When was the last time you purchased software without a free trial? Well, we guess never.
‘Try before you buy’ this term has altered the human mindset. We generally prefer to try anything before investing in it.
Similarly, users prefer to try out plugins and themes for free before they plan to spend their pennies.
Pirated versions of premium plugins and themes are popularly known as Nulled Plugins and Themes.
When you read the term ‘nulled,’ you might be now wondering how safe and secured nulled WordPress plugins and themes are.
Some WordPress users enjoy free premium features of plugins and themes. It seems impossible, but nulled plugins and themes make it possible.
To get any software’s premium features without spending a single penny seems pretty tempting.
But you might not be aware that malicious content and malware are injected in nulled themes and plugins. Yes, that’s right!
If you think you are saving a lot of money with this trick, you should know that fixing and recuperating damage caused by cyberpunks can be much more costly than purchasing a paid version of a theme or plugin.
The moment you install them on your WordPress site, you’re giving hackers full opportunity to break into your site, and you won’t believe the consequences can be highly catastrophic.
But first of all, it is imperative to know what a nulled WordPress plugin or theme is.
What Nulled WordPress Plugins and Themes are?
You might have noticed; when a premium version of any plugin or theme of WordPress is purchased, it gives a license to use it. Users often wonder what the purpose of it is. The license restricts you from using the purchased plugin or theme on multiple websites.
Since technology has reached the pinnacles and so-called technophiles have found numerous ways to crack any software and skip out on license to use it on multiple websites.
Why are Nulled WordPress Themes and Plugins popular among users?
WordPress, the most popular CMS platform, is ideal for beginners, bloggers, and small business owners. Since they are on a tight budget, they cannot lavishly spend on plugins and themes.
On the other hand, developers often create sample websites to get customer’s approval before purchasing the required plugins or themes.
That’s how nulled themes and plugins gain popularity, demand increases, and generate money for malicious purposes.
Why using Nulled Themes and Plugins can be harmful?
Security Threats and Breaches
The most primary concern while integrating any theme or plugin on your site should be security. Security breaches are quite troublesome; this why using nulled themes and plugins shouldn’t be even your last option.
Malware and malicious codes are detected in nulled plugins and themes of WordPress. Free premium plugins and themes seem compelling at first but believe us, and they can easily harm your website.
If you think such themes and plugins will only cause damage to you, then you are wrong. Such malicious content also corrupts the system of your visitors, which might destroy your reputation among them.
For free distribution of hacked themes or plugins, cyberpunks build their repositories. The motive behind this is to gain complete access to websites through nulled themes or plugins.
Malicious code interjected by hackers can do various things, including:
- They might be harming your visitors by automatically redirecting your site to any malicious sites.
- They spam through keywords that enable them to get any illegal products to Google rank.
- Backdoors are often created by cyberpunks that allow these cyberpunks to visit your site whenever they like.
Enlisted above are only a few of those outrageous activities carried out by hackers frequently.
Therefore, we recommend to download or purchase plugins and themes from these reputable and trustworthy sites, including;
- Codecanyon
- The Official WordPress Repository
- ThemeForest
- WooCommerce Plugin Store
Harmful for SEO
You might not be aware of how adversely pirated or nulled WordPress plugins and themes affect your SEO. They add spam links to websites or redirect your visitors to malicious websites.
When you install these themes or plugins, it’s hard to see the red flags immediately. These red flags are hard to detect because hackers hide them well in the code. Search engines are pretty efficient in this case; they quickly find out such things and penalize such websites by dropping the search rankings.
Unfortunately, if this happens, it takes months to recover the SEO rankings of any websites, or sometimes you may have to build a new site from scratch.
Avoiding Regular Updates
There is always room for improvement, and WordPress plugins and themes developers know this very well.
Regularly, plugin and theme developers revamp their software. While updating any plugin or themes, developers count on the user’s experience. Usually, they add incredible new features or remove bugs, but they fix security breaches, most importantly.
Whenever a new update is available, WordPress will notify the user.
Only updating WordPress isn’t enough if you stick to a nulled version of the plugin or theme. In such a scenario, the software may face compatibility issues.
Support from the developer is compromised if you choose a nulled version of any plugin or theme. Developers restrict such users from getting any new updates, but that’s not just the case.
The worst part is that you will not receive any notification if there is any new update that makes your site vulnerable.
Once this information breaks out, it takes a few minutes for hackers to discover which website uses a vulnerable version. Then cracking the code and hacking the site is a piece of cake for them.
No Developer Support
No matter how well-informed or well-equipped you are, it would help if you had help and developer support all the time.
Developers aim to provide top-notch support to the premium customers to facilitate them. The optimal support services give you unlimited quality assistance and solve your issues.
Using a nulled version of themes and plugins cuts you off from the customer support portal.
If any nulled theme or plugin is causing an issue, then keep this in mind developers won’t come to your rescue.
Violation of copyrights
Nulled plugins and themes are often sold or given for free with mixed licenses. It means copyright laws protect some or most of the part of the code. Therefore, it is legally impermissible to use any such plugin or theme.
Pirated versions of WordPress plugins and themes can cause severe consequences. Hackers can steal your confidential data, or you might lose essential data. The worst scenario can be you might get sued for violating copyright laws.
Discouraging Proficient Innovators
To boost site functionality and improve the design quality, thousands of WordPress themes and plugins are available. These plugins and themes alleviate your site and make it more functional and appealing to users.
Developers love to create distinctive plugins and attractive themes for WordPress users. A lot of valuable time, money, and energy is invested by them to create exquisite stuff.
They strive hard to cater to needs and solve every issue that users face with any WordPress site.
It is entirely inappropriate to invest in making nulled themes and plugins successful as it adversely affects developers. It can demotivate them that affects their creative minds and further innovations that are under construction.
Premium themes and plugins can be a little bit costly, and we understand that. Free alternatives are always available, which can be opted for use.
Numerous WordPress free plugins and themes are available, which are more than enough to craft an engaging and dynamic website.
Reading through the article, you must have realized how harmful nulled plugins and themes can be. If you are scared that you might be using on, you can easily find this out.
Let’s discuss now how you can detect malware in WordPress plugins and themes.
How to detect Malware in Nulled WordPress Plugins and Themes?
If you are unsure whether the theme or plugin you’re using is pirated or original, you need to scan it to find this out.
There are numerous ways to scan a plugin or theme for malware. There are multiple free online malware scanners available on the internet.
You can use free online scanners like VirusTotal to scan any nulled theme or plugin. You can only use this option if you have not installed the pirated software on your website yet.
However, if you have already done that, you have to scan your whole website. You can use various website scanners Astra Security, Quttera, SiteGuarding, and many others.
EndNote:
Now it’s quite evident how harmful nulled WordPress Plugins and Themes are. There is no reason to choose them because an alternative and original version of those nulled plugins and themes are always available in the official WordPress repository.
However, if you still want to stick to nulled version plugins and themes, that is your choice. We discourage you from using them; it’s better to make a one-time investment than suffering for a lifetime.
