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WordPress How to Make a Website with WordPress WordPress Themes Premium Themes

Steve Erro
Steve Erro
956 Points
Posted by Steve Erro
Steve Erro
956 Points

Why would someone want a monthly membership for access to themes? Wouldn't buying one make more sense?

It just seems like you would decide on one and them build it out, not change it over and over for months? Is this like a one month trial?

2 Answers

Stephanie van Doleweerd
Stephanie van Doleweerd
3,075 Points
Stephanie van Doleweerd
Stephanie van Doleweerd
3,075 Points

It's good residual income for the companies that make these; the average web user who buys a theme (setting up Wordpress themselves, vs hiring a developer to make their site) might consider that a better investment than buying a custom theme once from a developer. Especially for certain people, this makes sense - like if you're an artist and want to change your site up every few months, or if you're just not willing to commit for a long period of time because you don't know if your startup will succeed.

Kind of reminds me of Adobe going subscription-based....same idea.

Steve Erro
Steve Erro
956 Points
Steve Erro
Steve Erro
956 Points

So it seems it is more of a business strategy than a benefit to the user. From the video, it sounded like the user(person buying the subscription) would benefit from the subscription model in some way.

Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points

Personally I think it's horrible for the user. You are bound by updating service agreements, and so on. $5, or $10 bucks a month doesn't seen like a lot until you times it by 12, then times that number by how many years you will be using the product. Thats a lot of money. and more importantly, you don't own the product. You are leasing the product.

Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points
Jacob Mishkin
Jacob Mishkin
23,118 Points

It's the way things are going, and its not just WordPress themes, it's plugins and non WordPress apps too. It sucks, but this conversation very quickly goes into things that are not really relevant here, such as What is ownership, why can we now only lease things and not buy them. Honestly, if you are a user buying a theme is perfectly fine, but if you are a developer, you should be using frameworks such as underscores ( _s ), sage, or even building off of the default WP themes. In short, the time it takes to refactor a theme is so much longer than to just make one yourself. If you are a developer, no need to buy a theme.