How to choose your WordPress Theme

Choosing a WordPress theme can be a difficult task. In this presentation, I explain what are the different kind of themes, with a lot of pro/cons comparisons.

For more articles and tutorials about WordPress, check out my blog at: http://julienklepatch.com/blog

Transcript

1. How to Choose Your WP Theme ? Taipei WordPress Meetup October 2014 - Julien Klepatch
3. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different types of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
4. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different types of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
5. What is WordPress? (1) • Tool to build Websites & Blogs • Open-source • Free • Easy to use • Used by 23% of all websites
6. What is WordPress? (2) WordPress.com WordPress.org • Two platforms
7. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different type of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
8. What are themes ? (1) • Let’s display ‘hello world’ on different themes Content Theme #1 Theme #2 Theme #3
9. What are themes ? (2) -Same content - Different Design
10. What are themes ? (3) • Themes are NOT plugins Theme = Design Plugin = Functionality ≠
11. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different types of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
12. What are the different types of Themes? (1) • Starter Themes – Can be modified – Very basic, not many builtin features – Ex: underscore (_s), bones
13. What are the different types of Themes? (2) • Framework – Act as base to be used with another theme – Lots of features – Ex: Genesis, Thematic, Hybrid – But there is a learning curve – Is too big for a lot of projects
14. What are the different types of Themes? (3) • Child Themes – Based on parent themes – Can overwrite parent theme functionalities / appearance – Can be kept updated easily
15. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different types of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
16. How to choose between Free and Paid themes? (1) Free Paid Where ? Wordpress.org Themeforest, elegant themes, woothemes How Many ? 2776 4700+ (themeforest) How much ? 0 40-200 USD Quality (code) Good Variable Quality (design) Variable Good Functionalities Variable Good Support Not Guaranteed Guaranteed Frequent Updates Variable Yes
17. How to choose between Free and Paid themes? (2) Uhh….ok….how to decide ? Case 1 - I want a blog / simple website - I want to customize the code - I want to add plugins FREE Case 2 - I want advanced features (ex: drag & drop builder) - I want support - I want an easy setup PAID Case 3 I hired a webdeveloper Let him/her decide
18. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different types of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
19. How to choose your Free Theme? (1) • The Theme Directory (wordpress.org/themes) Search here Most Popular
20. How to choose your Free Theme? (2) • TwentyTwelve (shipped with WordPress) -Simple & neutral - Good for customization
21. How to choose your Free Theme? (3) • TwentyFourteen (shipped with WordPress) - Magazine Theme - Supports a lot of post formats
22. How to choose your Free Theme? (4) • Underscore (_S) -Solid foundation - Built by Core WordPress developers - Meant to be extended
23. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different types of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
24. How to choose your paid Theme? (1) • Many places to buy a theme Wooow…I am kind of lost….
25. How to choose your paid Theme? (2) • 3 types of sellers – Theme Market Places – Theme Shops – Custom-made
26. How to choose your paid Theme? (3) Ok, got it, but how to choose ? Case 1 - I want a plug-and-play solution - I fell in love with an industry-specific theme that fits exactly my requirements - I don’t need / plan to do a lot of customization Theme Market Place Case 2 - I am / I hire a web-developer - I want to re-use my theme for other websites - I want to be able to do a lot of customization Theme Shop Case 3 - I have very specific requirements - I want to make sure my theme is unique Custom-made
27. SUMMARY • What is WordPress? • What are Themes? • What are the different types of Themes ? • How to choose between Free and Paid Themes? • How to choose your Free Theme? • How to choose your paid Theme? • Conclusion
28. Conclusion (1) • WordPress is a CMS to easily create websites and blogs • You can control the design of your website with Themes • There are 3 types of themes: starter themes, frameworks and child themes
29. Conclusion (2) • There are free and paid themes • Free themes allows for more customization but cannot guarantee a reliable support / less frequent updates and have less features • Paid themes can have more features, better support and regular updates but code is harder to customize
30. Questions ?