Chris Pearson launched the Thesis WordPress Theme just over a year ago. It has quickly become one of the most popular premium WordPress Themes, it is the backbone for sites like, Chris Brogan, Copy Blogger, and Matt Cutts just to name a few.
I’ve been a big fan of Pearson’s design style but his previous WordPress theme releases were free. So I’m sure a lot of people are asking “If I can get thousands of themes – even Chris’s old ones – for free, is it worth paying $87 to buy a premium theme?” And ultimately “OK, is Thesis really worth it?”
I hope to answer these questions and give you my honest review of the Thesis WordPress theme below:
After seeing Thesis in action and reading a little more about it, I decided to buy it and test it out on a few of my other blogs. At first I bought the single user license, but after playing with it I really started liking it. I wound up getting the developer’s license so I can use it on this site and other blogs as well.
Download the Latest Version of Thesis »
So here are my takeaways from having used Thesis on a number of sites:
Design
Thesis is a beautifully laid out theme. It’s very modern, simple, and has just the right balance of white space. What makes it really cool is that you can change the number of columns (1 column, 2 column, or 3 column layout) as well as their widths in the Design Options panel with just a few clicks (no programming necessary) – and each configuration still retains that professional look.
To top it all off you can also easily add a professional header image to your site buy just selecting a file and uploading. It is as easy as 1-2-3. Not to mention you also can change the fonts and their sizes just as easily (for the body, headlines, sidebars, etc.)
Thesis is the most flexible WordPress theme I’ve ever come across in that regard. In just a few minutes you can create your own combination of column sizes and text styles to personalize the theme specifically to your liking.
After you download the theme, you also get a background starter kit to let you change the main background easily – for even more customization.
SEO
One of the biggest selling points of Thesis is that it’s developed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. WordPress by default is one of the most search engine friendly blogging platforms out there. However, it’s still not perfect and how your theme is laid out affects how search engines see your site.
I’ve seen themes out there with crazy code bloat, doing things that are terrible for search engines. Thesis is very clean and presents your content well, it uses a clean code structure, canonical urls, and the like. It also has the ability to specify each post’s title tags and meta tags without a plugin like All in One SEO Pack
Unique Features
One of the best features in Thesis is the Multimedia box, which lets you put rotating pictures or a videos in your posts. There’s a default option for all pages, but Thesis uses WordPress’s built in custom fields function to post specific photos or videos for any page or post you wish. This is great for YouTube videos, photos, and even page-specific advertising.
Also:
- You can replace your default feed with your feedburner link
- You can specify which pages appear in your navigation menu and reorder them on the fly. This part is really flexible – you can even use a specific category’s posts or add a custom blogroll to it.
- Configure how your Title tag is laid out.
- Add Mint or Google Analytics tracking code without messing with your files.
- Specify a post image and how it should be used in the layout. Just to name a few.
Support
This one is one of the biggest advantages of the Thesis WordPress theme over other themes. After you buy the theme, you get really impressive support. Future upgrades are free and if you have any questions about the theme, Chris and the Thesis community is really good at helping you out.
I checked out the forum – Chris and his team have been answering all the questions they have been asked and have gone out of their way to really help people customize their sites. (You simply don’t get this from a free theme).
It’s Almost Perfect
Thesis is by far the most impressive theme I’ve seen out there when it comes to design, SEO, and features. It will be the base theme for a majority of blogs I run (and I’ve started to convert a fair number of existing ones already).
That said, here are a few things about the theme that aren’t perfect:
You have to FTP the custom stylesheet (if you add any custom styles). The reason for this is that if you need to update the theme, it won’t overwrite the main CSS stylesheet that’s editable within WordPress. I understand the reason behind this, but it’s still not as convenient.
If you are looking to use Thesis for a photo blog, and plan on using the [ gallery ] it needs a few improvements to the way it handles WordPress attachments (introduced v. 2.5). Hopefully Chris Pearson and team will fix this for future releases.
