WordPress is an amazing piece of software for many reasons. One of the key reasons is its ability to present the same type of content in many different ways using WordPress themes. There are thousands of WordPress themes available in the themes directory for bloggers and website developers to choose from.
Choosing from within such a wide range of themes can be an overwhelming decision, which comes after you have decided whether to go with a free WordPress theme or a premium WordPress theme for your website. Free WordPress themes are forever tempting the bargain hunters, whereas premium themes tend to entice with their rich features and extraordinarily sleek interfaces.
Selecting a WordPress theme for the website may be the most difficult decision you make in the process of website development, especially when there are so many free and premium themes available. Most young entrepreneurs prefer using a ready-made theme for their first website ever, as a start-up does not often have too much money to spare. That’s where comes in the old debate: Which are better suited to the needs of websites of all kinds, free or premium WordPress themes?
This post highlights the key differences between a free WordPress theme and a premium WordPress theme, so that you may evaluate both before making a choice.
SEO
WordPress themes play a vital role in the SEO of your website. It is very important to have a website which is not only search engine optimized but also offers clean code for faster loading.
In free WordPress themes, you will find many structural bugs and hardly any of them offer any inbuilt SEO options whereas a premium theme helps you lessen down the amount of resource-hogging plugins.
Support
Free WordPress themes rarely come bundled with documentation and support can be limited, whereas choosing a premium WordPress theme entitles the vendor to provide documentation to guide you through the setup process along with excellent site support.
Encrypted Links
Most free theme developers encrypt the footer of the theme and sell those links. This has a bad impact on the SEO of your website. However, a premium WordPress theme marks such links as spam automatically.
Updates
It can be highly frustrating when one is unable to update to the latest WordPress installation because it risks breaking the theme. If your website’s free theme is not updated for longer periods of time, the theme, together with its outlook and features go out-dated.
However, the update cycle on premium WordPress theme tends to be more responsive to changes with WordPress core and other important factors. Premium WordPress themes get regular updates and as a result they are safer and securer when used on websites.
Security Vulnerabilities
Many users end up with spam and malware after using free WordPress theme. Sometimes free themes are specifically designed to carry and infect a malicious code in your computer device.
However, premium WordPress themes prioritise security of the developer’s platform over all other factors. Premium themes go through vigorous testing and amendments so that the security of the user is never compromised.
When it comes to choosing between premium or free WordPress themes, it is ultimately up to you. There is no best option across the board but we believe that the perks of using premium WordPress themes far overweigh those of using a free WordPress theme. Thus, we recommend, you plump for a premium WordPress theme if you have the means to do so.
About The Author:
Junaid Ali Qureshi is a digital marketing specialist who has helped several businesses gain traffic, outperform competition and generate profitable leads. His current ventures include Elephantation, eLabelz, Smart Leads.ae, Progos Tech and eCig.