How much to charge for a theme ?

Tags: Marketplace • SitePoint • Themes • Wordpress • April 14, 2008. Written by Igor.

I have been creating and selling WordPress themes for over a year now. When I started, with my first theme sale, I though that $300 would be ok price for the theme, on which I spent around 20 hours. I was wrong.

At that time, my working hour rate was $15, so 20×15 equals $300. I made an auction on SitePoint and received couple of bids with ending bid = $160. I was pretty surprised by the outcome, however I realized that there were couple of good designers selling their themes, for much lover price. And those who watched the sitepoint marketplace, looking to buy a theme probably thought that the theme is overpriced.

Since then, things haven’t changed much. Good themes are still selling for $100 to $250, rarely you can see the theme being sold for more than or close to $300.

So, is the $200 average price for quality WordPress theme ? Are you satisfied with that price ?

Well, if you calculate how much time you need to design the theme, code the template and integrate it to a wordpress (don’t forget the time needed to test the theme), you will end up with at least 15 working hours. And that is a minimum for a decent theme. And let’s say that “average” working hour is $20. We end up with $300 for the theme.

Now, the question is, can you sell it at that price ?

5 Replies to "How much to charge for a theme ?"

robin on April 14, 2008

If it’s for a unique theme, meaning only one copy is sold then 300 dollar is certainly not much to ask.

On the other hand, if you plan to sell it to anyone who is interested, like most do, 79dollar seems more appropriate. In the last case, if your theme is any good you will get a lot of buyers because you have the “world” as your client. In that case you can make much more money but then you have to give good support as well. In the last case your 15 hours of work will be really well payed, no?

Igor on April 14, 2008

Yes, I was referring to what I like to call the “One Time Sale”. The problem is, you can hardly get that amount of money when you list your theme on forum/marketplace.

On the other hand, multiple sale of a theme is definitely something I need to switch on.

David on April 15, 2008

I would be willing to go as high as $250 for a great theme… any higher, and I would want it custom designed and coded to MY OWN specifications.

Ujjawal on April 18, 2008

There are only two kind of marketing in this world:

High price and Exclusive : Need to have time on your side and deep pockets. Takes time to get into this model. e.g. Merc

Low Volume * High Price

Low/medium priced and common : High volume * Low price
e.g. cola companies

Decide which way you wanna go and you will end up making much more than $300 for your WP theme.

But be prepared to wait and sleepless nights ahead :)

http://www.imayhelp.com

Aj on April 18, 2008

HI, i think it is worth 300 if it a great custom theme(Fully different from normal blog template). But i never have experience doing buy sell theme. so i do not know much about it.

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