I was also a little disappointed that Thesis doesn’t have a built in featured post slider, like some themes. I expect this will be something that is included in future updates as they already have a box in the customization area.
And finally, I wish it would have options for displaying trackbacks. As it stands now – if you have a ton of trackbacks they push your comments down the page and take up more room that I’d like.
Conclusion
Over the years I’ve installed, tested, hacked, and played with a lot of WordPress themes (and have even created a few). The Thesis WordPress Theme has definitely impressed me. It’s beautiful, very easy to customize, and comes with features you won’t find in any free theme.
Is it worth it? In my opinion, yes. $87 is not a lot to spend for something that will save you a ton of time, even if you end up customizing the heck out of it (which I know I will) all of your changes will be future proof due to how Thesis is designed.
I paid $164 to be able to use it on many blogs. Just having as solid a foundation as Thesis provides makes it worth much more than that to anyone who’s serious about blogging.
If you decide to get Thesis for yourself, I’d appreciate you clicking the link below to support Art of Blog and future posts regarding WordPress, themes, etc.
Once you have upgraded to Thesis I have started a series of how to customize it. We show you how to to pimp out your Thesis theme and tweak it to REALLY rock! If you want to see anything specific or have questions, please drop us a comment via our contact form.
If you are looking for a very detailed and in-depth review of Thesis features and specs check out Nick Reese’s Review of Thesis Theme.
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Written by Nick Reese
Nick Reese is a full time internet marketer living in Austin Texas. When Nick isn't managing web properties he enjoys biking, shooting video, and drinking tea. You should follow Nick on twitter here and check out his side project Becoming Bold.
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Thesis WordPress Theme Review 
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice review of the Thesis theme. I also bought the developer version, have used it on a few sites, and have become a fan. I’m looking forward to the next update, rumored to be out very soon, which should add even more customization options.
I’ve got some tips on my blog, for anyone interested in using the “Twitter for WordPress” or “Photo Dropper” plugins with Thesis, for example. And I look forward to learning more from your site as well.
I’ve been thinking about switching over but I’m worried about my old post images. The theme I’m currently using has a wide (750px) post are and some of my images are that wide. Is there an option to have Thesis resize your old images so the posts don’t look all screwed up? Or do you know of a plug in that will do that for you?
that’s supposed to be “…(750px) post area…”
@Tyler: you’d probably need a plugin to automate something like that if you have too many posts to go through manually.
You might want to look at something like http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flexible-upload/ or http://www.soldesignco.com/wordpress-imaxwidth.html
Otherwise, it might even be worthwhile to outsource something like that through odesk or rentacoder (to go through your old posts and readjust).
@Sun: Thanks for the links – I’ll head over and check those out. I read somewhere that you can modify the .css and tell the images to fill 100% of the post but I’d much rather have a plug in do it for me. Thanks again!
Thanks for the Thesis review. I’m leaning towards giving it a shot (and will definitely use your link if I do).
I’m new to Word Press (but not web development). It seems like every time I switch themes and get it customized to the point that I love how it looks, I find some bit of functionality that doesn’t work any more (for example, I just found that my RSS subscription link is broken at http://blog.usedcargenius.com — using a slightly tweaked “A Dream to Host” theme). I’ll get it all working one of these days… :)
Thanks again!
Jeff
I learned a lot doing all the customizing of Grid Focus on my main blog—chiefly, that I would happily forgo the customizing. I’ve also been a fan of Chris Pearson’s for some time, and am happy to throw a few bucks his way for a great product (and to you for providing a great portal to it.)
Thanks for a review that’s comprehensive, but not mind-numbingly so. Looking forward to getting the new bloggy up & running!
Cool, thanks communicatrix!
I am wondering how Thesis compares to Semiologic theme, which claims to be the best for SEO?
Hi..I have a few questions. I have a few websites up and running right now. I am happy with the theme that they are on. But I will be starting about 10 more blogs during the next few months.
