UPDATE: We’ve released a series of WordPress framework reviews covering the four that received the most votes. You can check out the wrap-up or read the individual reviews for Ultimatum, Gantry, Headway, and Divi Builder.
WordPress frameworks are all the rage these days. As opposed to themes, which usually drive the look and feel of simple blogs or websites, frameworks allow WordPress administrators to manage larger WordPress sites and help users create wonderfully dynamic, responsive user experiences. With so many available and more coming out all the time it can be difficult to know what sets them apart and if you even need one at all.
Wait, what is a WordPress framework?
A WordPress framework is a tool set that allows you to manipulate the look and feel of your WordPress powered website more fully than a standard theme. In most cases a theme allows you to change the menu, sidebar, color schemes, and other minor elements. A framework lets you completely change the layout of posts and pages and have a great deal more control over how your site looks and functions. WPMU Dev has a lengthy write-up here explaining more.
How much do they cost?
Frameworks range from free to several hundred dollars. There are three general models:
- Free (Gantry, Hybrid, Thematic) – The framework doesn’t cost anything, but this usually means it’s pretty bare bones and you’ll need to spend time learning it and develop your own theme or build significantly on a generic theme.
- One Time Fee (Genesis, Divi Builder, Thesis) – Some companies charge a one time fee for lifetime support of the framework. This sometimes includes other themes and plugins.
- Annual Subscription (Headway, Builder, Themify Builder) – You pay a set annual fee for updates and support. Sometimes includes other themes and plugins.
Which is the best WordPress framework for you?
As with most software, that can be fairly subjective. It often depends on your skill set, budget, and requirements. Free frameworks rarely include support beyond community forums, which can be strong or practically non-existent. Support that comes with paid frameworks can vary from phone, to Email, to forum-based. It’s important to do your research. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is the framework still being updated? How often? Try and find a public roadmap to get an idea of what’s coming and if you can have input.
- What’s the community like? Even if you have paid support, a vibrant forum and developer community makes a huge difference.
- What’s the ongoing cost? For some this won’t be a concern, but the annual fees can start to add up. Is purchasing the framework alone enough for you, or will you also need to purchase a theme or other plugins?
- What are the reviews like? Be careful with this one. So many seemingly professional reviews are actually just affiliate sites trying to make a buck from your clicks. Look for up-to-date information that’s written subjectively and professionally. Based on the poll results here, we’ll probably post some reviews and comparisons in the future.
- Can you find examples using the framework that you like? It doesn’t matter how efficient and technically impressive a framework is if no one has been able to build anything interesting with it outside of a technical demo. If you can’t find examples of good design, move on.
Vote here for your favorite WordPress framework and tell us why you love it in the comments. Be sure to let us know any we’ve missed and we’ll add them.
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I’ve developed on Genesis, DIVI, Canvas & Ultimatum, but the latter tends to be my framework of choice, for its ease of customisation, flexibility, and bundled premium plugins. There’s always room for improvement, of course, and it’s great to see so many frameworks available now.
I use Divi Builder (not stand alone Divi). I find Divi Builder useful only as a way to provide clients a very easy way to edit pages. I do not care for Divi as a complete site solution. I use Ultimatum from time to time, Beaverbuilder from time to time, and I have used Gantry in the past. I’ve also played with some of the others on the list. I use Headway for 75% of my sites. While I like Ultimatum for the ability to really get into the smallest details if I need to… I usually don’t need to.… Read more »
Ultimatum is my weapon of choise. Powerfull, flexibel, enough options. Best buy around!
I ‘ve used Headway and Ultimatum. Ultimatum is my choice for making a layout that best represents my unique designs. With builtin plugins, you have more time to make your layouts beautiful and keep your customers happy.
Ultimatum is awesome!
It really simplifies the development process for me, tremendously!
Ultimatum gets my vote. I have been using this framework for a few months now and it has been great. It is updated with good frequency and the premium plugins are very useful.
Ultimatum allows me the most creativity of any theme or framework that I have tried in the last 7 years. I also love the bundled plugins.
I have used divi, headway and ultimatum. I like headway coz it’s faster to build a prototype quickly, you don’t even need to know css to use headway, everything is a click but if you need to customize things and u know css, you can still write ur css in its internal editor. But I won’t give it a pass mark here, coz you buy their plug-ins for nearly everything. The best of the best is ultimatum. It’s actually a monster. Once you have a developer account which is a one off payment, you are given plethora of plug-ins for… Read more »
I disagree w/ WebDrill. I’ve built dozens of sites without buying Headway plugins. Most of them are not needed and the third party ones often aren’t that good.
I am so pleased I bought Ultimatum Pro. I echo everyone about the advantages of the theme, and the helpfulness of the company through support, blogs, YouTube tutorials and the forums.
Thanks for having this poll!
Krisargent
Ultimatum; it has given me so many options to work with WordPress.
Gantry 5 for WP is amazing. Leaps and bounds better than Gantry 4 for anyone who’s tried that in the past. Dynamic positions make it super easy to integrate any widget and keep things organized and like many frameworks creating child themes is a thing of the past. I really like that it’s open source and developed on GitHub for true customization and support. Custom Particles (like widgets) are crazy easy to develop. Best free framework by a mile and it’s very young and evolving quickly.
Ultimatum, Great theme, flexible, I will only use Ultimatum now, a fantastic Frameworks, with included plugins and the support provided is second to none.
Ultimatum is by far the most flexible. There is nothing that can’t be done with it.
Man, look no further. Ultimatum is the best! Packed with popular plugins, easy to use, sky is the limit in regards with any custom site design possibility. Been Pro user for few years, I am satisfied with Ultimatum
Gantry 5 is the future. It is built with the latest technologies (SCSS, Yaml, Twig…) and with the future in mind. Gantry 5 is a complete re-write of the framework, it was written from scratch. The project started almost 2 years ago. It has nothing to do with Gantry 4. Gantry 5 is a platform independent thing – it works on Wordpress, Joomla and Grav. You have never seen such a beautiful, powerful and clean solution before. For all the other guys who prefer Ultimatum (or any other WP framework) – you do that because you haven’t tried Gantry 5.… Read more »
Ultimatum to use my designs on wordpress, an update is planned??
I like “ultimatum”. It is a comprehensive framework theme. You can change almost
all. It also has a spectacular plugins to add. Secondly I like Genesis.
Ultimatum just shot themselves in the foot. This morning – May 23th, 2016 (less than a week after purchasing the theme) – I awaked to find that my “lifetime membership” only applied to the current version and when the new one came out I would have to pay $299 more although there was ABSOLUTELY nothing about this when I bought the software. Beware of “lifetime” memberships; they aren’t what you think. Needless to say there are a ton of p*ssed off people using Ultimatum that will be going somewhere else; myself included. Caution, they screw their customers!!!!