The 2025 Sydney Theme & WordPress Deep Dive：Cost, Security & Future

Choosing a foundation for your online presence in 2025 feels more critical than ever. It’s not just about picking a pretty design; it’s a fundamental business decision that impacts your budget, your time, and your future growth. With thousands of options available, the simple question, “What theme should I use on WordPress?” quickly spirals into a dozen more pressing concerns about cost, security, longevity, and the very relevance of the platform you build on.

This is where the Sydney theme by aThemes often enters the conversation. With over 100,000 active installations and a stellar 4.9-star rating on WordPress.org, it’s a proven and popular choice for freelancers and businesses.1 But is it the right choice for

you?

This guide uses the Sydney theme as a case study to explore the entire WordPress ecosystem. We’ll move beyond a simple review to dissect the features, the real costs of building and running a website in Australia, the platform’s security posture, and whether WordPress itself remains the undisputed champion in 2025. By the end, you’ll have a clear, comprehensive understanding to make a smart, future-proof decision for your digital foundation.

What is the Sydney WordPress Theme? A Deep Dive into its Features

At its core, the Sydney theme is a powerful, business-focused WordPress theme designed to provide a fast track for companies and freelancers to establish a professional online presence.1 Developed by aThemes, it aims to strike a delicate balance between robust features and user-friendliness, making it accessible for beginners while still offering the depth required by experienced developers and agencies.4

Its popularity isn’t accidental; it’s built on a foundation of deep integration with the tools users already know and love, particularly the Elementor page builder. Sydney is fully compatible with Elementor, but it goes a step further by including its own suite of custom widgets—like header sliders, testimonial carousels, and employee showcases—that can be dragged and dropped into any layout.4 This approach significantly accelerates the design process, allowing users to build engaging front pages without needing to write a single line of code.1

The theme’s success can be largely attributed to its strategy of enhancing the Elementor ecosystem rather than competing with it. By functioning as a powerful toolkit for the world’s most popular page builder, Sydney lowers the barrier to entry and leverages a massive, pre-existing user base. This symbiotic relationship is a key driver of its widespread adoption.

Beyond its page-building capabilities, Sydney offers a wealth of customization options. Through the native WordPress Customizer, you can see your changes happen in real-time, a massive benefit for those who aren’t comfortable with code.4 You gain full control over colors, access to over 600 Google Fonts, and flexible layout controls, such as switching between contained and full-width designs.1

A standout feature that directly addresses a common frustration for many WordPress users is its dedicated Header and Footer Builder.6 This tool provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface where you can structure your header and footer with up to three rows and multiple columns. Crucially, it includes granular responsive settings, allowing you to fine-tune the appearance and functionality for mobile and tablet users, ensuring a consistent experience across all devices.6

Performance is another cornerstone of the Sydney theme. It is built with clean, validated code and a responsive design, which are fundamental for strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO).4 The developers at aThemes boast impressive performance scores, with tests showing near-perfect grades for both desktop and mobile speed, giving sites built with Sydney an edge in search rankings, traffic, and conversions.8

How Much Does the Sydney Theme Cost? The Free vs. Pro Breakdown

One of the most compelling aspects of the Sydney theme is its accessible pricing model. It operates on a “freemium” basis, which means there is a highly capable free version available directly from the WordPress.org repository, alongside a premium “Sydney Pro” version that unlocks a suite of advanced features.1

The free version is far from a crippled demo; it’s a legitimate and powerful tool in its own right, suitable for many freelancers and small businesses building their first professional site.12 It includes the core responsive design, access to Google Fonts, parallax backgrounds, and basic Elementor integration, allowing you to create a polished website without any initial investment.3

For those who need more power and control, Sydney Pro starts at $69 per year for a single-site license.13 aThemes also offers packages for professionals and agencies, as well as lifetime deals, which provide excellent value for those building multiple websites.13

So, what does that $69 get you? The upgrade to Pro is substantial and targeted at users who want to move beyond a basic brochure site into more complex and commercial territories. Key Pro features include:

• Template Builder Module: This is arguably the most powerful Pro feature. It allows you to create custom-designed headers, footers, blog post layouts, and archive pages. You can even apply these templates conditionally—for example, showing a unique header only on specific pages.8
• Extended WooCommerce Features: For anyone running an online store, the Pro features are a significant draw. They include a product wishlist, variation swatches (e.g., for colors or sizes), and a streamlined multi-step checkout process designed to improve conversions.8
• Advanced Blogging and Sliders: The Pro version expands your blogging toolkit with seven different blog layouts, built-in post sharing buttons, and a reading progress bar. Sliders get more dynamic with content entrance animations and individual settings for each slide.8
• Sydney Studio and Premium Widgets: Upgrading unlocks the full “Sydney Studio,” a library of pre-defined layouts and sections, plus over 65 premium Elementor widgets to add more sophisticated elements to your pages.8
• White Labeling: For agencies building sites for clients, this feature allows you to replace all Sydney branding with your own, providing a more professional and seamless experience for your customers.8

