Themes are the visual layout of your website in WordPress. They often control how the site behaves, providing options for changing everything from color schemes to typography. However, not all themes are created equally.
The options in the theme’s Customizer are dependent on what the developer chooses to include. Not all themes will give you access to changing certain fonts, or have elements such as sidebars.
One of the features of themes is the ability to instantly change the layout of your WordPress site from one to another semi-seamlessly. It’s not always a perfect fit because you might have sidebar elements that won’t be available in the new layout.
Themes come in a wide range of designs and styles. You can create an elaborate website with tons of sidebar content and functions or install a minimalist theme to deliver just the bare content. It all depends on what you want to create.
Free vs Premium Themes
There are thousands of free themes available in the WordPress repository. You can almost instantly create a website for virtually any purpose without spending extra money on layouts. However, most free themes are limited in customization options unless you upgrade.
Nonetheless, a lot of sites use free versions of themes with no issues.
Premium themes are often loaded with a ton of customization options, sometimes packed with premium plugins, and often have superior customer support. Depending on the needs of the developer, a premium theme might be more suited for what he or she wants to accomplish.
The best part is that a lot of premium themes have free versions so you can test the waters before making a purchase.
Using Page Builders
Page builders, on the other hand, give you the ability to customize almost any theme available. Using a block-style, drag-and-drop interface, you can design something unique that goes well beyond a theme’s initial capability.
You can do this with plugins like Elementor. However, like themes, the premium version of those page builder plugins will have far more functionality than the free variants.
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