Thank you for featuring Showcase. The price actually starts from $70, which is the most popular option.

Thanks for mentioning my posts in your article.

One thing that I would add is that I think there is a Link [hackwordpress.com] that have extra options as well, but the focus is clearly on content management systems.

Either way, premium themes are definitely here to stay as bloggers and businesses will always have a need for a custom theme or a theme that isn’t used very often to help their site stand out.

Hi Vitaly & Sven: thanks for featuring Mimbo Pro among these other great themes. Just wanted to clarify, it’s Mimbo with an “i” and it’s a theme for Wordpress, not Mambo.

I definitely feel that it is for the commercial use only. Individual bloggers that aren’t trying to get rich won’t fall into paying for what you can get for free

For me the only reason I could see purchasing a “Premium theme” would be because a certain theme has something that I just can’t figure out. Fortunately, the WP community is so large that finding help isn’t an issue.

I still can’t get over the idea of paying for something that can usually be freely found. Maybe someone needs to design a good free magazine theme, since these are mostly what is covered, and get back into the spirit of WP, open source, i.e., free.

You forgot one of the first to do this: Link [typepress.net] which is up and coming still

Is Brad Mahaffey (of Magazine News v1.0) involved with NorthXEast.com?

i don’t think many people who read SM would take their vote for “Yes, my blog design should be special!”

Blogging Experiment had an article which focused on some issues due to re-licensing of a theme . The comments on that article delved into whether “Themes do / do not not inherit the GPL from Wordpress.” which to my knowledge has not been legally answered.

I wonder what the official position of Wordpress / Automattic / Matt on that aspect of premium theme development is.

Ideally I’d design the theme myself. But depending on how my site was doing I might consider buying one if I couldn’t put my own together.

i want to design a theme for me. because best of theme is own theme.

well, i’ m still sceptical about premium themes - there should be something “very extra” that that makes it worth buying as there are possibility other people will have the very same theme.

How do they deal with updates? Do they have to release a new version if WordPress comes out with 2.4? Or do they leave it up to the bloggers to deal with the updates themselves?

The premium theme trend is definitely here to stay. On the CMS front, Joomla community has already been offering premium themes for well over a year now. There are quite a few individuals/studios who offer them. A unique thing to be noted about Joomla premium themes is that they are offered on a membership model. A new theme is released every month. Users can take membership with a particular website, and use all the themes on offer. In future I expect the same to happen with Wordpress themes as well.

On a side note, it will also be interesting to see how the premium theme scene shapes up with Wordpress Marketplace as well.

Are these themes really so cheap? its good.

Thanks a lot for reviewing the Revolution themes - I certainly think that premium themes are here to stay, and look forward to help taking WordPress to a higher level!

To my eye, they most of these look the same. Nothing all that ‘extra’ that would be worth paying for.

Sweet timing on this! I’m looking into premium magazine style themes for a project I’m developing. I like Brian’s Revolution, but I’m waiting to see Darren’s new Mimbo before purchasing anything.

As far as if we should pay for a premium theme - I do. You cannot find themes like these free. Sure, we can go with a free WP theme and save the small bucks, but I think the price of going premium is minimal - case in point is Revolution: if Brian had built that for a client I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have charged them under $200, probably more like $2,000 - and with some knowledge of php, css, and photoshop, you can certainly make it unique to you. Quite a deal for small $change!

I just recently purchased a theme from a designer. But I had difficulty choosing one answer in your poll.

“I’d hire a designer” BECAUSE “I want my blog design to be special,” if that makes any sense.

I rather make free themes and give them away on a donation basis, I.E “if you like these themes make a donation to my tip jar”
I rather make the money if someone came to me to make them a custom theme from seeing my work on free themes.

As for dealing with theme changes in future wordpress versions, it should be up to the people developing/selling the themes and the people looking to buy the theme. The people creating/selling themes should have it clearly defined what kind of support is included with the theme. While it is up to the person buying the theme to review what kind of support is included with the premium theme.

