YOOtheme Pro Review – Spanking New Page Builder With a History in Joomla and WordPress Themes

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A black ambulance with police sirens. Yes, you’ve read that right. Now, imagine it and let the whole idea sink in.

Sounds strange, right?

Ok, well, think about this too. A hospital bed with red bedding.

Even worse, I bet.

Now, let’s take a step back and look at these two scenarios critically. For starters, they all make sense practically. A black ambulance will work fine. And oddly enough, red hospital bedding is even easier to clean and work with than white ones.

But, there’s just this undeniable peculiarity about them. It all feels wrong that it makes you really uneasy. Almost as much as a business executive in a yellow suit.

So, admit it. Come to think of it, you would certainly find it much harder to trust any of these, compared to their counterparts with contextually ideal colors.

Interestingly, researchers even studied this phenomenon, and subsequently published a report on the Impact of Color in Marketing. Basically, they established that up to 90% of the first snap judgments customers make about products can be all about colors alone. The rest come next.

In web language, we call this the site theme. And as you probably know by now, it’s not just about colors. Overall page organization is also a critical factor here, and online consumers simply have no time for websites with inappropriate themes.

That’s why a substantial fraction of WordPress and Joomla users have always depended on third-party theme powerhouses like YOOtheme for a wide array of options, designed and built by professionals.

Fair enough, but here’s the latest news. It turns out YOOtheme revised its strategy and decided to go for an even bigger chunk of the industry. Instead of just providing themes, it will now even help users build site pages with the spanking new YOOtheme Pro.

Well, I get the whole point of this move. A great theme is only effective if it’s matched with an equally responsive, and well-thought-out foundation. That’s what constitutes part of whole web user experience framework.

By 2020, user experience is set to become the most important branding feature, surpassing both product and price. So, of course, we could argue that now seems like just the right time to add page building capabilities to the broth.

However, how YOOtheme Pro actually hones usability and general user experience is a different thing altogether. Its chances, above everything else, depend on how its provisions are set up.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to walk you through. This YOOtheme Pro review is a comprehensive guide of the solution’s fundamental features and general pricing.

So, let’s fire this baby away…

YOOtheme Review: Overview

YOOtheme might have made quite a name for itself over the years, but it’s actually not that old, to begin with. Slightly over a decade ago, in 2007, a crew made up of Steffan and Sascha founded the company from a basement. Then YOOtheme progressively became one of the principal go-to places for both WordPress and Joomla themes.

But, that only covers half of the tale. Although designing, building and supporting themes is seemingly not an easy job, the team still had the time to expand their impact on the web design industry.

This saw them develop another popular tool that you possibly have already heard about at some point- Ulkit. It’s basically an open-source system that’s set up to function as a website interface front-end framework.

Well, that’s a solid achievement in itself. But it also didn’t limit their abilities to scale further. It turns out YOOtheme is also the birth mother of PageKit. Yet another open-source service for optimizing web usability, and is leveraged as a flexible CMS tool.

For a company with such an impressive portfolio, I’m ashamed to admit that I never anticipated a YOOtheme page builder. Needless to say, it might have an equally promising future, going by what the company has been able to achieve in the past.

Ulkit, for instance, is now feeding more than half a million websites. YOOtheme, on the other hand, has settled quite firmly into the WordPress and Joomla spaces, boasting of more than 150,000 users.

All in all, YOOtheme Pro is already hitting the ground running, with every intention of expanding that reach.

Well, let’s see how far it might go, and if YOOtheme Pro could turn out to be ideal for your site.

YOOtheme Pro Review: Features

Page Building

YOOtheme Pro seemingly wants to make its intentions clear right from the very start. The editing window, for example, is amazingly neat and refreshingly simple. And to use it, all you have to do is drag and drop your page’s features.

Just like the bulk of other web and page builders in the same space, YOOtheme Pro seeks to eliminate the much complex side of web development. It essentially simplifies the entire building and editing processes by handling the coding while you work on the front-end.

Therefore, you can think of it as a general graphics editor. But one that subsequently publishes the final layout on the web.

And speaking of layout, you can structure the site pages in grids, rows, or columns. However, since going with one could turn out to be too dull, it might be a great idea to add in some sophistication by combining two or three of the structures on one page.

Alternatively, you could proceed with the masonry effect option, which basically arranges elements into columns and rows that collectively form cells. YOOtheme Pro grants users the flexibility of using different cell lengths on one page. Plus, it eliminates column gaps on the masonry effect to achieve a clean, systematic layout.

For the cells, YOOtheme pro provides a host of elements you can place anywhere on the page. In addition to buttons, you can work with gallery, map, overlay, quotation, subnav, social networking feeds, tables, widgets, and many more element options. Cumulatively, they add up to 30 strong.

One particularly outstanding element here is the slideshow, which is ideally optimized for both PC and mobile site views. To make things interesting, it supports five systems of animations. And most importantly, it doesn’t limit your media. You can comfortably run both images and videos.

That said, it’s worth noting that the general webpage outlook depends on how well everything ultimately corresponds to the underlying layout.

Now, to cater to different sets of users when it comes to this, YOOtheme Pro also provides a layout library. A solid one laden with more than a hundred different layout options.

