Hosting question for WordPress

When you register with WordPress you can sign up online and create a site, either free or paid for depending on what package you want.

That’s with https://wordpress.com/ not https://ww.wp.xz.cn/ 🙂

To clear up any confusion, WordPress.com and ww.wp.xz.cn are two different entities: https://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/WordPress_vs_WordPress.com

If you do it this way, is the WordPress site hosted on WordPress’s own servers?

If you do go with WordPress.com, then your site is hosted with WordPress.com on their servers.

If you have important/confidential data on there, is this secure?

I recommend contacting them about that: https://support.wordpress.com/

Also, if you don’t want to use WordPress’s servers, can the site be installed on your own servers?

Yes, that’s what this place is. 🙂

Here, we develop and support the WordPress software that you install on your own server with a hosting provider, like the ones recommended at https://ww.wp.xz.cn/hosting/

Are there any special requirements?

Yes: https://ww.wp.xz.cn/about/requirements/

Are automatics updates still sent out if you host it yourself?

Unless purposefully disabled, minor updates (security and bug fixes) are done automatically, while major updates (new features and functionality changes) are still done manually (via a simple one-click interface).

I also recommend reading through https://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/New_To_WordPress_-_Where_to_Start