Most Smashing Magazine readers probably prefer to design their own theme, but we’re in the minority of overall WP users. To those who say “why pay for what you can get for free,” I don’t know of any free themes that can compare with most of these themes mentioned here. Personally, I think they’re a great value for most bloggers/website owners.

who wants a blog with a theme like digg’s ???

I can’t tell you how many inquiries I get for people that got stuck implementing a bought theme or template. They usually come to us to fix it. In the end they usually say, ‘we should have used you guys from the beginning and let you design it’. Bottom line is bought templates can’t give you customer service like a design company can. So if you are going to go big, you might as well buy the support as well.
Just my opinion…

I still think my blog, benmay.org- has a better theme than any of those!!

Thanks a lot Smash Mag!. I am honored to be listed with all those talented designers.

I think it’s a great option for those who either cannot design themselves or do not have the time/resources to jump into the codex to figure things out.

For some it’s easy to roll up your sleeves and get to know the in and outs of your theme and some they would rather buy a “complete” package and just tweak images and styles.

I don’t think I’d ever buy a theme but they are all nice nonetheless.

It’s a really good idea. Most bloggers can use an existing free theme or design their own, but a small size magazine that needs to concentrate on producing content would benefit from some of these professional-looking themes. They also offer lots of extra CMS options that would take a long time to design themselves. Serious online magazines shouldn’t spend their time figuring out how to feature an article; that’s a ‘technical’ job. An ‘investment’ of less than $100 is an absolute bargain, and now’s the time to buy: I can see this market developing and prices rocketing.

I would also add that these themes look pretty good, but they do utilise what I think are some pretty poor design practices: drop-down menus, lack of negative space and over-widgetisation being common examples. Maybe the deigners feel they have to offer more and more stuff in order to justify the cost?

(BTW this site doesn’t handle commentors forgetting to enter their name and email address to well!)

Problem #1 - Wordpress is not a true CMS, yet premium themes try to sell Wordpress as a true CMS

What most of the premium themes have really done is try to emulate a true CMS system using Wordpress’s limited blogging and page system. They do this by providing a well designed intro page structure that looks like something generated from a more robust CMS.

Yet its all a crafty illusion that most people will not see through until its too late and the nonrefundable “premium” theme is paid for.

Remember, no matter how many php mods, theme mods and content hacks you try to use, WP will never be a true CMS.

Problem # 2 - Premium themes are for people who what a theme that is unique, yet by the nature of the theme any average joe can own and use the theme

Honestly this reminds me of marketing 101. Take something free and add some catchy words (ie premium) and a price tag and all the people who don’t know any better will rush to buy it.

Additionally, just so you all know, I’m a textpattern, expression engine, and wordpress user. Code wise WP reminds me of myspace.com .. both are broken pieces of coding that need a full rewrite from the ground up but will never receive that upgrade due to their popularity. Texpattern is the nice well coded diamond in the rough that everyone overlooks. Meanwhile expression engine has the charms but its price tag scares away all the open source developers.

A lot of us are designers. Why wouldn’t we make our own themes?

I think it’s just a trend for a few months, because someone started a hype, then the others were following like sheeps.

Thanks for including the link to my follow up. It’s appreciated.

I believe that premium themes won’t be a big deal, 1 or 2 people might buy it because it’s always cheaper than hiring a designer and developer but someone can copy or develop similar themes that just need some adjusting…

So would I sell a theme? Probably… but wouldn’t expect to make much money out of it.

They suck so far…

I think it is more than just a trend, they are here to stay and I am sure people will continue paying a premium price to have their site stand apart. I also believe that all the themes mentioned here are worth more than the price they are listed at.

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned the Link [buzzdroid.com], which I’m currently using on a couple of blogs. It’s perfect for personal blogs, but can also be customised for other purposes.

most of the themes flagged premium do not look like themes I would spend more than 15$ on. just going by the price of 250$ you could except more uniqueness and more custom user functionality. have you checked out sites such as getafreelancer.com? you can get indian offshore programmers and designers to do a sophisticated design job for 100$. being a designer myself, I find that very harsh also as this somewhatly reduces the own price one can ask for. one client that I worked for clearly stated that out, so I had to cut my price 50% as I strongly wanted to keep on that job. 250$ for a theme that eventually more than 10 people will buy is just too much. If I was to produce & sell premium themes I would go for 50$.

