It’s no secret that WordPress has changed the landscape of website design, allowing the layman to create and launch his or her own website relatively painlessly. So why would anyone pay for a custom-designed theme when there is such a plethora of both paid and free themes ready to install and use?
1) As the term implies, customization. You may be able to hunt down a theme that does a decent job of doing what you want it to do, but chances are there’s going to be an exactness that’s missing. Although this is more in terms of plugins, I can use my own portfolio as a prime example. I found a portfolio plugin that met almost every need that I was looking for. But as I was implementing it and adding items to the site, I kept uncovering more and more holes and flaws (and even bugs) that conflicted with the user process I was trying to implement for myself. Instead, I decided to ditch the plugin and take the extra time to develop a custom solution. The result is a simple, stream-lined process of adding new items, and a front-end display that’s 100% dynamic. I never have to touch my template files when I’m adding portfolio items. Everything is controlled through custom post types and categories, and everything looks exactly the way I want without the dependency of a theme admin or shortcodes that are incompatible with other themes. (Let’s say you decide to switch your theme someday. You now have to crawl every page and post on your site that contained custom shortcodes for that theme and replace them, either with new shortcodes from the new theme that do the same thing [if they are even available], or hard-coded solutions.)
2) Going hand in hand with #1, limitations. Guaranteed, as your site evolves, you’re going to encounter a situation where there’s something you want to add or change but your hands are going to be tied for one reason or another — the theme doesn’t support what you’re looking for, maybe a plugin you want to use conflicts with your chosen theme and you have no idea why, you just have no idea how to make it do what you want/need it to do. So why wouldn’t you hire someone who does? Why wouldn’t you, from the get-go, pay for something completely tailored to your own needs instead of trying to fit yourself/your business into someone else’s mold?
3) Theme bloat. In terms of the back-end, the ready-made themes I’ve encountered seem to contain a lot of bloated code. Whether it truly is bloat or not, sometimes I really don’t know for lack of commenting that would tell a developer exactly what the code is doing and if/why it’s important. I also categorize shortcodes as theme bloat. Yes, they make it easier for the layman to make their own changes, but as mentioned above, the portability of shortcodes is severely lacking. Now it may just be me, but as a user I hate the idea of being corralled into the use of one product due to proprietary standards, which is essentially what theme-specific shortcodes are. I completely understand that it takes a lot of “extra-ness” to make a theme as so-dumbed-down-a-monkey-could-click-and-drag usable as possible. Conversely though, it creates such a convoluted back-end (even WITH the assumption of well-commented code) that other developers will consider their time better spent starting from scratch.
All these thoughts and more can be translated to why you might hire a designer versus using one of those free services that can “have your website up and running in minutes!” With that, there’s the added considerations of having 100% control over your files and domain name, what costs you’re going to incur for extras like having a rotating banner, or additional email accounts, can you even access the site through FTP, limited number of pages, being locked into a layout you can’t change unless maybe you know some CSS or end up paying even more to have one of “their” designers edit it — Free really does come at a cost, and it takes forethought to reach that realization. Web design and development is far more involved than most people think. Why not leave it to the pros?