Difference Between a Free Theme and a Paid WordPress Themes

Posted by Christina Hills | 1Front Page, Themes, WordPress Tips | 0

When you’re building a WordPress website, one of the most important decisions is choosing a theme. The “Theme” controls the design and look of your site. There are two types: free and paid themes (sometimes called “premium” or “pro” themes). So, what is the difference between a free theme and a paid WordPress theme?

In this article, I’ll compare how free and paid themes stack up in different categories—cost, customization options, support, quality, and security. There’s no right or wrong answer—both types have pros and cons. However, knowing those differences can help you select a theme that fits your business.

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What’s a WordPress “Theme”?

A WordPress theme is like an outfit for your website. It changes how your site looks without changing what’s on it. Think of it as the clothes your website wears.

Themes decide the colors, fonts, and layouts. They also control how your content is displayed, such as where the menu goes and how posts appear.

Types of Paid Themes: Premium vs. Pro Version

Before we discuss the difference between free themes and paid WordPress themes, I want to clarify the difference between a Premium Theme and the Pro Version of a free theme.

It’s easy to confuse premium and pro themes, but they’re not exactly the same. Both types of themes are paid and offer additional features, but they’re slightly different.

Pro Version: A Pro Version is a paid upgrade to a free theme.

Premium Theme: A Premium WordPress theme is available only for purchase and is not offered in a free version.

The Difference Between Free Themes and Paid WordPress Themes

1) Cost

Free Themes: Available at no cost. You can find them in the official WordPress theme directory—this should be the only place you get a free theme! Don’t download free themes from random websites!
Premium Themes: Generally cost between $20 and $100 yearly, depending on the developer and the features included.

2) Design and Customization

Free Themes: Offer basic design options and limited customization. They are often simple and straightforward, which can be perfect for beginners.
Premium Themes: Offer more advanced design options, a wider range of layouts, and many customization features. They often include page builders and other tools to help you create a unique look for your site.

3) Support and Updates

Free Themes: Support is usually limited to community forums. Updates may be less frequent or reliable.
Premium Themes: Typically offer dedicated customer support, which is very helpful if you encounter issues. Premium themes are also often updated to fix bugs and stay compatible with the latest WordPress version.

4) Features and Functionality

Free Themes: Comes with basic features to customize your site’s appearance.
Premium Themes: Offer everything a free theme comes with but with more customization options. For example, many premium themes may have more options for colors, fonts, menus, etc.

5) Quality and Security

Free Themes: Quality can vary greatly, from poor to high. In addition, free themes may not be updated regularly and, therefore, are more vulnerable to security risks.
Premium Themes: Typically created by professional developers and undergo rigorous testing. They are updated regularly and offer better security features to protect your site.

Test Driving a Theme with the Theme Demo

WordPress.org offers hundreds of themes. Fortunately, theme companies make it easy to see how a theme will look on your site before you commit.

They provide theme demos—previews of the theme in action. It’s like tasting samples in a food court. They want you to try them without hassle. If you like the demo and how the menus, posts, pages, and images are set up, you’ll likely choose that theme for your site.

Free Theme or Paid Theme: Which One Should You Choose?

Choose a Free Theme if:

You are starting a new site and want to start simple.
You are on a tight budget.
You have a site that doesn’t need a lot of customization tweaks.

Choose a Premium Theme if:

You need advanced features and customization options.
You value regular updates and dedicated support.
Cost is not an issue.

Top Tips for Choosing a Free Theme

Just because a theme is free doesn’t mean you should use it on your website. Before picking a theme, check out my video on 6 Things to Ask When Picking a WordPress Theme.

Also, do your due diligence on these important aspects:

Is it from a credible company? (Visit their website or do a Google search to see what others say)
When was it last updated? (It should have been updated within the past year)
How many active installations does it have? (Look for 100,000+)
What are its ratings? (Aim for close to 5 stars)

One final but important consideration! Choose a free theme with a Pro Version (paid) option to upgrade. This allows for easy upgrades if you need additional features and customization.

