The WP Theme Experiment
Categories: Technology, WordPress
The last two years I’ve had a lot of people ask me about which premium WordPress themes are the best choice for their projects and exactly how easy they are to learn and use. These questions are usually subjective based on a person’s knowledge, skill set, what they’ve heard from others, or what their desired outcome is supposed to be. Giving a first place award for “Best in Show” to a premium WP theme company is extremely difficult because of these variables. Regardless, I am going to conduct a little experiment.
The Do It Yourself (DYI) group is a huge market. There are many of us who would rather dig in and learn how to use or customize premium WP themes ourselves in addition to a group of us who will use these products to build a business for clients. My experiment is going to be based on these groups and I am going to look at how well the themes stack up in the following areas:
- Ease of use for a beginner to intermediate user
- Documentation or How to Videos
- Support for the theme
- Visual and graphical appearance “out of the box”
- Level of customization or CSS knowledge required to change base design
- User-friendliness for designers, developers, or neither
My end goal is to provide an accurate review and grade for each theme I test, based on how well an entry-level to intermediate level person might use that product to build a site and make money with that product. The following premium themes or frameworks are what I consider the industry leaders and ones I would like to use for this experiment.
Themes or frameworks I currently have:
Themes or frameworks I would like to take for a test drive:
I am hopeful that I will be able to test all of these premium themes and start providing individual reviews by August 18th, with a complete report ready September 1st. If you are a theme company that would like to donate or provide your theme for a BETA test experiment please let me know ASAP. I will limit the entries to eight (8) companies and will cut off any new entries August 11, 2010.
Finally, I will say that all reviews will be completely objective and not based on my involvement with Startbox or my previous employment with iThemes. Just in case you were wondering.
I like this action research project you are about to conduct. As someone who tailors WordPress themes, I look forward to reading your findings.
Thanks Arelthia! I think it will be a great way to help others and also refresh my memory on how it was starting out. I also hope the other theme companies shoot me a copy for trial.
James, I appreciate what you are doing whatever the motivation.
At this particular moment, following major changes in the Thesis world, I have been calling for WordPress experts to produce reviews similar to the Premium Theme Smackdown that Aaron Brazell did in April 2010, while adding a few things.
Regarding motivation, most of the Theme reviews out there are thinly veiled affiliate link pages. There is absolutely nothing wrong with including affiliate links but what the WordPress community needs right now is some meat.
I like what is already on your proposed list for review. I would also like to see:
Speed:
This is something that Aaron addressed and with Google’s recent emphasis on it, of importance. I was initially interested in Headway but after reading Aaron’s smackdown, I am concerned that the extra code that makes it so delightfully easy for anyone to use, may weigh it down.
Support of Child Themes:
Studio Press emphasizes this and so does WordPress right on their default 2010 theme for WordPress 3.0
An explanation of SEO advantages over using the All in One SEO Pack WordPress Plug-in.
Ease of monetization and optimizing user interface with features like email subscribe.
Price including Developer Usage Comparisons
Examples of websites using by framework, by child theme if one was used, and types of customization that were made if any.
Any issues with coding that you noticed.
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I recently completed a review of server hosts for myself that took me a long time. There was nothing out there that helped (again thinly veiled affiliate link pages).
The feedback that Aaron gave to the Framework makers appeared to be useful to them. I could see responses and improvements in the comments.
I think that your endeavor is very useful and I hope to see similar ones from other “WordPress Experts” such that they serve the entire WordPress Community.
Linda,
Thank you for all these great thoughts and for our conversation by phone.
The motivation for me doing this experiment is purely from a DYI/Designer perspective as to which themes work best for people wanting to launch web design businesses or create their own sites/blogs.
Yes, I am a small part of WP Startbox but this review has nothing to do with comparing others to us. WP Startbox isn’t for everyone and I admit that before I even write my review. My thoughts will be unbiased and focused on what will help 80% of the people in the community.
Some of the insight such as code and SEO will be left out because I am not an expert in these areas, and Aaron is way more qualified to do this. I may ask other experts to contribute their advice and input.
I really hope this will be beneficial to the WP community as well as people who are looking to build a web design business. I’m always interested in feedback and appreciate you took the time to help out!