Free Themes or Premium Themes, which one would you choose? A easy question but difficult to answer. How? Well simply speaking people want to go for free if they don’t have money and its opposite when they have money to waste.
The prices of Premium themes are falling. WP Premium themes now ranges from 10$ t0 well I have no idea. So people can afford premium theme easily. But I do not think money should be a deciding factor. There are far many things to consider when deciding between a premium theme and a free theme.
So what all things we should consider. Obviously one will be the overall design. Then may be color, which can be changed any way. There are many more factors.
They have many similarities like, both free and premium themes are well designed. Remember free does not mean it is not beautiful. I have found many nice free theme which looks attractive than premium ones. They are made compatible with latest version of WordPress. Both type of the themes are easy to install and can be tweaked manually.
Some points which will make you choose Premium Theme
- Premium themes comes with added support. It is extremely useful if you do not have any knowledge of web designing. You may contact designer of a free theme but they are not bound to answer.
- Premium themes comes with specially designed widgets and they include some special pages. Free themes are mostly basic in nature.
- Premium theme are considered SEO optimized and good for Search Engine Ranking (I have doubt here).
- Premium theme are considered more well designed. The color used are very soothing to eye.
Some points which you make you not to choose Premium Theme
- Premium theme are very common in blogging world in comparison to Free themes. Some themes are downloaded by hundreds so you may see the same theme on many blogs. Uniqueness is lost.
- You have to pay for it. Damn money again.
- There are lakhs of free themes in comparison to only some 100s of good premium themes. So there is variety and thus more chances of uniqueness.
So what do you think. Free or Premium? Tell us your decision and reason why you will choose the one over other. My answer is free theme but I will not use as it is I will make heavy changes to it. I am now able to make themes from scratches so I now consider making my own theme.
NOTE: Sorry for not posting for sometime. I was unwell for couple of days.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I go with a free theme because well its free. Until my blog is making a few thousand a month paying for a theme is not an option. Besides the big boys didn’t go to purchased themes until a couple of years ago.
.-= Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..What’s In Your Blogging Environment? =-.
i am using free theme to all my blogs now but soon i will change them to a good looking professional theme.
Thats good idea.
agree with Ms. Freeman, will upgrade my blogs theme to a premium one when they start giving some decent amount of revenue.
i have heard about Thesis a lot and will have it soon
I think the real battle here is premium vs custom themes. Free themes is the obvious choice for people who are just getting started and as soon as they start getting a decent amount of income they would start looking for premium ones.
The simple answer for me is:
free themes – if you know how to modify (and is not afraid to)
premium themes – if you want something absolutely unique and pro with the matching budget to pay for one.
I love to design my own theme. But as your answer is Free or Paid theme, I will suggest others to take a free theme and when they earn some money they should go to purchase a theme or purchase the license to take away the footer back link of a free theme.
On all of my blogs I’m using only free wp themes. Free wordpress themes can be as good as paid ones.
I think content of the blog or website is much more important.
Free themes would be enough for me. Although the Premium Themes are so attractive. But it will cost some money and most of us do not need to make their blog so beautiful. The first thing to consider, I think is practicality.