Paid or Free WordPress Themes: Pros and Cons
Many beginners ask themselves which theme to choose – paid or free? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? We will explain in this article.
Advantages of Free Themes
First of all, we want to note that when we talk about free themes, we mean themes listed in the official theme directory on WordPress.org. We DO NOT recommend downloading and installing other free themes distributed by sources of questionable reliability.
The main advantage of free themes is their price, or rather the lack of one. This lowers the barrier to entry for a beginner developer or entrepreneur. However, the word “free” often raises certain doubts in people. A natural question arises: why would someone give you a free theme when others sell them for money? What is the catch? People very often think that free themes are not of particularly good quality, but this is far from true.
A Strict Selection Process
In fact, free WordPress themes are often held to much higher standards, because all the themes in the official WordPress directory go through a serious review. The reviewers are usually very talented and experienced people who carefully check every theme before including it in the directory. For example, free themes are checked for code, security, compatibility with modern plugins (including WooCommerce, SEO and other popular extensions), HTML and CSS quality, and basic optimization for speed and mobile responsiveness. Developing such a theme takes skill and talent.
But why do they give them away for free?
There are advantages to sharing your themes without charging for them. First, it helps developers hone their skills, because during the review process the reviewers can give them feedback on their code and share some tips. In addition, distributing themes for free lets you gather a certain audience around your project and get the corresponding feedback and suggestions for improvement. Among the other benefits developers get from giving their creations away for free are building a reputation as a master of their craft, the chance to get work, building a portfolio and so on. However, with all their pluses, free themes are not without some drawbacks.
Disadvantages of Free WordPress Themes
The disadvantages of paid or free WordPress themes can sometimes be very subjective. What is a drawback for some can be an advantage for others. However, there are a few general points that can hardly be called advantages of free themes, and they are:
- limited support – developers of free themes often provide free customer support in forums, but they are not obliged to answer personal requests.
- limited functionality and features – although free themes often support most of the standard WordPress features, many of them do not offer advanced elements such as additional widgets, landing pages and so on.
- low uniqueness – free themes are popular and used by a large number of sites, so your site may not stand out with its design. Customization options are often quite limited.
- no obligations – free themes are usually distributed without any guarantees, so if something goes wrong, you will have to sort out the mess on your own.
However, if you use a free theme and it lacks a feature you want, please do not give it a bad rating, because you did not pay a penny for it. Instead, make a small donation or politely ask the developer to add the feature you need, and then it may well appear in the theme in the near future.
Advantages of Premium WordPress Themes
Paid themes are available for purchase in trusted marketplaces: ThemeForest, StudioPress, Themify and others.
The biggest plus of premium themes is that, as a user, you get more features and options to work with. Also, thanks to the competition in this segment, theme developers often try to give the customer as many features as possible at a lower price. You can get options such as building pages in a drag-and-drop builder, shortcodes, an unlimited choice of color palettes and multi-themes that include several different design variants.
Premium themes can also boast regular updates and support. And since paid themes cost money, far fewer people use them, which makes them more unique. Not to mention that you have the ability to fully tailor such a theme to your needs. Combining these two factors, you can get a completely unique site.
Disadvantages of Premium WordPress Themes
However, not all paid themes are perfect; the following problems are possible:
- poor code – sometimes you may come across a premium theme that looks beautiful but, because of low coding standards, is incompatible with some plugins. This is because such themes on various marketplaces, unlike free ones, do not always go through such a strict review.
- too many features – to sell their creations, theme developers often add an unjustifiably large number of features. You will most likely never use even a tenth of the available functionality of such themes, but it will still affect your site’s speed.
- interference with plugins – some themes add their own functions, such as shortcodes or special post types, that are not part of standard WordPress functionality. If you use these functions and later change the theme, they will stop working, since they were part of the old theme rather than a separate plugin.
How to Find a Really Good Theme
The easiest way is to buy from a proven source or marketplace with an established reputation (ThemeForest, StudioPress, Themify). Premium themes include documentation and support and are compatible with modern page builders (Elementor, Gutenberg).
Buying a theme does not mean the developer will install it for you or grant exclusive rights, but you get help, documentation and the ability to customize the site to your needs.
I’m Confused… What Should I Choose?
When choosing a theme for your WordPress site, you should first ask yourself a few questions.
- Do you really need a pile of features in the form of various options, sliders and so on?
- Are you able to deal with possible problems when using the theme yourself, or will you need outside help?
- Do you need a professional design, or is a standard theme enough?
If you are just starting a blog or creating a personal site, free themes will be enough for you.
On the other hand, if you are a small business owner or are building a project with unique requirements, a paid theme will give you more customization options and access to the developer’s support.
Our specialization is WordPress website development and maintenance. Contact us for a free consultation — [email protected], +371 29394520
