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If you are new to WordPresss.com, you may have noticed the words “Website Powered by WordPress.com” at the bottom of your website. If you are trying to figure out how to remove WordPress.com branding from your website, it’s easy, but not free.
The short answer, you can remove WordPress.com branding from your website, but it requires an upgrade. WordPress.com’s Free, Personal, and Premium plans all include WordPress branding. To remove WordPress.com branding, you need to upgrade your hosting plan to their Business plan or higher.
WordPress.com is a hosting platform for WordPress websites and is home to thousands of bloggers. They offer free and affordable managed WordPress hosting to personal users and businesses. It’s often the first place a new blogger goes to get started. You don’t need to hire a web designer or have coding skills to useWordPress.com, but it does come with some drawbacks. One of them is that most of their free and affordable hosting plans include WordPress advertising and branding.
How to remove WordPress.com branding without paying for an upgrade?
If you are trying to find a way to remove the branding from your WordPress.com website without paying for an upgrade, there is unfortunately not an option. You might have discovered tutorials for removing the WordPress branding from the footer of your website, but these tutorials are designed for websites that use the WordPress platform, not websites hosted on WordPress.com.
If your website is hosted on WordPress.com, you must follow the WordPress.com terms of service. Removing the branding from websites that have not purchased their business plan or higher is not permitted and is a violation of your agreement.
The best option for removing WordPress.com branding
If you want complete control of your website and branding, the best option is to host your website on a separate hosting company. There are tons of website hosting companies for WordPress websites. Before you get started, you need to know a little about the difference between using WordPress on a hosting company vs WordPress.com.
Although you can just upgrade your WordPress.com account to a business plan, there are so many advantages to switching to a self-hosted WordPress website. Among the reasons to switch are price, more options, and having complete control over your website. A typical starter plan for hosting a WordPress website is around $3-8 a month. Compare this to $25 a month a business plan on WordPress.com and you can see the advantages.
What’s the difference between WordPress and WordPress.com?
This can be very confusing to newcomers if they don’t understand what website hosting is. Website hosting is basically renting space on someone else’s server. WordPress itself is a content management system or a program that runs your website. WordPress is an open-source program that can be used on any server. WordPress.com is not a program or software. It is a hosting company that exclusively services managed WordPress websites. You do not have to use WordPress.com to use WordPress.
How do you set up WordPress on a Hosting company?
Sometimes people are intimidated by WordPress. They opt for WordPress.com because it seems easier. They might be afraid they won’t be able to install WordPress on their own or customize it. If you can use WordPress.com, you can learn how to use WordPress on a hosting company.
The WordPress platform is the same, you just need to learn a few extra steps to set it up. Once it’s installed, you can add themes, plugins, and remove any WordPress branding. On top of that, your site won’t have ads displayed or have limitations on customization or plugins you can use. If you decide you don’t like the hosting company you go with, all you have to do is back up the site and move it to another one.
To set up a self-hosted WordPress website, the first thing you need to do is find a hosting company. GoDaddy, Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostgator, and LiquidWeb are a few of the well-known hosting companies. Ask around, and you’ll certainly get recommendations. Look over the hosting company’s hosting packages. Most hosting companies include shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and dedicated server hosting. If you are a brand new website, shared hosting or managed WordPress hosting is all you need. Managed WordPress hosting is the easiest option for a beginner.
If you choose managed WordPress hosting, all you need to do is purchase your domain name and your managed Worpdress plan. Most web hosting companies have an easy setup. Once you purchase the name and hosting, typically all you have to do is go to your products page and click create the site. It is normally a very easy process. To edit your website, log in to your hosting account, and go directly to your WordPress dashboard.
How to remove WordPress branding from a Self-hosted WordPress website
Once you have WordPress set up on a self-hosted server, removing WordPress branding or your theme’s branding is easy. Text that contains “powered by” is generally located in the footer on any theme. You can edit the copyright information and “powered by” text by going to Appearance in the WordPress dashboard. Then customize. Your footer information is usually found under site identity, but might also be found in a separate section called footer or footer builder. Locate the copyright information and “powered by” information and simply remove it. Then publish your changes.
Some themes contain a theme options section under Appearance. If your theme has a section for theme options, check there for your footer and copyright information If you have trouble finding the footer or copyright information, check your theme’s documentation.
Remove WordPress Branding with a Plugin
If you find removing the branding difficult, you can always use a plugin. Plugins are one of the best things about using WordPress. There are literally thousands of plugins that allow you to easily customize your website with no coding. The Remove “Powered by WordPress” plugin works on any of the default WordPress themes.
Just go to the plugin section of your WordPress dashboard. Click on add new. Search for “remove powered by WordPress” and install the plugin. Activate the plugin and it’s ready to use. Once the plugin is activated. Go to Appearance. Then customize. Choose your theme. Then click on Remove powered by WordPress. Then publish.
All in all removing WordPress branding is easy, whether you use WordPress.com or a self-hosted WordPress site. If you are trying to make the decision on whether to stick with WordPress.com or start learning how to use WordPress as a self-hosted website, check out our post Ten of the Best Reasons to Learn WordPress.
