Great
Strong value with minor trade-offs.
At a glance
Hazel is a well-maintained, multi-concept creative theme that delivers genuine value for independent designers, photographers, and small media agencies at a one-time $79 price. Its combination of portfolio layout variety, active updates, and a proven sales record makes it a low-risk choice for its target audience. Buyers who are comfortable with WordPress basics and need a design-portfolio-ready site without a subscription will find it hits the mark. Those seeking cutting-edge visual innovation or building outside the creative/agency niche should explore more specialized alternatives.
Best for

The review
4 min readWhat Is Hazel and Who Is It For?
Hazel is a multi-concept creative WordPress theme developed by Select-Themes, a studio with an established presence in the premium theme marketplace. Its stated purpose is clear: deliver a polished, design-portfolio-ready website without requiring a developer on retainer. The theme is positioned squarely at independent creatives, design agencies, photographers, and media studios who need a site that looks the part from day one.
The "multi-concept" label means Hazel ships with multiple pre-built demos covering portfolio layouts, agency homepages, and editorial blog styles. This breadth makes it appealing to small studios that wear multiple hats — part client-facing portfolio, part content publication, part agency brochure.
Standout Capabilities
Portfolio and Blog Layout Variety
Hazel's primary selling point is its creative set of portfolio and blog layouts. Buyers can expect a range of grid styles, masonry arrangements, full-screen project showcases, and filterable portfolio displays — the standard toolkit for any serious creative portfolio theme. For a media agency, this variety means you can present video work, photography, branding projects, and written case studies under one coherent visual identity without hacking together separate templates.
Agency and Studio Orientation
Unlike themes that treat agency use as an afterthought, Hazel is explicitly built to introduce your media agency — a focus that typically shows up in purpose-built sections for team members, services, client logos, and testimonials. These are the blocks a creative studio needs to convert visitors into inquiries, and having them pre-designed removes significant setup friction.
Active Maintenance
A February 2026 update confirms that Select-Themes is actively maintaining the product. For a WordPress theme, currency with the latest WordPress core and popular page builder versions is non-negotiable — outdated themes create security exposure and compatibility headaches. Hazel clears that bar at the time of this review.
One-Time Pricing
At $79 for a one-time license, Hazel is priced competitively against comparable multi-concept creative themes. There is no annual subscription to the theme itself, which matters for freelancers and small agencies managing tight budgets.
Pricing and Value Assessment
The $79 price point sits in the mainstream tier for premium WordPress themes. Buyers get the theme files, bundled plugins (typical for this category), and access to the author's support queue for the included support period — usually six months on standard marketplace licenses, with the option to extend.
The value calculation depends on your situation. For a freelancer building a single portfolio site, $79 is a reasonable investment. For an agency building client sites, the licensing terms deserve careful reading — most marketplace licenses cover one end-product, so multi-site use requires additional purchases.
The ongoing cost to watch is extended support renewal. Once the included support window closes, continued access to the author's help desk requires a paid extension. Factor that in if you anticipate needing ongoing technical assistance.
Reading the Sales and Rating Data
With 6,100 total sales and a 4.25/5 buyer rating from 322 reviews, Hazel occupies a respectable — if not dominant — position in the creative theme segment. The sales figure indicates a theme that has found a real audience and has been in active circulation long enough to accumulate meaningful feedback. It is not a blockbuster, but it is well past the point where early-adopter risk is a concern.
A 4.25/5 rating is solid rather than exceptional. In practical terms, it suggests the majority of buyers got what they expected, while a meaningful minority encountered friction — whether with setup complexity, customization limits, or support response times. Our editorial team treats this as a signal of a reliable but not flawless experience: good for buyers who read documentation and have basic WordPress familiarity, potentially frustrating for complete beginners.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
Hazel is not the right fit for every buyer. Consider alternatives if any of the following apply:
- You need a non-creative vertical. Hazel is built for portfolios and agencies. If your primary need is e-commerce, membership sites, or corporate services, a more specialized theme will serve you better.
- You are a complete WordPress beginner. Multi-concept themes carry inherent setup complexity. Without baseline WordPress comfort, the demo import and customization process can be time-consuming.
- You require highly granular page-builder flexibility. Some multi-concept themes lean on bundled proprietary builders that can feel restrictive compared to a dedicated tool like Elementor or Bricks used with a simpler base theme.
- You need guaranteed same-day support. Marketplace support queues are not real-time, and response times vary. Mission-critical projects with tight deadlines may benefit from a theme backed by a dedicated support SLA.
Our Editorial Assessment
Hazel earns its place as a dependable option in the creative WordPress theme space. The combination of active maintenance, genuine portfolio-focused layout variety, and a one-time price makes it easy to recommend to its intended audience. The buyer rating and sales volume back up the theme's practical reliability, and Select-Themes' continued updates signal long-term commitment to the product.
