There are lots of WordPress themes out there that offers what you need. You can also find numbers of WordPress theme developers who sell WordPress themes. At first, I used the free themes in all my sites. However, I tried to weigh the benefits of having a premium theme, a theme that will cost something yet can give the flexibility and the best look that you will want to have.
But when we talk about premium themes, there are only two themes that I trust to deliver the best, Woothemes and Genesis Themes. Let’s talk first about Woothemes. 
Woothemes is the easiest theme to customize among all that I have used. Once installed in your WordPress site, you will see so many options embedded in your dashboard. If you are not a websavvy guy, this is probably the best choice for you. It’s easy to install header, favicon, tracking codes, customize typography, slider, etc.
Here’s some of the outstanding features of Woothemes
- Easy header, tracking codes and favicon install.
- Easy customization.
- JQuery Ready
- Outstanding Slider Ready
- Short codes ready
There are many more cool features that you can get from Woothemes. They just offer the easiest and intuitive theme for your WordPress site. By far, I have used these themes to almost all of my clients. By the way, I haven’t mentioned yet that this theme belongs to the cheapest sets of premium themes in the market. It simply over-delivers.
The other WordPress theme that I use is the Genesis. I love this theme. It comes from Studiopress. Studiopress developed this framework to be very flexible that can match the famous Thesis Themes. You can purchase child themes from their site that are HIGHLY customizable. If you want to get your hands dirty, this theme is definitely for you. Genesis theme developers have develop hundreds of customization choices that you can do, only that you will be dealing with some codes.
This theme is extremely perfect if you want to have your theme standout among the rest and you are willing to work with codes. But don’t worry, they have a complete tutorial and support if you need it.
Some of the cool features of this these are:
- Plugins specifically designed to function well on Genesis.
- Clean codes.
- Highly customizable theme options.
- Secure.
- It has Child Themes that are still ready for upgrades.
This theme is not as easy to use compared to Woothemes, but this one is definitely fitted for professional website developers that aims to offer the best for their clients.
Both of these themes are great themes. I have used theme in all of my websites and even to my clients. It simply deliver the best.
Hi,
I am a programmer from india. I want to buy genesis.
which childtheme is good for a programming tutorial site. pls reply.
Basically it depends on you…. and your style. If you want it to be a personal site rather than a corporate, I suggest you get the Focus, Agency, Freelance and Lifestyle. If you want it to be corporate look, get the Enterprise, Executive, Corporate or Metric.
Vince … it was good to find your article. I’d be interested in hearing more of the downside to either of these themes. I have (and use) both Fresh News and Canvas, and like them a lot. However, I’ve heard WooThemes does a lot more data queries when delivering a page than do other themes – an inordinate amount, actually.
Anyway, I also JUST bought the Genesis developer’s package, and will soon start playing around with it. It looks good. But – as you say – it’s not as easy to use as WooThemes. And, quite frankly, their documentation is lacking. WooThemes rocks in this department – they have both text and video instructions for virtually all aspects of their themes. StudioPress only has text.
Anyway, what I would love to see is an article comparing/ contrasting the underlying foundation for each of these themes. Is StudioPress significantly cleaner? If so, that might make it worth the steeper learning curve.
~Doug
Ok, the Downside:
Woothemes
1. I found a few little bugs with some of the Woothemes that I used. But everything is workable. Use Firebug to catch it. You can find a tutorial support for this very important tool which is also available now as a plugin/extension in Google Chrome.
2. It does not follow “first link priority”. For that reason, you will have to hack it to enable that. But this is not that essential.
3. The first 2 are minor things. As for my experience, upgrading the Wootheme Framework won’t be that easy. So that means that it will be better to remain on the Framework that you used. Or, just use a “Child Theme”. You can find the tutorial in the Support.
Genesis
1. More expensive, and becoming more expensive. It’s just good because you will have to pay 1 time payment for each theme or for a Developer’s package. But that’s still expensive compared to Woothemes.
2. Extremely flexible theme, BUT harder to customize, not to mention the lack of support.
3. What I find to be extremely weird with Genesis is that, NOT all child themes have automatic “Header” and “Favicon” upload. You will need to go back to Cpanel and upload your “logo” file, or upload new plugins, header uploader and favicon uploader.
“Is StudioPress significantly cleaner?”
I would say, YES to that. If you are going for NICHE Sites, then go and use Studiopress. They have an extremely good SEO feature and is “First Link Priority” ready.
If you like “square type” or “box type” look and feel for a website, go for Studiopress.
On the other hand:
If you want to have a beautiful JQuery ready theme, go for Woothemes.
And if you want to have an easier life in customizing and making your site more beautiful, go for Woothemes.
If