Thesis WordPress Theme Review — The Original Premium Theme That All Others Follow
Thesis is probably the most well-known premium theme on the market today. And it was the theme that demonstrated non-free themes had a market in the first place. Thesis obviously did something right to earn the reputation it now has, and in the process opened the door for others to sell WordPress themes. So how does it fair today?
It was around the middle of 2009 that I purchased Thesis. I knew it had to be reasonably good because of its solid reputation, but you can only truly know by using it. Tip: you have 30 days to try it out and “fall in love.” If you don’t, you can get all your money back.
I purchased the $87 single-site license to start with, and put Thesis to test. In case you don’t know, this cheaper option allows you to use Thesis on one website only. The $164 developers license grants you the rights to use it across as many websites as you wish so long as they’re owned by you.
A short while later, I did upgrade to the developers license. And at the same time I put together a Thesis bonus for new buyers.
Thesis now powers all of my sites.
Thesis Theme Version 1.8
Recently Thesis 1.8 was released. This is the 3rd or 4th update since I begun using this theme. Shortly there will be another update, and then we’ll be looking at the exciting big 2.0 release. No one really knows what to expect for version 2.0 though officially DIYthemes do state that it will cost more. Another tip: when you buy Thesis, you get free updates for life. And if you buy before 2.0 is released, you will save money as you’ll get a free update to Thesis 2.0.
Don’t know a single thing about Thesis? This page is good.
Common Complaints
There’s a couple of complaints I’ve read that I’d like to comment on —
- many WordPress sites running Thesis look the same, and…
- if you want to make significant design changes, you’ll need to know code.
Those are accurate statements, though a little redundant in my opinion.
Let’s break this down. If you want to rock a unique award-winning design, you’ll definitely need to be comfortable with coding (and graphic design, right?) Or hire someone who is. Not a crazy idea. There are many talented Thesis designers who’d love to meet you.
However. The argument that you need to know code (and graphic design let’s not forget) to make significant design changes is also true of other themes too. They all have limits to what they’ll do—before you hit a wall—where only code and graphic skills can take you further. That’s to be expected.
In that regard, Thesis is really no different to other premium themes. Or free ones for that matter.
Actually, Thesis is about the best theme you can buy today for point-and-click control from within your dashboard screen.
Indeed…
- Design-wise, there are other themes which may get you closer to what you want, without touching code, but that’s because they started out more similar to what you had in mind in the first place.
- Lots of people use Thesis. It’s no wonder that a lesser-known theme can appear less “same-y.” If everyone is driving a Porsche, then Audi’s will stand out.
However, I will say that the impression given from official DIYthemes marketing that “Not a coder? Not a problem,” is perhaps a little misleading. You can do a LOT without code, but it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to achieve what they want purely from a point-and-click interface.
For you coders out there, Thesis is a pleasure to work with. All your custom work resides in 2 files, both of which you can access and edit from within the dashboard.
Okay, enough of that. There is an important aspect of Thesis theme many miss. I will talk about this next…
Forget Eye-Candy for 1 Second—Thesis is a Blank Canvas.
Take a good look at the page you’re reading now. What do you think of it?
I’m running Thesis 1.8, and I’d definitely say this page looks plain. But…not in a bad way. Wouldn’t you agree it looks refreshingly clean? Well, you don’t have to agree. I won’t mind! My point is that Thesis was purposely designed to be clean, to be elegant. Out-the-box, this is entirely deliberate.
Thesis is classic “beauty on the inside” merged with “natural beauty” on the outside. The structure—the code which your content is built on—is first rate. There’s no redundant thrills on the outside. It’s just…elegant.
On the other hand, some themes are designed to have a certain style upon activation. And if one fits what you need out-the-box you’ll save time. At least design-wise.
The Thesis Theme framework is more of a blank canvas from which you can build whatever masterpiece you want to. Or, if you’re like me, you’ll keep it very simple indeed, and still hit the mark ;-)
Remember, clean and plain does not equal ugly. Ugly happens when you attempt to create something beautiful, but do so with a lack of skill. For example, it’s better to have no graphics, than bad graphics. With that in mind, some themes are a little ugly out-the-box, which means you need to have the required skills to customize them correctly.
So in short —
- Thesis is to designers as a blank canvas is to artists.
- For non-designers, it’s a clean good looking theme that won’t turn your visitors off.
Okay let’s move on already…
SEO’d Like No Other.
I get a little tired hearing about SE…well, you know. But it IS important. And frankly, you’ll struggle to find another WordPress theme that pays as much attention to getting SEO right as Chris Pearson does (the creator of Thesis.) Mind you, I will address another complaint in the paragraph below (for all you “any theme with a plugin will do the same” folks.) I just want to say that I’m almost overwhelmed at the level of SEO control you’re given with Thesis. Mind you, you can mostly leave stuff “as is” for the most part (and I tend to do just that.)
Unfortunately I’ve noticed a few people make snide remarks about the SEO claims often boasted by Thesis users. I think there’s some big misunderstandings going on here, and I want to address them.
