When you begin WordPress web development, you will find user-friendly control panel, large amount of customer support and plethora of plugins and widgets all help to make it much easier to run your site, make changes to the content and web design as you see fit. In WordPress, changing the color of your background is often as simple as ticking a different box in your settings.

Further to make it easier, you can choose from so many ready-made WordPress themes when you first start out. All of these themes will let you give your site a whole new look and feel simply by hitting ‘install’. There are hundreds to choose from too, so you’re bound to find one that you feel best fits to your business.

But the question is, should a business really be using ready-made WordPress theme or better design a Custom WordPress Theme using a professional web design company?

Let’s look at the differences between each option and which is best for WordPress web design.

Advantages of ready-made WordPress themes

With a lot of ready made WordPress themes available in the market, it will be always easier to choose a theme of your choice based on the category, style of the theme, column layout or colours of your choice. Even with no coding knowledge, you will be able to build a WordPress site quickly with the features available in these themes. Most of the premium themes come with unlimited features which when put into effect will make your website more professional and stylish.

Some of the most effective features that are included in the ready-made WordPress themes are listed below:-

• Page builder with responsive layout
• Theme options with layout and style customization features
• Image/video slider and gallery
• Multi-language support
• Search engine optimized
• Contact form builder
• Category based business solutions (Ecommerce, Real Estate, Hotel Booking, Photography)
• Custom maps

All the above listed features can help build the website within a short span of time. Most of these themes come with a documentation which helps you to understand all the functions in the theme and use it accordingly. In addition to the documentation,  theme support is also provided for some of the free themes and most of the premium themes. One can simply use the support forum or contact the author directly for their queries. WordPress web development has become more popular with the evolution of ready-made WordPress themes.

Limitations of ready-made WordPress themes

There are some major disadvantages of using the ready-made themes

• Regular maintenance is required
• Need of a child theme
• Need of regular support
• WordPress plugin compatibility with the theme
• Theme security

With regular WordPress updates, we need to update the theme functions so that there have no version compatibility issues. Some of the ready-made themes provide these updates regularly but in majority of these themes, the updates are not provided on time. This leads to some downtime in the website in case of some fatal errors. Some functions do not work properly in the website even on a  minor functionality change.

Another difficulty is the need of child themes while going for ready-made WordPress themes. While updating these themes, the customization done to template/CSS/JS files will be lost completely. In order to prevent this, we will need to develop the website with a child theme. This will be tough for people with less coding knowledge.

Since all the ready-made themes are from third party, we cannot be dependent on those themes for continuous updates and support. There will also be compatibility issues with different plugins if the themes are not updated at the right time.

With ready-made themes, there is always a risk of less security to the website. We will not be aware of any security loopholes in these custom themes. Since the code of the theme is available to all users, there is always a possibility of the website getting hacked while using ready made WordPress themes.

Advantages of using Custom WordPress themes

Having uniqueness in your website is more important as websites with same layouts and design can become easily boring for the user. It is always better if we have a fresh design and develop the website with own custom code. WordPress by default provides a variety of functions and standards that helps us in developing a new theme in a very quick time.

Writing our own code means that we are following all the coding and standards set by WordPress. This ensures the website is clean in SEO and also if are willing to use multiple wordpress developers while building the site, it is necessary that the correct coding standards are followed with the right comments.

Custom theme development also helps to avoid unnecessary features. If you are going with ready-made themes, there is no option to remove unused features. In custom themes, you will be building only the features you need in the site. This reduces the page size, thus improving the page speed. User experience in the website can be highly improved by using custom themes.

Since we are building our own code, security loopholes in the theme can be avoided. The code is also not available to all the users, this makes it tough for the hackers. Regular theme updates are also not needed as we will be building only the features needed for the site. Therefore updates can be performed only when WordPress updates an already existing function that we used in our theme. So going for a custom theme is a better choice if you have long term plans for your website.

ColorWhistle does a great job in creating custom wordpress themes for not much more than buying a ready-made one. In fact it will be even cheaper than some ready-made designs. More importantly people will be more likely to take action when they see your website, the money you spent on custom WordPress theme development  will be more than pay for itself and provide great ROI.

Limitations of a custom theme

There are some limitations to custom theme development.

• Development time
• Coding knowledge is required

Developing a website with a custom theme can be more time consuming than with the ready-made themes. Building each feature will take some development time. People with less coding knowledge will need the help of an expert in order to build custom WordPress themes.

Some websites we built using ready made themes

Nitara Marketing

The Plat4mgroup

Mayflower Capital

Some websites we built using custom themes

LogoWhistle

Small Business Web

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Conclusion – Create a Custom WordPress Design

Yes, creating a custom WordPress theme is more difficult – but if you leave it to us then you don’t have to worry! It’s more professional, more tailored and more scalable, so it’s well worth a little extra time and expense in the long term. Remember, you’re going to be stuck with the decisions you make now for a long time to come!

If you are looking for WordPress development services, do reach ColorWhistle. We can help you in developing WordPress websites that meet all your business requirements. Get in touch and we’ll happily have a chat about the best solution for your business.