custom wordpress theme | The Blog Pros

July 16, 2022

How Much Does a Custom WordPress Theme Cost?

Do you want to know how much it costs to build a custom WordPress theme?

Creating a custom theme gives a lot of freedom and flexibility over the layout and design of your WordPress site. However, many people don’t opt for a custom theme because they think it will be expensive.

In this article, we will share how much does a custom WordPress theme cost, as well as a few tips on how you can save money and avoid overpaying.

What is a Custom WordPress Theme?

A custom WordPress theme has a unique design, layout, and set of features that are made specifically for your business needs.

There are many free and premium WordPress themes available, but a custom WordPress theme helps your company or brand to stand out with a unique look.

The benefit of getting a custom WordPress theme is that you’re not limited by the constraints of a pre-existing template or layout. You have full freedom to customize your website and get any specific functionality built into your theme.

Create Custom Themes Using a Plugin vs Hiring a Designer

You now have lots of options to choose from when creating a WordPress theme. There are DIY theme builders that you can use on your own, or you can hire a freelance designer and agency to create a WordPress theme.

Let’s take a closer look at which is better, using a plugin or hiring a professional.

Using a WordPress Theme Builder Plugin

To create a custom WordPress theme, you no longer need to depend on someone who can design and code your theme for you.

SeedProd is a WordPress page builder that has made it super easy to create a custom theme from scratch without coding. It offers pre-built templates that you can use to get started quickly or use a blank template to create a custom theme.

Using the DIY drag and drop page builders, you can then easily customize every element of your theme.

Simply add and remove blocks from your theme, rearrange their order, edit the color, size, font, background image, add your logo, and change anything in the template.

Using SeedProd is the best choice if you want to create your own custom theme on a budget.

Hiring a Designer and Developer to Create a Custom Theme

On the other hand, you may be able to find an individual who can do both designs and develop the site depending on your needs. However, it’s hard to find a person who’s excellent at both design and code.

When you go with a full-service agency, it’s a one-stop-shop because they have designers and developers on their team. This is also the reason why agencies are usually more expensive. Alternatively, you can hire an individual freelance designer and developer separately and manage the project yourself.

However, design and development is a creative process, so the project cost varies based on expertise, experience in the field, and creativity.

Well reputed WordPress development agencies may cost more than an individual developer or freelancer. A well-known WordPress developer can sometimes charge even more than an agency. Plus, placing change orders to make revisions to a theme can make it more expensive to develop.

Keep Costs Low by Having a Clear Scope of the Project

Whether you choose to hire a professional or choose a theme builder plugin, a pro tip for keeping costs low is by having a clear scope of the project.

For instance, when you’re building a house, you typically have a list of features that you want, such as 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a living room, etc.

You need to make a similar list for your WordPress website and list down all the things that you would like to have such as:

Editable home page with a testimonial slider and services list
Contact page with a contact form and a Google map with the ability to find directions
Gallery area to showcase the work
Blog section with social media share buttons

Having a detailed list makes it easier for someone to give you an accurate quote. It also helps limit revisions or change-order fees and helps you keep within your budget.

Factors that Affect the Cost of a Custom WordPress Theme

Since each custom WordPress theme is built specifically for the individual client, the cost of the project varies based on the requirements.

Below are some of the factors that will impact the cost of your custom WordPress theme:

Features, Functionality, and Expectations

Adding more features and functionality to your custom theme will increase the development time and cost. Usually, clients have higher expectations than their budget allows.

High-quality work with custom features will take more time, and hence it will cost more.

Similarly, you may require premium WordPress plugins to get the functionality you need for your website. This will add to the cost of developing a custom theme.

Change Orders and Revisions

If you change the scope of your custom WordPress theme project in the middle of the process, then this can significantly increase your cost.

While minor changes are ok, freelancers and agencies often charge change-order fees for major change requests.

Hosting, Maintenance, and Support

A custom WordPress theme does not include WordPress hosting, website maintenance, or offering support after the delivery of the project.

Some agencies and freelancers might offer these services at an additional cost.

