Comments on: What Makes a WordPress Theme Premium?

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:00:42 +0000

It is, to me at least a theme that pushes the bar just that much higher. It doesn’t matter if it costs you nothing or a big chunk of cash - if it solves a problem, and does it better than anything else you’ve seen… well then, that is a “Premium”

By: Journal Nihilism » Blog Archive » Your theme, is it really premium?

Journal Nihilism » Blog Archive » Your theme, is it really premium? — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:14:42 +0000

[...] What Makes a WordPress Theme Premium? [...]

By: skeezix

skeezix — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:28:45 +0000

If a theme has something in it that, for some reason, I would pay for, then that theme is “premium” for me. Examples of what I would pay for would be extras such as polls or calendars or whatever that I could turn on and off without boogering the rest of the design. Calling something “premium” because “it works” or “it’s not buggy” is just a buncha hocka pocka. Just my 2 cents (or should that be 2 bucks)worth…

By: KodeeXII.Net » Post » Enter the Wordpress Premium Theme Club

KodeeXII.Net » Post » Enter the Wordpress Premium Theme Club — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:56:48 +0000

[...] you constantly looking for premium Wordpress themes? If you are, then this piece of news may interest you. It’s available in your Wordpress Admin [...]

By: Alfred

Alfred — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:45:23 +0000

Premium just means the author wants for letting you use the theme.
If I was ready to pay for a theme, I’d rather go for a simple custom theme.
Otherwise just use a free theme and customise it as per your needs.
I remember my first theme was Pride by Small Potato, had never seen a line of php code before and he did help with questions on his forums.
So Premium doesnt have to mean you pay for support either.

Premium is just a word that the author will use to charge for either letting u use it or for offering support.

By: Mosey

Mosey — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:59:22 +0000

I will be hotly anticipating (like many others I’m sure) the release of Andreax Viklund’s new system at the end of this month

By: Fun Blog

Fun Blog — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:35:17 +0000

From my point of view, its the design that makes a theme premium - thats what i like to pay money for…

By: Olegs

Olegs — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:09:21 +0000

I would call a theme premium if it is unique and not just another public and free theme.

By: super rats

super rats — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:39:01 +0000

It’s not like there aren’t thousands of free themes available. I bought my first premium theme last week. I wish installation (as in getting everything as I wanted) was a little smoother than it was, but the developer was quick to respond with support and I found the code and style sheet structured in a way that was easy for me to follow. So I thought it was a worthwhile purchase. If I wanted to do something similar, billing myself at minimum wage, the css alone would have cost me more than $50 since I’m only proficient enough to follow and edit the css.

The look of the theme was what made me go for it. I’d been very casually looking (checking out the theme posts on this blog) for about four months for a new theme. The premium theme I bought struck me as different from the free themes I’d seen and did something with the header I had wished other themes did. Even if it required tweaking for my personal taste (font size, text contrast, post data, etc.), it was worth $49 to get the theme files.

It definitely helps if premium theme builders have good free themes available, so that we can test drive their free themes as a way to preview the potential quality of the premium theme. In the end though, the market would decide. Different folks have different priorities as far as themes go. If the premium theme doesn’t offer something better or different than a free one, who among those willing to go the premium route will buy it anyway? Given the quality of some free themes, I think any developer who wants to be successful with premium themes will have to create a very good case.

By: Dave Coveney

Dave Coveney — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:52:23 +0000

After building lots of custom themes for clients we released our first GPL WordPress theme back in December, and will be releasing a premium theme in the very near future.

But we can’t simply say “This premium costs money and therefore you have to pay for it.” Like buying a DVD player - there’s more to it than that - for example, if it’s confusing to use you may expected support from the makers. So there has to be some sort of ongoing support. Bug tracking, a forum for assistance (which can be both official and community) and so on. So once the launch comes round, people who pay for the theme will receive a license and access to forums.

But the theme also has to be special. It has to offer so much more than what we do with GPL because ultimately it has to compete with ‘free’. And that’s quite something. Going back to my DVD analogy - if all basic DVD players were free, then selling one costing even $50 would be quite hard to do. It may even be worth building $200 or $400 DVD players instead, to differentiate better from the really cheap stuff. And it better look good when the neighbours come round to check it out!

By: Andreas Viklund

Andreas Viklund — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:20:44 +0000

“Premium” is a common and overused word that implies “added value” and “higher quality” - but in many cases the real meaning is rather “exclusive and costly”. The same goes for website templates, where commercial templates are often called “premium” just because they are commercial - even though there are many free templates that are way better in terms of value and quality.

I have never been into “premium” themes for WordPress since all my themes are free - including as much free support as there is time for in my everyday life. I want my work to be as useful as possible for as many people as possible, and the typical definition “premium” themes can by definition not fit into that philosophy since they will always reach out to fewer users.

