Should I use a free Shopify theme or a premium theme?
Short answer
A free theme such as Dawn is fast and perfectly good for launching. A premium theme saves development time when you need features like mega menus, advanced filtering, lookbooks or bundles. Choose based on the sections you need, not looks alone.
Whichever you choose, avoid stacking dozens of apps on top of it; apps are the most common reason Shopify stores get slow.
Custom sections built into the theme usually load faster and look more on-brand than app widgets doing the same job.
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Answered by ScaleInbox · Reviewed by Shubham Vishwakarma, founder