Thrive Theme Builder Review 2020: Best WordPress Theme Builder?

Considering utilizing Thrive Theme Builder to design your personal customized WordPress website?

Thrive Theme Builder is a brand new providing from Thrive Themes that allows you to use a visible drag-and-drop editor to design 100% of your theme. You’ll get full management over your header, weblog submit/web page templates, footer, and extra. All with out ever needing to take a look at a single line of code.

In our hands-on Thrive Theme Builder overview, I’ll take a deeper take a look at this providing and enable you resolve whether or not it’s best for you. In basic, I believe that Thrive Theme Builder is a wonderful theme builder for informal customers, however there could be higher choices for superior customers who need full flexibility.

Keep studying to be taught why that’s…

Thrive Theme Builder Review Introduction

In a nutshell, the fundamental worth proposition with Thrive Theme Builder is that it helps you to use a visible drag-and-drop interface to customise your theme’s templates.

Have you ever felt restricted by your theme? With most WordPress themes, you possibly can solely customise your theme utilizing the built-in theme choices. Some themes offer you a number of choices, whereas some solely offer you a number of.

Either manner, you’re restricted (until you understand how to make use of customized code).

Thrive Theme Builder eliminates that frustration by providing you with 100% code-free management over your precise theme templates. 

Want to maneuver the creator identify above the weblog submit title? Easy – simply drag it there.

Want to maneuver the emblem in your header from the left aspect to the proper aspect? Easy – simply drag it there!

You may do extra than simply rearranging the present parts. For instance, you might mechanically add an e mail opt-in type to the tip of your weblog posts, or you might add a particular CTA beneath the submit title. The prospects are fairly countless.

As you learn via the hands-on sections subsequent, it is best to get a greater thought of how this works and the way the whole lot connects.

How Thrive Theme Builder Works – Hands-On

One of Thrive Theme Builder’s strongest factors is how straightforward/quick it makes it to stand up and working along with your customized website. In truth, I might say that it has the quickest and easiest setup means of any WordPress theme builder that I’ve used (and I’ve examined a bunch).

Thrive Theme Builder is ready to obtain this as a result of it’s an precise WordPress theme, not a plugin (which is how most different theme builders work). 

When you set it up, you’ll have the ability to select the default templates that you simply’ll use for all of your theme elements. For instance, your header, your weblog submit template, and many others.

That means you have got a cohesive, fully-functioning website throughout the first jiffy. From there, you possibly can:

• Edit the entire default templates utilizing the visible drag-and-drop editor.
• Create extra templates and conditionally apply them. For instance, you might create a particular template for weblog posts within the “Review” class”.

Let’s go hands-on and I’ll present you precisely how this works…

1. Go Through the Theme Builder Wizard

Thrive Theme Builder is an precise WordPress theme, so you possibly can set up it similar to you’d some other WordPress theme (Appearance → Themes → Add New).

Then, you possibly can go to Thrive Dashboard → Thrive Theme Builder to get began. Your first choice is to decide on the bottom theme that you simply need to import. Your base theme controls the fundamental styling and pre-made templates, however you possibly can nonetheless customise the whole lot utilizing drag-and-drop.

This is a simple alternative as a result of, a minimum of after I’m penning this Thrive Theme Builder overview, there’s just one base theme to select from – Shapeshift. In the longer term, you may get extra choices, although, which might add a whole lot of worth:

From there, you possibly can comply with the user-friendly setup wizard to configure essential settings:

First, you’ll add your emblem and select the first coloration that you simply need to use throughout your whole website. You can all the time change this coloration sooner or later to rapidly tweak your whole design:

Then, you’ll select the default template that you simply need to use for varied elements of your theme:

• Header
• Footer
• Homepage
• Single weblog submit
• Blog submit checklist
• Page

This a part of the wizard is what makes it really easy to rapidly stand up and working with Thrive Theme Builder. Once you make these selections, you have got a cohesive, fully-working website. Later on, nevertheless, you possibly can all the time return and totally edit these defaults or create your personal templates:

You’ll repeat the identical course of for every template. Then, your website is able to go. Here’s what my website seems to be like primarily based on the templates that I selected:

2. Customize Colors and Typography

Next, you possibly can additional customise the colours and typography utilized by your theme. The good factor about these selections is that you simply solely have to make them as soon as after which the adjustments will propagate to your whole theme.

You may create a number of typography “sets” to rapidly use totally different typography elsewhere:

3. Customize Templates or Create New Ones

Now for the enjoyable half, and actually the meat of what you are able to do with Thrive Theme Builder.

Let’s say you typically like how the default template that you simply selected seems to be, however you simply need to tweak it slightly bit. For instance, possibly you need to transfer the title round or one thing.

If you go to the Templates space, you’ll see an inventory of all of the default templates, in addition to an choice to create new ones:

First off, in case you edit one of many current templates, that may launch the visible editor (I’m going to dedicate a whole part to the visible editor subsequent – don’t fear!). 

Second, you too can create a brand new template that you simply’ll have the ability to use in sure conditions. For instance, possibly you need to create a unique weblog submit template that you simply’ll use in your critiques – you are able to do that!

Exploring Some of the Most Notable Features within the Visual Editor

Thrive Theme Builder’s visible drag-and-drop editor is what takes it from “a flexible theme” to a “theme builder”. In the editor, you should use drag-and-drop to customise 100% of all of your templates.

For essentially the most half, Thrive Theme Builder’s visible drag-and-drop editor features very similar to a WordPress web page builder plugin. So in case you’ve used Thrive Architect (the web page builder from Thrive Themes), you’ll really feel proper at house from day one.

