Should You Spend Money on a WordPress Theme?
The WordPress content management system (CMS) boasts an enormous and active community, constantly improving the system itself and offering a huge range of different themes either for free, or for a small fee. These themes provide the opportunity for even the most inexperienced website designers to create attractive websites, by simply plugging in the design that someone else has created. As content can then be added within moments, you could theoretically have your website up and running in just a few short minutes.
Are you in the hunt for a WordPress theme for your own website right now? If so you may well have discovered the differences in prices, from nothing up to hundreds of pounds. The question that remains is whether there is actually any point in spending additional money on a paid theme, or if a free example will suffice.
A Free Theme
If you don’t have much of a budget for your website design then a free theme may start to look incredibly tempting, particularly if you have just paid for the domain name for your site and for some regular website hosting.
Some WordPress themes that are available for free certainly don’t look as attractive as their more expensive rivals, but if you can afford to take the time to sift through the less impressive themes you may strike gold before long. There are many thousands of free themes so it can take a lot of your precious hours to find the ideal solution. You could even spend hour upon hour searching only to realise that your dream theme does not exist for free, and forcing you to purchase it after all.
You must also beware with some free WordPress themes that there is no small print that could cause you any problems. Some developers require you to place a link to their website in the footer in exchange for providing you with a free theme.
A Premium Theme
The majority of premium themes will charge a one off fee of anything from £10 up. Some of these fees may also provide you with access to other themes, depending on the website through which you make your purchase. The cost is not usually only for the coded theme itself though, as you could also reap the following benefits from the initial expense:
- Most premium theme developers will provide you with ongoing support should you encounter any problems with the code or any other issues. They may also be able to suggest appropriate plugins and help with any installation problems.
- You can usually expect the code created by developers charging for their themes to be of a higher quality than that of the free equivalents. The design itself may also be of a higher standard.
- A paid theme is more likely to be created to easily allow for the installing of additional plugins, with spaces divided into separate areas for the simple dragging and dropping of additional functionality into your website.
With plenty of spare time you could certainly find a free WordPress theme that would serve your purpose. However with the many benefits of a premium theme on offer you may find that the initial expense saves you many hours of frustration and annoyance at a later date.
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