The popularity of WordPress is no question. With the ability for webmasters to customize with endless third-party themes and plugins, WordPress is one of the most popular and ubiquitous blogging platform in the market.
Users using WordPress.com has always been greeted with user-friendly interface and convenient solutions for creating their own website in a matter of minute. But that luxury comes with several restrictions: WordPress.com wouldn't allow them to fully customize their website utilizing themes or adding new features through community-based plugins.
But that is changing
Announced by Automattic, WordPress.com Business plan users can use plugins and third-party themes, something that was previously exclusively available to the Wordpress.org ecosystem. It's the community behind WordPress that has made it the most popular web platform out there.
This is a huge change as there are many useful WordPress tools that exist outside Automaticc's ecosystem.
With this ability, WordPress Business users can easily customize their websites, just like other WordPress users who install the platform on their own server.
This however, is both convenience and inconvenience.
WordPress;.com has always been against third-party themes and plugins, as they're often exploited by hackers and those that are irresponsible. No matter how secure a WordPress website is out of the box, a poorly built or bad plugins can create a hole where cyber attackers can unleash their deeds.
To prevent such things from happening, Automaticc is rolling the feature out slowly, and sandboxes one WordPress website from another to prevent the spread of attacks.
Initially, the feature is only available to WordPress users using the most expensive Business plan, which costs about $21 a month.