How Much Does a Custom WordPress Theme Actually Cost?

Previously, it was extremely difficult to explain how much a custom WordPress theme costs in fixed numbers because there were several factors to consider.

However, if you select a drag and drop WordPress page builder, then the cost of building a custom WordPress theme drops considerably.

For example, SeedProd offers its theme builder in the Pro plan, which starts at $199.50 per year. You can simply use the plugin to create a custom WordPress them yourself. Plus, if you add that with the cost of web hosting, domain, and SSL certificate, you can easily make a custom theme for under $500.

These days, even the large numbers of freelancers use drag & drop page builders now to create custom WordPress themes because it helps them build custom websites faster.

You can see our detailed guide on how much does it really cost to build a WordPress website for more details.

On the other hand, when you hire a freelancer or an agency, then a the cost of a custom WordPress theme for a business / personal website could cost between $1,500 – $5,000. A custom WordPress theme with additional built-in features or companion plugins can cost anywhere between $6,000 – $10,000.

If you have a complex enterprise-level project, then it is not uncommon for custom theme project prices to go above $30,000.

Therefore, we would highly recommend using a page builder to create a custom theme because the total cost will be lower, and you won’t have to spend a lot of money on freelancers and agencies.

How to Avoid Overpaying for a Custom WordPress Theme?

With over a decade of experience in the WordPress industry, we have a few tips that you can use to avoid overpaying for a custom WordPress theme.

Find Live Website Examples for Inspiration when Possible

Going along with a detailed scope and having a list of inspirations really help with the design process.

You can have a list of websites and list out what you like about each of them.

This gives the designer a clear idea of what you’re looking for this reduces the revisions and overall cost.

Use Premium Plugins vs Custom Built Functionality

Most reputable WordPress professionals will always choose a premium WordPress plugin vs building it out from scratch because it’s more efficient and saves cost.

However, as a customer, we always recommend that you do your own research as well. Often the developer that you choose may have other suggestions, and it’s important that you understand why they decide to choose one plugin over another.

Customize Premium Themes vs Build from Scratch

One of the ways to significantly reduce cost while still getting a ‘custom’ look and feel is to find an existing theme that has 90% of what you want. While this cheats the custom theme concept, it can significantly reduce the overall cost.

Powerful drag and drop WordPress page builders like SeedProd, Beaver Builder and Divi have given birth to an entirely new industry of Website Assemblers. They come with various templates, so you can easily choose one and customize it according to your needs.

Professional website assemblers use existing WordPress plugins combined with a drag & drop page builder to build you a custom-looking WordPress site at a much more affordable price.

Find the Right Developer or Agency for a Custom WordPress Theme

Due to its ease of use and low barrier of entry, there is a wide range of people and companies offering custom WordPress theme services.

Finding a developer or agency with the right experience and skillset can be a bit difficult. Especially because a lot of ‘website assemblers’ also call themselves developers.

Here are some places where you can find experienced developers for your custom WordPress theme project.

Codeable – This is our #1 pick for finding high-quality WordPress developers that are vetted by an expert team. You can post your project there and get a free estimate.

WPHired – This is a job board where you can post your WordPress jobs. Developers can then apply for the job, and you can discuss your project with them. You’ll have to look for developers with relevant experience and skills.

WordPress Jobs – Another WordPress-specific job board where you can post jobs and interview developers.

Upwork – An online freelancing website where you can post your job and interview developers from all over the world. This would allow you to find developers with lower rates. It is an enormous community with designers and developers of varying skills and expertise.

A custom WordPress theme can make your website stand out with its unique design and custom features. However, not all beginners and small businesses can afford that right away.

If you are just starting out, then you can use a page builder like SeedProd or a premium multipurpose theme to build your website theme at a fraction of the price.

With a custom theme, you get unique branding, custom design, and tailor-made functionality to help you grow your business faster and give you an edge over your competitors.

We hope this article helped you understand how much does a custom WordPress theme cost and how you can avoid overpaying. You may also want to see our guide on the best free business name generator and how to register a domain name.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How Much Does a Custom WordPress Theme Cost? first appeared on WPBeginner.

