Yes I know, it can be tricky right! I currently have WordPress themes bought earlier and never used either because it didn’t fit the description as advertised after installation or you found a better theme, one you really like. I don’t want this to continue happening especially as you don’t get refunds for digital products. I use WordPress quite often and I purchase themes from themeforest.net, for some reason I have’t tried other theme markets places. It would have been great if one could test a theme via admin/backend to have a feel before you buy and get stock with it. Anyway, here are my tips on what to look out for before you buy a WordPress theme.
Tip #1
Buy from reputable marketplaces – As I said earlier, I have purchased only from themeforest, their customer support is average, I’d give them a 7/10. All your purchased themes can be downloaded from your Themeforest account, receive theme updates, ask theme developers pre sale questions, check reviews/ratings and read comments regarding the themes before you buy.
Tip #2
Theme Demo – See the actual demo before you buy please, not screen shoots. If you don’t like it, don’t but it.
Tip #3
Ask Pre-Sale questions – I know I mentioned this earlier, it’s really important to ask. In case you are creating an appointment booking website and you see a theme for you like, ask the developer if the theme is compatible with the appointment booking plugin you intend to use otherwise you will end up with a theme you can’t use.
Tip #4
After sale support – This is very important since you didn’t develop the theme yourself so incase you you have issues with the theme you can contact the developers to help you out.
Tip #5
Documentation – This is basically a manual on how to use the theme, it’s important to have a well documented ‘manual’ instead of going back and forte via the theme developers support system,which can take days in some cases.
Tip #6
Customisable – It just has to be, you should be able to tweak a theme to suite the kind of website you are creating
Tip #7
Responsive – Now who doesn’t want a responsive website!
Bonus Tip
Themes with bundles plugins – I usually look out for themes that have bundled plugins like visual composer which is a page/content builder and layer slider – for fantastic homepage sliders. They make the process of creating a WordPress site easier for me.
If you have other tips or know theme marketplaces other than themforest please share.
Photo Credit – unsplash.com
Vector Credit – Freepix