1. If I buy the developer’s license for $164 does that allow me to run as many blogs as I want on the theme, or is there a limit?
2. I am by no stretch of the imagination a coder. I know nothing. All I really need to know is how easy is it to put Google Adsense in the right hand column, a large Google Adsense block in the upper left corner of the blog post, and a large adsense block at the bottom of the blog posts.
If anyone could help me with those answers I would appreciate it.
I’m running Thesis on my Load Of BS blog and I am not all that impressed. It was touted to be a completely plug and play theme but it falls far short of this as you need to know CSS and hooks to get the most out of it. Fortunately I found a theme which was cheaper and almost completely mouse driven from the configuration menu, and it’s cheaper to boot.
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
what a letdown for me from Mr.Sire. Yet, I somehow trust the blogger’s review and will definitely purchase this Thesis. Question now is: the risk of developer or just one license?
Could use some convincing via my email, please.
Thank you!
Well George, that all depends on whether you want to run it on one or multiple blogs.
I don’t know If I said it already but …Cool site, love the info. I do a lot of research online on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks, :)
A definite great read….
Hi Nick
Great overview and I would agree with using a premium theme.
You soon get your money back by being able to get help when you need it.
I notice that on the Thesis website, the Developer Option allows you to use the theme on any sites that you own and it says…
“Sites that you own” are any sites where you are listed as the person (or business) who registered the domain.
I buy domains for my clients so does that mean that you can use the theme on client’s sites.
Keith,
In the case you described you would have to have a client option for each site.
Once you buy the developer verison you can buy client options in 3 packages:
$40 – 1 License
$180 – 5 Licenses
$320 – 10 Licenses
Alternatively they could buy a individual license.
Thanks Nick. I was just trying to decide if I should use a free theme or Thesis for my latest Website. This review sealed the deal for me. Hopefully, they will address the outstanding issues you listed, sooner than later. Cheers.
I currently use Brain Gardner’s theme and Am looking to purchase the thesis Dev version. Since I am using the All in one SEO plugin now (which isn’t required for the thesis theme), is there an option on the thesis to move all that meta data (title, description and keywords) into Thesis?
P.S. I already have a running blog with over 800 posts
Sriraj,
Here is a work around to get AIOSEOP to work with Thesis.
http://hyder.me/wordpress/all-in-one-seo-to-thesis-migration/
I know I’m a tad late to the original blog posting, but thanks for the review. I’m currently in the market to switch my theme to something a little more SEO friendly than the crud I have up now.
I’m interested in buying the Thesis theme, however I like the CU3ER feature. Can the CU3ER feature be added at the top of the Thesis theme? If so, will it negatively affect the SEO ?
http://www.progressivered.com/cu3er/
Thank you.
Scott, This will require some custom PHP coding but is doable.
Thank you. . . How do I do that? What are my options regarding accomplishing this?
I’ll definitely be using your link to purchase Thesis. Thank you for your posts on Dreamhost and Thesis.
Dawn, Sounds great! Let me know if you have any questions I can help with.
I have been tossing the idea around and am leaning towards forking over the $87? My concerns are being able to use my own header designs, etc. How “custom” can you get with it? And do you need to be a CSS expert to customize? Thanks for the review on this.
Julie,
You can definitely use your own designs no problem.
Check out this tut. http://www.billerickson.net/thesis-wordpress-click-logo-header/
Best Thesis review I’ve read so far…with some great comments! Been sitting on the fence for a while, looks like you’ve pushed me off. Thanks for the great post. Clicking your ad now…
I love thesis for its ease of use and SEO rich features
Great review of the brilliant Thesis theme. It is worth mentioning that many of the things you have mentioned as problems have already been changed, and there have been many other improvements.
And with version 2.0 on the horizon, there is never a better time to purchase thesis. Thanks for a great review.
