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  3. Which WordPress theme or builder do you use/recommend?

Which WordPress theme or builder do you use/recommend?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved WordPress (Developer)
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    • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

      FWIW I've never used JetPack, don't see the need, when all the others I've found do each thing better.

      humptydumptyH Offline
      humptydumptyH Offline
      humptydumpty
      wrote on last edited by
      #21

      @marcusquinn woo relies on jetpack for the auto tax calculation. I’m not sure how tax is structured in the UK and EU, but in the US we have thousands of different tax rates (county, city, state, and everything in between). It’s a real pain. The only alternative I know of is to use a 3rd party service like Taxjar.

      marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • humptydumptyH humptydumpty

        @marcusquinn woo relies on jetpack for the auto tax calculation. I’m not sure how tax is structured in the UK and EU, but in the US we have thousands of different tax rates (county, city, state, and everything in between). It’s a real pain. The only alternative I know of is to use a 3rd party service like Taxjar.

        marcusquinnM Offline
        marcusquinnM Offline
        marcusquinn
        wrote on last edited by marcusquinn
        #22

        @humptydumpty I see, yeah, I remember looking into TaxJar, and Avalara. I think I built something for it a long time ago for Woo for all the UK & EU Rates, and didn't think it was that complicated once you got your data organizing head on. Not needed it for a while, but I get the need.

        This looks worth a look:

        • https://wordpress.org/plugins/sales-tax-reports-for-woocommerce

        And maybe just search for "woocommerce tax rates csv" if you don't already have setup, they can't change often enough to justify a subscription product? These were just from a quick search. End of the day for me, here.

        • https://salestaxusa.com/woocommerce-tax-rates-csv/
        • https://csvsalestaxtable.com/woocommerce-csv-tax-rates/
        • https://woosalestax.com/
        • https://woosalestax.com/faq/ (No, you only need to buy the tables for the states your business is based in and the states where your business has nexuses (Branches or physical locations).)
        • https://flexibleinvoices.com/blog/woocommerce-eu-taxes-download-ready-to-import-csv/
        • https://artsterminal.com/web/tax-rates-for-woocommerce-csv-free-download/
        • https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qztrHGZ1zhytRawzeqlr9y38IE94wiRo_Fw5ObAHa9c/edit#gid=1398139257

        I loath monthly subscriptions, so always take them as a challenge to find once and for all solutions 🙂

        Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
        Development https://brandlight.org
        Life https://marcusquinn.com

        humptydumptyH 2 Replies Last reply
        1
        • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

          @humptydumpty I see, yeah, I remember looking into TaxJar, and Avalara. I think I built something for it a long time ago for Woo for all the UK & EU Rates, and didn't think it was that complicated once you got your data organizing head on. Not needed it for a while, but I get the need.

          This looks worth a look:

          • https://wordpress.org/plugins/sales-tax-reports-for-woocommerce

          And maybe just search for "woocommerce tax rates csv" if you don't already have setup, they can't change often enough to justify a subscription product? These were just from a quick search. End of the day for me, here.

          • https://salestaxusa.com/woocommerce-tax-rates-csv/
          • https://csvsalestaxtable.com/woocommerce-csv-tax-rates/
          • https://woosalestax.com/
          • https://woosalestax.com/faq/ (No, you only need to buy the tables for the states your business is based in and the states where your business has nexuses (Branches or physical locations).)
          • https://flexibleinvoices.com/blog/woocommerce-eu-taxes-download-ready-to-import-csv/
          • https://artsterminal.com/web/tax-rates-for-woocommerce-csv-free-download/
          • https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qztrHGZ1zhytRawzeqlr9y38IE94wiRo_Fw5ObAHa9c/edit#gid=1398139257

          I loath monthly subscriptions, so always take them as a challenge to find once and for all solutions 🙂

          humptydumptyH Offline
          humptydumptyH Offline
          humptydumpty
          wrote on last edited by humptydumpty
          #23

          @marcusquinn It's not just the rates. Each state has its own limit on how much you can do business there before you need to start collecting sales tax. It's either X number of orders, or X amount in gross sales, or a combo of both! To make matters worse, let's say you reach the limit sometime in July, you now owe sales tax on everything you sold in 2023 in that state. Oh, you didn't collect the sales tax on those orders? Too bad. Now it's coming out of your own pocket! Also, you'd be surprised how often counties change their rates. I didn't even mention the "special" taxes that cities come up with. New football stadium = new tax. Sigh. Sorry for the rant.

          Edit: I forgot to mention that once you go over a state's limit, you need to register with that state to remit the collected taxes. That's a ton of paperwork to keep track of. That's why Taxjar/Avalara are in business. Sometimes, I feel like I'm pinocchio back on that pleasure island.

          marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

            @humptydumpty I see, yeah, I remember looking into TaxJar, and Avalara. I think I built something for it a long time ago for Woo for all the UK & EU Rates, and didn't think it was that complicated once you got your data organizing head on. Not needed it for a while, but I get the need.

