Elegant Themes is a WordPress theme club owned by Nick Roach. For $19.95, you get unlimited access to 19 premium WordPress themes, and every theme he brings out for the next year.
This post was sponsored by Nick, but I’m not using any affiliate links. It means there’s no benefit to me in selling the themes, so it’s as unbiased as I can get.
The Obvious – Great Looking Themes
The first things you look for in a premium theme are a great look, and great functionality.
Elegant Themes has both, so I won’t waste time talking about that. You can see live demos of all the themes from the gallery page and make up your own mind there.
The two I would suggest looking at most of all are ColdStone and Cion:
The Extras – Options and Copyright
When you delve deeper into the themes, you’ll find two things that may not have been so obvious at first.
The first is an extensive options page. Not all of the themes will use the same options pages, but for the newer ones in particular, you will be able to control a lot of the details about your theme without ever touching the theme files.
For instance, you can set every detail of your adverts and manage them from the options page. You can choose how to display your page navigation. You can select certain features to show or hide, like the tabbed menus. And you can set options like which category to use for featured posts.
The second thing is that you don’t have to retain the copyright notice in the footer, like some other themes force you to. From the Elegant Themes FAQ page:
12. Am I required to retain the linkback to elegantthemes when I use your themes?
No, I do not require that you retain the credit links, however, it is much appreciated!
The Developer’s Viewpoint – Code Library!
Often WordPress themes can be seen as tools for people who don’t know how to design their own website. That’s a fair viewpoint, and there’s no doubt that that group makes up the majority of premium theme purchases.
But on the other hand, if you have an idea for a new site and want to get it up and running quickly, why not use a decent theme to start things off and buy yourself time to make something unique?
Or better yet, why not use a premium theme as the basis for building your own theme, in a far shorter time period?
Elegant Themes is perfect for this because there is a huge amount of functionality across the club. If you want to learn how to do more with WordPress and take your own work to the next level, then subscribing to Elegant Themes gives you access to a massive code library.
See a feature you like? Go through the source code and learn how it was done! For just $19.95, you’re getting access to features like these:
- Featured post slider from ColdStone.
- Animated lifestream from LightSource.
- Rating system from eGamer.
- Image thumbnail overlays from Cion.
- WordPress 2.7 threaded comments from eVid.
Access to all these themes stands to teach you a whole lot, and given the low cost it really doesn’t matter if you never use any of themes in a live website. $20 isn’t much to pay for what you’ll learn.
In conclusion, I would say that Elegant Themes is well worth joining if you’re in the market for a new theme, or if you’d like to learn how they do what they do. The themes seem to keep getting better and better over time, and the price is by far the cheapest you’re going to get for that number of themes.
What do you think? Would you consider Elegant if you were buying a theme?
Custom Search
Corey Freeman (11 comments)22 December 08
I was excited about Elegant Themes when they first came out, and I have in fact purchased a subscription. ($20 a year is easy for anyone’s budget!) I have to agree that you can definitely use these themes from a developer’s point of view. Not only do they have great functionality, they pull it off with style and flair. The themes are pretty inspirational for a themer like me.
Nice review! I definitely recommend purchasing a subscription, because you can download every theme after paying only a one-time price!
Blog Expert (2 comments)22 December 08
Sweet review! $20 is not bad for a year. Might have to get it.
redwall_hp (135 comments)22 December 08
Great review. I like the look of the ColdStone theme especially. It’s got a unique layout, the styling looks good, the menus work well.
Muhammad Siyab (5 comments)23 December 08
This is very tempting. The themes look amazing… might as well learn a thing or two about WordPress theme development
might have to buy 
awesome review
Web Design Beach (31 comments)23 December 08
Great Wordpress themes site indeed. Themes are really very elegant and modern with great and simple effect. The best part indeed is a very small price for such a big number of themes you get and that you will get in next year. Got them bookmarked for future when i come to need of fast, cheap and excellent looking wp theme.
Neowster (1 comments)25 December 08
I subscribed to the site since Oct 08, because $20 for access to all the themes for a year is really peanuts. I mainly see this $20 spent on a learning resources, as their effects are beautiful!
Ali (5 comments)26 December 08
Perfect and cant wait for new themes
Greg Althoff (3 comments)29 December 08
I hope you don’t advertise EVERY good theme place on your site! You might start losing some business! But Nick has a great thing going for so cheap right now…
thanks for sharing…
Navjot Singh (2 comments)3 January 09
One problem…their themes are not well coded somehow. I found once a obsolete tag being used which should have been replaced by a newer one. Secondly their themes are not well SEO optimised…not even a single heading on their themes use the h1 or such tags. All are styled using the span or div tags which hampers the SEO efforts. It takes a lot of time to tweak their themes..I am using their themes…though they look great on face value..but setting them can be a task for newbies.
Moreover..for people who make websites for their clients..can’t use ElegantWP..since they don’t allow this under their license…you should mention this too.
Chelle (1 comments)8 January 09
I signed up a couple months ago and have been very happy so far. For $20 as a multiple site owner I really couldn’t ask for more and the best part is he’s been very consistent in releasing new themes to try out! They are easy to customize and I always get a lot of compliments on my sites about the design.
