Theme Forest: The Ugly Truth About ThemeForest.net
I wanted to let you know about a site that has quickly become one of my favorites to visit. It’s one of those sites that once you know about it, you find yourself going back to it every day (or sometimes even a couple times per day) just to see what’s new.
In mid-2008 I stumbled across Theme Forest for the first time while searching for the best wordpress themes. At first I wasn’t that impressed, but I remember not spending very much time investigating just what this “Theme Forest” was. We all know there are a never ending supply of free and premium WordPress Themes online today, and at first glance this seemed to be just another choice in the virtually endless sources of WordPress wares. Thankfully, on closer examination, I realized that ThemeForest had not only addressed several of the major problems those of us face when “searching” for Premium WordPress Themes, they had done it in a very unique and inviting way. Well fast forward almost 5 years, and let me tell you about the Theme Forest of 2013.
ThemeForest in 2013
ThemeForest is a marketplace in the Envato network that is specifically for WordPress Themes and HTML Templates. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering just where you could find high quality premium WordPress themes or website templates, Theme Forest was created just for you.
There are many of these so-called “marketplaces” for just about every type of product or service you may need when doing business online, but I’d like to explain why Theme Forest is different and why they have become the first place I turn for just about everything I need to run one of my many websites.
The ThemeForest Difference
Simply put, they are a destination for WordPress and web developers to list their themes and website templates to people just like you and me. The reason this is so powerful is because it totally goes against the “norm” when it comes to purchasing a WordPress theme or html template.
Typically, you go to Company A’s website where they offer Product 1, 2, and 3. You can buy their work and their work only.
Now imagine if you had the opportunity to brows the work of hundreds and thousands of different web developers? Imagine if you could preview any website, template, or theme before you pruchased it? Imagine if you could read the comments from others who have purchased it, see which themes or templates are most popular, and even rate the work for even more transparency?
This is exactly what you get with ThemeForest, but there is so much more…
Not only can you browse, purchase, and interact with thousands of developers and customers from across the globe, you also have the chance to sell you themes and templates to a dedicated and growing community.
As proof to how large and powerful this community has become, there are several authors who have crossed their $1,000,000 in sales threshold. This is an astonishing achievement for both those authors and the concept of ThemeForest as a whole.
The Best Part About Theme Forest
But do you want to know what I love the absolute most about Theme Forest?
Envato (the company behind Theme Forest) has not only built the best marketplace for WordPress Themes and HTML Templates, they have created similar marketplaces for video files, pre-built coding solutions, web graphics, and flash files just to name a few.
Imagine being able to have just one account that let’s you buy and sell everything from stock audio to fully developed web templates that are both HIGHLY professional, focused on web standards and usability, and at absolutely rock-bottom prices!
Theme Forest closely examines each theme or template uploaded to the marketplace to ensure that only quality authors with quality products can list their work.
As the end user, you have the ability to quickly and easily access just about everything you need to run a website from a network of developers, coders, artists, and audio experts…and you can do it all from one account!
It is completely free to setup an account with Theme Forest, and this one account can be used to browse all of the other sites in the Envato Marketplace.
The Bottom Line: I’ve been doing business online for nearly 8 years now. Rarely have I been so impressed with a product that within a matter of a few weeks I can’t imagine doing business without it. This is just the type of marketplace Envato has created and one you simply can’t afford to miss.
If you are looking for professional, high-end products for your website at beyond reasonable prices, I encourage you to head over to ThemeForest and setup your free account today.
May, 2011: ThemeForest has made some slight changes to their site design, and we’re noticing a slight increase in prices for a few product lines. Perhaps this is the beginning of a rise in prices.
January, 2012: Some estimates we’ve heard put the Envato marketplaces at over 2 million members (and growing).
February, 2013: ThemeForest continues to be the largest WordPress Theme marketplace in the world. If you are an established author from ThemeForest, consider selling us your business.
Thanks so much for the kind words about ThemeForest. We certainly do our best to offer a great experience for buyers.
Just a friendly note that, based upon the title only, I was expecting a negative view. 🙂
Me too! Nice post the title made me read it!
Yeah, you may want to change the title as it is bad PR in search results, i.e I came here solely because I love Themeforest and wanted to see what all the negativity was for.
Hi Those are some great reviews. I’ve downloaded Themeforest Newes theme for my magazine and have spent 2 months trying to correct its issues. Do you have any advise beside The Knowledge Base? I’ve been emailed and directly to it several times but no real resolution
You should have been expecting a negative review. I just bought a ThemeForest template, it is broken, does not work. I then looked at the comments for the template on the themepress site, it has multiple complaints. I wrote ThemeForest, they did not bother with a reply. I am currently trying to go through Paypal to get my money back. Don’t buy from ThemeForest!
I know exactly how you feel. I purchased a Santana ecommerce theme, and needed assistance. Not one person ever responded. So, I had to switch over to OpenCart. I eventually messaged them, that I’m now selling there theme for less, so that I can recuperate my money. I’ve never received a response.
