Starting with WordPress

Q1: Yes. Most themes can be customized and if you need to go beyond their built-in options, you can always build a child theme. If you’re careful, you will not slow things down or create security issues.

Q2: IMHO, purchased themes are not more secure that the free ones on wp.org. Some of the free themes, of course, are sort-of hobbled to drive business to the authors’ pro themes. It really depends on the authors and the quality of their work.

My recommendation: Start with a theme on wp.org that’s as close to the look and feel you want for your site. Use CSS (via customizer->additonal CSS) to tweak. If you need to add functionality, look for plugins. When you hit a wall with that, make a child theme.

As far as I understand, there are two options for making a WP site:

Yes,
– one is wordpress.com where you can have a free site that is limited in functionality or a paid version where you can do what you want,
– and the other is to install the free software from www.remarpro.com on your own site and do whatever you want.

Can I make a theme from an already existing one

Like everything else on the internet, there are things that are licensed for reuse and things that are not. All of the themes from the WordPress repository are free for use. They are also free for redistributing, because they are licensed as GPL compatible. (You need to keep the original copyrights intact, though.)

I get that the themes from the directory are with limited functionality compared to their “PRO” alternatives

Not all of them are. The nature of themes is that they should be easy to switch, even programmatically, on each page. So functionality really belongs in plugins. Themes are for styling and layout. The themes in the WordPress repository are reviewed to ensure that they don’t have plugin functionality, to prevent theme lock-in. The biggest part of the review is the security portion, but speed is not considered.

what’s the best approach for making a WP site for someone with a limited budget

You can easily make a site for free on wordpress.com (or lots of other free sites), but the domain name will be limited. Spending a little on a name makes it better. Spending a bit more on hosting removes a lot of barriers, as you can install whatever software you want.
Start with the free stuff and see what it can do. If you encounter a limitation, look for free solutions.
You can experiment with WordPress for free (even themes and plugins) here: https://wpsandbox.net/

I’m leery of commercial themes which have slick demo sites. When you activate the theme on your own site, it’s nothing like the demo. Such themes should have a “Much assembly required” disclaimer. And have a free trial period. They may provide the elements to get a look like their demo, but you’ll need to learn how to do so with their elements.

If you are good with HTML and CSS, you might consider building a site with a generic starter theme. I often use the one from underscores.me . There are others available with a little searching. The theme looks extremely boring to start with, you need to develop a lot of your own CSS, though there is some generic CSS to start with. I like this approach because there’s not a bunch of existing code I don’t need or need to override to get what I want.

Thank you all for the answers. I think I am going to go with a theme from the directory and build it up. There’s just one quick follow-up:

When you hit a wall with that, make a child theme.

Does this mean that by using a child theme I can bypass theme restrictions such as limited color options, limited header customization, etc.?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by thebulgarian.

Yes. You can do whatever you want.

Great, thank you all very much.