Need a theme WordPress

Lawrence Krubner answers:

I spoke with Little D and she told me she is looking into premium themes. I would like the experts here to try to put together a comprehensive list of all the premium theme companies that are out there right now. I'm raising the prize on this question in the hopes of getting a complete list.

(And I think this would be a case where it would be appropriate to split the final prize, if several experts all contribute different ideas about which theme companies are good.)

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Pali Madra answers:

Hello Little D,

Ink themes has been around for sometime but I would refrain from commenting on their quality and credibility as I have never used their themes.

It is odd that a WordPress theme stops working after you have built a child theme. If you have not changed any code as such the child theme should work fine and both the front end and back end should be usable. Promoting the pro version is fine but then the free version should not stop working as soon as someone creates a child theme.

I have built list so that it would be more beneficial in response to @lawrence's request. Please be aware that the price range is $45 to $80 for these themes. All the themes are from reliable WordPress theme developers. For the themeforest themes the support is provided by the author but Themeforest does a pretty good job of ensuring that the support is there. Most of the themes meet the requirements you have spelt out.

The themes are

[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/green-earth-environmental-wordpress-theme/2473309"]]Green Earth[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/simplepress/"]]SimplePress[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/wisdom-of-life-ngo-and-charity-theme/1778657"]]Wisdom Of Life: NGO and Charity Theme[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/born-the-wordpress-theme-for-churches/803941"]]WordPress theme for churches[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/bhinneka-a-responsive-wordpress-theme/2198656"]]Bhinneka theme[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://upthemes.com/themes/charity-theme/"]]Charity theme[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/wordpress-aid-charity-blog-theme/238405"]]WordPress Aid[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://www.organizedthemes.com/foundation-theme/"]]Foundation theme[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://www.woothemes.com/2011/04/saving-grace/"]]Saving Grace by Woo themes[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://www.organizedthemes.com/sea-side-church/"]]Sea Side Church theme[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/relief-charity-wordpress-theme/2507814"]]Relief theme[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/earth-ecoenvironmental-nonprofit-wordpress-theme/2405294"]]Earth theme for environmental non profits[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://www.organicthemes.com/themes/non-profit-theme/"]]Non profit theme[[/LINK]]
[[LINK href="http://themeforest.net/item/kindness-premium-wordpress-theme/2464765"]]Kindness theme[[/LINK]]

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Pali Madra

Manoj Raj answers:

Elegantthemes are my favorite.. But they have produced only very few responsive themes so far

http://www.elegantthemes.com/demo/?theme=Chameleon
http://www.elegantthemes.com/demo/?theme=Trim
http://www.elegantthemes.com/demo/?theme=Flexible

Here comes all time hit "Themeforest" and other themes

http://www.wpexplorer.com/premium/demo.php?theme=office
http://themeforest.net/item/good-minimal-a-responsive-wordpress-theme/full_screen_preview/410879?ref=lvraa
http://themes.mdnw.net/?theme=SuperSkeleton
http://demo.themeblvd.com/?theme=alyeska
http://themes.goodlayers.com/?theme=modernize

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Spencer Tomosvary answers:

<blockquote>I need a theme for a non-profit website that has a very user-friendly admin, is mobile friendly, allows an image banner (ideally updatable through the admin) that is affordable.</blockquote>

Canvas by WooThemes is a developers framework which provides native support for all the features you requested and would be my preference among all others. [[LINK href="http://www.woothemes.com/2012/06/canvas/"]][[/LINK]]
http://www.woothemes.com/2012/06/canvas/

From within the admin area, you can easily add/manage your slides. The theme is responsive and 'mobile friendly'.
To manage/add/modify your 'banner images' just click "Slides" from the admin area and add/modify them as custom post types.