My 3 Favorite Free Themes

Here are my favorite free WordPress themes and the ones I teach in the Website Creation Workshop™. Each theme listed below has a Pro (paid) version with additional features. *

1)

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Hestia

Hestia is my favorite free WordPress theme. It’s professional-looking yet flexible, and you can do a lot with it. It has a custom home page design, which you can choose to use or not use. Hestia displays your blog posts nicely, and the featured image becomes the top banner.

Here’s a Website Creation Workshop™ student who is an author who built her site using Hestia:
https://websitecreationworkshop.com/examples/websites-for-authors/connie-morgan/

For more information about the free version of the Hestia theme, go to: https://wordpress.org/themes/hestia/

To purchase the Hestia Pro version, go to https://www.christinasresources.com/hestia/

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2) Ashe

Ashe is a stylish and simple theme. It looks clean and neat, with options to change the header and different ways to show your posts. Ashe is easy to use and works well with many plugins. It also has featured sliders and promo boxes, making it perfect for showing off your best content.

Learn more about the free version of the Ashe theme at: https://wordpress.org/themes/ashe/

Here’s an example of a student who is a Pilates instructor and she used the Ashe theme for her website :
https://websitecreationworkshop.com/examples/websites-for-yoga-and-movement/ginny-massie/

If you would like to purchase the Ashe Pro theme, simply go here: https://www.christinasresources.com/ashepro/.

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3) Sydney

Sydney is a very flexible free theme. It’s a great theme to use if you want a grid of blog posts. Sydney is also perfect if you want a custom homepage with a large image that can act as a slider. The only challenge with the Sydney free version is that some of the customizations are not as intuitive as Ashe or Hestia.

Here’s a site that one of my students who is an energy healer who built her site using the Sydney theme:
https://websitecreationworkshop.com/examples/websites-for-healers/sandra-jenvey/

For more information about the free version of the Sydney theme, go to: https://wordpress.org/themes/sydney/

You can find the Pro Theme and view some examples here: https://www.christinasresources.com/sydneypro

Divi – My Favorite Premium Theme

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Divi has been a very popular premium theme for many years. Why? It’s very flexible and has a lot of features and options. Divi works similarly to a page builder. One of the great things about Divi is its huge collection of premade layouts, which makes it easy to find a style you like and replace the content and images.

Check out this article on What is Divi to see some great websites my students built using the Divi theme. I use the Divi theme in Website Marketing Workshop and Graphics Creation Workshop classrooms.

For my blog, I use the magazine-style version of Divi, the “Divi Extra” Theme. Both themes are from Elegant Themes.

Summing it Up…

There are hundreds of themes available for your WordPress website. It can be overwhelming to decide which one to choose!

Free themes are great for starting out—they offer good customization without any cost. Many of my students use free themes and build amazing websites.

Paid themes provide more customization options, but you don’t need them immediately. As your site grows, you might want to upgrade to a Pro version or a Premium theme for added features.

Your choice depends on your needs, budget, and site goals. Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy to create a professional, attractive website with either a free or a paid theme.

If you’re ready to learn how to build your website with one of these amazing free themes I teach, join the Website Creation Workshop™.

Or, if you already have a website but it’s outdated and stale, join the Website Marketing Workshop and give it a makeover with a brand new theme.

*Some of the links in this section are affiliate links

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About The Author

Christina Hills

Christina Hills helps entrepreneurs set up their websites using WordPress without having to rely on a webmaster or any tech people. Her trainings are fun and she makes it easy! Get the free PDF "The Do-It-Yourself Website Creation Checklist" Report Here

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“I’m honored to be one of Christina Hills students!”

I want to deeply thank you Christina Hills and Team for the outstanding quality of the program and the kind and helpful assistance I received all along my Website Creation Workshop journey. I will keep being and attached member of Christina Hills Community and I’m honored to be one of her students.

Cecilia Roger

JapaneseEmbroideryAcademy.com

“Christina Hills’ Website Creation Workshop course is The Best online course I’ve ever taken!”