Why would you, if you’re running a commercial site, have a layout and design that is not special? It seems very unprofessional to use a theme for that purpose.

I think that premium wordpress themes are definitely here to stay … there are lots of advantages to using a “premium” theme! Not only does a premium theme have a more professional look and feel, but usually added functionality that a free theme just doesn’t have. Buying a premium theme isn’t for everybody!! Obviously, if you’re a designer and you can build your own theme, then it only makes sense to either modify a free theme, or customize your own theme from the ground up … but not everybody is skilled at editing PHP files or hacking WordPress!! For those people, having the services of a premium WordPress theme designer can save hundreds of dollars in custom design work and countless hours of headaches and frustration!!

Premium WordPress themes are here to stay … there is no getting around that fact!! Obviously buying a premium theme isn’t for everyone … but even in the “premium” category, there are still some very nice Link [www.epicwebstrategies.com]. I agree with lica though … if you are going to buy a Link [www.wordpressdreamtheme.com], you should get top-quality support!

Thank you very much for including ArtCulture’s Magazine News theme. Very much appreciated. :) Not that it will make a ton of traffic difference to smashing, however I added the site to ArtCulture’s blog roll. Thanks again!

I’m torn as to which one I should buy… they all look soooo gorgeous

Howdy Wordpressers,

Thanks for adding Link [graphpaperpress.com] to this list. I’ve introduced Link [graphpaperpress.com] for my premium/paid themes, which gives my clients all themes that I develop in 2008 for just $99. It’s basically a $99 subscription fee for about 15 premium themes. Why? Because I think everyone likes options and new stuff.

The price most charge for premium theme design is just a fraction of the price that most would spend to have a robust custom website designed from the ground up. For instance: I work for a company that sells a very popular, and expensive, CMS for news websites. The starting price for the CMS software alone is more than most pay for automobiles. Our designers and developers worked more than a year on our latest site design. The starting price tag to build a site like this can well exceed $100,000. Compare these sites to a few premium/paid themes and you will be pleasantly surprised by how premium/paid Wordpress themes stack up.

Is Wordpress a fully functioning CMS? That depends on what your content is. Premium/paid Wordpress themes provide an affordable alternative for start-up publications, bloggers and small businesses that don’t want to “break the bank” on custom website design.

I have been selling WordPress themes for quite sometime, and I definitely believe premium themes are here to stay.

I think most people buy my themes for their features, and the low pricing.

Thanks.

Personally, I’m all for people making money on their hobby projects. While I don’t have a problem with premium themes (as they are more a design issue than anything else), I do worry that premium plug-ins would dig away somewhat at Wordpress’ core values, such as being open source.

I like your showcase theme,it looks so perfect ! but its price is too hight for me

Mi inglés no es muy bueno.
Sólo quiero decirles que este listado está excelente!
Los themes son maravillsos.

As a blogger sometimes the blog you use starts to make some money to you so it’s a good investment to purchase a premium theme !! Just my 5 cents !!

the poll used here is mainly taking submissions from designers since this is a design blog.. results would be different i think on a different site

Revolution-News-Theme-for-Wordpress
Download: 3 Theme FREE !!!

Link [www.adwordsa.com]

DON’T BE FOOLED!

I purchased one of these themes today, inspired by what appears to be incredible functionality and flexibility. It had a wide variety of layouts and it looked like a dream come true. After shelling out $50+ for the theme and installing it, I discovered to my dismay that the theme was not a content management system at all.

When I created a page using one of the provided “templates”, it just loaded html from a template php file and the ONLY way to modify the contents on the page was to actually edit the template php file. ZERO content management tools whatsoever. If this was for my own website, I could do it…but I’m a programmer. For any of my clients, this theme would have zero value at all, since they don’t have the skills or tools to update the content themselves. Isn’t that the point of a CMS?

I’ve asked for a full refund, and so I won’t slander the seller of this theme just yet. But you should all be warned that what appears to be great functionality may not actually do what you think.