Well, to be honest, we’ve seen some prominent page and web builders with much bigger libraries. Extensive enough to make YOOtheme feel quite limited. The latter, nonetheless, argues that it makes up for this by ensuring that each of its premium layouts is systematically designed by a team of professionals.

Plus, it attempts to address all possible categories of websites, including ecommerce. And to help you sort through it all, the layouts are arranged in topics you can filter through.

Then, to further personalize your website, YOOtheme allows you to go past the default façade into the specifics. This is where you work on, among other aspects, the colors, typography, element sizes, fonts, spacing, and positioning, to fine-tune the site according to your branding and preferences.  And yes, if you’re wondering, it works for both PC and mobile.

Storing Google Fonts Locally

One of the details that stood out as I tested YOOtheme Pro is how well the system handles Google Fonts.

Now, I admit that font might not be a typical priority when you’re assessing page builders. But, hang on a minute there, allow me to explain it.

There are regular fonts, and then there’s Google Fonts. The thing that makes Google Fonts extra special is the fact that the storage location of their directory substantially affects a page’s loading speed. If Google can’t find any, its engine is forced to go for a roundtrip to generate the fonts from its servers before loading a page.

Consequently, you might end up losing extremely valuable time with slow page loading speeds. And get this. A one-second delay alone, can result in up to 11% fewer page views, a drop of 16% in customer satisfaction, plus 7% fewer conversations.

To prevent this, YOOtheme pro optimizes speed by storing Google Fonts locally. Once you select and save a font, the system automatically downloads the directory files to your server, then attaches them to the CSS.

The result?

First off, Google directs the traffic straight to your site without taking roundtrips.

Secondly, each of your user’s privacy is protected by virtue of localized Google Fonts storage being GDPR-compliant.

Integrating Unsplash Image Library

Basically, the bottom line behind stock images is this. As a site owner, you’re probably too busy running your business to make time for shooting unique photos for your pages. And even if you tried, your skills are possibly nowhere near a professional photographer’s.

But, what about that professional option? Well, you can guess how much hiring a good one for all your site photos would cost.

That’s pretty much why most site owners love stock image sites. An extensive one like Unsplash, for instance, is certainly a paradise for a wide array of free high-quality images.

But, while we continue to enjoy capitalizing on it, let’s be honest. Downloading images from Unsplash only to re-upload them to our servers is an annoyingly repetitive and tiring task.

Thankfully, YOOtheme Pro found a way out. By embedding Unsplash straight onto the main library, it’s now possible to lift a stock photo without leaving the editing window.

You don’t even have to download any to the local PC. Selecting an image through the media manager automatically adds it to your site.

Supporting Developer Coding

A page builder that simples everything by handling the underlying coding for you? That’s fine.

One that further supports extensive element customization while at it? Even better!

But, sadly, it still wouldn’t be a perfect editing solution without that one feature that ultimately unlocks comprehensive customization.

By opening up its foundation framework to developers, YOOtheme Pro is basically allowing the real coders to get their hands dirty and have fun too. The flexible modular structure makes it easy to dive deep into its core, override default settings and make unlimited adjustments.

And to guide developers through the entire process, YOOtheme Pro has provided informative support documents on its architecture.

Overall Features

YOOtheme Pro also provides:

  • Single-click updates
  • Integration to WooCommerce for business
  • Many blog options
  • Thumbnail navigation
  • Modern page layouts
  • Global custom options for style
  • Mobile support
  • Maximum width breakpoint
  • Images lazy-loading
  • Scrsets set to generate automatically
  • WebP format for images
  • Extensive user interface elements
  • Over 120 icons
  • Intuitive color section process
  • 16 different options for header layouts
  • 3 layouts for mobile headers
  • Adjustable footers

YOOtheme Pro Review: Pricing

Bad news first. Sadly, there’s nothing like a free package here.

And now for worse news. YOOtheme Pro doesn’t even offer a timed free-trial period.

The only two option you have? Basically, you’re expected to pay for any of the plans on offer to test it within a 30-day money back guarantee period. The second option is a demo that allows you to try out all their features, you can access the demo here.

That said, here are your options:

Developer- € 299

  • All Standard features
  • Unsplash integration
  • For WordPress and Joomla
  • Subscription for 12 months
  • Updates for unlimited sites 

Standard- € 99

  • All Basic features
  • Subscription for 12 months
  • Updates for 3 sites

Basic- € 49

  • Risk-free guarantee
  • Technical support
  • Regular updates
  • Access to all themes
  • Subscription for 3 months
  • Updates for 1 site

  

Who Should Consider Using YOOtheme Pro

YOOtheme Pro, just like any other web-based service out there, has its fair share of weaknesses. But, overall, it’s a pretty decent page builder for WordPress and Joomla. And it’s considerably impressive for a service that’s barely two months old.

At the moment, YOOtheme Pro is ideal for developers and individuals setting up blogs or personal websites. Providing full support to scalable online stores, however, is a different story altogether. That's best handled by builders that come with a full package of ecommerce optimization tools.

Davis Porter

Davis Porter is a B2B and B2C ecommerce pundit who’s particularly obsessed with digital selling platforms, online marketing, hosting solutions, web design, cloud tech, plus customer relationship management software. When he’s not testing out various applications, you’ll probably find him building a website, or cheering Arsenal F.C. on.

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