Flatsome Reviews

To build a WordPress or WooCommerce website, you don’t have to be an expert programmer. You just have to install a good theme and customize it. Flatsome is one such theme. 

Read on as I review Flatsome to find out if the theme is ideal for a WordPress website. 

What Is Flatsome?

Flatsome is a bestselling theme for WordPress and WooCommerce websites. The theme was developed by UX Themes and is a premium theme.

With Flatsome, you can build an online shop, business website, company website, or any other type of website on WordPress. 

This theme makes website building seamless. It features a Live Builder that you can use to easily and quickly design your webpages.

This Live Builder features a large element library with all the building blocks and widgets you’ll need. 

Also, there are several demo sites – already designed – that you can just import and use.

Everything can be fully customized thanks to the Theme Options and UX Themes that optimized Flatsome for speed using minimal codes. 

As mentioned earlier, Flatsome is a bestseller. The theme has sold more than 154,000 copies on the popular WordPress themes and plugin market, Themeforest.

On Themeforest, it has an average of 4.8 stars out of 5 from 6,200+ ratings. 

Who Can Use Flatsome? 

Flatsome is a WordPress theme focused on WooCommerce.

The demo templates featured on Flatsome are mainly eCommerce templates so building an eCommerce site is easiest.

With the live builder and its element library, you can build any other type of WordPress website. 

Both WordPress experts and beginners can use Flatsome. With its demo content, almost no technical experience is needed as it takes just one-click to import the content.

Developers can use the theme too as it can be customized with custom CSS and other codes. 

Furthermore, anyone can use Flatsome irrespective of the audience they are targeting. The theme has WPML support and is already translated into over twelve languages.

How To Set Up

The Flatsome theme can be installed just like every other WordPress theme. First, you should purchase the Flatsome theme from Themeforest and download it to your computer. Also, download the theme files and license files.

Navigate to your WP dashboard and choose the Themes option under Appearance. Select Add New Theme and upload the theme.

Upload the theme from where it’s saved on your PC and then click on upload. Activate Flatsome and follow the setup procedure.

The first step is to enter your Envato code to verify your Themeforest purchase. You can get your Envato code from the license file downloaded earlier. 

You can set up a child theme if you want and after that, you install all the needed plugins.

Finishing up, you can import the demo content and upload your website’s logo.

Importable Demo Sites

You can import Flatsome demo content as you install the theme. This includes posts, pages, blocks, products, portfolios, etc.

The importable demo sites are packs of page templates. You can access them from your Flatsome dashboard after installing the theme.

Since the theme is focused on eCommerce, there are two categories of demo sites features; shop sites and business sites. 

There are 21 demo sites in total including 15 shop sites and 6 business websites. Importing these demo sites to your WordPress website is easy as the theme uses the One-Click demo import plugin.

Aside from these importable demo sites, there is the Flatsome Studio. This studio features different website layouts and sections that you can easily insert into your website.

It comes with free-to-use images and there are new designs added every month.

Elements Library

The Flatsome theme features a library of highly customizable elements. These elements are featured within the page builder and they serve as a framework for building websites using Flatsome or customizing the existing templates.

Some of the basic website building elements featured in the Flatsome elements library include sections, rows/columns, sliders, logo, banners, typography, buttons, blog posts, titles/dividers, banner grids, scroll to, etc.

There are media elements including multiple images, video, galleries, video buttons, image box, lightbox, portfolio, and map.

The eCommerce elements featured include product categories, products, portfolio,  testimonials, countdown, etc. 

Other elements featured in the Flatsome library include Instagram feed, accordion, search box, price table, forms, flipbook, etc.

From the page builder, you simply need to drag and drop these elements anywhere on the page you’re designing. 

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UX Builder (Page Builder)

The UX builder is one of the latest inclusions to the Flatsome theme. It is a responsive front-end page builder which the developers describe as “revolutionary”.

With the drag and drop functionality, anyone will find this page builder easy to use. The builder features the previously discussed element library where you can source layout elements.

It’s a responsive page builder which means that all pages you design with the UX builder are responsive by default. In addition, you can customize different options for mobile, desktop, and tablet devices.

Notably, the page builder features a slider and banner system. This lets you create unique sliders and builders for web pages. The Flatsome UX builder is very fast as it was developed using the Angular mobile and desktop web application builder.

Header Designer

With the Flatsome Header Designer tool, you can create any type of header for your website. The Header Designer features building elements just like the page builder, but you can customize your elements with HTML and shortcodes.

