What is the major difference between child theme and normal theme

What is the exact difference

A parent theme is a stand alone theme which have no dependencies on other themes. A parent theme is fully functional on its own without the need for any other features from any other theme

A child theme cannot function on its own without the parent theme. The child theme inherent the functionality of the parent theme. The child theme can change or add extra functionality or styling to the parent theme without changing the actual parent theme.

And what are the advantages of using child theme.?

The most important advantage of a child theme is the fact that you can change/add to the functionality or styling of the parent theme without changing the actual parent themes’ templates. The advantage are, if you have a theme that you have not coded, and you need to change some functionality and/or styling, you will not loose any customizations if you update the parent theme if your custom code is in a child theme. Child themes are the safest and most recommended way of making changes to a parent theme.

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