Seeking More Than Twenty Seventeen
As a long-time WordPress user and blogger, I was initially drawn to the Twenty Seventeen theme when it launched. With its clean, modern design and easy customization options, it seemed like the perfect way to quickly create an elegant site. For the first few months, I absolutely loved it! But over time, I yearned for more flexibility and features to make my site stand out.
It turns out I’m not alone. While Twenty Seventeen remains incredibly popular with over 2 million active installs, its simplicity comes at the cost of limited design options. As I discovered, there are only around 10 basic customization settings – a far cry from the 100+ offered by premium competitors like Astra. And without the ability to easily tweak layouts, fonts, colors and more, sites start looking very cookie-cutter.
My “aha moment” came when I was struggling to create the perfect homepage layout with a full-width header image and centered content. No matter how hard I tried adjusting Twenty Seventeen, I couldn’t make it work to my liking. I had reached the hard limitations of what the theme could do. And considering its dominance, I figured there must be others equally frustrated and seeking more.
The good news is that once you look beyond the default Twenty Seventeen theme included with WordPress, there is a whole world of versatile, feature-rich themes waiting! Over the next few sections, I’ll share my top picks for free and premium theme alternatives, along with customization hacks in case you still love Twenty Seventeen at the core. Because with a bit of effort, you can build a site that looks nothing like the 2 million others out there.
The Limitations of the Popular Twenty Seventeen Theme
As one of the most widely used WordPress themes with over 2 million active installs, Twenty Seventeen makes a solid choice for many websites with its clean, responsive design. However, despite its popularity, this default theme contains some glaring limitations that can hinder customization and performance.
For starters, Twenty Seventeen only has around 10 customization options built-in. This pales in comparison to versatile premium themes like Astra which boast over 100+ customization settings right out of the box. For users wanting more personalization and flexibility, the options in Twenty Seventeen will quickly feel restricting.
Design Flexibility
With only basic options to change colors and upload logos, those seeking a uniquely branded site will need to look elsewhere. Twenty Seventeen lacks advanced layout and typography settings commonly found in premium competitors. You’re largely stuck with the default style.
Page Speed Optimization
While Twenty Seventeen is lightweight and responsive, its performance can lag behind speed-optimized themes. Tests show it’s typically slower than lightweight alternatives like GeneratePress. This becomes especially apparent for image-heavy sites.
SEO Features
Optimizing content for search engines is crucial for driving traffic. Unfortunately, Twenty Seventeen doesn’t incorporate important SEO enhancements like structured data markup support. This makes on-page optimization more tedious.
The bottom line is that although Twenty Seventeen offers an accessible starting point, its simplicity comes at the price of customizability and versatility. For many users, these limitations will quickly become roadblocks to creating a site that stands out with fast performance. Luckily, alternatives exist to enhance or replace Twenty Seventeen entirely.
Top Free Alternative Themes to Twenty Seventeen
Twenty Seventeen comes pre-installed on WordPress, but it lacks some key features when compared to other free themes available. With over 5 million active installs collectively, these top free alternatives offer more customization, responsiveness, and functionality than the default option.
Neve
Currently the most popular free WordPress theme, Neve has over 1 million active installs. It was originally launched in 2018 by ThemeIsle, and has since become a favorite for its versatility and lightweight design. Some key features of Neve include:
– Extremely fast load times due to optimized code
– Fully responsive layout on mobile devices
– Custom widgets for hero sections and testimonials
– WooCommerce support for online stores
– Translation ready in over 20 languages
For those seeking more performance and flexibility from their theme, Neve is an excellent choice to replace Twenty Seventeen. The intuitive options make it easy to build a stylish site without coding knowledge.
Hestia
Another popular free theme with over 500,000 active installs is Hestia from ThemeIsle. Released in 2016, Hestia stands out for its elegant one-page design that works well for portfolios and small business websites. Benefits include:
– One-page parallax design
– Drag and drop page builder
– Customizable blog options
– Social media icons included
– Responsive mega menus
For creatives and entrepreneurs needing to showcase visual content in a bold way, Hestia gives users more flair than the understated Twenty Seventeen. The sleek interface makes it a cinch to create an eye-catching site.
Sydney & OceanWP
Both Sydney and OceanWP have steadily grown user bases, currently over 200,000 installs each. Sydney markets itself as a fast and lightweight theme good for all types of sites. OceanWP bills itself as the #1 free theme for Elementor page builder. Highlights of both include:
– Lightning fast performance
– Header and footer builder
– Multiple header layouts
– Full-width templates
– GDPR cookie options
For those seeking speed and seamless integration with popular page builders, Sydney and OceanWP beat Twenty Seventeen in terms of better site optimization potential right out the gate.
There are clearly more robust options than default Twenty Seventeen. Top free alternatives like Neve, Hestia, Sydney, and OceanWP allow for greater design flexibility, customization, and overall user experience. The additional features make them worthy competitors.
Best Premium Themes
When it comes to premium WordPress themes, Avada reigns supreme as the number one selling theme of all time with over 1 million sales. Its versatile design options, drag and drop builder, and multitude of demos have made it a go-to choice for users seeking advanced customization.