Some of the featured elements in the Header designer include Menus, Navigation Icon, Search Icon, Mini Cart, My Account, Social Icons, Newsletter, Buttons, Search Form, Wishlist, etc.

The Header Designer features unlimited navigation styles for menus and other header options. There are the dropdown style and off-canvas navigation amongst others.

You can use this designer to create separate page headers for mobile versions of your webpages. While building mobile headers, you can use any of the standard header elements the builder features.

They will be automatically customized to fit on mobile screens.

Content Importer

As mentioned earlier, the content importer featured in the Flatsome theme is the One-Click Demo Importer.

From the Flatsome dashboard within your WordPress dashboard, you can access the list of available importable sites and page templates.

To use the content importer, simply select any of your preferred content demos and click import.

You can choose what and what pages you want to import their content; you mustn’t import everything.

This is also featured in the Flatsome setup process immediately after activating the theme.

After importing demo content with Flatsome, one problem you’ll have is the gray images.

This is because the images featured in the demo content are not imported; they are copyrighted images. You should replace the gray images with your images.

Customization Options

You can access Flatsome customization options via the Live Theme Options Panel. It’s a live panel, so changes are previewed once effected without you having to save.

Some of the top options include changing global theme colors, setting global layout mode, custom site width, live CSS editing, etc.

Notably, you can customize site-wide fonts. There are more than 700 fonts available thanks to an integration with Google Fonts.

Users do get issues of missing Theme Options Panel. This is caused by a low WordPress memory limit and can be resolved by increasing it.

There are also customization options within the UX builder. With this, you can quickly customize pages and elements. The UX Builder is live, so you can preview changes instantly too.

Responsive Design Settings

Basically, Flatsome demo sites are responsive. Also, the pages you build with the UX builder are responsive by default. However, there are still different design options to customize your website’s responsiveness.

While building with the UX builder, you can easily switch to mobile or tablet view to customize your page appearance on these device types.

You can switch this by clicking any of the device icons featured on the right side of the UX builder interface.

The responsive design options you’ll find on the left customization tab will depend on what element you’re working on. Generally, you can edit the height, width, and position of page elements, amongst others.

Furthermore, you can add elements to display only on a particular device. For instance, you can set an image to display only on mobile and not desktop or tablet. 

Theme Builder Functionality

Flatsome doesn’t have any particular feature for theme building. However, it can still function as a theme builder.

First of all, the UX Builder can be used to create all the pages you’ll need for a theme. You can create homepages, contact, about, service, blog post, portfolio, blog layout pages, etc.

Next, there’s the Header Designer. As discussed earlier, you can use this Header Designer to create any type of page header you want. It features its own header elements.

Flatsome also features a Footer Designer for creating very flexible footers. To make things even easier, you can replace a footer with a building block so you can customize it directly from your page builder.

With these three builders & designers, you can create all the necessary parts of your theme.

Translation & Multilingual Support

Flatsome is compatible with WPML. While installing the theme, WPML core plugins are among the required plugins for the theme to work.

All pages you create with the UX builder and demo sites imported are translatable into over 12 languages.

To translate, you simply need to send the content for translation via the WPML Translation Management section.

Doing this is easy as there’s a setup wizard to guide you through the process on the Translation Management Page.

Another way to translate is by using the plus icon in the WPML language meta box from the page or post editing screen.

Aside from posts and pages, you can also translate UX Blocks, categories, tags, menus, and texts from other places like other themes, plugins, WooCommerce. Flatsome also supports Loco translate.

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SEO

Flatsome is a theme you can count on when it involves search engine optimization. The theme was designed using minified codes which make it very fast.

The target by UX themes was to make Flatsome the fastest multi-purpose theme on the market and one loved by Google Search Engine. 

Flatsome recorded a 98/100 score on the Google Page Speed test, 100/100 score on the Desktop UX test, and 100/100 score on the Mobile UX test.

The theme images and backgrounds load on Smart Lazy loading so they don’t affect page speeds.

Responsiveness is another feature that makes Flatsome great for SEO. The theme builder and page templates are auto-responsive so they’ll fit properly on mobile devices. 

Finally, Flatsome comes with an integration of two notable WordPress SEO tools – Yoast SEO and Rank Math. 

Support For WooCommerce

ECommerce with WooCommerce was one of the core reasons for the development of the Flatsome theme. The theme has maximum support for WooCommerce with optimal features.

