Unfortunately, there is more bad than good to Free WordPress themes. Therefore, the free themes have gained a pretty bad image in front of the users.

However, free themes aren’t exactly a complete no-no. There are a few WordPress themes that are regularly updated, they also posses decent features and have good support.

If one is just a regular blogger, or is on a limited budget that has to be used wisely, free themes can be a good option. As they pick the theme, one needs to know of their own requirements from the theme, and what the theme has to offer.

Based on ones needs and requirements, Free Themes can turn out to be a very good option.

Premium WordPress Themes

If a theme is premium, it does not make it certain that it is better than Free WordPress themes. Premium themes too have their own advantages and disadvantages. One should not just settle in on the first theme that seems to appeal to them.

Advantages

Recurring Updates and Great Support: Premium themes have an edge over free themes when it comes to customer support. Moreover, since the authors are being paid, they have ample of funds and resources to pursue updating the theme and providing their customers the assistance that they want.
Additional Features and Designing Options There is a never ending list of features that Premium themes have to offer.

Premium themes have a tendency to posses more features as compared to Free themes. For example some features help in supporting particular plug-ins.

When it comes to Design, Premium themes usually provide multiple layouts, custom post types, and multiple color schemes that allow users to make changes quickly and easily.

Disadvantages

WordPress Themes can be similar and Monotonous: Premium WordPress themes tend to start looking similar after a while, they start lacking the variety. The layout and design of themes can begin to look same for all those themes after a point of time. The user functions may be different with different themes but after a while the visual start looking identical.
Quality is not guaranteed No matter how much money you pay for a theme, it can’t be assured that the theme will be of top most quality. This is because there is no set standard for the themes provided on WordPress. The quality of the theme you’ll receive still hangs by the flip of a coin.
Costly: Premium WordPress themes can be costly. Even though the price of premium themes starts at around $50; they can vary all the way from $100 to $700. This poses as an advantage to those who can afford it, but if you’re on a tight budget or just a regular everyday blogger, it can be pretty heavy on your purse.
What sells isn’t always what’s right: Premium theme developers may make outright promises that they may never be able to fulfil. Web developers may boast in front of the users that theme will do everything and hence, the users will end up buying it.

Unfortunately such promises form a problem for the web developers who have to make sure that the theme works accordingly. Say, the drag and drop feature is a massive selling point for most buyers. What often goes unnoticed is that drag and drop feature themes require much more complex coding. This makes it a lot more difficult for the developer to work with the theme. Eventually, it may also lead to slower loading speed of pages. Slow speed may lead to ‘theme creep’, which makes it almost impossible for you to switch off your theme without losing all the data.

Hence, the themes may be filled with all sorts of features possible, but this leads to themes becoming slow and bulky and complications for the theme developer.

The WordPress Theme Dilemma: Free Themes vs. Premium Themes