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1. Introduction
We are sure that many WordPress web owners want to find a really nice theme for their site. However, it can be quite difficult to find the best one. Actually, finding a good theme can be tiring, as it requires searching through many references and often the search results are disappointing. To make it easier, WordPress web owners usually seek themes from popular theme developers. This makes sense because the best themes usually come from them. By appreciating the best theme developers, we hope to make it easier for web owners to find a good WordPress theme. Indirectly, this also provides positive feedback for the developers, encouraging them to continue improving their work and having a positive impact on WordPress site development.
Developing a WordPress theme is not that simple, especially for beginners. They must learn deeply about the WordPress framework and how to create a good theme for WordPress. If they are able to master it, becoming a WordPress theme developer can be a promising career. This is good news for consumers, as it means there will be a lot of good themes available in the future. The more developers interested in theme development, the greater the chance of finding a free or paid theme that is really nice. With this in mind, WordPress web owners always have hope that their site’s appearance will continue to improve in the future, as more and more theme developers enter the market and create better themes than in previous years. This is a simple mission when we consider how popular WordPress sites have become. This article is intended to show appreciation for the best theme developers to date, as they have done excellent work and have had a significant impact on WordPress theme development.
WordPress is one of the most used content management systems (CMS) today. It is popular because it is easy to install, has many plugins available, and is highly customizable. The simplicity and ease of customization are the main attractions for web and blog owners who choose to use this CMS. They can easily add their articles, pictures, and comments to their site. However, one thing that can make a web or blog look different from others is the theme. With a WordPress theme, someone can easily change the appearance of their site. For this reason, many theme developers are joining forces with WordPress. They create their own themes and sell them in the marketplace. They do this because creating a WordPress theme is a promising job. The price of a theme can vary, and some can be very expensive if the theme is really nice. This presents a good opportunity for developers to make a lot of money.
2. Section 1: Theme Developer 1
Cort is the man behind the organically beautiful and adaptively clean code of Redux Framework. He turned what was once a single theme options page and a bit of customizer code into an elegant, developer friendly feature packed option library and took an existing plugin “CMB” and extended its reach and usefulness for future functionalities in client work. When he’s not doing that, he’s setting his own weekly personal project code guidelines into the WordPress core and making WordPress.org’s theme review team’s job obsolete with the Customizer Theme Switch client options free of theme lock-in data. If there’s anything he has left to say, it’s that he is happy working for you (and your clients) in efforts to make WordPress the best tool possible (intrinsically) and looks forward to your future ideas and projects.
2.1. Point 1
Goran’s knowledge of the market is not only limited to niche themes but also the realization that some of the best things are free. He started out by creating premium themes and then shifted his focus to producing high-quality free themes, monetizing through donations and advertising in the theme options page. He believes that as strong as the WordPress theme market is, that bubble will soon burst. He sees more themes being free, and the persistence of theme club subscriptions is not overly optimistic.
“Creating a niche theme is much easier to do than creating a broad theme. I did it this way for several reasons, one of which is SEO. With niche themes, it’s easier to achieve better search engine rankings. Another reason is that there’s less competition in a smaller field.”
The key to a successful WordPress theme developer has a keen understanding of the market, and this is exactly what Goran Jakovljevic has. Goran started creating themes in 2009 and currently offers 40 free and premium themes combined. Most of Goran’s themes are niche-oriented, and this was a calculated step for the Serbian developer.
2.2. Point 2
Justin Tadlock ranks second in a list of the top 10 WordPress theme developers. Justin Tadlock is well known. His themes are all in the directory, and he offers a number of themes as premium themes. They also have a solid group of people who support him in his forum. Justin has said that he is now using the Hybrid Core framework (a theme framework of his own creation) for all of his themes as of January 15, 2013. This is great news as his Hybrid Core framework is one of the most versatile and developer-friendly theme frameworks out there. This will allow for a unification of features and easier use of features from one theme to another. This move is not a one-size-fits-all move, and he has stated that 50 themes may be uneasy to transition to the new framework, so he will support them until it is viable to convert them. Justin’s themes are known for their great typography and are very user-friendly, and his themes also have an endearing quality to them. His attention to detail and all of his features are packed into a well-organized control panel. If you have used a theme from Justin before, it is likely that you won’t be satisfied with other themes. Very few themes come close to having all the features a theme by Justin Tadlock has.
