Vantage

Ease of Use:
This is a great product for the uninitiated and honestly has enough customize-ability that it will nicely meet the needs of most standard users. Here’s how easy it is to use: I installed a copy for my (non technical) 13 year old daughter on her own domain and she had herself up and running in a flash. Her initial success has made her dig deeper into design and programming – what an awesome side effect of a product that is well thought out and user friendly.

Why Premium?:
I did pay for premium because I wanted to customize my colors etc. but with the Vantage donation model, you don’t have to pay a bundle for something that ultimately may not meet your needs like other “premium” themes. Yes, others offer a money back guarantee, but what a huge hassle when trying to find that “just right” product – I went through at least ten themes before I found Vantage. Screen shots are great, but I find you really need to get under-the-hood to see if you and your theme are soul mates.
Most people don’t have the luxury of being independently wealthy, so if your project is important to you, it would be best to identify a well-supported, frequently updated, premium theme at the outset. If the development team is unable to earn a living off the product, updates and support will be abandoned for projects and products that do generate revenue. Ask yourself – how many hours a day do you work for free for strangers? – there you have it!

Support:
I had two support questions and both were responded to quickly and answered well (meaning they understood the question I was asking – not always the case with tech support).

Responsiveness:
I have changed and reworked my homepage at LEAST six times thus far (just enjoying the journey:) Only once did I have trouble with responsiveness in my header. I’m not sure if it was the image I used, the size, or some other variable, however, all other images, logos and layouts have been beautifully responsive on ipad and android phones as well as small Macbook pro (~13inch) and 15 inch Macbook pro.
Note – I am currently on a shared server and I have noticed that sometimes there is a lag that seems to cause strange problems if you are making a lot of changes in rapid succession, so it appears things have not worked correctly, but if you give it some time it finally does render correctly. Patience is key. I have also learned to be careful of how many tabs I have opened and limit it to two (one to make changes and one to refresh and see the site). Lastly I have learned that you need to pay attention to issues with your Cache. A YouTube video recommended to disable the standard WP Super Cache so I have done that from the outset, however, I have also had to clear my browser cache periodically to make sure the site is being rendered correctly. The process to truly clear the Cache in Safari is a bit involved (must delete the library files), so I stick with Firefox for changes. Of course this is just my experience – your mileage may vary.

I love this theme and I’ve purchased the premium version.

It makes my website look professional and clean on all devices.

Highly reccomended, even if you get the free version.

Managed to score 100/100 in google page speed (both mobile and desktop).

After searching around for a new theme, I came across Vantage. This is one of the most versatile and attractive themes that I have ever used. Definitely recommend.

This is a nice-looking theme with some theme options for the free theme, but few of the ones most people want, such as changing colours, fonts etc., so to do any real customisation you need to buy the theme or create your own CSS. There’s no custom CSS panel in the theme options.

The theme comes integrated with some plugins – Meta Slider, Page Builder and support for WooCommerce. You don’t have to use the first or third, but it seems clear from my own experience (though my support questions on the subject went unanswered) that the theme is so heavily integrated with Page Builder that if you don’t like or want to use that plugin, then this theme is going to cause problems.

Page Builder is an optional installation and Site Origin don’t actually say you need it, but not using it causes layout problems with my sidebars and I suspect the way it’s integrated into the theme is also the reason Responsive Gallery Grid doesn’t work.

If you like Page Builder (and use another gallery plugin), then none of this matters, but if, like me, you prefer not to use that plugin, then you’d be better off looking at another theme.

You have to pay for the responsive menu.
Not impressed, spent/donated 20$ to get the responsive menu with the Vantage Premium and it doesn’t work.
Went to their site and only forum help is available, BUUUUUUT that requires a facebook etc. signin.
Searched their forum for non responsive menu and there appeared to be plenty of unanswered post about the menu and no it’s not another plug-ins fault. There are no other plug-ins!
Offers 60 day money back guarantee on the order page when you pay but there’s no info on their site on how to initiate this.

Good theme but be aware that BuddyPress and BBPress installations will not work properly. SiteOrigin is aware of the problem but have not fixed it. There is a workaround on their support forums but I could not get it to work on my site. So just be aware that if you plan to use BuddyPress or BBpress, this theme is going to cause some problems, namely, the activity feed in BuddyPress will not function.

You can read more about it here: https://siteorigin.com/thread/buddypress-disappeared-with-update/#comment-47046 and here: https://siteorigin.com/thread/site-builderbuddypress-conflict/.

The first link contains the snippet that is supposed to remedy the problem but it did not fix them problem in my case for whatever reason.

This version of vantage, keeps hijacking my version of vantage from appthemes. Everytime I delete this version of vantage and replace it with the one I paid for from vantage. My site goes back to normal and then a few hours later it is replaced by this vantage theme. Time lossed is money lossed.

This is the best Theme ever. With the endless amount of customizations available, this might just be the only theme you’d ever need!

Hi,

I loved this theme, I have one query shall I use your theme for my personal site (Non wordpress CMS)

I really liked the theme.

thanks and regards,
Ramkumar P

I don’t often write reviews, but this one I am making a point of doing. Great work guys. It’s professional, fully responsive, looks amazing, and really customisable. Love it!