You’ve decided to launch your website but now you’ve got another decision to make. Do you buy a theme or do you go with a customized WordPress design? To figure out whether your needs are going to be served with a pre-made theme or a fully customized one, consider the following pros and cons.
The Pros of a Custom WordPress Theme
There are two big pros to custom WordPress themes according to WPLift, which covers all things related to WordPress.
The first is that you will be the only person and/or company online sporting that theme. With millions upon millions of blogs running WordPress, any pre-made theme is bound to be used by not just a few others – but many. So right out of the gate you have a big advantage in terms of setting yourself apart from the competition.
The second big advantage of a custom WordPress theme is custom functionality. WordPress and the plugins that run on it are notorious for keeping certain powerful elements (such as custom post type templates) just out of reach for the average user to fully leverage. But with a custom theme you can have your developer(s) come up with all of the custom elements you’ll need to succeed in your specific niche. WPLift
The Pros of a Ready-Made Theme
While there are some great advantages to customizing your theme, buying a ready-made or pre-made theme comes with its benefits too.
There are also two very big pros to pre-made WordPress themes. The first is affordability. While some themes may be more expensive than others, they typically stay under $100. There is no custom option available for those kinds of prices. So if you can find a pre-made theme that meets all of your needs, you stand to save a lot of money. WPLift
What about the cons for the custom web designs?
One of the biggest downsides to going with a custom design from WordPress is that you are limited to which designs you can choose. Case in point:
WordPress.com doesn’t support the vast majority of themes available from 3rd-party developers. So you’re just going to have to get the closest match possible from the much smaller selection of themes that WordPress.com does offer. And while they do allow a few minor modifications to their themes such as changing the background color, the header or the navigation menu, that’s about it. So your blog will end up looking like a lot of other blogs out there. Smart Blogger
What cons do users experience with WordPress ready-made themes?
To a large extent, the downsides of choosing a pre-made theme depend on who you buy from. Is their code clean? Do they follow the recommended WordPress development best practices? Such as separating out core functionality from theme design. What’s their support like? Do they have an active community forum for everyday troubleshooting? How often do they update? And so on. WPLift
How do I decide whether to go with a customized theme or to purchase a ready-made theme?
We’d love to help you figure out the direction that best fits your needs! Contact us today to get a conversation started.
