Free vs Pro

Anything that creates or changes content lives in a plugin. The theme only displays it. That single rule explains where every Verba feature sits, and it is the reason the free theme can go on a live blog and come off again without leaving anything behind.

#Why the line is drawn there

This is not a pricing decision dressed up as an architecture one. WordPress asks themes to handle presentation and plugins to handle data, for a practical reason: a theme is something you swap. If a theme creates content, changing themes destroys it.

Two consequences follow, and they cut both ways.

You can install the free theme on a real blog, look at it for a week, and remove it having lost nothing. It adds no data of its own.

If you build a site on Pro features and then switch the plugin off, those pieces stop appearing. Your posts, pages, and media are untouched, but the things Pro drew are gone until it comes back.

#The free theme

A complete blog, in plain terms. Front page, archives, single posts, static pages, search, comments: everything WordPress considers a blog, presented the Verba way.

It is configured through the Customizer, and there is more there than people expect: colors, typography, logos, header, footer, and the dark scheme. See Basic settings for the full tour.

What it does not contain, by definition: no blocks of its own, no widgets, no extra fields in the editor, no content-editing extensions. Whatever WordPress gives you, you get. Nothing more.

This is not a crippled Pro. It is a smaller product with its own edges.

#Installing the free edition

Where a free edition exists, it installs from the WordPress.org theme directory like any other directory theme: no purchase, no key, no account.

If your host blocks the admin theme browser, download the zip from the theme's page on wordpress.org and upload it through AppearanceThemes, Add Theme, Upload Theme.

Not every jkdevstudio theme has a free edition. The directory's theme requirements keep functionality that belongs in plugins out of themes, so a free edition is something we publish voluntarily where a theme fits those rules. It is not a promise and there is no date to wait for: when a theme has one, its product page says so.

#The free companion plugin

The piece most people never hear about: jkd Theme Companion, free on wordpress.org.

On top of the free theme it adds a demo importer (including importing single pages), a font library, an integration registry, multilingual plugin support, and the service screens: tools, preferences, notifications, announcements, and the changelog.

The free demos are a set of the theme basic elements with Customizer settings already filled in. They are a faster start from zero, not a copy of the screenshots on the sales page.

The plugin exists as a bridge. It lets you look at the free theme properly and decide for yourself whether you need Pro. Install it alongside Pro and it steps aside, because Pro already contains everything it does. You never need both.

#What Pro adds

Almost everything you see on the demo sites is drawn by the Pro layer.

In groups: Theme Options (the large settings panel), post listings, Elementor support with a set of widgets, extended blocks for the editor, object fields on posts, pages, categories, and users, the single post header styles and reading experience, every integration, and the AI features. Each of those has its own page in this documentation.

If you buy the full version later, you keep the theme you already have and add the Pro plugin to it. The theme then keeps updating from WordPress.org while the Pro plugin updates from our server, and that split is normal.

#Side by side

	Free theme	Free plus companion	Pro
Dashboard and onboarding	yes	yes	yes
Customizer settings	yes	yes	yes
Ready-made style kits	yes	yes	yes
System info	yes	yes	yes
Recommended plugin installer	yes	yes	yes
License activation screen	yes	yes	yes
Demo import	no	free demos, single pages included	free demos plus the catalog from Hub
Font library	no	bundled library	plus Typekit and your own font files
Integrations	no	registry only	full catalog from Hub
Polylang and WPML support	no	yes	yes
Tools, preferences, notifications, changelog	no	yes	yes
AI features	no	on the WordPress side	plus the AI assistant
Theme Options panel	no	no	yes
Object fields on posts and taxonomies	no	no	yes
Editor blocks and Elementor widgets	no	no	yes
Diagnostics	no	no	yes
Automatic updates and version rollback	no	no	yes
White label	no	no	yes

Fonts, demo import, and integrations appear in more than one column on purpose. The free layer gives you the basic version of each; Pro adds the part that needs a license behind it, which is the Hub catalog, Typekit, and your own uploads.

#Common questions

Can I start free and move to Pro later without redoing the site?

Yes. Pro is a plugin you add to the same theme. Your Customizer settings, content, and menus stay as they are, and the Theme Options panel appears alongside them.

If I install Pro, should I remove the companion plugin?

You can. Pro includes everything the companion provides, so keeping both adds nothing. Nothing breaks if you leave it installed, it simply steps aside.

What exactly disappears if the Pro plugin is deactivated?

Anything the Pro layer rendered: Theme Options settings, post listings, Pro blocks and widgets, object fields, and the integrations. The posts themselves, their titles, text, images, categories, and comments are WordPress data and stay.

Is the free theme on wordpress.org the same theme?

Yes. It is one theme with an optional paid plugin on top, not two separate products with a shared name.

Does the free edition expire?

No. It has no expiry date anywhere. It has a smaller feature set than the full version, and it keeps working for as long as you use it.

Why can I not find the theme in the directory search?

Either the theme has no free edition, or your site cannot reach wordpress.org. To tell them apart, search for any other theme: if nothing appears for anything, a server firewall is blocking the request.

Do I get support for the free edition?

Through the theme's support forum on wordpress.org. Direct support is part of what a license pays for, as the Support Policy sets out.

Last updated 22 Sep 2026