Help Picking a Theme

[joshbrewer23]

Hello,

I'm a former MyThemeShop/ThemeForest user...was about to purchase Themeforest's X theme until I saw a couple posts about the Genesis Framework and decided to check it out.

I'm looking for a theme for my online portfolio/CV/resume. I've identified two themes that I really like: Centric Pro and Showcase Pro. For what I want, I think Showcase Pro is the better option since Centric Pro is largely based on high quality images. However, I see that it's a third party theme and not a StudioPress theme. Does this make a difference in any way? Are there any limitations to a third party theme vs. a Studio Press?

Also, if anyone who uses Showcase Pro has a link to their site, I'd love to take a look. There aren't any posted in the showcase here.

Thanks for the help and happy holidays.

[Kary]

Josh, I own "all the themes" because I purchased the developer's license. Consequently, I'm able to download and use both StudioPress themes and 3rd party themes. The biggest difference between a 3rd party theme and SP theme are the setup instructions. Since each 3rd party theme may be developed by a different person, their setup instructions will vary and be different. And all will typically be different from what you find in the Studiopress instructions.

I find some theme developer's instructions to be superior to that of Studiopress' because they also offer support forums for people who purchased their theme, and some to be worse.

You'll get the Genesis Framework with either theme purchase, which will allow you to purchase just a child theme in the future.

ShowCase Pro has a built-in custom post type for "testimonials" and "team members." Centric does not but you could add those yourself using plugins or a custom post type plugin yourself if you wanted that feature.

ShowCase Pro has additional built-in styles that Centric Pro does not. However, if you're familiar with CSS you could easily reproduce those in Centric pro. You can see ShowCase's custom built-in styles here. http://demo.jtgrauke.com/showcase/typography/

Showcase pro's theme instructions don't seem to be hidden behind a firewall or require you to login, so you can check them out here to get a sense of how the theme is setup.
http://jtgrauke.com/documentation/showcase-pro/

I hope that helps.

[joshbrewer23]

Hi Kary,

That was immensely helpful--thank you! I guess my main concern with a third party theme is that there's nothing stopping the developer from discontinuing support for the theme. Do you know if StudioPress provide support for third-party themes in the private 'My StudioPress" area? I would hate to have the developer as my only source for troubleshooting.

[Susan]

StudioPress does NOT provide support for third party themes.

[Kary]

Josh, you'll get support for the framework, but not the theme. So yes...I guess you're right. You are taking a slightly bigger risk purchasing a 3rd party theme over one developed by StudioPress. The good news is that should the day ever come that the theme is abandoned, you are a lifetime owner of the framework and all subsequent child themes can be purchased without that added cost.

[joshbrewer23]

Thanks Susan and Kary. Can either of you give me an example of support for the framework compared to a third-party theme? What is considered a "framework" problem and what is considered a "theme" problem?

Also, happy holidays!

[Kary]

Susan can probably be more helpful as I don't work for StudioPress so only deal with my own "support issues" and not everyone else's. The main framework issues I would imagine might have to do with finding out what plugins are and are not compatible with Genesis in general. As you would imagine, you aren't supposed to touch the framework files at all. That's the reason for the child themes. So issues of compatibility with Genesis would probably be the biggest support questions that I can think of..

Happy holidays to you as well.

[Author]

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