WordPress offers two deployment options: a hosted solution you manage on WordPress.com and a self-hosted site you run on your own hosting. The hosted plan’s Business tier previously allowed full theme and plugin installation and even SFTP/SSH access, whereas Personal and Premium tiers often restricted plugin installs, limiting customization.
Starting from September 8, 2025, WordPress.com now permits plugin installations on Personal and Premium plans. This enables customization with plugins like WPCode to apply CSS/JavaScript and even allows adding analytics and AdSense advertising codes.
※ WordPress.com has since confirmed that plugin installation on Personal and Premium plans is now permanent.
Plugin installation now available on WordPress.com Personal/Premium plans
WordPress.com tends to tweak its plans every 1–2 years. This time, while the plan structure itself remains largely the same, plugin installation has been enabled for Personal and Premium plans.
From temporarily on September 8, 2025, plugin installation on Personal and Premium is allowed only for newly created sites or when purchasing a new plan.
According to the blog post For a Limited Time: Unlock Plugin Power on Personal & Premium Plans, a promotion appeared from August 12 to August 25, 2025. From September 8, 2025, it’s said to be permanent.
I signed up for the Personal plan with a 3-year term. 😄
For simple blogs, this can be a cost-effective option. Since WordPress.com handles the traffic, you can save on hosting costs when visitor numbers surge. Moreover, because hosting is provided by WordPress.com, you can focus on writing without worrying about security. However, for more complex sites, Personal or Premium plans may not be the best fit.
With the recent plan update, WordPress.com Personal and Premium users can now install plugins — making it possible to monetize their sites with AdSense, which was previously unavailable on these plans.
Personal plan offers 6GB of storage, Premium plan provides 13GB, and both allow installation of more Premium themes.
Hosted WordPress plans come with constraints depending on the tier. If you want to fully leverage WordPress features without limitations or run multiple sites, you might consider cost-effective options like ChemiCloud and similar services that host in Korea with fast speeds (e.g., Cloudways, popular for monetized blogs in Korea).
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Plugins worth trying on WordPress.com Hosted (Self-Hosted)
I tried a few plugins on the Personal plan. Most installations worked, though some plugins may be restricted.
WPCode Plugin
Because Personal and Premium plans don’t grant SFTP/SSH access, options are limited. In this scenario, WPCode proves very useful.
You can add HTML/JS code to the header and footer, and you can also implement PHP code via code snippets.
When WordPress.com allows plugin installation, this plugin can be very handy.
Simple Custom CSS plugin
On the Personal plan, the Appearance » Customize > Additional CSS option isn’t shown. If you want to customize with CSS, you can install plugins like Simple Custom CSS.
There’s a similar option with Simple Custom CSS and JS. 😄
Note that WordPress.com ships Jetpack by default. Jetpack once offered a Custom CSS module, but since WordPress added the custom CSS capability to the core, the Jetpack Custom CSS module was removed.
Ad Inserter plugin
If you want precise ad placement (for example, ads after the first and third paragraphs), you can use Ad Inserter.
If you run into Ads.txt issues, this plugin can generate the file for you.
SEO Plugins: Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO
If plugin installation is supported on the Personal plan, you can install SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO.
Simply choose the one you prefer — both are excellent tools that help fine-tune your site’s SEO and guide you in writing SEO-optimized content.
⚠️ Important: Do not install both plugins simultaneously. Since Yoast SEO and Rank Math SEO perform similar functions, using them together may cause conflicts or site errors. Some users mistakenly believe that having both improves SEO, but it actually causes problems.
Most SEO plugins allow you to edit files like robots.txt and .htaccess. However, note that editing the .htaccess file isn’t possible on WordPress.com. The error message “.htaccess file not found” suggests that WordPress.com doesn’t use the Apache web server.
Elementor Builder and Add-ons
If plugin installation is available, you can also install Elementor and related add-ons such as Essential Addons for Elementor or ElementsKit.
While Elementor makes it easy for beginners to design beautiful websites, it can negatively affect site speed. For that reason, it’s best to avoid Elementor when running a blog-focused site, as lighter page builders or the default block editor tend to perform better.
Site Kit by Google
Installing the Site Kit by Google plugin allows seamless integration with Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
It’s the simplest way to connect your WordPress.com site with Google’s tools for insights and performance tracking.
Backup Plugins
WordPress.com provides Jetpack Backup/Restore functionality.
It appears that the restore feature is available only on Business plans or higher, but with plugin installation enabled on the Personal plan, it may also be usable there.
Alternatively, you can use a dedicated backup plugin such as All-in-One WP Migration to export and back up your site manually.
WPForms Contact Plugin
If you’d like to add a contact form to your site, you can use Jetpack’s built-in Forms feature.
Alternatively, you can install popular contact form plugins like WPForms, which works well on WordPress.com.
In testing, submitted messages were successfully delivered via email.
Other great options include Contact Form 7, Fluent Forms, Everest Forms, and Ninja Forms — all of which are compatible and widely used.
Monetization with Google AdSense
Previously, monetization through Google AdSense was available only on Business or higher plans.
However, with recent updates, even Personal plan users can now display AdSense ads on their WordPress.com sites.
You can use the WPCode plugin to insert AdSense auto ad code in your site’s header or use Ad Inserter to precisely control ad placement throughout your posts and pages.
In testing, AdSense ads displayed correctly on the Personal plan.
If your domain is already approved for AdSense, you can connect a subdomain to start serving ads immediately without a new review process.
Plugin Access on Personal & Premium Plans
I contacted WordPress.com to confirm whether plugin installation on the Personal and Premium plans was only temporary, and they replied that it’s now a permanent change.
With this update, users on Personal and Premium plans can now install plugins, removing many previous limitations — including the ability to monetize through Google AdSense.
For those who prefer to run a simple blog or find web hosting costs too high due to heavy traffic, WordPress.com can be a great choice, as it places no limits on the number of visitors your site can receive.