WordPress Custom Themes Vs Premium Themes

Genie:
What’s your wish?
A website that fulfills my needs.
Well, WordPress it is!

WordPress is a powerful and flexible content management system that makes it easy to create and manage a professional-quality website. WordPress has occupied more than 42% of the web, a statistical data that rises every day. Majority of big names like Etsy Journal, TechCrunch, Microsoft News, and many more use WordPress.

WordPress allows its users to create websites using both custom themes as well as premium themes. Both themes have their own benefits and drawbacks. Making the right choice for your client depends on various factors such as budget, time, and other functional requirements. In this blog post, we will look at the core features and factors that can help you clarify which theme is most desirable for your work. So let’s get started!

Custom Themes

Name your client Lola and give her what she wants.

As the name implies, this theme offers a fully customized and coded website, built on a WordPress platform. The site is designed specifically for your client’s business needs and integrates with all necessary online sales and marketing tools. There are no forcing plugins into compliance or over-coding templates. Rather, you come out of the process with a fully customized, fully operational website that handles every functionality request of the client.

It’s definitely the most efficient way to build a complex website that delivers highly interactive and animated experiences for end users. Let’s take a look at some benefits and drawbacks of developing with custom themes.

Pros

1. Unique Brand Identity
   Has your client’s brand achieved a level of recognition where having a unique and consistent brand identity is no longer just an added advantage? Custom themes allow for coding and designing from scratch, letting your clients have their websites specifically tailored to their brands.
2. Custom Plugin Development
   

   API Integrations.
   Product Variation Modules.
   Tailored Authentication Process.

   Is your client looking for such specific and tailored functionalities for their website? Developing custom plugins for your clients can help turn all their functional requirements into reality.

3. Fully Secured
   Allow access only to authenticated users and keep potential attackers away. If your clients are looking for a highly secured website with advanced user authentication management, custom themes can make it possible.
   As the framework is built from scratch, you have complete control over your code, so you can ensure there are fewer opportunities for attackers to exploit.
4. Future-proofing
   We provide detailed and thorough documentation beforehand. We set processes in place to ensure that no aspect is left out in the development lifecycle. So you can stay assured that your clients can avoid technical debt as much as possible.
   We help your clients by developing custom plugins according to their requirements in such a way that they can be tweaked to meet the growing needs in the future without causing disruptions to the website.
5. Collaborative Design Process
   When we do custom development, we work closely with your designers and art directors to bring your vision for your client’s website to life.
   Custom themes allow us to work on your client’s needs from scratch in a highly collaborative manner delivering them with the best, personalized, and experience-rich website for their brand.
6. Comprehensive Review and Testing Procedures
   When the time comes to deliver your client’s custom website, we leave no stone unturned. Our team of specialists takes your client’s website through a comprehensive review process.
   We only add the necessary plugins dictated by your client’s requirements, so we ensure minimal functional interruptions and avoid any plugin breaks or incompatibilities.
   
7. Clean-custom Code
   

   While coding, our team follows proper coding standards and practices keeping all future vulnerabilities in mind. This ensures that your client’s website is less prone to bugs and errors.
   We only add the necessary plugins dictated by your client’s requirements, so we ensure minimal functional interruptions and avoid any plugin breaks or incompatibilities.

Cons

1. Expensive
   As custom themes are built from scratch, they require specialized skills and resources, making them more expensive and time-consuming. If your clients are on a tight budget, pre-built themes might be a more cost-effective solution for them.
2. Longer Development Time
   Custom-themed websites go through an intensive build that requires a minimum of 6 months of build time. So it ain’t suitable for clients who are looking at quick launches for their projects. This theme is more viable for clients who are looking for a more steady and long-term plan.
3. Bugs and Maintenance
   It requires your clients to take a long-term website maintenance plan. As the build is custom and complex, it requires experts (system administrators) to take care of bugs or issues that might arise from time to time.
4. Requires Full Administrative User Training
   

   Custom themes have a complex backend architecture which requires knowledge and understanding to manage it. So your clients need to undergo a full user training session so they can understand the administrative functionalities of the website and manage the site and its users on their own.

Premium Themes

Is your client just happy to be alive on the web?

When the requirements of the build are simple, using a premium theme is a strong, cost-effective solution. While a premium theme offers basic design options… the diversity in layouts provides ample opportunity to present the client’s brand in a meaningful way. This is a quick-turnaround website at the lowest price.

This option allows you to give the client exactly what they need: a good, clean site that works… with no overselling of features and mods and no additional time in development.

Pros

1. Faster Profits With Fast Turnaround
   Clients often want to launch their website quickly and want their online business to thrive quickly. Premium themes can surely help them with that, as they can deliver websites with faster turnaround times resulting in early profits for you and your clients.
2. Easy Plug-and-play for Minimal Client Assistance
   This theme can be installed and activated easily, making it a convenient and user-friendly solution for your clients who are not tech-savvy, allowing them to perform a majority of administrative tasks with minimal assistance.
3. Get to Phase 2 Quickly
   The development phase for templated websites is quick and easy as design themes are pre-built, so we can quickly jump on to phase 2. This way, the entire project just speeds up, and your clients get the results early.
4. Affordable Website Maintenance for Security
   Premium themes just follow a simple and consistent architecture throughout the project. This makes them a popular choice among users all around the world. So the process of web maintenance, like security updates and patches, can become highly affordable for your clients in the future.
5. Simple Backend for Client Autonomy
   Premium themes don’t have that complex backend structure, so your clients neither need to explicitly learn the technical aspects nor to train their staff. They just need to understand the basics of how it works, and they are good to go to easily manage their website and users.
6. Budget Friendly
   

   As premium themes already use pre-built templates, they don’t require many resources or time to do the development, and they don’t have to go through any complex processes. They are the ideal choice if your clients are looking for faster turnarounds and budget-friendly websites.

Cons

1. You Have to Fit Yourself Into the Template’s Box
   Using Premium themes, your clients can’t think of any out-of-the-box ideas or functionalities for their website as their ideas can only be limited to what the templates allow them. The look and feel of their website will only be what and how the template dictates.
2. Creativity Is Limited – Content Does Not Lead
   Design options are limited, and your clients can’t think creatively using premium themes. They just need to fit the website’s content around the theme – chances are that their brand requires more content, but this template might not allow them.
3. Increased Load Time
   Premium themes have already designed templates containing a bunch of unnecessary code which your clients might not require for their website. These additional code blocks can surely affect your client’s website, which may result in increased load time and poor performance.
4. Limited Support and Updates
   Most of the premium themes only allow updates and provide support for a year. After that, your clients can’t receive any help in case of any issues. This also means your clients have to get their plugins and other added features, renewed after a year.
5. Security Risks
   

   These themes are just sold and distributed as a package of files, allowing attackers to insert malicious data or code into themes anonymously. This can unknowingly lead to the exposure of your clients and their user’s sensitive data.

Summarizing It Up for You

We just went through the pros and cons of Custom WordPress and Premium WordPress themes. So, which one’s the best for your client?

Custom themes may be best for unique design requirements or complete control, one that your clients wish to have, while Premium themes may be suitable for a professional look and feel that can save time and resources for you and your clients.

It all really depends upon the budget, needs, and goals of your clients. Your choice can be any, but we are here to help.

Take a more detailed look at our WordPress Packages, or just reach out to us today.