I came to this page googling ‘how to leave a complaint on envato themeforest’
Great review mate, I’m an author in the Theme Forest market place and let me tell you how much I love it, it’s without a doubt the best marketplace for premium HTML templates and WordPress themes.
Join us, we are a friendly bunch 🙂
@ Jeffrey – Living true to my site’s name, I was actually experimenting using that seemingly negative headline to attract viewers to the page. I have to say I’m impressed though…I don’t know how you found this post only an hour or so after it was published (if you make your way back, I’d love to know).
@ UniSphere – Thanks for your comments, and I would have to agree with you…most everyone I’ve interacted with is extremely friendly!
Great review !
I am one of TF’s author too and I can say that this is the best job ever!
Yeah, I thought this would be a negative review too.
Nice words though, and all I can say is that I agree with you Kyle.
PS. I’m also a ThemeForest author.
Do you not have a spellcheck? What a load of illiterate dross. Sad.
Spellchk…weell dern, I darn’t knew they had them spellchk mashines on my komputer. Now thatz sad.
Thatz spellchk needs to improvie “Kriesi’s” username 😉
Anyways, great post. The exact truth!
Miss-leading title, and nothing more than an affiliate post.
Sorry, you can say all the nice words you want, but when you end it with a paid link, all credibility is lost.
Don’t get me wrong, I have always liked Theme Forest, but at least have an accurate title.
@ Dean – Fikxd.
@Kyle “Seeming” negative title? No, it’s an outright negative title and a pretty cheap way to draw readers. Your assessment of Theme Forest is right on, though.
Some of you need to try and get up on the other side of the bed tomorrow. Let me clear the air a bit here.
@Andrew – First, you should learn the difference between a paid link and an affiliate link. The post DOES contain my affiliate link. The post does NOT contain any sort of paid link. If you would like me to explain the difference, email me.
Second, please explain further how someone can lose “all credibility” when placing an affiliate link in a post. Have you read any of the other posts on this site? Does it look like that is my focus?
Third, why would I not include my affiliate link if I truly endorse the product? This school of thought that says the web must be some completely neutral environment where content is the only currency and anyone who tries to monetize their opinion is, well…according to you…someone who “loses all credibility” is absurd. Take a look at my site in its entirety and then decide if it’s fair to make that statement.
Fourth (and perhaps most importantly), I did not write this post to make $10 from affiliate commissions. I actually love the Envato sites and use them almost daily.
—
@Matt, I am a marketer, and given this area of work, I am always looking to test every possible control when it comes to content: increasing traffic, pageviews, conversion, and yes…gasp…even the “gotcha” headline.
I did not use the selected title to ONLY attract readers although I can see how when reading my comment above you might think that was the point.
I intended to paradoxically use a “negative” headline with a “positive” review as this was what I was wanting to test – the experiment I referenced above.
—
While I appreciate everyone’s comment (and you are all entitled to your opinion) what I and others who are reading this post are interested in are your thoughts about ThemeForest.
Maybe my next experiment should be how people who like to leave negative comments never include a website……..hmmmmmmm……
wow… awesome job at creating dialogue. I think this tactic should be added to every marketer’s online playbook.
I enjoyed the post and did not take offense at your affiliate link. All smart marketers should learn how to do this better. You outlined all aspects of a product that you enjoy using. I appreciated the candor about how far they have come. Personally, I did not like them a few years back either. You are definitely one of my favorite online marketers. I look forward to glean more from you on best practices in online marketing. WTG on engaging dialogue amongst your readers.
I’m always in the market for great WordPress themes. I’ve changed the theme for this blog a couple times and each time I find something I don’t care for. I started looking for themes on ThemeForest and found a WordPress theme that I thought would work well for the site (I’ve since purchased it but I haven’t finished customizing it yet – expect a rollout in a week or two). I also found a generic website template that I wanted to buy.
@ Time – Your current one looks like Glow from Nick Roach. He’s a good guy, and I’ve really enjoyed being a member at ElegantThemes.
recently discovered theme forest and have had an excellent experience. would recommend it to anyone. like the fact that most of the wordpress themes are ‘cms’ themes and not designed for out and out blog sites. rare you find a theme that fits your requirements exactly, but i did just that.
Here’s a negative comment with a website included in the signature…if that’s what you wanted 😉
Your negative headline isn’t a “marketing exercise” as much as it’s visitor deception. Someone researching ThemeForest would come in on the strength of your title expecting to see reasons why he shouldn’t use them. And what he gets instead is a rave review that confirms his view. He reads the whole thread again thinking he missed something, but no, there’s no “ugly truth”. So he clicks the link you’ve provided and completes his purchase. For you, mission accomplished. For him, a waste of time.
It’s not a “gotcha” headline, don’t flatter yourself, it’s a BS headline.
This is actually quite helpful. I’ll be completely honest and say I never expected such a passionate response from people about the negative title with positive review, but there have been some very interesting “positive” outcomes as a result of this post and perhaps I’ll discuss them in a later post.
