The WordPress Theme Frameworks Starter Guide

The WordPress Theme Frameworks Starter Guide

on Dec 31st 2011 with 77 comments

In this article, I will go through the best known WordPress frameworks, analyzing them from a handful of benchmarks. The idea here is to help you sort out which framework is the best for your own development process! The aspects that we will review are: features, development capabilities, security, support, child themes.

An Introduction to WordPress Theme Frameworks

WordPress is an awesome open source web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. Creating custom WordPress themes is very intuitive and relatively easy using WordPress API.

If you’re going to design a WordPress site, there are a few ways you can start. Many designers start with an HTML template that they then add WordPress code to. Others start with the basic WordPress code and design around that.

But others begin with a starter theme or framework, which is arguably the most efficient way to create a WordPress theme.

What are they?

WordPress theme frameworks are essentially starter themes that you can use as a foundation for the creation of your own themes can significantly boost your performance and efficiency. Some are more elaborate than others featuring in depth templating systems, but this is the gist of a framework.

Why use them?

If you are web-developer and develop WordPress themes frequently, you will probably be fed up of all the repetitive task like code writing and frequently checking your mark-up.

The answer is a WordPress theme development framework. A framework is designed to get faster the process of designing and coding a WordPress theme by reducing your time, on WordPress’ back-end code that is repeated within every theme.

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Easy To Use
  • Time savings
  • Efficient development
  • Support via communities built around the WordPress theme frameworks
  • Optimized CSS, HTML, PHP functions, and SEO
  • Code that’s written with WordPress standards and best practices
  • Ease of updating for future releases of WordPress
Cons
  • Time: A disadvantage of using frameworks is that, at the beginning, the most crucial problems for users who haven’t had any ideas about frameworks is facing with learning how to use this all new stuff. Even if the learning process is shorter than getting used with new coding language, you still have to think about the time to master these frameworks.
  • Cost: With their advantages, it’s obvious that their prices are higher than normal one. Since these frameworks are frameworks only which means their designs are plain and simple, you have to spend more money on purchasing child themes to enhance your websites’ performance.
  • Limitation: Frameworks define what you can and can’t do. You can’t break these barriers. It’s not a big problems for end-users like us, but to developers and designers, it limits their skill. Sometimes, it takes more time to make a custom theme from frameworks than build everything from scratch.

What is WordPress child theme?

A WordPress child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality of another theme, called the parent theme, and allows you to modify, or add to, the functionality of that parent theme. This article shows how to create a basic child theme and explains what you can do with it. As an example parent theme it uses Twenty Ten, the new default theme in WordPress 3.0.

Creating a child theme is very simple. Create a directory, put a properly formatted style.css file in it, and you have a child theme! With a little knowledge of HTML and CSS, you can make that very basic child theme modify the styling and layout of a parent theme to any extent without editing the files of the parent theme itself. That way, when the parent theme is updated, your modifications are preserved.

A child theme is usually contained in a folder having a styles.css (required) and a functions.php file. functions.php is not mandatory, but you will need it if you want to include some your own custom functions on top of your parent theme. Both the child theme and parent theme folders will be in the themes directory of your WordPress installation. You can override the inherited traits from its parent by modifying its own styles.css and functions.php files.

Where do you begin?

So you know you need a framework if you want to be more efficient in designing WP themes, but there are dozens of starter themes and frameworks out there.

The answer to that is with the list below. Check out the free and premium frameworks and starter themes below. Try a few of them out and then decide which one(s) work best for your projects.

1. Thematic – A WordPress Theme Framework

Price: Free!

Thematic

Thematic is a free, open-source, highly extensible, search-engine optimized WordPress Theme Framework featuring 13 widget-ready areas,960.gs grid-based layout samples, styling for popular plugins, and a whole community behind it. It’s perfect for beginner bloggers and WordPress development professionals.

Thematic is a theme framework by WordPress theme developer, Ian Stewart. Thematic is completely free; from forums to child themes, everything is free!

Thematic Features

  • Perfect to use as-is or as a blank WordPress theme for development
  • Fully Search-Engine Optimized
  • Extra widget-ready areas (13 in total) and more possible in your Child Theme
  • Free and commercially supported Child Themes are available for upgrading the theme
  • Includes a sample WordPress Child Theme for rapid development
  • A wiki-editable guide to Thematic Customization
  • Ready for WordPress plugins like Subscribe to Comments, WP-PageNavi, and Comment-license
  • Fully compatible with All-In-One SEO and Platinum SEO plugins
  • Multiple, easy to implement, bulletproof layout options for 2, or 3 column designs
  • Modular CSS with pre-packaged resets and basic typography
  • Dynamic post and body classes make it a hyper-canvas for CSS artists
  • Editable footer text—remove the theme credit without harming the theme
  • Options for multi-author blogs

Thematic Support Forums

If you’ve got a problem with a ThemeShaper Theme you can find help from Ian, Chris, Gene, and the rest of the Thematic community in the ThemeShaper Forums.

Thematic Child Themes

You can find some of the many Child Themes developed for Thematic, along with all of the Thematic Child Themes created by Ian, filed under the Thematic Child Themes category.

