ThemeForest is a marketplace featuring thousands of templates. It is the home of legendary WordPress products such as Avada, Salient, Newspaper, etc. It is a part of Envato. Some other brands of Envato are CodeCanyon, Elements, etc. CodeCanyon features thousands of premium WordPress plugins. ElegantThemes is a reputed WP development company. Its templates are counted among the best in the industry.
Is ThemeForest better than ElegantThemes or vice versa? Which platform is more affordable? How much does a template on these two marketplaces cost? Please go through our following comparison of TF and ET to get answers to these questions.
General information
Before ElegantThemes had launched a marketplace section on its site, its staff updated or sold only the products they’ve built. The marketplace opened the doors for third-party developers. The firm now lets third-party developers sell their Divi/Extra theme packs, layouts, etc on its website.
ThemeForest marketplace features templates published by third-party developers only. You won’t find WordPress items built by Envato on the marketplace. The number of WP products available on TF is a staggering 4000+. Currently, ET developers (non-third-party) are maintaining two templates and plugins only. The products are Extra & Divi, and the plugins are Bloom and Monarch. Monarch is a social sharing plugin, and Bloom is an opt-in form plugin that works with Mailchimp and many other services.
What do these two platforms sell?
4 to 5 years back, ET used to sell over a dozen products. They have now retired 98% of their products and sell only two – Divi and Extra. Divi belongs to the category of multipurpose templates, whereas Extra is a WordPress magazine theme. Divi Builder is the heart of Divi and Extra.
Many top-rated WordPress items on TF ship with premium plugins such as Revolution Slider, Layer Slider, Visual Composer, Revolution Slider alternatives, etc. Although the marketplace has thousands of items, only 50 to 60 of them have excellent ratings. Many templates you’ll find on TF haven’t been updated for a long time.
Limitations
WordPress templates available on TF can be used on a single website only. They have a licensing system built in. When you buy any of them, you should not only download the theme’s zip file but also download its license file. Why is this so? When you install and activate the theme, you might be prompted to enter its license code. You must purchase additional licenses to use the same template on more sites. When you buy an ET subscription plan, you can use any of the products that you got access to on unlimited websites.
Variety
We have mentioned this many on this site that Divi is a powerful/versatile template. You can create all types of WordPress websites with it by customizing/designing header, body, footer, etc. You’ll find dozens of multipurpose WP templates on the ThemeForest marketplace, not many templates ship with custom-built powerful page builders like Divi. A comparable template is Avada.
According to its developer, Avada has over 1000 options. Avada ships with a layout builder tool that enables you to create custom layouts. You’ll also find themes that work great with popular page builders such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, etc. However, to use all features of the page builder, you must purchase a subscription plan of the page builder. Divi Builder ships with the two subscription plans of ET.
Support and updates
Some developers (e.g. TagDiv) on TF offer lifetime support and updates, and some will ask you to pay money once your subscription expires to keep getting updates or support. The updates/support offered by ET depends on your chosen plan.
If you’ve bought the lifetime plan, you will get updates/support for the lifetime, and if you have purchased the annual plan, you will not be able to update your template once its subscription plan expires. Some developers on ThemeForest offer ticket-based support, while some offer support on the forum. To get help from ET support staff, you can use their contact form or post your question in the community forum.
Subscriptions
On TF, you can buy individual WordPress themes for a price starting at 17 dollars or purchase the Envato creative plan that will give you free access to over ten million items. The subscription plan costs $16.50 per month.
You can buy individual items in the ElegantThemes marketplace but cannot purchase a copy of Divi, Extra, or any of the two plugins. The marketplace items can cost 4 to 100 dollars, and the subscription plans of ET costs between 89 and 249 dollars. The $249 subscription plan is the Lifetime access plan wherein you pay fees to use the products only once.
ThemeForest Pros
- Good collection of themes.
- No hidden pricing.
ElegantThemes Pros
- You get Divi Builder.
- Regular updates.
- Reputed brand.
ThemeForest Cons
- Choosing a product can be confusing.
ElegantThemes Cons
Not many options when it comes to themes. If you want to purchase one template, you must pay 30 to 40 dollars more. The best templates on TF cost between 39 to 69 dollars only.
Which marketplace is better?
The ET Lifetime subscription plan is a good deal as you can build unlimited sites using Divi and Divi Builder by paying just 249 dollars. Its counterpart doesn’t offer a Lifetime subscription plan, but by paying just 16.5 dollars every month, you get access to millions of items available on TF (1000s of themes) for a month.
