all agree that there are many advantages that motivate us to use a ready-made WordPress template (free or paid), and the reason is that it saves us a lot of time by adding functions and features to our website that may take months to complete ourselves. However, we may encounter some problems sometimes, such as the developer who created the template may have added code in ways that are not ideal for our needs, and may conflict with other needs that we want to include on our site.
WordPress has a lot of features that you can use to customize the look and feel of your site. There are also thousands of free and paid WordPress themes that you can use to customize the look of your site, but there’s definitely a chance that you won’t find exactly what you’re looking for that’s a better fit for your site’s niche. You may have very special needs required for your website design that are not available in these templates.
In this case, you can continue your search until you find a specific template that meets the needs of your site, or you can create a special template for your site yourself from scratch, but if you do not have experience in WordPress and creating templates, this option may not be suitable for you. So, in today’s article, we will suggest to you an easy way to create a custom template for your site by using the WordPress Theme Framework, which helps you create the perfect look for your site according to your needs.
Framework concept
A template framework is the basic structure that can be used to build the template. The framework includes a number of functions and tools that are available without having to write all the code from scratch to benefit from them when designing your WordPress theme. The framework can be considered as a database or virtual library that is resorted to to speed up and facilitate development processes.
Thus frameworks allow developers to build the template faster than if they created the code from scratch. Therefore, frameworks are used in developing WordPress templates because they provide many built-in features that the developer or website owner can choose from to suit the requirements of his site.
For example let’s say you are building a new house. You can pour the foundation and foundations of the house from scratch yourself. But this will take you a lot of time and effort. But assuming that the foundation and rules are in place and your task is just to build on them, it will save you a lot of time and effort. This is the idea of frameworks in a nutshell.
However, a house is not complete with pouring the foundation and footings and many other stages come until completion. Likewise, the framework is the starting point in developing your template, after which you must design and develop the template as you see fit for your site.
What is the WordPress Theme Framework?
The WordPress Theme Framework is a collection of files that form the basis of the theme used in your WordPress website. Includes HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript code.
With it, you can determine how your site will look, as it allows you to customize and build your site’s template according to your specific needs.
The WordPress theme framework consists of all the structural elements that make up the theme’s appearance, such as headers, footers, and sidebars. Unlike templates that are created by designers and ready to use, you can create a new WordPress theme from scratch using the WordPress theme framework. You will have to customize it and add your own features, and this allows you to create a unique site that stands out from others.
The WordPress template framework allows you to develop your own WordPress website using the tools necessary to design a professional-looking template that meets the special needs and functions that you want to add to your site, which are not available in free or paid templates.
The WordPress template framework is intended to be used as a parent template that contains all the functionality you want to use. After that, you need to create a child template through which you can create and develop the main theme of your WordPress site.
Read also: How to create a Child theme in WordPress to enjoy its benefits
The difference between using WordPress templates and using the WordPress theme framework
Templates are created using the Framework, but what is the benefit of using the WordPress Theme Framework?
The goal of using WordPress templates is to create a ready-to-use website with some simple modifications from you using templates previously created by specialized designers.
While the WordPress template framework aims to create and customize a special WordPress template for your site according to your specific needs, meaning that if you choose to create your own template instead of using an existing template, using the Theme Framework is one of the possible options.
Read also:
The best WordPress templates according to your site type (+50 templates).
Learn about the types of WordPress templates in terms of customization
Advantages of using the WordPress Theme Framework
Using the WordPress template framework offers you a number of benefits, the most important of which are:
1- Speed of programming and development
The main purpose of using the WordPress template framework is to facilitate the process of programming and developing your WordPress website template. You do not need to allocate a lot of time to the process of programming the functions you need on your site, as you can only modify them according to your own needs, and this shortens the time for programming and developing the template.
2- Great flexibility in design
The WordPress theme framework gives you complete control regarding template options, customization, design modification, etc. This helps you develop your WordPress website template according to your requirements that you deem appropriate for your site, and provides you with an opportunity to add new functions that you were looking for in existing templates but did not find.
3- Create according to WordPress standards
The WordPress theme framework is built according to the WordPress Coding Standards . This means that all the functionality within a WordPress theme is generally inclusive of all the must-have features of your site and is usually faster, more secure, and more mobile-friendly.
4- An abundance of add-ons
The WordPress theme framework offers you a great deal of built-in plugins like drag and drop elements for design, slideshows, SEO and other tools without having to install additional plugins.
The WordPress Page Builder tool is also provided with most WordPress theme frameworks that allows you to create multiple sites using the same framework, but some do not provide easy drag and drop and require writing code to customize them.
5- Faster loading of your website pages
Website pages whose template is built using the WordPress template framework load much faster than available templates, especially free ones. Because the frameworks are designed using a high-quality code library, unlike the available templates in which a lot of code is used to no avail, which affects the speed of loading pages.
Disadvantages of using the WordPress Theme Framework
Despite the aforementioned benefits, there are a number of disadvantages to using the WordPress template framework, the most notable of which are:
1- Possessing programming skill
Using free or paid WordPress templates makes it easier for you to do many programming and development issues, but sometimes you need specific functions that you want to add to your site and they are not available in those templates, which makes you use the WordPress template framework to customize the template.