Think twice before buying a theme advertised as a CMS!!!!!!

those who know nothing about php css & html can buy the premium themes.

those who know can take a free theme and modify it!!

whats the big deal about premium themes?

I’ve never bought a “Premium” theme before (I make my own) but I do get a lot of clients asking me for them. Wordpress is pretty awesome and everyone I make a site for seems to really like the idea of having a blog that looks like their own personal website.

It really allows my clients the ability to constantly update their own site without having to own or know anything about managing a website so I can see how Premium themes could become really popular.

A true CMS will cost you $thousands every year, including a hefty setup fee. For example, Link [www.kinterainc.com]. Kintera is a powerful tool, but if you are not a large non-profit or corporation that has exorbitant capital, you are better off grabbing a free download of Link [wordpress.org], and hiring a designer to customize it.

Great article! Lots of good resources. I think Pro themes are great. Free themes are good….but when a designer is selling something they go that extra mile in features, instructions and professionalism that is worth paying for! I hope more designers do this!

Premium themes should be exactly that - Premium. And most of them are incredible right now. But sooner, rather than later, it’s going to catch on with all the “Me too!” people online and we’ll see a whole slew of trash “Premium” themes.

And then those of us who do quality work will have to work harder to make sure people know our stuff is good :)

Also, for those of you here who do premium themes, I created a plugin that will help set your themes apart, and lower your support tickets as well: Link [pressography.com]

Great post, as always, SM!

can anyone suggest an alternative to word press, as I have to include a blog in a recent web site i am creating but the client is adament he does not want to use word press not sure why, and i hav’nt got time to develop something in php. thanks in advance

I purchased a theme from one of the above mentioned developers, and I don’t really feel like it was worth the cost. The theme didn’t function as advertised straight out of the “box” and the theme lacked flexibility in terms of being compatible with additional plugins.

Well Ya. It’s useless. Just do a Google and you will find these “Premium” ripped.

Spent a bunch of time looking for magazine-style themes and put them up on this site — Link [wpmagthemes.com]

After trying the revolution theme, IMO it’s not worth the price …

Thanks for giving us this great resource for finding premium themes!

When I found out peopel where doing these premiusm themes i got upset i had been reinventing the wheel for a long time, but now I am uisng them left and Right!
Link [www.ThirdLawBJJ.com]

Check WPZOOM for Free & Premium Themes Link [www.wpzoom.com]

I think that premium themes are a mixed bag. Joomla/mambo was always a pain, wordpress is a great tool, but it requires maintenance if you want it’s engine to do everything. I have paid for 3 different premium themes and the amount of work I spend incorporating into my business sites were significant. While there is a market for them, it would make more sense to say - we’ll use this template for our theme and customize it. I just wnat to worry about posting and keeping the content up to date. When I spend more time keeping managing the theme than I do the content, then there’s nothing premium about it. 250.00 is not a lot if your site is making money. 500.00 is not a lot if you are making money. But 100.00 with 30 hours of work getting it setup and ready to just use is a waste of time and money. In reality the developer could do it in 5 hours, I wouldn’t have to learn how to program, and my customers would be happy.

Office.live.com offers a true out of the box experience and it’s relatively free (though slow) and a client could be up and running in around 1 to 2 days. It won’t look as cool as some of the wordpress themes, but hey - it’s up, they’re happy, I’m happy, and we’re all making money. When I spend 100.00, the 30 hours, and then have to ask the developers for another 10 hours of support for 500.00, I’m just ticked. The premium theme is a good idea but I think the paradigm around the concept is flawed. People that are going to shell out money for a premium theme should have the option of how to do it, without blowing the bank and their work week.

As a Joomla user premium themes and plugins are absolutely the way to go.

The good ones make life so much easier. And since you can further customize them you do can still have a unique site with many bells and whistles that would have cost you a fortune to have built from scratch.

hoho..
what a great theme..
but i prefer design it for my self..

Thanks, Chinesebob. I echo your opinion. I’m an end user. Not a coder. I want to write and market, not code. Even so, I want to be able to deploy a post with specific functionality and make the page jump, WITHOUT having to run to Rent-A-Coder for help every time.

