There is a reason why WordPress is the biggest blog hosting site in the world. But one of the biggest reasons for its success is the fact that customization is literally encouraged here. With the use of themes that can be found in just about all corners of the internet, it is almost certain that you are going to be able to find a theme to match your website’s personality and content. With so many themes out there, one of the burning questions, especially for new WordPress users, is this. Free WordPress themes (WPTs) vs. premium WordPress themes: what are their differences and what is the better choice in the long run? Of course their fundamental difference is in the pricing: one is available for free while you’ll have to pay for the privilege of owning the theme for the other. But where else do they differ? To find out, we are going to pit them against each other using some points of comparison.
Quality of Design and Function
The fact that programmers are asking their clients to pay up for their themes mean that their themes must have something that cannot be seen on free WPTs. And while it is true that there are a lot of free themes out there that have design and quality that can match up even against the premium ones, there are some features that remain exclusive to premium WPTs. For instance, on the quality standpoint, you can almost rest assured that these programmers have spent more time perfecting premium WPTs compared to free themes. In addition, some of these premium themes are actually professionally designed, which works best for people that use their WordPress for business purposes.
Support
There are times wherein specific themes don’t work for varying versions of OS, internet browsers, etc. This is the reason why support from the producers themselves is a crucial factor. And while there are a lot of free WPTs that offer free support just in case a theme runs into problems, usually premium WordPress themes offer much better support for those that encounter theme problems. Even better is that they offer this comprehensive support for free.
Abundance
In the argument between free WordPress themes vs. premium WPTs, this is one area that free WPTs win convincingly. There are various sites that are dedicated to providing free WPTs. All you’ll have to do is to search for them on the internet and you are going to see literally thousands of themes that you can use and customize for your site. In fact, even WordPress themselves offer free themes that can be used by people, especially those that don’t have the capability of self-hosting yet.
Value
This is where we are going to make a verdict of who wins the matchup between free WPTs vs. premium WPTs. And honestly, on this department, it’s a bit of a push. It all depends on the priorities of the user. If the site is going to be for personal use, a good quality free WordPress theme should work more than fine. But if you are going to use if for business purposes, it would be a worthy investment to go for premium WordPress themes.
Source by Gerald Bibbs
