Choosing a WordPress template, or what is known as a website theme, at the beginning of launching any new website or blog is one of the most important decisions you must make during the process of building your site.
Templates in WordPress are responsible for controlling the entire appearance of the site, the way elements are distributed in it, and they determine the style of displaying your content. Each template has its own distinctive design, and by changing this template with another, your site will look completely different. Since the template is the first thing visitors to your site notice when they browse it for the first time, you must choose your site template carefully to leave a good impression on the site.
But WordPress themes have different types and classifications, which makes you confused. So we dedicated this article to introduce you to the types of WordPress templates, the basic differences between them, and the pros and cons of each type. This will help you make an appropriate decision and choose a WordPress theme that suits your needs.
Types of templates in WordPress
There are a huge number of different options of WordPress templates or themes. Accordingly, templates can be divided into several categories or types, and whether you are a website owner or a WordPress website developer, knowing them will help you better determine the appropriate template for your site.
Among the most important types of WordPress templates that we will review in today’s article are:
- Free WordPress Themes
- Premium or Paid WordPress Themes
- Custom WordPress Themes
- The concept of a parent WordPress theme and a WordPress child theme (Parent/Child Theme)
- Starter themes are not known as WordPress starter themes.
- Framework Themes
1- Free WordPress templates (Free Themes)
You can easily get an unlimited number of free WordPress templates on the Internet, and rely on them if the budget allocated to building the site is limited. The official WordPress.org website , for example, contains more than 8,000 free, secure and beautifully designed WordPress templates, from which you can choose what suits you.
You can find free templates that provide all the features and functionality you need for your website. You will find WordPress templates or themes suitable for blogs and online stores, templates for online business galleries, and you will also find general multi-purpose templates that you can use for any type of website. All you have to do is research carefully and choose the appropriate template for your site.
For example, the default template in WordPress is a free, simple and practical template for launching a simple blog consisting of three or four pages (home, blog, contact us, privacy policy page, etc.). Every year, WordPress releases a new default template included with each WordPress release that shows the new features that have been added to the basic WordPress version (the current template is Twenty-two ).
But the default template lacks the basic features of large websites, which is why you will often need to change the default theme of your site with another template with broader features. You can see the following link , where we show you a list of the best free templates for different types of websites on the Internet.
From here you can also review the best free WordPress templates that support the Arabic language. If you do not find a suitable template, you can of course visit the official WordPress.org template guide . To search for the appropriate template among the many available options..
When you choose a free WordPress template, do not just choose the best-looking template, but read about it and learn about its features (is it customizable, does it have a responsive design for mobile phone screens, is it translatable, does it support RTL, is it compatible? With WooCommerce, is it compatible with page building plugins..)
Also read the comments and ratings at the bottom of the template page to ensure that you are not choosing the template based on formal standards and aesthetic satisfaction. Failure to pay attention to these basic standards may negatively affect the quality of your site.
It should be noted that free themes are usually not accompanied by adequate documentation, and may be unsupported or receive relatively limited support after the site is launched and published. So if you encounter a problem with a free WordPress theme, expect that you will be the one to solve the problem yourself.
Also, free themes often have limited customization options, limited integration with third-party apps, and updates are few and far between (and may not be available at all).
Finally, you must pay attention to the issue of the presence of thousands, if not millions, of sites that use free themes and templates, which means that there are many sites that may be an exact copy of your site, and you lose the privacy and distinct identity of your site.
This, in turn, may push you to other options, such as obtaining a paid WordPress template with broader customization features, or purchasing an exclusive professional template dedicated to your entire site to achieve uniqueness in the design of your site and enjoy more options and professional capabilities for it.
Read also: The 5 best free Arabic WordPress templates
2-Premium Themes
If you decide to choose a premium or paid theme for your site, you will of course get much more features than those available in free WordPress themes, in addition to the fact that these themes usually have clean, high-quality code, and receive a lot of constant updates from service vendors, which makes them safer in the long term. (The duration here depends, of course, on the seller from whom you purchase the template)
Paid WordPress templates, which are known as professional templates or premium templates, provide many customization options with a simple click, such as customizing colors, site layout, Arabic language support, switching from dark mode to light mode, and the speed of site response and performance (with the exception of some templates that are packed with many features that may You do not need it, as this may negatively affect the speed of the site.
Paid templates also usually have a lot of customization options that can be easily achieved without the need to write any code, and they generally provide a higher level of quality in all aspects when compared to free templates – but this does not negate the possibility of obtaining a free, high-quality template as we explained. previously-
As for search engine optimization, paid templates often outperform free templates in this part, as the paid WordPress template usually takes care of internal SEO improvement procedures, accelerating the site and achieving perfect responsiveness to all screen sizes.
