Today, WooThemes unveiled a new version of their site, which was being worked on for the past few months. It is a drastic improvement in terms of design elements and overall features, at least when you now look at the previous version. As you may be aware, the site launched less than a year ago, and has seen great success in getting word out about their new theme releases and feature-packed, affordable theme packages.
Despite the economy around the world, their themes are still selling fairly well, at least according to how their traffic has held up and hasn’t declined drastically month-over-month.
Back to what was released and introduced today. First of all, their new theme is a cleaner and more elegant approach to their old version, making it easier to find themes while still maintaining characteristics of the “old” WooThemes.
The New Design
On the main page of the new site, you’ll find a welcome message and a scroller that allows you to browse through a decent selection of their premium themes. Specials and promotions will be promoted through the main page. Current members will surely find it easier to login to their theme panel and gain access to new themes as they are released.
Beneath this, you’ll notice that there is a testimonial area and a set of their features that makes WooThemes stand out from the competition.
The WooThemes Homepage
– Supreme Quality: Their themes are all built on a solid code framework that has been tuned over the span of the themes’ availability. With advanced theme option panels, it is easy to edit many features that would commonly require a lot of code editing.
– Growing Community: Their community is continuing to grow, and you’ll be in good company when you join the Themes Club. They interact with their members and consider any feedback as valuable.
– Incredible Support: Additional documentation, tutorials, and a knowledge base are all available to people who purchase their themes. It makes it easy to customize your theme with a limited background on WordPress.
– New Themes Released Monthly: There is a promise to release at least two new themes to the members of the site each month. The longer you remain a member, the more themes you will have access to.
It’s even easier to purchase themes. First, choose a theme, choose a package, install WordPress, and enjoy your new theme!
Their Themes
You can see their themes on this site or by taking a look first-hand on their site. Many of them are crafted and designed by some of the top designers, known previously for their work, with their talent being showcased once again at WooThemes.
They have themes that will suit any needs you may have. You can use their themes as a way to showcase your talents – they can easily be customized through commented code and back-ends that make it easy to tweak the basic settings and add cool sidebar widgets. Custom plugins are integrated into a majority of their themes.
A Small Sampling of Their 35+ Themes
Types of themes include: Magazine/News, Personal Blog, Showcase/Gallery/Portfolio, CMS, Business, and Multimedia. Many small businesses have already taken advantage of their CMS and business templates to customize a new design for their site without having to know much code.
GPL Licensing
The future of WordPress Themes is here. With GPL Licensing, it makes it possible for the WordPress community to grow and adapt upon the work as a much larger community. The only changes that you will see with the new packages is that they are more oriented around what you will receive with the themes. Additionally, more support and bonuses may be presented towards their Developer users, at least compared to their Standard members.
A popular misconception around the GPL license is that themes become free or that the code becomes accessible for people to freely use. The GPL license means that the core code is released, while any added features can still be charged for. There are less “Single-User/Developer” licenses available, as everyone that uses the theme can use it in more open ways.
People that previously purchased a “Single-User License” on WooThemes can now use the theme on an unlimited number of domains, although your rights and what you can do with the themes hasn’t changed too much beyond this.
Now you can say that you are supporting the WordPress community when you are purchasing themes from WooThemes, as you are helping contribute to the development of new, innovative features across the board.
New Pricing and Packages
As stated in the above section on GPL Licensing, they are moving away from the Single-User and Developer Packages, which makes more sense when you learn what it means for users and saving money.
Pricing of New Packages – View Them Here
– Standard Package: Pricing starts at $70; This package is ideal for people who have a good idea of a theme that they want to use for their website. They may not be the most experienced at designing and customizing WordPress themes, so they don’t need the Photoshop design files. However, they also want to save some money, so they can get two themes for the price of one. Support and theme updates are included, and you are able to use the theme on an unlimited number of concurrent domains.
– Developer Package: Pricing starts at $150; This package is ideal for someone who wants to use their themes (albeit one particular theme at a time) to develop sites and take advantage of the Photoshop design files. The theme can be used on an unlimited number of concurrent domains, and all the traditional WooThemes’ features are included, such as support access and free theme updates.
– Standard Membership: $125 once-off + $15/month; This theme membership is ideal for people who can’t make up their mind about which theme they want to use. They don’t really want to use the theme for advanced customization (no Photoshop PSDs included), although they also want all the standard support access and theme updates.
– Developer Membership: $200 once-off +$20/month; This theme membership is thoroughly the best value if you want to use their themes to their full, intended purpose. You can use the themes on an unlimited number of domains, use the Photoshop source files to customize the theme to your desires, and still have access to the support and theme updates should you wish to take advantage of their world-class support.
All-in-all, their barrier to entry for using the themes on an unlimited number of domains is much lower (at last by half). Additionally, the monthly plans are more affordable compared to their previous membership plans, which were typically paid as a once-off purchase. Most of the new plans are slightly more affordable (up to $55), although just slightly more expensive when you look at the ~3 month period. You have to account in the fact that more designers are now creating themes for WooThemes and there are many more themes than were first available.
Special Pricing
From now through the 24th of June, you can take advantage of a 4-for-1 special. This means that you can purchase a singe theme and get three other themes (a $210+ savings) for just $70 (if you select the Standard Package). Check out any new themes as they are released.
Permanent specials for the Standard Package and Developer Package allow you to get two themes for one and three themes for one, respectively. WooThemes will continue to grow and add new themes to their lineup, making it even easier to find high-quality premium themes.
