Your Own Domain Address on WordPress.com? Absolutely!
Here at Automattic we feel really lucky to be able to interact with so many WordPress.com users through our awesome Happiness Engineers in Support, meeting WordPress users and lovers at various global WordCamps, and even Matt runs into WordPress users when he’s on a plane (is there a better way to get Support? We think not. But let him sleep a little).
One of the most common questions we answer is, “Can I have my own domain on WordPress.com?” The answer to that question is a resounding YES!
We are happy to give you a free website at WordPress.com (something like anyaddress.wordpress.com) but if you want to also use your own domain, you can do that very easily.
You don’t need to create another site – you simply need the inexpensive Domain Mapping Upgrade. In layman’s terms, domain mapping just means pointing example.com to your anyaddress.wordpress.com site, so when your friends visit example.com they will see your super-cool site hosted at WordPress.com, and example.com will remain the visible address.
That’s it!
- It doesn’t matter where you registered your domain – you can still map it to your WordPress.com site. Check out How to Map an Existing Domain.
- Still need to get a custom domain? You can do it all through WordPress.com. Register a New Domain.
- Have a domain already, but want to put your WordPress.com site on a subdomain (like blog.example.com)? We can do that, too. Read How to Map a Subdomain.
After you map your domain, make sure you Update the Primary Domain to your shiny new personalized domain so when people visit your example.com site, that’s the address that stays visible in the address bar. Instructions for doing that are in each of the above posts, or you can find it under Upgrades > Domains on that blog’s dashboard after you’ve completed the domain mapping process.
Oh, and we’re not jealous, either. If you ever decide to transfer the site off WordPress.com, you can take your domain with you, too. Check out How to Transfer a Domain and if you prefer one of our super talented Happiness Engineers to move your entire website for you to a self-hosted WordPress solution, check out Guided Transfer.
Spread the Word!
- June 14, 2011
- Customization, Domains, HowTo, Upgrade
WordPress.com News 
Good. But I think, only US $ are allowed in upgrades. (?) Just a quick question:
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@Guarav – You’re correct, we only accept USD $, but you can pay with PayPal or a credit card which will do the currency conversion for you.
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Brilliant. 🙂
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I just started my website a couple of weeks ago and registered my new domain name through WordPress.com. I’m impressed with how reasonable the cost is, and how many excellent features I get by having my site hosted here. The directions to go through the process of setting it up were very clear, too, which is very helpful to someone who doesn’t know a lot about the topic!
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Great! I didn’t have enough skills or experiences for hosting a domain for my blog. But now I will make me clever and check this out! Maybe I will have my “own” domain soon. Would be very cool and I would have more possibilities in designing and just everything!!! 🙂
Great thing! THANKS!!
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Hi Sara!
Well, thanks for making us remember about the “Domain Mapping Upgrade!”
– Darshan
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Is there a new information in here somewhere? Never seen WordPress.com repeat old information.
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@AA – it’s a question we get very very often, so we think it bears repeating 🙂
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was this option available earlier? I remember that I pay-paled for a kewler webdom outfit months ago 🙂
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@ana it’s not a new feature, but it’s a great reminder for those looking for custom domain information all in one place.
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I may consider it myself. 🙂
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Nice reminder.
But my problem is we don’t have a credit card in my country – Ethiopia.
So…is there an alternative I could use to pay?
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I’ve always wanted a .com, and WordPress is my first opportunity. The cost is very reasonable, and once my new blog has proven itself to be a keeper (I’ve had many failed blogs before), I hope to register my own domain!
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Yeah, even I will register for my own domain once the site traffic increases substantially.
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Hi Sara! any word on when WordPress.com will accept .ca domains?
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@theurbanfarmerscompany – you can definitely map an existing .ca domain (one you already own) to your WP.com site: https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/map-existing-domain/ – there are many many many registrars you can first register the domain with, and then map to a WP.com site if you haven’t purchased the domain already.
It’s not possible to register a .ca domain directly with WordPress.com at this time.
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I’ve used this facility twice so far. Once with a domain registered through you and once with a sub-domain mapping onto a domain I own. Both times it was a breeze. The first time I just followed the instructions and the second time did it for our church mag where I had to get our web host people to do the stuff. Both times no problems.
Thanks for the facility – really good and easy to use.
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Just precisely how much does it cost please people?
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@squidoospook – Prices are different for mapping an existing domain vs. registering a new domain + mapping – you can find all the details on each Support page linked above.
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You can even transfer the domain registration to another registrar, it’s great.
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I understand from people who have moved that they lost a lot of their google traffic. This has kept me from moving my older sites onto my own name for some time. Thanks for insights on this.
