Should I Buy a Premium WordPress Template or Have one Made?
If you have made the decision that your new website is going to be built in wordpress and are ready to move on to the design phase then this article is for you!
* Please be sure to read our article on why you should look at function first before deciding on a final design. This will help you make your site the most user friendly and save you lots of money.
Here at wordpress design shop we get calls all the time from business owners wanting a complete custom designed website, even though truth be 
told most small business owners don’t have the time or budget to get what one would consider a truly custom designed web site. Custom designed themes can add anywhere from $500 to $5000+ dollars to a typical new website project. For that reason alone we actually recommend that most people go with a base template for a new website and then have someone like us modify it for you. The only time we waiver in that decision is if you happen to be one of those lucky people who already have a Photoshop design for your wordpress site or have a larger budget. If you have the budget and or a design in some cases we would just add $200 dollars or so to the budget to have the site chopped up for wordpress.
So for the moment let’s pretend that you are in the later category and are on a budget so the questions is, Why should you buy and have a Premium WordPress Template Modified.
Here are a few compelling reasons why you should seriously consider using a premium WordPress template:
- Quality: The most obvious reason to use a premium WordPress theme is the quality. Premium wordpress templates have been designed and coded by professionals and usually have a very large user base. The large user base allows for bugs to be found and fixed all the time. This allows for you to have a site that for the most part will have very few errors and vulnerabilities.
- Functionality: You will find that premium WordPress templates include a far greater array of functionality and features at no additional costs. When you build a complete custom theme you have to pay for all those features to be redeveloped. Many of these functions will make it easy for you to perform otherwise arduous tasks in setting up, managing and customizing the website.
- Price: Premium WordPress templates are much more affordable than hiring a designer to design your custom wordpress theme and then a developer to make it work. With a premium wordpress template you will only use expensive resource for your site to function and be configured.
- Support: Another great reason to purchase a premium WordPress template is the support you receive. All good premium WordPress templates will include support from the developer usually in the form of a support forum where your developers can get help fixing problems or making minor modifications to your wordpress site. This can save you hundreds for dollars when you ask your developer to fix something wrong with your site because you are not paying a high cost developer to do all the research.
- Updates: Premium WordPress template developers are continually receiving feedback on their themes from users allowing them to fix bugs and add new features. Unlike custom templates, it is in the best interest of premium WordPress template developers to listen to feedback, fix bugs, implement new features and ensure the templates work properly with new WordPress updates.
- Selection: There is a great selection of premium wordpress themes and templates available. You can literally find thousands of layouts for almost any website you could imagine. There are premium templates to create personal blogs, magazine or news sites, photo galleries / portfolios, traditional looking business / CMS websites, and even ecommerce and other niche areas.
- Inspiration: Inspiration is the number one reason that we use templates in our business in addition to custom wordpress designs. They say a picture is worth a thousands words and it goes true for your new website project. Typically business owners have better results in both design and function once they see what can and has been developed in wordpress.
The next question after you have decided to have a premium wordpress template modified, or configured is where to get a wordpress template and what are the next steps.
For all of our clients we actually help with the template research and selection process.
Our favorite resources for themes are:
- Elegant Themes – http://www.elegantthemes.com (These theme are great to work with and offer a lot of design choices)
- Theme Forest – http://themeforest.net/ (We have found some of the best coded themes here, especially the wordpress backend)
- Template Monster – http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes.php (Our favorite site to show people what is possible with wordpress)
* Please be aware that we know there are a million sites out there that sell premium wordpress templates. These are just a few that we use as a base for some of our designs.
The final step after purchasing a theme is having someone like us or another development company configure, modify, copy write, and SEO your design.
If you have a larger budget and are ready for your custom designed wordpress site or just want one based on a modified wordpress theme give us a call today!
