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Arlo-Personal/Portfolio/ResumeJoomla6WebsiteTemplate

Arlo is a personal portfolio and resume Joomla template from Joomlastars, built on the Helix Ultimate framework with SP Page Builder Pro. Priced at $69 one-time, it targets freelancers, creatives, and small agencies who want a polished, multi-layout showcase site on Joomla 5 or 6.

by JoomlastarsjoomlaUpdated
Buyer rating
5.009 ratings
Verified sales
188
One-time price
$69
8.1

Excellent

A confident, well-rounded pick.

At a glance

Arlo is a well-maintained, purpose-built portfolio and resume template that delivers real value for its $69 price through its bundled page builder, five home page layouts, and proven Joomla 6 compatibility. It is the strongest fit for freelancers, consultants, and creatives who have chosen Joomla as their platform and want a polished result without deep development work. Buyers who need e-commerce, complex content structures, or a large peer-support community should look elsewhere. Those who match the target profile will find few comparable options in the Joomla personal portfolio niche.

Best for

PersonalBlogPortfolioBusiness
6 strengths5 trade-offs4 min read
Arlo - Personal / Portfolio / Resume Joomla 6 Website Template

The review

4 min read

What Is Arlo and Who Is It For?

Arlo is a personal portfolio and resume Joomla template published by Joomlastars, a studio with a focused catalog of Joomla-specific themes. The template sits in the Personal category and is explicitly designed for freelancers, creatives, consultants, and small agencies who need a professional online presence — think digital CVs, project showcases, and simple service pages rather than large e-commerce or news operations.

The theme ships with compatibility for Joomla 5.0.x and Joomla 6.0.x, making it one of the more current options in its niche at the time of writing. A July 2026 update confirmed full Joomla 6 and PHP 8.5 compatibility, which is a meaningful signal that the author is actively maintaining the codebase rather than leaving buyers stranded on an aging version.

Standout Capabilities

Framework and Page Builder Combination

Arlo is built on the Helix Ultimate framework and bundles SP Page Builder Pro — a pairing that is well-regarded in the Joomla community. Helix Ultimate handles the global layout, typography, header styles, and module positions, while SP Page Builder Pro provides a drag-and-drop front-end editor for assembling and customizing individual pages. Together they remove much of the need to edit template files by hand, which matters a great deal for buyers who are not Joomla developers.

Multiple Home Page Layouts

Five distinct home page designs are included. For a personal/portfolio theme this is generous: it lets buyers pick a starting point that already reflects their intended tone — minimal CV presentation, agency-style project grid, or creative splash page — without needing to rebuild from a blank canvas.

CSS Animations and Parallax Sections

The use-case tags reference CSS animations and parallax sections, which are standard expectations for a modern portfolio template. These effects add visual polish without requiring JavaScript-heavy dependencies, keeping the front-end relatively lean compared to multipurpose themes that stack plugin after plugin.

Multilingual and RTL Support

Multilingual capability with RTL (right-to-left) text support is built in, which broadens the template's appeal beyond English-language markets. For a personal portfolio targeting international clients or bilingual professionals, this is a practical advantage that many competing templates at this price point omit.

Bootstrap 5 Foundation

The responsive layout is built on Bootstrap 5.x, the current major version of the framework. This means the grid, utilities, and components are up to date with modern standards, and the theme benefits from Bootstrap's long-term community support for accessibility and mobile responsiveness.

Quickinstall Package

A Quickinstall Joomla package is included, allowing buyers to replicate the demo site with a single install step. For non-developers this is a genuine time-saver, and the author notes detailed documentation accompanies it — reducing the friction of getting a professional-looking site live quickly.

Pricing and Value

At $69 as a one-time license, Arlo sits in the mid-range for premium Joomla templates. The inclusion of SP Page Builder Pro — a commercial extension that would otherwise cost separately — adds tangible value to the bundle. Buyers also receive lifetime free updates according to the author's description, which means the July 2026 Joomla 6 compatibility update was available at no additional charge to existing license holders. That update track record justifies a meaningful portion of the purchase price on its own.

The trade-off is that support is email-based at 24/7 availability as stated by the author, but the quality and speed of that support is something buyers should verify through the marketplace comments section before purchasing, as response times vary across studios.

Reading the Sales and Rating Data

Arlo has 188 total sales and a 5.00/5 buyer rating from 9 reviews. The perfect rating is encouraging, but the review count is small enough that a few dissatisfied buyers who did not leave reviews could skew the real-world picture. That said, 188 sales for a niche Joomla personal portfolio template — a smaller market segment than WordPress — represents a solid adoption rate, and the absence of any public negative reviews after that volume is a reasonable positive signal.

Buyers should weigh this alongside the theme's clear focus: it is not trying to serve every possible Joomla use case, and that specificity tends to produce more stable, coherent products than bloated multipurpose themes.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

Arlo is purposely narrow in scope. If you need built-in WooCommerce-style e-commerce, a complex news magazine layout, membership functionality, or a heavy events system, this template is not the right foundation — you would be fighting against its intended design language. Similarly, buyers who prefer a purely Gutenberg-style editing experience (as on WordPress) may find the Helix Ultimate + SP Page Builder Pro workflow has its own learning curve, particularly if they are migrating from another platform. Finally, buyers who want a large existing user community for peer support will find Joomla's ecosystem smaller than WordPress regardless of the theme chosen.