However, it’s crucial to understand the full financial picture. While Sydney Pro is priced at $69, its marketing heavily promotes its deep integration with Elementor. To unlock the most advanced capabilities of both the theme and the page builder, users will likely need to purchase Elementor Pro as well.7 With Elementor Pro starting at $49 per year, the effective cost for the complete, high-powered experience is closer to $118 annually. This is a critical consideration when comparing Sydney to all-in-one solutions like Divi, which bundles its theme and builder for a single price of $89 per year.7

Choosing the Right WordPress Theme: Sydney vs. The Competition

Navigating the WordPress theme market can be daunting. While Sydney is a formidable option, the question “What is the number one WordPress theme?” has no single answer. The best theme is the one that aligns with your specific goals, technical comfort level, and budget.15 Sydney exists within a competitive landscape of excellent alternatives, each with its own philosophy and strengths.

The top competitors generally fall into a few distinct categories:

• All-in-One Ecosystems: The primary example is Divi by Elegant Themes. Like Sydney, it’s incredibly popular and feature-rich. However, the fundamental difference is that Divi is a closed ecosystem with its own integrated page builder.7 When you choose Divi, you’re buying into their entire suite of tools.
• Lightweight, Performance-Focused Frameworks: Themes like Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, and Neve are market leaders celebrated for their speed and clean code.16 Their philosophy is to be “builder-agnostic,” meaning they are designed to work seamlessly with any page builder, including Elementor, Beaver Builder, and the native WordPress block editor (Gutenberg). They provide a lean foundation upon which you can build with your preferred tools.
• Dedicated Theme Builders: A tool like SeedProd is less a theme and more a complete theme builder. It’s designed from the ground up for users who want to construct every part of their theme visually, with a strong focus on creating high-converting landing pages and marketing funnels.15

This market structure reveals a crucial strategic choice for any user. Divi represents a “walled garden” approach—powerful and cohesive, but you’re locked in. Astra and its peers offer a “universal adapter” model, providing maximum flexibility to use any tool. Sydney carves out a unique and highly successful niche as a “specialist enhancer.” It is not builder-agnostic; it is explicitly and deeply optimized for the web’s most popular page builder, Elementor. This focus is both its greatest strength and its primary limitation. If you love Elementor, Sydney is a powerful and logical choice. If you prefer the native block editor or another builder, a theme like Astra or Kadence would be a more suitable foundation.

Beyond these top-tier competitors, the WordPress ecosystem is filled with thousands of themes built for specific niches. Understanding these can help satisfy unique business needs:

• Cindy Theme: A theme specifically designed to be accessibility-ready, making it ideal for community-focused websites or organizations that need to comply with accessibility standards.19
• Realhome Theme: A purpose-built theme for the real estate industry, offering specialized features like advanced property search, agent profiles, and property information displays.21
• Danza Theme: A creative and vibrant theme tailored for dance studios, performing arts schools, and ballet academies, with features for class schedules and instructor profiles.22
• Roam Theme: This name is associated with multiple themes across different platforms, which can cause confusion. There is a “Roam” theme by Qode Interactive for travel and tourism on WordPress 24, a “Roam” theme by Press75 for creatives and photographers on WordPress.com 25, and even a “Roam” theme for the Shopify platform.27 It’s a prime example of why checking the developer and platform is crucial.
• Sublime Theme: A family of themes from SublimeTheme, including “Sublime Business” and “Sublime Blog,” that focus on simplicity, speed, and ease of use, often leveraging Elementor for customization.28

How Much Does a WordPress Website Really Cost in Australia?

Moving beyond the price of a theme like Sydney, it’s time to address the bigger picture: the total investment required to build and maintain a professional WordPress website. This is where many beginners and SMBs get caught by surprise, as the initial theme cost is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. The costs can vary significantly based on whether you build it yourself, hire a freelancer, or partner with a web design agency, with the Australian market having its own specific price points.