Where Hazel is less differentiated is in raw design ambition — the creative theme market is crowded, and several competitors push harder on typographic expression and animation. Buyers prioritizing cutting-edge visual flair over proven stability may find themselves drawn elsewhere. For most working creatives and small agencies, however, Hazel delivers a capable, professional foundation at a fair price.
The trade-offs
What works, what to weigh
What works
- Active maintenance confirmed with a February 2026 update, keeping it compatible with current WordPress releases
- Multi-concept demo library covers portfolio, agency, and blog layouts in one purchase
- One-time $79 license with no recurring subscription fee for the theme itself
- Purpose-built for creative agencies with dedicated sections for services, team, and client showcases
- 6,100+ sales indicate real-world reliability well beyond early-release risk
- Solid 4.25/5 buyer rating from 322 reviews reflects a broadly satisfying user experience
What to weigh
- Multi-concept themes carry setup complexity that can overwhelm complete WordPress beginners
- Extended support requires a paid renewal after the included support period expires
- Creative theme market is highly competitive — design differentiation versus newer rivals is modest
- Bundled proprietary plugins may limit flexibility compared to using preferred third-party tools
- Per-site marketplace licensing means agency multi-site use adds cost quickly
Under the hood
Specs & compatibility
Works with
- On the market
- 12 years ago
- Columns
- 4+
- Widget-ready
- Yes
- Documentation
- Well Documented
- Files included
- PHP Files, CSS Files, JS Files
Marketplace-listed browser compatibility: IE9, IE10, IE11, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, Edge.
Editorial scores are judgements about documented features and marketplace signals, not measured speed or support benchmarks. Marketplace data last checked: 2026-08-03. Read our assessment method.
Questions, answered
Frequently asked
Is Hazel a good fit for a freelance photographer or independent designer's portfolio?
Yes — Hazel is built specifically around portfolio and blog layouts for creative professionals, making it a natural fit for photographers, designers, and illustrators. Its multi-concept approach means you get several distinct layout styles to match your personal brand rather than a single rigid template. That said, if your work sits outside the creative/agency space — say, e-commerce or corporate services — you'll likely find a more purpose-built theme more efficient.
How active is Select-Themes in maintaining Hazel? When was it last updated?
Select-Themes pushed a theme update in February 2026, which signals active maintenance heading into the current year. With over 6,100 sales on the marketplace, the author has clear commercial incentive to keep the theme compatible with current WordPress releases. That said, update frequency can vary, so we recommend checking the changelog on the marketplace listing before purchasing to confirm recent activity.
Is Hazel beginner-friendly, or do you need WordPress experience to use it?
Hazel is marketed as a multi-concept theme, which typically means importing a pre-built demo and customizing from there — a process that suits buyers with at least basic WordPress familiarity. Complete beginners may face a learning curve when juggling multiple layout concepts and theme options. If you're new to WordPress, budget extra time for setup, or consider pairing it with a page builder if the theme supports one.
What does the $79 license actually cover — is it a one-time fee or a subscription?
The $79 price is a one-time license fee with no recurring subscription, which is one of Hazel's practical advantages over theme club models. This license covers use on a single site, as is standard on the marketplace. Future updates are typically included for the license lifetime, but bundled support periods are time-limited — check the marketplace listing for the exact support window before buying.
How trustworthy is the buyer rating, and what do the reviews generally say?
Hazel holds a 4.25 out of 5 rating across 322 verified buyer reviews, which is a meaningful sample size and places it in solid — though not elite — territory for a creative theme. A rating at this level typically reflects genuine satisfaction with the core feature set alongside occasional feedback on support response times or customization complexity. We recommend reading a cross-section of recent reviews on the marketplace to spot any recurring issues that matter to your specific use case.
Can Hazel handle a small media agency site, or is it mainly for solo creatives?
The theme is explicitly positioned for media agencies as well as individual portfolio owners, so small agency teams are squarely within its intended use case. Its multi-concept layout library gives you the flexibility to present agency services, team profiles, and case studies alongside a blog. Larger agencies with complex custom functionality needs may eventually outgrow a theme-based solution, but for a polished agency web presence at launch, Hazel is a practical starting point.
Our verdict
Hazel is a well-maintained, multi-concept creative theme that delivers genuine value for independent designers, photographers, and small media agencies at a one-time $79 price. Its combination of portfolio layout variety, active updates, and a proven sales record makes it a low-risk choice for its target audience. Buyers who are comfortable with WordPress basics and need a design-portfolio-ready site without a subscription will find it hits the mark. Those seeking cutting-edge visual innovation or building outside the creative/agency niche should explore more specialized alternatives.
Topics & features
Keep exploring
About the author
Select-Themes has been selling on Envato since April 2014 and has accumulated over 143,000 total marketplace sales — a track record that puts them among the more established WordPress theme studios on ThemeForest. Our editorial team has reviewed two of their flagship products, Stockholm and Startit, and breaks down what each theme does well and where it falls short.
- Reviewed by us
- 5 themes
- Avg editorial score
- 8.1/10
- Marketplace sales
- 143K
- Selling since
- 2014
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