Parent Themes VS Child Themes: What’s the big difference?

Parent and child themes: introduction

When creating a WordPress website, one of the first changes you probably made was updating the theme. WordPress’ standard theme is Twenty Twenty-Three, but this doesn’t tend to not be enough for most people. So, they change it to a theme that suits them and their website more. But, what if this theme isn’t enough? What if your theme doesn’t offer enough customizability and you can’t find another theme that looks better? This blog post will explain what a child theme is, the differences between a Child theme and a parent theme – and how they can solve this dilemma.

What is a Parent Theme?

Before you understand the difference between a child theme and a parent theme, let’s understand what each type of theme is. However, before you can understand what a child theme is, you need to know what a parent theme is. Parent themes are the main themes you operate in WordPress; it has all of the template files and assets needed for a theme to work.

Before the concept of a child theme came about, parent themes were just known as themes. Furthermore, unless you are using a child theme, you’ll probably just refer to a parent theme as a theme. But since this post deals with the differences, it’s useful to know that when referring to a parent theme, it is pretty much just the main theme itself.

What is a Child Theme?

Whilst a parent theme is fully independent, a child theme is not. A child theme is a clone of the parent theme, that is connected to the stylings and functionalities of the parent theme, but offering customizability. As the name suggests, it relies on the parent theme as the child theme does not haves all of the files and assets that a parent theme does. This means that you cannot just have a child theme active, you must have the two corresponding themes active at once.

A child theme will typically have two files, these are style.css and functions.php. These files are where you can make your customizations, without editing the parent theme itself. This is a great way for you to adapt and change a theme whilst maintaining the original looks and functions within the parent theme.

A child theme is usually used by developers and designers when the parent theme does not offer exactly what is wanted. This can be the stylistic aspects, functionality aspects, or even a mixture of the two. Typically, small changes are made in a child theme.

Why should I use a Child Theme on my WordPress website?

Now that you know what each type of theme is, let’s take a look at the positives of using a child theme on your WordPress website:

Easily make changes

Unlike a parent theme, a child theme will offer immense customizability. These changes rely on using CSS, and whilst the nature of coding and implementing CSS can seem daunting, there are many online tools that can help. These include YouTube videos, help articles, and online forums that will include pre-generated code that you are able to copy and paste into your file – meaning minimal experience and expertise is required.

Save your changes in the parent theme

When updating code in files, it can be easy to make mistakes or make changes you regret. In the case of this, you will always have your parent theme readily available in case you want to revert back to it. It’s like having a backup of your theme available. Although, it’s important to remember you will lose changes when you switch to your parent theme. However, you won’t lose the child theme itself or anything you’ve edited within the theme. This also means that you are free to update your parent theme without needing to worry about losing any changes or code in your child theme as it is in a completely separate file.

Ideal for WordPress/ Coding Novices

WordPress is great because you don’t need to rely on coding knowledge to run a successful website. Consequently, you may be an experienced WordPress user but have no coding knowledge whatsoever. This is normal. However, child themes provide a great starting point for those learning to code, as there are only two files in the theme and you are able to source a lot of your code from coders and communities online – meaning you could create a child theme by only copying and pasting. It is also easier to debug and troubleshoot the files as there tends to be a small amount of code in your two files, depending on how many functionalities and styles you have added.

Why shouldn’t you use a Child Theme on your website?

Whilst the above may be great, and sound appealing to you, it’s important to consider the negatives that may outweigh the positives for some users. Here are some of the cons to consider before you start using a WordPress child theme:

They are time-consuming

Coding is difficult, it is essentially learning another language. In order to customize and adapt a child theme effectively, you need to be able to understand the code within the parent theme first and foremost, and how to manage files to overwrite templates amongst other parts of your parent theme. This isn’t something you can learn overnight, so it takes time and ultimately, could be a long-term investment if you don’t have a previous understanding of coding.

Reliance on a Parent Theme

Whilst a child theme being fully-dependent on a parent theme has some positive aspects to it, it also comes with some drawbacks. For example, if a theme author makes the choice to abandon the theme, or they may stop updating a certain feature, or remove it altogether. However, the solution to this is using an open-source theme. This means that even if a theme is dropped, or stops being updated, you will still be able to go into it and make any updates that you need to.

Summary

Themes are a key part of any WordPress website. Child themes are a great way to expand your customization and make your site look more appealing. We hope you now understand the key differences between child and parent themes and the advantages to using one.