2.3. Point 3
They initially released a theme that was way, very under-appreciated at the time, however they kept updating it and improving it until it became the actually very famous Suffusion theme. It presently has a four and a half (out of 5) star score on Themeforest, and with the different themes by the same developer factored in, the overall use is actually quite significant. To illustrate how the developer’s hard work has been worth it, Suffusion has been installed over a million times. Despite having pulled out of the Themeforest scene some years ago, Sayontan Sinha (the developer behind the themes) remains considered by many to be the best free theme developer available. He has effectively created an environment where lots of his customers feel plainly compelled to make a donation, commenting that they could have happily paid $50 or more for the level and quality of support that they have been receiving. This further demonstrates that providing a complete product with the emphasis on helping the user to get the most out of it is a good approach to the theme market.
3. Section 2: Theme Developer 2
The Core is a framework which has been in production for the past 4 years now. The first two years were just research in which we created something either too complicated to implement for the average user, or something that was just duplicated in the market too many times. During those two years, a lot of bad themes and theme frameworks were seen, which was disheartening for the team, but they took it as a learning curve to see what they should avoid. During the third year, they had a clear and precise idea of what The Core should be, and finally the last year has been devoted to a lot of time to the implementation of The Core onto all current and future themes. During the first 2 years, they had already begun to push the Blundell brand using various premium themes, but it was from this year that there was a big change in quality and in branding. The Core has had a big effect on the way we develop and market themes.
Theme Developer 2 is heavily focused on best practices and automation, as they have been in the industry for 10 years and have gained a wealth of knowledge. Their slogan is “Don’t work hard, work smart,” and this is reflected in their products, which all utilize a system they have dubbed The Core. The Core is a theme framework that can be built upon or used as is and contains many essential features, including the biggest one, short codes. When quizzed about what sets his products apart from others, he stated that undoubtedly it was The Core, and that there was nothing quite like it out there in the market.
3.1. Point 1
Carrying on from the interview with the next developer: ‘Lefti’ runs the templating project Themble, which is also somewhat tied to the Craft theme project. Unfortunately, I had contacted Lefti at a very busy time and had received a response with the interview questions partially answered. After a follow-up few months later, there was no reply, so I cannot give a full account, but his work can be seen from the various releases of template.pot, and his blog posts are full of insights into user-centered design, page load performance, maintainability, and practicality during theme design. His main goal is to improve WordPress theming by offering it as a framework that would give the best value and return on investment for web developers and a pleasant blogging experience for its users.
Tom is the creator of Cozmoslabs, where he develops WordPress and WPLusin related plugins. I initially contacted Tom because I was interested in his Google Authenticator Plugin, which adds two-factor authentication security to WordPress logins, and he was very welcoming to this discussion. Cozmoslabs is a small team of two people, Tom and his partner, who are trying to make a living through Remote Work. His interest in web development began after building a site for his former alternative rock band and deploying a few more projects while obtaining a Master’s Degree in Political Science. This eventually led to creating web-based tools for the people he was working with in his earlier career in marketing research. One of his former colleagues was using WordPress for his company blog and recommended Tom to research into using it. Tom has never looked back since then; he loves the WordPress community and how it has helped numerous people to succeed with their online goals. He has discovered that providing clients with custom WordPress Admins has made maintaining a website more intuitive to its users, and that using WordPress as a CMS in many different projects with a variety of clients was very effective. He’s been able to develop and deploy a secure and easy solution for various crafts of modern-day artisans and has plans to share it with Jeremy and this customer base when it’s most fitting. He had proactively contacted me to discuss the interview for content we’ve discussed and still keeps in touch. I can see Tom is a person who loves to help and be involved in the community, and am…
Jeremy is the creator of Munich, owner of the L’atelier and L’ecole theme shops, and MunichParis.com. I got in contact with Jeremy via email, and his excitement to be one of the pioneers for premium themes was very evident. He had a clear business plan and knew what the mission for his brand was. His plan was to establish a brand image and build exclusivity. I could see he was highly motivated and very positive about his own abilities and the potential of his brand. He explained that he was inspired to start his own theme shop after designing client websites and finding the constraints frustrating. He was not able to provide individual users with support and updates for their themes, which made maintenance far more difficult. During the design of his own themes, he wanted to blend creativity with best practice and utilize recent changes in WordPress and web development in general. He was clear that his themes are not aimed at everyone; he has a strong focus on a niche which is the craft of modern-day artisans. His themes are designed for visual and performing artists, jewelry makers, designers, and clothing designers. His goal is to develop various tools and provide resources to these types of artisans and educate them to promote themselves on the web more successfully. Given Jeremy’s extensive experiences with clients, I have no doubt in the success of his business. His site and themes are very professional and would appeal to his target customers. He is providing a service and helping to build a community for these people.