But I have got many offers, requests and suggestions about providing an exclusive range of themes so there is definitely a big interest for it that I can’t ignore. However, I will take on another approach than most “premium” theme designers are doing today. I have created an interesting concept, a kind of “added value” feature that nobody has offered yet and that I think could become interesting to many theme designers in the future. The concept will keep the theme itself free (and thereby available to everyone at all times), but theme users who want added value will be able to buy it as an additional feature - in several shapes. There will be several levels of added value, not just “premium” or “free” as most themes are today. And there will be virtually no waiting time while still keeping a guarantee that the “premium” part will be unique at all times. I’m not talking about custom design or custom coding, neither of advanced support or consulting. This is outside the box, while still completely simple.

I will try to get it all launched before the end of this month. Anyone who is interested in knowing more can send me an e-mail and I’ll tell you more. I’ve build my entire daytime job on giving away things for free, and I’d be happy to give away my secret business plans for free as well if it can help other people and give the theme design community new ideas…

By: Christina Warren

Christina Warren — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:53:24 +0000

Monika,
Um, exactly - I never said that I would want your full support for $100 — I said that that $100 should guarantee at least a response to an e-mail (even if that response is, “I cannot code this for you myself”) but that the value of said support shouldn’t be oversold, otherwise people will be expecting that.

We’re saying the same thing. Now, if I pay someone $5000 for a custom theme, I think that would entitle me to a certain amount of support and maintenance - but that’s not what a premium theme is. My point is that premium theme authors need to be sure they are being clear about what services they DO offer because lots of people will go in thinking they are getting something more than they are.

By: Monika

Monika — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:28:55 +0000

Christina

100Dollars - and you would like to have 100% full support.

I have to pay for my energy, for my food, for my clothes and for my rental.

I haven’t enough sparetime to do this and to work for 2cents per hour I cannot earn enough money to pay my rental.

I’ll spent my sparetime for support at a wp team, but for one customer who has paid 100Dollars for one theme - this is unreal -for me.

regards
Monika

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:36:39 +0000

I like to idea of having premium themes available. Usually with premium type themes, you get full documentation, source image files, etc. etc. etc. There are lots and lots of free Wordpress themes out there, but as a general statement, most look the same and are built for a blog site only. Most of those offer minimal to zero support as well. Premium themes (like wpremix for example) offer a person a way to easily extend their site to meet many other needs without having to do too much with with HTML, CSS, and PHP.

By: Christina Warren

Christina Warren — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:59:17 +0000

I’d say ideally a premium theme should be perfectly coded (no validation errors, looks virtually the same across browsers, or at least doesn’t have any display problems), has lots of features and that support is offered. Design, ultimately, is inconsequential as I find it to be not only totally subjective, but often with little bearing on how well something is actually coded (plus, just my opinion, but there are TONS of free themes that look way better than all those premium news style themes that just look like Grid rip-offs — sorry, aesthetically, that is my opinion). How well various premium theme authors live up to that idea is impossible to know, and at this stage I don’t think the community has figured out an adequate way to rate or rank premium themes. Personally, I also think that the whole “value” shouldn’t be oversold - people thinking that “support” means that they will get customized work should be corrected — by support, I mean that if you pay for a theme, it should be a given that your e-mail gets a response. Of course, there are tons of free theme authors who do that anyway (and in some cases probably better than people who are charging), but I would definitely say that a basic response should be an expectation. Still, I think that it is important to distinguish between not only a premium theme and a custom theme, not only in terms of originality - but also in terms of support and upkeep. If I pay you $5000 to design my site, I expect you to fix my site as soon as elements stop working, or if WordPress updates and breaks something. If I pay $100 for the convenience of not coding the CSS myself, I should expect a responses to my e-mails, but not hands-on fixing or up-to-the-minute updates.

By: Ronald Huereca

Ronald Huereca — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:13:24 +0000

Thank you everyone for weighing in. The mixture of responses here just goes to show that even the WP community cannot agree as to what premium is with regards to themes.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:23:41 +0000

To me a premium theme is one that harnesses WordPress as an all-around CMS rather than just as a blog platform.

By: Jermayn Parker

Jermayn Parker — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:09:59 +0000

IT should be all of those features that were original listed. The them should be full of features and allow the owner not having to install his own features. Design and code should be fool and error proof.

If you look at the word Premium, it will explain exactly what a premium theme should be. Premium above the rest.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:39:27 +0000

Also, I’ve been looking at premium themes and I’m really not that impressed. I’ve seen some free ones that look much nicer.

The other thing that Smashing Magazine quoted Kyle Scove on, is that premium themes ‘gives WordPress users a chance to stand out from the crowd of free themes’.

Lets face it, when a bunch of people buy premium themes, it’s not exactly standing out. Like the proverbial saying, “You’re unique. Just like everyone else.”

The only way you can really stand out is to create your own theme or modify an existing one, adding your own creative touch. Now I better do what I preach and work on my new theme.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:30:44 +0000

Premium themes should (and I say should, because not all of them do) look much better than free ones.

The catch is, that while you pay for a more pretty design, feature wise you can get a free theme that’s on par with a paid one.

As Doug Smith suggested, premium is indeed nothing more than a marketing term. Keeping in mind that even if you pay for it, it is still a theme after all and not unique to your site.

You can get a standard theme that can be modified to turn it into a real professional and unique looking one.