I live in a Spanish speaking country. I understand and speak English quite well, but not my readers. Can anybody tell me if THESIS is a “translation ready” theme or, in other words, does it come with the *.po, and/or *.pot files needed to make a translation?
Tons of thanks
Luis, I have little experience with translation files. I know that Thesis 1.7 has better support. Here is the comment from Chris Pearson in the 1.7 documentation.
This must be the best and perfect theme for wordpress its only drawback is that its not free. Are there problems encountered when upgrading thesis versions?
Piks, everything within Thesis is “Future Proofed” which means you can upgrade without breaking your design.
Currently using semiologic…seriously considering making a change. What are the advantages of Thesis? Is there good support. SLP is not so good and yet it is very important.
The support is outstanding. I pretty much learned PHP because of the Thesis forums. Currently there are 140,000+ posts in the forums and 23,000+ active users.
No other theme can compete on support.
Fantastic review of Thesis Theme – and i’m loving the customisations you’ve done to it for this blog.
I’ll be using Thesis for several more personal projects i’m working on, after going over and back to Themeforest to buy themes from there. I really feel I wasted my money with those, and hopefully Thesis will start to pay decent traffic dividends for me.
Quick question though – do you know if installing loads of plugins has any effect of the SEO capabilities of it? For example I wish to install GD Star Rating on one of my sites, and i’m a bit worried the standard display methods of the rating mechanism might affect SEO. Any thoughts on that would be very much appreciated :-)
Hugh, GD Star Rating is definitely a bloated plugin. While GD Star Rating will not directly effect the options within Thesis it may decrease your page load time which is considered to be a ranking factor in the current Google algorithm.
Hi,
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a prime resource for free. I truly loved reading your post.
Thanks!
Mamunur Rasid
oDesk Outsourcing Provider.
Be Your OwnCoder
I already own and use Thesis exclusively, and yet I still enjoyed reading the review here. Probably due in part to it justifying my own admiration of it =)
You know, I’m a firm believer in the idea that “you only need one theme,” and for many reasons. Here’s just 2 —
1. They all can achieve the same design & layout (ultimately)
2. By sticking with just one, you get to know it intimately throughout the course of using it…
Naturally, choosing the right “one theme” helps tremendously to get you started, and I can’t think of a better “one theme” than Thesis. It’s about the most cleanly-coded professional theme on the market. It’s a great theme to learn and grow with, it’s dependable, it’s just…smart!
—Jordan
I am getting ready to set up a Wordpress site for rental properties we want to lease out as well as properties we want to sell. Is Thesis a better option than some of the themes that are more tailored for the real estate industry like AgentPress (http://www.studiopress.com/features/agentpress) that already has real-estate friendly widgets?
I guess what I am wondering as a Wordpress newbie is whether I am better off with the SEO and design features of Thesis and just figure out how to find and integrate the widgets I want.
Any objective input? ;)
Jeff
Jeff, in this specific case I would suggest using Agent Press. Thesis is still my theme of choice but for someone who knows very little and wants to do more complex things (specific to real estate) go with agent press.
Thank you for this useful article.. I will be publish this on my blog in turkish language..
Hayat, glad you enjoyed it. Please make sure to link back to this original article.
Hi Nick,
Thank you for your review.
You have convinced me to buy Thesis.
It really has impressed me.
I hope to have my blog running Thesis in the next 2 days.
Thanks again
Pete
Hi Nick,
First, thanks for all the info included in this review.
As for support, I noticed this review has been ongoing from 9/2008 to 8/2010. And your responses have either been on the same day or the day after. That is SUPPORT!
Like many of the other posters have stated, I use other themes, paid and free.
Today, I will click your “Art of Blog” and purchase Thesis.
I have read many other reviews, articles, post, and forum comments about Thesis.
You sold me, and I thank you.
Steve
Steve, thank you for YOUR support. If you ever need help or have questions with Thesis feel free to shoot us an email via the contact form. ;) Hope you enjoy Thesis!!
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