            This looks worth a look:

            • https://wordpress.org/plugins/sales-tax-reports-for-woocommerce

            And maybe just search for "woocommerce tax rates csv" if you don't already have setup, they can't change often enough to justify a subscription product? These were just from a quick search. End of the day for me, here.

            • https://salestaxusa.com/woocommerce-tax-rates-csv/
            • https://csvsalestaxtable.com/woocommerce-csv-tax-rates/
            • https://woosalestax.com/
            • https://woosalestax.com/faq/ (No, you only need to buy the tables for the states your business is based in and the states where your business has nexuses (Branches or physical locations).)
            • https://flexibleinvoices.com/blog/woocommerce-eu-taxes-download-ready-to-import-csv/
            • https://artsterminal.com/web/tax-rates-for-woocommerce-csv-free-download/
            • https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qztrHGZ1zhytRawzeqlr9y38IE94wiRo_Fw5ObAHa9c/edit#gid=1398139257

            I loath monthly subscriptions, so always take them as a challenge to find once and for all solutions 🙂

            humptydumptyH Offline
            humptydumptyH Offline
            humptydumpty
            wrote on last edited by
            #24

            @marcusquinn https://salestaxusa.com/woocommerce-tax-rates-csv/ for the tax rates and https://wordpress.org/plugins/sales-tax-reports-for-woocommerce for figuring out due sales taxes should do the trick! I hope I'm not mistaken, but the EU only has one rate per country? If so, that's freaking awesome!

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

              @robi I use MainWP, but WP Favs is also good.

              robiR Offline
              robiR Offline
              robi
              wrote on last edited by
              #25

              @marcusquinn said in Which WordPress theme or builder do you use/recommend?:

              @robi I use MainWP, but WP Favs is also good.

              Cool, do they have an export file that can be shared?

              Conscious tech

              marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • humptydumptyH humptydumpty

                @marcusquinn It's not just the rates. Each state has its own limit on how much you can do business there before you need to start collecting sales tax. It's either X number of orders, or X amount in gross sales, or a combo of both! To make matters worse, let's say you reach the limit sometime in July, you now owe sales tax on everything you sold in 2023 in that state. Oh, you didn't collect the sales tax on those orders? Too bad. Now it's coming out of your own pocket! Also, you'd be surprised how often counties change their rates. I didn't even mention the "special" taxes that cities come up with. New football stadium = new tax. Sigh. Sorry for the rant.

                Edit: I forgot to mention that once you go over a state's limit, you need to register with that state to remit the collected taxes. That's a ton of paperwork to keep track of. That's why Taxjar/Avalara are in business. Sometimes, I feel like I'm pinocchio back on that pleasure island.

                marcusquinnM Offline
                marcusquinnM Offline
                marcusquinn
                wrote on last edited by
                #26

                @humptydumpty I guess here we're more accustomed to tax-inclusive pricing. At least if you hit those thresholds, you're growing! I like those kinds of data challenges, but don't have a US-based business, so appreciate most just prefer to pay for a solution. It'd bother me though, I can't stand these big brands that make a tiny solution and then build a massive marketing machine and subscription model around it to put people of doing themselves.

                There's maybe 4 rates per Country here, typically: Excerpt (don't include in reporting), Zero (Include in reporting but 0%), Low (eg 5% in UK), Standard (Around the 20% mark, slight variations by country).

                As they say here: "Tax shouldn't be taxing."

                Anecdotally, from what I've learned in life, much bureaucracy is created to create "jobs", if life were too simple and easy, there would be far less employment, and most don't cope well without being given some kind of purpose.

                Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                Development https://brandlight.org
                Life https://marcusquinn.com

                1 Reply Last reply
                1
                • robiR robi

                  @marcusquinn said in Which WordPress theme or builder do you use/recommend?:

                  @robi I use MainWP, but WP Favs is also good.

                  Cool, do they have an export file that can be shared?

                  marcusquinnM Offline
                  marcusquinnM Offline
                  marcusquinn
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #27

                  @robi Both free to try 😉 Yes, you can share your WP Favs lists easily via a token/link. MainWP, via list exports. If you're managing many sites, MainWP is the way to go. If you just have one or two, and wanted to share your stack, probably WP Favs is enough.

                  Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                  Development https://brandlight.org
                  Life https://marcusquinn.com

                  robiR 1 Reply Last reply
                  4
                  • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

                    @robi Both free to try 😉 Yes, you can share your WP Favs lists easily via a token/link. MainWP, via list exports. If you're managing many sites, MainWP is the way to go. If you just have one or two, and wanted to share your stack, probably WP Favs is enough.

                    robiR Offline
                    robiR Offline
                    robi
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #28

                    @marcusquinn cool, thanks for the info. Perhaps you'll be inspired to share your WP Favs.