Christina Hills’ Website Creation Workshop course is The Best online course I’ve ever taken! Here’s why: It’s way more than information-packed (which it is). It took me, step-by-step, to create my own website in a way that was thorough, and easy to understand, and supportive, and encouraging, and easy to follow … AND FUN!

Yes, there’s a learning curve, but after the first few modules, I was having FUN being creative, building my very own website exactly how I wanted it. I’m thrilled with the result, and I’m excited to show off my new site to a new and wider audience!

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TheHeroMethod.com

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Christina and her team have finessed the tricky balance between challenge and encouragement through an on-line platform allowing for even the most technically-challenged entrepreneur to be successful with developing their own website. I have gained skills and confidence in designing my own site – and now maintaining it — all while having fun! I’m so glad I found you when I did.

Sandra Jenvey

VitalEnergyBalance.ca

“I have a website I love!”

If you told me 6 months ago I would be designing and managing my own website – I would not have believed you. For years I had people to manage my site and they never got it quite right and it was too expensive to keep having them make those changes to get it right. Now, I have a website I love and I can make changes and keep it current without the huge cost of paying someone else.

Thank you, Christine and Team – you have all be fabulous and the training and support from the Facebook Group have gone over and above what I could have ever imagined. Thank you and I am looking forward to managing my own website!

Jackie Kloosterboer

“If it weren’t for the Website Creation Workshop, I might still not have a website up and running!”

If it weren’t for the Website Creation Workshop, I might still not have a website up and running! Christina goes through things step by step so that you not only know what buttons to click, but why.

The knowledge will continue to be helpful so that even if I have someone else manage updates on my website, I can easily go in and make quick changes myself and will understand what I’m asking someone else to do. This was a great way to get myself going!

Kim Barnes

www.BarnesTeamMedia.com

“Super big thank you to Christina!”

After following Christina Hills online for a while I found her instruction to be very thorough, and honest in approach, so I decided to give the Website Creation Workshop a try. It happened at a time when I was struggling with another web designer, again, a grand total of four designers over a period of 15 years!!! I couldn’t be happier to not have to make those angry, frustrated calls anymore. Seriously!

Aside from things typically taking way too long, if they were even done, creative differences tended to be a problem for me as well. “What do you mean you don’t want to do that?” I find myself repeating over and over for things like “Why is the site not mobile responsive?”….. Never again!

Super empowering to not be subjugated to the will of another. With my vision, and the skills I’ve learned, I can build what I want, and change/modify it when I see fit, or necessary. Super big thank you to Christina and the WCW team for helping me get here!

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Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I joined the workshop in Spring 2019 and I completed a website for my husband’s music business. It is not perfect, but at the moment it is enough for our purposes. Of course it will grow and change alongside our business.

I agreed to help my husband to publish his music (stuck indoors, Covid and all…) Suddenly, I acquired a very clear vision where I wanted to go and now we not only have a website, but have also gained a verified and approved artist status on Spotify and YouTube – In three short months ? and this is really just the beginning. And you helped with a very important piece – building a foundation, our house on the web.

I wanted to say thank you for providing a very comprehensive resource that helped me to overcome “it is not enough” syndrome and to create my first ever working WordPress website. You gave me enough confidence to finish and publish it.

Thanks a million. You are awesome!

Neris Gallo

DantePlay.com

“It is EMPOWERING!”

Christina’s Website Creation Workshop was FANTASTIC! As a graphic designer, I know how to make things look pretty! But I learned so much more about building an interesting and effective website.

Christina teaches at a pace that is slow and powerful, so all of the details have time to soak in. I highly recommend, and do to all of my entrepreneur friends, Christina’s training. It is EMPOWERING! Thanks!

Lynne Baum

YinWithLynne.com

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One of the things I love about you and your company Christina, is that you run it from an abundant loving place, like you’re caring for your fellow human. Along with all your brilliant teaching skills, you make it easy to want to stay connected to you, Christina, because you have built in the space for people to be human and change their mind or go through hard things and you support us in that.

I have found you and your staff to be some of the best in the industry to work with when issues come up. I appreciate this about you and it’s what will keep me coming back!