March 25, 2019January 22, 2022

How to Easily Create a Custom WordPress Theme (Without Any Code)

Do you want to create a custom WordPress theme from scratch?

In the past, you had to follow complicated WordPress tutorials and have decent coding knowledge to build a custom WordPress theme. But thanks to new WordPress theme builders, now you can easily make one without learning any programming skills.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a custom WordPress theme without writing any code.

Making a custom WordPress theme without any coding skills

Here is the list of topics we’ll cover in this article.

Creating a Custom WordPress Theme for Beginners
Creating a Custom Theme with SeedProd Theme Builder
Editing a Theme with SeedProd Theme Builder
Changing the Site-Wide Design for Your Theme
Applying and Publishing Your Custom WordPress Theme
Creating Other Layouts for Your Custom WordPress Theme

Ready? Let’s get started.

Video Tutorial

If you’d prefer written instructions, just keep reading.

Creating a Custom WordPress Theme for Beginners

A WordPress website uses a theme for website layout and design. These themes are made up of template files written in PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Typically, you would need to have a decent understanding of all these web design languages or hire a web developer to create a custom WordPress theme.

If you hired a developer or agency, then the cost of a custom WordPress theme can reach thousands of dollars.

Since many small business owners couldn’t afford the high costs of a custom WordPress theme, a lot of them just settle for default themes. Those who didn’t want to settle either used a WordPress page builder or a theme framework to build a custom theme.

While WordPress theme frameworks made building a WordPress theme easier, they are a solution for developers, not an average website owner.

On the other hand, WordPress page builder plugins made it super easy to create custom page layouts using a drag & drop interface, but they were limited to single page layouts only. You couldn’t build custom themes with them.

This is where SeedProd comes in.

It is the best WordPress theme builder plugin that allows you to easily create a custom WordPress theme without writing any code.

SeedProd is a drag and drop WordPress page builder for businesses, bloggers, and website owners. It also now comes with a new custom theme designer that allows you to just point and click to edit any element.

You can also add commonly used design elements to your theme with drag and drop.

The best thing about SeedProd theme builder is that it is theme agnostic. That means that it doesn’t rely on your existing WordPress theme for style or functionality, giving you complete freedom and control over your website design.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to create your custom WordPress theme without writing any code.

Creating a Custom Theme with SeedProd Theme Builder

Setting up the SeedProd theme builder is quite straightforward, since it works with any WordPress website using any theme.

First you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: You’ll need at least the Pro or Elite plan to unlock the theme builder.

Upon activation, go to the SeedProd » Settings page to enter your plugin license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.

After entering your license key, you are now ready to create your custom WordPress theme using the SeedProd theme builder.

Making your own custom WordPress theme with SeedProd is quite simple.

First, you need to head over to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page. Here, you’ll see the list of templates for your current SeedProd custom theme. Since we haven’t started yet, we only have a Global CSS template. We’ll show you how to use this later in the tutorial.

To get started, you have two options.

Use one of the ready-made SeedProd themes as a starting point
Manually create theme templates from scratch

Let’s take a look at how these options work.

1. Starting With a Ready-Made Theme (Recommended)

We recommend starting with an existing theme. This allows SeedProd to automatically generate all the template files. These are complete professionally-designed themes, which gives you a head start in editing the templates to your own requirements.

Simply click on the Themes button and choose one of the available themes. There are different themes for different type of websites, so you can choose one that best matches your needs.

Don’t worry too much about design and layout at this point. All of these themes are fully editable, so you can change every aspect of it inside the theme builder.

Once you have chosen a theme, SeedProd will generate all the theme templates.

This is the draft version of your custom WordPress theme.

Later in this tutorial, we’ll show you how to edit these theme files to design your theme and then publish your theme to apply it on your website.

2. Manually Create Theme Templates From Scratch

Alternately, you can start your theme from scratch by clicking on the ‘Add New Theme Template’ button. You’ll have to give your template a name and then choose one of the template types to get started.