3.2. Point 2
With the increasing demand of WordPress users, a few premium theme developers have emerged, trying to create a new look for WordPress. One of them is Adii, an entrepreneur from Cape Town and the man behind Adii Premium WordPress themes.
This is where premium themes come in. They transform your WordPress site into a more professional and appealing look, providing the right niches for specific users. This will, in turn, attract more visitors to the site and, in some cases, might turn them into customers.
Now, just imagine if there were no themes specifically made for these WordPress users. They would end up using the default theme. The default theme is fine if you’re just trying to blog about your feelings. But if you’re trying to create a business site or an attractive sales page to sell your product, it’s definitely not enough.
WordPress, as we discussed earlier, is a unique software that’s helping various people, such as blog writers, businesses, and internet marketers, to create their very own sites. It provides an easy learning curve for beginners, where they can take it step by step and eventually move up to a higher learning level. It also has features for advanced users who know HTML, PHP, and CSS to fully utilize the site they’re working with.
4. Section 3: Theme Developer 3
Moving on, Goran Jakovljevic from iLite is one theme developer who focuses more on the commercial side of a theme itself. His belief in offering clean, high-quality themes at affordable prices is what has gained him the trust and loyalty of many WordPress users who have used themes by iLite. With quite a demand on internet forums for new themes to be released, Jakolvjevic wants to target and fill the gap with more business and network-style themes in the near future.
With the aim of keeping the end user in mind, Magnussen from Graph Paper Press believes that photographers are visual artists who require simple yet brilliant themes with less effort of site maintenance and more time to create. An honest advice to all photographers out there, once you’ve seen what Magnussen has to offer, you won’t for a second think about using a theme by another developer.
Sure, you’ve heard the name before, but as an opening introduction to the ultimate list of top theme developers, there’s no better place to start than with Chris Pearson. Those of you who are die-hard followers and users of the renowned Thesis Theme itself would be aware that the vision behind this particular theme and its high level of professionalism is what sets it apart from the rest – pretty much like its developer.
This write-up will be particularly helpful for you if you are in search of that one theme that would add a touch of elegance and distinctness to your website and will aid in getting the desired professional look out of it.
If you have something more innovative, bold, and bright besides the “generic” WordPress themes and are looking for a particular theme to set your website apart from the rest, keep reading!