Thematic is one of the sound theme frameworks. It’s also one of the most powerful, and may be overkill for some sites. Easy to get start user guide, grate support, and even includes a style guide.

2. Thesis Theme Framework

Price: $87 – $164

Thesis

Thesis – WordPress Theme Framework

Thesis is one of the most popular premium theme frameworks, used on over 42,712 websites. There are two licenses, with the less expensive one only allowing use on a single website (the developer license can be used on an unlimited number of your own sites, with additional license fees for use on client websites).

Thesis is powerful. It has a remarkably efficient HTML + CSS + PHP framework and easy-to-use controls that you can use to fine-tune each and every page of your site with a tactical precision that has never been possible before. The days of worrying about your in-site SEO are over—with Thesis, your strategy is "just add amazing content".

If you do not know coding not a problem. The Thesis option panels allow you to command your site with ease, while Thesis does all of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. You’ve never had this much control over your site before, and this is precisely what makes Thesis indispensable to critical website owners all over the globe.

Thesis Features

  • Layout generator with 1, 2, and 3 column design options,Flexible Design.
  • Best in Class SEO.
  • A full options panel for customization with coding.
  • Future-proof customization system.
  • Full support.
  • A focus on typography.

Thesis Support Forums

DIYthemes have a support forum, a phone number, or be quick to respond to e-mails as that’s one of the important extras that premium theme purchasers are looking for from you when they buy.

Thesis Showcase

DIYthemes built Thesis with an emphasis on key details that allow for simple, powerful customization, so even if you only have a limited knowledge of CSS andHTML, you can tweak Thesis and create an awesome, unique design. And hey, if you’re an advanced user, you can absolutely blow people away.

Thesis is a very highly-regarded theme framework, and is used on some high-profile sites like the Print Magazine blog, The Domino Project, and Outspoken Media. There’s a full gallery of Thesis customizations you can browse to get an idea of just what Thesis is capable of.

3. Genesis Framework

Price: $59.95, $299.95



Genesis Framework

Genesis is a premium theme framework that was built by StudioPress. Genesis has a child theme marketplace where you can buy all additional child themes. Genesis has native support for search engine optimization. You can set all the options in the Genesis backend panel, just like with most good WordPress theme frameworks.

Genesis Features

  • Search Engine Optimized.
  • Offers Great-Looking Turn-key Designs.
  • Update Your Site Instantly,Makes Customizing Your Site Incredibly Easy
  • Custom Widgets and Layout Options.
  • Unlimited support, updates, and websites.
  • Integrated, single-click updates to both Genesis and WordPress that are fully tested and supported.
  • Theme options include font size and choice, default layout, custom fields, header settings, navigation settings, and much more.
  • Threaded comments support.

Genesis Support Forums

Get help with the Genesis Framework and child themes Genesis support Forums.

Genesis Child Themes

Building a custom designed child theme and just need the framework? Genesis provides the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation for custom child themes.

Genesis Child Theme Marketplace – where developers from around the community sell their work. All of the child themes you find here are built upon the Genesis Framework and are documented and supported by the developers themselves. These themes are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding of the themes are top-notch.

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress.Genesis is another framework that’s well-suited to both developers and designers as well as end-users. The number of child themes available makes it an affordable option for those who don’t want a completely custom design.

4. Gantry- Web Platform Theme Framework

Price: Free!


Gantry- Web Platform Theme Framework

Gantry is an amazing free WordPress theme framework by RocktTheme. Gantry framework is available for WordPress and Joomla. Gantry is highly customizable, you have to install Gantry framework and you can also use free child theme available for Gantry framework. RocketTheme is developer of premium WordPress theme there themes are developed on Gantry framework. You can buy premium themes or use some free theme from RocketTheme for Gantry framework.

Gantry Features

  • 960 Grid System.
  • Stunning Administrator interface.
  • XML driven and with overrides for unprecedented levels of customization.
  • Layouts, colors, features, etc can all be different for any part of your site content.
  • Preset any combination of configuration parameters, and save custom presets.
  • Built-in extensible AJAX communication layer.
  • RTL language support.
  • Flexible grid layout system for unparalleled control over block sizes.
  • 65 base widget positions.
  • Ability to force ‘blank’ widget positions for even more advanced layout customization.
  • Automatic per-browser-level CSS and JS control.

Gantry Support

Gantry have written extensive documentation that covers a full range of topics from installation to advanced concepts such as custom features. If you find your question cannot be found in the provided documentation.

Gantry Google Groups

Gantry have recently created three Google Groups that support threaded discussion as well as a mailing list for getting help and advice on various aspects of the Gantry Framework.

Gantry Framework for WordPress Users - If you are designing a site on WordPress and need help implementing Gantry Framework, join this group

RocketTheme Forums

Gantry-specific forum on the RocketTheme forums that is available to all active RocketTheme members. If you are already a RocketTheme member, you can can go directly to the forum. If you do not have a current membership, you should consider joining one of RocketTheme’s great club offerings as you will get access to some great templates, themes, and styles for a variety of platforms. Your membership also helps to pay for further development of Gantry.

Gantry is a comprehensive set of building blocks to enable the rapid development and realization of a design into a flexible and powerful web platform theme.

