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Editor Review
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Top 10 Provider Awards
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Elegantthemes Overview
Elegantthemes is owned by Nick Roach, an expert Wordpress premium theme developer who creates all themes listed in Elegantthemes.com. His first attempt in designing a website started from the tender age of thirteen when his band in the 7th grade required its own website. He still shudders at the thought of his shoddy design back then, but starting from then, he has definitely gotten a lot better and his work now shows it all and needless to say all his self teachings have paid off.
Nick’s works are simple, clean, and elegant with a touch of style and uniqueness. He is fully dedicated in creating innovative designs in order to enlarge his theme portfolio.
Theme Functionality
Most of Elegantthemes have user-friendly features that allow users without knowledge and skills in design and programming to manage their own website according to their preferences. The themes’ Options page, named ePanel allows you to customize your site in every possible manner.
Elegantthemes’ ePanel Screenshot
Each theme is fully equipped with widget ready sidebar, custom thumbnail images, search bar and gravatar ready feature among many others. A few special features included in each theme are three level dropdown menus, automatic resizing of images and the icing on the cake being a slider for the most recent posts.
These are some of the reasons why Elegantthemes is ranked on the Top 10 under the Theme Functionality and Usability category.
Theme Graphics
Elegantthemes have high resolution graphics and most of the themes usually offer various color schemes. The themes are generally colourful with excellent contrast and they are not too distracting to the viewers when reading the contents of the site.
The background offers relaxing effects to make viewers more comfortable to stay longer in the site and browse for more articles and contents to read. The header, which is one of the most important parts of the website, is generally stylish with bold titles and unique font combination to attract viewers.
As of July 2010, Elegantthemes offers 42 different expertly-made themes to choose from. Each month, Nick releases an average of 2 various themes that fully meet the requirements of the latest version of Wordpress. Consequently, if you have several websites, you can make each of them totally unique.
Among all the premium Wordpress themes in the market, we think Elegantthemes has the most beautifully-designed collection of themes and we are happy to present the Top award to Elegantthemes under the Theme Graphic Design category.
Themes developed by Elegantthemes
Theme Pricing- base on July 2010 data
Compared to most of the top premium Wordpress theme providers like Studiopress and Woothemes, Eleganthemes offers the most economical plan, charging only $39 for the unlimited use of all the themes developed by this provider! However, take note that such an amount is a yearly subscription wherein you will be billed yearly until you opt out of the subscription.
Once you unsubscribe, upon expiry of your membership, you will no longer gain access to the members’ area along with its corresponding benefits. You’ll also have no access to future theme releases.
With that said, for a measly sum of $39 where you can freely download and use all themes released by Elegantthemes until your membership expires, in this case 42 themes and its future releases within the paid year, you are really getting a big bang for your money!
Theme Support
If you encounter any problems during the installation process you can always contact their customer support for assistance. Support is usually given through the support forum where you can post your queries and questions. The forum is generally user-friendly and it is categorized according to the type of themes so that when you have questions or need assistance on a particular theme it is easier for you to follow up.
Summary
Considering the awesome quality of most themes as well as its unbeatable price, the overall rating for this premium Wordpress theme provider is excellent and highly recommended for both personal and business sites. Their package is best for those who have multiple sites since you have plenty of unique professionally-made themes to choose from.
For those who are planning to use their themes for their clients’ websites, Elegantthemes is not recommended due to the fact that distribution license is not included in your purchase.
Nevertheless, having reviewed more than 40 Wordpress theme providers, we have found the ultimate winner and that is, Elegantthemes!!
Theme License
Split-GPL license
. GPL for PHP, XHTML and JS files
. non-GPL for CSS and theme images
Author: ThemeGrade Editor
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Its okay, but dont expect to modify or add any features that arnt what is ‘visible’ on their samples. its very pigeonholed as far as creative input from the user (us) to add features.
I went with elegant themes based on all the good vibes from review sites, but when I tried to use one of the themes I couldn’t get images to appear like he theme promised. After reading the documentation it seemed like there were a lot of hoops to jump through just to make the base functionality work properly. I’m not a programmer, so I need a theme that will work without me having to write/edit code straight out of the box. I have to give Nick kudos, however, because when I explained my issues to him and explained that I wouldn’t be using one of his themes, he refunded my $39.
I signed up for Elegant Themes because they had the InReview theme which I wanted to use on my website. I found I have more functionality in my free theme I picked up (Ifeature3) than in this one. It has longer load times, features missing entirely that seem like they should be standard (aka change background). I went through their forums and the few moderators I saw seem …subpar. I found a few threads on changing this background and it required changing code. (which I did) but they never actually EVER answered how to actually change the background image. I’m sorry, a theme out there that doesn’t allow you to change your background? that’s rather ridiculous.
