Before making a final decision between free and paid Freshdesk themes, it’s better to assess the advantages and disadvantages of both. The main question is – how can you use your budget wisely without paying double or triple the price by the end of the day? For the majority of people, the first look determines the level of trustworthiness of the business. And what’s even worse, it takes approximately a second to judge a website and leave it, if it doesn’t look trustworthy or professional enough.

Advantages of free Freshdesk themes 

1. If you are launching a new business and have not collected enough data about your target audience and their needs yet, then you can go ahead and start testing a free Freshdesk theme. This way, you can win time to analyze the market along with the leading competitors, common customer requests and their secret wishes. 
2. Paying nothing in the beginning sounds very appealing, considering the number of other expenses you may have. However, this free start does not guarantee any costs for further tuning and modifications of your Freshdesk template. 

Disadvantages of free Freshdesk themes 

1. Free Freshdesk themes have certain limitations and do not support extra features. 
2. Free templates lose in terms of individuality because numerous customer portals look the same. Many people will have seen it before many times and may realize that you are using just one of those free templates. 
3. From a technical perspective, free themes can betray you with code. Considering the cost of quality and clean code, free templates are budget options, which end up being sloppy. As a result, you will lose a lot of time doing even the simplest things, not to mention other risks that may apply. 
4. The updates are uploaded very rarely, and some bugs may be overlooked, especially when new versions of browsers or operating systems launch.   
5. Loading free themes may take longer and go below users’ expectations. 
6. Free templates are not that secure when it comes to hacks.

Advantages of paid Freshdesk themes 

1. User-friendliness and rich functionality features are just one of the main benefits of paid Freshdesk themes. For instance, you can choose a layout option, do a quick page redesign, and pick the most suitable color for all elements in a simple theme editor. 
2. Your team will consider the clean and clear code as a godsend. 
3. Regular updates are an inevitable part of the deal that comes with the paid templates. 
4. The vendor provides professional and helpful support you can rely on. It is an absolute must that comes with the paid Freshdesk themes.

Disadvantages of paid Freshdesk themes 

1. The initial price of paid Freshdesk themes may appear way too high, especially if you haven’t found out what’s already included. Most of the time, you will have pleasant bonuses that come in the package for which you usually would pay extra. 
2. Finding a reliable contractor, to whom you can entrust your Freshdesk customer portal may not be that easy, considering that some of them may be like developers of free themes who change the “outside” appearance while neglecting the “inside” of the free templates. You also want to find a partner who will not disappear all of a sudden with the annual payment for the service from your side. Nor do you want to have your customer portal become disabled due to overlooked errors and bugs. Hence, you better find a decent contractor, recommended by Freshdesk, to whom you can entrust your “face”.

Free Freshdesk themes can help you well in the beginning, when you do not have a complete vision of a customer portal and the features you need. Another scenario when a free template can be useful is when you want to test real users’ behavior.

On the other side of the coin, when it comes to a permanent solution, it’s better to invest right away in quality and professional looking paid Freshdesk themes. Even if you think that you can stick to the free option, wait and see or do a little research about the costs for any extra modifications you will require in the future.