Carla H. Brown

livingfromjoy.com

“I am glad to have taken a chance on this course and am so happy to have completed this website!”

I have attempted to learn WordPress many times with online tutorials, and continued to hit “roadblocks” where I couldn’t figure out how to move forward.

With the Website Creation Workshop, I was able to understand how WordPress works so much more clearly and was able to ask critical questions when needed. I am glad to have taken a chance on this course and am so happy to have completed this website – one that I hope will be the first of many more!

Maria Moyser

BrooklynAnimalAction.org

“I am not a technically savvy person. And I just completed a gorgeous website that I’m really pleased with!”

“I am not a technically savvy person. And I just completed a gorgeous website that I’m really pleased with! Christina’s WCW is extremely well organized and detailed. Even I could follow it with ease! I feel empowered, because the world of websites is no longer a big mystery. What a wonderfully surprising silver lining.”

Taira Restar

www.WiseHeartedWoman.com

“I would recommend the Website Creation Workshop to anyone who wants to gain the freedom of building their own online presence!”

I am very grateful for Christina and her team to develop such a wonderful and useful course!

The workshop is so well-organized that a non-technical person like me can learn and master at my own pace. It teaches almost anything you can think of while building a website. I also had chances to ask my own questions and get answers on live calls. I feel so empowered that I can put up my own beautiful websites, and produce content that I want to share with the world.

I love the precious “real estate” on the Internet that belongs to me, instead of building on the rented land such as social media. I used to work with web developers on websites, it’s very time consuming with numerous back-and-forth emails and calls on any design idea or change, let alone the cost, time delay, and headache associated with it.

I would recommend the Website Creation Workshop to anyone who wants to gain the freedom of building their own online presence. I did it in four months with about an hour a day. It is an incredibly freeing experience to learn from Christina. Thank you!

Aileen Fan

AileenFan.com

“Christina instills confidence and independence in her students.”

I decided the new skill I’d learn during Covid lockdown would be web design, and I couldn’t have chosen a better teacher and program than the Website Creation Workshop. Christina Hills is a teacher’s teacher ( I say that as a teacher!) She has tremendous facility teaching technical skills and breaking them down in a simple, non-overwhelming process that is actually fun, especially to a non-technical audience. She is logical as well as creative in the perfect balanced combination. She understands creative multi-faceted people who are working with more than one niche, yet provides structure and sound advice at the same time. I have taken almost all of her different programs at this point, and each one has delivered far beyond my expectations.

Above all, Christina instills confidence and independence in her students so that a non-technical solo entrepreneur can manage their own online presence independently without stress, multiple contractors or overwhelm. This newfound freedom, confidence and independence to be able to update my websites anytime I want on my own timeline is absolutely priceless. I’ve even noticed benefits outside the class, in that I am more eager to tackle complex technical things a lot more lately because of my overall increased technical skills.

Last but not least, Christina’s support team is absolutely amazing. They are the nicest group of ladies who went above and beyond on so many occasions to help me go live on schedule. You guys are the best. I highly recommend the Website Creation Workshop to anyone who wants to gain full mastery and independence over their websites and online presence. Thanks Christina, and thank you to the wonderful Website Creation Workshop team!

Laura Kessler

CreativeLeadershipInstitute.com

“Couldn’t be happier with my outcome!”

I, like so many, had become frustrated by the cost and the amount of time it was taking to have my site updated by other people. Even though my time is at a premium I decided to take on the task of rebuilding my own site through the Website Creation Workshop.

First, I was excited by how simple it was once I understood some of the basics, which Christina does an excellent job in teaching. From there it was a matter of following the step by step program, referring to the videos for each lesson and watching my website take form. Couldn’t be happier with my outcome and with the knowledge I have to continue tweaking my site as needed.

Jim Phillips

www.LivingInFullExpression.com

“Christina provides a wealth of information in a clear, concise, practical and fun manner!”