Here’s the deal with SEO. What determines the ranking of your web pages goes WAY beyond your content, platform, and how you’ve got it set up. For that reason, it is of course silly to suggest that just using the Thesis WordPress theme alone will crush it for you in the SERPs. As such, if anyone tells you that switching to Thesis will make a dramatic difference to your SEO…they probably need a slap =)
However, across an even playing field, every little thing you can do to improve your SEO is likely worth doing. Well, I think so.
No theme can make you an SEO God. That’s just dumb. But it’s also dumb to think that all themes are equal.
For SEO considerations, Thesis is one of the best there is. I don’t have the patience to test every alternative, and I really don’t want to cross my fingers and hope. So I just stick with what I know.
I see Thesis as the leading theme in this regard, and with the tweaks that 1.8 introduced, this only increased its lead.
Typography = The Science Of What Looks Good?
I’m not sure if that’s exactly it, but Chris Pearson cites correct Typography as core to the Thesis Theme and largely what makes it special. It’s the signature feature, perhaps? Here’s a few words from Chris that I retrieved from the DIYthemes forum.
Everything from eye-tracking studies to usability studies has shown that typography not only matters, but that it’s also a primary determinant in whether or not a user is going to stick around on your site.
Interestingly and perhaps surprisingly, properly constructed typography is NOT something that is subjective. There is a beautiful array of mathematical relationships that determine everything from line heights to margins to whitespace gaps, and all of these relationships are based on the font sizes in use at the time.
…
While developing Thesis 1.5, I actually worked out a unified typographic theory that helped me determine all the spatial relationships that NATURALLY fall out from particular font sizes. Thesis includes the mathematical version of this theory, and it is the one thing about the code itself that I am proudest of.
Sounds good, right? The proof is in the pudding (as they say.) I honestly am not qualified to say, other than knowing when a web page looks right or not. Sometimes I will look at a page and it just won’t feel right. It’ll look off. And while I may not always know why, I know that it IS off. With Thesis running, my web pages look right to my eyes, and they feel right too. At least, so long as I don’t do something stupid with it (that happens.)
Features.
Too. Many. To. Mention. Let me list the most obvious —
- You can change the # of columns on-the-fly (up to 3 columns) along with their width (in pixels).
- You can also change the order of your columns (point & click) in a snap.
- Easy header image uploader. Thesis even tells you the max pixel width based on your current layout. Very easy to use.
- You get extensive control of your fonts, their sizes and the colors.
- Thesis 1.8 introduced a slew of new fonts! Thesis now supports the Google Font Directory (28 additional web-fonts.)
- The fonts, site background, page background, and navigation bar colors are easily defined with a handy color-picker tool within the control-panel.
- You can easily snap-on a “Multimedia Box” into your sidebar. In this box, you can add rotating images, embed a video, or enter your own custom code. There’s options to add this site-wide, or on a per-page basis.
- Favicon image uploader! A great way to brand your site, just 2 clicks and you’re done.
- Copy & paste zones to add tracking stats scripts.
- Handy SEO character counters ensure you don’t overrun the character limits that most search engines have.
- Extensive controls over Thumbnail Images, including auto-crop ability (optional).
- Copy & paste zones to add JavaScript scripts, both site-wide and per-page.
One of my favorite features is the additional control you now have over category pages. Thesis 1.8 has added a few extra text fields to the category edit page in your Dashboard. These new options allow you to enter a custom headline, plus whatever content you like, and custom meta tags (title, description and keywords.) In essence, you can build proper pages for each category! This means you can now turn the usual category page containing just a list of posts, into a more meaningful page for your visitors, with its own headline, custom content, along with the usual list of posts. How awesome is that?
You could check out DIYthemes.com for yourself and watch some of the videos to get a better idea of the features, though at this time the videos are a couple of versions old :-(
Summary.
I recently made a post at a popular forum regarding Thesis, and it makes a nice summary also. Rather than say this stuff twice, here it is —
The Thesis WordPress theme has its strength in efficient code, SEO and typography.
You get to choose the layout, fonts, colors…or upload header images, favicons…and even edit category pages…with simple point-and-click.
Some other themes may get you closer to your desired look without requiring code, depending on your personal objective, and the style of the theme in question. But they may do so at the expense of something else you deem important.
Thesis is a very robust framework—one that has a large following, including many A-list types. This includes Googles’ SEO “figurehead” Matt Cutts.
There’s a big following, with no shortages of tutorials, or help. The customer-only forum is very active with plenty of experienced individuals willing to lend a hand.
Ultimately you’ll have to try it in order to know for sure, and there’s a 30 day money-back guarantee so you can do so without risk.
Thesis Bonus: I have put together a Thesis bonus so I can add value to “the process.” You may want to check it out if you feel this is the theme for you.
Thanks for reading,
—Jordan
PS. Thesis 1.8 rocks! It’s a massive improvement to 1.7 in many ways. Not just in what was added, but in how Chris has made it simpler to use than in 1.7 — simpler = win.