To find distinctive WordPress templates, you can also search on WordPress.org, which provides paid versions of templates in addition to free templates. There are also many other markets to find excellent WordPress themes and purchase them from them, such as: Theme Forest , the Arabic design store Picalica , and others.. All you have to do is Just take a look at these sites and find the template that suits your needs and desires.
Paid WordPress themes typically range in price from $50 to $100 for a single site license, but may be more expensive if they are intended to be used on more than one site.
The following question may come to your mind:
Should I use a free or paid WordPress theme for my website?
In fact, there is no definitive answer to this question, as it depends on several factors, the most important of which are the nature of your location and your budget. But in general, it is preferable to use free templates in the following cases:
- If your site is in its infancy, and you want to try out your new project without spending money on a used template. Then you can start with a free template and upgrade to a paid template later.
- If your site is a blog and your main focus is on the content you provide, then you can comfortably rely on a free template.
- If you prefer simple designs and are not looking for something special, free templates can meet your needs.
On the other hand, it is better to use paid templates in the following cases:
- If your site is a B2B e-commerce platform, for example, then you will definitely need a paid WordPress template to be able to handle a large volume of data, display the content in a professional manner, and customize the site easily.
- If website design is your primary concern and you want advanced user interface elements, then you should use paid templates, as most of these templates were designed by website design experts.
- If you need fast and reliable after-sales support and time is critical, you should rely on a paid template.
- Finally, if your budget allows you to purchase a paid template, do not hesitate to provide the best for your site. But be sure to research carefully the appropriate template and know it in detail to ensure that it will meet your needs before purchasing it so that you do not waste your money in vain.
3-Custom WordPress Theme
A custom WordPress template is a template that has a unique design that is fully designed to meet your business needs. It is usually developed from scratch by web designers and developers depending on their sophistication and design skills.
If you do not want to use any of the free or paid WordPress templates available on the Internet and want a distinctive and unique template for your company or brand that is consistent with your brand’s (UI/UX) design vision, a custom template helps you achieve that.
The benefit of having a custom WordPress theme is that you are not limited to a pre-existing template or format. You will have complete freedom to customize your website and have any specific functionality within your theme.
As is known, WordPress templates are a collection of template files written in PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (HTML files that form the structure of building your site, CSS files that are responsible for formatting the site, JavaScript files that make your site dynamic, etc.)
Therefore, to build a completely customized template according to your specific needs, you will of course need a developer who has a good understanding of web design languages, and is also familiar with the basics of WordPress and its working environment, to be able to design a template that matches your requirements.
Read also: How to become a WordPress developer, and what skills are required?
If you do not have the necessary technical experience, search for a web developer or specialized development company, or search for suitable developers from one of the well-known freelance sites such as Mostaql and Khamsat.
For example, you can find on the Khamsat website more than 1,000 services related to developing WordPress websites . You can also search on an independent website for freelancers specialized in website design and development who will help you create a custom WordPress template for your website. Before you take this step, we advise you to read the following article to help you choose the right person to do this job.
When do I use a custom WordPress theme for my website?
Fully custom WordPress themes are the way to go if you want to give your site a modern, unique look. Custom WordPress themes are often in demand at large online stores and on unique websites that want to stand out and be completely customizable.
But you must take into account that building high-quality custom templates with custom features is a creative and artistic work at the same time, and it consumes a lot of time and effort from the designer and is therefore often more expensive than the paid template option.
To reduce the cost, some may resort to another option to obtain a template partially customized for their sites, by searching for a distinctive template – a ready-made paid template that contains almost all of the features and characteristics that they want to include in their site and largely agrees with their requirements, and then work to customize it partially through… Build a child template from this template, as we will explain in the following paragraphs.
4- The parent WordPress template and the child WordPress template (Parent theme/Child theme)
You can build a partially custom WordPress theme by creating a child theme from a parent theme. Child themes in WordPress are templates that allow developers to customize their WordPress sites quickly and easily based on taking advantage of an existing template (parent) and inheriting from it (the concept of inheritance is one of the basic concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP).
By applying the concept of inheritance to a WordPress template, you can customize this template by creating a child theme or child theme from it so that it expands or adds new features to the main theme, which in this case will be called the parent theme, without making any changes to this theme. Original template.
This facilitates the customization process and saves a lot of time for the developer instead of creating a new custom template from scratch. Some may wonder why I don’t modify the parent template itself and customize it according to my site’s requirements directly instead of creating and customizing a child template. To answer this question, let’s imagine the following scenario:
Suppose, for example, that you want to modify the current template on your site so that it displays a welcome message for your site’s customers in the header.php file, change and modify the format used to display blog articles, and add a custom phrase with your brand in the Footer.php file or something else. Amendments..
