Should I use free wordpress themes?

[ElissaRTR]

I found more sources sharing free wordpress themes, I liked some out there.

My question is, I should use free WP themes, does it have any risks for exploiting my site? if so, how to check?

 

[Mark007]

There is no harm in using free WordPress themes. But usually free themes are no copyright protected and lack customization for your website design. But still there is not harm in using a free WordPress theme for your website or blog.

 

[PluginForage]

If it meets your needs go for it. There are many good ones in the repository.

 

[metafser]

You can use a free WordPress theme without any hesitation. But do not use free premium WordPress theme, i mean any cracked WordPress theme. That theme can harm our website. Already Mark007 mentioned that, if you will use free theme what benefit & problem you will be getting.

 

[hrishivardhan]

I found more sources sharing free wordpress themes, I liked some out there.

My question is, I should use free WP themes, does it have any risks for exploiting my site? if so, how to check?

No, there is not any risk in using free WP themes. Themes does not matter, your content matters more then the website design.

 

[PluginForage]

Just make sure when updates are available to update. They are often security updates.

 

[kian.j]

WordPress is a good place to start. But if it will be not enough for you, you can always try to use other free tools online to 'pimp' your website. Here you have some free online tools that are helpful when working on your UX design [URLnf="http://www.headchannel.co.uk/blog/post/the-best-free-web-based-ux-design-prototyping-tools"]here[/URLnf]

 

[Tim Dutch]

As mentioned before, don't use hacked premium wordpress themes because they can harm your website and hosting.

There are more providers who provide free premium themes with support and free updates (see one of the articles on my site).
Also i'm following s5Themes which provide free premium themes on a regular basis. You can check them out [URLnf="http://www.s5themes.com/themes/"]here[/URLnf]

 

[michaeldlevy]

I think it is perfectly fine to use free Wordpress themes. This really depends on the type of project you are going to do. If it is a very basic site, you probably will be in great shape if you find a free theme. All different projects need a different type of theme. Just make sure to look at the features. No harm at all using free themes, just keep in mind what your focus is and if that is the right fit for your project.

 

[themehunk]

There is no harm in using free WordPress themes. Today many themes comes with Responsive design and SEO friendly. So you can use free themes.

 

[starfishratings]

The thing with frameworks/platforms like Wordpress is that they give you a lot "out of the box" ... but you will want to tweak that to give your site an original feel.

From a performance perspective frameworks with plugins have to abstract their design to allow loading of plugin/module code so they tend to be less efficient. ANd if your page takes longer than a second to load, many users have bounced already!

Of course ... a bad programmer could build a custom page that is even worse... it's been known to happen :rolleyes2:

Try to validate your finished (is a website ever really finished?) website against validators such as Google rich snippet validator, the 3WC validator, etc .. to get the optimum performance and stability on how your visitors experience your website.

 

[professorrosado]

What temptation it is to buy a premium theme! It looks so good! But then you fill it with junky spammy posts! ????

It will due you more good to first be successful with a blank clean FREE theme and learn to create great content, attract a lot of visitors and engage them once they get to your site than to ever belief and depend on a fancy website theme as if that would compensate for your small ..... effort!

 

[Sheldon Allen]

Yes, you can. There is no problem with Free Wordpress themes. These are awesome approach to get an online journal or site off the ground.

 

[tarunap]

If the free theme does suits your requirement then there is no harm in using the free wordpress themes.

 

[irichard]

A free Wordpress theme is good. I think you'll be fine! As long as it suits your needs.

 

[Christopher II]

I personally don't think so, some of the most professional looking themes are free and infact are elegant.

 

[Shutout]

I found some of the best themes straight from Wordpress. However, I also like to buy "packages" for small amounts of money. Say for $100 you get 100 themes. This is better for creating and then tweaking themes if you are designing for someone else.

 

[ricjj777]

I use a free WordPress theme for my site because I don't think I need advanced theme features yet. Remember, when searching for new themes on the WordPress Dashboard on the Apperance menu, to always use the Feature Filter so that the themes that appear on the search results are always relevant to your needs.

 

[PTTed]

I use free themes most of the time for the simple fact that I almost always end up modifying the theme anyway to make it how I want to make it. And it takes just as long to figure out how to modify a premium theme (sometimes even longer) than it does to figure out how to modify a free theme.

In those situations, there is no advantage to using a paid theme.

 

[webhostau1]

Beware of free wordpress themes they MAY contain scripts which will leave your website vulnerable. The free ones are great if you know how to check them out before going live :}