I just updated my site to Pagelines Framework – what a joy! I have for a year now used WordPress themes from Pagelines and having recently purchased the drag & drop Platform Pro theme I was a bit reluctant to pay for the expensive upgrade to get me the brand new Framework 2.0.
I did it! I used a good offer to get 40% off – that is quite a lot considering the price of $397 for a developer version. Well I payed it yesterday and must say I had nice surprise when installing it and updating this site. Confused initially that I had to start by enabling things in the store (free stuff for the theme to function) but it soon became clear how intuitive and responsive the new Framework is. Anyway here goes my Pagelines Framework review!
In the beginning I thought that Framework 2.0 was an update of Platform Pro but I soon realized it is new and different product. The Framework look very similar to the Platform Pro wordpress theme but they are not the same product. Simply said Pagelines Pro is a theme for WordPress, while PageLines Framework is more – it’s a framework! With the Framework you will get a basic theme and functionality and the missing parts will be available as plugins, themes and sections through the newly developed Pagelines Store. The easiest way to get into the store is through the WordPress admin panel of your site: Pagelines > Store. Or through www.pagelines.com.
Platform Pro to Framework
In Platform Pro I’ve made some editing in the function.php file and the library.templates.php files but they were all to find in the Framework file structure as before so it only took a few minutes to make the edit. Now I can just enjoy the rest of the day and playing a bit more with the Framework theme on another website Im working on. Beside I have a few other sites on Platform Pro I want to upgrade to the new Framework.
A great function is that Pagelines let you sign up for a free account on their home page right here: http://demo.pagelines.com/
But why would you pay out that amount of money when WordPress and thousands of theme are available for free? First of all the PageLines Framework simply works right out of the box – it easy to install, easy to configure and easy to customize – that is my main reason for jumping into this an paying for a professional WordPress theme even in the current economic climate!
Another great point is that if you run into problems or want to do something under the polished user interdace you will get great support from the fantastic support forum.
Secondly I used to use different free themes and then customized them to suit my needs. That’s not a problem but as time passes by the themes might be outdated unless it get updated once in a while also you have to keep updating it when WordPress is getting updated and that break something in your theme.
Finally you should read this story about why you should take care when getting a Free WordPress Themes — there could be a few unseen bugs.
To conclude, I would say I’m mostly satisfied with the Framework theme but I have a few things that bugs me though. First of all I think is stupid we have to pay out additional ($24.99) to get the LaunchPage plugin from Pagelines. It nice to have but at the same time easy to make you own launch page with what you got. Secondly I think there should be more emphasis on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – I use either “All in One SEO Pack” or “WordPress SEO” to optimize my WordPress sites for SEO. Also personally I don’t like the suggested CForms contact forms but that is just me I always use Contact Form 7 which is very simple to use compared to CForms.
That said all those plugins are easy to install on top of Pagelines Framework just find them in the WordPress plugin section takes minutes and you are going. The Framework is tested on WordPress 3.3 and also the plugins I have installed.
For more information about how to get started and how to customizing the Pagelines Framework – have a look at the Pagelines Docs. Also have a look on this Pagelines post for a few other websites giving the Pageline Framework a review.
Give it a try your self – Pagelines Framework 2.0
Martin Bay
Related posts:
Nice review of the Framework.. and nice site re-design.
Thank you Steve.