Howweevaluatethemes

Marketplace records

Prices, sales totals, buyer ratings and author update dates come from marketplace listings. The catalog data checked date records our last retrieval; it is different from the author's last product update. Records can become outdated. Confirm the current price, license, compatibility and support terms with the seller before purchase.

Sales totals are historical purchases, not active installations. Buyer ratings provide context but do not independently establish security, speed or support response times. A recent update does not guarantee compatibility with your particular setup.

Editorial scores and recommendations

An editorial score out of 10 is a judgment based on the information available for the review. It is not the output of a published mathematical weighting formula, a laboratory benchmark or a guarantee of quality. Read the stated use cases and limitations alongside the number.

We do not install and benchmark every catalog product. Earlier estimated performance and support subscores are no longer displayed because they could be mistaken for measurements. Claims about runtime speed, resource usage or support response require a separately documented test; a catalog score does not supply that evidence.

Marketplace buyer ratings, our editorial score and any reader-submitted feedback are separate sources. Reader feedback does not imply that we verified a purchase or reproduced the reader's setup.

What a package inspection measures

Selected WordPress theme pages include a dated inspection of an identified archive available to us. We read its parent theme name and version from the stylesheet header, calculate the archive's SHA-256 fingerprint, and count files and their compressed and uncompressed sizes. When the header declares minimum WordPress or PHP versions, we report those declarations.

No theme PHP is executed during this inspection. File counts include the archive's contents, which may contain documentation, bundled assets or dependencies. A nested archive is counted as a file rather than recursively unpacked. The fingerprint identifies the inspected archive; it is not proof that the seller distributed identical bytes.

These observations describe that specific package on the inspection date. They do not prove that it is the latest release, predict page load times, establish license coverage for every asset, or certify the absence of malware. Package inspection is separate from any download scanning status shown elsewhere.

Comparisons and missing information

Comparison tables distinguish known marketplace facts from editorial advice. Missing information is left unknown instead of being inferred from a product's popularity. A price comparison is a snapshot, not a total cost calculation: hosting, extensions, renewals and support can change the final cost.

Editorial responsibility and funding

The ThemeForge editorial team is responsible for the site's reviews and corrections. Some outbound links can earn us a commission. Read our affiliate disclosure for details.

Corrections and freshness

Publication dates, marketplace retrieval dates and package inspection dates describe different events. An older article is not necessarily retested when marketplace metadata changes. Report factual errors through our contact page, including the product, disputed statement and supporting source.