So you’re deciding whether to have a paid theme, page builder or stick with a free theme.
In this tutorial I will go through the pro’s and con’s of each of them.
1. Free Themes
2. Paid Themes
3. Page Builders
4. Comparisons
5. Summary
6. Tips and conclusion
1. Free Themes
Free themes are in abundance on WordPress. There are thousands of them with many different attributes. If you are just beginning, then a free theme is probably what you should use.
When you go into WordPress, click on appearances and then themes. Once you’re on the theme loading page, click on add new, then type into the search bar the type of theme you would like.
If you’re into blogging, type ‘blogging’ and it will show you all the possible blogging themes. If you’re into marketing…you guessed it.
The free choices are very good. Choose one that appeals to you then click on the preview and see how it looks. If you only have a few posts and you’ve saved them on your computer then install it and see how it makes your posts look.
It will probably surprise you with what you get for free. You can play around with this to your heart’s content. The image below is my regular theme. I’m keeping it simple for a reason.
The one that follows is a theme I found in the marketing section. Without doing anything, except install and activate, this is what comes up. I didn’t even put in that image.
As you can see, it’s made my site much prettier. Here is another one I installed. Again, I didn’t do anything except install it.
Now, I could go on and try as many themes as I like until I find one I’m happy with.
2. Paid Themes
Paid themes may look the same as a free theme but they will include dedicated plugins which may enhance your business.
They could include a shop, e-commerce, analytics, a shopping cart, links for payments, etc.
The advantage of these themes is that not only do they provide the plugins but they also make sure they work together.
Even though they may add free plugins, you may still have to pay in order to get the full version of the plugin rather than the basic (free) version. So to get the full use of a plugin, there will be other costs.
If you are making money from your blog then this could be the way to go but if you’re not, it’s best to stay with a free theme until you get a decent amount of traffic.
It’s easier to have a paid theme than it is to try and work out yourself what plugins to use to make your site more professional.
Be very careful when choosing a paid theme.
If you don’t like it, it’s very hard to get a refund, usually you can only get a refund if you haven’t loaded the theme. So, always check out the theme demo, if it’s not exactly what you want then check with the author if they can modify it for you.
Also, if any pictures are included in the theme, you may not be able to use them if they haven’t been paid for by the theme designer.
If you’re not very tech-savvy (what I mean by that is you don’t like working the back-end of WordPress) then you might consider using a page builder.
3. Page Builders
These are great for people who really can’t be bothered with working out the intricacies of WordPress.
What you see is what you get.
When you choose a theme with page builders, all the hard work is done for you. You actually see in real time how your edits behave. You’re working in the front-end.
Every change you make, you see straight away. The end user will see what you see. This is a great advantage in that you don’t need any tech skills.
They will also provide all the plugins that you need within the page builder. There may still be extra costs in activating the plugins to their premium level.
But if you choose a page builder, make sure it’s exactly what you need for your business.
Hosting
If you haven’t got hosted yet or are looking for a better hosting company then Siteground might be the one for you. I do earn a small affiliate commission if you click on the link below but you won’t be paying a cent more even if you go direct. Hopefully you’ll use my link because I wouldn’t be sending you somewhere that isn’t worth it and you enjoy what I write and I’ve earned your trust.
4. Comparisons
Selecting themes is obviously a matter of choice depending on your skill level and how much money you have coming in.
If you’re new, stick with free themes. It might be a bit of a headache learning the skills to work your WordPress, but these skills will serve you well later on.
The more you learn about themes and how they work from the back-end the more you will understand when it comes to analysing your traffic.
All plugins have a learning curve and it’s good to read their documentation so you understand what you are letting yourself in for. But, as a beginner, this won’t matter as much because you can make mistakes and you won’t have much to lose. Having said that, always back up your posts because if anything does go wrong you don’t want to be writing those posts again.
Paid themes are great when you have a fair amount of traffic and you need your website to be able to perform a variety of functions.
Everything is built in and you get support from the developers. So if you have any issues you can shoot them an email and they will help you out.
They tend to be much more professional than free themes because they will include all the necessary plugins for your business.
Page builders are excellent if you don’t want to do any tech work. They will also have everything you need for your business and you will have their support.
The companies that provide page builders tend to work harder to earn your trust and usually provide excellent support.
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5. Summary
So you have an idea of the value of each of these themes. Beginners stick with freebies until you have traffic. But there is no support, they’re free after all. There are forums where you may get your question answered.
Paid themes are great because they are customised to meet your needs plus you should be getting good support but you still need to learn how to operate your WordPress from the back-end.
Page builders are excellent if you’re making money and you don’t want to work out WordPress. They have great support. The one thing to watch out for is site speed. Sometimes these sites can load slowly so make sure you get in touch with their tech department to see if there are any issues with the theme you pick.
6. Tips and Conclusion
In the end, how well you do with your chosen theme still depends on other variables.
Site speed is paramount in your choice. Nobody wants to wait for your site to load.
Content is vital. Spend time in making sure your content is relevant to your site and it answers a very real need.
Last but not least is traffic. To gain traffic and make sure you are successful in your online adventures you need time, good content and making sure your content gets shared.
I hope this has helped you in clearing up what direction you might go in. If you have any other questions or need help with your online journey, just leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you.
Some extra reading for you:
How To Reduce Your Bounce Rate
Have a great day.