Since 2007 WordPress has been my favourite website building platform. WP can be used as a blog, as a website and even as a multi-site (as I recently discovered).
In the past 6 years of using WordPress I have tried probably hundreds of themes, free and paid and although I found many good themes I have never found what I really needed. My problem is that I am not a coder or a programmer so I always had to pay someone if I wanted to do any custom work on a theme.
A few years ago I’ve decided to stop using free themes for several reasons.
- Free themes are often coded with many errors
- Free themes often have some exploit issues which makes them very vulnerable. I have had many of my websites hacked simply because I used a free theme. Believe me it’s not fun to lose a website.
- Free themes often cannot be edited, legally that is. You can use it but can’t customize it.
- Free themes often come with ads/links to other sites which you cannot remove. In some cases your WP site might get banned by Google simply because it’s linking where it shouldn’t.
- Free themes are rarely updated and often ignored. Your themes might become completely incompatible with your plug-ins or even your WordPress installation.
… There are many other reasons why free themes aren’t the best choice but let’s talk about “paid” or “Premium” themes.
About a year ago I have discovered Elegant Themes (ET) and at this moment I am using their themes on ALL of my websites and even some of my clients’ websites.
I will be honest; I initially paid for ET because the designs seemed cool and it was only 69$. It took me a little while how much more there really was…
- For $69 you get access to all 87 themes, that’s only $0.78 per theme.
- Theme are constantly updated which means they always stay compatible with WP and plug-ins.
- The graphics are of very high quality and the designs are simply amazing.
- All themes are Search Engine Optimized when helps your rankings.
- All themes are mobile-friendly so no worries about smartphone/tablet compatibility.
- All themes are very highly customizable on many levels.
- Every theme comes with user-friendly interface.
- All themes come with an incredibly fast and helpful support.
Elegant Themes gives you access to their support forum where ET Staff actually answers your questions. So whenever you can’t figure something out – there is always someone from the ET team who will help you out. In the past year I have requested help 20 times – because I know exactly how I want my site to look like but I have no idea about php and coding, I have always received clear step-by-step instruction on the forum within hours and many times within minutes.
At this point I think their support is the biggest benefit for people like me.
Before you run off to get access to Elegant Themes, I must warn you the $69 price tag gives you access for 1 year; you get the support for one full year, you can download/use/upgrade all of their themes and even you can continue using the themes even after that year subscription expires, however you will lose the access to their support and upgrades… unless you decide to pay for another year (I certainly will pay). You can also get life time access to ET for under $250.
Check out Elegant Themes here.
