Canvas, Genesis & Divi

Worth a comparison? Absolutely. Time to do it now? Uh, no.

I got a question about themes and theme frameworks and which one would be around the longest. The woman knew enough about her themes to know that Genesis was going to take some custom CSS to make look like what she wanted and she was looking to an easier interface to work with. Yeah, me too.

But then she mentioned Elegant Themes latest version of its Divi theme. I’ve been so focused on Canvas and only Canvas that I hadn’t heard of Divi. iT looks, of course, fabulous and can do everything and has a bazoolian gadgets and short codes and tricks and templates. A quick search gets me the top WordPress themes out there and rankings, ratings and ravings.

But we’re back to square one, aren’t we? We’re back to looking for new theme from scratch, from day one, from kindergarden.

Since I’m long out of kindergarten, I have an advantage in that I know better what I want. Aha, maybe even more important than “what I want” as a true kindergartener, is what I should have. I want ice cream, but I should have a mango lassie (relative terms on the scale of health here). Back to WordPress. I want something that’s pretty and cool, but I should have something that’s going to be supported, maintained, updated, and improved. What are the costs? Fixed and ongoing? What’s support like? Let’s start a list.

What I Want

  • Beautiful
  • Professional
  • Easy to use

What I Should Want

  • Beautiful
  • Professional
  • Easy to use
  • Supported
  • Maintained
  • Updated
  • No, really easy to use
  • Cost effective

That all said, is it worth looking at new themes? Aren’t I just happy with the status quo? Keep plugging away with Canvas? I know the theme so well, know what it can and can’t do, know if it’s a good idea for clients, etc. I know one thing and know it well. Is it worth knowing two things? It’s at least worth a look. I’ll have a look at Elegant Theme’s Divi and report back here. Who knows, maybe it’s something that doesn’t need to compete with Canvas, but can be an alternative.

Elegant Theme's flagship theme outsells all of their other themes combined.

Elegant Theme’s flagship theme outsells all of their other themes combined.