WordPress Theme Vs WordPress Framework Vs Child Theme: What is the Difference?

For anyone who is looking to start a website or is a beginner in web development, the first choice is WordPress. WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) and a development platform that you can use to create a website without even having any knowledge of coding. Here, you can design, develop and create a website as per your requirements. Beginners and those who are new to WordPress often seem to get confused by the terms WordPress Theme, WordPress Framework, and Child Theme. It mostly happens when people are not familiar with these key points in WordPress. This blog which is basically regarding WordPress Theme Vs WordPress Framework Vs Child Theme, explains the difference between these three keywords clearly. Along with this, you will also understand their importance while creating your WordPress website, themes, and even blogs.

WordPress Theme: What Is It?

WordPress theme is responsible for the overall look of your website. It gives the design and styling details to your blog as it can be seen online. Using a relevant WordPress theme, you can change the design of your website including its layout. If you change your theme, this also changes how your website looks on the front-end. By the front end, it means what a visitor of your site sees while browsing through your site. There are so many features and functionality offered by WordPress theme that will help you create a good website.

A WordPress theme allows creating websites to those also who are not much familiar with coding or don’t know the technical aspects of website development. One can easily change the fonts, colors, graphics, language easily. A WordPress theme empowers you to utilize the mechanics of the WordPress platform for creating your own website without even having any prior coding or web development experience.

What is a WordPress Framework?

Most beginners often get confused about the WordPress theme and WordPress framework. WordPress framework is basically a code library that is used to facilitate the development of a WordPress theme. WordPress framework is that key function that describes the amount through which you will be able to make the changes in the WP themes. The most important thing that the WordPress framework does is that it speeds up the development process i.e. it forcefully reduces the time required for the development. It comes with built-in widgets and other additional functionalities. You may understand a WordPress theme framework as nothing but a well-coded parent theme. It takes care of the functionality and is a home for base code. But it needs a child theme in case of further styling.

Child Theme:

The name “Child Theme” is self-explanatory. It indicates its origination from some other theme. A child theme gets its functionality and features from another WordPress theme which is also called a Parent theme. It has all the styling and codes of the parent theme. Child themes are the recommended way to modify an already existing theme without making that theme lose its ability to upgrade. If you use the child theme for making the changes to your website, you will be able to upgrade the parent theme, and that too without affecting the changes done on your site, and all changes will remain safe. The developers find it more convenient to make use of the child theme for doing changes in the styling of the parent theme without making it lose its ability to refresh.

Many designers and developers prefer to use the child theme as it enhances the speed of development and creating a child theme is very easy and you will hardly require a few minutes to do so.

So far, we have seen about the three WordPress key points individually. Now let us compare them to get a better understanding.

WordPress Theme Vs WordPress Framework Vs Child Theme: Comparison

The three key points i.e WordPress Theme, WordPress Framework, and Child Theme are completely different from each other. As they are diverse in terms of their use and functionality, comparing these three is a bit difficult.

We Can Try To Understand The Chronology In This Way:

A WordPress Framework is used for developing a WordPress Theme and a child theme is developed from a WordPress theme which is called a Parent theme.

In simple words, WordPress Framework contains developmental templates but is not a theme itself. They aren’t finished products like the customizable WP themes. When you install any WordPress theme, it is ready to go from the moment you activate it. This is not the case with Frameworks.  On the contrary, the WordPress framework does not work right from the get-go. The very least it needs to work is a child theme in order to be usable. However, WordPress Framework is richer in features as compared to individual themes. A framework contains the entire functionality in it while a child theme is used along with it for design. WordPress theme, on the other hand, has both the functionality as well as design (i.e theme) in a single package.

Winding Up:

When you compare WordPress Theme Vs WordPress Framework Vs Child Theme, you see that all these three are different in their own perspective. Some developers might prefer using a framework for creating themes and websites while some may use pro WP themes. Some may prefer to go for child themes for extensive customizations.  Each one of these three has its own pros and cons. But one thing is for sure that when you go through this blog, your confusion regarding a WordPress theme, WordPress framework, and child theme will get clear. You will get a better picture of this and get to know the technical differences when you try to use them for your projects.