There are thousands of website templates available online for HTML, Joomla, WordPress, Magento and Oscommerce websites. As well as vcard and PowerPoint templates.
A template is a great tool to save money and help someone with no design skills create a professional looking website or document. This industry has expanded considerably since the early 2000s.
I have seen people using free templates and others buying premium templates.
So which is better and should you just download a free template or pay for a premium template?
As with many other things in life, it really depends on your goals.
For this article, we will focus on website templates and whether you should use a free or premium template to create a professional website for your business/organization or career.
Free Templates
PROS – It’s free! That’s an obvious one. You can easily google “free templates” and you will find many websites where you can preview and download many templates in HTML format or for CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento. If you download one and don’t like it, you can easily find another.
CONS: I really believe in the saying “you get what you pay for”. So if you don’t pay anything, you won’t get much. There are plenty of good free templates out there, but the prettiest and most professional-looking ones always cost. This is just logic. Nobody wants to produce something for nothing. That’s not how the world works. Don’t expect any support for free templates if you ever need help or debugging.
Premium Templates
PROS: There is a much wider variety of premium templates than free templates. Which is logical since designers can make a living designing templates. So there is an incentive to produce a wide range of great templates. Many companies have sprung up offering premium templates ranging from $35 to $225. They hire many designers who specialize in creating beautiful designs. If you ever have a problem with your template, you can ask the developer/company for help and they will help or fix the problem for you. Premium templates are much more complete and have many more features than free templates. The quality of the coding and design is also superior.
CONS – Not many in my opinion. The only drawback I see is that if you buy a template and decide you don’t like it or want to change the designs, you cannot request a refund as the templates are electronic products and cannot be returned. Therefore, you need to make sure that you choose the right template before purchasing it.
As a web developer, I always use premium templates. I think they are worth it for a good quality and professional design. When I invest in a new project or business, I believe in investing in quality. If you’re skimping on the important things, your business will suffer. I’ve seen people who want to start a new online business decide that buying an $85 template is too expensive. If $85 is too expensive for a startup, then maybe you need to rethink your whole idea.