Introduction to ElegantThemes
Thinking about using one of the ElegantThemes for your next website? You’re on the right track.
Founded by Nick Roach in 2008 from his college apartment, the company has become a major player in the WordPress world. Today, they serve a massive community of web creators.
But here’s the most important thing to know: ElegantThemes has streamlined its focus. While they once offered over 87 different themes, they now pour all their energy into two core products.
You have the ultra-flexible Divi theme and the content-focused Extra theme. They also provide two powerful plugins, Bloom for email marketing and Monarch for social media. This guide will walk you through these key products to help you find the perfect fit for your project.
How to Choose the Right ElegantThemes Product
Choosing the right theme is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your site. It defines how your content looks, feels, and functions for your visitors. Before you jump in, it’s helpful to ask a few key questions to figure out exactly what you need.
Here are the main things to consider:
- What is your website’s primary goal? Are you building a blog, a business portfolio, or an online store? The main purpose of your site will determine which features you need. For example, a news blogger would benefit from Extra’s category builder, while a photographer would love Divi’s visual controls.
- How much design control do you want? If you want to customize every pixel without writing code, Divi’s visual builder is your best friend. If you prefer a more structured, magazine-style layout right out of the box, Extra is designed specifically for that purpose.
- What’s your budget? ElegantThemes keeps its pricing simple and affordable. You get access to all their products with one membership. As of 2025, it costs $89 for a year or $249 for a lifetime membership, which is a fantastic deal if you plan to build more than one site.
- What other tools do you need? Think about email sign-up forms and social media sharing. Your ElegantThemes membership includes the Bloom and Monarch plugins, which handle these tasks perfectly, saving you from buying separate tools like OptinMonster or Social Snap.
Divi Theme: The Most Versatile and Popular ElegantTheme
Divi isn’t just a theme; it’s a complete website-building framework. It’s the flagship product of ElegantThemes and the tool most people choose for its incredible flexibility. You can use it to build literally any type of website, from a simple blog to a complex eCommerce store.
The heart of Divi is the Divi Builder, a powerful drag-and-drop visual editor. This means you can build and edit your pages on the front end of your site and see your changes happen in real time. No more guessing what your page will look like after you hit “publish.”
Key Features That Make Divi Stand Out
Divi is packed with features designed to make your life easier and your website more powerful.
- Massive Layout Library: Don’t want to start from scratch? Divi comes with over 380 layout packs, which adds up to more than 2,000 individual page layouts. These are professionally designed templates for all kinds of niches.
- The Divi Theme Builder: This feature takes customization to the next level. You can design custom headers, footers, and page templates for your entire site, not just individual pages.
- Divi AI: This is a game-changer integrated right into the builder. Divi AI can write content, generate images, and even suggest code snippets based on simple text prompts. It’s like having a designer and copywriter built into your theme.
- Divi Cloud: Introduced in 2022, Divi Cloud allows you to save and access your layouts, headers, and footers on any website you build with your account. This is a huge time-saver for freelancers and agencies.
- WooCommerce Integration: If you’re building an online store, Divi has you covered. It includes special modules for WooCommerce that let you design beautiful, custom product pages and checkout flows.
According to data from BuiltWith, as of March 2025, Divi is used by 6% of the top 1 million websites running on WordPress, making it one of the most popular themes in the world.
Extra Theme: The Perfect ElegantTheme for Content-Heavy Websites
If your website is all about content, like a blog, news site, or online magazine, then Extra deserves a serious look. While it’s also powered by the Divi Builder, it comes with a set of features specifically designed for publishers.
Think of it this way: where Divi’s main focus is on building pages, Extra’s focus is on organizing and displaying your posts in beautiful, engaging ways.
The standout feature in Extra is the Category Builder. This tool lets you use a drag-and-drop interface to design unique layouts for all the different category pages on your site. For example, you can create different designs for your “News,” “Reviews,” or “Lifestyle” sections, each tailored to that specific type of content.
Extra’s Publisher-Friendly Features
- Advanced Mega Menus: Create beautiful, content-rich dropdown menus that showcase your latest posts or popular categories.