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Hi Sara, thanks for your post. WordPress has an elegant way to solve things 🙂 Keep up the good work! 😉
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Am I able to map an .info domain to wordpress?
Another question: Why are only certain themes available? I have CSS free template which is a wordpress creation but I can’t use it here.
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You can definitely map a .info domain to WordPress.com – find out more here: https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/map-existing-domain/
As for themes, we have over 120 and we’re adding more all the time – first make sure you’ve seen all of them at http://theme.wordpress.com – you can also modify the CSS of any of those themes with the Custom CSS upgrade: https://wordpress.com/support/custom-css/
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Awesome way to make WordPress even better. Hopefully I will be getting my domain in the near future.
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I will look into it – thank you, Sara!
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I am working on migrating my website to WordPress because I’m loving it, but I’m having a lot of trouble getting my email address to go to gmail. And, I’m afraid to cut the cord in case it doesn’t work and I don’t get my customers’ emails.
Any hints to make it go easier, or reassure me that I won’t lose my customer emails to a black hole?
Thank you!
Shelley
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@whistlingtrainfarm – you can always set up your WP.com site as a subdomain for your website (like blog.example.com) which wouldn’t require changing the DNS of your domain or messing with any of your current settings: https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/map-subdomain/
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I had to make our school a website on wordpress.com The headmaster insist of having a .co.za site. Is this possible and do you get extra features if you pay for an domain upgrade? Thanks
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@Ethan – a .co.za domain mapping is possible. If you pay for the domain mapping upgrade, that is the extra feature! 🙂
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Can I change my existing name.wordpress.com to another name2.wordpress.com as I am trying to increase the security of my blog?
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@aaronmikki – sure can! Here’s how: https://wordpress.com/support/moving-a-blog/#moving-between-wordpress-com-blogs
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this will be great in the future for me!
thanks much sara!
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Already on it ;D
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Hi there — We are interested in using WordPress for our newsroom at the University of West Florida. Our IT folks don’t want to host WordPress on our site, and so I am looking at the domain mapping upgrade. But how will that affect search engine optimization if it appears that all our news releases and stories are hosted on something like news.wordpress.com instead of news.uwf.edu? Thanks. 🙂
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@blogger151 – if you get the domain mapping upgrade, your stories will not appear to be hosted at anyaddress.wordpress.com, but the address you chose – news.uwf.edu or anyaddress.uwf.edu, etc.
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Sara,
As you know, for already existing domain names, many registrars offer forwarding for free. Is there any advantage in mapping, instead of forwarding example.com to example.wordpress.com?
Thanks
3DX
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@3dxplorer domain forwarding is not the same as domain mapping – with domain mapping you’re actually putting content on the domain which means the site is indexed under that domain instead of the domain it’s being forwarded to.
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I actually have three domain names registered, and they all point to WordPress. One I purchased at GoDaddy, the other two, right here. It’s easy to do and gives your blog(s) a more professional feel!
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One problem with wp.com is that it won’t work with Google Analytics. Unfortunately, the WordPress site stats are not as comprehensive as Google Analytics.It would be great if you could make wp.com addresses compatible with Analytics or alternatively improve the information in the WordPress site stats.
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@Art in Geelong – we think WordPress.com stats are pretty cool, but we are always working to add more features and improvements.
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Hi Sara, if we register a new domain via wordpress.com, can we also set up our email for that domain name through wordpress.com? I’ve had several clients ask me about that.
Cheers, @Jesseluna
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@Jesseluna – We don’t manage your email directly at WordPress.com, but you can set up email to work with Google Apps, for example : https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/google-apps-email/
or set the MX records to work with another mail provider:
https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/custom-dns/#adding-custom-dns-records
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I’m glad to hear WordPress.com provides services with users/customers in mind. I especially like the feature that allows us to transfer to other hosting, which provides flexibility.
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I think it’s pretty ridiculous that you 1) don’t allow domain mapping without changing DNS (I like to manage my DNS myself at my registrar) and 2) that you don’t allow “www” as a subdomain. Offering either would make things so much easier and offer less risk is screwing up MX records, etc…
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@Seth – if you don’t want to change the DNS, you can map to a subdomain with a CNAME record: https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/map-subdomain/
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Call me a blogging newbie (its true) but if I get my own domain, does this mean I lose the “help” I get by using your site? For example, I don’t know any of those “codes” or anything and rely heavy on gidgets and things you provide here.