To the above person: You don’t need to have photoshop. You can use gimp or any other program really to create a logo. I used some free program on the internet to do mine and just uploaded it.
I’m regretting my purchase of this theme company and will not be renewing them.
Nice pretty themes with lots of functions. However the support is very variable. Recently they upgraded their “Boutique” theme and it broke all images on the home and category pages. Responses to this in their forums has been limited. It’s not just that we don’t know they are working on it they haven’t even acknowledged the issue.
At other times support is good
I can’t help feeling Elegant Themes targets the naive newbie. Their themes look magnificent, but if you test most of them with Firebug, they run very slowly – and we all know that’s an issue for search engines. I tried asking about that on the forums but was shot down!
Almost everything about Elegant Themes are great, everything I want to say is been said already so, I highly recommend ET for developing your Website.
Gotta say.. I am 100% happy with going with Elegant Themes. I’m designing two or three sites and each one works with these themes.
My skill level is around a 3 out of 10 or so and part of my initial concern was will their support be prompt with my questions.. well, I must say, my expectations have been met and exceeded by a long shot.
I HIGHLY recommend giving Elegant Themes a shot! You will not be sorry.
I have to agree with the criticism and arrived here because I’m looking to replace my ET design. The code is cumbersome and hard to modify. The forum is difficult to navigate, strange for a designer’s website. I’ve had mixed results with responses from the forum.
SEO-friendliness is a problem. For instance, if you use the “blog-style” option for the home page, as opposed to excerpts, the archives are all full posts, leading to duplicate content.
I’m pretty new at using the internet but my business needs a website. I didn’t have enough on the budget to hire a professional and Elegantthemes made me into one. Their WP themes are so easy to use!
“Value from every angle”
Looking at ET, I thought, whoa, it’s cheap. I saw all that it could do for me, the look, the functionality, the support. With everything going so well, it’s a big bang for my money!
I am very impressed with eStore which is simply perfect for my business. I knew I had to get it as soon as I saw it! I have a small business website where I sell some stuff online and just by seeing the specs and the design on their eStore theme made me jump onto the bandwagon!
Eleganttemes didn’t disappoint me and in fact even exceeded my overall expectation of the theme.
eStore is very easy to configure and very highly customizable for my ecommerce site.
I especially love how easy it is for my customers to be able to make purchases via PayPal because the theme itself already has a shopping cart which means I don’t have to worry about complicated coding and uploading on my website, fabulous!
Most of my regular customers online have commented on my new beautifully styled website!
I am a natural born themer. I care much about how my blog site looks and feels for my readers. One look at the ultra stylish themes from ET and I knew they were what I wanted.
High resolution graphics, check! Usability, check! A wide range of options, check!
I think we’ve found a winner from Elegant themes. I don’t have to look around, I’ve got what I want and need for my website.
“Amazingly extensive!”
I love delving into things myself and I’m just really amazed at how extensively done elegant themes are!
I love being in full control of how my website looks and the options page exactly lets me do that!
Anyone who knows anything about word press themes would agree that Elegant themes are not very well coded. They do not update some of their obsolete tags (last time I checked). So thanks, but no thanks.
Ever since I’ve heard about Elegant Themes, I was very excited as it came in highly recommended by my peers so I subscribed immediately.
I was especially thrilled by the fact that for a very low price, you would have unlimited access to all of their 40 premium WP themes, as well as access to the newly released ones. The first thing you’ll notice about their themes is that each of them has an obviously great personality and look.
I most definitely love the ColdStome theme especially because of its very unique layout, styling and extremely functional menus!
I highly recommend Elegant Themes especially for those who are just starting out on their own websites or blog sites as you will definitely learn a lot from their WordPress development expertise through their many e-learning resources!
I’ve been with the company for a couple of months now and so far, so good!
“They should call it outstanding”
I got my first paid theme from Elegant themes and was so impressed. Everything about it was perfect.
I wonder why they didn’t call it outstanding themes, because that’s what they are for me and any website.
“User-friendly with good layout”
They don’t have all types of templates but I would not mind spending on ET especially because its user-friendly and has a good layout.
Not to mention their affordable price. I am completely satisfied with their themes.
“A gallery on the web”
Photos are bold and vibrant enough but they have to be displayed on a simple background to stand out.
With InterPhase, I got what I wanted, my very own gallery on the web.
“Number One in my Book”
What a godsend Elegant Themes are to me! They’re perfect! There are so many WP themes to choose from, they all look wonderful and elegant as their name implies. I’m impressed. And so easy to use!
I know, I know, I’m going against the current here, but when all is said and done and you’ve gotten a great theme from elegant, support for managing the theme is still important.