I appreciate everyone’s feedback.
And Clinton, you win the prize for first “negative” comment with a website included 🙂
Great Review Man.. I like it.. Thanks..
Ah, I came here via Google search on ThemeForest also looking for some grim reality about the site I hadn’t spotted before. Initially the post completely confused me so I scan read through most of it until I realised you were actually praising ThemeForest rather than… well, the ugly truth.
Nothing wrong with a catchy title, but, this one seems a little ‘other side of the coin’ to make much sense. Regardless anyway; good post – good to hear you are a fan! I am looking to start uploading work there too (already upload to GraphicRiver).
Personally I don’t think there is anything wrong with a bit of self promotion and a reference link… your site, your review! If I bought a TV, liked it, wrote about it, I would probably link to a site selling it – if that site said “oh, we will pay you for those visitors” then it’s win win. Credibility? What has it got to do with credibility?
Wonderful review man! I also got a lot from ThemeForest.
Thanks so much for the kind words about ThemeForest.
Great post. The exact truth!
I’m a buyer there. The price is so cheap, the quality is very good. I don’t remember how many times I deposit $20 … which in total is a few hundreds dollars. Most of them I spend on $12 html template and around $4 graphics.
The negative side? It could be only me, but somehow I feel like boring with the design. Some author seems copying the others, of course with some modifications. But again, it could be only me .. and it could be wrong.
Great review !
I am one of TF’s author too and I can say that this is the best job ever!
The truth always prevails.. Love it.. Thanks for the post man..
nice comparison, im hoping there would be more revisions in the future that we can benefit from this template
Yes, I have to agree with the popular sentiment on the headline. I get emails like that sometimes that spout things like: “Don’t Open This Email….”. As you can probably guest, I don’t open them! Just my 2 cents worth.
It is a gimmick headline that costs your credibility. Now that I know your headlines are misleading, why would I come back?
I love ThemeForest, your headline caught me off guard for a second being that I’ve always had such a great experience with them.
I like the polemic comments. People really feel outraged, misled, deceived and such. So funny.
Kudos for your experiences!
best of luck
To tell the truth I agree that its a good marketplace but beyond that i must say that, themeforest is good for buyers, good for their own business but definitely not good for user who do the hardwork for keeping the marketplace alive. Not me but i have heard many other people who are very depressed as reviewers of themeforest unnecessarily rejects the hardwork of many users.
I’m not saying to accept all themes but i have interacted with many users in forums and personal emails whose themes get rejected for unnecessary reasons. People who have gone through this situations know that themeforest always gives one basic reason saying “we increased our quality level” lol
Genuinely many people already know that themeforest rejects their work most of the times as they feel the quality is not good but let me say one thing to them. Do anyone have specific rule for web design ? If yes, then rules are made to be broken. Rejecting an item only on your personal likings and judgements is always wrong and believe me it destroys the hardwork of the author who created it after working lot of hours in front of his pc.
See their themes, when they were just starting the marketplace, they started accepting almost any theme because they initially wanted users who can submit themes regularly so that their business keeps going well but now they have got a lot of traffic coming each day with lots of users registering each day so when they have the business game in their hands today, now they have started to do the rejection thing so frequently that they destroy all the hardworks of all new authors.
I request themeforest reviewers not to reject items unnecessarily as it involves a huge hardwork from every user who submits theme in your marketplace. Think about quality but also think about the hardwork that has been put into a theme. Getting so many users, buyers and huge monthly business doesn’t mean you guys will reject almost every item now a days.
People who think I’m saying something wrong must either be a successful author in the marketplace whose items are accepted almost every times or have earned a lot from the marketplace and doesn’t want listen anything bad against it.
Majority of people would agree that I am only telling the truth, as I accept it as a good marketplace with amazing themes but definitely against there rejections thing.
To tell briefly about me, I’m also a successful author in this marketplace, I have more than 20 items in the marketplace. Have been in web design industry for 14 years so I understand the quality and technology very well. Many of my friends have faced the rejection thing and thats why I thought of writing this to atleast let them know that they are doing wrong with the users who are doing a lot of hardwork every day to keep this amazing marketplace alive.
Thanks everyone and please don’t fight if anyone doesn’t agrees with me. I am not interested in having long discussions and proving myself correct. Whatever I have wrote here is for all the common man/users of themeforest who are facing rejections for unnecessary reasons and getting depressed as all their hardworks are going in vain.
To THEMEFOREST: Users hardwork supports you to keep your business going so please also try to support your users in return as they do a lot of hardwork every day to keep your marketplace alive and going with new themes every day.
Thanks
Peter
I purchased a theme from themforest and while it looked very nice, the code and documentation was beyond hopeless. Just checked back there and people are still having majour issues with it. Even though the themes are cheap, it wasted a lot fo my time and I was not very happy. The good news is that themeforest refunded my $ but only as a credit not a true refund. So now I’m stuck with $40 payment to them that I won’t ever use. Be careful.
having the same issues but not got a credit my site been down for over 4 days due to the theme and my business and time spent on the theme trying to get it to work won’t be covered will it and i am still waiting for at least a credit, not happy at all and when you buy a few themes the costs do add up when they are duds.