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@4littlefergusons – In this case you’re mapping a domain to your WordPress.com site, so you get access to all the great Support you already have access to 🙂 If you’re a newbie, you might want to check out our tips for newbies at http://learn.wordpress.com
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Here’s a question. I did map my domain name to my wordpress blog. Now, I’m interested in getting another domain name that I would also like to map to the wordpress blog. How would I do that? Can WordPress accept more than one domain name to the same blog. I know it will be $12 a year per domain name. I just couldn’t figure out from the information is more than one could be mapped. Thanks.
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@Katherine – you can map more than one domain to a WordPress.com site, but only one will be the primary domain – the others will forward to the primary domain.
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I just launched my blog a couple of weeks ago and I upgrade to my own domain. It was simple and inexpensive. You Gus rock!
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What about ads? Does that mean that we can still run ads?
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@Guillermo – same rules apply – https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/#before-upgrading-important-notes
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… this is an amazing little feature that I did not know you offered! My only question is around recognition. Lets imagine I do create a new domain name through WordPress, or close down another website I no longer want and have that domain mapped to my blog at wordpress, because it only exists as a domain name that is now mapped to another place [blog] and not an actual page, will the domain name be recognized by search engines as easily and as much as it would, if it existed as a stand-a-lone site? [I hope this makes sense…
keep on inovating!
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@michael – I’m not sure I understand your question. Here’s some of our most frequently asked questions about search engines:
https://wordpress.com/support/search-engines/
If those don’t answer your question, please contact Support with some specifics about the situation!
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I am satisfied with the service wordpress.com, I already bought the domain a year ago and there was never any significant problems.
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I’m uncertain of why WP charges for this service when most domain registrars allow you to forward (send http://www.domain.com to domain.wordpress.com) and mask (keep http://www.domain.com in the address bar) for free.
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@Gavirel – domain forwarding and domain masking are not the same thing as mapping the domain directly to your WordPress.com site, but they can be alternatives if you’re not interested in the domain mapping upgrade.
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I’m still working on getting my credit card to facilitate payments. The pricing is well affordable, but my main hindrance is how to make the payment, as a credit card is the only means and no others. Hope this can happen soon. Meanwhile, I currently have a local domain host and server for my website, but would be glad to connect to WP.
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@bimbocabidog – right, you can make a payment via PayPal or via a credit card.
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Hi Sara,
I am quite surprised that WP is still providing this as a paid feature since it is almost free on all other providers such as tumblr, posterous or blogger.
BTW WP is really professional.
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@Christophe – we think it’s pretty inexpensive for a whole year of custom domain hosting (about 4 Frappucinos-worth) with the wonderful features of WordPress.com and access to our awesome Support team, too! 🙂
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Hi Sara, great to see you here, last time it was @ GGD7 in our cowo… and yes, I do confirm what you say, I have 2 domains on wp.com! Keep up the good work, guys!
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This is great BUT – What if i have a wordpress.org AND a wordpress.com. two different sites. How can i get my wordpress to point to the org?
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@Max – not sure if I understand your question. We provide a Redirect to redirect your WordPress.com site to any external domain. https://wordpress.com/support/site-redirect/
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Already using the domain mapping feature. I am just waiting for the registrar transfer feature to wordpress.com . After reading the post title i thought that this is it. But I hope wp.com would also provide this facility very soon.
This is a good post to draw attention to this small but excellent feature, as a lot of people do not know about this.
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Great job making it easy for people to get their own domain. Purchasing thinkingspaces.org and having it show the content of apapadop.wordpress.com cloudn’t have been easier.
This did create a problem for me, though. As this is a security related blog I expect most people to only use the SSL-encrypted version of it:
This results in a scary browser warning, because the browser is asked to establish an SSL connection with thinkingspaces.org but is presented with a certificate for *.wordpress.com
Is there a way around this?
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@apapdop – Accessing the front end of the site through https doesn’t really add much security, especially since all code on WP.com is vetted by our team. 🙂 All mapped domains accessed with https will give this same warning – your visitors can add an exception once and then it shouldn’t show up again. But SSL certificates can’t be installed for mapped domains at this time.
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Had a loose rule that I’d do this if my blog ever averages over 100 views a day for a few weeks. Almost got there last week. You guys know what to do.
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I want to register a country top level domain .kh directly on WP.com. I wish you can support this as soon as you can. Thanks!
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Hi Sara,
Thats great actually. But one question for you. What about the wordpress.com limitations like “Running Scripts and Advertising”?
Regards.
