We were recently asked if nulled WordPress themes and plugins are ok by one of our readers.
A nulled theme or plugin is a copy of a premium WordPress product.
The purpose of this article is to explain why you should avoid nulled WordPress themes and plugins if you care about the quality of your site.
Table of Contents
A nulled WordPress theme and plugin are copies of paid WordPress themes or plugins distributed illegally over the internet.
People who resell nulled items claim it’s okay to copy and distribute WP and its derivatives (like plugins and themes) because WordPress is licensed under the GPL.
Although this is true, it often comes at a high cost. Furthermore, not only do these themes and plugins cause good WordPress companies to lose money, but they also compromise the security and integrity of websites that use them.
Indeed, these nulled plugins and themes are often what cause your websites to be hacked.
You should not use nulled WordPress plugins and themes on your website for the following reasons:
There are several risks associated with nulled WordPress plugins and themes. Some of them are known to carry malware.
When a website is hacked, the malicious code is likely to spread across different files to conceal itself, making it harder to detect and fix.
Additionally, you might lose all the site data. Last but not least, in the case of distributing malware your site could be deindexed from search engines.
You can lose your WordPress SEO completely if you use pirated themes and plugins. Moreover, nulled WordPress themes and plugins usually add spam links to the website or hijack your visitors. And, it results in bad websites.
Because the links are well hidden in the code, it is difficult to detect these activities using human eyes. When you are logged into your WordPress account, you will likely not be redirected. Your website would, however, be penalized by search engines by dropping your rankings or deindexing your website entirely.
A new website may even have to be built from scratch in order to regain your website’s SEO rankings.
Different kinds of malicious code can be hidden inside nulled WordPress themes and plugins. You may find exploits on the dark web that are capable of stealing information from your WordPress site and making it available to hackers.
Usernames, email addresses, and passwords are all examples of this type of information. You can also put your customers’ personal information at risk by running an online store or membership website.
A WordPress site that is running normally may not be aware of these types of hacks since they are hard to detect.
Regular updates contain bug fixes, new features, and security patches for WordPress themes and plugins. It is not possible to receive those updates if you have a nulled WordPress theme or plugin.
The result is that your WordPress blog will have an outdated version, which may be insecure and buggy.
There are regular updates to WordPress itself, and themes and plugins may need additional updates to stay compatible. Nulled themes and plugins cannot be updated, resulting in your website becoming inaccessible or acting strangely.
Plugins and themes for WordPress can come in a variety of licenses, some of which are open source, while others have a mixed license. Using a nulled WordPress theme or plugin violates copyright laws because some parts of the code are protected.
There are several implications associated with pirated WordPress themes, including data theft, data loss, or illegal content distribution. You may have to pay huge sums of money to lawyers if any of these things occur.
Themes and plugins for WordPress are often updated with new features, as we mentioned earlier. In the case of a pirated WordPress product, you won’t be able to get automatic updates, and you probably won’t even be aware of the new features that have been added.
By incorporating these new features into your website, you can make more money online and significantly improve its functionality. The problem is that you will not be aware of these changes and will use an outdated version.
The best use of premium WordPress plugins and themes depends on proper documentation and support.
Support and documentation are heavy responsibilities for the developers of these products. Developers even hire support personnel who answer questions and provide new tutorials regularly.
Nulled WordPress themes and plugins cannot be updated, so you’re on your own. If you need assistance, you cannot contact the developers. Documentation and tutorials, which are available only to paid customers, aren’t available to you, either.
It is never a good idea to use nulled WordPress themes and plugins. You always have a choice of free alternatives for any theme or plugin that you choose for WordPress.
I am doing this because I cannot currently afford to pay for it, even if some may argue that it is just a tiny piece of software. It nonetheless took someone’s skill, talent, and time to create this tiny piece of code. When you are using nulled software, you are robbing developers of their money.
Developers have more to do than just write code. They have to provide support, make documentation, make websites, hire support staff, and spend a lot of money running their businesses. Their businesses suffer when they use nulled software, and they lose money as a result.
Due to these unethical practices, developers are discouraged from creating new innovative products designed to benefit millions of users.
To sum things up, check out our expert-picked list of the best free WordPress themes that perform as well as paid themes.
You can find thousands of free themes and plugins on WordPress.org. They are often as good as some paid products. The most important thing is that you can use them legally without compromising your conscience or negatively affecting the WordPress community.
We hope this post was useful to get reasons for avoiding nulled WordPress themes and plugins. If you’re an enthusiast about WordPress, then you may take a look at how you can uninstall and delete a WordPress theme, also look at this guide on how to set up WooCommerce on WordPress if you wish to make an e-commerce website using WordPress.
Just fill up the contact form to get a free consultancy from our expert. We would be happy to answer you.
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