5. PageLines – A Professional Website Platform for WordPress

Price: $197, $397

PageLines
PageLines – A Professional Website Platform for WordPress

PageLines Drag & Drop Framework and WordPress to build professional websites faster, easier and better than ever before. PageLines is built on top of WordPress. This means that with PageLines you’ll get advanced content-management and syndication; as well as the 16,000 plugins built for WP.
PageLines is introducing the first-ever extension marketplace for websites. This means you’ll be able to buy and sell almost anything you need for your site.

PageLines Features

  • Responsive Design: PageLines framework will dynamically respond to the resolution of your browser or device. Want to test it? Just try resizing your browser window.
  • Layout Control: Just drag & drop to set up your content layout dimensions. Then select each of your 5 layout options on a page-by-page basis.
  • Section Cloning: Duplicate sections so that you can use them multiple times on the same page. Each section gets its own options and is controlled independently.
  • Typography: Select from over 50 web-safe and Google fonts. Completely change the look of your website’s typography in seconds.
  • Special Page Handling: Now you have tons of control over every type of page. In 2.0 we’re introducing Special Pages to help you control pages like categories, and archives.
  • Color Control: Use color control to change the palette of your site in seconds. You can also change layout modes and add background images.

PageLines Support

Dedicated Support Once you’re a customer, you’ll get access to a dedicated support team of web development experts. We offer both forum and ticketed support.

PageLines Themes Showcase

PageLines have amazing Themes Showcase of different types of category like Portfolio, Business, Magazine & Blog.

Finally! A drag-and-drop platform that allows you to build a website in a professional way. The first-ever framework with draggable “sections” of professional web-design.

6. Hybrid – Framework

Price: Free!

Hybrid

Hybrid Framework

Hybrid is a powerful theme framework developed by Justin Tadlock. Built on similar principles as Thematic, Hybrid is simple to use and build upon, has several built-in features and functions and a more generous options page. The theme is free to use and it also has a theme club with paid membership offering documentation and support.

If you’re a developer, you’ll love this theme.  Hybrid offers 14 custom page templates, 9 widget-ready areas, lots of actions and filters to hook your functions to. Also, the available child themes are feature rich so starting a development process should be an easy task.

Hybrid Features

  • User-Friendly.
  • SEO optimized. No need for plugins to handle this anymore.
  • Featuring several custom page templates and multiple widget-ready areas.
  • Allowing you to create any type of site you want.
  • It is completely free and open source.
  • Developed with child themes in mind, so you’ll never lose your customizations.
  • Theme options that are about content/information.
  • 13 page templates.
  • 15+ plugins supported within the theme.
  • Attachment handling like you’ve never experienced.
  • Advanced breadcrumbs beyond any other theme.
  • Ability to run just about any type of site.
  • And over 20 tutorials to start.

Hybrid Support Forums

By joining the Theme Club as an exclusive member, you’ll get the benefit of access to the tutorials and documentation and complete read/write access to the support forums.
If you’re in need of professional customization of a Hybrid-based theme, check out the services page. There’s plenty of people that are available for hire.

Hybrid Child Themes

ThemeHybrid has many child themes available for download on its website, which you can use to give your WordPress installation a new look without much coding.Theme Hybrid themes are created with a lot of special care. Hours upon hours of testing, debugging, and planning are put into each theme. Feel free to browse around and choose one to use for free.

Most of people say that frameworks are stuffed and slow, ThemeHybrid will transform their mind as it is lightning fast and optimized for high performance.

7. HEADWAY Themes

Price: $68, $174, $378

HEADWAY Themes

HEADWAY Themes

Headway Themes includes a ton of features for both developers and designers, and can be customized even without coding knowledge. While it’s definitely among the more expensive premium frameworks out there, it’s also among the most fully-featured and user-friendly.

Headway Features

  • Intuitive Visual Editor
  • Create Beautiful Webpage Designs Without Writing Code
  • Powerful Developer Tools
  • Live CSS Editor
  • Professional Search Engine Optimization
  • Visual Editor and Layout Grid
  • Professional Support
  • Plain English Documentation

Headway Support Forums

Headway’s founders and lead developer are also active on the forums. We’re a very “hands on” high-contact crew. Questions get answered quickly and the forums are searchable for existing problems which have already been resolved. Vibrant support forums moderated by Headway professionals and the Headway developer team provide you with the backup when you need it.

Headway Themes

Headway Base is not only the framework that powers all of our themes, it’s a standalone theme that anyone can use to design their website. Here at Headway Themes, you get a product with incredible flexibility, powerful search engine optimization, “plain-English” documentation, and a helpful community that always has your back.

Headway’s not just a WordPress theme. It’s a total website design tool. You’re not stuck with someone else’s design, so create anything you want! Websites, blogs, landing pages, online magazines, Headway does it all.

8. Whiteboard – WP Theme Framework

Price: Free!


Whiteboard – WP Theme Framework

Whiteboard encompasses many universal needs and consolidates them all into one compact package that is perfect for developers and designers alike – allowing anyone to develop their own unique and powerful WordPress powered website.