This is certainly possible by modifying the template files themselves, but did you know that all of these modifications can suddenly disappear once you update your theme? When there is a new version of a WordPress theme, WordPress will download it when it performs automatic template updates and replace it with the current template installed on your site. Which means that any changes you made in the previous version will disappear completely with this update!
For this reason, it is preferable to rely on creating child WordPress themes or child themes for customization. Child themes will be incomplete WordPress themes that depend on their parents to work properly. But instead of tweaking the core template files to customize them, you only modify the child theme while leaving the rest of the parent theme files as they are.
You will, of course, need to install both the parent and child themes on your site. But when there is a new update to the parent WordPress theme, it will be updated ensuring that your modifications remain safe and sound in the child theme.
Thus, through the child template, you can prepare the site structure specifically for your requirements and save time, effort and money. You can see the following article to learn in detail how to create a custom child template from a parent template.
note
It should be noted that the child template must add a relatively limited number of features to the child template. That’s why the first step in creating a child template is to choose a suitable parent template that matches your requirements so much that you only need to make some changes in the child template to customize it.
Suppose you choose a parent theme and decide that you don’t like the look of the footer and header, then all you have to do is create a new footer.php and header.php file in the child theme folder and customize them as you wish.
However, if you find yourself having to write a lot of code and override most of the parent template files, this means that the parent template you chose is not suitable for creating a custom child from it. That’s why it’s important to choose the right parent template from the beginning.
5- Starter templates or starter templates in WordPress (Starter themes)
A starter template is a type of custom website template that developers and advanced users can take advantage of, and it is an alternative to customizing the template instead of creating a child template from a parent template.
The starter template includes basic files and functions that are useful for building the template. All you have to do is edit these files directly to get a new custom template without the need to use child templates or child templates.
This type of WordPress template is designed with a simple design and basic layout – or it may be a completely blank theme – for the developer to rely on to build his template instead of writing all the template codes himself from the beginning.
Pros of using starter templates to customize a WordPress theme:
- It’s easy to create your own theme even for people with little knowledge of WordPress.
- A starter template provides you with the ability to know the basic file structure of a theme. If you are not familiar with the file structure of WordPress themes and want to create your own theme, it is recommended to use an empty starter theme as a start.
- It is possible to create a complete, distinctive template by customizing only the CSS codes, and the rest of the codes will be available in advance.
- All the necessary pages of the template like 404.php will mostly be available in this template.
- Implementing PHP code in your WordPress theme design can lead to unintended errors and security issues, and using empty templates mitigates these errors.
There are many starting templates available, the most famous of which is the Underscore template , which is a simple and primitive WordPress theme. This template is not intended to be used directly on a WordPress website, but it is used as a basis for creating your own custom WordPress template.
6-Framework themes
Frameworks templates are also another alternative to using the parent template to easily create custom templates in WordPress as the template can be easily customized and get the perfect look for your website.
Despite this, these frameworks rely at the core of their work on the same principle of inheritance that we talked about in the previous paragraphs, and although they depend on WordPress templates, we can install them on any WordPress site and they will work well, but the purpose of these templates is not that.
These templates were not designed to be installed and activated directly on websites, but rather were designed to serve as a basis for new WordPress sub-templates. The child template takes advantage of the functionality and features of the framework template and creates a new template with a unique look.
Frameworks vary in ease of use. Some enable you to customize the template with drag-and-drop or with a few simple clicks, while others require you to write some advanced code.
One example of a framework template is the Genesis Framework provided by StudioPress. It provides a simple and elegant template that you can use on any website, but its real importance lies in that it is provided as a template framework, meaning that it can be developed by developers and adapted to create new WordPress child themes.
You can download the sources and code for this framework by clicking on Get Genesis .
If you take a look at the templates on the StudioPress website , you will see that there are a lot of templates that are all unique and different in design and layout, but their internal components are quite similar, because they are based on the same original template and apply the concept of inheritance.
The nice thing about this type of theme is that it’s easy to switch between them since all the child themes here end up using the same framework (the same basic template). This option is a suitable compromise between free WordPress themes and fully custom templates.
Conclusion
By reaching the end of this article, you will have learned about the importance of WordPress templates, which have a very significant impact on the first impression that visitors have of your site. You will have reviewed the different types of templates in WordPress, their most prominent features and drawbacks, and what are the appropriate cases for using each of these types.
The choice of WordPress templates is largely due to the purpose of creating the website, the service it will provide, the budget allocated to it, and other factors that we explained in detail in the article.
All you have to do now is precisely define your requirements and needs, and conduct research accordingly to choose a template that best meets them. I advise you to take your time in this process because choosing a WordPress template for your site is one of the most important steps that you must take carefully.
