Is it good to use nulled theme in WordPress?

As a Web Developer, have you considered using nulled WordPress theme on your website or your next commercial project? Or are you currently using one on your WordPress site right now? Are you tempted to use a nulled WordPress theme?

Of course, we’re all looking to save money and cut financial corners wherever we can to gain maximum profits on our projects.

No one likes splashing more money than necessary – it’s a human thing. Even one of the wealthiest people in the world, Jeff Bezos, still searches out discounts on the cars he buys (ok, maybe that’s an extreme example – you get the idea). Although it’s free upfront, nulled WordPress themes (better known as pirated software) can cost you a lot.

Nulled WordPress themes are often comprised with malware that poses critical security risks to WordPress sites. When you install them on your site, you may be inviting hackers in. You risk damage to not only your site but your business and your reputation.

In this guide, we’ll talk about all the reasons to avoid nulled WordPress themes. And if you’re serious about your website, you’ll soon see what we mean.

Let’s take a look.

What are Nulled Themes in WordPress

Nulled WordPress themes and plugins are pirated copies of paid WordPress themes and plugins distributed unethically on the internet.

Your first instinct is to think that the practice of copying or pirating these themes and plugins is illegal. The truth is that it’s not.

The people who distribute nulled plugins and themes state the following case about why they do what they do: “ Because WordPress and any derivative works, just like themes are licensed under GPL (General Public License), it’s completely fair to distribute any premium plugin or theme that they choose. ” – The Pirates

And while that certainly is, at times, legally accurate (more on that in a bit), the practice comes with way more negatives than it does positives.
For example, it causes upstanding WordPress developers to lose a lot of money from sales they would have otherwise made on their plugins and themes.

Many hours and resources go into the creation and support of a premium WordPress plugin or theme. The people doing the actual work to create the end product should, in theory, be the ones rewarded for all of their hard work.

Often these nulled themes and plugins are the reason why your websites get hacked.

So when should you use a Nulled WordPress theme?

Honestly, there’s only one good time to use nulled WordPress themes and plugins. If you’re about to pitch a website design or feature to a client using a premium theme or plugin, using the nulled version to create a sample makes sense.

This way, if the project gets approved, you can charge the client for the premium versions. If it doesn’t get approved, you suffer no losses to your business.

Now that you know when to use nulled WordPress themes and plugins, it’s time to discuss what you shouldn’t do.

Let’s get into it.

If you want to know how to get premium themes for free officially follow our guide of How to get Envato Premium WordPress Themes for Free.

Reasons to avoid using Nulled WordPress themes

1. Website Privacy

Nulled WordPress themes can have different kinds of malicious code hidden inside. This can include code that steals information from your WordPress site and makes it available to hackers on the dark web.

The information at risk will include things like your:

• Usernames (includes admin and other user roles)
• Passwords (including all sorts of passwords contained on the site)
• Email addresses

Even severely, if your site has an online store or provides memberships, your customers’ personal information will be at risk. This includes physical addresses, phone numbers, or even credit card/bank information if added.

These kinds of hacks are hard to detect and may go unnoticed as your WordPress site keeps functioning normally.

2. Website Security

Nulled WordPress products are hazardous for your WordPress security protocols. Beyond the vulnerabilities built into them, they are also very well-known for carrying their malware. If you load one of these nulled products on your site, this malicious malware code can immediately begin to spread to different files and disguise itself. This makes it difficult to detect and fix the exact point of the breach.

But beyond that, Google and other search engines may then choose to delist your website from search results because it actively distributed malware.

3. No Documentation or Support from Author

Maybe you think you can Google your way into figuring out how to use a pirated theme and don’t need any of the documentation or support of the product developer. If you’ve ever actually tried doing it, you’ll know that it’s not recommended.

Even the most experienced WordPress website owners often need documentation and personal product support to learn how to best use premium WordPress plugins and themes.

Industry-standard WordPress theme developers put a lot of time and effort into contributing personal support and creating detailed documentation for their users to reference. Many will even employ support specialists to answer personal questions.

If you decide to go down the nulled theme route and are stuck, there’s no way to reach out to the product developer for help. They can’t because they don’t own a license for the product.

There’s also no way to get access to the tutorials and valuable documentation. Those, too, are only available to people who pay for the right to use the product.

4. Legal Issues

Many WordPress themes and plugins are open sources, but variety of them are sold with mixed licenses. This means that copyright laws protect some parts of the code, and if you are using a nulled WordPress theme or plugin, you don’t have legal permission to do so.

Pirated WordPress themes may result in data theft, data loss, or distribution of illegal material. All of those can cause legal proceedings where you’ll find yourself paying huge sums to lawyers.

5. No Updates for new features & existing bugs

As you must be aware by now, WordPress themes are regularly updated. A lot of times, these updates come with new features that increase the usefulness of the product.

When using nulled WordPress products, you have no way of receiving the developer’s updates. You won’t even be alerted that there are new features available on the theme.
It’s pretty evident that if you’re not aware of something, you can’t take advantage of it.

Some of the new features that WordPress developers put on their products are vastly improving websites and helping site owners make more money. Usually, spending a little money up-front will pay big dividends down the road.

Conclusion

Responsible WordPress site owners know that site security always needs to be at the forefront of doing business. While potential hacks and malicious attacks seem to lurk everywhere, it’s never been more critical than now to always go for a licensed WordPress theme and plugin that helps you build a good relationship with the client for the long run.

Furthermore, if you want to install the downloaded theme, we also have an article on How to Install WordPress themes using Zip.

Let me know in the comments below if you feel Nulled WordPress themes are still helpful and how they have impacted your websites in the past.