This website is THE WORST!
I had an issue with a Theme i purchased and they LOCKED ME OUT of my account when i issued a Paypal dispute.
The point of a dispute is to be able to answer it in a timely fashion and have Paypal be able to moderate it… Instead they locked me out, so the Theme creator cannot even see my account, it doesn’t show on his page that I even purchased the theme.
Never using this company again, EVER.
ThemeForest is actually bad for developers if you think carefully about it. That guy mentioned earlier in comments didn’t earn 100% of the sales. The pay rates is ridiculously low:30-70%. You only make 70% of total sales if you reach past 250k +. On top of that, you have to pay huge taxes.
Set up your own sites and take care of marketing.
Great post; i’m a huge fan of themeforest and have spent well over $200 there…
There are some real talented authors on Themeforest – I’ve found numerous templates that look great for email newsletters.
Like many I was expecting a negative review (great tactic – I was attracted to it because I thought to myself “What on earth coud be negative about ThemeForest?”)
I was on the same boat as you when I first visited theme forest a few years ago just putting it aside as another place for wordpress themes but after going through the process of trying to put up a theme, they actually have a checkoff and a deterent to weed out shoddy themes.
I am actually in the process of creating my first theme to put up for sale on themeforest and going through all the highly rated/most downloaded themes it makes me keep going back to mine and making sure I have the upmost quality and features that they have.
Now I don’t know if that is a good thing or not because I might be working on mine for awhile. Atleast, when I create my next theme I will know what I need to do heh.
hi,
The post was completely opposite to the title. The truth wasn’t that ugly after all LOL
btw, what the theme you are using on this blog I am seriously in love with it looks like a woo theme
It’s a custom theme. I’m glad you like it (even thought it’s going to be changed in the next 60 days) 🙂
I am also an author on themeforest, it is the best place of high quality unique HTML Templates and WordPress Themes etc.
I have bought some themes and PSD tere. But u forgot one thing: SOME AUTHORS THERE ARE VERY NICE BEFORE WE PURCHASE. Later, they change and dont give attention. I say that WHy i have found many problems and the answer I have received was: IF U DONT UNDERSTAND PHP I cant do nothing.
Simple so…
I was actually attracted by the title because it made me wonder what would be the ugly truth regarding theme forest when I didn’t know any. I love ThemeForest, it’s really great and upon reading your post, it is a really great review for Theme Forest. That might jut be another way to attract readers eh? Anyway, more power to you, all the best!
I hope some day people try to sell their themes in their own markets/shops and stop making richer this group, they keep 60% of the money.
if you sell something for 20$ you take your balls!
the designs are very good and the code excellent written by the developers/designers…it’s not worth to loose your time trying to sell at themeforest!!!
try to do it your self if you think that your work is so unique.
I personal know how great themeforest is. They maken al lot of money for me with their referral system.
Everyday there are coming more new themes from very high quality.
i m a great fan of theme forest.i got a lot of help from it
The title threw me a bit as well as I’ve been using Theme Forest for a few years now and haven’t really had much (if anything) to complain about. Better-looking templates at 1/3 the cost of “Template Monster.” I can’t ask for more than that.
Hi, just wanted to say I am totally addicted to theme forest I visit a couple of times a day whenever i have an idea for a site there is always a theme that fits my budget so much good stuff…
The only issue with them is the fact that many templates are very complex and the help files are often in broken English making customizing and installation all but impossible without design skills of your own enough to nearly make it yourself. They make it seem like its easy to use these templates when in fact they are really for higher skilled designers and developers. A front page large type warning with a free example would be proof of good intent. How many people bought these thinking they could work with them?
At Mike! My problem exactly.. I’m two years later but do you have help?
Title seems Hot, but the content like cool, Any way nice writeup.
Excellent use of negative marketing. I was glad to see it was a positive review, though I just couldn’t imagine a negative review. A negative review of such a marketplace would amount to nothing more than a whiny complaint and that’s what I was expecting.
Great review! I’m a great fan of theme forest. I got a lot of help from theme forest. Thanks
LOL
I was expecting negative view, but it is to get the attention from audience 😉
Great review, been on ThemeForest since beta (back in 2008), couldn’t be happier as an author.
the real ugly truth is that when you don’t get a brilliant idea first, and one day you happen to spot a really good one while surfing the web, it kinda gets to you…hence the lame replies from others complaining about blah, blah, blah, shoulda’, coulda’, would’a (try that in a spell checker buddy)…
excellent job with the title…I’m new to web design (1 Year) and the first thing I picked up from this is you drove people to your blog, increased page views, hits, etc. that’s clever marketing no matter what they say…it made me read the whole posts, good job and I’ll be back, and oh ya, themeforest rocks… 😉
Thanks, Mo0ose! Best of luck with your new ventures, and we look forward to seeing you around Blogex again soon.
