What’s a premium WordPress theme worth?

Over the years we’ve had questions and feedback from customers about our theme pricing. Recently this prompted some thinking about what a premium WordPress theme is worth and why our themes cost what they do.

What is value

Merriam-Webster defines value as “a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged.” The modern world most of us live in is predicated on value and exchange of goods. For example, I buy some food supplies from my local grocery store — the grocery delivers value, and I provide money in exchange for that value. This allows the grocery to deliver value to other customers, pay their employees, pay their vendors, and sometimes realize a profit for the business itself. The circular nature of this system allows everyone to provide value in their own way, and receive a widely accepted currency in return for this value. It’s truly a beautiful thing.

Value of a premium WordPress theme

The value of a premium WordPress theme, like any digital good, is easily misunderstood. After all, you can’t hold it your hand, taste it, or physically try it on. This makes it difficult to understand the “what you get” side of the equation.

When you purchase a theme here at the The Theme Foundry you’re buying months of hard work in the form of a beautiful hand coded theme to represent you or your business, access to the friendly and dedicated team that actually built your theme (not a part time support staffer), and regular maintenance updates and improvements. We feel this represents a boatload of value delivered to you in exchange for $68 ($51 if you’re an existing customer). Most importantly, thousands of our new customers each year feel it represents a fair value. They tell us this when they decide to purchase one of our themes, and if they don’t feel that way after buying a theme, we give them their money back.

Cheaper options

Like most things in life, there are usually cheaper options. You could purchase a theme from a theme marketplace or another theme shop for a cheaper price.

Theme marketplaces

The likelihood you will receive the same level of design, code quality, support, and maintenance from your average theme marketplace seller is small. There are a few exceptions of course, but a marketplace theme is not usually going to deliver the same level of quality. Most sellers are freelancers trying to make some extra cash. You have to weigh saving a few bucks against buying a top quality WordPress theme with a dedicated team to support and maintain it for you.

Other (cheaper) shops

Some other theme shops might be cheaper, but it’s important to pay attention to the hidden costs. Some questions to consider: How sustainable is the business model? Are they charging enough to operate the business and grow over the long haul? Do they have a team or is it a one man show? How long have they been selling themes? Will they be around if you need help with something a year from now? Do they regularly fix bugs and release maintenance updates? Are they in touch with what’s happening in the WordPress community? Is it quality code? Are they outsourcing support?

Do what’s right for you

If you’ve done your research, and you still find a cheaper option that meets your needs, go for it! When we first started selling WordPress themes we were a “one man show” and priced our themes more agressively to take advantage of our size. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that approach, and some of our first customers will agree they got quite a bargain in those early days. Now we have a dedicated team working together to build even better themes and provide top notch service and support. This means we have to charge a bit more, but we feel it more than makes up for the difference in theme quality and customer experience.

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