As a web design professional, you’ve most likely accumulated most of the tools of the trade you need to do your work. Nevertheless, there are times when those tools are either not quite right for the task at hand, or one of the characteristics of your work, and the tools you use, is that of continual improvement.

To successfully manage upcoming projects, you have several options to consider. You can work with free themes, a premium theme, or you can create your own custom website builder.

Which approach should you take?

It all depends on how you answer the following:

• What types of websites is next in line?
• What are your clients willing to pay, and what are the deadlines for the final deliverables?
• What will the projects’ specific needs and required features consist of?

Free vs. Premium WordPress Themes

As you might expect, free themes have their advantages and their disadvantages. When weighing the pros and cons, it is important that you base your final decision on your clients’ projected needs, even more so than on your own.

Free Theme Advantages

• By definition, they cost no money; which can be a definite plus for you.
• They often come with free support from the WordPress community, much like open-source software applications.
• They specialize in, or have certain strengths for, certain types of websites
• They are typically compatible with most of the popular plugins.

Free Theme Disadvantages, and What to Watch Out For

• Bug fixing and customization issues can cost you time – and money.
• A solid, reliable support framework is generally lacking.
• Back-end code may not be maintained over the long term, or updates may be sporadic at best.
• Free themes typically have fewer features and offer less customizability than do premium themes.
• Free themes tend to rely heavily on plugins for much of their functionality. Over time, plugin incompatibility can become an issue.

A typical premium WP theme, on the other hand, has much more to offer.

• It has a one-time cost. The purchase price helps the theme’s creators support and further develop the theme.

A car website created with a premium theme – Be Theme

• It provides great support – the support team knows the theme by heart.
• It has multiple rich features, including SEO optimization, true responsiveness, flawless plugin compatibility, and even an integrated builder like Muffin Builder.
• A premium theme provides frequent and reliable updates.
• Demos and customizable website concepts help you get a project off to a rapid start.

Why Pre-Built Websites are a Popular Option

A beautiful example of why the pre-built website is a hot design trend.

Before you even begin to weigh the advantages a premium WP theme offers, you need to take into account the theme’s reputation. You can always read the reviews; but the creator’s experience, the length of time the theme has been on the market, and the size of its user base will tell you a lot.

From these perspectives, Be Theme, with its library of pre-built websites, is a hands-down winner. Be has been on the market since 2014, its client base has grown to nearly 40,000 strong since the initial launch, and it has become a top ThemeForest seller.

All of this, plus the presence of a top-tier customer service department, works to your advantage, and to the advantage of your clients as well.

With respect to Be’s pre-built websites, there are now more than 210, and the number keeps growing. This collection of professionally-designed, pre-built websites cover virtually any niche your client or clients may be active in.

The design effort that goes in to every one of these pre-built websites fully respects current digital marketing rules. Furthermore, no coding is needed on your part to customize one or more of them to suit your needs, or those of your clients. The time you can save by taking this web-building approach can be huge, and can translate into faster delivery of high-quality websites to your clients.

Once you have made your choice, whether it is for a sports or health website, a creative or fashion website, a portfolio or a blog – and the list goes on – you have a conceptual layout with UX functionality that you can customize to your heart’s content.

Your selection of a premium WP theme, especially one like Be Theme, will pay dividends, to both you and your clients.

A premium WP theme, in particular one like Be Theme with its awesome collection of pre-built websites, is a great choice in terms of quality, budget, and time. Free themes have their place, and at times they can offer an ideal solution for testing a concept. They will typically come up short however if you dedicate them to a serious project.

You don’t want to sacrifice quality for speed in delivery, or vice versa. You need a WP theme that gives you both; and in spades. Be Theme’s pre-built websites represent a modern design trend. They are rapidly gaining in popularity, they are easy to customize, UX functionality is already embedded in them, and they require no coding.

The choice between a free and premium WP theme should not be a difficult one to make.