What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

WordPress offers two types of blogging platforms. One is free and comes under worpress.com. In this type of blog, you can use all the free functionality of WordPress with blog URL like - www.yoursitename.worpress.com.

The other one Wordpress.org offers paid services of the Wordpress platform. On this platform, a user has to register his own Wordpress domain. Also one has to use some paid or free Wordpress templates for the blog.

For beginners, It is good to use a free Wordpress blog first. A professional blogger or company can opt for the paid version of Wordpress which fully customizabale and powerful.

There are many differences:
1. You can not display your adsense ads or even 3rd party ads on your blog at wordpress.com whereas you can integerate Google Adsense Publisher Plug in on your self hosted domain through wordpress.org.
2. Wordpress plug ins can be installed on self hosted wordpress site whereas wordpress.com blog does not have this facility.
3. In the beginning it is better to have blog at the Totally Free Wordpress.com and switch over to customised Paid Domain name after gaining experience.

Dear Sabrez,

According to the research I have done, I am sorry to say that the answer you have made is wrong. WordPress.com and WordPress.org both are blogging platforms but WordPress.com offers free blogging facility with a URL like yourblog.wordpress.com. You can use free or paid Templates or themes on your WordPress.com blog. On the other hand WordPress.org is a software application that has to be installed on a self managed or hosted server, and then it can be used to manage a blog with a Custom Domain only. WordPress.org blogs / websites do not have a wordpress.com or wordpress.org URL extension. Moreover, WordPress.com blogs are semi-customizable where as you have full control over your website managed through WordPress.org. For example source code modification and editing can only be done at the blog managed through WordPress.org, according to the information I have gathered from the internet.

Another difference I have come to know is that Plugins for additional functionality can only be added at WordPress.org. You cannot add plugins at WordPress.com blogs, except when you've obtained a custom domain for your blog hosted at WordPress.com. (Remember a Plugin is an additional functionality providing source such as third party gadgets or Google AdSense Ads)

Let's see if any other experienced member can come up and testify or explain some other features, characteristics and differences between a WordPress.com blog and a WordPress.org blog.