It is time for the third installment of our ongoing series, #ThemeThursday. Today, we’ll be taking a look at yet another impressive but lesser known WordPress premium theme provider—DevPress.
As always, this article is by no means a buying guide. Instead, I shall attempt to assess the positive and negative aspects of DevPress as a theme maker, thereby helping you make an informed decision before deciding to purchase any WordPress theme.
Also, just in case you missed the previous parts in this series, feel free to check them out: so far, we have covered Theme Furnace and ColorLabs & Company.
DevPress
Prelude
DevPress is a one-man operation, being managed and run by Tung Do. Obviously DevPress is not a gigantic theme seller; instead, it’s more of a single-window theme shop where you get fewer themes, but are assured of personal support and excellent craftsmanship.
DevPress has an affiliate program too, but it is invite-only as of now.
Theme Features
Currently, DevPress has a modest collection of 12 themes to offer. Of these, a good number of these are free to download, whereas others are premium content.
Many of their themes, in general, exhibit a minimal layout and design. The majority of their themes are responsive and mobile-friendly.
Going by the set of features and general appearance, I would say DevPress’s themes are best suited for websites or blogs that are heavy on photos and pictures, possibly the likes of portfolio or image-rich magazine websites. Furthermore, while minimal themes indeed are well represented in the offerings of DevPress, themes with a rather flamboyant background and color scheme too are not left out.
All in all, the collection at DevPress is small in terms of number, so it won’t be your cup of tea if you are expecting something like “60+ themes with 2 new themes every month”!
In my opinion, most of the themes could be described as “above average” in terms of design. That said, there are a few that are really great, and even the free ones are pretty good and impressive in their own right.
Pricing
When I first looked around their website for the pricing details, I had a hard time finding pricing information for individual themes. I clicked on “Download” against a premium theme, expecting it to hit me with the pricing for that particular theme, but all I got was a message that told me to get a membership.
Speaking of membership, there is a 12-month membership model for $40. Yes, pretty cheap, and that simple! You pay $40, and you get the themes for a year. Beyond that, you also get extensive member-only documentation and a bonus plugin. And this is where it becomes clear: DevPress does not offer individual themes per se—you need to purchase membership for one year, and that entitles you to all existing themes, as well as any themes that may be released in that particular year for which your membership is valid.
That said, $40 is a rather small payment, especially because most theme shops do not even offer individual themes for $40, let alone club membership for one full year! So buying a membership at DevPress seems to be a good investment.
Additional bits that you need to bear in mind are that there exists no auto-renew mechanism, so your membership dies if you do not renew it the next year. Plus, there is no refund policy as such—you can claim a refund only if you are unable to login and/or download themes.
Support
As already mentioned, DevPress offers extensive documentation to its members. Beyond that, as a member you are also entitled to premium level support. As explained on their website, “All support tickets are answered within 24 hours and resolved within 72 hours.”
Well, that is an excellent rate in anyone’s book! You can easily browse the tickets, but the replies and solutions are member-only content.
Overall, DevPress does not have publicly visible video tutorials and other elaborate documentation or support manuals to show off. However, going by the ticketing mechanism, it can easily be said that the theme maker, Tung Do, does take great pains to ensure that membership buyers are not left hanging or without support.
Just like other theme shops, DevPress too does not offer support for theme customizations and/or third party plugins. Plus, there is no email support, but you can send your pre-sales queries using the contact form on the website.
Verdict
So, how well does DevPress fare?
Pros
• Budget-friendly ($40 take ‘em all)
• Good number of free themes
• Good personalized support
Cons
• Comparatively smaller theme collection
• Not all theme designs are mind-blowing
DevPress is a smaller theme shop, but it is one that has a good-looking collection of themes to offer, and is backed by a good promise of support. Even better, DevPress offers a competitive pricing structure (in fact, a pricing rate that has few parallels), and that further adds to its USP, because you get 10+ WordPress themes for a minimal price of $40.
All said and done, DevPress, as a premium WordPress theme provider, should by all means be considered while shopping for WordPress themes. Unless you need a huge plethora of themes to choose from, DevPress will surely impress you with its offerings.
Have you tried any of the WordPress themes offered by DevPress? If so, how was your experience? Share it with us in the comments below!
Sufyan bin Uzayr is a freelance writer and Linux enthusiast. He writes for several print magazines as well as technology blogs, and has also authored a book named Sufism: A Brief History. His primary areas of interest include open source, mobile development and web CMS. He is also the Editor of an e-journal named Brave New World. You can visit his website, follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook and Google+.
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