A big marketplace like Envato’s ThemeForest is a lucrative option for anybody looking to purchase WordPress themes online. ThemeForest lists a massive collection of over 12,000 WordPress themes spoiling the buyer for choice. Each of these are priced around $60 each, and in 2016 Envato began to let authors set their own pricing. 

Started in 2008, ThemeForest initially had about 14 WordPress themes in its library. Over time, with the contribution of developers from all over the world, it flourished and became the thriving marketplace that it is today. It has a massive library and is indisputably a dominant player in the market. So, why should you buy from ThemeForest? What do they bring to the table?

Large number of Designs

With its large collection of WordPress themes from all over the world, ThemeForest can offer themes that are state-of-the-art and futuristic in design and style. The number of choices adds to the experience. 

Versatility and Functionality

A lot of WordPress themes on ThemeForest are multipurpose themes; they have so many customisation options and can be used with multiple layouts. They also have various built-in features such as built-in drag-and-drop page builders, sliders and image galleries that don’t come with every WordPress theme in the market. Versatility is a desirable feature because it can be used in almost any niche; this lets digital agencies and freelancers create websites for their clients. 

User Ratings

ThemeForest being the huge platform that it is, a large number of strong user ratings can be verified before each purchase. Check out our blog on how to pick the correct WordPress theme for your business to read about which factors you should pay attention to while purchasing one. 

However, there are a few reasons why you might want to think again about purchasing premium WordPress themes from large theme marketplaces.

Quality

Since ThemeForest sources its WordPress themes from freelance developers across the world, the themes are a jumbled mix in terms of variety as well as quality. In spite of a strict quality control team, there are chances that you end up purchasing a theme that looks fine but has low code quality or is cluttered and without proper organization. 

Competition 

Perhaps ThemeForest is way too competitive a space for developers that in the rat race for higher sales, a lot of developers overload their themes with functionalities that might not even be required for the average customer. This adversely affects the customer’s website complexity and might also lead to increased page loading speeds that is detrimental for SEO. 

Support/Updates

If, unfortunately, you buy a theme that hasn’t been very popular on Themeforest, it is highly possible that the developer might have moved on after making a bunch of sales. In that case, it might be difficult to use that WordPress theme in the long run since regular updates will not be available, making it unstable and vulnerable to security attacks.

Conclusion

While ThemeForest still remains a great source of premium responsive WordPress themes for buyers, it would be a good idea to try out smaller theme shops such as ThemeIsle, Themezinho, A Themes, etc. or reach out to the developer and get all questions answered before making a purchase.