As a premium theme, Avada does come at a cost – prices range from $60 for a single site license to $250 for unlimited sites. However, its depth of features and design flexibility make it worthwhile for professional users and agencies building client sites. Some of Avada’s standout options include:
- Fusion Builder – Intuitive drag and drop page builder for customizable layouts without code.
- 100+ Premade Website Demos – Professionally designed site templates for every industry.
- Advanced Admin Options – Fine-tune colors, fonts, layouts and enable/disable features.
- Detailed Documentation – User guides, tutorials and community forum.
For users wanting similar flexibility at a lower price point, Divi by Elegant Themes is another strong premium pick. At $89 annually, Divi offers a visual builder toolkit along with 100+ layout packs and 20 predefined styles. Though not quite as feature-packed as Avada, it strikes a solid balance between customization and affordability.
Other premium themes to consider are GeneratePress, OceanWP and Astra. GeneratePress is praised for its lightweight code and optimization for speed and SEO. OceanWP is a versatile theme suited for all types of sites, with a library of free extensions for added functionality. And Astra stands out with its simplified options panel, making it beginner-friendly while still packing a robust feature set.
When evaluating premium themes, key aspects to analyze are their depth of customizations, page builder functionality, demo and layout options, documentation and customer support access. While costlier than free themes, premium options enable much more flexibility in realizing design visions without coding knowledge. For users wanting to stand out from popular default themes like Twenty Seventeen, premium themes prove to be powerful alternatives.
Customizing the Popular Default
Expanding Options with a Plugin
The Twenty Seventeen theme comes pre-installed on every new WordPress site. As one of the most widely-used themes with over 2 million active installs, it offers an accessible starting point for many users. However, its streamlined design does mean less customization potential out of the box compared to advanced themes.
Luckily, with some tweaking, the Twenty Seventeen theme can become more versatile and personalized. Useful plugins exist that unlock new twenty seventeen features and design flexibility. There are also straightforward CSS modifications that webmasters can implement. Even without coding skills, the default theme can be enhanced in numerous ways.
One popular plugin is appropriately named “Options for Twenty Seventeen.” With over 10,000 active installs, it demonstrates demand for expanding the default theme’s capabilities. This handy plugin adds a new customizer menu with settings for tweaking layout, typography, colors, and more.
Suddenly, users can alter font sizes, enable sticky headers, add animation effects, and override styles without code. For those desiring more control beyond the ten built-in customization options, this plugin bridges the gap. The range of configuration now rivals premium competitors like Astra. Best of all – the plugin is free and simple to set up.
Custom CSS for Granular Control
Savvy users can further modify the Twenty Seventeen design by adding custom CSS code. The integrated theme editor allows changes like adjusting padding and margins, tweaking background colors, embedding Google fonts, and removing theme elements entirely. These granular adjustments grant precision without bloating functions.
While manual CSS alterations provide flexibility, they do require web development knowledge. For non-coders, referring to CSS tutorials can ease the learning curve. Useful tricks include adding borders, shadows, hover effects, animations, and conditional formatting rules. With some trial and error, the Twenty Seventeen layout can transform dramatically.
The default WordPress theme offers a balanced starting point. With plugins or custom CSS augmentation, bloggers and businesses can sculpt Twenty Seventeen into a more tailored site theme suited to their brand. The sky’s the limit when it comes to personalization – all building upon the solid foundations of a popular platform-standard theme.
Wrapping Up: Finding the Right Theme for You
As we’ve explored in this post, while Twenty Seventeen continues to be a popular default WordPress theme with over 2 million active installs, it does come with some limitations in customizability and performance.
For bloggers and site owners seeking more design flexibility, enhanced features, and faster load times, there are several solid alternative options to consider, both free and premium:
Free Highlights
The free themes covered like Neve, Astra, OceanWP, and Hestia collectively have over 5 million active users. They provide modern, responsive designs and better customization options than Twenty Seventeen. Those on a budget can explore these themes to take their sites up a notch.
Premium Pick
On the premium side, one standout is Avada – the best-selling WordPress theme of all time with over 1 million sales. It is versatile, high-performing, and packed with pre-made designs to launch sites rapidly. The price tag delivers immense value.
Enhancing Twenty Seventeen
For those wed to the default 2017 theme, plugins like “Options for Twenty Seventeen” with 10,000+ installs can enhance it with extra features like fonts, colors, and layouts. And theming tutorials allow squeezing more from this standard option.
At the end of the day, assessing your specific needs around design, functionality, and budget will clarify the best WordPress theme option to power your site. The alternatives and resources covered in this post aim to spark ideas and next steps. Feel free to build on the foundation provided here and choose the path that fits your site goals and audience needs.
If it runs on WordPress, I can upgrade it with a dash of imagination! As a wizardly developer, I started wielding code precision from a young age purely fascinated by tech’s boundless potential. My speciality? Injecting innovation into problem-solving – seeing clunky puzzles as opportunities to pioneer platforms to new heights. I handle everything from streamlining workflows to integrating apps with finesse so functionality feels effortless on the user end.