I second @MoOose. Great job.
Great Post! The truth (Ugly or not, lol) is that you have persuaded me to join TF. I hadn’t heard of them until very recently, and you provided a very well written article on their merits. Thanks again.
That’s great, Mike! You won’t be disappointed with that decision.
How do they compare to ElegantThemes? I can’t decide!
ElegantThemes is a Theme Club whereas ThemeForest is a marketplace for html templates, WordPress Themes, etc. With ThemeForest you are going to be paying $30-$40 PER theme whereas with ElegantThemes you get 60+ Premium WordPress Themes for $39. I have a membership at ElegantThemes.com but I also purchase individual files from ThemeForest if need be, so I guess my recommendation would be to use both 🙂
Fantastic review! I’m a great fan of theme forest and satisfied with the WP templates.
Well no doubt themeforest is the best out there for themes. If anyone think that they got guts to start something like it of there own than I think its not that difficult any more coz I came cross this script (cloneforest.com) that does the same thing what themeforest does.
You can check out the front and back demo on the following link:
http://cloneforest.com/demo/
That’s very interesting, Sam…did you or whomever you linked to there basically reverse engineer their script and now sell it for people who want to start their own marketplace like one of Envato’s?
I was very excited to use themeforest. however I had a HORRIBLE experience with them. I bought a theme where 1. the activation code didn’t work. I ended up having to give my password and login to the creator so he could activate it. I was very upset about having to give my password to a stranger. Also, aspects of the theme didn’t work. I spent hours trying to contact the creator, who was never available. i tried contact the themeforest support team. They said they do not give refunds and have little to do with the themes. Ultimately, I ended up giving up and wasting $40 on a malfunctioning theme.
I will NOT use them again. From my experience, I do not believe they are a legitimate company. I feel they cheated me and do not stand by their products.
I’m sorry to hear that. While I know they aren’t perfect, I’ve always been pleased with my purchases there (although I’ve never tried to get a refund).
If you make your way back here, I’d be curious to know which theme you purchased. There are only a handful at $40, and they seem to reserve that price for the best of the best (in their opinion) of WordPress Themes.
in the same boat except i bought two themes like this 🙁 out of pocket near $70 try graphpaper.com they are wonderful and have wonderful service!
There are several new themes on ThemeForest recently that are some of the most creative and original desings we’ve seen in a long time. Be sure to head over to their site and check out some of the most popular WordPress themes and site templates.
just put a ? on the end of the title…
theme forest: the ugly truth?
that way it can be read both ways and you don’t confuse people totally. though to be honest it drew me in and I was happy to find no ugly truth. so fair play to that i guess
That’s a good point Tom…although I think if you look back at a few of those who left comments they would still cry foul 🙂
That is too bad. I am sorry to hear your experience didn’t go well.
Haha, I thought this was definitely going to be a negative review which is why I clicked this before buying a theme from themeforest – good to know you guys are legit!
Nice affiliate post, hope they paid you well 🙂
I’m a little concerned about the pricing. The prices seem very low. Are the prices I see a one time fee, or a monthly fee, or a yearly fee?
I ask because many businesses charge a monthly or yearly fee for using their themes.
Thanks.
There are no recurring fees with ThemeForest Themes. The price you see is the price you pay for that one theme.
I purchased a theme from themeforest. However, the download was extreme slow and I could not download it. Nowadays, the bandwith is so cheap, how come the download is sooooooooooo slow.
Hmmm…that’s strange. Most of the time things download extremely fast for me. I’m pretty sure they use Amazon S3 for storage of files, etc – so it could have been something on Amazon’s end.
Want to know the “real” ugly truth about ThemeForest?
They won’t give you a refund if the theme you purchased doesn’t work out.
Recently bought a theme for $35 that looked pretty nice on the sales page. Had a big slider on the home page. Wanted to use it for a new site, where we wanted to have a sales video right up top in the slider.
Guess what? We find out only *after* purchasing the theme, that the theme supports only images in the slider. No text, no HTML, no videos, no nothing. Only a bunch of images.
I ask for a refund, as this was a total deal-breaker for us, but was repeatedly refused a refund, and they quote their obscure refund policy (which by the way is practically IMPOSSIBLE to find or get to on their site) that the only way they would give us a refund, is if there were files missing, or the theme was completely broken and didn’t work at all.
This is borderline fraud in my opinion – especially with there being no warning anywhere before you purchase, that you’re pretty much hosed if it doesn’t work the way you want it to.
So beware. 4 thumbs down for ThemeForest.
– Ravi
Agreed.
I’ve bought quite a few things without an issue, but I did have a problem with one and it’s nigh impossible to get them to issue a refund without hassle, in spite of having a track record of being a good customer.
Now that I’ve experienced this, I will be much less comfortable buying from them in the future, and I assume it will only encourage some people to try and find illegal ‘free’ copies of what they’re looking for so that they don’t get burned.
