Have you ever heard of the term ‘WordPress Child Theme?’ Do you want to understand the concept of the WordPress Child theme and how it differs from the Parent theme? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, this is the article for you. Here we will discuss the WordPress Child theme and how to use a child theme in WordPress. Let’s start:
WordPress Child Theme
Child Themes are commonly used on the site with the purpose to make changes and test things and preview them before applying them on the main site. The main importance of Child Theme can be defined as the tool to test the functionality and appearance of the added features on the main site.
Usually, website users don’t imply a direct change to the main site. They develop code/ use plugins/ apply major changes to the child theme and review it. It can be also said as a testing companion.
Importance of WordPress Child Theme
Imagine a situation. The theme you are using to build your website is close to perfect for your needs. However, you want to add up and change some bits and pieces in the theme. You can obviously make the changes you want, but when you upgrade the theme all your changes will vanish. So the question arises, how do you make customizations to your theme and keep them safe from WordPress upgrades?
This is where the concept of the child theme steps in. A child theme is linked to a specific parent theme in WordPress. All the customizations that you want to not get lost with WordPress upgrades can be kept safe in a child theme. So, basically with a child theme make your changes and save them from vanishing with every update.
The need and importance of WordPress Child themes are great. A lot of premium, as well as free themes, are available with the inclusion of free themes to help users make better use of the theme and apply it on their website without causing any kind of problems on the main site.
However, the problem with a new WordPress beginner is that they firstly don’t have the concept of a parent theme to understand the child theme. Not to worry, here we will perform Child theme Vs Parent theme defining each theme’s usage and functioning mechanism on the site.
Child Theme Vs Parent Theme
A theme, in general, comes with the inclusion of the main theme as well as the child theme. The main themes that are available in the market are the parent theme which also has the child theme with a theme in many cases.
All our themes: Oshine, Exponent, and Spyro are powerful and feature enriched WordPress parent themes. However, it also offers the child version along with the download of the main theme which allows you to make changes and test components before applying the major changes on the main site.
Even in the case of simple updates and changes, experts suggest making use of the Child theme and viewing how it works out before applying it on the website. The child theme has come in handy to the users as it is not the main theme but its functionality is a must for you to protect your website.
The major difference between these themes is that a parent theme is a stand-alone theme and requires dependencies on other themes. It is fully functional on its own without the need for any other features from any other theme whereas a child theme cannot function without its parent theme. It inherent the functionality of the parent theme. A parent theme can be used as a Child theme but a Child theme can never be used. It is a subpart of the main theme.
Installing a Child WordPress Theme
WordPress offers tons of free child WordPress themes all ready for the users to use on their site. However, using a Child WordPress theme can vary than the parent theme.
Follow the tutorial guide on ‘How to Install a WordPress Child Theme on Website?’.
Conclusion
In this article, we understood the meaning of the WordPress child theme, its features, functionalities, uses, and needs in a WordPress website. The theme is an integral part of your main website that protects it from major crashing changes. It is a place with a testing component to view exceptional changes. If you’re in search of a great multipurpose WordPress theme with the integration of child themes, I would suggest our top-selling WordPress theme – Oshine. Along with that, we also have featured-enrich themes Exponents and Spyro for your beautiful website.
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