My Review of the Thesis Theme for WordPress

So you’ve heard about the Thesis Theme for WordPress, and you want to know if it’s worth all the hype, right? You’re certainly not alone. It’s a really popular theme and I get this question all the time, so I decided to write a review.

The Thesis theme is the brainchild of Chris Pearson, an extremely talented developer. When I discovered Thesis in 2008 I already was a fan of Chris’s work, so purchasing it was a no-brainer for me. I admired the clean styling, the beautiful typography, and the multitude of options on the back end. I grabbed the developer’s option because I knew I would want to use it on more than one website.

Since it’s initial release, Thesis has certainly come a long way. Chris adds more features and functions with each new version, and your license includes free lifetime updates.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the features of the Thesis Theme:

SEO Benefits

Good SEO (search engine optimization) starts with well written, clean code that is easy for search engines to read. Chris is totally anal about his code (and he admits it), so of course, Thesis is very well written.

There are also easy-to-use SEO options built right into the control panel, so there’s no need to use a WordPress plugin like the All-In-One SEO Pack. You can set your custom title, description, and meta keywords right there when you’re writing your post. This gives you total control over your post and helps you optimize every post easily.

Customize Your Site from the Thesis Control Panel

The control panel has tons of options that don’t require touching any code. Want to change your font, or the size and color of the font? No problem. How about the size of your headlines? Yup, you can change those right in the control panel too. Want to add your Google Analytics tracking code? No need to touch any files. Easily add the code using the built-in options.

One of the coolest features in the control panel is the ability to change your layout on the fly. There’s 1-, 2-, and 3-column layouts built right in. Just choose the one you want, pick what order you want the columns to display, set your column widths, and hit the Big Ass Save Button. Really – it’s that easy. There’s also a “no sidebar” option that you can select when writing a post. Convenient for creating a sales page or any time you want to hide the stuff in your sidebar.

There are tons of more options in the Control Panel, but I explained them all in detail here, this post would be way too long.

Multimedia Box

The cool multimedia box lets you display rotating photos or a video. You’ll have to upload photos and video using FTP, but that’s really the hardest part. You likely used FTP to upload your theme, so this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Teasers

Thesis also lets you choose how to display your posts. Magazine-style sites got really popular a while back, so if you like that look, you can display your posts as “teasers”. Teasers display introductory content from your post, and the reader has to click through to read the rest of the post. This is an easy way to display lots of posts on one page. It’s handy for sites that have a lot of content, and for readers who like to scan headlines like they would in a magazine or newspaper.

You Can’t Break It

(Well you can, but only if you stray from the path.) Thesis comes with a custom folder that includes a custom css file and custom_functions file. These two files allow for extensive customizations without modifying the core files. Why is that important? It’s important because this way when you upgrade, your customizations aren’t overwritten, and when you don’t touch the core files, you’re a lot less likely to break your site if you do something wrong. It’s also handy because if you ever want to go back to the original, all you have to do is delete the content of those two custom files.

Easy Redirects

If you’ve ever been an affiliate for anything, you’re familiar with those long, ugly affiliate links. In Thesis 1.7, we gained the ability to easily redirect our links. There’s a custom field built into the theme that will redirect a link for you. Just create a new page for the product, add your affiliate link in the custom field, and voila, you get a link that looks like http://yoursite.com/yourproduct. So freaking easy. The link I use when recommending Thesis is http://sproutnewmedia.com/thesis. How cool is that!?

Export Feature

Also new with Thesis 1.7 is the option to export your settings when moving to another site. If you’re a developer, you’ll find this feature invaluable because you can save all the dashboard options from your test site and import them to your client’s site. No more messing around and having to manually set all the options. This is also really terrific for creating skins. Build your skin, and zip the options into a file you can then send to the client. This is probably one of the best new features to date.

Support

No matter how awesome something is, it’s really only as good as its support. Thankfully, there’s an amazing community on the DIY Themes forums, as well as some terrific resources from Chris himself inside your membership area.

Is It Worth It?

Well, let’s talk about expectations. Some people get all excited about Thesis, buy it, and think they’ll be able to create highly customized sites on their own without touching any code. Sure, you can get tons of different looks by using just the built-in dashboard options, but there’s a whole lot more you can do with the custom files that yes, will require some HTML, CSS, and PHP knowledge. If you understand that up front, you won’t be disappointed. If you’ve purchased it and it’s not what you thought, you can get your money back within 30 days of purchase.

At $87, Thesis isn’t cheap. It’s a premium theme, and premium themes always come at a higher price. Personally, I feel that it’s worth at least that much, but I know it’s a deterrent for some people.

Who is Thesis for?

Do I think Thesis is right for everyone? Absolutely not – nothing is right for everyone.

However, If you’re looking for a highly customizable framework for your WordPress site and you’re comfortable with making simple customizations in an easy-to-use dashboard, Thesis is a good match.

If you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty, Thesis will do just about anything you want it to.

If you’re looking for something you can install with one click and it’s automatically all-done-and-fancy-looking straight out of the box, this is not the theme for you. In that case, grab a free theme from WordPress.org. There are hundreds of great themes out there that look just fine – you just won’t get all the benefits of using Thesis, and you won’t get that ridiculously clean Google-friendly code that Chris Pearson is famous for.

Worth Noting

Even though Thesis came out a few years ago, and has been upgraded numerous times, the price has not gone up. I purchased it in 2008 for the same price it’s being sold at today. I expect the price to go up with the release of Thesis 2.0.

Inside Tip

Even though you’re able to view and modify your custom themes from the dashboard, don’t do it! I edit my custom css and custom_functions files via a text editor while logged in through FTP. That way I can see changes on the fly and simply hit “undo” if something goes wrong. There’s no “undo” button in the dashboard. Consider yourself warned.

My Conclusion

I love Thesis. I really do. I love it so much that it made the cut and became one of my Recommended Products. I’m an affiliate for DIY Themes, and I’m very picky about which programs I join and which products I recommend. I already use Thesis on my own sites (including this one) and have developed websites for many of my clients using Thesis, so it’s safe to say I’m a fan.

Find out more about the Thesis Theme for WordPress and grab your copy here.

Tagged as: chris pearson, SEO, theme, thesis, wordpress