labm0nkey Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 I was looking for some premium themes to check what I can get for 60$ or even 100 euros at market. Among all the features that developers are listing I think that 3 groups of them are always repeating. 1. All the underlying code like HTML5, CSS3, SEO friendly or Liquid design 2. Overall theme design, polish and sometimes even sources to graphics 3. Additional modules like ajax carts, social boxes, customized checkout etc. including theme colors and patterns customization. To speak the truth personally I am able to customize any theme to suit my needs since I know php and css. In my case this can be a change to about 80% of the design. This leaves a question is it even worth buying premium theme when I know that by customizing it I will sacrifice group 2 (original design) and part of group 3 (customization panels) which is actually much. This will also make it much harder to update the theme when some fixes come out. What is bugging me now is the 1st group since proper coding is an art I would have to learn from basics if I would use default theme as a base instead of paid ones or maybe I would not have to? Is making a premium theme mainly a design in css and some code fixes in php when you use default theme as a base? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NemoPS Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 I believe the ones at themeforest.net are the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
labm0nkey Posted May 4, 2013 Author Share Posted May 4, 2013 Themeforest themes are best? Thats what I thought before some research. As I mentioned premium themes like themeforest ones are mostly a design and customization modules - when I am going to redesign them I would lose those main features. What I am asking is if there is anything else 'premium' in them worth paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vekia Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 if you want to redesign all features of the theme - whether it makes sense to buy it? Well, i think that you're familiar with design / coding - so why don't you create something from scratch? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolina Custom Designs Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 I agree with Vekia on this one. If you plan to change roughly 80% of the design why not just create your own theme from scratch. We find we can create a theme from scratch faster than we can make large scale changes on a purchased theme. It takes a certain amount of time to get familiar with the way the purchased theme is designed etc. We prefer to design our own themes -- starting with the PSD. This gives us complete flexibility and allows our clients more input. Marty Shue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
labm0nkey Posted May 5, 2013 Author Share Posted May 5, 2013 Premium theme creators state that their themes are SEO friendly (i'm not familliar with SEO). Do you think that there are some useful extra fixes in there which make them better at SEO compared to default theme? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolina Custom Designs Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Premium theme creators state that their themes are SEO friendly (i'm not familliar with SEO). Do you think that there are some useful extra fixes in there which make them better at SEO compared to default theme? This is very hard to say and would need to be evaluated on a theme by theme basis. There are certainly things that can be done to improve the SEO of a custom theme vs. the default PS theme. I know we make many changes to our custom themes that drastically improves the SEO benefits. I also think that this can be used as merely a selling tactic by the theme designer(s). If someone is not familiar with SEO (as yourself) how can you judge if a premium theme really does have "extra fixes" that make them better at SEO? You can't. I find many theme descriptions contain a lot of hype just to sell their theme. Buyer should beware! Marty Shue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enrique Gómez Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 If the shop has a low budget (90% ) i think it's worth spending some money for a good responsive/clean theme that serves as a starting point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vekia Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 If the shop has a low budget (90% ) i think it's worth spending some money for a good responsive/clean theme that serves as a starting point but he want to change almost all features ;-) So it's better to create own theme from scratch. It's totally free and makes sense of pride growing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
labm0nkey Posted May 7, 2013 Author Share Posted May 7, 2013 I decided to edit default theme instead of premium. I noticed that what makes premium really stand out are their little things. For example I found a premium theme which had working ajax search module and new, featured, special product or ads modules on homepage - I don't see them in free modules section so I have to create my own (based on existing ones so it wont be hard) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolina Custom Designs Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 I noticed that what makes premium really stand out are their little things. Good point. I know we provide some of our premium modules with our custom theme designs and at times need to create a custom module according to the client's needs. So, a premium theme can have some small benefits. Marty Shue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vekia Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 in my opinion this is good choice, after all don't forget to share the url to your website in "test my site" forum section Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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