But you should know that it is not that simple, as you will need basic knowledge of HTML, CSS , JavaScript , and perhaps PHP as well so that you can make more modifications according to your needs, and each framework is different from the other, so you will have to devote time to reading the advantages, disadvantages, and reviews of any framework. Frame of your choice.
2- Cost
While there are a few free WordPress theme frameworks like Gantry and Cherry, most WordPress themes are not available for free.
They vary in cost, as some require you to make a one-time payment only, some require recurring annual fees, and some WordPress template frameworks may also charge you fees in exchange for receiving periodic updates and technical support.
3- Periodic updates
Not being careful to update the WordPress template framework according to the periodic WordPress updates so that it is compatible with them, could cause problems in the functioning of your site due to the incompatibility of some functions that were updated by WordPress and are still working on an old version of the WordPress template framework.
Should you use the WordPress theme framework?
As we mentioned earlier, one of the advantages of using a WordPress template framework instead of regular ready-made templates is that you can customize all the functionality you need in your site, making your site unique, exclusive and with your own design.
Although there are drawbacks like that you have to learn the code and it costs a little extra money, you should still use a WordPress theme framework for your WordPress site.
You will enjoy many advantages of rapid development, applying quality standards in developing your site on an ongoing basis, and finally you will be able to obtain support from the developer team or from individuals using the framework spread around the world.
Best WordPress Theme Frameworks
1- Genesis
Genesis is the most popular WordPress theme framework developed by StudioPress. What distinguishes the Genesis Framework is that it is free and open source and can be customized and modified freely and easily. It is considered one of the most popular and widely used WordPress template frameworks.
It is known as one of the most suitable SEO frameworks and is compatible on all devices whether on computers or mobile devices.
Some of the disadvantages of using the Genesis Framework are that it lacks multiple design options. For example, you can only make a color change across the site as a whole instead of individual parts unless you install the Genesis Design Palette Pro plugin.
Read also: What is the Genesis Framework and how to benefit from it for WordPress website owners
2- Cherry
Cherry Framework is one of the best template frameworks for WordPress users due to its ease of use. It is a free framework developed by Template Monster, designed to be suitable for new and experienced users and developers alike.
The Cherry Framework is built using Bootstrap CSS to ensure responsiveness on mobile devices, and will receive regular security and performance updates. While creating your template it also gives you complete control over the design.
Users can also create multiple backups and restore them at any time. Additionally, the problem is that there is no dedicated support. If you need help with a problem you should look to solve it yourself.
3- Themify
Themify is one of the best and easy-to-use frameworks for creating a WordPress theme for your website. One of its most important features is that it is highly customizable, with more than 40 options available to you to modify and customize according to the needs of your site.
The Themify framework also provides you with some tools that help you find the right colors for your site design, and there is an abundance of pre-made templates that can also be modified to suit your needs, which makes it suitable for working with any type of site.
4- WPZoom
The WPZoom framework can be used to easily build a premium theme for your WordPress website without having to know how to code. WPZoom offers a plethora of options to meet your specific website needs that are all built using the Zoom framework. On top of being powerful and secure, it is highly optimized for search engines.
The WPZoom dashboard is easy to use and you can edit and customize the look of the site, from colors and layouts to fonts. Additionally, WPZoom is available for translation, making your site more accessible to visitors regardless of their location and language.
5- Gantry
Gantry Framework is one of the best free WordPress theme frameworks available, and it comes with a lot of features that are exclusive to this framework. Gantry Framework is great for people who want to create their own themes in WordPress with minimal requirements of HTML and CSS knowledge.
It is true that Gantry Framework can be used by experienced web developers, but novice users will also find it useful because it includes a lot of options that make building your site easier, as it has an easy-to-use editor.
But if you own a business and want to design an online store, Gantry may not be the best choice. This is because there is no built-in support for WooCommerce, and the solution requires some technical knowledge.
6- Headway
Headway is another powerful framework that you can use to develop custom WordPress themes. This framework allows you to create and customize beautiful-looking designs in a relatively short time.
The template is easy to use. All you have to do is choose your template, modify the design according to your needs, add the functionality you need, and your site will look ready to go. Most importantly, if you make a mistake with your edits, you can revert to previous backups.
7- iThemes Builder
iThemes Builder is a framework that allows users to create WordPress websites without having to learn to use code. You can drag and drop different components as you need and modify their design and style as you wish.
iThemes Builder also comes with multiple templates already built-in as there are over 100 sub-themes with different layouts and colors that you can choose from.
Read also: Develop a custom WordPress template | A comprehensive guide for programmers
Conclusion
In the end, as you followed with us on our journey during this article, in which we talked about the concept of the WordPress theme framework, as well as its importance, and the difference between WordPress templates and the WordPress template framework. We also learned about the advantages and disadvantages of using the WordPress theme framework, and the best WordPress template frameworks that you can use. Use it to customize the template for your site.
You can start by trying one of the frameworks we suggested to you and rely on it to create a distinctive template for your WordPress website according to your needs and make advanced changes without requiring much experience in drafting code.
