When it comes to choosing blogging software, bloggers have many choices. From our previous post on blogging software, we know that WordPress.com is one option available for hosted blogs (the other major player in the hosted blogs world being Blogger.com, owned by Google).

Hosting your blogs at both Blogger.com and WordPress.com is free. While Blogger.com is still far more popular, especially for new bloggers, many seasoned bloggers have begun to migrate from Blogger to WordPress. Let’s take a look at the features and limitations of hosting your blog with WordPress.com. Bear in mind that we’re discussing the hosted version of WordPress, not the self-hosted version (downloadable at WordPress.org).

Here are some of the features and benefits associated with hosting your blog at WordPress.com:

1. It’s free (though there are costs associated with ‘premium’ services)

2. It includes 3 gigabytes of file storage

3. Select from more than 60 themes

4. Basic stats system is built in

5. Virtually spam-free

6. Sidebar widget-ready

7. Large active community for help and support

8. Automatic backups of your blog

9. All upgrades are performed seamlessly, in the background, automatically

10. Any large traffic spikes will be managed by WordPress.com’s server load-balancing

Now let’s have a look at some of the limitations inherent to using WordPress.com as your blogging platform:

1. Your money-making ads cannot be displayed (no Adsense, Chikita, etc.).

2. WordPress.com reserves the right to display THEIR ads on your blog. You can opt out of this for $30/yr.

3. Want more storage space? It will cost you. You can add 5 more GB for $20/yr – and it goes up from there.

4. Mapping your own domain name to your WordPress.com blog will cost you $10/yr.

5. Few customization options. To access the CSS code for your theme will add another $15/yr to your costs.

6. If you violate the WordPress.com Terms of Service your blog will be deleted.

As bloggers, we have a wide array of choices for blog hosting solutions. By understanding what our choices are, we will be better positioned to select the blogging software that is best suited to our needs and goals.