Elegant Themes Divi theme
These are the words that are being used to introduce Elegant Themes’ proudest product… so far. Divi is their pride and joy and they claimed that it is the smartest and the most flexible theme in their entire collection thus far. If that’s the case, let us take a look at how Divi lives up to this claim.
Background
Before looking into Divi’s features and its capabilities, here are some reasons why Elegant Themes decided to come up with it.
The company ran a survey in mid 2013 to find out what users look for when searching for a premium WordPress theme. Based on the survey responses, they found that many website owners look for customization flexibility and good design in a new theme. This is because majority of them will customize the themes before using them and thus, they prefer themes with extensive flexibility via Shortcodes, Theme Options and Page Builders.
Recently, many customers have commented that their products are beginning to have the same look and feel. While they are great themes, there are just not much to differentiate one theme from another.
Taking Up the Challenge
So, in order to please their customers, Elegant Themes decides to take up the challenge to create a theme that will meet customers’ expectations. Thus, Divi was created 4 months later!
To say that Divi is slightly different from their other themes is an understatement. It boasts of great visual effects and customization tools. We’ll discuss these features shortly. Divi has indeed changed the way we see Elegant Themes and had pushed the boundaries of what a WordPress theme should be!
But what if we were to compare with their previous themes? Is Divi better? Well, we have tested Divi and we must admit that we were overwhelmed with all the tricks that we can do with it. You can view the demo to get a feel of what Divi is about.
Theme features at a glance
How is Divi better?
Divi was released in December 2013 and had attracted much attention since then. The design is attractive, its flexibility is amazing and the tools that come with it, is extensive!
But aren’t these what other themes offer too? If so, then this begs the question that with 87 themes in their collection, how is Divi different from the other 86 themes? Let’s have a look.
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Appearance
The first thing that strikes you is its appearance. The designers have always been producing awesome looking themes but with Divi, the bar is raised. They really put a lot of effort into creating an appealing theme and it shows. And yes, it is a responsive design.
This theme comes with large sliders, animated buttons, cool full-length layout, sliding banners and so on. Layouts can be built from scratch using the specially designed Divi Builder or if you prefer, choose from 18 pre-made layouts that can still be further customized if you wanted to. By the way, there is now an additional 6 pre-made layouts that you can import, as is announced on their blog.
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Security
Security is of high importance to Elegant Themes and when they are creating themes, they make sure that their themes are secure besides looking pretty and having lots of nifty features. For Divi, they even went to the extent of engaging a third party security professional Sucuri to audit the theme. The outcome? “Not a single significant problem was found”.
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Multi-Purpose
Because of its flexibility, Divi can be customized to fit many different types of websites or purposes. You can use it as a blog, a sales page, a portfolio or for creative purposes. It can even be turned into an eCommerce store since it is compatible with WooCommerce.
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Divi Builder
This is perhaps the greatest feature of Divi and the most appealing factor for many. This user-friendly drag and drop page builder lets you easily create pages and pages of stunning layouts without needing to know any coding.
You can create the page by arranging rows, columns and modules, not unlike Lego blocks. There are lots of modules that you can add, for example images, sliders, blogs, and even animated counters.
Elegant Themes had indicated that there will be more design choices and modules available in Divi 2.0. Your only limitation is your creativity.
The Divi Builder
The Divi Builder is a visual drag & drop page builder for any WordPress theme. Below are a few screenshots which shows how easy it is to get things done:
How much does Divi costs?
Well, as many of you already knew, Elegant Themes do not charge per theme. Instead, you are to purchase an annual membership in order to access their themes. There are 2 types of membership packages i.e. Yearly Access and Lifetime Access, costing $89 per year, and $249 one time, respectively.
Both these packages come with complete access to all their themes including future themes, perpetual updates and technical support for as long as you are still a member. Should you decide not to renew your membership for the Yearly Access package, you will then not receive updates and technical support. However, you are free to keep and continue to use the themes that you have downloaded earlier.
So, this means that for a minimum of only $89 per year, you get access to all 87 premium WordPress themes as well as updates and support. That’s about $1 per theme per year! You can hardly find deals better than this! For long term considerations, of course it will be very much more cost effective to just pay once for the Lifetime Access membership.
Membership price increase
Actually, Elegant Themes used to offer a cheaper package called the “Personal” membership’s. This package is no longer available. The “Personal” membership price was increased from $39 to $69 since March 2014.
Why?
Having maintained their current prices for more than 3 years, the company had been absorbing much of the increased costs of producing themes. However, an increase in price is necessary in order to
- Ensure sustainability and efficiency
- Improve employee to customer ratio
- Expand the team (they had 4 people in the team when they set their price for the Personal package at $39 three years ago and now they have 27 people)
- Faster support and quicker fixes
- Create better themes like Divi
How Much?
The previous membership price for Personal package was $39. From March 2014 onwards, the new price for this package was increased to $69 per year. That’ll be almost 77% increase.
Who will be affected?
There is some good news though. Not everyone is affected by the increase. The prices for Developer and Lifetime Access packages remain unchanged. Only the Personal package’s is affected.
Even so, not every subscribers of Personal package are subjected to this new pricing. Existing subscribers are not affected and can continue to enjoy the previous cool rate of $39 even when they renew later. So unless they stop renewing altogether, they will only need to pay $39 per year for full access to all themes as well as support and updates.
The only ones who will be required to pay the new price of $69 are those who are subscribing for a new Personal package.
Updates
The following is the current pricing package.
Is Elegant Themes still worth it?
Personally, I think the increase is very reasonable and that Elegant Themes’ Yearly Access is still very much worth it. Other themes providers have increased their pricing, e.g.Themify which, by the way, has less than half of what Elegant Theme is offering but is more expensive.
At first glance, the increase seemed a little steep. Is it really? For 87 themes, that’s about $1 per theme per year.
Don’t use many themes? Well, how about looking at it this way? At $89 per year, that’s $7.42 per month for peace of mind that your theme(s) will be updated whenever WordPress gets updated and that you know you can always count on getting professional support when you need them!
A very small price to pay, wouldn’t you say so?
In fact, if you were to compare, you will find Elegant Themes’ packages are a lot cheaper than other providers’ similar packages!
Conclusion
Elegant Themes is a leading WordPress themes providers. They have tons of awesome themes and are constantly creating themes that are not only aesthetically beautiful but also one that boasts lots of cool features and awesome tools. A great example is Divi, their latest theme.
Divi had changed our perception of Elegant Themes and has gone on to impress even the most seasoned user. With visual effects, wide range of layout options and lots of customization possibilities, this responsive theme can easily be customized to suit any website.
Divi can be downloaded once you have purchased an Elegant Themes membership. There are 3 types of membership and the cheapest is Personal package costs only $69. This is a great offer because becoming a member will allow you to download and use all their themes in their collection. They have as many as 87 themes now!