14 Best Premium vs. Free WordPress Themes Compared

In this article we're going to introduce 14 best free & premium WordPress themes & templates and describe their pros and cons to help you decide better.

When it comes to free WordPress themes, the idiom “The only free cheese is in the mousetrap” doesn’t work. Free themes are free, no doubt. Manufactured by reliable vendors, best-selling WordPress themes can serve as a powerful base for effective website building.

Besides, many of them are highly competitive with premium themes. Let’s compare completely free and paid products to know which one to pick out for the first site.

If you are trying to find the best WordPress theme for your personal or business website, you might want to read 10 Best WordPress Premium Themes 2020.

 

Best WordPress Themes: Premium vs. Free

Free or Premium: Which One to Choose

In 2020, WordPress powers 35% of the web (HostingTribunal). This figure is impressive since it shows a 2% rise from 2019 and an 4% ‘lunge’ from 2018. Considering such a huge result, what to wait in a year or later? WordPress will power the biggest part of the web, exactly. But what does attract users so much?

This CMS boasts the richest collection of free WordPress themes and premium ones for any taste and budget. However, the vast assortment of WordPress digital products makes users deeply puzzled: which one to pick out.

Free Full WordPress Themes: Pros and Cons

• They are possible for anyone.
• There are tons of free WordPress themes on the web so it is easy as a pie to choose an appropriate one for personal or business needs.
• They suit any budget since they cost nothing.
• They are perfect for beginners because they can serve a perfect base for a trial-and-error method.

• They lack competent support.
• They may have not fully responsive design.

Premium WordPress Themes: Pros and Cons

• They have life-time adequate support and regular updates. This is something not always offered in free WordPress themes.
• They offer an entirely responsive web design to look impeccably on all devices.
• They come with unlimited customization options.
• They give you the ability to personalize your website thanks to unique design, unlike free products.

• They don't suit any budget. Since top-notch WordPress themes designed by popular vendors, they have a related price.

Get to the point! Enough theory, let’s take a closer look at top WordPress themes, both free and premium.

Best WordPress Premium Themes

Pre-made WordPress themes offer clear coding, advanced functionality, seamless performance, and in-built SEO options. These can also be found in free WordPress themes, but not all of them:

Deep Premium

Deep Premium is a multipurpose theme that is designed with the best modern methods and provides great performance for any user. The reason that Deep is our first choice in the best WordPress premium themes list is that this responsive theme uses Elementor as the main page builder, so you won’t need any coding skills for building a website. It has a fully customized package of elements for this plugin.

• Mobile Support: Fully-Responsive
• Pre-Designed Demos: 85+
• Right-To-Left (RTL) Support: Available
• Easy-To-Use Demo Importer: Available
• Advanced Shop (WooCommerce): Available
• Multi-Language Support: Available

On the other hand, SEO-friendly design, great page speed, and other factors like these made Deep one of the best premium WordPress themes on the market. This premium modern theme contains more than 70 demos, so you can use it as your theme for any business you have and import them easily.

Webnus has provided a unique header builder for Deep so you can customize the header of your website with a drag-and-drop gesture. Also, there are more than 20 premium plugins included in the Deep for free, so you won’t need to buy any other plugins.

This theme is completely compatible with WooCommerce, so you can create a fully functional online shop using WooCommerce and Elementor. All these features together have made Deep one of the best premium themes on the market.

Nobby

This premium theme belongs to a trustworthy manufacturer – Webnus that provides the web with high-quality WordPress products.

Since Nobby comes with easy installation and every feature imaginable needed for creating a full-fledged site from scratch, it suits both This Elementor-based theme allows users to work in a handy drag and drog manner. Jam-packed with numerous theme options, it boasts:

• Live Customizer incorporated;
• Compatibility with major page builders;
• Advanced Mega Menu;
• A comprehensive package of widgets;
• Header & Footer builders.

With Nobby, a newbie won’t have difficulty creating a feature-rich site without extra help. Everything is clear and easy – from installation to customization.

Avada

Avada is one of the most popular multipurpose WordPress themes. It will provide you with various editing tools, advanced post options, and unlimited styling options.

The package also has the following components:

• professionally-designed demos for different industries (travel, photography, cafe, and others);
• multiple premium slider options;
• intuitive and easy-to-use Fusion Builder;
• advanced portfolio layout options.

It is pretty obvious but you can build every type of online-project you can come up with. Its multipurpose nature allows finding something to your needs.

By the way, it does not offer a free WordPress theme.

If you're looking for alternatives to Avada theme, you might want to check this out: Avada WordPress Theme: 5 Best Alternatives.

Innomerce

Only for $75, Innomerce WordPress theme will give you a great chance to create a user-friendly corporate website within hours.

With this price for such a theme, however, it's not a free WordPress them but it is just as worthy. Designed by one of the top-rated vendors ZEMEZ, this theme comes laden with quality, simplicity, clearness, and accessibility.

The design is made in a black and white color palette. It looks stylish, modern, and universal. In addition to the comprehensive set of pre-made web pages, the theme includes:

• Powerful Jet plugins;
• Elementor page builder;
• Totally responsive layouts;
• A pack of high-quality images for free.

Innomerce will come in handy for those who want to build a powerful online presence without extra expenses and help.

Divi

Divi a fully-fledged theme that promises to provide an incredibly advanced visual builder technology.

It has 40+ website elements that include sliders, testimonials, galleries, and forms. You will also get such useful and user-friendly instruments as:

• 100+ full website packs (business, eCommerce, technology, events, and others);
• background images, colors, gradients, and videos;
• pricing tables;
• social following;
• Drag and drop builder;
• Modules are included to add features such as Google Maps, contact forms, blurbs.

This variant is appropriate for different groups of users including freelancers, website owners, and agencies.

