Should I buy a premium WordPress theme?

It's a new year, so maybe that means a new theme for your business! When you’re starting out using WordPress, there are many questions you need to consider. Many of those will center around themes. There are so many themes available on WordPress, how do you ever pick which one is right for you? That might not even be the most important question. If you’re using WordPress for your business, chances are you’ll want to look at buying a premium WordPress theme. But what are the advantages of buying a premium WordPress theme? Where do you even find them? Don’t worry, we’ve compiled a few points to make the decision easier for you.

Here are some of the advantages of purchasing a premium WordPress theme:

Quality

This is perhaps the most important reason why people buy premium WordPress themes. Premium themes sold through WordPress are developed and coded by professionals, while often the free themes have inefficient coding. Bad coding will not only make your site look and function poorly, but will also have a negative impact on your search engine ranking. If you’re running a business, that’s definitely something you want to avoid. WordPress themes are rigorously tested, so you know they are of a high standard before you even purchase it.

Support

If you’re not a web developer or much of a tech whizz, then chances are you’re going to end up needing support, especially while initially setting up your WordPress website. This is something you won’t be guaranteed when you’re using a free theme. Premium themes mean you’ll be able to access some kind of support, whether than be via email, phone or forums. So the next time you run into a problem with your website, you won’t have to waste time struggling and prowling search engines for the answer, you’ll be able to get professional support quickly.

Advanced functionality

If you’re customising your website, you’ll generally install a bunch of plugins to improve it’s functionality. Some of the premium themes will come with advanced plugin suits. Functions can include automatic thumbnail resizing, inserting advertising coding, or additional colour schemes. This not only saves you money and time, but makes your website look and function better than it would with a free theme.

Price

Ok, so premium themes are obviously going to cost more than free WordPress themes. But it can be the more economical option than getting a custom built website design. Premium themes tend to cost between $30 to $100, custom built designs can often cost as much as $2000, if not more.

Updates

Premium themes are generally updated on a frequent basis. The same cannot be said of the free themes. There are a few benefits to this. The updates ensures you have the highest level of security. Not only that, it also makes sure when WordPress updates, that the theme is still compatible. Nothing could be worse than finding your theme is incompatible with the latest WordPress update, and having to redesign your website.

Security

There’s such a large range of free WordPress themes to choose from, why would I want to pay extra? Increased security is often one of the major reasons people will pay that bit extra for the premium theme. Because WordPress powers such a big percentage of the internet’s websites, it’s also a big target for hackers. WordPress website’s can get hacked through malicious code being included in free themes and plugins. This can often result in the hacker gaining access to your entire website. This can be prevented by purchasing a premium WordPress theme. You won’t have to worry about whether your free theme is malicious. Of course, there are also various plugins you can install to improve your security.

So now that you know the benefits of using premium WordPress themes, where can you even find them from?

Some places worth checking out when you want to buy your premium theme are:

• WordPress Directory of Commercial Themes: this is a curated list of high-quality themes that have the WordPress stamp of approval.
• ThemeForest: part of the Envato market, it is one of the most well-known theme marketplaces. Developers are able to sell their themes on ThemeForest.
• Graph Paper Press
• Theme Isle
• WooThemes
• Elegant Themes

So before you rush out and buy a premium WordPress theme, remember to ask yourself these few questions:

- What is an acceptable price? The price of the themes vary, and then you have to account for premium plugins as well. Of course, if you’re a business, a WordPress theme is going to be greatly cheaper than a custom built theme, but it is still a valid question.

- How much support do I need? Some themes will come with more support than others. ThemeForest has not made it compulsory for all themes to offer support, so you’ll find only some of them offer it. If you know you’re going to need support, especially while establishing your website, double check what’s offered before making any purchase.

- Do I really need those features? Don’t be blinded by features! Yeah, the extra features will make your website look great. But it’s easy to be blinded by it and end up paying for something you really don’t need. Make sure the features will be compatible with other themes, if you know you’ll end up transferring themes in the future.

- Where are you buying the theme from? When you’re purchasing the theme, make sure to do your research first. There’s always the people that care more about profit than quality. Read customer reviews and ratings, and always purchase from a company with a good track record.