WordPress Themes – Free Vs. Paid
A couple posts ago I talked about the basics of a theme. Now let’s talk about the free versus paid.
If you use WordPress, you know how many free themes are out there —literally hundreds. There are a lot of good ones, and some that are okay. If you are using yours for a blog, the choices are endless, depending on your needs. But if you are choosing WordPress as a platform for your website, you may want to consider the benefits of a paid theme.
Now don’t get me wrong. Again, there are plenty of good free themes out there, and I’m not slamming any of them.
But, let’s look at what you may get with a paid theme:
You get what you pay for. Hey, that’s life. I don’t need to explain this one. In fact you will find that many of the “free” theme developers, have paid one’s as well. Get the point?
More bells and whistles. Yes, the paid themes will be more widget-friendly. They may already have a lot in place that you don’t even need to bother adding.
Support. Here’s a big one. Again, someone that offers a theme for free, how much time can they give to supporting that theme. Sure, they may have a forum on their site, but still the opportunity of being able to contact someone when you need them, is so much more beneficial.
Updates. Another biggie! When WordPress does its updates (and they can be often), this can send your theme into oblivion. I’ve seen it happen with clients. Sites that offer paid themes have a bit more reason to make sure that their themes will work with the next update. In fact, many get hold of the “beta” version of the next update, just so they can be ready!
So the choice is yours. Just give it a bit of thought as you choose your next theme. What do you want it to do for you? Think long term.
Of course you can always change midstream and that works will with blogs. But a complicated website — changing the theme can cost you time, money and several ongoing headaches!
Here are just a few links to some great paid themes:
Again, just a few. Look around, ask around. I’m sure you will find just what you need.
Also check out themeforest.net, I’ve gotten some great ones from there.
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