ThemeIsle Review: Beautiful Free and Premium Themes

When you start a new WordPress blog, one of the hardest choices you have to make is which theme to use.

Needless to say, it can be a little overwhelming…

WordPress is so popular that there are tens of thousands of themes to pick from. And things get even harder when you have to pick between free and premium themes.

Thankfully, there are some high-quality theme providers who you can go to when you start your search.

ThemeIsle is definitely one of those providers.

They have some of the most popular free themes in the WordPress theme database.

Their Zerif Lite theme is the fifth most popular theme and their ShopIsle theme ranks at tenth.

• To have two themes in the ‘Top 10’ of the WordPress.org popularity list is pretty incredible.

So why are ThemeIsle’s themes so popular?

For some very good reasons. It’s because they all have:

Beautiful, Premium Looking WordPress Theme Designs

Take a look at ThemeIsle’s Zerif Lite theme:

If you showed me this theme, I would think it was for sure a premium theme.

But it’s entirely free.

It’s the same with their ShopIsle theme:

A beautiful theme that has premium looks with a free price tag.

Their themes all look beautiful and professional, even if they’re totally free.

Good Backend Coding

We published a post on ShoutMeLoud that talked about the importance of a well-coded theme. Well, even with ThemeIsle’s free themes, you’re still getting a theme that’s coded properly.

The same experts who code ThemeIsle’s premium themes are working on the free themes.

In short:

• You don’t need to worry about bad code.

This proper backend coding ensures that your theme will load properly in all browsers and be easily indexed by search engines.

User-Friendly Configuration Options

Most free themes don’t give you detailed configuration options.

That’s not the case with ThemeIsle. Even for their free themes, you get a nice, user-friendly admin panel to configure everything about your theme.

Here’s an example of the admin panel for their most popular theme, Zerif Lite:

Look how detailed the customization options are. You can go through everything and see your changes in real time thanks to the WordPress Customizer.

For example, if you want to add social icons to your site, all you have to do is navigate to that section and enter the links to your social profiles.

You don’t need to look at any code or do anything special:

These menu options are pretty standard for premium themes, but not very common for free themes. That’s what makes ThemeIsle’s free themes special.

These detailed customization options also eliminate the need for a lot of plugins. Instead of installing a plugin to add a specific feature, you may be able to do it from the theme’s customization options.

Instead of installing a plugin to add a specific feature, you may be able to do it from the theme’s customization options.

For example, the ‘Pro’ version of Zerif lets you create beautiful pricing tables without any external pricing plugins.

This helps prevent your site from getting cluttered with unnecessary plugins.

Frequent Updates

WordPress is constantly being changed and updated…

That’s why you need a theme publisher who keeps their themes up to date. You don’t want any vulnerabilities that give hackers access to your site.

ThemeIsle always keeps their themes updated – even the free ones.

For example, they updated Zerif Lite only a month ago:

That means the code will always be compatible and optimized for the latest versions of WordPress.

ThemeIsle also adds improvements, so your theme may even get better over time.

Good Selection of Themes

ThemeIsle has a wide variety of themes. Currently, they offer over 30 themes for free.

If you count their premium options, they have another 20+ themes that cover different categories like:

• Business
• E-commerce
• Photography
• Magazines
• Portfolios
• And more…

I showed you ThemeIsle’s two most popular free themes, but here are a few of their other free themes that are worth looking at:

1. Parallax One

Parallax One is a beautiful theme if you want to add a parallax effect to your site.

It’s great for showcasing your business, but you could also use it as a multi-purpose theme.

2. Amadeus

Amadeus is a beautiful theme for bloggers.

If you want to start a personal blog, I think this theme is a good minimalist option.

3. Bookrev

If you want to start a review blog, Bookrev is a really good theme to do that.

It has ratings built into the theme, so you can get started without any trouble.

And more…

As I mentioned, they have over 30 free themes covering a variety of different categories, so make sure you look at the full list if you don’t like the ones I’ve featured.

ThemeIsle Premium WP Themes

So far, we’ve only looked at ThemeIsle’s free themes. But they also have some really high-quality premium themes.

One of their most popular is the ‘Pro’ version of Zerif Lite, which unlocks extra features like pricing tables.

They also have ‘Pro’ versions for a lot of their other themes, including ShopIsle and Amadeus.

ThemeIsle Premium Plan Pricing

I think beginner bloggers can definitely use ThemeIsle’s free themes. You don’t need to pay for the premium options.

But if you want the extra functionality, you can sign up for one of ThemeIsle’s premium plans:

• For $99, you get access to all of the premium themes, as well as 12 months of support and updates.

If you’re a developer, this is a really good option as you’re only paying about $5 per theme.

If you’re just a single blogger, though, you may not need all of these themes.

If you’re willing to spend $299, you can get access to all of ThemeIsle’s plugins, too.

ThemeIsle WordPress Plugins

Just in case you’re interested in what type of plugins ThemeIsle offers:

• Revive Old Post Pro Add-on – great for driving traffic to old posts
• WP Product Review PRO Add-on Bundle – great for reviews and integrating with Amazon
• Visualizer: Charts and Graphs Pro Add-on – helps you create charts and graphs
• Intergeo Maps – Pro Add-on – makes it easy to implement a variety of maps
• Easy Content Types – makes custom fields easy
• Custom Login Customizer – lets you customize your WordPress login page
• Pirate Forms – ThemeIsle’s form plugin
• FEEDZY RSS Feeds – helps with your RSS feeds
• Adblock Notify – lets you ask Adblock users to whitelist your site

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a theme for a new or existing WordPress blog, I think you should definitely look at ThemeIsle.

They have over 30 free themes, so you should be able to find one that fits your needs.

Their themes are all well-designed and coded, include detailed admin panels to help you set everything up, and are regularly updated.

And again, if you want more functionality, you can check out their premium themes and plugins. Like I said, though, for most bloggers their free themes probably have more than enough power.

Have you ever used ThemeIsle before? Let me know your reviews and experiences in the Idea below.