Great review, i will have to check these guys out. With all their versatility I think I could have some fun with these themes.
In the third paragraph of The Themeforest Difference, there is a spelling mistake, it says ‘brows’ whereas it should read ‘browse’
Good article by the way 🙂
Very nice review! I agree with It.
Themeforest (Envato) offers some unique WP themes, but its system is designed to cater to the developers, not the customers. Where I come from, that’s backwards.
Case and point:
I recently purchased Pandia from a developer named Peerapong – http://themeforest.net/item/pandia-for-portfolio-agency-creative-business/575976?WT.ac=portfolio_thumb&WT.seg_1=portfolio_thumb&WT.z_author=peerapong.
It’s a very nice design. I spent a lot of time and created over 100 pages with this theme. I began to discover issues like the theme would not display correctly on specific computers, depending on IE explorer settings. I posted a comment on Themeforest and was told to open up a support ticket on Themegoods. I did. It sat there for over 20 days with no response. I posted again on Themeforest website where Peerapong said “nothing is wrong, it’s my device.”
Then a larger issue arose. You can’t create separate blogs or categories. I wanted Blog A to post from Category A and Blog B to post from Category B – common stuff. It wouldn’t work with Peerapong’s Pandia. Blog A & B would BOTH post from Categories A & B.
I submitted several comments on Themeforest and Peerapong offered no support. I then opened up a support ticket on Themegoods for the same issue. This is where is starts to get good. Peeraong’s response to my support ticket was, “I do not have to offer support, I can offer support if I choose to but only offer support to those with the right attitude.” Wow. Really?
What followed this was my support accounts at Themegoods being erased. Any negative comment on Themeforest about Peerapong was removed, and my entire Envato Account was disabled, which doesn’t allow me access to any of my other purchases fro Codecanyon.
Classy. I don’t know any company can do business in this fashion but I predict it will not last.
To anyone considering any purchases from Themeforest – Caveat Emptor.
Sorry to hear about your experience, Seppe.
I’ve actually purchased a theme from Peerapong before and ran into a similar experience. He/She/They came across as fairly inconvenienced by my email (and perhaps in the end just didn’t respond at all – it’s been a while so I can’t remember all the details, I just remember thinking I would NOT want to purchase another theme from them again in the future).
Why was your ThemeForest account suspended though? That seems odd…
Yeah it was odd that my account got disabled. Actually, my ENVATO account was disabled, so I lost access to all of my prior purchases from Code Canyon, Theme Forest, Graphic River, Etc. I lost access to all my updates as well as my proof of purchase files to use for support.
Basically, what happened was Peerapong refused any support, his attitude was a joke, so I began posting comments on on Themeforest under the Pandia theme saying, “Peerapong only offers support to people with the right attitude.” Oh yeah, I also opened up a support ticket with the same title. Peerapong began flagging all of my comments as I posted them as spam. What a tool. So, I posted more 🙂 The following day my ENVATO account was disabled, then it no longer existed.
Peerapong tweeted about having me banned on his twitter account. So, I suspect he was involved.
I’m truly dumbfounded that an online company like Envato allows such behavior. What the hell happened to the customer is always right??? What, only if the customer has the correct attitude? What a joke.
The sad part about all this is I still look at themes on Themeforest. There are some really nice WP themes, that I cannot find anything remotely close to anywhere else. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough.
Well, at least I know what to expect in reagurds to support with wp themes from themeforest.
Also, I read every comment now before I purchase a theme, as well as do a Google search. In fact, I was about to purchase the WP Huddle theme until I read this report on Google about it – http://www.graphicrodeo.net/2011/12/featured/huddle-buddypress-theme-garbage/
So, just be careful dealing with Themeforest / Envato and ALWAYS pay with a credit card that you can dispute the transaction if Themeforest does not hold up to its end of the deal.
Well thank-you for sharing your experience. I can say that I’ve never personally run into a problem like that and have had a great experience dealing with ThemeForest, but it is nice to have some constructive feedback for others to know.
What buyers must keep in mind is that they are not paying for support. Themeforest does not require its authors to provide support. Providing support is optional. Every author/team providing support does it free at no charge. I personally would not mind a bug or two on a theme from Themeforest considering the great designs and the more than satisfactory documentation of most themes there. There aren’t many sites with themes as cleanly coded and visually satisfying as the ones on Themeforest. Plus, an independent developer would charge much more than a couple of bucks to patch up even the smallest of errors on a theme. No theme is ever perfect, considering the large amount of devices available and their specific coding requirements. The authors on Themeforest are doing a great job of custom coding their themes, while charging minimal price for all that effort (the author only gets paid 50%- 70% of what the buyer pays), and providing support when they can.
