My hand-picked list of 7 Premium WordPress Theme Providers
July 22nd, 2008Web Development, Webdesign/SEO, Wordpress, WordpressUPDATE: I now have a permanent page setup for maintaining my list. Consider this post entry outdated and visit the page instead.
I am spending more time recently with Wordpress for clients like www.mystylesense.com and www.refreshcommunications.ca as well as this blog. I am realizing that you simply can’t replace the fit and finish of a premium wordpress theme. A premium theme is the next natural progression of this blog and the blog’s of my clients. Finding the best themes isn’t easy and if you are a WP newbie like I was until recently, you will probably install a few dozen free themes and get tired of all the little issues like badly formatted H tags, etc. Its the fit and finish and (hopefully) attention to detail you pay for. I have probaby tried a 100 or so free themes in the last few years and I have concluded that you simply can’t reproduce the quality from these providers with free themes, IMHO.
Anyways, here’s my exclusive list of premium Wordpress theme providers I have considered purchasing a theme from. Truth be told, I would love to own them all but alas money makes my world go around so I have to choose one (ok..maybe 3) and dive in head first. I will buy one eventually for my consulting site at www.redprimary.com so will post more about that experience in the near future.
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www.revolutiontheme.comRevolution is one of the first sites I looked at. Good offerings and reasonable prices. The have products tailored to different industries like sports, news, etc. Pros: Active forums, most themes have features sections Cons: Most of the themes are boxy, and look similar but I imagine you can change to fit. Making themes for specific niches pigeon-hole’s their offerings somewhat. |
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www.woothemes.comA wide variety much more likely to suit many tastes and concepts. The Vibrantcms theme in particular has a home page carousel which I was looking for. Pros: Proudfolio and VibrantCMS are very polished. Cons: Limited selection. They are trying to sell “club” pricing but they don’t have enough themes to make it worthwhile. Also concerned about how flexible the themes are. Not clear on what plugins if any are required either and I have to register to see the forums which isn’t cool cause I can’t get a sense of what the community is like. |
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www.wpremix.comHaving over 50 page templates you can choose from caught my eye. I suppose that means I can setup layouts for individual pages easily? A video of this in action would be nice (I’m not a WP pro quite yet) Pros: Page templates, dynamic codes in content, some menu thingmabob, free upgrades, Cons: I was totally convinced until I saw the sites in the showcase. Some were laughable. Seems that you have to download their core product and restyle to your needs. Ugh.. thats just more work I don’t need. |
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www.premiumthemes.netNo-nonsense and easy on the eyes, but also not terribly revolutionary. I include them cause they have some potential to compete with my other links here. Visit them in 6 months. Pros: inexpensive, well documented feature set. Cons: Nothing revolutionary. Only a handful of themes are a step above the free market, sparse forums have me concerned. |
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Beautiful work and totally unique. Themes here are centered around video and are very well done. Superb work. If a client comes to me for a video blog, I will use one of these for sure. Pros: Unique solution tailored for video sites, cheap, no-nonsense sales site Cons: Wish Jason had more and not just for videos! I would buy if it fit my needs! |
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Only one theme here right now called Mimbo Pro but its based on the free Mimbo which Darren still gives away. This may be a candidate for purchase as they said “no more image cropping”. Thats a huge plus. Pros: based on a free theme that received a lot of downloads so its definitely been around for a while. Cons: Posts about modifying the original product should go back into the core product. Seems you have to modify the core product yourself for things like carousel and custom skins. Ugh. More work. |
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www.wpdesigner.comSmart business model. Simple $5 a year for everything, well for the dozen or so published themes. Can’t beat that. Pros: cheap, lots of members Cons: Seems the original founder has sold operations so the future of the service is unknown. |
Like this list? Don’t be a selfish prick! Leave a comment or link to me eh!
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