The trade-offs

What works, what to weigh

6 strengths
trade-offs 5

What works

  1. Actively maintained for Joomla 5 and Joomla 6 with confirmed PHP 8.5 compatibility as of July 2026
  2. Bundles SP Page Builder Pro and Helix Ultimate, two well-regarded commercial Joomla tools, in the $69 price
  3. Five distinct home page layouts give a meaningful head-start without requiring custom design work
  4. Bootstrap 5.x foundation ensures a current, mobile-responsive grid and component set
  5. Built-in multilingual and RTL support broadens usability beyond single-language markets
  6. Quickinstall package with detailed documentation lowers the barrier for non-developer buyers

What to weigh

  1. Only 9 buyer reviews make the perfect 5.00 rating statistically thin — insufficient to draw strong conclusions about long-term support quality
  2. Helix Ultimate + SP Page Builder Pro combination introduces a learning curve for buyers new to the Joomla ecosystem
  3. Scope is intentionally narrow — portfolio and resume use cases — making it a poor fit for e-commerce, news, or membership sites
  4. Email-only support model means resolution times depend entirely on the author's responsiveness, with no community forum safety net
  5. Joomla's smaller market share compared to WordPress means fewer third-party tutorials and community resources for this template

Signal by signal

Editorial scorecard

Excellent · 8.1/10
design
8.5
support
7.5
features
8.0
performance
7.8

Strongest: design

Watch: support

Scores are our editorial team’s assessment from marketplace data, feature scope and update history — independent of the affiliate relationship.

Under the hood

Specs & compatibility

Joomla 5 – 6ResponsiveRetina / high-res

Works with

Bootstrap
On the market
7 years ago
Columns
4+
Documentation
Well Documented
Files included
PHP Files, CSS Files, JS Files

Tested on IE9, IE10, IE11, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, Edge.

Questions, answered

Frequently asked

Does Arlo work with Joomla 6, and will it need updates as Joomla evolves?

Yes — Joomlastars pushed a dedicated Joomla 6 and PHP 8.5 compatibility update in July 2026, so the template is current with the latest major release. The author also includes a Joomla 6 quickinstall package, making a fresh setup straightforward. Based on the update history, Joomlastars has kept the template current across major Joomla versions, which is a meaningful indicator of ongoing maintenance.

What page builder does Arlo use, and do I need to buy it separately?

Arlo bundles SP Page Builder Pro and the Helix Ultimate framework, both of which are included in your $69 purchase — you do not pay for them separately. SP Page Builder Pro provides a front-end drag-and-drop editor, so you can rearrange sections and edit content visually without touching code. Keep in mind that your workflow will be tied to these two specific tools, so it's worth confirming you're comfortable with the SP Page Builder Pro ecosystem before buying.

Is Arlo a good fit for a complete beginner with no Joomla experience?

Arlo lowers the barrier with a quickinstall package that replicates the demo in one step, well-documented setup guides, and a visual page builder. That said, Joomla itself has a steeper learning curve than some competing CMS platforms, and configuring extensions like Helix Ultimate or SP Simple Portfolio will still require some time investment. Beginners who are committed to Joomla should plan to spend time with the documentation; those still choosing a CMS may want to weigh that learning curve against alternatives.

How many homepage layouts are included, and can I mix and match sections?

The template ships with five distinct homepage layouts, giving you a meaningful head start on finding a look that suits your brand. Because the layouts are built on SP Page Builder Pro's drag-and-drop system, you can combine and rearrange sections from different layouts rather than being locked to a single design. Parallax sections and CSS animations are part of the bundled design toolkit as well.

What does the $69 price cover, and are there recurring fees?

The $69 is a one-time license fee that covers the template files, bundled extensions (SP Page Builder Pro, Helix Ultimate, SP Simple Portfolio), the quickinstall package, documentation, and lifetime free updates from Joomlastars. There are no recurring subscription fees charged by the author for updates or support. Email support is included, though response times and the scope of support are not specified in the marketplace listing, so factor that uncertainty into your decision.

Can Arlo handle multilingual or RTL sites?

Yes, the template explicitly supports multilingual configurations and right-to-left (RTL) text direction, which is handled through the Helix Ultimate framework. This makes Arlo a viable option for portfolio or resume sites targeting audiences in Arabic, Hebrew, or other RTL languages. Joomla's built-in multilingual system works alongside these template-level RTL styles, though setting up a full multilingual Joomla site still requires configuring Joomla's language manager and related extensions.

Our verdict

8.1
Excellent

Arlo is a well-maintained, purpose-built portfolio and resume template that delivers real value for its $69 price through its bundled page builder, five home page layouts, and proven Joomla 6 compatibility. It is the strongest fit for freelancers, consultants, and creatives who have chosen Joomla as their platform and want a polished result without deep development work. Buyers who need e-commerce, complex content structures, or a large peer-support community should look elsewhere. Those who match the target profile will find few comparable options in the Joomla personal portfolio niche.

8.1/10

Topics & features

About the author

J
Joomlastars

Envato author@joomlastars

Joomlastars is a ThemeForest author specializing exclusively in Joomla templates, with over a decade of marketplace presence and more than 7,480 total sales since joining in March 2014. Our editorial team has reviewed two of their current Joomla 6 themes and summarizes what buyers can realistically expect from this studio.

Reviewed by us
2 themes
Avg editorial score
8.1/10
Marketplace sales
7K
Selling since
2014

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