Yep. Themes are not a one size fits all. You can’t buy a theme and then complain if it doesn’t have additional functionality to suit your specific needs. For that, you need customisations to be developed and support cannot be expected to be used for personal free customisations on a $35 purchase. Having multiple blogs on a site running from different categories requires specific php editing just for that install and can’t be built into a one size fits all theme that easily. Also, developing for every browser iteration is a nightmare in its self and a generic theme cannot be expected to work on older browsers all the time. That’s why there are web developers. If you buy a theme rather than hiring a web developer, then expect to get your hands dirty with some coding to customise it to your specific needs. The best of both worlds can’t expected using free support for that. I’m not a TF author (or any site author). Why? I’d rather (and do) work 1 on 1 with a client to produce developments just for their custom needs. Everyone’s needs differ for their sites – I think their needs to be education that theme development is actually very skilled & difficult, think years of graphic design background (gestalt theory, colour psychology, HCI development skills), php training, css coding and more. If you’re only prepared to pay $35 for a product using those skills for the mass market and then do every custom thing you need, then don’t complain if it doesn’t. A theme purchase should serve as a base to build on for your needs. I usually develop my own themes for my own personal sites, but other times I’ll buy a theme for great design and some key general functionality, and then will use it as a base to build in my custom functionality where needed for my site as mass produced themes will almost never suit my every need, but they will often be suitable as a base canvas.
wow that is really impressive, the only thing i am wondering is do you customer service can you get things modified and is it easy to do so.?
Great read about Theme Forest. I wish I could give them enough praise as you did also in my own way. The marketplace has given me great ideas and interesting views of other peoples work, I am in no way capable of creating such fantastic sites and templates as the authors are. I visit both Theme Forest and Code Canyon almost daily purchasing various items or even complete templates if needed but more so for inspiration, same goes for Graphic River.
No complaints on the title of your piece since just go to any news media outlet website or blog and find “REAL” gotcha titles and topics.
Sincerely Mark
TF and co. is a fantastic resource for so many things. Your title definitely got me in here, I would have not looked into a positively titled post at the moment as I already know TF and CC etc. is awesome sauce. So is this reverse trolling? hahaha.. jokes:), nice review.
Theme forest may be ok if your gonna stick witht he top three developers.
A lot ofthe themes there are crap and you won’t get the support you need.
Bad palce to buy …Steer well clear folks.
Hi,
Who are the top 3 developers?
I’m having a problem with Theme Forest which led me to this thread.
I have purchased from them twice now & they have a sneaky practice of only allowing you to deposit in allotments of 10s. This means I can only deposit $30 or $40, not $35. The template costs $40, but I’ve had a credit in my account for a year now of $5 & Theme Forest is telling me there is nothing I can do.
So if I deposit $40 into the account again another year will go by & I’m out $5 while they are able to keep the money & do whatever they want with it.
I’m hoping that they will step up to the plate & either put the $5 back on my credit card or into my PP account, or allow me to deposit only $35. I get they want people to spend money, but clearly I don’t buy that many themes & why should I lose $5 2 years in a row?
I’m very concerned about the fact that they don’t vet these coders so if their themes suck when it comes to code & people can’t easily install them, we the customer pay the price.
Anyone know anything about this developer? http://themeforest.net/user/Softwebmedia
I can’t believe that Theme Forest monopolizes the entire WP theme industry. That’s just nuts IMO.
Michelle
Same is the case with me, this is really bad how themeforest trying to collect extra money from its clients. There must be option to put fund deposit amount manually.
I would love to buy one of their themes, but being technologically-challenged, I would very much like to demo the theme before I purchase it. Apparently, there is no refund should you buy a theme and then not be able to work with it. Many other theme providers offer a demo period of (at least) 36 hours so you can test-drive the theme properly.
Without a demo and without a guarantee, I just don’t think I can buy a “pig in a poke.” Elegant themes offer a 30-day money back guarantee, no questions asked. That seems only fair to me.
im avoiding envato at all costs, after spending over $25,000 with them, they have treated me with no respect at all.
i will have to find another place to buy items from now.
I am looking to build a website similar to themeforest. Do you know if there is any theme similar to theme forest? Thank you
https://themeshive.com/theme/wpforest/
This is indeed a great review. I have only just recently discovered themeforest while searching for html 5 responsive wordpress theme. I have found it to be a good source for both wordpress and joomla templates. I have since completed several projects using themes bought from them.
One can successfully argue that Envato actions border with fraud in the United States. According to the Criteria for Misrepresentation as posted on Wiki , a statement to induce another party to contract is illegal in the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misrepresentation). In my case Envato misrepresented one of its themes claiming that it includes fonts and functionality, which later (after downloading) was not included. Repeated emails to the Customer Service were ignored. Envato failed to refund my money as well. This is a plain definition of fraud.