                    Conscious tech

                    marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • robiR robi

                      @marcusquinn cool, thanks for the info. Perhaps you'll be inspired to share your WP Favs.

                      marcusquinnM Offline
                      marcusquinnM Offline
                      marcusquinn
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #29

                      @robi My installs often have a mix of tried & tested, and to be tested, and lots of projects on, so not really time to make a confident list. Will do when time is more available.

                      In the meantime, gimme QQs on any specific needs. I'll probably either know the solution, or be interested in seeing it solved.

                      Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                      Development https://brandlight.org
                      Life https://marcusquinn.com

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      2
                      • J Offline
                        J Offline
                        jagan
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #30

                        One question: Are Bricks Builder and Kadence mutually exclusive since they are both themes?

                        d19dotcaD 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • J jagan

                          One question: Are Bricks Builder and Kadence mutually exclusive since they are both themes?

                          d19dotcaD Offline
                          d19dotcaD Offline
                          d19dotca
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #31

                          @jagan Yes as you can only use one theme at a time.

                          --
                          Dustin Dauncey
                          www.d19.ca

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          1
                          • humptydumptyH Offline
                            humptydumptyH Offline
                            humptydumpty
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #32

                            @marcusquinn @d19dotca tagging you both for the WP wizards that you are! I'm building a new WP/Woo site and intend on using the Kadence theme, but their blocks & Pro addons fall short for my use case. I stumbled upon Greenshift and was wondering if you have any experience with it. I can't find anything "bad" about them which is a good thing but also a bit suspicious lol. The reason why I'm looking at GS is because of their 3D model & 360 product viewers. Thoughts?

                            marcusquinnM d19dotcaD 2 Replies Last reply
                            3
                            • humptydumptyH humptydumpty

                              @marcusquinn @d19dotca tagging you both for the WP wizards that you are! I'm building a new WP/Woo site and intend on using the Kadence theme, but their blocks & Pro addons fall short for my use case. I stumbled upon Greenshift and was wondering if you have any experience with it. I can't find anything "bad" about them which is a good thing but also a bit suspicious lol. The reason why I'm looking at GS is because of their 3D model & 360 product viewers. Thoughts?

                              marcusquinnM Offline
                              marcusquinnM Offline
                              marcusquinn
                              wrote on last edited by marcusquinn
                              #33

                              @humptydumpty Good question. Sorry, never heard of it. Website looks nice enough (your link doesn't work).

                              My test for all decisions is; can I repeat this ten times with ten percent of the effort by the tenth time? KandenceWP is the best WordPress theme for speed and seo from my tests.

                              I'm not a fan of any website animation, at all, and for many reasons, so wrong person to ask on that.

                              3D does interest me greatly, though, so definitely going to look more into that, and I don't see anything that would suggest why it would cause any issues, since it will only load code that's actually used with Gutenburg.

                              (Stay away from Elementor in WP, crazy clever people, but I suspect they might eventually migrate to being a standalone platform, as Gutenburg is now becoming all it promised to be — and full-site editing will, too since the 2023 standard theme is perhaps going to become the most popular ever, for good reasons.)

                              I don't want a theme to do everything, just to do the basics perfectly, which keeps it lighter, focused, and fast to work with.

                              Then anything else there's usually a specialist plugin for. Kadence has a fair amount of animation options, too, if you really must.

                              It looks like it is a plugin for the blocks and design patterns, so there's no theme to compare, and that's the whole point of Kadence and Gutenburg, you can use all sorts of blocks, and only what's used loads on the front end:

                              • https://wordpress.org/plugins/greenshift-animation-and-page-builder-blocks/

                              3D does interest me, so much appreciate your introducing this — thank you! I would like to see more WordPress chat on this forum, as there's so many things it can do better than any separate FOSS apps, now.

                              I stake my interests and future expectations of time needs on Kadence, if that's enough endorsement. There's quite a few advantages of the Pro, so I wouldn't dismiss it on aesthetics, as it's more about enabling you without stopping you having other toys, if that makes sense.

                              The cloud and child theme features that also add huge value to Kadence for making many sites with it, and multiple monetisation opportunities from your growing assets and capabilities.

                              Whatever you do, stick 100% to Gutenburg and ACF for any dynamic data. All modern plugins should work with those. If they don't, they shouldn't be in your stacks until they do. Gutenberg is what is bringing most of the efficiency now, so anything that is working with that should be fast.

