Using Paid Themes For Free [Risky?]

[tribedarkend]

Hey guys, I have a question that has been bugging me for quiet a while..

As you all know there are alot of paid themes given away free, from themeforest, azontheme, etc.

I thought of creating a blog with one of those 'cost-money' themes that I got for free but I'm kinda hesitating to use it..

I wanted to know if nothing bad will happen if I use it, for example after a while my site will be shut down, or sued by somebody, or w/e.

What are your thoughts on this guys?

Thanks alot !

 

[FBGuru]

You won't be sued by the theme creator but most of the sites that use those "freely available paid themes" are hacked so you should take a daily backup just in case if your site turned into a hacker's playground.

Look at these threads :

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/white-hat-seo/722792-my-site-hacked.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/693970-my-site-hacked-wordpress.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/web-hosting/722571-3-my-sites-got-hacked-what-do-now.html

 

[christianbed]

Yes, FBGuru is exactly right...back doors in a lot of those. I had one a couple years ago that was super-buggy...started gobbling up server resources, then I began to find payday loans anchors in the header or interspersed in articles. Good lesson to learn early.

There are a number of free themes that are as good as, if not better than, some of the paid ones. Granted, they may not have all the bells and whistles, but with a little HTML/CSS work, they can be just fine. Also, tweaking free themes is a great way to learn how to work with WP. ;-) I'm sure there are plenty of people here on BHW that run +$100k/yr businesses on free themes.

For instance, one of the best free ones out there, speedwise, is the Frank theme...https://github.com/somerandomdude/frank

 

[winbeast23]

The theme creator probably won't do anything but watch out for malicious code... I don't think it's worth it, buying theme is cheap

 

[nirose]

For instance, one of the best free ones out there, speedwise, is the Frank theme...https://github.com/somerandomdude/frank

The last commits on that project is 2 years ago. is that even worth trying now?

 

[ushadeep]

You won't be sued by the theme creator but most of the sites that use those "freely available paid themes" are hacked so you should take a daily backup just in case if your site turned into a hacker's playground.

Look at these threads :

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/white-hat-seo/722792-my-site-hacked.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/693970-my-site-hacked-wordpress.html
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/web-hosting/722571-3-my-sites-got-hacked-what-do-now.html

Thanks for the above threads.

 

[upstarter]

Since you are just going to start your site, I would say "try" those paid themes for free and when you find the one you finally like or fits best to your site, then buy it from the author. Not only you get official support for the theme, you also lessen the risk of getting hacked or having a backdoor access to your blog.

 

[christianbed]

The last commits on that project is 2 years ago. is that even worth trying now?

Yeah, I'm running it on one of my domains...super fast and very clean. I'm a bit of a pagespeed geek, so that's how I found it in the first place.

 

[tribedarkend]

Guys, thank you all very much, really cleared up my mind now, haha really appreciate it !

 

[IMpossible]

I can very well imagine that you can get sued when you use a copyrighted theme without a license to use it.

How would you feel when a site that gets 10 million visitors monthly, uses your theme without permission.

Wouldn't you file a court case to get some nice money off of that guy who uses your theme?

 

[SEO Power]

I can very well imagine that you can get sued when you use a copyrighted theme without a license to use it.

How would you feel when a site that gets 10 million visitors monthly, uses your theme without permission.

Wouldn't you file a court case to get some nice money off of that guy who uses your theme?

Anyone that has that many visitors would probably be wise enough to purchase the original theme and drop the nulled version.

 

[AceOfDreams]

I suggest to you that you just pay for it. In the likely event that you profit from your niche website only to experience issues later with theme creators, it is not worth the trouble.

 

[upstarter]

I can very well imagine that you can get sued when you use a copyrighted theme without a license to use it.

How would you feel when a site that gets 10 million visitors monthly, uses your theme without permission.

Wouldn't you file a court case to get some nice money off of that guy who uses your theme?

If my site gets 10 million visitors monthly, I would probably have enough money to buy a premium theme.

 

[gurubonuses34]

If you get them from the official sites, fair enough otherwise you will have to worry about hacks and all.