Why CMS-specific premium themes are more expensive
Have you ever noticed that CMS-specific paid themes are more expensive than regular HTML themes (particularly when browsing a site like ThemeForest)? Regardless of your answer, there are some good reasons why I personally think this is speaking from past and current experience. Here are four reasons why I think this is:
Reason 1: There is a potentially steep learning curve.
Theming on a specific CMS can have a steep learning curve, particularly with Drupal. Why? Well, in the case of Drupal, a front-end developer may have to know some PHP, since Drupal tends to use what are called preprocess functions. These functions allow you to pass additional data or modify existing data into a template. In addition to preprocess functions, the front-end developer developing the theme would also need to have an understanding of Twig and its syntax, which has a learning curve, although not nearly as steep as learning Drupal itself, especially if the FED is used to PHP template files (HTML and PHP in the same file) instead of Twig templates. However, if the FED is familiar with a similar framework, such as Liquid, it shouldn’t be too big of a learning curve (famous last words).
I know other CMS’s such as WordPress or Joomla have their own learning curve as well, but I am not as familiar with those CMS’s as far as code goes so I really cannot say anything more about the learning curve.
Reason 2: It is more difficult to manipulate the DOM.
Often, front-end developers need to change the existing HTML markup to style an element a certain way. For example, the published date may be placed in the wrong location and the FED needs to put it below the title (let’s say it’s a request from the customer). This is easy to do with static HTML, but is not always easy when developing a CMS-specific theme.
Reason 3: Premium themes frequently look more modern and therefore more likely take longer to develop.
Time is money and money is time.
This is most true especially with a CMS. Even before development starts, just creating a catchy design that is UX-appealing takes time. Also, testing to make sure your theme is mobile responsive takes additional time to develop as well.
Reason 4: It takes more time to develop.
This one is a side-effect of reasons one and two. The potentially steep learning curve in addition to the potential difficulty manipulating the DOM make it take longer to develop than a static HTML theme.