For a professionally built small business website in Australia, you can expect the initial cost to range from AUD $3,000 to $10,000.31 A basic 5-page “brochure” style website, which provides credibility and key business information, typically starts from

AUD $2,000 to $3,500 when built by a freelancer.32 If you require a more complex e-commerce store or custom features, the cost can easily climb to

AUD $20,000 and beyond.31

The choice of who builds your site is a major cost factor. In Australia, hiring a freelance WordPress developer can range from AUD $2,000 to $8,000 for a standard project, while a full-service web design agency will typically start at AUD $8,000 and can exceed $30,000 for a comprehensive strategy, design, and build.35 These prices reflect the varying hourly rates, with junior developers in Australia charging around $30-$50/hour, mid-level developers at $60-$100/hour, and senior specialists or agencies commanding

$100 to over $250 per hour.31

Beyond the initial build, ongoing and often “hidden” costs are critical to budget for:

• Domain Name: While many hosts offer a free domain for the first year, you must pay for renewal. A .com.au domain, the standard for Australian businesses, typically renews for AUD $14 to $25 per year.37
• Web Hosting: This is your website’s home on the internet. Choosing a provider with servers in Australia is crucial for faster loading times for local customers and can positively impact your local SEO.39 Shared hosting plans in Australia can start from as low as

  $7.50 per month, but a more robust managed WordPress hosting plan will generally cost between $20 and $100 per month.31

• Website Maintenance: This is a non-negotiable expense for a secure and functional website. Professional maintenance plans, which cover essential software updates, security scans, and backups, typically range from AUD $50 to $500 per month in Australia.31
• Premium Plugins: As discussed with Sydney Pro, your theme is just the start. You will likely need other premium plugins for enhanced SEO, contact forms, security, or caching, which can add another AUD $200 to $2,000 per year to your budget.35

WordPress vs. Wix vs. Shopify

When evaluating costs, many businesses weigh self-hosted WordPress against all-in-one platforms like Wix and Shopify. This isn’t just a comparison of price tags; it’s a fundamental choice between two different business models: control vs. convenience.

Self-hosted WordPress offers ultimate control at a variable cost. You assemble the components—hosting, domain, theme, plugins, maintenance—and can optimize each piece for price and performance. This is ideal for those who want to avoid vendor lock-in and scale their expenses as their site grows.

Conversely, platforms like Shopify and Wix offer convenience at a fixed, predictable monthly cost. They bundle hosting, the platform, support, and security into tiered plans. This predictability is appealing for businesses that want to avoid surprise expenses, but it comes at the cost of flexibility. You are locked into their ecosystem, their pricing structures, and their rules, which can include higher transaction fees if you don’t use their proprietary payment gateways.41

Is WordPress Safe, Stable, and Still Relevant in 2025?

Beyond the costs and features, many potential users harbor deeper concerns about the WordPress platform itself. Questions about security, ownership, and future viability are common and valid. To make an informed decision, it’s essential to confront this Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) with facts.

Ownership & Control: Who Owns My WordPress Site?

This is one of the most critical and often misunderstood aspects of the platform. The confusion stems from the two different “flavors” of WordPress:

1. WordPress.org: This is the free, open-source software that anyone can download and install on their own web hosting. When you use this version, you own your website and all its content, 100%.44 You have complete control and are not beholden to a single company’s terms of service. The software itself is collectively maintained by a global community, and its trademark is protected by the non-profit WordPress Foundation to ensure it remains free forever.44
2. WordPress.com: This is a for-profit, commercial hosting service owned and operated by a company called Automattic.46 While it uses the WordPress software, it’s a closed platform where Automattic manages the hosting and maintenance. With this service, you own your content (like blog posts), but you don’t own the platform and must abide by their rules on monetization and content, and they can suspend your site if you violate their terms.44

For any serious business, freelancer, or SMB, the self-hosted WordPress.org is the standard choice precisely because it guarantees full ownership and control. And to be clear, despite a close partnership to improve the ecosystem, Google does not own WordPress.48

Security & Stability: Is WordPress at Risk?

The immense popularity of WordPress—powering over 43% of the web—naturally makes it a prime target for hackers.50 However, the perception of it being “insecure” is often misplaced. The primary security risks in the WordPress ecosystem do not stem from the core software itself, which is actively maintained and patched by a dedicated security team. Instead, according to security reports, the vast majority of vulnerabilities—as high as 97%—are found in

third-party plugins and themes, especially those that are outdated or poorly coded.51

Recent reports from early 2025 highlighted several critical vulnerabilities being actively exploited, such as flaws in the “Automatic Plugin” and the “Bricks” theme, which could allow for data theft or complete site takeover.52 This underscores the importance of a proactive security posture. A WordPress site is not inherently insecure; it is only as secure as its owner makes it. Best practices are non-negotiable:

• Update Regularly: Keep the WordPress core, themes, and all plugins updated. This is the single most important step to patch known vulnerabilities.51
• Use Strong Credentials: Enforce strong, unique passwords for all users and implement two-factor authentication (2FA).54
• Choose Reputable Add-ons: Only install themes and plugins from trusted developers with good reviews and a history of regular updates.
• Employ a Security Plugin: Tools like Wordfence or Sucuri add a web application firewall (WAF) and malware scanning for an essential extra layer of defense.54
• Select Quality Hosting: A good web host provides server-level security, regular backups, and support.