Whiteboard Features

  • Free and Open Source – Use it for commercial and non-commercial projects.
  • Reduces total development time.
  • Built with the Less Framework for an instant mobile website.
  • Comes with a minimalist theme.
  • Strong and flexible div structure for easy development and diverse usage.
  • More dynamic Classes and IDs than any other WordPress Framework.
  • Lightweight and well noted for a shallow learning curve.
  • Cross browser compatible with all major browsers.
  • strong Search Engine Optimization, including dynamic content, tags, titles, and more.
  • Follows the Web Accessibility Initiative for easy access by visitors with disabilities.
  • Simple CSS3 Animations with graceful degradation.
  • Follows WordPress’ CSS and PHP Coding Standards.
  • Fully Compatible with WordPress 3.0 and up.
  • Includes fallbacks for older versions of WordPress (but seriously, don’t use them – upgrade WordPress!).
  • Comes with a Child Theme ready to go.

Responsive Web Design

The idea behind Less Framework is to present visitors with a website tailored to the device they are using. If visitors load a website using their desktop computer the experience will be custom tailored for that sized screen. Similarly, if they load it on their iPhone or Smartphone they will view the same website but with a different layout, custom tailored for their device. A nice example of this practice is Stephen Caver’s website.

With the Whiteboard Framework for WordPress, it is no longer necessary to rewrite the same code and WordPress functions, mobile versions, dynamic classes and divs, or improve SEO. Whiteboard’s strong, widely-used, and well-established structure takes care of all that and more.

Save time and build a better website by using Whiteboard to build your next WordPress-powered website.

9. Ashford – WordPress Framework

Price: Free!, $49

Ashford
Ashford – WordPress Framework

Ashford is developed to be as easy as possible to administer and packed with powerful features. Often themes look great in the screen shots or in demos, but are difficult to use in the real world. Ashford is the FREE parent to the fully featured Ashford Pro. The free version is loaded with features, but not all are enabled.

Ashford Features

  • Instant mobile without a separate theme or plug-in.
  • Mega menus build using widgets.
  • Built-in capability to run Google Web Site Optimizer A/B tests.
  • Add a Hero to any page without plug-ins.
  • Page templates, including 250 variations in the Pro version.
  • Interactive hero elements, including sliders, carousels, rotating banners, and more.
  • Complete customization of headers, backgrounds, color styles, and web fonts.
  • Built-in mobile site in the Pro version.

Ashford Support Forums

Support for the free download of Ashford is limited at to documentation
Unlimited Email Support Available – If you buy Ashford Pro, you get access to unlimited email support from our Ashford Pro Cohort Google Group. This support is only available to Ashford Pro Members.

Ashford Themes showcase

The showcase sites use the Ashford CMS framework to deliver remarkable sites. Ashford is trusted by thousands of people—non-technical individuals and professional coders—who have built all types of sites: businesses, startups, nonprofits, churches, lawyers, consultants, authors, photographers and software developers.

Ashford has over 33 theme options to configure your site. Plus, each page template has a Pro Settings panel allowing you to build over 250 page variations. Then Ashford allows you to upload custom backgrounds and headers. You can do all this customization without knowing HTML, PHP, CSS or JavaScript.

10. Carrington – CMS theme platform for WordPress

Price: Free, $149

Carrington
Carrington – CMS theme platform for WordPress

Carrington is a CMS theme platform for WordPress that makes it easy to create unique looks for different categories, post types and comments just by creating custom templates.

By design, the Carrington framework is designed to be extremely flexible and modular. By building onto the already robust wordpress framework, Carrington Theme expands the possibilities of layout on all pages, including your homepage, posts page, category pages and showcases.

In addition, the Carrington framework is available in a variety of options, including a blog format, a text-only format, and a mobile theme. These can be ran simultaneously, allowing your visitors to access your site in the format most appropriate and comfortable to them. Ultimate flexibility is the goal of Carrington Theme.

Carrington Features

  • A number of starter themes to choose from based on your needs.
  • Flexible and powerful templating system.
  • An advanced drag-and-drop page layout system, Carrington Build, is also available.
  • Rich, semantic markup.
  • Four ready built themes.
  • A reactive templating engine is available that makes it easy to create different visual styles for different areas of your sites.
  • Stylish typography.
  • Page and category navigation menus.
  • AJAX loading of posts in archive lists and comments.

Carrington Showcase

Some of the amazing sites that run on Carrington.

Carrington is growing into a very powerful free and premium starter theme and framework elements. Full documentation available, which makes it easy to get started developing Carrington-based themes.

Conclusion

After reviewing these "Top 10 WordPress Theme Frameworks", its now easy to select which Theme Frameworks suit your requirements.Final selection will depend upon your needs and tastes.

Hopefully, this guide will have made making that decision easier for you.

So, finally which WordPress Theme Framework you are going to use? 

 
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I am passionate about web and mobile development. I love playing around with the latest technologies in our industry. I works mostly in PHP and CMS like WordPress, Joomla. I am Founder and Content writer of  WebDesignerGeek . Now working as Web & Mobile App Developer. You can follow him on @twitter and @facebook  

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  • http://www.inglesnarede.com.br Renato Alves

    They are all really great frameworks. Thanks for compiling all of them. :)

  • Robert S.

