You’ve started a blog or a website and you’re excited to use WordPress because, after all, it’s free. There are many wonderful free themes that you can use to build your website or blog. There are even free responsive design themes from which to choose to build your online empire. But, like most things that are free, you get what you pay for.
Free Themes Aren’t Kept Current
Most theme designers put out a free theme in the hopes that you’ll upgrade to their premium version. Therefore they don’t typically update their older free themes, which can make you vulnerable to security issues. Not only that – you may not be able to use the newest and best plug-ins to increase the functionality of your site.
Free Themes Often Have Poor Code
In addition to the other problems with free themes, the code isn’t usually as clean as with premium themes. There will likely be bugs and structure issues that need to be fixed, but that you cannot fix without upgrading to the premium version. Also, most don’t have the awesome SEO features that premium themes come with out of the box.
Free Themes Don’t Offer As Many Features
In order to be competitive, creators of premium themes often put many features into their themes that the free themes don’t offer. The premium themes often offer community support, FAQs and even one-on-one support that you won’t find with free themes. Premium themes simply work better than free ones. Developers are going to spend more time making the premium theme better to compete in the premium theme marketplace.
Free Themes Have Included Encrypted Links
Many free themes have encrypted links to ads in the footers. Some even have links to gambling and pornographic materials that you might not notice until the ads start popping up when someone is looking at your site. It’s important that you are careful where you get your free themes. Read all the fine print too because you may not have permission to change some aspects of your free theme like you can with a premium theme.
Free Themes May Actually Cost More
When you get something free, often times you will need to spend more time trying to get it to work the way you want it to. When WordPress make updates, and they will, your theme might stop working, and you’re going to have to them go on a search for a better, newer theme which may end up costing you a lot more time than you have.
Finally, with a premium WordPress theme you’ll be able to find more designs that are responsive, work faster, have more navigation choices and more. Due to how fast WordPress evolves, having a premium theme can help you avoid issues with WordPress upgrades. The developer will also be aware of the upgrades and make updates to his or her theme as required to ensure the satisfaction of all who have purchased.