A common fear is that “updating WordPress will break my site.” While conflicts can happen, this risk can be almost entirely eliminated by following a safe update process: always create a full backup of your site before updating, and test the updates on a staging site (a private clone of your live site) before pushing them to the public.55

Adding to concerns about stability was the recent and very public legal dispute between WP Engine and Automattic in late 2024 and early 2025.57 The conflict involved allegations of anti-competitive behavior and abuse of power, culminating in a lawsuit and a court-ordered injunction against Automattic.58 For the average user, the direct impact of this corporate drama is minimal. However, it highlights ongoing governance questions within the open-source community and the significant influence wielded by Automattic. It serves as a reminder that while the software is decentralized, the ecosystem has powerful players whose actions can create instability.60

The Future of WordPress: Is it Outdated or Losing Popularity?

Despite whispers of its decline, the data tells a different story. As of June 2025, WordPress’s market share is not shrinking; it’s growing. It powers 43.5% of all websites and holds a staggering 61.2% of the known CMS market. Its closest competitors, Shopify and Wix, sit at just 6.7% and 5.3% respectively.62 The narrative that WordPress is “losing popularity” is factually incorrect.

However, the argument that it has become “harder to use” holds some weight.64 The platform’s greatest strength—its open-source freedom—is also the source of its complexity. Unlike the guided, all-in-one experience of Squarespace or Wix, a WordPress user is responsible for choosing hosting, managing updates, ensuring security, and navigating a dizzying array of over 60,000 plugins.65 The introduction of the powerful but complex block editor (Gutenberg) also introduced a new learning curve for long-time users.67

So, what will replace WordPress? The answer appears to be: a more advanced version of WordPress. The platform is not static; it is actively evolving to address its perceived shortcomings and compete with its rivals. The future of WordPress is being shaped by several key trends:

• Deep AI Integration: Artificial intelligence is being woven into the fabric of WordPress, from AI-powered content creation and real-time SEO suggestions to predictive security measures.54
• Headless Architecture: For high-traffic and enterprise-level sites, “headless WordPress” is a major trend. This decouples the back-end content management (WordPress) from the front-end display (often built with modern JavaScript frameworks like React or Vue.js), resulting in massive gains in speed and flexibility.68
• The Evolution of the Core: WordPress is not abandoning its PHP foundation; rather, it’s becoming a more hybrid system.69 PHP remains the backbone, but JavaScript and React are now essential skills, powering the entire modern block editor and paving the way for more interactive, app-like experiences on the front end.71

The central challenge for WordPress in 2025 and beyond is to balance its core philosophy of open-source freedom with the market’s demand for simplicity. The entire Full Site Editing (FSE) project, with the block editor at its heart, is an ambitious attempt to create a more integrated, visually-driven, and user-friendly experience within the open-source framework. WordPress isn’t being replaced; it is transforming to absorb the best ideas of its competitors. Choosing WordPress today is a bet on the continued success of that evolution.

Conclusion: Is a Sydney-Powered WordPress Site Your Best Move in 2025?

After a deep dive into the Sydney theme and the broader WordPress ecosystem, a clear picture emerges. The decision to use Sydney, or any theme, is not an isolated choice but a commitment to a particular platform philosophy and workflow.

The Sydney theme itself stands out as a powerful, well-supported, and exceptionally valuable tool, particularly for freelancers and businesses who are building on the Elementor page builder. Its free version is generous, and the Pro upgrade delivers a suite of professional features—from a true template builder to advanced e-commerce tools—that easily justify its $69 price tag.

However, the true cost of a professional website extends far beyond a single theme. As our analysis of the Australian market shows, budgeting for quality hosting, ongoing security maintenance, and other essential premium tools is non-negotiable for a secure and performant business asset.

Ultimately, the choice comes down to a fundamental trade-off:

• Choose Sydney on self-hosted WordPress if: You prioritize ultimate control, 100% content ownership, and limitless scalability. This path offers the most power and flexibility, ensuring your website can grow with your business without restriction. It is the best choice if you are comfortable with the hands-on responsibility of managing your digital asset or have the budget to hire a professional to handle maintenance for you.
• Consider an all-in-one alternative like Shopify or Wix if: You prioritize absolute simplicity, predictable monthly costs, and a hands-off experience. These platforms are excellent for getting a site up and running quickly with minimal technical friction. The trade-off is a loss of control, potential restrictions, and being locked into a proprietary ecosystem.

Despite the learning curve and recent ecosystem drama, WordPress remains the dominant force on the web for a reason. Its open-source nature guarantees a level of freedom and ownership that closed platforms simply cannot match. In 2025, it is more powerful and adaptable than ever. Armed with this comprehensive analysis, you are now equipped to move beyond simply choosing a theme and instead make a confident, strategic decision about the very foundation of your digital future.