Review of Startup Framework for WordPress

Startup Framework

I first came across Startup Framework from Designmodo a few months ago and was immediately impressed.

Startup is a collection of responsive and customisable components that can be combined to meet most needs. In the full version there are around 100 components such as:

• headers
• footers
• content blocks
• contact forms
• portfolio grids
• maps
• price tables

Both the design and code are clean and simple and the results look professional, without having to put in a great deal of effort. Startup has a similar concept to Blocks which is built on the Bootstrap CSS framework.

Startup Framework for WordPress

Last month I was invited to test drive Startup Framework for WordPress which combines the pre-designed components of Startup within a drag-and-drop interface within a WordPress theme.

I’ve only just managed to find the time to take it for a spin but what I’ve seen so far I’ve liked, even if the price seems a little steep: USD $149 per year for one website (inclusive of support and updates).

Theme

Startup Framework for WordPress installs as a theme. It seems to adds one new content type (SFW Pages) and the demo doesn’t give me access to the plugins so I can’t see whether the additional functionality is offered through plugins or built-into the theme itself.

What is added, however, is a new menu item: SFW Pages. This is where the majority of pages using this theme will be created. The default Pages option is still there but pages created using this appear to be simple and entirely centre-aligned, which seems odd.

Editing a page

When editing a SFW Page you see very little until you click the “Visual editor” button.

That opens up a new drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG interface:

Along the top is a link back to the SFW Pages screen, the name of the current page, and three buttons on the right than enable you to reorder the blocks, preview the page or save the page.

On the left is a list of components (more about those in a moment).

But the most space is given to the content of your page. Here, almost everything is customisable. When you hover over a component block a settings cog appears at the top right giving you access to edit the HTML and CSS, reset the block to default settings, or delete the block completely.

Clicking on any text drops in a text-insertion point enabling you to edit the text. Double-clicking or highlighting text reveals a context menu offering three options: bold, italic or create a link.

It is all very intuitive so far.

Components

The bread and butter of this theme, however, is the collection of pre-designed components which is available at any time from a list on the left. (While you are editing existing components this shrinks to a ‘hamburger’ icon.)

On the demo that I’ve tried these components are collected into the following categories:

• Headers
• Contents
• Price Tables
• Projects
• Contacts
• Crew
• Footers
• My Blocks

Hovering over each category reveals a number of pre-designed options for that category, for example Headers:

These can then be dragged and dropped (or clicked) to be added to your page design, and  then edited as appropriate.

Some components are more editable than others, such as background images, image fading or colour tinting, social media buttons, etc.

Reordering the blocks is a simple case of clicking the “Reorder Blocks” button, then drag and drop in the new view:

Conclusion

I have only a couple of criticisms about

The first is that, personally, I would like to see a few more simple header components. For some pages, you don’t need a massive image or a lot of white space at the top. But I do recognise that this is a design decision.

My second, any main concern, however is the price. At USD $149 (approx GBP £93) per year for a single site that is more than twice what I currently pay for Divi.

That said, I do recognise that a lot of work has gone into this framework and theme, and that it’s aimed primarily at business rather than for personal blogs.

Overall, I’ve been really impressed with Startup Framework for WordPress. If you need to create a beautiful, modern-looking and responsive website very quickly then you would be hard pressed to find anything to get the job quite as quickly as Startup, even if you used Divi from Elegant Themes which is my current favourite.