You can see his Who’sWho theme in action on my site with a few small changes I’ve made
Eduardo (1 comments)9 January 09
Dear All
I did download the theme earthlytouch and I did the put with my new theme of the my website but I dont know how to put the picture the on the Post, similar the demostration, you know?
Many Thanks.
Eduardo
Tyler - Niche Store Journey (2 comments)26 January 09
Michael- thanks for making me aware of this site. I am certainly signing up and going to use some of these themes for Niche Store Journey as well as other personal sites.
Thanks for the great review and resource my friend!
-Tyler
Khaled (2 comments)2 February 09
I love the look of the designs, have a new site which is going to be put up shortly and the Basic site design is perfect for it. Cheers its $45 for a skin that’s not half as nice from some of the template sites.
Many thanks
Khaled
tasarım (4 comments)19 March 09
Nice themes actually. And not that expensive.
Raimi (1 comments)2 May 09
Thanks for the review man! I just love it. Its like buying a theme for 20 bucks. I think I’m considering buying it…
Raimi’s Latest Post: What Kind Of Experience Do I Need When I Want To Begin A Web Based Business?
Michael Martin (1317 comments)5 May 09
Agreed, it’s a really good deal! Not just one theme for the $20, loads of them!
christian (4 comments)9 July 09
Great looking themes and I cant beat the price. However, I am really concerned about the SEO. I rely on google to pass me viewers and would hate to loose some or even my pagerank due to switching. Any more info on the SEo value of these?
.-= christian´s last blog ..20 Great Motivational Prints =-.
JC (4 comments)20 January 10
Personally, I like the themes as they are. Nick has such an eye for harmonious blending of colors. I have seen some sites that use his theme and did too many changes. The result looks terrible! In my opinion Nick is arguably the best theme designer in the world. A very selfless young man. Rare.
JC (4 comments)20 January 10
Sorry. The first post was meant to be on its own.
But I wanted to reply to christian that Nick’s themes have built in SEO options similar to that of All In One SEO. I don’t know about the coding problems a few are speaking of.
Create a blog site (1 comments)6 August 09
Great themes. All for $20 year. I think it’s a good deal. I’m going to have to try it out. You should add an affiliate link
Mandy | Business Cards (9 comments)27 August 09
Fantastic review, themes are really very important to a site its what gives them their own personality if I can word it like that.
Keith Davis (60 comments)31 August 09
I’m just about to sign up with Elegant Themes so I was grateful for this review.
I agree with your main points… great looking themes and only $20!
I’m also swayed by the thought that I can get some support. I could use a free theme and spend weeks trying to get it the way I want… and still not succeed. Even on my meagre salart, thats a lot of time and money wasted.
Can’t imagine the time this guy has put in to produce these themes – worth every penny, sorry.. cent.
suny (3 comments)3 September 09
GOOD DESIGN! BUT IM SO POOR TO PURCHASE ONE
TV (1 comments)28 September 09
Dear all,
- One of the best WordPress Themes on the Internet in terms of appearance, features and functionality…
- With 26 nos. of themes at only $19.97 per year…it is the cheapest theme package that you wouldn’t find elsewhere…
- Breakthrough to more niche topics that you could think off with it….
Grab one now… Cheers fellow Blogger….
Keith Davis (60 comments)5 December 09
Come on Suny… £20!
Get someone to buy it for you for Christmas.
Cut out the booze.
Cut out the hamburgers.
Cut out… you can fill the rest in.
Hope you get a nice surprise in your Christmas stocking!
lynnscott (20 comments)30 September 09
Great Post and good buy…The thems you get are quit amazing…I use them all the time..they have there own personality….for you’re design….Priceless…Thanks
michael (18 comments)12 October 09
I really like the style of these themes.
Great review !
Tania IT Geek (1 comments)14 October 09
I have just stumbled upon this site, and so far have found it informative and interesting.
Thank you for the review, the themes are really great. Nice site look forward to coming back and learning more.
Cathy @ 3 at 1 Copying (9 comments)16 October 09
I have just come across this site, and have paged through finding it really great, with interesting and informative content.
The themes are just fantastic, not a bad price and its for an entire year so it actually works out to be quiet a bargain. Thank you for the review.
Hazel Ink Cartridge (6 comments)17 November 09
Well done on sharing this, I just love these themes and the price is really affordable. Great review, I am enjoying your site, and learning new things all the time thanks!!!
Adam (18 comments)5 December 09
Really great looking themes. Nice design.
Keith Davis (60 comments)5 December 09
I’m all signed up with Elegant Themes and can say… it is the best $20 I ever spent.
Just got to find the time to activate and configure the eBusiness theme on my site.
I bought a premium theme so that I could get help with configuring and any problems in the future.
The help and advice I’ve received has been brilliant.
My advice… cough up the $20… you won’t regret it.
Kylia (1 comments)24 December 09
Love elegant themes, they are very functional and easy to make your own. For $20 you won’t find a better WP theme club.