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@GPUToaster – The same rules apply for all sites hosted and mapped here on WordPress.com https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/#before-upgrading-important-notes
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Do the search engines count for the website.com site rather than WordPress if you direct your own domain to WordPress? My understanding is that if you have a website. WordPress.com site, the search engine counts go to WordPress and not your own site. Is that still the case if you ‘point’ to your WordPress site? Thanks!
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@TheSociopathsWife – It really depends on each search engine’s preferences, but we believe most want to index information only once. So it’s plausible to think that if you map your custom domain to your site, that will become the primary domain that is indexed in terms of content. https://wordpress.com/support/search-engines/
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Sounds exciting. I don’t have an existing website but I just might create one here. Thanks for the information!
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And if I want to do the inverse, redirect a DOMAIN.wordpress.com to my own new domain+server, how I do?
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@Juliao – you can do that with our Site Redirect upgrade: https://wordpress.com/support/site-redirect/
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Hi Sara, so helpful as always – even I can understand! Thanks so much.
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Here’s a question. I did map my domain name to my wordpress blog. Now, I’m interested in getting another domain name that I would also like to map to the wordpress blog. How would I do that? Can WordPress accept more than one domain name to the same blog? I know it will be $12 a year per domain name. I just couldn’t figure out from the information is more than one could be mapped. Thanks.
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@Sara Accessing anything over an encrypted connection has a lot of advantages if one happens to live under a surveillance regime (think Iran, UAE, Yemen, China, USA etc). SSL is not about “security”, it’s about not allowing intermediaries to see what one is doing on WP.com.
It shouldn’t be too hard to convince WP’s web servers to serve the right certificate for the virtual (“mapped”) domain they serve with every request. All you need to do is make it easy for people to buy extra certificates for their mapped domains. I look forward to seeing this functionality on WP.com.
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@apapadop – good points, and thanks for your feedback!
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Hi Sara, if I did this, would people who subscribe to my blog have to update their Google Reader (or whatever they’re using) to the new domain name, or would my old one (xyz.wordpress.com) still work? I’ve thought about switching to my own domain, but I’m afraid of losing the few readers that I have! Thanks.
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@Jill – good question! But never fear, your old RSS feed will still work for anyone already subscribed to that address.
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This sounds very good. Will this change or affect how traffic is able to be driven to my site (like pingbacks and search results)?
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@David – whichever domain you choose to be your primary domain will become the primary URL for your content.
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Hello, Sarah!
I already have my domain and mapping. I have to pay extra for hosting??
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@stefkastankova – If you paid for the Domain Mapping Upgrade for your site on WordPress.com, you should be all set. We don’t have a “hosting” charge.
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Hi Sara,
I think I may know the answer but does this allow self hosting domain blogs to be used via hootsuite for example? I am not a techy so please bear with me! 🙂
Thanks
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@Philip – I’m not sure I understand the question? This applies to WordPress.com sites only.
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Question.
Do I need to pay money to have my own domain?
And do I need to pay for that domain monthly?
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@Andrew – yes, to register a domain (with any registrar in the world) costs money. Most fees are annual, but we can’t speak for everyone. WordPress.com will register and map your domain for an annual fee.
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We have been using domain mapping for our blog since 2009 and have been very pleased with this particular WordPress functionality. Referring people to the blog is easier and quicker due to our short URL (imahd.wordpress.com vs. imahd.ca). Also, the cost is very reasonable. Thanks again, WordPress!
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I am a new user at worldpress and I hope that this site will help to promote my business.
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thanks for the heads up
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hallo 😀 can i pay with Euro? or USD are only acceptable?
this is why i love wordpress, it is getting better and better and lets you expand your creativity. 😀
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@Bosstiger – if you use something like PayPal or your credit card, it will do the currency conversion for you. All our prices are in USD$.
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Thanks for the reminder, a great price!
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Thanks
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I got a domain.com from godaddy. If I use the forwarding feature, will wordpress.com accept it or ask for a domain mapping upgrade?
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@mommyslounge – Domain forwarding is not the same as mapping your domain to your .com address. If you have a domain forwarded, the visitor will always see anyaddress.wordpress.com (your WP.com site) as the final URL in their address bar, not your custom domain.
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I got my own domain name when I first signed up for WordPress and have never regretted the decision. It’s inexpensive and just looks neater, more memorable and more professional when you send people your web address.
By paying just a few extra dollars, I was also able to make my domain information private so that it can’t be searched by others, which gave me peace of mind.
I think I enjoyed blogging more right from the start (even in those difficult first few weeks of getting going), because it felt like “my blog”!
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I have upgraded my blog to a custom design. Thanks to the WordPress team for all the great tools, and upgraded you keep offering and communicating regularly. Cheers! Vasu
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if I put my domain as a subdomain on a long established wordpress blog will the links get messed up for people who’ve linked to them in the past? what about google searches?