Honestly, even if it had a free version or another free WordPress theme with a few of the options the premium version offers, you would not go for the free version.

The premium version is extremely feature-rich and fun and easy to use, that everyone I guess would prefer the paid one, no matter the cost.

If you're looking for alternatives to Divi theme, you might want to check this out: 5+ Best Divi Theme Alternatives 2020.

Prioris

With Prioris, you will get many priorities. Firstly, it’s a completely staffed package of indispensable features and options. Secondly, it’s a great opportunity to create web pages without effort. In-built Elementor allows you to build pages of any complexity in a drag-and-drop manner.

Additionally, the theme provides with access to:

• Numerous Jet widgets;
• Limitless editable options;
• Working web forms to improve UX of your site;
• Responsive design flowing seamlessly on small screens.

A business website has to attract by professionalism, simplicity, and integrity. Prioris perfectly combines all these features. Just like the previous ones, it does not offer a free WordPress theme or version with half of the functionalities of the Pro version.

Webion

With Webion’s specifics, anyone can start building a business site without effort. Jam-packed with Elementor page builder, this theme suits both professional webmasters and entry-level developers.

Creating a web page will take a few hours. Besides, Webion boasts a wide range of usable features and options:

• A special JetElements addon;
• A complete package of diverse widgets;
• 4 amazing blog layouts;
• Truly SEO-friendly design.

Undoubtedly, you'll never expect from a free WordPress theme to have such a vast list of features as Webion has. Webion will serve a full-fledged base for running an efficient online project. It doesn’t require much effort and deep coding knowledge.

Best WordPress Free Themes

There are seven best responsive free WordPress themes in this list that worth your attention. If your project is running in testing mode or you’re on a tight budget, a quality free theme is a great solution:

Deep Free

Deep Free theme stands out from the crowd. Deep has a rich assortment of widgets, options, web forms, etc. Inside it, many amazing components are incorporated:

• 3 free demos: Personal blog, Modern agency, magazine.
• Easy-customizable Header builder;
• 20 pre-made headers;
• Full Elementor compatibility.

Deep is a cost-effective solution to launch a solid website. For nothing, you will get a comprehensive set of top-rated tools needed to run a site within hours. There are not many free WordPress themes offering such features and options in a free version.

OceanWP

OceanWP is a free WordPress theme that allows for creating various kinds of online-projects and customizing them according to your needs.

It has a highly-extendable nature that makes it possible to edit all the necessary elements. You will be provided with such options as:

• custom background and colors;
• RTL language support;
• footer widgets;
• post formats.

As you can understand, you are free to create your blog, portfolio or business website completely for free.

Consor Lite

Consor Lite WordPress theme will be a source of inspiration for many web developers and business owners. Adapting to different screen sizes, the theme will help you create a website accessible for mobile and tablet users as well. To have a fantastic user experience, the theme comes with:

• Elementor builder;
• Accurate documentation;
• Competent support;
• eCommerce functionality.

With Consor lite, you are getting a freebie that is absolutely equal to a premium one. Thanks to a ton of customization options, you can easily personalize its design.

Neve

Neve is an easily-customizable and remarkable WordPress theme that works perfectly with all popular page builders. It will load in seconds and adapt to every screen resolution. The package comes fully-equipped with such tools as:

• custom header and menu;
• flexible header and footer widgets;
• one-column portfolio;
• threaded comments.

It is very nice that you do not need to pay any money for this variant. It is possible to present online-projects for small businesses, startups, agencies, and firms using this ready-made solution.

Meltony Lite

Whatever project you’re about to launch on the web, Meltony Lite WordPress theme will help you do it fast and for free.

Meltony Lite is one of the designer website templates and has a minimalistic design including the colors that rest the eyes. It looks modern and stylish while functions seamlessly and fast. If you take this theme as a base for your website, you will also get:

• A rich package of widgets;
• Attractive counter and progress bar;
• Major social buttons;
• Google maps integrated.

That said, Meltony Lite has everything you may need to launch a digital project from scratch. It meets the latest web trends and requirements.

Phlox

Phlox is a modern and fully-customizable WordPress theme that can be used for every website you can imagine.

It includes 30 exclusive widgets that you will be happy to get. Explore its features and make sure to take advantage of them:

• custom colors and menu;
• professional portfolio options;
• WooCommerce ready;
• 19 demo website for one-click import.

In general, you can build an excellent blog or portfolio using this variant. It is also perfect for presenting such topics as news and magazine, food, photography, and business.

Worky Lite

Worky Lite is a clean, simple and straightforward WP theme that is available for free. Designed by a reliable professional manufacturer ZEMEZ, this theme can serve a brilliant platform for developing a site for an interior design website.

Alongside with multiple basic WP options, it also offers:

• Competent support;
• Accurate docs;
• Clean and valid coding;
• Modern yet catchy design.

If you hesitate whether to start building a site or not, try Worky Lite WordPress theme. The simplicity of its installation and customization will wonder you.

Conclusion

This set of top WordPress themes states that both products freebie and paid made by reliable vendors are of high quality. They are supported and equipped with accurate documentations.

They have enough tools and features to set up a portfolio, corporate site, landing page, etc. Premium themes boast a richer package of widgets, web forms, and tools. But free products offer a thought-out feature-rich design as well.

Except for these best free responsive WordPress themes, you can come across tons of free digital products. However, they can quite differ from the themes mentioned above.

Remember that many products for nothing feature an unclear code, a poor pack of plugins, weighty web pages, etc. For this reason, opting for premium themes from popular manufacturers is the most secure and effective way to start an online project. Trust pros and make everything like clockwork.

In case you're using Elementor page builder and you're seeking for the best Elementor themes in the market, you can check out our comprehensive article: 10 Best WordPress Elementor Themes