Christina provides a wealth of information in a clear, concise, practical and fun manner. I tried to do my own WordPress website and ended up frustrated and with unsatisfactory results. After attending a free webinar about the Website Creation Workshop, I knew immediately that she was an excellent teacher, presenter and a person of heart.

I am so thrilled with my new website and my ability to control and grow my content over time. I ran into some challenges along the way, but Christina and her team were there every step of the way. That is a sign of a great teacher! Thank you Christina and I look forward to continuing the journey with you in other workshops.

Debra Duwe

FourPawsDogTraining.com

“I never thought I would be this happy with a website!”

I never thought I would be this happy with a website! I was stuck between paying AT LEAST $5000 for someone else to create a good website vs. creating a website myself that I wouldn’t really like. I didn’t want to pay that much, but I knew that I didn’t have the expertise to create even a bad website.

But with Christina’s Website Creation Workshop, I produced something that I am proud of and that is constantly getting me compliments! The step-by-step process is very straightforward and easy. Christina has “game-a-fied” the creation process so you see yourself making progress as you go. Not only do I love my site, but I’ve been able to even help some other people because of the training I’ve received!

Steven Cooper

www.ClarityFocusHeart.com

“Thank God I found Christina and her team!”

WOW! I can’t believe I created my own website! When I began this journey I was not sure I could really do it. After years of having paid others to create and maintain a website, I thought I might be getting in over my head. Thank God I found Christina and her team!

They have a fantastic program that allows you to move at your own pace and ask questions along the way. Everything is beautifully put together and well thought out. I think this is the only way I could’ve accomplished this. I did the work knowing someone was there to patiently guide and support me when I needed it. Thanks to Christina and her team for a putting together this beautiful program.

Nancy Duke

AkashicWorkshop.com

“I love my new site and I feel very proud of myself for pushing through my anxiety to learn so many new skills!”

Christina’s methodical and detailed approach to teaching WordPress is amazing! I had been afraid of WordPress before joining the WCW!! But Christina and her team make it all feel manageable, one step at a time.

I love my new site and I feel very proud of myself for pushing through my anxiety to learn so many new skills. There is no way I could have done it (or would have had the nerve to try) without Christina Hills and the WCW. Thank you so much!!

Joanie Nicholas

www.AllThingsOrganizedKC.com

“A superb program to learn and implement technologies that are typically out of reach to non-techies.”

Christina Hills is a natural teacher! The Website Creation Workshop is a superb, comprehensive program to learn and implement technologies that are typically out of reach to non-techies. As a tool for every size business to establish an online brand, I’m confident that an investment in this program is worth the time and every penny spent working with Christina and her team. The support and guidance are invaluable!

Phyllis Shabad

www.ExecutiveBrandCoach.com

“I highly recommend Christina’s course – and have to many, many people!”

I have been a member of Christina Hills’ community for three years now. I have appreciated her clear and understandable teaching. Christina’s lessons are very step by step so that anyone can follow them – even with NO website experience. Her process has been refined so that you just need to follow the process. You do not get lost down the many, many rabbit holes in WordPress or building a website. Her course is well organized and easy to navigate.

I recently purchased a Pinterest course from a “big name” and was shocked how sparse the information was and how much she assumed you knew. Christina is NOT like this. Her course is stellar if you want to build your own website.

Depending on the amount of time you have, you could build it quickly, or it could take you more time. It also depends what you are trying to build. My site is fairly complicated with two kinds of blog posts – one to support my podcast and one for the recipes. I have many pictures for each recipe. But with Christina’s help and that of her team, it is built and out in the world!!

I highly recommend Christina’s course – and have to many, many people.

Cindy Sullivan

FoodSensitivityKitchen.com

“The Website Creation Workshop has been extraordinarily helpful and made it fun to build a website!”

The Website Creation Workshop has been extraordinarily helpful and made it fun to build a website – and in a shorter time than expected. Building a website used to be something I dreaded, but knew that I had to take care of as a new online entrepreneur. I feel proud of what I have accomplished, and empowered to maintain and improve the site on an ongoing basis. Thank you so much Christina and team!

Susanna Grinsvall

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