What is the difference between WordPress Business plan vs self hosted WordPress (WordPress developer perspective)? [closed]

First it is important to note the difference between Business Plan and regular WordPress com. To my knowledge Business Plan accounts are not hosted on regular dot com grid, but are based on infrastructure of more conventional managed hosting company they’ve acquired (not sure if completely) while back.

So the closest analogue for it would be a managed hosts that specialize in hosting WordPress, being more managed on a scale and offering some cross-integration with dot com functionality.

Their support materials cover nuances of Business Plan in detail.

In a nutshell difference with less managed self–hosted site seem to be:

  • no direct filesystem access (no arbitrary file edits);
  • black list of some plugins that are not allowed;
  • additional features related to dot com offers;
  • ability to migrate to/from regular dot com grid.

Overall I would call it highly managed WP hosting solutions, which is aimed more at site owners than developers.