Free or Premium WordPress- Which One Should You Choose?

WordPress themes are available in hundreds of thousands of numbers including both free and premium ones. Both come with their perks and demerits. Where free themes fuel the ultra-saving mode of our intuition, premium themes leave a sleek seducing mark on our website experience. 

The final choice depends only on you. But this forever confusion is going to be in your mind leaving you in a circle of thoughts if not conditioned according to your needs. 

In this article, we will go through some of the major points for free vs premium wordpress themes and why you need that. 

How Are Premium Themes Different From Free Themes?

Premium themes differ from free themes on several grounds. But the most important one is their source. Free themes are created by newbies or self-employed developers. Though they give their best, they lack backup resources and product money. 

Paid themes for WordPRess on the other hand are supported by companies or a team of experts. They put all advanced features and even make a theme niche-specific for surreal support to the user. 

Also, owners of premium themes offer professional-level support to their users in case of any technical or design issue that you should expect from a free theme owner. If they do so, luck is in your favor, sir. 

Here I don’t intend to say that free themes are not good. They make a great choice when you are just starting out and don’t need many technical advancements. Oftentimes free themes are all you need, however, it is always a good choice to go for premium ones to gain stability & growth.  

Factors to Decide Among Free and Premium Themes: 

1. Features: 

The first thing you need to look at is the theme’s features. As the late Steve Jobs once said,” A good design is one that works”. Having loads of features offer you more opportunities to become helpful to users. 

Free WP themes, as they are developed by newbies or developers single-handedly, you will find only a handful of features there. This limits your growth and offers you extra baggage of manual work. Additionally, users may not find your website convenient enough to stay and buy from you. 

Premium WP themes on the other hand come with bundles of features enough for even multinational companies. Live chat feature, integration, analytics, embed SEO, contact, maps, forms, updates, better quality codes, speed, and extra. 

But before you go buying it, ask yourself if your business needs this. Often excess features confuse visitors.  

2. Designs: 

The greatest perk a theme can ever hold is its visuals. Visuals are not fixed and get modified whenever the owner feels the need to do that. Modern visuals demand you to be classy & simple, seducing the eyes of a user. 

Free WP themes don’t offer such quality designs. The reason is the same as the previous one. They are created by students trying their first such project or independent developers. Free WP themes are limited to basic design features though they are not that bad. 

Premium WordPress themes are soothing to the eyes. Their designs are fast, compact, and interactive. This gives you an advantage in bounce rate, more traffic, and high conversions. 

3. Support Features: 

We don’t expect all WP users to have sound technological knowledge. That’s why they need support from the theme developer who has created it from scratch. But is that always available? 

Free WP themes are not considered very reliable for support features. Understand that they are not professionals and only to practice their skills (mostly). You will find several issues in them and can’t ask for guaranteed support. 

Premium WordPress themes are there for business. They are the ones who will offer you support throughout your subscription. They may charge you annually or for a lifetime. Once you buy from them, it becomes their responsibility to help you in every way possible. Moreover, you may find a full-fledged company ready to solve your queries at the backend. 

4. Functionalities of the Theme: 

Functionalities include all the technical aspects of a theme such as speed, SEO optimization, code length & quality, buttons, and overall looks to guide a visitor to their route. 

Functionalities also include elements such as Elementor to edit, plugin integration, social media support, web space, and front-end designs to make the scrawling simple, quick, & effective. 

Free WP themes are quite good in the design part where they use minimal designs and stick to the basics only. They are good for guiding visitors properly. But other technical aspects of free WP themes such as speed, hosting, integration, and updates generally have poor records. 

Premium WP themes are completely opposite to those where they effectively improve your website’s functionality. They offer high-quality codes, faster speed, great functional designs, plugin integration, automatic updates, and Google’s SEO. 

5. Your Company’s Need: 

Investing money is a trend nowadays. People buy items that they don’t need and later regret it. Don’t be that fool. 

Figure out what your company actually needs. And look for the exact solutions. Often premium themes are loaded with so many features that will only make things complicated for your business. 

Ask these very questions to yourself- 

1. What is your company size? 
2. What is your company’s purpose?
3. What kind of business are you into? Service, E-commerce, or Products? 
4. Do you need advanced support services? 
5. Does your business need loads of plugins? 
6. Does your theme complement website content? 
7. What is your budget? 

Note- 

Never compromise your website on speed and SEO. These two factors are in major roles in organic traffic and conversion. 

Conclusion: 

Getting an online business is easier than ever. However, not all people do it the right way. They launch their businesses without evaluating the conditions they are in. This causes a backlash. The same is true for setting up a website. 

Knowing what you need makes you a half-winner. We have discussed the very questions you must ask before a theme. Also, several technical factors that you must evaluate are mentioned. 

Follow them all and launch your online business well-prepared. 
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