There are a number of notable additions, although. Let’s undergo them…

Dynamic Content Widgets

Remember – with a theme builder, you’re creating the template that your weblog posts will use, slightly than a one-off design (or your header template, footer template, and many others.).

To allow you to do that, you get a brand new set of Article Components widgets which you can embody in your design. For instance, in case you add the Author Name widget, it can show the precise identify of the creator. The Post Title widget shows the precise title of the weblog submit, and so forth:

For every widget, you’ll nonetheless get all the identical type/format choices. The key distinction is simply that these widgets are dynamically pulling their content material out of your precise website.

To see how your template will look with totally different content material, you should use the Choose Content drop-down within the top-right nook to decide on an current submit to preview:

Switch Between Templates

Another actually neat characteristic is the choice to rapidly swap between templates with out leaving the editor.

Let’s say you’re modifying a weblog submit template, however you then abruptly resolve you need to make a tweak to your header. All it’s good to do is click on in your header template after which you possibly can open it within the editor:

Then, you possibly can simply swap again once you’re completed.

Include Custom Fields

This is a extra superior tactic, however one thing that superior customers will respect. Custom fields allow you to retailer extra details about a bit of content material. For instance, you might add a “Rating” customized subject that allows you to retailer a quantity in your overview score.

Just like Thrive Theme Builder helps you to dynamically embody common WordPress content material (e.g. the weblog submit creator), you too can dynamically embody information from customized fields in your templates:

This opens up the likelihood to construct some actually customized websites with Thrive Theme Builder – no code required.

Thrive Theme Builder vs Other WordPress Theme Builders

A couple of years in the past, there weren’t very many choices when it got here to WordPress theme builders. That’s modified since about 2018/2019, although, and we’re now fairly spoiled for alternative in relation to theme builders. There are a bunch of different nice choices, lots of which we’ve reviewed on this weblog:

The notable factor about all of these choices is that every one of them are plugins, not themes like Thrive Theme Builder (excluding Divi, which comes as each a theme and plugin).

So – which strategy is best?

Well, I believe that will depend on what you’re in search of. If you’re a newbie/in search of the only choice, I believe that Thrive Theme Builder’s strategy is actually good. Because it’s a theme, you begin with a cohesive design from day one, whereas nonetheless having the choice to customise issues to your liking utilizing drag-and-drop.

If you worth simplicity, that’s actually nice. However, the draw back is that, as a result of the whole lot relies on the Shapeshift theme, your website is all the time going to considerably have that Shapeshift aesthetic.

Now, in case you like Shapeshift, that’s not a con! But if you’d like the flexibleness to interrupt out of that aesthetic, you could be upset.

That’s the place I believe the plugin-style theme builders offer you extra flexibility. With them, there’s no “default” aesthetic and you may create the whole lot 100% to your liking. However, the draw back is that, since you don’t have that base to start out from, these tools are going to really feel slightly extra difficult.

Basically:

• If you worth simplicity and also you just like the Shapeshift theme aesthetic, Thrive Theme Builder is a good choice.
• If you need essentially the most flexibility, you may favor the plugin strategy. I like to recommend beginning with Elementor Pro as the perfect all-around choice or Oxygen in case you’re a developer/superior consumer.

Thrive Theme Builder FAQ

To end out our Thrive Theme Builder overview, let’s go over some widespread questions you may need.

What is Thrive Theme Builder?

Thrive Theme Builder is a versatile WordPress theme that allows you to use a visible, drag-and-drop interface to customise 100% of your WordPress theme, out of your header all the best way all the way down to your footer.

Is Thrive Theme Builder a theme or a plugin?

Thrive Theme Builder is an precise WordPress theme. This is a crucial distinction as a result of it’s totally different from most different WordPress theme builders, which are literally plugins (e.g. Elementor Pro, Beaver Themer, Oxygen, and many others.).

How do I set up Thrive Theme Builder?

To set up Thrive Theme Builder, go to Appearance → Themes → Add New and set up it by importing the ZIP file. It works similar to some other WordPress theme.

How a lot is Thrive Theme Builder?

Thrive Theme Builder begins at $97 to be used on a single website or $127 to be used on as much as 5 websites. 

You may get it as a part of the Thrive Themes membership, which prices $19 per 30 days.

What is the distinction between Thrive Theme Builder vs Thrive Architect?

Thrive Theme Builder and Thrive Architect use just about the very same visible drag-and-drop editor. The key distinction is that Thrive Theme Builder helps you to design templates in your theme whereas Thrive Architect helps you to design particular person items of content material. You can use each on the identical website.

Final Thoughts on Thrive Theme Builder

Overall, Thrive Theme Builder does a great job of providing you with the flexibleness of a WordPress theme builder whereas nonetheless preserving issues fairly easy.

I believe the place Thrive Theme Builder actually excels is in case you’re an informal consumer who simply desires some extra management over your theme while not having to know any code. For that use case, Thrive Theme Builder does a very good job.

You’ll have the ability to rapidly stand up and working with the Shapeshift theme after which customise all of the default templates, out of your header all the way down to your footer, utilizing the visible drag-and-drop editor. Or, you possibly can create your personal customized templates and use them wherever wanted.

However, the place I don’t suppose Thrive Theme Builder is an effective match is in case you’re somebody who desires a theme builder to create shopper websites. Because the whole lot begins from the Shapeshift theme, Thrive Theme Builder is of course a bit restricted.

For this use case, I might suggest sticking with an choice like Elementor Pro Theme Builder or Beaver Builder.

Overall, although, in case you perceive Thrive Theme Builder’s professionals and cons, it’s positively a wonderful product for informal customers who desire a WordPress theme builder that gained’t overwhelm them with complexity.

Go to Thrive Theme Builder

Still have any questions on Thrive Theme Builder? Ask within the feedback!