Currently, you have the option to choose from the following template types:

Header
Footer
Single Post
Single Page
Archive
Search Results
Global Part
Custom Page

You can also set conditions for using a template. For instance, you can apply it to the entire site or a specific section of your website.

Once you save the template, SeedProd will open it in the theme builder where you can start editing it.

Editing a Theme with SeedProd Theme Builder

Once you have generated your theme templates, you can edit them using the SeedProd Theme Builder.

Simply click on the Edit Design link below a template file to edit it.

This will launch the template file in SeedProd theme builder.

You’ll see a live preview of the template in the right column with an editing panel in the left column.

To change an item in your template file, you can simply point and click to edit it.

Depending on the item type, you’ll see different editing options in the left column. You’ll be able to change fonts, colors, background, spacing, and more.

To add new items, you can add SeedProd blocks from the left column. It comes with a bunch of block types that you can add to your template.

1. Template Tag Blocks

Template tag blocks are the dynamic blocks that allow you to generate theme elements on the fly from your WordPress database.

For instance, you can use the Posts block to list your recent posts or Post Content block to display the contents of the post or page currently displayed.

2. Standard Blocks

Next, you have your standard blocks to add common web design elements to your theme’s template.

You can use them to add text, media, buttons, columns, dividers, and more.

3. Other Blocks

Other advanced blocks allow you to add contact forms, social profiles, sharing buttons, WordPress shortcodes, Google Maps, and more.

SeedProd also comes with full WooCommerce integration.

If you run an online store, then you can use WooCommerce blocks in your theme.

You can create completely custom WooCommerce templates with a custom cart page and check out experience.

Using Sections For Quick Theme Layouts

Apart from blocks, you can also add complete sections to your theme template.

Simply switch to the Sections tab under the Design panel.

Sections are group of blocks for different areas of website design. For instance, you will find ready to use sections for your header, footer, calls to action, features, and more.

Simply click on a section to add it to your theme template, and then edit it to your own requirements.

Saving and Publishing Your Template

Once you are satisfied with the design, you can simply click on the Save button and select Publish to save your template.

Repeat the process to edit other template files with your own content and design needs.

Changing the Site-Wide Design for Your Theme

While editing your theme templates, you would want to make sure that your design is consistent across your website.

For instance, you’d likely want to use the same typography style, font sizes, colors, and other visual styles on every page.

In traditional WordPress themes, you had to do it manually by editing complex CSS files. This process required using a browser’s Inspect tool, locating CSS classes, learning code, and more.

SeedProd makes this super easy as well.

Instead of writing CSS code, you can simply edit the Global CSS template.

The Global CSS template allows you to preview common website elements, and then you can just point and click on them to edit their properties.

Applying and Publishing Your Custom WordPress Theme

Once you are satisfied with your custom WordPress theme, the final step is to activate it on your WordPress website.

SeedProd allows you to apply your custom WordPress theme with a simple switch.

Simply go to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page and toggle the switch next to the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ option to ‘Yes’.

SeedProd will now replace the existing WordPress theme with the custom WordPress theme that you have made.

You can now visit your website to see your custom WordPress theme in action.

Creating Other Layouts for Your Custom WordPress Theme

Now that you have created your custom WordPress theme, you have the option to extend its functionality and create more designs and layouts based on your theme.

SeedProd makes that extremely easy.

You can still tweak your custom WordPress theme and create multiple templates for different sections of your website.

For instance, you may want to add a new header template to your theme that is only displayed on specific categories.

Similarly, you may want to create a template for specific pages or posts.

You can add that to your theme too.

How about creating custom landing pages?

SeedProd has got you covered there as well.

You can simply go to SeedProd » Landing Pages and click on Add New Landing Page button to create one.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to create a landing page with WordPress.

By using SeedProd’s beginner-friendly drag and drop theme builder, you can easily create any type of custom layout you need.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a custom WordPress theme without learning to code. You may also want to see our guide on how to speed up your WordPress website for better SEO and user experience.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Create a Custom WordPress Theme (Without Any Code) first appeared on WPBeginner.