It is better for WordPress themes to be free ?
You probably heard about the dispute between creator of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, and Thesis framework creator Chris Pearson. The real issue is that the creator of WordPress have a point against Premium WordPress Themes.
Free is better. You like free stuff. You like when you go to KFC and you get a free garlic sauce for every menu you order. The truth is that it is not free, it’s price is included.
It will be better if all WordPress Themes are free ? Hell yes, on short term. If the creators will be forced to give themes away for free they will, maybe they will try some other monetize methods that will never reach the amount of money that they used to generate when they sold themes.
In the long run, more and more theme creators will stop creating top themes. And if you try to search, you already know that it is hard to find free good themes.
The lack of good free themes at this moment can have 2 possible causes:
- All good theme creators jump in the opportunity to get some cash for their themes.
- To create a good theme you need to invest a lot of time, and time is money.
These are 2 theories that can lead to the effects of having all themes available for free. If the real case is the one in the first scenario, we will have a lot of good free themes, but if it is the second, the free themes will be the same but we will no longer have premium themes.
My hope is that some premium theme creators will find a way to survive and to generate a good income and they will provide few premium themes that a lot of people will use. If it is used by masses they can generate good income. So my prediction is: Less good themes, but free.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission
August 5th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
The issue has nothing to do with Automattic not supporting Premium Themes. The issue was with Thesis not being licensed under the GPL. Take a look at StudioPress, they are a Premium Theme company and their products are released as GPL compliant. They still thrive and Automattic backs them in their decision. Sure people could pirate the themes and give them away for free since they are under the GPL but it’s unethical and if you want them to keep pushing out quality themes, you will support them as well. WordPress is released under the GPL and any derivative work should be as well.
August 5th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
I still think that Automattic don’t like Premium themes, they don’t like sponsored free themes. There was a post on DailyBlogTips if i remember right, he complained about his free themes were removed from WordPress theme directory because they had some links in the footer that were pointed to the owner website where he tries to sell premium themes.