    I am currently investigating the xScape framework and so far I am very impressed. In the past I have used Hybrid and Carrington but testing so far suggests that xScape is a winner.

    xScape is an advanced WordPress theme framework that brings SEO options, powerful customization, a layout manager, menu designer, extend modules (bbPress integration, Google web fonts, contact form…) plus more than 15 widgets together under a well structured and very flexible WP development framework.

    http://www.dev4press.com/xscape/

  • http://www.seomofo.com/ Darren Slatten

    WARNING: DO NOT BUY THESIS

    The Thesis theme hasn’t been updated in 1-2 years, and customers’ complaints about it (in the support forum) are completely ignored by the theme’s deadbeat designer! This theme is totally outdated and does not support any new WP features. If you think Thesis has “best-in-class SEO,” then read this:

    How DIYThemes.com Uses BS SEO to Sell BS WordPress Themes

    • Brandon Jones

      Interesting read Darren! I haven’t used Thesis myself, so I can’t vouch for any of this, but thanks for sharing! (PS – I edited your link to say BS rather than the elongated version ;))

      • John

        I know this is an old thread but found it very funny that you “fixed” the swear word in this link and totally did nothing the the second instance of the word two words down the link! Got a good giggle out of it.

        • Japh Thomson
          Staff

          Good point, John! Fixed ;)

    • Mike

      I’m sorry Darren but I disagree with you on Thesis. First thing you need to realize is Thesis is more of a framework/platform than a theme. I’ve been designing and developing with Thesis for a couple of years now. Granted there is a mildly steep learning curve but you can do almost anything with it. I’ve experienced nothing but success when visiting the DIY Themes forum. As far as SEO check out http://www.julianbakery.com. This is all Thesis except for the shopping cart system. If you google “Low Carb Bread” or “Low Carb Gluten Free Bread”, we pop extremely hi in the SERPs. However, it’s not all attributed to Thesis. This is a multi pronged marketing strategy but Thesis has certainly helped with the basics.

  • Ajmal

    What a great and resourceful post!

    Anyway between Whiteboard and Pagelines, which do you think offer the best responsive design features? Why?

    Thanks in advance!

    • http://webdesignergeeks.com Ajay Patel
      Author

      Thanks,

      If you have developer skill then you can use Whiteboard, its a free and Responsive.
      And if you want easy interface, less coding and Drag & Drop type facilities then you can choose Pagelines.
      Its a my opinion, you can decide batter then me that which is perfect suit you.

  • Paco

    great insight on these frameworks, I have a question,
    Can you use any of those frameworks to sell your own theme on your own?
    Either inside or outside their own creator space.

  • http://www.geniusthesis.com/ Bharat Mandava

    Of these all frameworks, thesis really rocks. Using that on blog and recommended to my friends too.

  • Ken Reynolds

    I am a graphic designer and web developer for a small non-profit. We are currently in the process of transitioning our entire web presence over to WordPress from a bloated proprietary system. In our haste to begin, we purchased the $300 license to Genesis Framework and have quickly discovered that none of the provided child themes are currently compatible with WordPress 3.3.

    Keep this in mind when evaluating any of the premium frameworks for purchase.

  • Mike

    Nice list Ajay – thank you.

    What is really surprising however is that your research didn’t show that the Catalyst Theme (www.catalysttheme.com) is most likely going to emerge as the most comprehensive framework out there in terms of design and layout control.

    I’ve purchased a license for most of the frameworks on your list at some point or other, but after starting with Catalyst when it first came out, frankly I haven’t touched the others since.

    It’s under constant development with new features being added all the time, and the community support forum is one of the most active and helpful I’ve ever seen.

    I’m not associated with Catalyst in any way – just a customer, but It might be worth having a good look at it for your next round up.

    Mike :)

    • http://webdesignergeeks.com/ Ajay Patel
      Author

      Your welcome Mike, sure catalysttheme is really good one, will surely write about this framework in my next post :)

    • http://www.socialstrategy.co.uk Terence

      @Mike It sounds like you and I are pretty much at the same stage, having used many different themes and while maybe happy with most of them, at the time, then found Catalyst, discovered the possibilities and flexibility it offers to be way beyond the themes I’ve seen or used so far. I’ve only looked at it so far and not purchased as I am still waiting for the Responsive Child Theme to come out, which they tell me will be in a month or so. But from what I can see, there is nothing else like it on the market with the range of modification and styling it offers without the need to resort to coding. I am looking forward to using it and you’re right, its a serious omission in a review of WordPress frameworks and should be included, perhaps as the premier theme since I don’t think any of the others, from my personal experience, comes anywhere near the power and capability Catalyst offers.

      Terence.

    • http://www.menkom.com.au Mitch

      Checkout the Ultimatum framework… its even better than catalyst :)

    • Jason

      I love Catalyst myself. I have the developers license for it, and Love it. I use it on all my sites.

  • deepsouth41

    Tried a few of those, but you left out the one I eventually purchased (and am very happy with): Catalyst.

  • Whims

    I’ve been using Catalyst Theme Framework for a while now and absolutely love it.
    It is so user friendly and with so many options and their support is top notch!!!

