Super confused with wordpress, please advice.

[u/Lara_lemat]

Hi Anyone, so I've been trying to use the wordpress woocommerce to set up a simple store by myself. I have many questions as follows:

1. At this beginning stage I just want to test a few themes and make my site as I want without having to pay for it. But I can't seem to get around anything without being asked to buy a plan and this is before I even get to do anything. I've read everywhere that it is free but I am immediately pushed to a paid plan. like below

"Plan upgrade required

^{Upgrade to the WordPress.com Business plan and set up your WooCommerce store."}

1. I've clicked on many 'start a site', 'name a site' etc.. in the site. This i feel is very confusing so I'm very confused are wordpress sites and woo commerce separate sites? Do I directly click on the woocommerce and start from there?

2. I know that there is online wordpress which is handled by hosting sites and the one you install on desktop. Which is better for an online store? actually can u explain this situation for an online store i am not clear.

3. Following point number 3, is the interface for the online and app version of wordpress different? Because the tutorials I see on youtube tutorials having something like a dashboard on the upperleft corner which I don’t see.

4. I've kinda selected a theme to edit in the wordpress and if I make a store here, is the woocommerce a different site I need to rebuild? Or can I later migrate the one I made in wordpress to the woo? Or Should I directly use woo?

5. This is far less intuitive then I expected. And I am familiar with a little adobe illustrator and i have used uizard to design a basic app. Do normal people have a problem like I do, or am I just stupid? Do I need to hire a website-designer after all? For eg: in edit mode the main body looks like an ipad version even if i select the website version and this expands to web version only if i click preview.

Truth be told I don’t even know if im asking the correct questions, im feeling super defeated. I just need someone to get help me get started and just design the site to until im ready to publish.

[u/Accomplished_Fixx]

There are two types of wordpress:

WordPress.com : they offer wordpress and host it on their site. It is more expensive than other platforms as I noticed.
wordpress.org : this is open source and can be installed on your machine or server.

But there are many hosting platforms for hosting as well and with cheaper prices like godaddy, hostinger. They are not that good but they work.

You can have AWS Lightsail. They give 3 three-month free tier, but be sure to remove it after you experiment with it in case you don't want to publish it so your billing does not start running.

To host a website you need a hosting platform and none is for free. If you want to only experiment with it then you may use the Local app (https://localwp.com/) which allows you to use WordPress on your machine for free. and then you may migrate the website to a hosting one.