The reviews we do on WordPress themes are based on the following criteria.
Ease of Setup
- how easy is the initial setup and configuration
- is it a steep learning curve
- does it provide demo content to be imported
Ease of Customizations
- can most most of the site be configured through theme or page builder options
- does it have a good drag-and-drop interface
- are there sufficient configurable options available so you are not locked into a rigid design
- does the user have to write a lot of custom css code
- does the theme come child theme ready
Ease of Use
- is it easy to create new pages and elements
- is it intuitive enough to find where everything is in the future
- do you have to navigate through many labels to add content
- is the image handling good, or does it create problems
Features
- is it responsive
- is it translation ready
- does it come bundled with the core set of plugins, such as Yoast SEO, Contact Form, WooCommerce
- is it missing an area for head scripts
- is it easy to import and export the theme configurations
- are there any major misses – for examples, see this article
Documentation
- is the documentation adequate
- does it provide screenshots
- does it provide enough of a walk-through of the way the theme works and where to find everything
- is the documentation easy to find
Performance
- does the theme slow down the site, both in the CMS interface and on the site itself
- is it efficient for a content editor, or just a source of frustration
Note: This criteria is not technically measured (for example, page speed tests, minified html/css/js, etc.), although we would like to include this in the future. For now it is a measure of what a user and content editor experiences.
Support
- is standard support available with theme purchase
- is the response time good
- is it easy to submit tickets
- is there a community forum
Note: Although we won’t be able to test this on each theme, we will provide feedback on the ones that we do have support experience.
Other
In addition to the theme ratings above, we may provide the following as appropriate:
-
What You Need to Know: areas where we encountered obstacles during the configurations and we lost time trying to figure it out.
- Pros & Cons: a quick summary of key items that stand out in the theme in good and bad ways
- The Big Miss: the one feature missing that could be a deal breaker for some.
You might also wanna check 15 things we want in a WordPress theme.