  • http://www.blueturtlegraphics.com Kim Smith

    Nice list and post. I’m surprised by no mention of Woo Themes, especially the Canvas theme. I’ve used Thesis and tried Headway (once and only once) and the Woo Canvas theme is way better. I’ve built about 15-16+ websites based on the Canvas them alone an they all look different since I customize all the graphics. I love this theme framework because it speeds up my development time with each site which is very important if you are a one-man / one-woman show. Canvas is a very basic, white clean framework with which to start. I start with Photoshop mockups using the 960 Grid System templates. Once mockup is approved, I begin the buildout. Canvas has also had several major upgrades in the past year or two adding very useful functionality. As with all frameworks, you have to learn the hooks and shortcodes if you want to do some major customization.

    One thing I’ve learned in the last few years is that you should pick a framework and stick with it. I feel the more comfortable you get with the framework, the better you get and easier it is to develop with. I originally started with Thesis and tried to switch to Headway and wound up with Woo Canvas and it can get really confusing working with multiple frameworks and their hooks. It’s best to find one you like and stick with it.

    • chaos1

      She brings up a great point, Canvas runs on Woo Frameworks.. I love using it too, and expanding the theme options is a cinch. ;]

  • http://imnotmarvin.com Michael Davis

    Hey Ajay,

    I’ve explored a couple of the frameworks on your list and none of them compared to Catalyst.

    I recently attended a presentation on Genesis where the presenter started out touting it as the “Designer” framework, but then she primarily focused on all the areas where you had to know how to code PHP in order to do things as simple as add a widget areas and other basic structural aspects.

    Now doesn’t the very notion of being called a “Framework” imply that it can handle basic structural layout without needing to know PHP?

    Catalyst, in it’s core, gives you access to all of the basic structural aspects of a WordPress site. Header, footer, navbars, sidebars, widget area and much, much more. Then with it’s included child them, Dynamik, gives you complete control over the design. When you can’t find the perfect pre-made widget area or design control, you can create your own widget area (no coding) or directly edit the CSS styling.

    I really hope you will be able to write about Catalyst in an upcoming post, like you said above. I am looking forward to reading about your experience.

    • http://www.yourcyberguide.com Divyansh

      thanks, nice advice
      I was wondering why nobody discussed genesis,

  • http://www.razmikar.ir/taekwondo.html تکواندو

    Of these all frameworks, thesis really rocks. Using that on blog and recommended to my friends too.

  • http://babylon-grp.com تور ارمنستان

    What a great and resourceful post!….!!!!

  • http://www.robertgabriel.eu Robert Gabriel

    “Genesis Child Theme Marketplace – where developers from around the community sell their work.”
    Forget about it. This is simply a lie.

  • http://www.mobile-tower.com Simon Frandsen

    Thanks for sharing, good article a great help.

    Simon

  • http://siddatwork.com Sidd

    Thanks for educating me (and many i think) about these.
    I have worked only with the Thematic theme and found it very developer-friendly.
    No drag-&-drop features though.

    Recently, The Roots and Foundation frameworks/themes have gained attention.
    Does anyone have any feedback about these?
    Thanks.

  • http://ultimatesolution.biz/about Kerry
  • http://kopepasah.com Justin Kopepasah

    Noticed that you chose not to include Builder by iThemes? I am curious why you chose not to include Builder.

  • Benjamin

    I can’t believe you didn’t mention Builder by iThemes, the Catalyst Theme, or Startbox. Three frameworks that rank above and beyond all the 10 mentioned frameworks (except maybe themehybrid).

    • http://webdesignergeeks.com/ Ajay Patel
      Author

      Hi,
      Benjamin

      I will surely include ithemes and Catalyst in my next post. In this post my goal is to cover 5 free and 5 premium frameworks. So the there are big confusion for me.

      By the way iThemes, the Catalyst both frameworks are grate also.

  • http://www.deluxeblogtips.com Rilwis

    As a coder, I love the way Justin Tadlock codes Hybrid. In my opinion, it’s better than Thematic and Genesis (I haven’t looked at Whiteboard, Pagelines, etc.). But anyway, choosing a theme framework is really hard if you are a coder :D, but they’re a good point to start your own!

  • http://shoutingwords.com Jitendra Kumar

    Hi Ajay,

    There is a typo in your article. You have mentioned “View Thematic Demo.” in the gantry theme demo link. Otherwise a good article. Thanks for sharing.

    • http://www.tipsly.net Noorani

      That typo got my eye too. However it’s a great article. Within those frameworks I like to use free ones, especially Thematic.

  • http://2ammedia.co.uk Daryl

    The best starter theme I have ever used is:

    http://randyjensenonline.com/thoughts/handcrafted-wp-starter-theme/

    I would strongly advise for people who make custom designed WP sites, where a completely blank theme is needed but including all the vital functionality! Various features are also included.

  • http://blogrescue.com Blogrescue

    I’ve worked with WordPress since the beginning, and it has been interesting to see the rise of the frameworks in the landscape. There is definitely has been some ingenious work and fantastic features, but my #1 advice to every client is never use a theme built on any framework. They just provide too much overhead. The theme may work great in testing, but turning it on live on a high traffic site is a completely different world.

    Why read the url for the header image from the database and generate code for it when you can hard code it directly in the template and save yourself a query? Themes make things easier for the designer and/or end user, but the cost is too high. The first thing any site optimizer worth his or her salt will tell you is: the framework has to go.

