Free Vs Premium WordPress Themes: Which One You Should Choose?
It might be an overwhelming decision to make between free vs premium WordPress themes for a newbie as both have their odds and evens.
Most bloggers choose WordPress over any other blogging platform for a series of benefits and one of them is the wide availability of resources. Themes make the appearance and features of your site and no wonder, there are tons of free and premium WordPress themes on the directory. The huge availability of the themes often makes it tough, which one to choose. But, deciding between free vs premium also might be a confusing task.
If I am getting themes for free then why should opt for premium ones?
If you are also stuck on that matter, you have landed at the right place, we will help you make understand using the free WordPress themes and the paid ones. We will dig deeper into both types of plugins and will analyze both aspects which will help you decide which type of plugin you should choose for your website.
Let’s first start with,
Free WordPress Themes:
When a product or service is available in both free and paid options, most of all will try to use the free ones simply because it is free. There are lots of free themes for WordPress websites in almost every category. Firstly see,
Pros of using free WordPress themes:
It’s free to use:
That’s the reason people tend to use free themes on their websites. If you have a tight budget, already invested money on hosting, domain, and with some of the necessary tools and plugins, it is no wonder you would like to have a free theme for your website. The themes are in no way a cheap thing. themes actually cost hundreds of dollars. However, according to the functionality and features, all types of themes are available on the market but if you are likely to go with a standard theme $50 would be the least spending for that. To save that amount, people simply skip the paid themes and embrace the free ones.
Better performance:
When you are choosing a theme for your website, simplicity would be a point to be noted. All the free WordPress themes often lack features and functionality. That means they are light and you won’t see any complicated functionality on them. Especially if you are just a starter, running a simple blog, a much complex one with tons of features might be unusable. When your theme has fewer features, it will affect your website load speed. Visitors will see more speed and smoother user experience to your site.
Quite easy to install:
The free themes often offer ease of installation. Free themes are mostly available on the WordPress directory. You go there choose your preferred theme and it is quite easy to install. Compared to the premium ones, you need to pass more options and do more things.
Now, let’s see,
Cons of the free themes:
Before starting the cons list, we would like to mention that the list might belong because it is free but you should not ignore the fact that they are free at all.
So, let’s get started.
No priority support at all:
When you choose any free them, you cannot expect the support but it is one of the fundamental things you will need when you will face any problem. Website themes often make problems while installing or after being successfully installed, still, you may find errors on your site. Their thousands of situations may occur. At that moment one thing can solve your problem, dedicated support from the end of the theme company. Installing a theme is not a tough thing for intermediate or experienced but could be for a beginner. One small mistake and your site won’t perform as per your expectation. It is understandable that when you are not paying anything for a theme, how could you expect priority support.
Besides, the installs, if you are looking to make any changes you would require a considerable amount of knowledge in PHP, CSS, JavaScript, or HTML. Moreover, a dedicated conversation with the theme developer. With the free themes, you won’t have that.
However, you are not totally left alone with your problems. If you install a theme from the WordPress theme directory, all the themes there parked are actually tested through various measures. If you ask for help, there are lots of people from the WordPress community voluntarily serving people. You can raise your issue if you face any. But as they work voluntarily, you are likely to see a delay in response.
Security vulnerabilities might occur:
Another negative side of the free themes is the security risk. All the internet products and services are at risk of hackers and security vulnerabilities all the time. Hackers always look for the loopholes of the themes and these types of technical things. These free themes barely get updated which makes it quite risky. In case hackers can decode the weak points, they can make possible attacks on your site.
So, from time to time it is needed to check all the security aspects, whether any bugs are present there or not. If it has, the theme developer needs to fix that as soon as possible. But, most of these free WordPress themes are developed by independent developers, who single-handed cannot take of all these things.
Might not be as stunning as the premiums:
As you are aware that themes set the appearance of your website and the first impression is a vital thing. Most of the free themes do not actually offer the stunning feel that premium feels offer. Paid WordPress themes are way more attractive and can grab the attention of people easily.
