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Dave Thackeray is a writer driven by creativity… and results. Dave writes in his own voice, clearly and distinctly. He’s on a lifelong quest to discover the remarkable in people and products – but would settle for a machine that washed dishes AND clothes.
Atahualpa – premium theme, freemium price
-by Dave Thackeray
I’ve spent the past few weeks observing with great interest the raging debate over the merit of premium themes for WordPress. I think it was Justin Tadlock who ignited the urns of oil tipped over the growing band of cats creaming spoils from the WordPress mothership.
I admire Justin for his commitment in part to the freemium concept eulogised by Chris Anderson in his book ‘Free: The Future of a Radical Price’. I admire Tadlock because he gives of himself to those who subscribe either to his words or by beer tokens to his members’ guild. I also melt in the shadow of his words because I’m the biggest bargain hunter I know, and Justin gives you the burger with as much relish as you can eat when it comes to some of the most useful WordPress plugins on the planet, each carrying zero cost.
His Hybrid construction of the framework genre also presides aloft the podium when it comes to machinations of a lightweight but infinitely customisable and developable nature for established couturiers of WordPress, or even those who simply wish to cut their teeth on action hooks.
But there’s a third tier (and I don’t want to appear presumptious here) of intermediate WordPress users who want something somewhere between the framework and the premium theme.
Somewhere in the universe beyond the complimentary but tricksy frameworks, yet with a degree of automated customisation that omits need to become an emeritus professor in the dark art of PHP.
You could go down the Thesis route, but it’s messy money.
You could avail of Woo Themes’ free Bueno look, but it can really only ever look, well, just Bueno.
You want incredible. You want to appear to have magicked your site design from scratch without the inhumanistic endeavour needed to go through the motions.
Enter Atahualpa which, in some corners of the world, has a fan base so devoted that they’d walk over Jesus to get their fix of the next update.
I’ll admit I was sceptical as to the claim that Atahualpa was truly a one-size-fits-all solution for WordPress users. It’s pretty, well, ordinary directly out of the box.
But I pondered this idea for a moment and realised this was actually A Good Thing. Zero interference, let the content speak for themselves. So I was satisfied that, in its immediate, freshly unwrapped and deliciously naked state, Atahualpa would just about cut the cord and make it on to my list of ‘nice themes’.
And then I logged in, switched the theme on. I’d heard some people near-fainted when, moist of mouth and brow, they pulsed the left mouse button over the Atahualpa Theme Options link. But I was sceptic. Stoically disaffected by the hype.
Well, BAM.
To a WordPress aficionado, it was a bit like a gambler handing in slips marked with the Kentucky Derby, NFL, AFL and World Series winners. And finding out he’d also won a date with Cindy Crawford.
Swathes of options. An abundance of choice to dictate every which way your blog should digress. And the coup de grace, an integrated, powerful and near-endless array of SEO options. Right there, gazing out of the page that stretched to infinity with a reassuring train platform-sized reset button in case everything went wonky under my control.
If you have eyes, you’ll understand. If you have both eyes and a mind, you’ll risk losing the latter as you begin to tweak your blog site to an iteration worthy of a monarch. For this is the king of free themes, replete with the kind of descriptive help for each option you’d expect from a teacher sat by your side.
This is WordPress pro, made easy. It’s like coming out of design school five years too early with the certificate and the gawky smile.
Columns, comments, footers, pages, widgets, forms, blockquotes, and of course, complete control over the darn CSS if you feel the need to go native. There’s even a custom field to let you automatically tweet out your blog post.
Of course there’s a ‘but’. No special page templates built-in as standard. But you can figure that out, right?
Hybrid has 12. But it also needs you to find a darkened room for a couple of weeks to master code alchemy and a wig to replace all that torn-out hair.
Atahualpa may well have been the last sovereign emperor of the Inca Empire, fighting in vain to defend Ecuador from his Spanish foes in the 16th century – but he’s inspired a WordPress winner that’ll be remembered by me for at least the next 500 years.
Dave Thackeray writes for love and beer, switching the importance of each indiscriminately. Dave adores making people smile, by documenting his writing career, or with impromptu tickling. Tell him your saucy gossip at davethackeray.com.
Dave, thanks a bunch for allowing me to publish your article. I never looked very closely at Atahualpa theme, but it’s on my radar screen now.
You are so right Dave and that’s why i use atahualpa. It is like god in free theme. :D
Yeah — of course there is a but — it is always there, right? even in thesis theme i assume.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..Write Short, Please! =-.
Dana, all themes and theme frameworks have their issues, I’m sure of it.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Saturday Morning Surfing: Programming Is “Actionary” Blogging Is “Reactionary” =-.
God love Atahualpa. It has been an amazing theme for me. It’s so customizable that you can’t even recognize the original from the design I created from it.
I’ve considered Thesis, but haven’t had any needs go unfulfilled with Atahualpa yet.