    • http://www.trentstudios.com Cameron

      I’d like to know about your comment of ‘never use a theme built on any framework’.

      Are you saying to only use themes that have been built from scratch or what are you saying?

      I’m just learning about frameworks. I’ve never built a theme. I’ve only used pre-built themes such as Atahualpa.

      Thanks!

  • http://www.animhut.com/ sriganesh.m

    Ajay – you have given a nice insights of themes. as Darren said – thesis problem heard from fellow bloggers.

    I am using Elegantthemes – which is enrich and wpzoom and others also keep track of your queries and respect customer sanctification.

  • http://stalkinfo.com/ Ophelia

    Hi, this is one of better posts on the subject of frameworks. I’m considering Genesis vs Hybrid at the moment. I think an important thing to consider is that you don’t only put money (into premium frameworks), but most of all your time. As you mentioned – you have to learn each framework. That’s why its great to have reviews like that, so I you don’t have to try every one of them and only take a couple for a test drive!

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  • http://www.mobilebrands.us Mobile Brands

    Hi, I’m looking for a framework as a starting point for designing your own themes … Most are based on child themes … I’m leaning towards a skeleton with features that allow you just to add new entries as well. Can you recommend one or did I miss it? Great article … thanks :)

    • http://www.menkom.com.au/ Mitch

      The ultimatum framework is just what you want…. ….. there is no themes you start off with a blank white canvas as you pretty much build you site from scratch…… what i really like about it is the level of control on the layouts, each part of the layout having complete control of the css, wrapper, container….. its simply amazing. As a test i was able to replicate the homepage of our main website that was using a premium theme in under 12 hours with absolutely no prior experience of the framework.

      You should give it a go.

  • http://www.keithandersen.com Keith Andersen

    Great article. Right up the alley I was looking for. I’ve been trying to find a framework that is based on the 1140 grid and is responsive. Any ideas? I’ve been making my own themes for a while but nothing special usually just child themes of a theme that I like. I want to start digging in to properly develop my themes.

    Genesis has been one I’ve been looking at but was wondering if I should look at another.

    • http://cixdesigns.com Micah

      Try http://www.rootstheme.com/ I haven’t tried it but it does support 1140 grid and is based on HTML5 Boilerplate.

      • http://www.keithandersen.com Keith Andersen

        Thanks. This is one I’ve been looking at and was on the fence about. I thinks it’s time I give it a try.

      • Walks

        How does the roots theme work with Child Theming? Ive just discovered it and like what I read but it appears it might not be the best theme to use if I wanted to create a child theme.

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  • Kris

    Hello,

    Does genesis work on the latest version of wordpress 3.3?

  • Milcho

    Hi there
    I am really surprised that you left woothemes out.
    I have used them for a long time and one of the things I like the most is that you can update the framework directly from the WP panel.
    As a matter of fact with this whole issue of the timthumb hack, the only thing that I had to do was to upgrade the framework and this took care of the problem.

    Do you happen to know if it is possible to do the same with Thesis?

    Thanks

    Milcho

  • http://www.byteindia.com Vijay

    I prefer Thesis theme anytime over others may be because I got to comfortable with it and can find my way around things pretty easily there.

    • seo birmingham

      Am thinking of trying Thesis now, needs to be easy to use.

  • http://xzguite.info Xz Guite

    Oh, awesome list of framework here. Thanks its just what I’ve been looking for. Pagelines is great but abit costly for the pro version i guess. For Free Framework i’d go for Gantry.. Its all there for beginner bloggers. I hope it works in v3.3

  • http://ticware.com Daniel

    Great post , i think, thematic is the best, first of all is Free, and i haven’t problems upgrading the version of WP, As a beginner designer i made some corporative, and personal sites using thematic.

  • http://compasslocal.com David

    If you develop a theme while using a framework / base theme can you sell your theme on a premium site like themeforest.net ? Im looking for a base theme to make development quicker but I dont know what the rules are for selling your themes. Do you have to edit the functions file and change the names of functions that were named after the theme / framework ?

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  • http://www.trinitywebcreation.com Ben

    I hate to beat a dead horse, but I agree with many of the above comments regarding Catalyst. I have developed sites like http://www.imfuse.com which is a membership site with Catalyst. I think it is extremely flexible and has the best of both worlds, easy enough from a novice, and robust enough for a seasoned developer.

    Otherwise great round up Ajay! Excellent analysis and feature lists.

    • deeroy

      Catalyst theme is really super! I think it is the best out there.There are also a few notable ones like Builder from iThemes and new Ultimatumtheme(i’m still testing it) .These are really solid ones compared to Thesis.

  • http://www.schoolgirlsnumber.com/ Super John

    there is no alternative of WP, WP has better than Joomla and easy User Interface

    • http://ueab.ac.ke/ Amba Junior

      I agree with you on that. wordpress beats joomla on UI and admin management. Thumbs up to the developers!

  • http://twitter.com/MaxTheITpro Max – The IT Pro

    Dude, THANKS for this blog post! Catalyst eh? Hmmnn…I’m intrigued. I’ll give it a try.
    WordPress has truly transformed itself into a SERIOUS CMS around the 2.7/2.8+ release. Before that, I wasn’t interested. Mad props to the Matt & WP gang for delivering the goods to MILLIONS of users. :-)

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  • Arie Putranto

    If you think about it, seriously, then Thematic and Hybrid is the winners. The best of both, you decide.