<blockquote>I'm a bit leery of free themes at this point given the number of trial runs I've just gone through that back-fired and this article I stumbled across.
http://wpmu.org/why-you-should-never-search-for-free-wordpress-themes-in-google-or-anywhere-else/
</blockquote>

Since 2009 I have relied exclusively on premium themes - with premium themes you receive much better designs, better functionality, regular updates and support. I wouldn't likely use a non-premium theme unless for some functionality I couldn't easily accomplish in another theme. It would be my recommendation to anyone else to use a premium theme in which support and regular updates are provided.

<blockquote>We are aiming for 2 category pages with links that populate in the sidebar</blockquote>
This can be easily done with any theme, however if you want to control which widgets appear on what pages, cats or taxonomies, I recommend doing this with the WooDojo plugin. It makes the task easy and provides granular control I haven't seen with other methods.

<blockquote>
Image ready banner built into the admin
</blockquote>
Included with WooCanvas

<blockquote>
links available in the footer
</blockquote>
WooCanvas has a customizable widget area for the footer (1, 2, 3 or 4 columns) and it also has a left & right footer area right within the theme options, so this is very easy.

<blockquote>
flash compatibility
</blockquote>
Not sure what specifically you're looking to do with Flash, but flash objects can be embeded into WooCanvas the same as with any other Wordpress theme. Some basic javascript libraries are included with Canvas by default, so this is helpful to, depending on what you're intending to do there..

<blockquote>mobile ready</blockquote>
A responsive layout is support by Canvas and should do the trick here, keep in mind that flash is not view able on most mobile devices, but for most purposes (playing video or basic animations) javascript is usually used as a fall back in these cases.

<blockquote>
We like the Squirrel theme through Ink Themes. Is this a good company? Does anyone have any experience with them?
http://inkthemes.com/wpthemes/squirrel-nonprofits/

I tried the free download, and liked it. Then created a child theme. As soon as I created the child theme the admin pages became unusable and would not update content. There was a link that promoted the Pro version.
</blockquote>
I'm not familiar with this theme or company. What is you like about it specifically? The layout could easily be added with CSS to WooCanvas.

<blockquote>
It is crucial that the admin back-end remain clean and functional as I will step out of development when the site is up and the purpose of designing a WP site is to give the client accessibility.
</blockquote>
Wouldn't be much good if it didn't do that. Usually once you create a site for someone though, the client will call you to make changes for them even after they have access and knowledge to make the changes.. that's been my experience at least.



Other note worthy features of Woo Canvas, are the custom CSS area.. you can easily add custom CSS from within the admin area and it overrides the stylesheet, a huge timesaver..

The theme has multiple page templates, business, magazine style and so on, highly customizable with just a few clicks.. You can change all the colors, fonts, logo, header, background image, etc all from the theme options.. You can even change the layout, dimensions, you can have a full width page, 2 or 3 column page with sidebar on the left or right and customize this on a per page basis. Basically you can fully customize nearly everything from within the theme options using no code. Of course the theme is designed for developers, so if code is your style, then code away..

I've been able to convert non-wordpress sites to wordpress using Woo Canvas in just a few hours usually.
You can test it here prior to purchasing it:
[[LINK href="http://www.woothemes.com/playground/"]][[/LINK]]
http://www.woothemes.com/playground/

The Canvas theme could be customized to look like the squirrel theme with some minor CSS and options configured, or just select the magazine layout.

If customization isn't your thing and you may consider White Light by WooThemes:
http://www.woothemes.com/2012/02/whitelight/
which also has many of the customization options mentioned, but all of the features you required.

Elegant Themes and Themeforest are also a good source for themes. One caution with Themeforest is that many of the themes are developed independently and as such are frequently lacking when it comes to updates and support.

Elegant Themes have been around a while, are regularly updated and although I haven't used their support, I'd expect they provide quality support. Their theme options are good though not quite as comprehensive as WooThemes, but the backend is easy to configure.

Thesis & Rocket Themes I'll mention because they're popular, but can be complex to get everything configured just right. I used to use Thesis for projects like this, but WooCanvas has in my opinion become superior.

There are many other themes out there on sites like Monster themes or by other development companies, but my experience with them has been hit and miss.

Hope that helps. Let me know if any questions.