What is a theme? In this article, I will talk about free vs premium themes.
A theme for WordPress is what gives your blog its look and feel.
WordPress, in my opinion, is the king of platforms for bloggers and website builders. With it being so large you will be able to find support for anything that will arise. There is a large network of people using WordPress that help each other.
Themes are another strong point that WordPress offers. I would not even want to guess how many themes there are for WordPress. There are free and premium themes that are available.
Premium themes are themes that need to be purchased.
Free themes are exactly what it says. The themes are free to use.
Free vs Premium Themes for WordPress
When you first start with WordPress, it is set up with a default theme. Themes can be changed at any time, and you will not lose the content you have posted. This makes it easy for you to change the look and feel of your blog if you wish too. You do not have to worry about being locked into a certain look.
Before you decide on using free or premium themes, I would like to share with you some pros and cons for each. This will help make your decision easier.
Free Themes
WordPress offers a large variety of free themes for you to choose from. If you are going to have a small blog, this might work well for you.
Since it is free, many people use the templates. Your blog will have the same look and feel as many other bloggers. If you are looking to stand out and look different, you will want to use a premium theme.
They do not have support for most of the free themes. You can more than likely find answers to your questions at WordPress.org forums. The answers might not help you if you are not good at coding. I prefer the drag and drop templates. Spending time in the studio is much more valuable than learning code.
Some of the templates are outdated in look and design and have not been updated in a long time. This makes it easier for hackers to hack your blog.
Malicious code and encrypted links have been found in the free templates footer. This makes it not rank as well with SEO. However, using free templates from reputable sites, such as WordPress.org, you will more than likely not find a problem.
Premium themes
Premium themes have great support. When I used free themes in the past I could never get the answers I was looking for. Again, I am not good at coding so when there was a solution that used coding I turned the other way. I decided that if I was going to have a blog for my art business I needed one that I could rely on.
I purchase my themes from Themeforest. They offer over 20,000 themes starting at very reasonable prices. I have always found what I was looking for, and they have great customer support. That is one important factor for me when choosing a premium theme.
There are many times that you can even get the answers you are looking for in their forums.
If you are looking to stand out and have a different look from the other artist blogs, you will want to purchase a premium theme. You will be able to customize them the way that you will like without needing to know the code. Most themes offer drag and drop features.
The premium themes are regularly updated. They have to be updated with WordPress updates. This prevents broken templates.
The codes are clean; you will not find any encrypted code in the footer of the premium themes.
Review Free vs Premium Themes
Free themes might be good in for small blogs if they are from reputable sites.
If you are looking to build your art business, I would only recommend premium themes. You need to protect your business, and it will be money well spent.
I use Themeforest for my templates and HostGator for my hosting.
Do you use free or premium these and what are your thoughts?
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