AgilePress

Tag: Divi

  • The ThemeForest Trap: Why “Multipurpose” Means “Future Debt”

    We have all been there. You (or your client) browse ThemeForest. You see a $59 theme called “Titan” or “Jupiter” or “Avada” that promises 500+ pre-built demos.

    It looks incredible. It has sliders, flying animations, and a portfolio grid that spins. You buy it, install the demo, and suddenly… you are trapped.

    In the WordPress world, the theme you choose dictates your site’s destiny. And for years, the industry has been pushing “Multipurpose Themes”—Swiss Army Knives that try to do everything but end up doing nothing well.

    At AgilePress, we have moved on. We don’t use “Multipurpose” monoliths. We don’t use “Hybrid” crutches. We build with the future of WordPress: Full Site Editing (FSE).

    Here is a breakdown of the market and why we ditched the best-sellers for a new generation of minimalist block themes.

    The Monoliths: Avada, Enfold, and Divi

    These are the giants of the past decade. They are massive software suites disguised as themes.

    • The Suspects: Divi, Avada, The7, Enfold, BeTheme.
    • The Trap: To make those 500 demos work, they ignore native WordPress standards and force their own proprietary systems (Fusion Builder, Divi Builder, Muffin Builder).
    • The “Lock-In” Nightmare: If you ever switch themes, your content disappears. You are left with a mess of “shortcodes” ([et_pb_section]...[/et_pb_section]) that are unreadable. You are married to that theme forever.
    • The Performance Cost: They load megabytes of CSS and JavaScript just to render a simple About page. It is like buying a bus to drive one person to work.

    The Empty Shell: “Hello Elementor”

    Then came the reaction. Developers wanted speed, so Elementor released “Hello Elementor”.

    • The Promise: It is super lightweight. Almost zero code.
    • The Reality: It is a Trojan Horse designed to make you 100% dependent on Elementor Pro.
      • Because the theme has no styling, no header logic, and no footer logic, you must build everything with the heavy Elementor Page Builder.
      • You are not using WordPress anymore; you are using Elementor. If you stop paying their subscription, your entire site breaks.

    The “Hybrids”: Kadence, GeneratePress, Neve & Blocksy

    We have huge respect for this category. For years, these were the “Agile” choice.

    • The Suspects: Kadence, GeneratePress, Neve, Blocksy, Astra.
    • The Good: They are incredibly fast, well-coded, and much lighter than the Monoliths. They respect WordPress standards much better than Divi.
    • The Friction: They are “Hybrid” themes. They try to bridge the gap between the old “Classic PHP” world and the new “Block” world.
      • You control the Header/Footer in the Customizer (Old way).
      • You control the content in the Block Editor (New way).
    • Why we moved on: Working with them now feels like straddling two eras. While excellent tools, they rely on PHP templates that limit the true flexibility of the new WordPress. They represent the peak of the past, not the foundation of the future.

    The Future: Native Block Themes (FSE)

    This is the AgilePress Standard.

    With WordPress 6.0+, the platform became a full design engine. We use Full Site Editing (FSE) themes like Twenty Twenty-Five, Ollie, Frost, or Spectra One.

    Why are these superior?

    • Zero PHP Bloat: These themes are mostly HTML and JSON configuration files. There are no heavy PHP functions running in the background. They are blazingly fast by default.
    • Visual Control: You edit the Header, Footer, and Templates using the same block editor you use for posts. No more jumping between “Theme Options,” “Customizer,” and the editor.
    • Portability: Everything is standard WordPress blocks. If you switch from Ollie to Twenty Twenty-Five, your content still works. Your layout might change, but your data is safe.
    • Design Systems, Not Demos: Instead of importing a heavy “Demo Site,” we import lightweight Global Styles (fonts, colors, spacing). We define the system, and the site builds itself consistently.

    Conclusion: Don’t Buy a Theme, Adopt a Framework

    The era of buying a $59 theme that “does it all” is over. Those themes are technical debt waiting to happen.

    At AgilePress, we use modern, native Block Themes.

    • We use Ollie for its incredible UX.
    • We use Frost or Spectra One for clean, agency-style minimalism.
    • We use Twenty Twenty-Five for maximum longevity.

    We don’t build sites that look good only on the launch day. We build sites that remain fast, editable, and standard-compliant for years to come.

    The theme is dead. Long live the Blocks.