Setting up WordPress on your own hosting is the most affordable way to manage your site(s). There’s no need to purchase your site from WordPress.com. You can save a ton of money if you register your domain and purchase hosting yourself.
There are two parts that you need: A domain name + web hosting
Think of a domain as an empty piece of land and web hosting as the home. Web hosting allows you to go live on the web.
To purchase a domain, use Namesilo. They’re absolutely the best registrar on the web in my opinion.
Next, you’ll need to purchase web hosting. You can purchase this from Namehero. I would go with their starter plan if you only plan on hosting one site.
You should receive an email with your nameserver information. It should look something like ns1.namehero.com and ns2.namehero.com.
Go to Namesilo and adjust your nameservers for your domain.
Once you’ve made that adjustment, you’re ready to open cPanel. Keep in mind, it could take a few hours for your domain to actually point to your new hosting. To open cPanel, go to yourdomain.com/cpanel.
From here, you’ll open WordPress under Softaculous. Softaculous is a one-click installer for several different applications. It’s super helpful and will save you tons of time when you’re creating multiple site applications.
Click on install and create your WordPress.
Be sure to remember your admin info and login. Remember, to login to your domain you will go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin.
If you have any questions, feel free to let me know!