The difference between free and premium Shopify themes? How many times have you asked yourself this question ? In this article we will show you the main difference between Free and paid themes.
Table of contents
Introduction
Wheter you are just starting out in eCommerce or you already have an online business, you will need a theme and by default when signin up to Shopify, a Free theme will be applied to your line store.
Several of the free themes provide you with basic web design and store functionalities; these can be great with providing you with a professional looking store and can get you up and running quickly and cost effectively.
However, in order to leverage your business and give it a new professional looks with enhanced features to boost your sales, SEO, … you will undoubtedly need to upgrade to a premium theme.
What is a Free Shopify theme ?
Shopify offers to its merchants some great Free themes to start almost immediately their online store, some of the them are : Debut, Narrative, Minimal, Boundless, …
Freemium themes what is it ?
A freemium theme is a theme that offers Free plan and a paid plan upon adding new features, those themes are generally powered by an app, but they have some critical disadvantages, and among them :
- In long term, a fremium theme will cost you more than a premium theme
- You can’t modify the features : Since a freemium theme is powered by an app, the update is done automatically on your store and all you custom changes will be lost
- Frequent bugs due to the app external server response
- Not suitable for large businesses, as you won’t have a filter collection sidebar and a professional blog template
- Not as fast as a premium theme
- Performance not guaranteed
What is the solution then ? The solution is opt for a premium theme with a one time payment
What is a Premium Shopify theme ?
A premium Shopify theme is a theme that you need to buy (one time payment) in order to use it on your Shopify store, there are themes posted on the official Shopify themes marketplace and some third party themes developers like Plak Theme LLC
The difference between free and premium Shopify themes
Free themes can be a good starting, mainly when you have a tiny budget, as soon you grow, you will need to upgrade to a premium theme, and here are the main advantage of using a premium theme over a Free one.
The design
Made primarily for beginners, Free theme are restricted in term of design, however with a premium theme like Plak or Grass, you can even design a homepage especially dedicated for desktop users and use a different design for mobile users.
The features
One of the main difference between free and premium Shopify themes is the number of features you can use when designing your store, for example, Free themes won’t offer you Messenger or Whatsapp feature, and you need to install an app if you would like to have theme.
The site speed
Another drawback of Free themes is the site or the theme speed, Some Free ones like Debut are fast enough to start with but can’t compete with a premium theme like Plak
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Titlte attributes, images ALT tags, videos optimized for speed & SEO, are one of the great assets to choosing a premium Shopify theme over a Free one, and these SEO Technics will help you get on top of Google search.
Blog template
Free themes come with a standard blog template, however premium ones have more professional blog templates with more features to start making nice looking and SEO friendly articles with nice sidebar to showcase your best products, recent articles, …
Filter collection sidebar
Especially made for beginer and starters, free and freemium themes are not suitable for large business and Shopify Plus merchant, because they either don’t have a filter collection sidebar or its weak in features and not SEO friendly… Learn more about the filter sidebar
Enhanced mobile experience
In the 21 century, shoppers from mobile devices exceeded the ones from desktop users, premium themes offers frictionless and smooth navigation on mobile with the capability to hide/show features depending on the device.
Theme updates
Unlike the free themes, with a premium theme, you can modify theme as you wish, and once there is an update or a new theme release, you will get the updates and the new features added to your Shopify store manually buy a Shopify expert.
This is a luxurious perk of Plak Theme LLC to maintain their merchants up to date while keeping their custom changes instact
Theme support
As an online entrepreneur, you will need to focus more on your marketing strategies, your customers and your products and when it comes to fixing some bugs, getting updates, you will need to contact the theme developer.
If you decide to chose one of www.plaktheme.com themes, you will be sure to have an unmatchable support via email and forum
Learn more about the difference between ZIP file upload theme and One Click Install
Does One Click Install Shopify theme provide advantages over a ZIP file upload theme ?
The financial difference between free and paid Shopify themes
Some may think that starting with a Free theme is a good idea to minimize the espenses, but in fact if you do some maths, it is totally the opposite.
Premium theme offers more features which can be available only by installing apps on a Free theme, and the annual fees of those apps could reach easily 3000$.
Moreover with a built-in SEO Technics and an optimized speed, you won’t need to hire a developer for this purpose, so in general, a premium theme will save couple of thousands per year.
Why we don’t recommend cheap premium themes?
A cheap premium theme is generally a theme that cost less than 160$, when you buy a cheap premium theme, the theme quality and performance may not be as you could expect, and more important, don’t expect a fast and professional customers support.
Generally this kind of themes are developed by pure developers who have never run any eCommerce store in their life, the backend performance and sales booster features won’t be developed by someone who knows the ins-outs of eCommerce
When should you upgrade ?
To benefit from all the advantage that a premium theme offers over the Free one, you should upgrade as soon as you can, just try to find the best theme that would fit your business needs.
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