Drag & Drop
The idea of it sounds awesome, doesn’t it? A simple way to design your blog or website. Just drag and drop. It sounds perfect. But if you read my review of drag & drop WordPress themes, you know that most of them don’t have you doing a lot of dragging or dropping. So let’s call it what it is.
The promise of Drag & Drop is a promise of ease.
That’s why I want to introduce you to another theme that isn’t drag & drop, but it’s incredibly easy to use. But before I do, let me recap my last review of drag & drop themes.
Three themes were in the top and the rest weren’t really worth talking about. Ultimatum, Headway, and Builder. Builder & Headway had tied for second, but were just barely behind Ultimatum. Additionally, Ultimatum (and it’s support) went a bit dark, leaving a lot of people hanging. So today, when you take into account support, features, and responsiveness, the two best drag & drop themes are:
As easy as Drag & Drop
But what if there was another theme that was just as easy to use but wasn’t drag & drop? I’m not suggesting that this one replaces the other two. I’m suggesting it should join the other two (each of the three have their benefits).
So let me give you three reasons you should check out Catalyst Theme.
1. Catalyst works the way WordPress does
One of the things you’ll notice, for example if you use Thesis, is that sometimes a theme (framework) developer likes to create new terms or new vocabulary to express what they’ve created. This creates it’s own level of cognitive dissonance for the rest of us, because we may not know exactly what they mean. Even Headway does this a bit by creating something they call a “block.” But Catalyst doesn’t do that. Catalyst works with the frame of reference you already have – header, body, footer, content, excerpt, sidebar. These are the normal components in a theme and when you see them in the settings tabs, you know exactly what to expect. Additionally, when you change something, you know where to look – because it works exactly like the mental model you have in your head.
Header
2. Beginners don’t need to know CSS to look good
You can adjust fonts, sizes, color, links and even spacing – without knowing anything at all. That’s powerful for beginners who don’t want to read an article about code to place in a style.css file. These beginners get nervous about editing files and then we tell them not to use the inline editor and it means things get more complex right away. So while other themes out there are fantastic, if you want to tweak your site every now and then, and you don’t want to have to wait for a web developer to help you, then Catalyst is the way to go.
CSS Builder – so you can configure what you want without knowing css
Content Settings
3. Advanced users get access to everything they want
Do you have to use the Dynamik child theme with all the option screens? No. If you’re an advanced user, you can skip Dynamic, create your own child theme, and set things up using your own style.css and functions.php files. But if you step into the Advanced section, you’ll see the ability to create custom widget areas and leverage custom hook boxes. Catalyst comes with so many hooks that you can do just about anything you ever wanted to do – making it a perfect choice for more advanced developers.
Hook Boxes
Did I mention it supports your responsive needs?
So seriously, what are you waiting for – head over to check out the Catalyst Theme.
This looks promising. How well does it work with 3rd party plugins?
It’s great!
I’ve been thinking about trying Catalyst since my blog is currently using a re-colored Twenty Ten theme, and it maintains an unfortunate “generic” feel. I’m a software developer, but I’ve never been that great at design. Catalyst looks robust enough to be promising, but the $127 purchase without a trial or interactive demo is a little risky. Have I missed something, or is there no try-before-you-buy option?
I hear you, in terms of risk. That said, I’d just say there’s no risk. It’s great.
I innitially had the same thought as you, being that the them is $127 and has no demo, no flashy ads and marketting to buy me over.
But a little more research took me to the place where I see Catalyst is not something about being “flashy” — in other words, it doesn’t promise more than what it could do. That said, Catalyst does pretty much everything else any other framework can do.
It could at times be trickier than XYZ framework to achieve something, but on the other hand it could also be much easier to achieve many more things XYZ framework has trouble doing.
Finally, what bought me over is that Catalyst is a one-time payment only. $127 and that’s it, no funny add-ons like how Headway does with their blocks. You get lifetime updates, you get lifetime support. There’s no recurring payment and certainly there’s no “please buy this plugin to improve our framework” further sort of affliate marketting.
To sum it up; you can’t go wrong with Catalyst, I’m serious about that and it isn’t even funny.
Happy to give Ultimatum a good go, It looks promising.
We will not upset you
Hi Chris and All.
.
I have used the Ultimatum Theme for about 9 months. Before then I tried most of the other WordPress Frameworks on the market, and spent hundreds of £/$ but found they promise a lot but were lacking on delivery after you bought and downloaded the package.
With Ultimatum I have found no problems it, or with any plugins I have used from 3rd party developers. The Ultimatum forum is very friendly and helpful when you have a question or query, there are videos on YouTube, to show you how to do and use things within the framework, and you can make a complicated website within a few hours which looks really nice.
I would say, “don’t pass this one by”. They are working hard on it all the time and I have found it excellent. I would give it 5 Stars.
Thanks for reading
John
I am really into Headway, it is what i was looking for for a very long time… and now it is responsive
best regards!
I summed the extended blocks in headway. total is around $1,000. can the blocks be used on multiple websites? or will i have to spend $1,000 for extended blocks on every website?
i wish i could see a COMPARISON CHART of all the possible features for ultimatum, catalyst and headway.
and where is wordpress headed? do they have plans for adding drag & drop capabilities?
Hi Chris
Well put together piece and a good explanation of why Catalyst is so good.
Good point about,
“sometimes a theme (framework) developer likes to create new terms or new vocabulary to express what they’ve created.”
Never looked at it that way before but you are right.
Understanding the terms is important and if the vocabulary is constantly changing… you are chasing your tail.
I actuallu use Genesis and genesis child themes, but I do customise using Eric Ham’s Genesis Extender plugin.
If I wasn’t already a Genesis user I would be thinking about using Catalyst.