Choose the right wordpress theme for your websites/blogs. I hope this simple review will help you get the best theme framework.Create beautiful professional blogs/websites!
There are 4 popular wordpress theme frameworks at present, they are:
- DIY Theme -Thesis theme
- iThemes -Flexx theme and Builder Theme
- Headway WordPress Theme
- Studiopress Genesis Theme
If you have not decided which theme to buy, I hope my experiences can help you make a decision. I have purchased all of these themes in fact.
1 Diytheme -Thesis wordpress theme framework
The thesis theme framework is the earliest framework in the premium theme framework marketplace, because this is the earliest theme frmawork, and because of it’s flexibility,good for seo, this theme win a lot users at first. Now the thesis theme has update to 1.6, it is a little hard for new users. It requires quite a bit of CSS modification,php codes, ofcourse you need do some graphic works if you want to make it luxury..It is an exceptional template with exceptional support with one caveat, there is a learning curve. If you want to make a lot of changes you will need to learn a few things but the support forum is excellent and I have never failed to get an answer here.
Yes, you need to learn first.
2 Headway WordPress Theme Headway 1.5.6
This is the second wordpress theme framework, just after the thesis. In order to help the new users and make it easy to use, headway theme has do quiet a lot hard work! This theme is more easy to use than the thesis theme! You can drag and drop to design your theme,totally control the layout. You need not to know any CSS or PHP, just follow their guides and you can build your cool wp themes! Yes, you can design your theme in visual. This is different from thesis theme. And the Headway theme has easy hooks, you can add/change any where you love.I’m not going to lie, the way Thesis works coding wise will be confusing at first with the hook system it uses. But headway theme never does.
For example, you want to add the 336*280 adsense ads under the article title:
If you use thesis theme, you need to find the hooks, find the hook name, learn how to add functions, yes, you need to learn this:How to Customize Like a Pro with Theme Hooks. But if you use headway theme, want you do is just find the hooks and add you ads where you like:
You needn’t to know php, just copy and past the adsense codes or other ads in the form and save! Really easy. You can add anything to anywhere!Thesis might seem very “easy to customize” but still requires quite a bit of CSS modification etc. to make it look right…
About seo: I have headway theme and thesis themes, and I know both seo features. Almost the same. Just like you can onindex Category Archives,authors… Yes, most the same with thesis. And headway has more seo features.Before you do anychange of seo options, you need to read this: Headway Search Engine Optimization
3 iThemes Flexx theme and Builder Theme
The ithemes flexx wordpress theme and ithemes builder theme are really easy to use.The builder theme from Ithemes is by far the easiest and best theme I have ever used.You can customize EVERYTHING without having to know code.They now have a style manger that is plain SICK..You can do all the customizations quickly that in the past with any other theme you would have to go into the code.Cory and his team have built the best theme on the planet bar none.I like the way the itheme Builder theme gives you the option of creating a landing page without the sidebars within your blog.
Flexx theme good for Blogs while Builder theme good for any niches. You can use builder theme to create cute personal blogs, or you can use it to design a cool magazine wordpress theme, or you can build a professional corporate website, use WordPress as CMS.
4 Studiopress Genesis theme
Studiopress is a very famous premium wordpress theme company in the worpress theme marketplace.The studiopress Genesis is the latest theme framework,they just released this framework 1 month ago. This is different from headway theme or thesis theme,a little like the ithemes.There are less options you can choose than ithemes. If you need to create a professional template, also you need to know some php and CSS. But the good news is you can purchase their child theme if you love their design, there are 7 professional cool child themes for genesis already, all previous studiopress premium wordpress themes will become child themes of Genesis, yes, they will move all their themes as a child theme of Genesis,including the AgentPress theme, which is a professional real estate wordpress theme. Why, because genesis theme is so easy to customize, this will help you and the designers save a lot time from coding to design.
If you know little php and CSS, you can get limit customization from the support.
The thesis theme direct competitor is headway theme, while genesis theme direct competitor is iThemes. Headway theme, thesis theme have no business with Genesis theme and iThemes.
Good for beginners:Headway theme and iThemes, also Genesis theme has a lot child themes, you can buy your favorite one! Thesis theme is a little hard for beginners, good for advanced wp users, also I recommend you try headway theme, you can find a lot thesis users have changed to headway, really.
PS: I have some discount coupon code for you if you have decided to buy these themes:
- Headway theme coupon code, get 20% off on all license. Get more headway coupon code
- Studiopress Genesis framework discount code: use BH10 to get 10% off.
- Thesis discount coupon code: these is no valid coupon code at present.
- iThemes Flexx Theme coupon code and iThemes Builder Theme coupon code: use twitter as discount code to get 20% off.
very helpful post – thanks.
what about pagelines? trying to decide between ithemes and genesis but am also considering the pagelines theme editor. have you used this one? it seems similar to ithemes builder.
I am fairly knowledgeable and so coding, css, php, etc. is not much of an issue but would really prefer to have a drag and drop (no coding) framework that i can use to create many different themes and include many plugins (i use wordpress as the cms) with ease.
any thoughts would be appreciated.