I’m warming up to Wordpress again because of the SEO attributes, but design issues are again in my face and this is what drove me to Joomla — where I have become proficient enough to make a decent site that has requisite bells and whistles and works with clients. That said, most of the work is done by the theme provider and the Joomla engine.

Not to mention, I had a patient coder who walked me through everything. By the time I was done it had cost me about $1,000 and umpteen hours, but I can now exist within the Joomla environment and get things done.

I know Wordpress has none of that functionality. You’re either a coder or you’re helpless.

Here’s how I feel and I know that I represent a huge group of Wordpress users or potential users.

1. I will use you (coders) for large jobs. Always have, always will. This is taking a theme and completely remaking it so that the original is undistinguishable. This is major work and I expect to pay.

2. I would like to see Wordpress come with — or somebody produce — an interface that will allow a user like me to easily make changes with clicks and checkboxes, etc. Want to replace the header? Click one button, insert, click okay. Background colors or styles of a sidebar, the same. I should be able to completely change the look of my theme in minutes without working up a sweat.

3. It would be great to have a similar “editor” for CSS. I am totally lost in that world and everybody tells me to stay out of it, and just pay to have the changes made. Simple font and color changes wind up taking 2-3 days to get somebody lined up and the work done.

4. I want videos to show me precisely what to do to make changes, not long tutorials that are written by coders. No offense, but you folks think differently and express things differently. You may think you are making things clear and sufficiently dumbing things down for the rest of us, but often it is anything but. I want a non-coder’s perspective on the videos. I’m in the training business and people have different learning styles. Somebody in the Wordpress realm has to eventually recognize this.

I’m sure I could go on for a fair distance on this but I won’t. You get the idea. I see hope with the guy who is making WP Remix. He has an editor of some sort coming. I’m sure it won’t be all of wjhat I’m asking for here, but maybe it’s a start.

Like I say, I’m your customer and not a competing coder. I hope my voice has a place in the discussion.

Thanks.

Thanks, Chinesebob. I echo your opinion. I’m an end user. Not a coder. I want to write and market, not code. Even so, I want to be able to deploy a post with specific functionality and make the page jump, WITHOUT having to run to Rent-A-Coder for help every time.

I’m warming up to Wordpress again because of the SEO attributes, but design issues are again in my face and this is what drove me to Joomla — where I have become proficient enough to make a decent site that has requisite bells and whistles and works with clients. That said, most of the work is done by the theme provider and the Joomla engine.

Not to mention, I had a patient coder who walked me through everything. By the time I was done it had cost me about $1,000 and umpteen hours, but I can now exist within the Joomla environment and get things done.

I know Wordpress has none of that functionality. You’re either a coder or you’re helpless.

Here’s how I feel and I know that I represent a huge group of Wordpress users or potential users.

1. I will use you (coders) for large jobs. Always have, always will. This is taking a theme and completely remaking it so that the original is undistinguishable. This is major work and I expect to pay.

2. I would like to see Wordpress come with — or somebody produce — an interface that will allow a user like me to easily make changes with clicks and checkboxes, etc. Want to replace the header? Click one button, insert, click okay. Background colors or styles of a sidebar, the same. I should be able to completely change the look of my theme in minutes without working up a sweat.

3. It would be great to have a similar “editor” for CSS. I am totally lost in that world and everybody tells me to stay out of it, and just pay to have the changes made. Simple font and color changes wind up taking 2-3 days to get somebody lined up and the work done.

4. I want videos to show me precisely what to do to make changes, not long tutorials that are written by coders. No offense, but you folks think differently and express things differently. You may think you are making things clear and sufficiently dumbing things down for the rest of us, but often it is anything but. I want a non-coder’s perspective on the videos. I’m in the training business and people have different learning styles. Somebody in the Wordpress realm has to eventually recognize this.

I’m sure I could go on for a fair distance on this but I won’t. You get the idea. I see hope with the guy who is making WP Remix. He has an editor of some sort coming. I’m sure it won’t be all of what I’m asking for here, but maybe it’s a start.

Like I say, I’m your customer and not a competing coder. I hope my voice has a place in the discussion.

Thanks.