Something about not getting taken advantage of.
If you do a search on Etsy for “Shopify Theme”, you will see listings for the same theme that is for sale in the Shopify theme store for $300+ being sold for $15. Is that legal?
It’s not legal, but it’s very hard to mitigate. Shopify themes are purchased with a license to use in only one store, and only the store it was purchased with. Unlike a Shopify App, when a theme is purchased on the theme store, it comes with all of the code for the theme, and it’s easy to download and upload to another store. This is great because Shopify partners and agencies can buy a theme to use as a foundation for a custom theme and build off it. But reusing themes in more than one store without a valid license has a negative impact on the whole Shopify ecosystem and Shopify’s reputation. For us theme partners, we lose out on potential sales, but it can cause some even bigger issues for unknowing Shopify merchants and other Shopify partners. Here are a few of the horror stories I have heard recently around theme piracy from the merchant's perspective.
The Affordable Expert
A Shopify merchant finds a freelancer on Fiverr who will set up their shop and include a premium theme at a really great price. They soon start to have problems with their store, the complaint is that their site loads very slowly. They contact Shopify support, and Shopify asks them to provide the license for their theme. They don’t know what that means. They come to find out that they have an unlicensed theme from a theme that is sold in the Shopify theme store. Their store speed is slow because the theme version is many years old, and they aren't eligible for a free upgrade because the theme is unlicensed. They have to either purchase a license (which at this time, is the cost of a theme which ranges from $150-$390), switch to a free theme, or have their store shut down in 24 hours. They reach back out to the freelancer they originally bought the theme from for answers, but get no response.
The Accidental Pirate
A freelance Shopify partner who is a theme developer for hire purchases a theme from the Shopify theme store for their client, but buys it themselves on their own development store to build off of. When it’s time for the custom code theme customizations they’ve been working on to go live, they transfer the code to the clients store. A few months later, the client gets a notice from Shopify’s legal team that they are using an unlicensed version of a theme in the Shopify theme store and that they either need to purchase a license or their store will be shut down in 24 hours. The client doesn’t check their email regularly, and their store gets suddenly shut down. The client angrily reaches out to the developer who had no idea that they did anything wrong. They had purchased the theme! They reach out to Shopify support to help transfer the license over to the client’s store, but the client ends up buying their own license because it’s taking too long to sort out.
In both of these scenarios, the merchant and the partner had no idea they had done anything wrong or illegal. Until I started selling themes, I wasn’t aware of these details either. Here is what is stated in section 9.4.1 of Shopify's Terms of Service.
You may establish the appearance of your Shopify Store with a design template from Shopify’s Theme Store (a “Theme”). If you download a Theme, you are licensed to use it for a single Store only. You are free to transfer a Theme to a second one of your own Stores if you close your first Store. To initiate a transfer of a Theme to a second one of your Stores, please contact Shopify Support. You are not permitted to transfer or sell a Theme to any other person’s Store on Shopify or elsewhere. Multiple Stores require multiple downloads and each download is subject to the applicable fee.
At Coquelicot, we only sell our themes in the Shopify theme store, but similar terms are also the case for themes purchased on other platforms, including the popular Theme Forest. There's even this callout on Theme Forest's licensing page:
Note to freelancers and creative agencies: You may charge your client for your services to create an end product, even under the Regular License. But you can’t use one of our Standard Licenses on multiple clients or jobs.
Theme Forest does offer an “Extended” license, which allows for “Use in an end product that's sold”, but this license can cost 30 - 50 times as much as the regular license for themes. One popular theme on Theme Forest, Kalles, is $89 for a regular license, and $4750 for an extended license. Currently, Shopify only offers the single license option for themes sold in their theme store.
What makes themes so expensive?
How can I make sure my theme is licensed?
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Always purchase a theme from the original seller.
For merchants, this applies if this is a theme in the Shopify Theme Store, Theme Forest, or another third-party site. Make sure the original purchase happens on your store’s account so that the theme license is attributed to you and your store. When hiring an agency, designer, or developer to build your store, whether or not they say they are using a custom theme or customizing an existing theme, make sure you know the origin of the theme. ** how to find out the name of the theme**. For developers, if the client already has a store, make sure you make the client purchase the theme on their store, and then you can port over the code to your development store for customizations. If you are starting their store from scratch and purchase a theme... -
Always purchase a theme from the original seller.
For merchants, this applies if this is a theme in the Shopify Theme Store, Theme Forest, or another third-party site. Make sure the original purchase happens on your store’s account so that the theme license is attributed to you and your store. When hiring an agency, designer, or developer to build your store, whether or not they say they are using a custom theme or customizing an existing theme, make sure you know the origin of the theme. ** how to find out the name of the theme**. For developers, if the client already has a store, make sure you make the client purchase the theme on their store, and then you can port over the code to your development store for customizations. If you are starting their store from scratch and purchase a theme...