                              For interest, I have 118 plugins installed on my personal site, so perhaps this score qualifies me to speak on speed. I could probably still do better, when time permits 🙂

                              This is running on a £10/month Hetzner shared VPS , with Cloudron's WordPress Developer app (2GB of 8GB allocated to this app, but probably doesn't need half of that), just because I want to prove a point that the hosting isn't as important as the software stack, settings, plugin unloading (Freesoul), and caching (WP Optimize).

                              SCR-20230925-nanz-2000.png

                              SCR-20230925-ncna.png

                              Don't overthink it, just dive in, build what your vision tells you the world needs, and fill in the gaps as you go. There's years of comparing and testing in what I end up doing, so I hope to save you some of the same, to get on with the fun stuff!

                              Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                              Development https://brandlight.org
                              Life https://marcusquinn.com

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              4
                              • P Offline
                                P Offline
                                plains.digital
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #34

                                Divi for the win!
                                (it has flaws, but im Lifetime and heavily invested in various plugins, so it's the only answer.)

                                marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • humptydumptyH humptydumpty

                                  @marcusquinn @d19dotca tagging you both for the WP wizards that you are! I'm building a new WP/Woo site and intend on using the Kadence theme, but their blocks & Pro addons fall short for my use case. I stumbled upon Greenshift and was wondering if you have any experience with it. I can't find anything "bad" about them which is a good thing but also a bit suspicious lol. The reason why I'm looking at GS is because of their 3D model & 360 product viewers. Thoughts?

                                  d19dotcaD Offline
                                  d19dotcaD Offline
                                  d19dotca
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #35

                                  @humptydumpty I’ve heard good things about GreenShift but have not used it yet myself. I use Bricks Builder myself. If you’re on Facebook there’s some great groups called Dynamic WordPress and others that have some details on GreenShift and other similar plugins. Here’s a YouTube video from one of the guys who runs that group if you haven’t seen it yet:

                                  and he compares it with Cwicly too at this one:

                                  Sorry I can’t be too much more helpful about GreenShift. My experience is with Elementor (which I’ve been migrating away from for the past two years), a little bit with Oxygen Builder, and most recently with Bricks Builder which is my current favourite for the past year or two.

                                  --
                                  Dustin Dauncey
                                  www.d19.ca

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  1
                                  • P plains.digital

                                    Divi for the win!
                                    (it has flaws, but im Lifetime and heavily invested in various plugins, so it's the only answer.)

                                    marcusquinnM Offline
                                    marcusquinnM Offline
                                    marcusquinn
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #36

                                    @plains-digital 😂 Good luck with that. Client asked me to help with their site. Built with Divi. Literally the worst builder mess I've ever seen.

                                    Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                                    Development https://brandlight.org
                                    Life https://marcusquinn.com

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

                                      kadencewp.com all the way (I should get an affiliate link for how many times I say this).

                                      Avoid Elementor. Gutenberg is more than capable now.

                                      Lemme know if you have any commercial WP projects that need help, as probably know the optimal way to do almost anything with it after over a decade with it.

                                      L Offline
                                      L Offline
                                      LoudLemur
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #37

                                      @marcusquinn Is Kadence available under a Free licence? How useful are the paid additions they offer, eg the blocks or the ai?

                                      marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • L LoudLemur

                                        @marcusquinn Is Kadence available under a Free licence? How useful are the paid additions they offer, eg the blocks or the ai?

                                        marcusquinnM Offline
                                        marcusquinnM Offline
                                        marcusquinn
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #38

                                        @LoudLemur Free is very good. Pro I feel is worth it. I don't think you'd regret. Don't think of a theme as visual, but more of a framework. You want to choose one that you'll get to know and it can be used for all purposes. This is that.

                                        Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                                        Development https://brandlight.org
                                        Life https://marcusquinn.com

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • dev-cbD Offline
                                          dev-cbD Offline
                                          dev-cb
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #39

                                          @marcusquinn I took a closer look at Kadence, seems solid work. Thanks for the share.

                                          I was wondering if its possible to register customized blocks based on Kadence default blocks, so registering modified blocks within the Kadence realm, using a plugin or child theme. Do you have experience with that?

                                          marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
                                          2
                                          • dev-cbD dev-cb

                                            @marcusquinn I took a closer look at Kadence, seems solid work. Thanks for the share.

                                            I was wondering if its possible to register customized blocks based on Kadence default blocks, so registering modified blocks within the Kadence realm, using a plugin or child theme. Do you have experience with that?

                                            marcusquinnM Offline
                                            marcusquinnM Offline
                                            marcusquinn
                                            wrote on last edited by
                                            #40

                                            @dev-cb You won't regret. Likely you'll never want to use another theme or way of building again! If I understand what you're thinking, I use Patterns for that. Very versatile. Their Cloud plugin also makes it easy to share design templates form one site to others.

                                            Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                                            Development https://brandlight.org
                                            Life https://marcusquinn.com

                                            1 Reply Last reply
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