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@giannakali – the old links will forward to the new address, so those links will still be valid, as well as any search result that still has the old links.
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Hi, and thank you for this. I have just followed all the steps to import my personal domain name. Paid it all and change the primary domain BUT all are being redirected to my old blog instead of my brand new worldpress website?! Why?
I thought the old name.worldpress.com would become nameexample.com with the website of name.worldpress.com?
Can you help?
Thanks
Leonor
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@Leonor – when I go to your name.wordpress.com site, it’s showing your custom domain, so it looks like things were set up correctly. Often it can take time to update the DNS. Please contact support if you’re still having problems.
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I did this almost a year ago, and I love being able to give out an easy-to-remember website, but still keep my blog on WordPress. Thanks!
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I wish I understood how better. At 81 it’s hard the understand without step by step specific instructions.
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Luckily you have a support team and a great knowledge base around to help – if you have any specific questions make sure to contact us!
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Can you run ad-space on a regular wordpress site (example.wordpress.com)? and e-commerce?
Or does it have to be a $ hosted site, like example.com at wordpress?
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WordPress.com hosting rules still apply whether or not you have a custom domain: https://wordpress.com/support/domain-mapping/#before-upgrading-important-notes
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I have it and I love it. WordPress rules!
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WordPress is amazing, everyday you learn something worthwhile. They have taken technology to another level. Thank you
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We have a domain that is hosted for a rather high price (it has all sorts of stuff that would be great for someone into web design etc but we just want it to work with the minimum of fuss) and WordPress is much easier to use and much better value. The problem is that if we use mapping we still have to pay the old host as well as WordPress which means we’d actually be paying more. How could we transfer the domain to WordPress, or save money somewhere, somehow?
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We don’t currently allow domain transfers. You may consider transferring the domain to a cheaper registrar and then mapping to WordPress.com.
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Hey Sara ,
What do i have to do to transfer my wordpress.com blog to a wordpress.org blog ?
And can you install the , ” You might also like this ” widget in a wordpress.com blog ?
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Here’s information about moving your WordPress.com blog to self-hosted WordPress.org: https://wordpress.com/support/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-org
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Thanks for your reminder!
I have two… interesting questions, I think. So, wordpress don`t like w w w. Let`s say I have a domain: http / www / example com Some people will type with www, some of them not.
1. They will be pointed to my blog: example / wordpress / com? With or without www ???
2. How it will appear on the address bar:always with www, always without www or how it was typing ?
Oops, sorry for my bad English, I hope you understand my questions, thanks.
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Your visitor will be forwarded to your site if they insert the www. The site will appear in the address bar without the www.
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HELLLLP, I need a push in the right direction if possible. I’ve been working on making and hopefully perfecting half decent 1st blog for hours, but I just need answers to the odd query. My blog will be mainly comedy, with Modern Life musings with Science stuff about all things cosmological. How do I promote my blog to others?
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Have you checked out http://Learn.WordPress.com ? It has a lot of helpful tips
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Hi Sara,
I wish to have my own domain (in English) and will be registering it with WP. Once that is set up (after a few months), I would like to create a duplicate website in Japanese to cater for the Japanese market as much of the content is relevant for that market. Can I just proceed to create one in Japanese or do I have to register the domain name (same one) again in Japanese?
I also have in mind to purchase one of the premium themes for the English website and does it mean that I have to purchase another similar theme for the Japanese website?
Thank you,
randy66
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More than one domain can be mapped to a single WordPress.com site, but only one domain will be the primary domain (the domain that will remain visible in the address bar). Premium themes are purchased per site, so you’ll have to purchase a premium theme for each blog.
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Hi Sara, I have a question. Sorry if it’s addressed elsewhere on the site but I’m too blind to find it…
My WordPress site is currently hosted by Yahoo, but I found out the hard way when I tried to install a premium theme this weekend that they do not allow PHP5. If I purchase a new domain that WordPress will host, will it work with PHP5 themes??? (Are there any types of themes/languages that are prohibited in your hosted sites?)
Thanks!
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@Travis, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by a hosted site. If you’re self-hosting (like you are with Yahoo!) you can find information on WordPress.org for support. http://wordpress.org/support/
As for using a theme here on WordPress.com, you can find all 120+ free and premium themes you can use here: http://theme.wordpress.com/
Note you’ll have to purchase a premium theme exclusively for use with your WordPress.com site, regardless if you paid for the same premium theme on a self-hosted site.
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Nice creation, we can use it for our business!
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