Do you use free themes for your websites?

[christax]

I am running some websites base on Wordpress cms. Currently I am using a free theme with customization and paid themes from themeforest. I think free themes are also good but paid themes have lots of customization and giving me better support if i have problems on my themes. But if you will have some designing skills then you can customize the free theme and can use for your websites. However, from my opinion free themes are not more secure, because its also shared with other people.
What is your opinion about this ? Please share your thoughts with everyone.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

I prefer to use paid themes. I just trust them better. Many of the free themes have embeded links and some even have well hidden links in them.

 

[vishwa]

I am always using Paid themes because it comes with better security, frequent updates, free support and lots of customization. Most of the free themes are just poorly written code and are highly vulnerable. I assume that if you have designing skills than you can customize the free theme also but you won't compromise with your site security.

 

[hynds]

Currently, I'm using free theme at Mythemeshop, I use free theme because my website and my requirements are simple, it does not need to customize anything complicated, It just need light, run fast and also easy to use and config.

 

[ulterios]

I use both free and paid/premium themes based on the needs of the particular website and what exactly I need/want. I use more premium that free but there are some real good free ones out there. I usually use the premium themes because they have more add-ons and/or features. It all depends on the need of each site.

Just because you pay for a theme that doesn't mean it's more secure, has more frequent updates and so on. Those all vary from one theme author/publisher to another. What many people do not realize is that many of the paid themes also have a free counterpart that they are based on. The paid versions just add more features and extras over the free versions.

A theme publisher will not want their free themes to perform poorly or have security flaws or that can harm their reputation. Some publishers are great about providing real good free themes and some don't. You just have to do your research and testing to see what's good and what isn't.

 

[TheStrugglingNewb]

One big problem with using a free theme is that if you don't create a 'child theme'
version of it and then you customize it...

If they ever update that theme, all of your customizations will be lost and you
definitely don't want that.

I prefer paid themes mainly because of the added features and I tend to trust
that they will be better maintained than free themes.

Plus, like Vishwa said, it's easier to get support for a paid them than it generally is for a free theme.

I used a free theme one time for a site that I had because I really liked the look and
feel of it...

But I did want to change one thing. I wanted to move the post headline below the featured image.

I created a support account for the theme at WordPress.org and posted a question
to the creator of the theme asking them how to do it.

I never did receive an answer from them and needless to say, I changed the theme not long after that.

 

[empresa87]

I usually use paid themes, but in recent years I have noticed a problem, they increasingly come with unnecessary things that make the theme mor heavy and slow as required plugins and many customizations easy to do without programming. This has a cost.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

You can usually modify any theme fairly easily. A lot of the freebies put links on the footer - those are stupid easy to remove. Sometimes that violates the ToS though, and of course you shouldn't do that.

But the real question is why are they free? You have to think what's in it for the distributor. Sometimes they want to get their name and brand out there. Other times they want you to be their backlink. And some can hijack your DOM. Be careful.

 

[LindaJohnson]

Using free themes for your website can be very helpful for professionals. So many benefits can be achieved by using free themes for your website. I am also using free themes for my websites.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

If you are creating websites for paid clients I would not use free themes. I can speak from experiences on this.

Client says... What are these links in the footer? Take them out. Why did you put them their to begin with?

You say... The links are the payment for the use of the theme. The creator of the theme requires they stay there.

Client says... Then why did I pay you?

As you can see, this conversation is not going to end well.

Some will say to just take the links out and violate the themes creators TOS. That is a really bad idea and NOT fair to the themes creator.

Using paid themes, this conversation never happens and YOU look like a professional and not a rank amateur.

 

[Ron Killian]

As already said it depends on the situation. And there are some good free theme's from reputable companies, such as Wooththemes.

A while back I converted a site to worpdress, tried many paid theme's and most all of them messed up my existing images. Ended up going with a good free theme that worked perfectly. So depends.

And yes I agree, so many paid theme's these days are trying to get all fancy and come with too much junk.

 

[YARTranslations]

We mostly use paid themes from themeforest for our premium websites, but sometimes we use free themes for fast websites or blogs.

In fact, Paid themes should to be better because you pay for it, and they allow some more easy options and customization in it. But be sure that the theme meets all or most of your needs for your website.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Another thing to keep in mind when using free wordpress themes is the encrypted and spammy links many place in the footer may cause your site to be penalized in Google.

 

[mantra]

I think free themes are great if they are a fit for your site. Best to modify them highly if possible.

 

[mellisas]

For Business website paid themes always good as compare to free theme because they are 100% genuine and secured.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

Just because it's a paid theme does not mean it's genuine or secured. That is nonsense.

 

[mellisas]

mellisas

If its not secured then why anybody purchase it, theme provider provides support to maintain it, first you need to do research about paid theme provider reputation and terms and condition then only purchase it else you will face problems which I think you have already faced

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

You have different levels of programmers. Some are extremely good and some are really bad when it comes to security. They both SELL themes. So yes, buying a paid theme does not mean it's secure.

 

[sanjay7]

It depends on your website, means If you have business website OR ecommerce website than you must go for paid theme. Currently I am using Free Theme for my newly created website & it works well. I shall go for paid theme in future.

 

[Ron Killian]

MANY PAID themes have little to no support, or the creators disappear.

I can think of many theme's and plugins I've bought that ended up with no support or updates.

 

[jermain08]

jermain08

At least you have the right to ask for support when using paid themes
In my opinion, paid themes are better anyway, we may check for the reliability of the author before buying

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

Oh I agree, usually paid theme's are better. And yes you usually do have support. I am not knocking paid theme's at all.

Just have a problem with blanket statements, nonsense advice, that may not good for people who don't know. Just posting nonsense to boost post number to get a signature