These tools hide much of the complexity behind building a dependable site for your business, making it hard to spot problems until something breaks. 

When you add new features or generate a site, you often end up troubleshooting issues you didn’t even know existed.

For example:

• You can’t see or control the underlying systems.
• Integrations break without clear reasons.
• Downtime is difficult to diagnose.
• Security isn’t guaranteed or built in.

Your website represents your brand — and you shouldn’t rely on something you can’t fully understand or maintain.

What makes WordPress.com’s AI website builder different

WordPress.com’s AI website builder gives you the “type a prompt, get a site” experience on a platform that actually scales.

What makes it special?

Your site is built on WordPress — the CMS powering 43% of the web — and hosted on WordPress.com’s fully managed infrastructure.

In other words, you get fast generation plus the customization, plugins, performance, and security needed to actually run and grow a real website.

Security

Many AI-generated sites are rife with security issues precisely because they simplify everything so heavily.

You can accidentally expose API keys, break authentication, mishandle user data, or leave vulnerabilities without knowing.

For any site hosted on WordPress.com, security and infrastructure are managed by a 20-plus-year ecosystem and a dedicated team that continually hardens code, patches vulnerabilities, and maintains platform standards.

With vetted plugins, managed WordPress hosting, and standardized best practices, most of the security risk is taken off your plate.

Performance

SEO isn’t something you can just bolt on later. Many vibe coding tool brands are realizing they need to offer SEO features, but WordPress has been building toward this for decades.

WordPress has long been considered an SEO-friendly platform because of its clean baseline code, fast rendering, and structured content. 

WordPress.com also includes managed hosting and performance-focused infrastructure across its paid plans: high-frequency CPUs, a global CDN/edge cache, unmetered traffic, and automated burst-scaling.

In other words, you’re not just getting features — you’re getting faster, more resilient hosting by default.

Extensibility

Speaking from experience, vibe coding and using external APIs or third-party services is harder than it looks, even for semi-technical users. 

Access to WordPress.com’s plugins means your site can grow with you instead of boxing you in.

You don’t have to build everything manually or worry that your integrations will silently fail.

Hosting

When using vibe coding tools, the web hosting layer is often hidden from you, so you have little visibility or control.

With these tools, if your site goes down or integrations fail, you’re the one responsible for troubleshooting, often without the tools or access needed to fix the issue.

Moreover, if you don’t know what you’re dealing with, it’s also likely that you don’t know how to get assistance at a reasonable price — costs spiral quickly.

With WordPress.com, hosting is managed for you in a way that’s optimized, secure, and monitored. If something goes wrong, you’re not left guessing — you have the peace of mind that comes with access to 24/7 support from the human Happiness Engineers.

Design

Vibe-coding tools feel instantly creative, but that freedom usually comes without structure — and if you’re not a designer, it can get overwhelming fast.

WordPress.com’s AI website builder is different. 

It lets you create websites using AI prompts, but with a real block-based WordPress foundation behind it. 

You can edit every section cleanly with blocks (alongside the AI chat), keep your layout consistent, and avoid the chaos of loose, AI-generated code.

Costs

No AI site builder stays completely “free” once you move past the free trial.

If you want to publish, update your site regularly, or add essential features, you’ll need a paid plan with any platform.

However, vibe coding (especially for a non-technical user) can obscure hidden costs like dealing with:

• Downtime
• Broken integrations
• Manual debugging
• Data exposure

A managed platform like WordPress.com reduces the likelihood of costly failures and handles maintenance for you. Once you’re happy with your AI site, you can simply pick a plan and publish it.

How to use WordPress.com’s AI builder

You start with a simple prompt: describe your idea, your tone, your brand, and your purpose.

As an homage to a blog I created after graduating college, which solidified my love for writing and SEO, I went with this prompt:

“Create a lifestyle blog called ‘ChiTown on a Dime’ for young professionals in Chicago living large on a budget. It will feature affordable restaurant reviews, budget-friendly events, insider local guides, and personal reflections on city life. Design pages for Home, Eats & Drinks, Things to Do, Living in Chicago, About, and Contact. Use a modern, minimalistic layout with vibrant photos and easy navigation. Tone should be energetic, stylish, and relatable.”

The result? 

A full block-based website that would’ve taken hours to create from scratch — not loose code you can’t maintain. 

The builder definitely understood the assignment, creating the following site with a photo of Chicago deep-dish pizza, front and center:

With the foundation in place, you can refine the site using conversational language with the AI copilot:

• “Adjust the layout.”
• “Change these colors.”
• “Rewrite this section.”
• “Suggest improvements.”

Here’s what it suggested when I prompted the assistant to show me new fonts for my site, and what it looked like to apply changes from chat:

Here’s the helpful advice it shared for making my new creation more SEO-friendly when I asked it for tips:

The AI builder gives you a full trial to create and refine your site without paying up front. 

When it’s time to launch publicly and rely on managed hosting, security, and performance, you can move to a paid plan.

Can your site grow with you?

These are the questions you should ask before choosing your ideal AI website building solution:

• Can this site evolve?
• Can it scale?
• Can it handle more pages, products, languages, or additional features?

WordPress.com’s AI website builder blends the speed of modern AI with the maturity of a platform that has supported millions of websites for 20 years. 

Your site can grow indefinitely with plugins, SEO tools, plugins like WooCommerce, and reliable hosting.

Try WordPress.com’s AI website builder for free, then publish it for the world to see with a paid plan.