Is WordPress Premium Worth It

WordPress Premium VS Free

So you’ve decided to get a new website built. But you are wondering should you should pay the money to get it built from scratch or go with WordPress Premium (paid theme) or WordPress Free theme. Well, you are not alone.

First, you have made a great choice. There’s a reason small businesses, entrepreneurs, and bloggers all over the world choose WordPress. It’s easy to use, powerful in its applications, and already built into most major web hosts with a simple 1-click install. However, with paid themes, there is a more steep learning curve.

But, among the many decisions, you’ll need to make is whether to go with a free theme or invest in WordPress Premium. While you might be tempted to save a few bucks going free, it’s our expert opinion that most webmasters are better off investing in a paid theme vs downloading a free theme that comes with every WordPress Dashboard. And if this is for your business blog or money site, you better fo WordPress Premium. And here is why.

Premium Themes Theme Can Be Made Your Own

When you opt for a free theme, one of the things you are generally giving up is customizability.

For starters, many free versions are limited in the color scheme. Or you may not even be able to change the colors at all. Think about what that means for your branding? Most customers tie specific colors to specific brands. So if your website can’t reinforce this connection, you are missing out on golden advertising opportunities.

Along similar lines, keep in mind that more people use free themes vs paid ones. So, just by the sheer volume of websites out there, yours is going to look less unique if you are using a free theme.

Advanced customizability does mean more decisions for you to make, though. Yes, working with premium themes can be difficult for beginners, but there are tons of videos to help you. Smazzit also has a great inexpensive website training class to help you. And it’s a great Return On Investment (ROI) for your business.

Pros

Loaded With Functionality

A lot of free themes just include the basic functions you’d expect from a website builder: menus, posts, pages, text, images, and nothing extra. The theme is just a skin with limited functions. You may want to add a new slider or an extra menu and you just can’t do it because the free ones don’t have that capability. But you can do all of this with a paid one. It goes beyond, just basic. Yes, the paid ones can be a little more complex, but they are worth every Return On Investment (ROI).

Support

There are going to be times to where things will break in your WordPress Theme and you are going to need support. But with something you don’t pay for, you already know. There isn’t anyone available to help and the owner of the product is not to help you. The product is free. But with a paid WordPress Theme, you will get support. This is definitely worth your return on investment (ROI). Now WordPress Support does answer questions sometimes, but not all the time, especially if it’s complex. So good luck with that.

Cons

Bad Code

Just like anything good, there may be a few bad apples in the bunch. There are times you may end up with a bad premium theme and this is something that happens from time to time. Many of the WordPress Themes you pay for don’t have to go through a strict review process and this can be bad for a beginner because they don’t know the signs. Now, this doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. You just have to review the comments on the theme before you buy it and go from there. You just have to be careful.

Plugin Confusion

WordPress Plugins are a piece of software that can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress Premium Themes. For instance, to be able to accept payments on your website, you add a WooCommerce or PayPal Plugin. If you want a new slider on your site, you add a slider plugin. But here is the issue, some themes come with certain functionalities of a plugin.  And guess what, if you decide to change your theme, those functionalities disappear. This can be horrifying. It was for me too. But that doesn’t stop me from buying paid themes. You just have to know what you are buying.

Do you want a great ROI for your business or just want a basic website for pleasure? This is the grand question. Is it up to you?

Here are a few of my “Go-To” Sites to buy quality Premium Themes.

Themeforest has some very great quality themes. I have bought many from them.

Beaver Builder is another great one. What makes this one unique is it has a drag and drop capability, making things easier for beginners.

All in all, Premium Themes are still a great Return On Investment (ROI). But if you don’t have the money, opt for a free theme for now.

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