[Wordpress] I've Used Thesis, Then Frugal, Should I Try Headway Next?

Hey Rod,

What are you having a rough time with either of those themes? My WP guru swears by Thesis as a "coders dream." I use Frugal and it seems to have all I need.

It sounds like you need a WP coder specialist to do what you need....

Regards,

Bruce

I have been using Woo Themes (Wordpress Platform) for some projects lately and think they are a good (not perfect) solution for me. There are free templates you can test drive and use. Paid template packages come with oodles of support from a responsive forum. Woo Themes.
WooThemes|Premium WordPress Themes (not an affiliate link).

Good luck!

Bruce,

I don't want to get into the details. I've just spent 5 hours trying to get the Frugal theme uploaded and working. I was going to have a staff member do it but I'm a hands-on guy and wanted to learn how to use it first. Thesis is too rigid for our needs so I've scratched that out. I have a WP coder that we use but was looking for a theme where I didn't have to use him. So just wanted to know what other themes that were out there.

RoD

I would not waste the money on Headway, I purchased it and I was not impressed but I use Thesis and I love it. There is also a theme called Flexibility and I am pretty sure they still offer a free version. It is very easy to customize and it is SEO friendly as well. Also if you need some help figuring out Thesis pm me and I will point you in the direction of some great free resources and some really nice thesis skins that are very simple to customize. For example I created this site Simply The Law ? from the Gary C. Johnson Law Offices using a Thesis skin that I purchased and all I had to do was write the CSS code and add my graphics. Now it looks nothing like the skin I purchased.

If you do checkout headway this site might be worth taking a look at. I'm hearing good things about the training they provide.

Headway Theme Tutorials | Headway Hacks

Rod, YES, try Headway.

I turned to it after having trouble trying to tweak Thesis to fit my needs, and the Visual Editor on Headway is a charm (though some people have had trouble getting it to work, the forums have helpful people to guide you through).

Though based on 'hooks' too, like Thesis, the 'hooks' can be designed in either plain HTML or rich text, as a module, which is then pulled into pre-set areas in your template. Like all complex themes, Headway too has a learning curve, but it's pretty smooth (at least I found it to be, after an uphill struggle with Thesis left me successful, but unclear, about how I achieved certain design tweaks!)

The older Frugal theme (when it was free) still suits me well, but I haven't tried the new paid version

Another site I like for themes is

Flash Components - ActiveDen

Hope this helps.

All success
Dr.Mani

Rod,
Ask yourself if any of the sites you know that are running Headway look 'polished'.

If you think they look polished, then you might be happy with it.

If, however, you're fussy about the setting of your fonts (web design is 90% about the text, not the graphics) you might find some so-called 'premium' themes wanting.

My site runs on thesis. Sure, it took a lot of work to get it the way it is, but it was worth it.

I tried wpremix but regretted it. Now I use studiopress a lot especially the new genesis child theme.

I like to trash and reinvent some classic ones like K2 or Atahualpa. Once you get used to them, it's pretty easy to do whatever you want with them.

But you need to go down and dirty with PHP and CSS.

I've had good results with some of the Studiopress themes - might be worth a look.

Hey Rod,

Try Mimbo out! I have been using Mimbo for a while now and when it comes to SEO, my sites are all climbing and sticking very well, and quickly! ; )

Its also easy to work once you have set your first one up and it looks decent aswell! Its also FREE!

Wordpress Magazine Theme Released | Darren Hoyt Dot Com

GoGetta

I know some CSS and PHP but would rather not get themes that need a lot of coding and tweaking so was considering Socrates.

I'd like to know why you don't like Socrates. Not to get you started, just to get your take on it

I have used thesis once but at that time I see it is to complex for me. Right now I just wanna try it again.

I have used Frugal and Thesis, i liked Thesis but tweaking it the way i wanted was too much hard work.
Enter Headway, easy to use, drag and drop visual editor and built in SEO. It's a pleasure using it.
Headway gets my vote.

Headway is remarkable. I'm shocked by the negative comments. Are you sure you used it?

First it has all of the power, functionality and SEO of Thesis. I used Thesis but found that without knowing php and css you really can't use Thesis well - which is why most Thesis sites look the same.

Headway take the concepts introduced by Thesis and makes them user friendly - like a hook structure. Headway makes everything plug and play - no programming needed. This includes a visual editor so that you can change your site interactively and see the changes immediately without refreshing.

A major challenge of Wordpress Themes that I've never seen overcome by any theme other than headway is to have various pages do various functions without custom css or programming. Headway does this using a concept called "leafs." Somewhat like widgets it gives you ultimate flexiblity over your website - as you would for an html site. Example: some pages can be 2 columns, others 3, others 1. Some can have photo albums and others shop like appearance. Truly amazing stuff - all done visually and with zero programming.

Today I just bought a skin. The install was as easy as installing a plugin (actually was that process). With 3 mouse clicks I have en entire different look to my site. Skins, leafs, and widgets all give your site immense flexibility and control.

There just isn't anything else I've found that gives you a WordPress site as unique, individualized, and as flexible as Headway. Is there a learning curve? Yes, of course.

PS: I have no skin in the game. I am simply a happy customer of Headway after spending hundreds of dollars on other themes and plugins trying to get a reasonable site up without having to learn programming.

I've had nothing but great results using the Thesis theme on my blogs and websites, Absolutely love all the features and variations provided within it and the ability to customize nearly everything suits me to the fullest extent.

Stick with it!