Let’s go over what a Nulled WordPress Theme is, where you can find them, why and how Themes are nulled, see if they are safe to use and your alternative choices.
What is a Nulled WordPress Theme?
The term Nulled means to remove something or cancel something out.
Nulling a WordPress theme means, removing the licensing check on a paid theme. This way the theme does not call home, back to the authors website to verify it is a legitimate installation.
This required development expereience, so someone who is familiar with the coding of these themes (PHP and Javascript) will go in and remove the license check.
Is it Illegal to use Nulled Themes?
Yes, it’s illegal. It’s called software piracy and follows the same laws as pirating any other piece of software or intellectual property.
Depending on where you live, you could be fined or put in prison. The likelihood of this happening are very small, however, technically you would be breaking the law.
Where Can You Find Nulled Themes?
A simple google search for the theme name with nulled will return many results for nulled versions of the theme. One of the most popular nulled themes is the Avada theme.
Many of the results are on very shady sites that may try to infect your site with Malware, so be warned before visiting any nulled theme sites.
It’s become popular for sites offering illegal downloads to put up a paid wall. This means, they will force you to complete a spammy survey or enter your email to win something.
They earn money when they work with these shady networks.
Many times you’ll find they offer a download to a link that is non-existant after you enter your personal info, or they send you to a shady site that asks for money to get access to the download.
Never enter your email or personal information on these sites. You will be targeted by hackers and your inbox will fill up with spam.
Alternatively you can find Nulled themes on torrent websites as well such as the pirate bay.
Why do people Null Themes?
Many people are against the amount some authors charge for their theme. Some feel all software should be free and open source.
I completely understand in many cases Theme authors charge an extremely high price for a theme.
What’s worse now a days is most paid Themes (and plugins too) are going to a SAAS (software as service) model, charging yearly for updates (in some cases monthly).
It’s insane, so it’s no wonder people are trying to find the theme for free.
So, is it Safe to use a Nulled WordPress Theme?
No, it is not. Two big reasons.
Reason #1: You won’t be able to update the theme.
With a nulled theme you will not be able to update the theme. By not being able to update the theme you are opening a security hole in your website.
Many themes update quite often to patch security vulnerabilities. There are new vulnerabilities found on a daily basis.
Reason #2: Nulled themes are commonly infected with Backdoors.
Many of the nulled themes are now infected with backdoors.
If you haven’t, check out our article why do wordpress websites get hacked.
This will help to shed some light on the motive hackers have for adding backdoors to websites. Hint: It’s mostly about MONEY through theft.
Alternatives to using a Nulled Theme
So, you don’t want to fork over the cash to get the Divi, Avada or whatever theme it is you’re looking at. But, you just love the layout and design elements.
We highly recommend you see if a free theme will be “good enough” until your website is earning some money.
Just login to your wordpress admin, click appearance, add new and preview some other themes. You’re more than likely to find one, just close enough to what you want, and won’t expose yourself to the risk of using a nulled theme.