I, like others, have the issue with buying a products that is misrepresented. The response from support at Envanto is a let down, they basically say they have no control and tough luck. You yourself have a link on this page as I write this to the elastico theme, which I bought about a week ago, and now it’s gone (your link goes the page stating it’s gone) no updates, no fixes to the issues, just gone without explanation and they respond “updates are not mandatory and support is optional from the author” so I am out fifty dollars for one theme, and I don’t even know why it was removed. Is it flawed? Nobody bothers to mention…Envanto is just a big shopping cart, I have bought plenty of things across the network, but after growth have started to see items to be unreliable and not as described, it’s a let down, and you are basically buying from one little guy from anywhere in the world because Envanto clearly doesn’t stand behind them.
Completely agree with: but after growth have started to see items to be unreliable and not as described, it’s a let down, and you are basically buying from one little guy from anywhere in the world because Envanto clearly doesn’t stand behind them.
What is the good alternative to themeforest?
The fact that nobody from Envato / Themeforest are coming here to defend themselves, is very disturbing, and it makes them standout as being completely dishonest. I could be wrong, but if somebody accused my company of fraud, I would be all over the case to either defend my position or try to settle with the customer in a civil manner, and at least show potential new customers that I take pride in my business.
Hey David,
Keep in mind that Envato/Themeforest is simply the marketplace and most of people’s frustrations is with individual sellers. To be sure, no one business is perfect, but Envato makes great efforts to create a clear and transparent business that is beneficial to all. Also keep in mind that most people come to vent when things go poorly and very few actually come to share a positive experience unless they happened to stumble upon the site and felt like sharing their two cents.
For what it’s worth, we continue to find great value and a great service in the Envato network of sites. Thanks for your comment…just wanted to expound on it a bit. We look forward to seeing you back at BloggingExperiment.com soon!
Thanks for the review. I’m fully signed up as all I’ve heard is good things.
Yes I was expecting a negative review and of course your positive reflection simply confirmed everything I already had learnt. But I didn’t mind the neggy headline – it pulled me in and I had to grin and say “fair enough”.
Good work.
For anyone looking to monetize their wordpress website through interactive training I recommend LearnDash. Because of their very fast and customer focussed approach I first heard about Themeforest and now ploughing into my project.
Keep it up.
My only experience with ThemeForest was very negative : theme with bugs and a bad support : no answer, they delete tickets without engaging the discussion !
You forgot the UGLY Truth. Theme Forest has set the “New Low” for customer service and support. I have spent hundreds of dollars purchasing their products. Recently, I have run into a few issues with the quality of their products and have contacted them for a refund. The templates i purchased looked nothing like they did online (false representation) So without phone numbers, no site operators, I had no choice but to email envato support.Weeks go by before they respond to an email. After a few weeks they decide to credit my account. While I was waiting for an answer, I called my credit card company to dispute the refund. A week later Envato disables my account because my credit card company reversed the funds. Now They want to actually take more time to review my account to see if I qualify for refund ONLY if I give them back the money by reversing the fees? Are you kidding me? This company is obviously NOT LOCATED in the US and has a NO REFUND POLICY. Buyer beware!
Yes they are from Australia. They know that no one will file a case in court just for $50 to $100. Thats why their support is poor for those how asked for a refund.
I Have many purchases with theme forest however only HTML sites I do all the conversions myself depending on which CMS is required.
Avoiding sites that say “Based on Boiler point and Based on Twitter Bootstrap is my only advise, mainly as the CSS is all screwed up and not readable, and in 5 CSS files overriding the base (I do it myself but at least I know what iv done, making sense of another is difficult)
However any issues I have ever had example a JS Script not working the developer has always supplied me with support.
This evento company I know nothing about I think they just run the portal and take no responsibility for the content talking about easy money, but the themes for HTML are so reasonable !!
Ugly truth? Er, do you know what ugly means?
I wish I had read this review BEFORE I spent $67 with Envato. The theme I bought was so badly coded that after persevering for four hours I reverted back to the default theme.
Envato didn’t reply to any of my emails asking for support and wouldn’t refund me for the theme. Thieves!!!
I am sorry to do this … but I have had nothing but problems with ThemeForest. I NEVER get to the purchase pages. Every time I attempt to sign up for an account I am sent a verification email. I click the link (or, in some cased copy/paste it to my browser) and it always reads:
“Sorry, that confirmation link has expired. Please try again.”
This is crazy! I click the link SECONDS after receiving the email. I have attempted this same process 20-30 times over the past 5-6 months. They have no answers for me…
THAT is the ugly truth!
I am going elsewhere…
I thought it was a article about what is bad at themeforest
I must say Envato/ThemeForest policy on refunds is borderline criminal. I spent $50 on a theme used to display a portfolio, only to find out that the themes portfolio page is using STATIC content built by their bundled interface builder. Can you imagine having a CMS that is displaying content from a interface properties instead of the content stored in blog/portfolio entries, and the only way for user to add content to that page (in the layout advertised) is to place controls for images/captions/descriptions and also layout controls like box grids, separators etc., one by one for EVERY entry? It defeats the whole purpose of the CMS!!! And for them it isn’t enought of a reason for refund!?
One disgusted customer of ThemeForest
Nice post about the themeforest but the title is misleading and I expected something negative on themeforest 🙂