Thesis Wordpress Theme Review

Chris Pearson recently launched his newest premium WP theme – the Thesis Wordpress Theme. I’ve been a big fan of Pearson’s design style (he designed Copyblogger) but his previous WP 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:

I first saw the Thesis theme in action on Sugarrae’s blog, where she reviewed it earlier this month. After seeing it 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 other blogs as well.

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.

You can also change the fonts and their sizes just as easily (for the body, headlines, sidebars, etc.)

It’s 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 nofollow to funnel your link juice well, etc. I still use the SEO Title Tag plugin on top of what Thesis provides and have a few specific tweaks of my own, but overall Thesis is one of the better themes for SEO just out of the box.

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. This part is really flexible – you can even use a specific category’s posts or add a custom blogroll to it.
  • Specify how your Title tag is laid out (if you’re not going to use aforementioned the plugin).
  • Add Mint or Google Analytics tracking code without messing with your files.

Support

This one is probably one of the biggest advantages of the Thesis Wordpress theme over any others. 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 comments and the forum – Chris has been answering all the questions he’s asked and has gone out of his way to really help people who have bought the theme. (You simply don’t get this from a free theme).

It’s Not Perfect

Thesis is probably the most impressive theme I’ve seen out there when it comes to design, SEO, and features. It will probably 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:

The multimedia box is a cool feature, but I wish there was an even easier way to add photos and videos to specific posts – maybe even with a custom uploader. As it is, you have to write or edit the post and then use the custom fields box to add the image, video, or custom code. Definitely not a deal breaker, but I wish it was easier.

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. (Alternatively, you can just add your custom styles to the main style.css file, save them in a text file somewhere, and append them after every theme upgrade).

One little thing to be aware of: once you select the Thesis theme in your design panel, it shows you a messed up preview, and even your blog layout is messed up until you save thesis/design options. So be sure to set your options right after you switch your blog design to Thesis.

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 hell out of it (which I know I will).

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.

Get Thesis Theme

Next up, I’ll show you how to pimp out your Thesis theme and tweak it to REALLY rock! If you want to see anything specific or have questions, please leave a comment below.

Published:
9.23.08