And with elegantthemes, that part leaves a lot to be desired. I have to get support through a forum? Geez.
“More blogs to go”
Kudos to Elegant Themes for understanding what consumers want, and that is an affordable wordpress theme with good quality!
With their price range, I was encouraged to produce more blogs on different niches. Even my kids have their own blogs now.
“I lost my site’s ranking!!”
What a mistake! I was enticed to sign up with Elegantthemes because I thought it would be to my advantage!
I guess that is why they offer their themes so cheaply because of their cheap services!
Ever since I used their theme Cion, my blog site isn’t ranking at all on any web searches! How will people ever find me if they can’t get to me?
“Best themes available at the lowest price”
Basically if you’re working to have a great WordPress theme on your website, elegantthemes is the name to go to.
Mainly, they have a large number of offerings for great-looking themes. These themes are pleasing to the eyes and also foster longer browsing time since the color schemes give a relaxing effect to the eyes.
The next plus is that they provide you with functionality. On the gallery page, you’re given a list of features. All these features with additional add-ons give you total control.
What’s more, all those come at a very low price of $39!
“Value for money”
I totally agree with what you said that you get value for your money at Elegant Themes. With less than $40, you can get Wordpress themes that are functional and attractive at the same time!
I just got myself WP themes from Elegant Themes and no wonder, they’re number one! The themes I got are perfect. They have great high resolution graphics and look beautiful. My webpage looks so attractive now. What’s more, together with great features the themes offer, Elegantthemes packs a punch!
Good resolution on their templates is what got me hooked. I agree with Rain Torben when he said it packs a punch!
While others charge $60 per theme, Elegant themes gives you unlimited access to all their 40+ top quality templates with just less than $1 per template!
I’m currently using the Coldstone theme for my website and I must say that I am quite contented with the company’s services.
Almost all of my peers are using Elegant Themes because of their obviously great looking themes; in fact, you’ll spend more time on deciding which theme to choose because they all look great and lively!
“Elegantthemes are outstanding!”
Wow! That was all I could say when I got my WP themes from ET. The themes are packed with features and they made it even better by making it user-friendly.
There’s no reason for people who have websites to own something drab and boring. Elegantthemes makes it all possible.
While Elegantthemes has a lot of themes to offer for any blogger or website developer, it’s a bit disappointing to get to find the right theme for yourself and your visualized site and learn that while you’re tweaking the web design such as color scheme, one kind of feature that’s indispensable to you isn’t there.
They have a variety of features on offer. It’s only that some might not be in another kind of theme. It’s a really heavy feeling to think that your search is over, when it really hasn’t.
First of all, I would like to point out that the popularity of WordPress themes in general is because of the many people who don’t know much about designing their websites.
On this note, I would like to start by saying that Elegant Themes is NOT very user-friendly to newbies. Their code library is not very well set up which means that you would still have to make some minor adjustments on your own, and some of them are even obsolete! This makes it a lot harder for people to tweak their themes because most of these social networking sites and search engines employ the latest up to date online technologies.
What’s the point of having a beautifully set up site if no people will visit it because its WP theme is not search engine optimized? Also, developers wouldn‘t be able to use Elegant Themes for their clients’ websites because they don’t allow this on their license. What a bummer!
I have to agree. These are beautiful templates, but they are not really blogger’s themes. They’re more designer themes. If you want to change the title or logo, you have to use Photoshop which is nowhere mentioned in the FAQ, but it is talked about int he readme text AFTER you purchase.
It’s $39 a year for access to all the themes which is a great price, but your purchase is non-refundable. That’s written in the TOS.
I know one blogger who uses these themes, and he seems to like it. No doubt that they are beautiful. But unless you’ve got photoshop, you’ll be stuck with the title the way it is unless you outsource the change.
For SEO and blogging purposes, you’re better off with other themes or purchasing DIY Thesis Theme. Elegant Themes is good for people with more design capability. It’s not your touch and go blog theme like you think.
“They exceed my expectation”
Elegantthemes.com in general is highly recommendable for people who are looking for unique and elegantly designed themes as this is what the company is known for. They also provide an excellent support network if you encounter any problems with any of their nineteen beautifully designed themes.
Their themes are also very multifunctional as they are effectively geared for whatever online site functionality you may have, blog sites, small business sites, ecommerce, entertainment and the likes (except for arcade and gaming sites). Needless to say, their themes are perfect for those who are just starting out on their respective blogs and websites. If you, however, are quite experienced in WP themes, there may be a few qualities that you may not very much like on their WP themes. One of them being that their themes are designed using the div or span tags which are not very search engine optimized which means less traffic on your site.