4.1. Point 1
When starting to look towards Woo Themes and what they have to offer, it is hard to miss the fact that they contribute a large amount of their success to a 3rd party plugin for WordPress called WooCommerce. It is a free plugin, but they also offer WooCommerce and WooCommerce theme extensions which include the WooCommerce themes that customers have come to expect. With the introduction of the WooCommerce themes, it becomes apparent that they are now taking the time to cater to the actual website owners and not just the developers, and they understand that the actual structure and layout of a website can have a large effect on its success. This information holds even more true when we can see the recent introduction of a “Themes” drop-down tab in the top bar of their website where you can access all of their WooCommerce and WooCommerce themes. Although Woo Themes do not directly offer a service to build custom websites, by providing themes for their popular plugin they are offering a means for customers to have more control over the layout of their eCommerce website, and this is a sign of the togetherness between their themes and their other projects. It would not be surprising to see their will to provide more control spill over into some sort of website building tool for their plugin in the future. A recent interview with WooCommerce Ninja James Koster said, “If you want complete control, the best way to do that is build a theme specifically for WooCommerce.” This can act as reassurance to customers that Woo Themes has no intention of removing their focus from website layout in the near future.
4.2. Point 2
A massive bonus for AlxMedia is that they’re working on an Obox mobile plugin for current themes and future themes, providing an elegant mobile counterpart for all websites.
48 themes and counting is a great output for the price ranges, especially considering the range of themes available. They produce a range of themes from business sites to magazines and even e-commerce sites. The numbers of themes in each category are quite balanced, ensuring a quality product for every theme type.
A standard plan includes one theme, theme updates, and forum support (no access to theme support). The developer’s plan includes all themes and PSD files, theme updates, and support. Finally, the All Access plan includes all themes, theme updates, forum support, theme support, and access to Photoshop files. This full range of packages is beneficial to customers with a variety of different needs, from those needing one theme to developers, and also offers a decent amount to customers with the cheapest package available.
AlxMedia is a UK-based theme developer, guaranteeing top-quality design and functionality for their work. They’ve been well-known in the WordPress sphere for a long time, popularly known for their old Obox themes. Prices of their themes may vary as they offer 3 plans: 1 standard, 1 developer, and 1 All Access. Prices are very reasonable, ranging from $60 to $125.
Theme developer 3 is AlxMedia. This WordPress theme developer has grown in popularity in recent years, especially since their well-received Obox themes merged into the AlxMedia brand. They have always delivered high-quality themes with solid code and great user-friendly design. They are also highly regarded for their great customer support.
4.3. Point 3
His plugins are built to be extensible, and as such, they’re generally configured in one place or another in the options screen, rather than throughout the templates. Usually this is in the form of a single options page created by the add_options_page function that houses all of the plugins’ settings. While this is undoubtedly simple, it’s also rather dated. With WordPress’ shift towards more intuitive user interfaces featuring contextual settings that are tailored to individual blocks and components, an options page can feel unwieldy. This is not a problem with Neuner’s plugins. Take Block Context for example, which adds a settings block to the bottom of the Block Editor. Whether this is the ideal way to configure these settings is debatable, but there’s no denying that it’s more convenient for the user. This point of difference carries through to the user facing features of his themes and plugins. For example, his Acorn theme has a unique gallery system in which a gallery can be created and managed from its own admin section using the native media library interface, and then inserted into a post using a custom gallery button in the post editing screen. The gallery’s shortcode generator has a number of options that are all documented on the Acorn site.
4.4. Point 4
The themes designed should be of high quality and functional. Many top themes have a lot of downloads but lowered ratings because they do not live up to the hype. It is essential that the custom theme developer stay away from this route. Quality is hard to determine, but it’s certainly evident. Many aspects should be taken into consideration when determining the quality of a theme. The functionality and purpose of the theme can be a great indicator. Make sure that the theme serves a specific purpose. Whether it’s for a small business, a blog, or a photogallery, this should be provided without any additional tweaks. Some themes provide a variety of different options, but the lack of simplicity causes a not so appealing end product. A good theme gives a user-friendly interface with a clean look. The design structure should not require the user to scroll to the bottom of the page to locate something. This can detach a possible long-term viewer who is used to quick and easy navigation. The compatibility of the theme is a huge issue. With the ever-growing industry, a website’s shelf life is pretty short. Oftentimes, it can become quite costly to keep paying for a custom theme to be updated. Content management systems such as WordPress are constantly being updated and when a theme becomes incompatible, it can cause a disaster. Always make sure that the theme developer provides some sort of support and will be willing to update the theme.
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