- Post and Product Reviews: Extra includes a built-in review system, allowing you to easily add ratings to your articles, which is fantastic for affiliate sites.
- Custom Widgets: It comes with special widgets for things like recent posts, author bios, and even a “trending articles” tab to keep your readers engaged.
- Showcase with Live Examples: Websites like Dream Travel Magazine and Starship Agora use Extra to manage their large volume of content with visually appealing layouts.
Bloom Plugin: An ElegantTheme for Email Opt-ins and Lead Generation
No matter what kind of website you have, building an email list is one of the smartest things you can do. The Bloom plugin, included with your ElegantThemes membership, makes this incredibly easy.
Bloom is a dedicated lead generation plugin that lets you create beautiful opt-in forms and place them anywhere on your site. The goal is to convert your website visitors into loyal email subscribers.
It integrates with 19 of the most popular email marketing services, including Mailchimp, ConvertKit, HubSpot, MailerLite, and AWeber.
How Bloom Helps You Grow Your List
- Multiple Form Types: You can create different kinds of forms, like pop-ups, fly-ins that slide in from the corner, forms that appear below your content, and even forms that require a visitor to subscribe to unlock content.
- Smart Targeting Rules: You have full control over when and where your forms appear. For example, you can show a pop-up only after a visitor scrolls 50% down the page or when they are about to leave your site.
- A/B Testing: This is a powerful feature that lets you create multiple versions of a form to see which one performs better. You can test different headlines, images, or button colors to maximize your sign-ups.
Monarch Plugin: An ElegantTheme for Social Media Sharing
The other essential plugin included in your membership is Monarch. This plugin handles everything related to social media, from helping visitors share your content to encouraging them to follow you on your social profiles.
Monarch supports over 30 different social networks, giving your visitors plenty of options to share your articles. It’s designed to be fast and lightweight, so it won’t slow your website down.
Key Features of Monarch
- Multiple Display Locations: You can place social sharing buttons in five different locations, including a floating sidebar that follows the user as they scroll, above or below your content, or even in pop-ups and fly-ins.
- Customizable Design: You can customize the look of your buttons to match your website’s branding perfectly. Monarch lets you choose from different button shapes, colors, and hover effects.
- Social Following Widget: Besides sharing, Monarch makes it easy for people to follow you. You can add a widget to your sidebar or footer that links to all your social profiles and even shows your follower counts.
A common point of feedback from users is that Monarch lacks native sharing options for mobile chat apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. However, some developers in the community have created unofficial add-ons to bridge this gap.
What About the Older ElegantThemes? (Nexus, Vertex, Fable, etc.)
If you’ve been around the WordPress world for a while, you might be wondering about older themes like Nexus, Vertex, Fable, or Nimble. In the past, the company offered a library of around 87 different themes.
However, ElegantThemes made a strategic shift to improve quality and focus their efforts. They now concentrate exclusively on developing and supporting Divi and Extra, along with the Bloom and Monarch plugins.
This was a smart move. By focusing their resources, they’ve been able to turn Divi into a world-class website builder that competes with top platforms like Elementor and Beaver Builder.
While legacy themes may still be downloadable for existing members, they are no longer actively developed. For any new website project in 2025 and beyond, you should choose either Divi or Extra. This ensures you get the latest features, security updates, and premium support.
Conclusion: Which ElegantThemes Product Is Right for You?
In the end, the world of ElegantThemes today is really about two amazing choices, supported by a full suite of powerful tools.
For most people, Divi is the perfect all-in-one solution. It gives you the power to build any kind of site you can imagine, from a stunning portfolio to a high-converting online store.
If you’re a blogger or run a content-heavy site, Extra offers specialized tools that make it the ideal choice, streamlining how you publish and organize your work.
With the added power of the Bloom and Monarch plugins included in every membership, you have everything you need to create a beautiful, functional, and successful website. By considering your goals, you can confidently pick the right tools from the ElegantThemes lineup for your next project.