The Blog Starter vs WordPress.com

The Blog Starter lands on Worth it, and WordPress.com lands on Depends.

The Blog Starter

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

A free, step-by-step guide for total blogging beginners . zero risk to use.

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you want managed, no-setup WordPress hosting for a blog or small content site and accept paid-plan limits.

The Blog Starter versus WordPress.com
Compare	The Blog Starter	WordPress.com
Verdict	Worth it	Depends
Best for	Total blogging beginners	Bloggers and content-heavy sites
Who it's not for	Experienced bloggers . nothing new here	Developers needing full plugin and theme control . use self-hosted
Privacy	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.^⁷	Managed platform patches core, but critical actively-exploited WordPress CVEs (wp2shell RCE) persist in the ecosystem.¹⁶
Support quality	No support-channel evidence found	BBB complaints and Reddit support gripes
Public sentiment	Users in blogging groups recommend the free guide to newcomers; no substantial complaint threads surfaced in sources reviewed.^⁵	Expert reviewers rate it 4.5+/5 and still recommend it, while Trustpilot users average 3.7/5 with frequent gripes about paying and support.¹⁰
Biggest gotcha	Free guide earns affiliate commissions on hosting it recommends . compare independent reviews before buying^¹	Plugin and theme freedom requires higher paid tiers; free plan is capped¹⁴

Developers needing full plugin and theme control . use self-hosted WordPress.org
Devs wanting server-level access or custom code
Simple one-page sites . lighter builders cost less
Anyone allergic to paid-tier upsells