Buying WordPress Themes vs Developing a Custom WordPress Theme for Your Website
Ever since the internet has become inevitable in our modern lives, businesses have worked to build a strong online presence for reaching out to their target audience. With a massive digital population of over 5.44 billion active internet users worldwide, the digital world has a much larger scope for businesses looking out for expansion. Especially during tougher times like the pandemic, which has made people switch to online platforms due to imposed lockdowns. The businesses too are now making a shift to the online market, through websites and social media, trying to connect with a wider audience globally by expanding beyond the location constraints.
Content Management Platforms like WordPress have played a major role in encouraging entrepreneurs and businesses to go online through their website hosting and publishing system, wherein even amateurs can build their website in a very small duration. With their readymade themes, building a website has become easy as a cakewalk by simply picking up elements and assembling them to make the website. But picking up a perfect WordPress theme for your website might not be as easy as it seems. Since each business has its own set of prerequisites, finding a theme that perfectly fits the bill is tricky. That is why a lot of people opt for developing a custom WordPress theme for their website.
Whether you choose to buy WordPress Theme or Develop a Custom WordPress Theme is a matter of choice, however, in either case, the website should be able to address all the business requirements for achieving its purpose. A high-quality website that is liked by the users and offers a prominent user experience is the one that drives more customers towards the business.
Points to keep in mind to finding a perfect WordPress Theme for your website
To find a perfect WordPress Theme that offers a great User Experience and high-end functionality, it is essential to check for the criteria, which could offer the best results for the website. Here are a few points that one must check before deciding upon the WordPress Theme:
- Accessibility: Whether the chosen theme is accessible from different browsers and devices.
- Cross-Browser Compatibility: Is the theme consistent across different versions of browsers providing a seamless user experience as the user switches between browsers and devices.
- Core Functionality and Features: If the theme offers the core functionality and features in line with the business requirements.
- Plugins Support: Does it support a large number of plugins such as Yoast SEO that could be used to enhance the website operations.
- Third-Party Integrations Support: Whether the theme supports required Third-Party Integrations such as Mailchimp that can be used to enrich the user experience and improve the overall performance of the website.
- Fonts, Color Scheme, and Aesthetics: Does the theme have Aesthetics that match the brand’s visual appeal and its image. While selecting a theme, the Fonts, Color Scheme, and Aesthetics must go with the brand image for a consistent appeal throughout, helping customers recognize the brand easily.
Buying WordPress Themes vs Developing Custom WordPress Theme: Difference
| Criteria | Buying WordPress Themes | Custom WordPress Theme Development |
| Time | It requires less time as the theme is ready and only setup is required by putting up the content. | Requires a lot of time to develop the WordPress theme from scratch. |
| Cost | It is cheaper as one has to pay for the WordPress Paid Membership annual fee only | It is expensive because, in addition to the WordPress Paid Membership annual fee, one has to pay for the development costs too |
| Fulfillment of Requirement | Readymade WordPress Theme might fulfill the requirements partly but the chances of making the website unique that fits your business requirements perfectly are less. | Custom WordPress Themes developed from scratch are tailor-made as per the requirements of the business. Hence, they perfectly fulfill the requirements and result in a unique website that is just made for you. |
| Scalability | WordPress Theme offers limited scalability. | Through Custom WordPress Theme Development scaling a website up and down becomes easier, thereby ensuring optimal utilization of resources. |
| Technical Knowledge | Requires basic knowledge, and any amateur or layman with limited technical knowledge can set up a website using ready to use WordPress Themes | Developing Custom WordPress Themes require advanced technical knowledge for WordPress Development. Only a technically sound team of professionals can successfully develop desired WordPress Theme |
Buying WordPress Themes vs Custom WordPress Theme: When to use what?
While both of them have their own set of pros and cons, it is important to make the right choice at the right place to achieve the best results. Buying WordPress Themes is a good option when you are looking for a quick and low-budget option to build your website without any technical complex functions. A simple website such as a blog with minimal functions can be easily built by buying WordPress Themes and installing them. However, if you are looking forward to making a website that serves even complex functions and provides an exceptionally good user experience, then Custom WordPress Theme Development is the right choice. Although it could take more time, effort, and cost, the resulting website would be a tailor-made unique website that is just crafted to meet the growing business requirements.