.-= Carlos Velez´s last blog ..If I Wasn’t All In, I’d Be Backing Out =-.
I did not know you were using Atahualpa! That says something right there.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How to Read Your SEO Metadata Like Google (really fast) =-.
I am a sneaky devil. Switched to Atahualps because my previous theme fried when I upgraded wordpress. Now I’m glad it happened, because it improved my design and structure a lot. Though I was pissed at the time because I had my site ready to launch on Jan 1 and it crashed right before Christmas. Spent a good chunk of the holidays rebuilding ny blog.
.-= Carlos Velez´s last blog ..Pre-Writing Challenge Updates: Week 2 + Darren Rowse Message To Challenge Participants =-.
Dave and Dave, I too love Atahualpa, and have since I first discovered it as I was debating on Thesis myself. The more I use it the more I love it. I have it installed across multiple blogs and love the way I can copy the options from the database and paste them into another blog to git the same look and setup…
.-= Gary´s last blog ..International Year of Biodiversity =-.
Gary, you’ve also done really well with Atahualpa. Had no idea that’s what you were using.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Consistency – A 7th Characteristic of Trust Building (Everyone can do this) =-.
I agree with the guys. Atahualpa is awesome. I changed over to thesis because I went for the developers license which I’ll be using on some other non-GAB projects later in the year. Had it not been for these other projects, I would have remained with Atahualpa. The support forum is great, very helpful. It would be my number one recommendation for anyone wanting a fantastic free theme.
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..1 Minute Motivator: The power of one =-.
Now I’m thinking I should use Atahualpa on one of my next projects!
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Saturday Morning Surfing: How’s Your Blog Traffic Lately? =-.
No wonder it’s the #1 downloaded theme in the WordPress theme directory, I guess? It is pretty awesome, and I’ve used it (as well as thesis, and a bunch of other themes, I enjoy the variety).
.-= Anne´s last blog ..Is Someone Stealing Away Your Affiliate Revenue? =-.
I don’t pay attention to downloads stats on themes, so that’s really good to know. Thanks!
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Saturday Morning Surfing: Programming Is “Actionary” Blogging Is “Reactionary” =-.
This is the theme you mentioned before on your previous post. I had checked it already before, let’s see if that’s the theme I’m going to use…
.-= Cebu Tech Blogger´s last blog ..Infolinks Lowest Payment for Paypal and Payoner Users =-.
Let us know how it works out.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How to Read Your SEO Metadata Like Google (really fast) =-.
Dave (& Dave),
As it is my blog is scheduled to undergo a complete face lift. With these commentary testimonials I will definitely look at Atahualpa as a possible theme …
.-= Valentina´s last blog ..Five Steps To Keep Your Blog Income Goal On Track =-.
Definitely want to hear your findings once you take a good look at it.
Also, if you haven’t seen this, it’s worth a look:
How To Evaluate A WordPress Theme For Your Blog.
This gets no traction from search engines. It has a 4 syllable word in the title: e-val-u-ate. Bummah.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How to Read Your SEO Metadata Like Google (really fast) =-.
Dave,
Thank you for that link on how to choose a theme – FABULOUS! I have bookmarked it & will be paying close attention when I look at Atahualpa and possibly other themes.
Question: are there some themes that don’t exactly mesh with some host services – i.e., and this may have been a glitch (but one that did not seem to be fixable). A friend got Thesis, her host was hostgator, things just did not seem to work out even though theoretically the two are compatible (the Hostgator people tried to help as well but no joy) Her mentor recommended Blue Host – she changed over and all problems disappeared. Is there a way to really test compatibility without having your site drop off?
.-= Valentina´s last blog ..Five Steps To Keep Your Blog Income Goal On Track =-.
Valentina, that’s the first I’ve heard of any such problem. I’ll keep an ear out for anything and let you know if I hear anything.
Atahualpa is the biggest little secret in town. It’s like the bespectacled ugly turned prom girl. I like it and I’m for sure using it as the framework for my next site. Did I say ‘framework’? Ooh, the controversy!
.-= Dave Thackeray´s last blog ..Back – to the future… =-.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your interesting article on Atahualpa. I came here via your post on another site (http://bonfx.com/10-reasons-to-use-the-hybrid-framework-for-wordpress/comment-page-1/#comment-965) where you were still undecided as to whether to go with Hybrid theme or Atahualpa.
Seems like you made your choice :)
I am also looking into building my own sites, using WP and themes that I can customize with as much flexibility and “ease” as possible. When I say “ease” I mean that I don’t want to become a programmer and I actually want to have fun doing this, using WP as a platform.
So I have done a fair bit of research over the last few weeks and one thing simply stuck – “Theme Frameworks”…and the “Parent Theme / Child Theme concept” as opposed to “standard” WP themes with the usual limitations (either no or limited customization options, and difficult to upgrade if they are being updated at all, in line with WP and general developments).
