What is the difference between parent theme and child theme?
Are you getting started with your own website on WordPress and wish to create a custom theme for your site? If yes, then you must know that there are quite a number of themes that are readily available to you to use to make your task a lot easier. To make your web pages attractive and better than all others, use themes. Both ‘Parent theme’ and ‘Child theme’ are highly important for website development, and their differences are critical in making easy customization and updates. In this guide, we’ll break down the difference between parent and child themes, and discuss why it matters which you choose for your website.
What is a Parent Theme?
A parent theme is a complete WordPress theme that contains all of the necessary template files and assets required for the theme to function. It is a framework for designing a website and can be used as a standalone product without needing any other themes. Most of them are considered as parent themes that are used for outlining a complete structure for website customizations.
The parent themes are updated regularly to fix bugs, enhance security, and improve performance and features. A well-designed WordPress theme uses built-in extensions that can be incorporated into the functionality of the theme without requiring alteration of a parent theme, which can be overwritten when changes are made. This is one reason why developers create child themes to customize designs and functionalities, while preserving the parent theme’s core structure.
What is a Child Theme?
A child theme is a theme that inherits the design and code of another WordPress theme, called the parent theme, and it allows you to make changes without directly modifying the existing theme files. It is a child theme that acts as an extension of the parent one, allowing users to do modifications without losing them during updates.
For developers and website owners looking to make minor tweaks to styles, layouts, or features while still allowing for updates to the parent theme, child themes are great options. Consequently, when parent themes are updated, the child theme helps in retaining your custom modifications. It makes it easier and more efficient to maintain websites with a smooth and flexible structure.
Key Differences Between Parent and Child Themes
Before we dive into creating our WordPress child theme, let us go over the differences between a parent theme and a child theme. Here are the main differences:
Performance and Site Speed
Child themes are an excellent way to boost performance; they keep only the needed modifications while the parent theme takes care of the heavy lifting. So make sure to use the best WordPress themes that are set up as parent themes, which allow for child themes to be created and added easily and quickly, for a more efficient and speedy WordPress site.
Independence vs. Dependence
A parent theme is a complete WordPress theme that can work independently, having all of the necessary files and templates. On the other hand, a child theme relies on a parent theme and cannot work without it. As it is a child theme, it inherits the features of the parent theme, but also allows you to customize.
Customization and Flexibility
When you want to customize parent themes directly, changes made in core files can create issues when updates are applied. A child theme is always a safer place to customize your site, as it enables you to override styles, templates, and functions without modifying the actual theme. This step allows any changes that you made to be preserved.
Updates and Maintenance
For security updates, parents’ themes are regularly updated for performance improvements. These updates may overwrite your modifications if you have directly altered a parent theme. This is where a child theme comes in: separating your customizations to ensure your edits do not get lost when you update the parent theme.
When to Use Each
If you would like a finished design that is ready for use, employ a parent theme. Choose a child theme if you are going to customize your site a lot while keeping the original theme’s functionality as it is. Therefore, choose the right structure so that you can have a seamless experience in WordPress with flexibility and easy maintenance in the long run.
Conclusion
Learning about parent and child themes can help you choose the best option for your WordPress site. So these were some of the best WordPress themes that fit every use case from complete theme needs to customization flexibility, while at the same time with the support of updates, performance and long-lasting website availability.
