- Hey guys, my name is Christian Taylor.
Welcome back to Craylor Made where like to talk all things
branding, marketing, and entrepreneurship.
Today, we'll be taking a look at some free WordPress themes.
If you watch my content before you'll know
that when I refer to the cost of WordPress site,
I build in the cost
of a paid WordPress theme.
I'll typically budget in about $60 to purchase a theme
plus the cost of your web hosting
but WordPress itself is a free platform.
So, isn't really necessary to buy a WordPress theme?
Are there free themes that are worth using?
First, I'll explain the pros and cons
of free WordPress themes.
Then I'll go over some of my favorite free themes available.
So when we look at WordPress themes,
there are a few things to consider.
What page builders do they work with?
What features and layouts do they have?
Are they committed to security?
And what sort of support if any is available for them?
I've mentioned this before, but finding a WordPress theme
that supports your preferred Page Builder is crucial.
Whether you prefer WPBakery, Elementor, Divi or Gutenberg,
be sure to find a WordPress theme
that supports what you prefer.
I like to look for WordPress themes
that include native support for WPBakery.
But that's because I tend
to prefer editing WordPress sites via the back end,
where a page builder like Elementor is optimal
for a What You See Is What You Get
page building experience.
Now, this is not meant to be a comparison to page builders,
I'm working on another video for that,
so let's focus on themes here.
Next, you have to ask yourself what features and layouts
you're looking for in a WordPress theme?
Does the theme you're considering
have a wide variety of eye-catching importable demos?
Does it have all of the page elements you're looking for?
Like rich hero sections, flexible columns
and call to action sections.
Typically, free themes are going to be less inclusive
of feature rich options.
And you may find yourself disappointed in the lack
of elements available for you to build your page.
We also need to consider security and support.
What is the theme developers reputation?
If they're giving away their theme, why is that the case?
Are they a small indie developer offering free themes
because they're just getting started?
Is it a freemium theme offered by a reputable developer,
where you can upgrade to a premium version later?
Make sure to research the developer and look for clues
that they are reputable and trustworthy.
A quality developer is more likely to have
proper security features in place in their WordPress theme.
Also, free themes may or may not offer support
from the developer.
Sometimes you can get help
through the WordPress online community.
But you may not have direct access to official support
from the developer unless you've purchased a theme.
As you can see, I'm generally not an advocate
for using free WordPress themes.
And that's mainly because there's so many
junk themes being offered.
But there are some use cases and some themes in particular
where I can get behind using the free option.
This first one is a given,
but I think it's often overlooked.
Don't be scared to use the default themes
included in WordPress, themes like Twenty Twenty-One,
or more or less official WordPress themes
built by the wordpress.org theme.
The later versions of these themes take advantage
of the Gutenberg post editor and Page Builder.
And while there aren't any groundbreaking features
or styles to these themes,
there are solid, reliable, quality WordPress themes
that are great for blogs in particular,
that brings up an important point to this video.
If you're a blogger, I think you can get away
with a free WordPress theme much easier
than someone who's trying to build a landing page.
For personal sites and blogs,
free WordPress themes can be great.
For corporate sites or landing pages,
it is still possible to find some decent free themes?
But I think that's when it becomes worth the money
to cough up for a paid theme.
If you're ready to branch out
to a free theme with more options,
Hello Elementor is a great option
for a dependable, reliable, secure WordPress theme.
It's made by the Elementor theme,
and gives you a clean slate to build
a stunning website using Elementor.
The theme itself is free,
but you're honestly gonna be very limited
without an Elementor Pro subscription,
which will cost you $49 a year
and this is where the frustration starts
with free third-party themes.
Other dependable themes include Astra by Brainstorm Force,
and Neve by ThemeIsle.
Theme-aysel,
Theme-isel?
But once again, we see similar limitations on these themes.
Astra offers a lot of great layouts and elements
on the free version of the theme,
but it is a freemium theme,
offering a pro upgrade for $59 a year or $249 lifetime.
I think as long as you aren't picky,
you can get a great looking site
with the free version of Astra and not need to upgrade.
Neve is similar to Astra and offer
some nice looking starter sites with the free version.
And they do also let you pick from several Page Builders,
including Gutenberg and Elementor.
And the time I spent messing around with free themes.
I really enjoyed what Neve had to offer,
especially when paired with the free version of Elementor.
Neve is my personal favorite theme
when it comes to free themes that could make
a corporate landing page or sales page.
They follow a similar business model to Astra
charging around $60 a year for a paid license
or $189 lifetime.
They have several tiers of licenses,
so you could spend more depending on the features you want.
These themes offer some form of free support
and they're secure high quality themes
that you can depend on for your website.
The biggest danger to free WordPress themes like these
is ultimately giving in an upgrading
to the pro version later,
where you'll then have spent more money
than if you just purchased a premium theme from the start.
Salient is one of my favorite premium WordPress themes,
and it's available for a $60 one-time fee per website.
The premium versions of these themes
are going for a yearly fee or $180 to $250
for a lifetime license.
You may start with a free theme like Astra or Neve
and eventually get fed up with the limitations.
Astra and Neve are certainly
not the only free WordPress themes available, though.
And you can go to the theme section on wordpress.org
to find 1000s of free themes,
but a big downside to WordPress
is that you can't easily switch themes,
meaning it's not so simple to just jump
to a premium theme later on.
You basically have to remake your website to do that.
So a lot of users ended up giving in and paying a high price
to upgrade to the pro version of their free theme later on.
Understand that there's nothing wrong with doing this.
If you need a free website, you need a free website.
Don't let the cost of a WordPress theme
stop you from getting online.
I also understand that some users may love Astra or Neve
and actually want to pay for it from day one.
And that's cool too.
They are solid themes.
But generally, I'd say if you're a new blogger
or want a basic personal site,
stick to the official wordpress.org themes
that are 100% free.
These are the themes with a year title
or this Storefront theme for eCommerce.
If you do need a free theme
to build a corporate sales page or landing page.
Just make sure the theme is from a reputable developer
and you can get a great looking site
with a few design limitations.
For me personally, I don't use free WordPress themes.
That's mainly because I own a lifetime license to Divi
which works on unlimited websites.
So if I don't feel like paying for another license
to Salient or another premium theme that's pay per website.
I can always throw Divi on my site and still end up
with a high quality reliable WordPress experience.
There are some great WordPress themes out there though,
so I recommend checking out Astra Neve
the official wordpress.org themes
and the many other 1000s of themes
that are available at wordpress.org.
So, what do you think of WordPress themes?
I'd love to know your thoughts on free WordPress themes
in the comments down below.
By the way, this is the last week
that you can join my email list at craylor.academy
and get my first online course coming in two weeks
for just $19 one time.
The price will go up next week when the pre-sale starts.
So, if you want to get in on that discount,
join the email list in the description below
at craylor.academy.
With that said, I'll catch you guys next time.