I can see the advantages of running a theme off of a solid “framework” which is often called a “platform” or “core engine”. It all makes so much sense to me in theory…but I am not a programmer/coder (even though I used to be able to create some websites from scratch using HTML and some CSS style sheets in a very tedious process, using nothing but Notepad!! …that was in the mid 90s).
The point I am trying to make is that maybe because I am not or do not see myself as a programmer, I am having some difficulty in seeing which of the solutions out there in fact IS a framework (acting as a parent theme) or something else, just using that terminology! I have heard people call some frameworks different things, and it all becomes confusing.
For instance, in my case I am looking for a solution that allows me to create many themes (down to individual page design) and in doing so, to take advantage of what I understand theme frameworks with child themes offer.
However, Thesis for instance seems so hyped up, but in the end does not offer the full scale “option panel only, no hard coding required” solution.
Others appear similar.
I then had a look at iTheme Builder and Frugaltheme. The latter works with what they call “skins” not child themes – see their blog for their explanation of the difference.
So in terms of Atahualpa – I am confused…are the themes that you create considered child themes and Atahualpa is essentially the framework acting as the parent theme? The new export/import function reminds me of Frugaltheme’s skin export/import function. In the latter case, it is a .zip file that contains all files belonging to that customized theme (or “skin”), while I heard in Atahualpa’s case it is a simple .txt file?
So where do all the other files go that make up the newly created theme in Atahualpa? I am just going back to my (still quite cloudy) mental picture of the advantages of using a framework in the first place, with regards to upgrading it and not affecting the modifications done to the child theme/template/skin, or what ever you wanna call it…?
Hey Rollie!
Thanks for your comment. I’d be happy to take this offline if you will, since going into detail about child themes and the like is marginally outside the scope of this comments section.
By all means drop me a line at dave@wordandmouth.com and I’ll talk it through with you.
Always happy to help!
Dave Thackeray´s last post ..Have you seen the wood lately?
I have been using atahualpa as well I like the header and being able to tweak most everything. Can’t afford Thesis now so this one is great. didn’t know so many others were using it as well.
.-= Justin Matthews´s last blog ..Fiction Saturday! Death With A Vengeance Part 6! =-.
It’s growing fast in popularity. I looked at it last year, but didn’t like the default. It was easier transition for me to move from Journalist to Thesis, so that’s what I did.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Getting started — finding a web hosting provider =-.
Very poetic article! Shakespeare meets WordPress, mm…
I think most of us agree that Atahualpa is one of the great undiscovered gems of WordPress.
I have partly solved the problem of styling it by publishing a few child themes here
http://atahualpatheme.com
Also it’s not yet the #1 download but it’s very close, the top ones are all about 1000 downloads per day.
Marc Beneteau´s last post ..The science of success and happiness free call with Melissa Galt tomorrow- Tuesday
I have four blogs and two out of 4 of them are using the Atahualpa theme, it definitely rocks!!
Toni´s last post ..Sleep in the Travel Crib no my Bed
Very nice post. I am myself a Atahualpa theme lover. Wanted to share one of my Atahualpa theme design / skin. Its free to use by anyone. http://letusbuzz.com/category/theme-designs/
Just wanted to add my two cents and say without the Altahaupa theme thsi non-programming webmaster for his camera club (I was hoodwinked into being webmaster) our website would never have gotten off the ground. I am still finding new discoveries in the corners of this theme.
Nice article btw.
Thank you for that link on how to choose a theme – FABULOUS! I have bookmarked it & will be paying close attention when I look at Atahualpa and possibly other themes.
crocodile´s last post ..Independence class littoral combat ship
Dave,
thank you very much for this glowing review, I appreciate it.
Back in 2008 when I published it, Atahualpa was revolutionary due to its customizability. Meanwhile HTML5 & CSS3 are here, WP3 brought a few new features, and then there’s the experience of another 3 years, with a lot of feedback from current users.
Atahualpa is still the most downloaded (800,000+) theme on wordpress.org and has an exceptional keeper rate, too, it has over 5.5 million backlinks on yahoo.com. It’s a theme that people keep.
But a few other themes have caught up in terms of customizability, and came closer in terms of popularity. Also, I’ve accumulated many new ideas, and naturally there’s a couple things I’d do differently now.
To put it in a nutshell, I wanted to thank you, and also let you know that a complete rewrite of Atahualpa is coming, hopefully within Nov 2011.
Flynn´s last post ..NextGen Gallery activated / Ata 3.7.1 … site crash
Hey Flynn – really looking forward to the new release next month, and to kicking the tyres.
Glad you enjoyed the review. Have a great day!
Dave Thackeray´s last post ..#008: Losing Face
I’m really happy to see this article retaining traction and looking forward to a new release of Atahualpa soon. I haven’t used it myself, but I know a few people who do, and they swear by it.
Dave Doolin´s last post ..Learn is a four letter word – and a good thing too