  • http://dailyadvisor.net Daily Advisor

    I’m using Genesis since a while now, and i’m quite happy.
    I believe i should test other frameworks, but i don’t think i’ll change it.

  • http://www.yourcyberguide.com Divyansh

    hi ajay! its always nice learning from your blog
    theres a typo :
    You have written’ thematic demo’ in gantry’s description

  • http://imperativeideas.com Imperative

    A nice group of options to be sure, though a further categorization would be helpful.

    From the comments it quickly becomes clear that there are very different needs based on people’s level of comfort with coding and their development priorities.

    1. The budget developer
    The most important word in this developer’s vocabulary is “free”. This guy or gal will probably graduate to being a drag & drop dev over the next year as he or she builds up a library of reusable resources.

    2. The drag & drop developer
    Knows a big of CSS but isn’t yet comfortable with custom PHP code, writing jQuery, or manipulating the post loop. This person wants a powerful framework with lots of switches (Catalyst, Genesis, etc) which allows them to focus on the front end then calling pre-configured objects into the UI. The objects get styled and the theme works out of the box without a ton of third party plugins to maintain.

    3. The nuts & bolts devleoper
    Comfortable with writing jQuery or manipulating complex jQuery plugins like parallax.js or impress.js. Mixes up commercial plugins with their own coding depending on the project scope. Finds most frameworks overly limiting. Probably has several WP boilerplates that they write their own child themes off of for clients. This developer is going to be attracted to Hybrid Core or Whiteboard but they are also going to completely ignore the parent theme(s) that come with the download. They also have clear opinions on Gumby vs Less Framework.

    4. The mass-developer
    Builds entire site networks for apartment groups, doctor groups, or real-estate companies. There are lots of examples. The most important thing to this developer is the ability to rapid-prototype child themes based on a bug-free parent. Consistency and scalability are more important than tweakability. These folks suffer the eccentricities far worse than any of the other dev types. They have subsciptions to all the major frameworks and can tell you exactly what ticks them off about Pagelines vs Genesis. A theme like Hybrid Core or Whiteboard sounds great but it would take six months to develop a series of appropriate parent themes and they aren’t sure the framework has enough features to justify that in spite of the raw speed it offers.

    Thus, in the comments, we end up with a lot of people having strong opinions based on entirely different needs.

    A further breakdown by developer type would be awesome, though it would take a bit of research and a few forum topics in flame-prone environments to dig out the nuggets of truth in terms of pros, cons, and ideal parings.

  • Rakesh Kumar

    Do not know how to thank you for this. I was searching for a long long time for well supported theme frameworks and thanks a lot buddy for compiling such a great great list. I got what I want and I will start my blog now. Thanks a lot once again for this amazing list. Bookmarked it.

  • http://www.creationweb.gr μαθηματα dreamweaver

    Headway my best:)

  • http://www.misslaidlaw.co.uk Diane

    Headway and Pagelines are my favs.

  • http://wordpressdeveloper.me Muhammad Adnan

    Nice roundup of frameworks, was looking for it.

  • Amyth

    Great List ! have worked with most of them. Even i did one for my personal use and now have released it under GPL/MIT. It is basically a theme admin framework and provides a modern and a professional admin panel for your theme. Hope it is worth considering.

    site: http://techstricks.com/myth-admin-framework/
    source: https://bitbucket.org/amyth/myth-admin-framework

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  • http://www.davesfiction.com Dave K.

    I’ve been using Thesis for years, but it feels kind of long in the tooth by now and Thesis 2.0 basically means learning a whole new framework from scratch. After looking at the smattering of reviews out there, I’m leaning toward Catalyst.

    • Scuttlecog

      Pretty much the same situation here. Thesis was great back when it wasn’t trying so hard to reinvent the wheel, but 2.0 seems to be a huge leap backwards for developers who actually know how to code. I’ve broke with frameworks entirely after using Thesis since I first started designing sites. Boom! Freedom is an awesome thing.

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  • Aamit Wraj

    Very well researched and exhaustive input regarding all available wordpress framework !

  • Jonah

    I use the Gantry framework for most of my WordPress-based web development projects. It’s got a nice mix of features, and is totally extensible. Check out this series of articles I’ve started on my working process:

    http://www.craniumstorm.com/the-gantry-framework-for-wordpress/

  • http://tasepeda.com/ nisa

    i like to buils some wordpress theme framework too, this post help me to compare with mine.
    thanks…

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  • http://webloggerz.com/ Webloggerz

    on what framework is tutsplus.com build?

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  • Srdjan

    Hi,

    what you think about Warp framework by yootheme.com

  • http://www.ywordpress.com/ Wordpress Development

    This wordpress theme starter guide will definitely very helpful for all the beginners who want to start development with the wordpress framework. Hey, Beginners must read this….

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  • pha3z

    Armstrong Theme – http://www.armstrongtheme.com New Kid on the block and absolutely awesome! Very fast development of fully custom designs with amazingly editable end results!