Elegant Themes Review – WordPress Themes and Plugins

When it comes to WordPress there are literally thousands of themes to choose from.  When someone asks me what is the best WordPress theme site I generally recommend ThemeForest.  They have one of the largest theme directories.  With themes for practically any category from e-commerce to review site themes they have it all.  ThemeForest also has html templates, CMS templates, Tumblr themes.  Their themes starts at $3 and go up from there.

While ThemeForest is one of my favorites I stumbled across a new theme site for WordPress and they have an interesting platform.  Elegant Themes is a new way to buy a WordPress theme.  I decided to do a review of Elegant Themes after trying out their ‘theme club’.

How Elegant Themes Works

Elegant Themes has 87 WordPress themes in total.  The concept is simple, pay either a yearly fee or one-time fee and you have access to all 87 themes.  It’s a theme club meaning you pay a fee and have access to their collection of beautiful premium WordPress themes.

The themes are categorized so there is something for everyone here.  With themes for app sites, blogs, business, eCommerce, magazine, multimedia, personal, portfolio, responsive and lastly Tumblr.  As you can see they cover a wide range of categories and this just gives you quick easy to a amazing theme at your finger tips.

Elegant Themes has been around for 8 years with 33 employees and designers.  They are known for making stunning themes with amazing detail.  The reason they have been so successful is because they spend time designing and perfecting their themes.  One thing I learned early from using WordPress themes is that the design is as important as the code itself.  You can get a beautiful theme but if it’s not coded well it will run slow and drive your visitors away.  There are far too many themes that take more than 3 seconds to load so keep that in mind when choosing a theme.  The Elegant Themes team take pride is offering a quality theme and it really shows.  When you browse their themes you’ll see what I’m talking about.  They’ve sold over 250,000 theme club memberships so their surely doing something right!

Elegant Themes Pricing

Generally when you’re looking at a premium theme for WordPress the price varies from $20 for a simple theme to $70 for a well designed theme.  With Elegant Themes it’s a little different.  They are considered a theme club so you pay $69/year and you get access to all 87 themes they offer.

They offer 3 plans:  Personal, Developer and Lifetime.

Personal Plan:  The cheapest option at $69/year the personal plan includes access to all 87 themes and theme updates.  This is key because with any WordPress theme you want to make sure you get access to updates.  Updates can be anything from new features, fonts, layouts but most importantly security updates.  The personal plan also includes premium support which is nice since some themes have so many features it can be overwhelming at first so having access to support is great.

Developer Plan: This plan comes with everything above plus access to all 5 plugins that Elegant themes offers.  The 5 plugins are a nice bonus and at $89/year it’s worth the extra $20.  You’ll also get access to ‘layered Photoshop files’ which is nice for those of you who may want to change the colors or look of the theme.  This is targeted to designers who want more control of the look of the themes.

Lifetime Access Plan:  At $249 this is the most costly plan however it is a one time fee unlike the two plans above which are yearly fees.  This is the plan I personally purchased as it comes with everything in the above plans and I get access to all 87 themes for life!  You never know when you’ll need a new WordPress theme and having access to their beautiful themes is awesome.

Note:  You can cancel or upgrade at any time after signing up.

In general when it comes to pricing, even if you only want one theme you’ll have to dish out $69 but if you think about it that’s the same price you would probably pay elsewhere.  You’re getting access to 87 themes so it’s a no-brainer.

 Elegant Theme Support Review

Once you’re a member you’ll have access to support.  They have a community forum which is probably the most resourceful option.  The community is active and I found answers to pretty much all of my questions from other Elegant theme members.

Your second option is their documentation section.  This is basically a how-to section for everything related to their themes.  An FAQ and a getting started guide is what you’ll find here.

Lastly, each theme you download will have install instructions included.  It will tell you how to install and configure the theme.  Things are well documented and I found the instructions to be fairly simple to follow.  With WordPress a theme is generally easy to install so you shouldn’t have any issues.

Elegant themes overall has a solid support system.  Their friendly and quick to respond. Any time I contacted Elegant Themes for support they were quick to respond and offered great support.

Now to the Elegant Themes!  Let’s have a look at Divi 2.0 a beautiful theme released in 2015:

Theme name: Divi 2.0 WordPress Theme

Description:  This is the cream of the crop theme.  Elegant Themes is known for Divi their most popular theme to date.  The theme comes with what they call the Divi Builder which is a smart and flexible layout builder.  You can do some amazing stuff with the Divi Builder without touching a line of code.  You can create a truly dynamic website.

Divi 2.0 comes with 18 pre-made layouts out of the box.  Each layout is fully customizable so you can move, change, delete and add components with ease.  The Divi builder is clean and simple even for a novice.  It’s a drag-and-drop builder where you can move and arrange components easily to create the layout you want.  Below is a screenshot of the Divi 2.0 builder:

It’s mobile-ready and responsive.  This is a great addition as the theme will look stunning on any screen resolution and on any device.  With mobile traffic on the rise having a responsive website is a must and Divi 2.0 makes it that much easier.  The new Divi 2.0 header options allow you to choose the specific color of your header, logo placement add an accent bar for social and contact information.  You can also set either vertical or horizontal navigation so the options are endless.  The theme is one of the most advanced themes I’ve come across in terms of features but at the same time is so simple to use it makes building a website that much easier.

Adding your logo is a breeze and you can choose exactly where you want it in the header.  You can also choose if you want the theme to have a boxed layout or full width.  If you choose the boxed layout then you can set a background image or pattern of your choice.  When you create a layout you can also save the layout so you can clone it on different pages saving you time from re-creating the layout structure.

One new cool feature of Divi 2.0 is the ability to create ‘blank’ pages.  This was designed so you can create clean landing pages so you can strip the header from a specific page and that way your landing page can focus on your content without looking too busy or diverting people away from the landing page.

Divi 2.0 is also WooCommerce Ready!  It comes with a couple pre-made templates for e-commerce as well.  You can start selling right away and the new store module allows you to setup shop on any page or section of your website.  Divi also comes with business modules and this lets you create a modern yet professional looking website with ease.

Some of the new features in Divi 2.0 include:  13 new modules, post layout, blog layouts, new image gallery and portfolio, audio player, login pages, animated counters, countdown timer, integrated map, subscribe form, social media integrations, ElegantIcons, testimonials, contact forms and tons more.  It’s the best WordPress theme of 2015 with the most features I’ve come across.

Divi 2.0 sets the standard for WordPress themes.  From the loaded features to the clean layout it’s got something for everyone.  It’s called a theme but it’s really a new platform for building modern websites.  It’s no wonder it’s referred to as the ‘Ultimate WordPress Theme’.

Link:  Click here to download or preview Divi 2.0

Overall Review

Elegant Themes has made choosing a WordPress theme simple.  For the price you’d pay for 1 premium theme elsewhere, they provide 87 stunning WordPress themes including the Divi 2.0 theme reviewed above.  You no longer need to search the web for the best WordPress theme.  I fell love with pretty much all of their themes.  With such a wide range of choices there really is something for everyone.  Whether you need a simple theme, business theme, blog theme or e-commerce theme Elegant Themes has it.  I’ve used tons of WordPress themes over the years and after discovering Elegant Themes my search ended.  For the price there is nothing out there that compares.  If you are looking for a new theme for your website I highly recommend you check them out.  Their Divi 2.0 Theme alone is worth every penny and that’s just one of the 87 themes you get.

Visit Elegant Themes and view all 87 WordPress Themes – View Themes