Why is Custom Theme a Bad Idea
We all have ideas and designs in mind for a perfect website. No matter how much time we spend browsing through commercial themes, nothing ever works. We always feel some or the other mistake with the current theme. We keep looking for more and more unless we stumble upon the one we imagined. There are high chances that we will not be satisfied with what we are getting. Hence we might turn to custom themes to make the website look exactly the way we imagined. Custom made themes project our planned designs on the website. We can create pictures, designs, animations, everything the way we want.
Despite having our dream design in front of us, custom themes are not a great idea. The issues range from money to time to usage. There are plenty of reasons why custom themes should be avoided. Let us look at a few of those reasons and understand the implications of a custom theme in detail.
1. Pay to update every time!
Getting a custom theme may sound like a great plan at first. But when you start considering all the costs that come with it, you will know exactly what kind of trap this is.
Getting a custom theme is not a one time expense. You may feel that once you pay the developer to give you your desired design, the work here will be done. Sadly, websites don’t work like that. Just like we keep progressing and developing, websites need updates. So if you say bye to your developer right after getting the theme, you are hanged in the zone of an almost crushed website.
You have to pay the developer for all the updates. Your website has to be compatible with the latest versions of PHP. With every new update comes a whole new series of themes and plugins with their compatibility. So it is a must to make sure that your website is updated.
And with every update comes the payment for the developer. So if your website is not frequently updated, you are running into the risk of a crashed website.
2. Check for Security
The good thing with commercial themes is that they are getting checked for security with every new update. Whenever a version is updated, whether or not security issues are raised, a commercial theme developer will run a security check to maintain the existing websites' safety. While we may not know about those issues, they may affect our website considerably. Some of the issues may be minor ones that do not affect processing, while some may be major enough to reduce the website's performance.
It is very important to attend to this issue before they create havoc in our work. While commercial themes come with this inbuilt feature, custom themes don't. The only way to fix a bug in custom themes is to call the developer and ask him to fix it. Unless you are not paying your developer to regularly check for vulnerabilities, you are running into destroying your website's security.
3. Working with Plugins
While your custom theme works according to your dream, there are quite high chances that it may not support many of the plugins on WordPress. Some of those may be necessary to keep your website working efficiently. The commercial themes work with ample websites, and hence it is safe to assume that they work and are supported for many plugins. But since a custom website is made specifically for your purpose, it may not be tested for adaptability with various common plugins. This will lead you to limit your plugin use.
WordPress also keeps updating the versions. Commercial theme developers start testing the adaptability of plugins for the website developed by them and, consequently, keep them updated with any new versions. But the same doesn't happen with custom made. You have to give your developer time and money to keep your website update for the use of plugins.
4. Problems with Coding
When commercial developers face issues or bugs with their websites, they work for fixing it almost immediately. Since they have worked on the same code for many websites, it doesn't take much time, money, or resources to fix the bug. They are quite familiar with the coding of the theme and often contact the theme developer if they see any problem that's slowing their website down.
When you go for a custom theme, only you and the developer of that custom theme know about the website's coding. No one else has access, and hence no one else checks the website regularly for bugs. This leads to attacks of bugs and vulnerabilities on the website easily.
Hence, your website's security, functioning, and performance depend on the coding to fix the issues.
5. Support and Community
Almost all the online platforms today come with customer support and community forums. They help to resolve issues that slow down your work. Commercial theme developers also offer the community where all the developers can discuss the issue they may be facing. They also discuss updates, new designs, plugins available, bugs that may affect the websites, and many ways to resolve them. They provide support to hundreds of developers who can help you as they are already familiar with your website's backend. They will give you quick suggestions for the required customization, saving a lot of your money.
While being a custom theme user, you can not seek the same help. The coding, working, and updates of your theme can only be provided by the developer. So for every little help, you have to spend hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars to keep your website rolling.
6. Reinvention of Wheel
Starting a work from scratch is always more than making changes to an existing one. When you hire a developer for your custom theme, they start the work from the beginning. No matter how progressive the available themes are, the work required in your theme will be entirely different. This leads to unnecessary waste of time and money. A developer also gets frustrated, sometimes knowing that the work is more manageable with commercial websites by including few customizations. While that may not please you, it works for all the developers.
A commercial theme developer does the required changes by introducing a few lines into the coding to include your suggestions. This requires way less time than beginning the work from scratch. This is far more efficient, saves a lot of time, money, and other resources.
Summary
These may seem inconsiderate issues before you spend time in a deep search of the custom theme. We would suggest you incorporate these points in your search for custom theme developers to have a more informed and efficient decision.
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