Are there too many theme lookalikes?

Yesterday Orman Clark tweeted something that has also been on my mind quite a while:

9 new WordPress themes added to ThemeForest today. 1 looks original, 8 look like 476 others.

While I’m essentially a webdesigner and no theme developer, I’ve been working with Wordpress and tweaking themes for my clients for the last 4 years.

While some themes just break the boundaries of Wordpress, showing off what an amazing CMS it has become, the last months a lot of submitted themes look almost identically.

I guess, and I understand this, that it’s probably easier to make a living out of it when you don’t have to take a risk and build something that people are used to. But I find that about 80% of all new themes are more of the same.

That’s why I’m asking, do you also think there are too many theme lookalikes?

Good question. And I’d say yes there are. But quite frankly, coming up with something entirely new has become as hard as never before. Nowadays it seems like everything has already been done in some fashion or another. I’d almost say that the market for Wordpress Themes is about to be saturated. It doesn’t even suffice anymore to have a brilliant execution in order to have decent sales that compensate for its efforts (well at least for the smaller authors among us).

I don’t think this is necessarily a lack of creativity of authors but more a problem of market-saturation. And I wouldn’t also say that most look-alike themes here are necessarily copied, it’s just natural with so many wordpress themes on themeforest.

That’s an interesting point of view Kevitus.

For the record, I also wouldn’t say that themes are copied. I see a lot of authors doing a hell of a good job. Nevertheless, I’m glad the boundaries of Wordpress are still being pushed. I believe there are still a lot of design options possible.

I think creativity and an original point of view can be the solution for an over-saturated market. This will make an author and his/her theme stand out from the crowd.

How many colors exist to paint your home walls? Unlimited… but in the end everybody is using those 4/5 colors.

Same is for wp themes. We all like new and different things, but when you have to sell a theme to your clients they will ask you something that looks familiar, like a white wall.

ParkerAndKent said
Same is for wp themes. We all like new and different things, but when you have to sell a theme to your clients they will ask you something that looks familiar, like a white wall.

MagentaManiacs said
Yesterday Orman Clark tweeted something that has also been on my mind quite a while:

Who’s Orman Clark?

ParkerAndKent said
How many colors exist to paint your home walls? Unlimited… but in the end everybody is using those 4/5 colors. Same is for wp themes. We all like new and different things, but when you have to sell a theme to your clients they will ask you something that looks familiar, like a white wall.

kailoon said

ParkerAndKent said
How many colors exist to paint your home walls? Unlimited… but in the end everybody is using those 4/5 colors. Same is for wp themes. We all like new and different things, but when you have to sell a theme to your clients they will ask you something that looks familiar, like a white wall.

Wow, brilliant answer. Like.

Just painted my walls here… so I know what I’m talking about

kailoon said

ParkerAndKent said
How many colors exist to paint your home walls? Unlimited… but in the end everybody is using those 4/5 colors. Same is for wp themes. We all like new and different things, but when you have to sell a theme to your clients they will ask you something that looks familiar, like a white wall.

Wow, brilliant answer. Like.

If 2 white walls have same portraits hanging and both are upside down, then one of them are copying the other. If the entire work is just a white wall, then both are safe but there is less possibility for sales.

ParkerAndKent said
How many colors exist to paint your home walls? Unlimited… but in the end everybody is using those 4/5 colors. Same is for wp themes. We all like new and different things, but when you have to sell a theme to your clients they will ask you something that looks familiar, like a white wall.

Seriously good answer, so so true!

- Ed