Premium WordPress themes:
Now let’s come to the premium themes. There might be so many who actually install free themes to their WordPress site, but the number of the premium theme’s users is no less. There are so many reasons people consider premium themes over free ones. Let’s see them one by one,
Lots of customization options:
One significant reason people choose WordPress is its customizability. Like WordPress, nothing can be more customizable. If you require lots of customization on your site, you must go for the premium themes. For various reasons, you may want to change to the sidebars, on the menus, or the footers. Premium themes are already packed with so many flexibilities. Premium themes usually come with a theme options panel that makes it easier to make it sleeker in terms of design even not touching the inner codes.
You get lots of out-of-the-box features that will make your website more adaptive. You get so many third-party app integration options with your site.
Superior support:
If you are genuinely pointing out in free vs premium WordPress themes, that particular area is clearly dominated by premium themes. Most of the premium themes are developed by companies that are backed by a team. They know, you are paying for using their product so it is their responsibility to give you support if you face any problem while using it. It is a fundamental feature for all the premium themes you will get.
As per the theme company, you can raise tickets, join their live chat support, or can reach them via email. Once you face an issue you don’t need to run here and there for support or help.
Frequent updates:
Another big benefit of the premium themes is the updates. The update is very important in order to keep your site safe from security breaches. Themes are often contained at the first stages of the development even when they are tested many times by the developers. Hackers find those loopholes and attack from them. So, most of the premium theme companies work continuously on updates, and as soon they find any bug, they give the update and fix that issue.
Another important thing about the update is when WordPress rolls out the update and your theme is not compatible with it, your site will be unusable. With premium WordPress themes you always stay up to date. That is also a good reason premium theme.
Your Premium theme is quite unique:
It does not need to mention that there are more free users than premium users unless what drives developers to create themes and make them available for free? For the same thing, you may find so many websites running on it whether very sites would be matched to your theme if you are using a premium and expensive theme. As companies charges for the themes, they make them unique.
However, if someone buys a theme got a license code, can surely use it but, not like free users. Where free themes are used by millions of websites, you can stand out with your premium theme.
Premium themes are SEO-friendly:
Search engine optimization depends on a lot of factors and an SEO-friendly theme is a significant point. If your website theme is not SEO ready, no matter how well furnished your website content, how better you do the on-page and off-page SEO practices, it won’t help you rank high on search engines. Premium themes come with all the SEO practices in mind. Premium themes are made with clear codings that help load websites faster.
Now let’s have a look at,
Cons of premium WordPress themes:
As the themes are premium, there are no actual cons, but some may find the below-mentioned points as negatives.
You may need to pay a high amount:
Well, after getting so many positive things if someone charges you, if you have the money to invest, you may not find it is a negative thing. However, the pricing of the themes is not low. According to various statistics, an average premium WordPress theme price range starts from nearly $60. That might be quite heavy for a newbie or someone who is just about to get started with their website journey.
You may find it useless:
Before you make the payment for your WordPress theme, make sure it is compatible with all your plugins. Various types of businesses and websites require various types of plugins but it does not necessarily mean that all the plugins will be compatible with your WordPress themes. Many WordPress plugins do not give you any refund even when you see that you can not integrate some particular plugin with that theme either.
Again that is not a valid con at all. You just need to check all its features and compatibility options. With a free theme, you do not need to worry about that. You do not like the theme, just embrace another.
So, these are some of the free vs premium WordPress themes pros and cons that you should know while you decide the themes for your site. So,
Should you choose free themes or go with premium?
As you have read the article till now, you have noticed there are way more pros behind choosing premium WordPress themes. So, is it a must to go with premium ones? Not at all!
It depends on your needs. Do just start out? or have a small blog or portfolio website? There is nothing wrong with choosing a free WordPress theme. For starters and minimal, free themes cut the cost of your website.
Or if you are learning about WordPress free one is perfect for you. Once you get stuck or find that you do not like one just replace it with another. What is the problem? just give another one a try. For a simple site, no further customization and features are required.
But, if you are going to start a business website with WordPress, you would like to go with premium ones. It will give a fascinated and quite unique touch to your site. If you are still skeptical about WordPress themes you can read: What Is WordPress Themes? How To Choose The Best One For Your Site? It will help you with what you should look for while choosing the right theme for your WordPress site.
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