What you need to know before buying a WordPress theme?

The obvious reason to build a website on WordPress is that this unique Content Management System won the 2010 CMS Hall of Fame Award, competing against Joomla and Drupal. Even after making that decision, you will most likely need to search for themes to make your life easier with built-in designs and user-friendly features. But, there are so many of them in the market, the selection process simply becomes daunting.

Star ratings, comments and sales figures come in handy when you decide to buy a WP theme. But they are not enough to pick one. Here is a list of factors to consider when buying your next theme:

1. Themes, Frameworks, Platforms: What are they and who is behind the scenes? There are themes, you know all about them… There also are extremely complicated frameworks for pros… And then there are platforms that are more user-friendly than either of them with exceptional functionality to serve both beginners and pros alike. To develop a platform takes a team of several professionals, from designers to developers to marketers who research best practices and trends… Who is behind the theme you are considering? A solo practitioner? Couple buddies who are having fun? Professional companies or even joint ventures? The team behind the scenes will have tremendous impact on the level of ease of use and support you will get for your money, as well as updates, additional designs and features, and of course the pace with which they will be available.

2. Support, support, support! Every theme is unique and no matter how proficient you are with WordPress and basic features available in most themes, you will need support at some point. You can always email the developer or post your question on the standard ‘forum-like’ comments section on the theme page. Some themes also offer their own support forum and the developers are usually very responsive to inquiries. But then again there is always the unknown waiting time for a response and some back and forth to get to the bottom of the issues you experience. Consider your own proficiency and experience when evaluating the support level provided by the theme of your choice. The better they match, the quicker you site will be up and running.

3. Features, Layouts and Your Specific Needs. Every theme comes with tons of features and it is almost impossible to compare literally hundreds of themes based on every feature. What you can do instead is to spare 10 minutes and jot down the very specific needs you have. Would it be better to present your information in a Z layout or an F layout? Are you an artist who needs a particular gallery feature? Do you need Buddypress or other social functionality? Do you need to easily provide videos to your audience? Make a list of all your must-have features and then start your search with those keywords.

4. Can you see the back-end? The whole idea of purchasing a theme is to have added functionality on top of the default features of WordPress, so that you don’t need to code. Every theme adds significant amount of features to achieve this, but still, it would be better to see how these additional features are made available in the admin panel. After all, it all boils down to an optimum combination of features, flexibility, and customization options in the back end. And the only way to have a better idea on them is to be able to see your options before you make the purchase.

5. Shortcodes… Can there be too many of them? Most themes offer shortcodes and they usually make your life easier. But you will soon realize that not all themes come with a generator. Just having the shortcodes, but not the generator, may result in loss of significant time trying to figure out which shortcode to use and to find and paste it. Not all generators are created equal either. You need to find out what kind of a generator is included in the theme you are considering. Finally, this may sound counter-intuitive, but it is not always the best to have more shortcodes. Consider the time you will end up spending on how to use any given shortcode. If there is too many of them, you may as well start learning HTML and PHP and code it from scratch. Higher number of shortcodes may indicate lack of user-friendly options in the admin panel that can eliminate the need for a short-code in the first place.

6. Release Dates and Updates. This is where the ratings and stars fail the most. A theme might look great and have excellent reviews. But you still need to consider that a relatively older theme may lack some of the basic features newer themes offer. The frequency of updates also becomes an important factor in this regard. After all, consider yourself not just purchasing a theme that looks nice, but purchasing a significant piece of software that requires a team of professionals to support and constantly improve their product.

We hope these indicators help you make a more informed decision and purchase the best possible theme to serve your objectives.