Thesis Theme has a large number of affiliates promoting it, so you’ll see a lot of positive blog posts touting how great it is, but they don’t tell you what Thesis really is, or that some people have a bad experience. I include myself in the latter category.
I tried Thesis because it said I wouldn’t have to write any code. I am a programmer, but sometimes to save time I look for a pre-built solution. Thesis Theme sounded like what I needed, a WordPress Theme, but it wasn’t.
Thesis is not a WordPress theme at all, it is a framework. WordPress itself is like a framework, and under that framework runs themes. Thesis is more like a framework that runs under the WordPress framework, and themes that run under Thesis are called "child themes."
After purchasing the developer version of Thesis for $164, I discovered it had no themes to choose from at all, so I had to search for a child theme designed specifically for Thesis, since normal WordPress themes won’t work, or I had to build it myself. Therein lay the deceptive message of Thesis, "no coding," was not true, it was misleading.
Thesis offers hooks which allow for php code to be written to manipulate where you want items to appear on the page, and which pages for them to appear on. WordPress already has this feature built-in, except Thesis limits your ability to copy and paste code directly into the theme, and instead requires you to use hooks that require php code. If you’re not a php programmer Thesis is not the solution for you.
What you get with Thesis are limitations, a lot of code writing by you, and the additional cost of a child theme, because Thesis Theme is not a theme it is a framework, although it not advertised as a framework.
I was using a memcached dropin plugin for WordPress that stores WordPress objects and database transactions, and Batcache, which were both written and are both used by WordPress to keep them fast and scalable. The first thing that happened when I tried to save my settings in Thesis was it erased them all, and presented me with an upgrade button. There is no mention that it doesn’t work with the software I mentioned earlier in this paragraph, and the only solution was to disable that software. This meant my blog could not scale to keep my hardware costs down, which was unacceptable. I had to choose between Thesis or being able to handle a lot of traffic with less hardware.
The only useful feature Thesis offers is Search Engine Optimization, which is simple to obtain for anyone with a WordPress blog without Thesis by simply installing either All in One SEO Pack or WordPress SEO by Yoast, the better of the two is WordPress SEO, and this is far better than the SEO you get in Thesis.
Thesis doesn’t offer much of anything to make things easier. WooThemes is another framework like Thesis that doesn’t offer much more than to lock you into using their child themes. There are a handful of other WordPress frameworks that I won’t mention here, but they all work the same way, not offering anything of any real value, but all lock you into using their child themes.
WordPress is all you need. If you require a theme there are free themes, and purchasing a theme will be your only cost without adding the cost of a WordPress framework like Thesis to your list of expenses.
There are a lot of people who like frameworks like Thesis, so don’t be afraid to give them a try, just be sure they offer a money back guarantee, which WooThemes does not.
Long story short, I got a refund from Thesis since they offered a 30 day money back guarantee, but it wasn’t easy because they don’t tell you where to get the refund, or how.
Instructions for Requesting a Refund from DIY Themes
To request a refund, send an email to diythemes@gmail.com, with the subject “Refund Request”. Please include the following information with your request:
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Your name
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The email address associated with your PayPal account
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The date of purchase
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Your DIYthemes member name
If you follow those directions DIY Themes, aka Thesis Theme, will promptly refund your money.
Thank you so much for spelling out how to get a refund — i googled it b/c i couldn’t figure it out, and this post came up. :) I bought Thesis 2.0 because of the whole “no coding” promise, even though i’ve been a website designer for 17 years and do know what I’m doing for the most part — but i didn’t want to have to mess with all that stuff! After 2 days of watching tutorials and trying to figure it out, i decided it would be much easier to just buy a theme and tweak it. Hopefully they’ll give me the refund, even though technically it’s been 32 days (I pre-ordered from AppSumo Sept 29th, but Thesis itself wasn’t released till Nov 1st or 2nd).
Make that Oct 1 or 2nd. ;)
Yes, this is right. Thesis is not for non-techies. One more thing I have observed is, most of the thesis blogs have the same look and feel.
just way to complex for the average joe…
I need a 101 CSS class before I buy this.. what a disappointment. They advertise it as being so simple.
Heya, Todd
Firstly, I’d like to thank you very much for the excellent Spam Free plugin.
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Re: This post… well done on giving an honest appraisal; there’s FAR too much gushing about this “theme” online and you’ve done a good job of highlighting its shortcomings.
For anyone starting out blogging with Thesis and trying to get their head around how to customise it, there’s a gal I know named Catherine who has written a pretty comprehensive guide: Thesis Blueprints. (I would post the url but I don’t know if your plugin will delete my comment if I do so. Her site is “Tasty Press dot com”
Worth checking out for anyone who fancies sticking with Thesis, but can’t quite get it to do what they want. Not exhaustive, but a good value, highly-detailed guide.
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Your opinion, Todd… I’ve recently been looking at the Catalyst framework, which DOES seem to give a LOT of options and flexibility. Have you looked at it and, if so, what do you think?
Being a framework, it also relies on Child themes. But I don’t reckon this is much of a problem because it’s probably a better way to go anyway: using the framework to define the functionality and then getting a designer/css gun to, effectively, “skin” the site.
Cheers,
Leslie
I had not looked at Catalyst Theme until tonight. Out of all the theme frameworks I’ve looked at so far Catalyst Theme appeared to offer the most options, and they really made an effort to allow the customer to go beyond the limitations found in theme frameworks.
Theme frameworks can add a lot of overhead, which means using more memory and CPU cycles on the server, possibly. It really depends on how the code is structured, and what is loaded with page views. For a complete beginner this might prove to be a good option.
Hiring a web designer can easily cost a lot more than a theme framework, so it can be a cost effective solution, but there are also some free frameworks out there in the top ten themes downloaded from WordPress.org, although Catalyst Theme has more options, better features, and support.
Since Catalyst Theme offers a 30 day money-back-guarantee I’d say give it a try if you really need this kind of solution, but try some free solutions first.
Interesting post, thank you. I have more or less the same experience with Thesis. In your opinion, how would you compare Thesis to some of the more advanced WooThemes themes? I have experience with both, but it would be interesting to hear your take on it.
WooThemes does not offer a refund, which is not good business practice.
I have found all frameworks limit options with themes, because the options the framework offers is too limited. I still haven’t found a framework that could really meet most needs. It is true that custom programming can be done to add missing features, but that defeats the premise that a framework’s purpose is to eliminate the need for custom programming for commonly needed features.
In my opinion it is better to customize a ready-made theme, or to hire someone else to do it rather than spending a good chunk of that money on a framework.
If a person must have a framework theme, there are better free options available, than there are paid options.
This was interesting to me because I had looked at Thesis and opted not to use it because of the lack of themes for it. You are the first writer I’ve come across that has pointed that out.
I like how this Spam Free WordPress plug in works – I think I’ll try it.
Thank you Janelle.