One of the most popular questions I am asked by my clients, “should I purchase a premium theme for your WordPress site?” I wish there was a yes or no answer that would cover every situation, but it’s not that simple. My answer depends on the site, content and your product branding vision. Most of the time, a premium theme will save you time, energy and some headaches.
If you’re site is new and you’re just getting started, using a free theme will do the job. But as your site develops, a premium theme will give you the most options. Most of the time, a premium theme will save you time, energy and headaches. I will admit, I’ve used free WordPress themes. They did the job at the time. As I put more time and energy in developing blogs, I rarely use a free theme on any of my sites. Why? There are several reasons.
As a site owner I am concerned about the quality of the coding of the theme. I’m sure you’ve gone to a website and it took forever to load. It’s not because you’re using a dial up connection. It’s because the theme isn’t optimized and that can cause your blog site to slow load times.
Premium themes offer support. If you’re a blog veteran, you’re familiar with Thesis, Woo Themes, StudioPress and Solo Stream. I’ve had the opportunity to customize themes from all of those companies. The one thing that is great is knowing that the theme developer has forums to reply to your questions. The forums can help you with simple things like menu/navigational changes to expanding the fonts, colors, headers and sidebars.
Premium themes are updated on a regular basis. As many of you realize, WordPress updates are released on a regular basis. Premium designers make sure their themes are compatible with the latest versions of WordPress. If you’ve purchased a premium theme, you will get notified when you need to update your theme.
If you’re site is new and you’re just getting started, using a free theme will do the job. But as your site develops, a premium theme will give you the most options. Most of the time, a premium theme will save you time, energy and headaches.
Premium themes range in price from $29-$99 for single licence. Premium themes come with installation instructions and tutorials to get the most out of the theme.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I am currently using a free theme for my blog since it is still new. I do, however, plan to upgrade to a premium theme when it starts to grow. Two of the things that you mentioned (updates and support) were always a concern with me in using free themes.
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Inexpensive Ways to Market Your Business =-.
The supports is my #1 issue with premium themes. I still have a few things to discuss on the support issue.. but stay tuned.