Beginners often ask us how do we choose between free vs. premium WordPress themes. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the free templates? If you had those questions, then you’re in the right place. This article by the professional ghostwriting team will discuss free WordPress themes vs. premium WordPress themes (Advantages and Disadvantages).
Advantages.
It’s Free
The most significant benefit of a free WordPress theme is the cost-free. It lowers the barrier to enter into the beginning of a blog.
However, hearing the word free makes most people cautious. Why would someone provide you a free WordPress theme when others are selling the premium themes? What is the catch?
Sometimes people think that free themes are low quality. It’s quite the contrary.
Strict Review Process
Free WordPress themes are at a higher quality standard. All of the themes in the WordPress theme directory go through a strict theme review process.
Some very talented people in the theme review team examine these themes before they are included in the directory.
You can go through this checklist of the theme review process.
Free WordPress themes are tested for standard-compliant code, support for standard WordPress features, reasonable quality HTML and CSS, privacy, security, etc.
As you may know, it takes skilled developers to create quality WordPress themes that can get approved in the official directory.
But why are they providing it for free?
There are lots of advantages of giving and sharing.
It helps theme developers hone their skills because, during the review process, the theme review team audits their code and suggests improvements.
It gives them a slight chance to make their theme available to a large user base where people can use it, provide feedback, and suggest improvements.
Other advantages are building a reputation as a skilled developer, building a portfolio, getting paid jobs to customize those free themes, or even developing a custom theme for clients.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of the free or premium WordPress themes may be very different. What one person would consider a disadvantage may not be a cause of concern for many others.
These are some common disadvantages of using a free WordPress theme:
- Limited support options – Free WordPress theme developers offer support through WordPress forums, but they are not obliged to reply to support queries.
- Limited Features and Functionality – Even though free themes support most standard WordPress features, many of them don’t offer extra features like creating buttons, using shortcodes, create landing pages, etc.
- Not so Unique – Many websites and blogs use free themes, so your website will not have a unique design. Also, there are usually limited options to customize the visual appearance of free articles.
- No Obligation – Free themes are distributed with no warranties, so you are pretty much on your own if something goes wrong.
If you use a free theme and don’t have the specific functionality you’re looking for (please don’t leave a 1-star rating). You didn’t pay anything for this theme.