Some of Flatsome’s WooCommerce features include Live Product Search, Product Quick View, Sale Bubble Options, Quick Add To Cart Button, Add To Wishlist, etc.

All the shop templates and demo sites featured in this theme were built for WooCommerce.

The theme features a product page builder for building any type of product page. You can add product videos, product variations, product gallery options, etc.

Furthermore, there are different product header options you can choose from.

Notably, Flatsome features catalog mode. This allows you to display products on your WooCommerce shop without selling them. Y

ou can show or hide prices and replace add to cart with any other option. 

Third-Party Integrations

You can integrate Flatsome with several third-party platforms and plugins.

To start with, the theme integrates seamlessly with the WooCommerce plugin for eCommerce and the WPML plugin for translation. 

It integrates with Google Fonts to give users more than 700 fonts to choose from. For SEO, Flatsome integrates with Yoast and Rank Math; you can use any of the two you prefer.

Flatsome integrates with UberMenu. This integration allows you to create more flexible menus for your page headers.

You can display a directing map on your store via the Google Maps integration.

Other platforms and plugins Flatsome integrates with include Contact Form 7, Nextend Google Connect, Nextend Facebook Connect, Regenerate Thumbnails, and Sensei.

You can access all available Flatsome integrations from your dashboard under the advanced section. 

Support & Documentation

Premium support from the developer is offered to Flatsome users for six months after they purchase them.

This support is offered on Themeforest and can be extended for another six months at an extra charge. If your license isn’t active or official, you won’t get a reply. 

Aside from that, users can get support from the Flatsome website via the FAQ section or the documentation.

In the documentation section, there are articles on theme installation, navigation, shortcodes, widgets, post types, how-tos, WooCommerce, etc. 

The documentation section doesn’t feature only articles, it also features demonstration videos. There is a Flatsome community on Facebook with more than 27,000 members.

Hence, users can get help from each other.

Flatsome Pricing

You can get Flatsome on Themeforest. The theme uses Themeforest’s pricing model which involves purchasing licenses. The available licenses include:

• Regular License – $59 per year 
• Extended License – $2950 per year

With the regular and extended license, you get six months of support from UX-themes. This can be extended to 12 months with extra payments, which include:

• Regular License Support – $17.63
• Extended License Support – $881.25

Flatsome Rating

Ease Of Use

Installing Flatsome is easy once you’ve purchased and downloaded the file. With demo sites, content, and the one-click demo import, your site can be up and running in no time. Ease of use is 4.5 stars out of 5 for Flatsome. 

Features

Flatsome has all the features needed to build good web pages for WordPress websites. For features, it is rated 4 stars out of 5. 

Customer Service

Flatsome customer service is great. However, it only lasts for six months with a license unless an extra fee is paid. Not all users can afford such and for that, it is rated 3.8 stars out of 5 for their customer service. 

Value For Money

Flatsome’s annual charge for a standard license isn’t very expensive. For a theme that you can use to build almost any type of website, it offers high value for money. It is 4.5 stars out of 5.

Is Flatsome Legit?

Flatsome is a genuine WordPress and WooCommerce theme which is why it is highly rated by over 6,000 customers.

The theme has been around for a long time and there haven’t been any major complaints about its legitimacy. It was created in 2013 when it was first launched on Themeforest. 

Finally, UX Themes, the theme developer, is a power elite author on Envato (Themeforest). For context, out of the thousands of themes and developers featured on Themeforest, there are less than 150 power elite authors.

These are themes that have sold more than $1M on the Envato market, and if Flatsome wasn’t legit, it wouldn’t have gotten this badge. 

Flatsome Pros 

• Demo sites
• One-click demo importer
• Search engine optimized
• Drag and drop builder
• Header & Footer builders
• Live theme customization
• Elements library
• Support for WooCommerce
• Third-party integration
• Reliable support

Flatsome Cons

• Not many demo sites
• Support lasts for just six months

Best Flatsome Theme Alternatives

1. Avada

Avada is a WordPress and WooCommerce website builder and theme. It is being used by more than 650,000 website owners and is the top-selling WordPress theme of all time.

Compared to Flatsome and other similar tools, Avada features up to 79 pre-built websites. After installing the theme and builder, select a demo website and install. Importing is with the One-Click Demo importer just as with Flatsome.

Avada is a default responsive theme so it’ll appear perfect on every device. The page builder has over 70 design elements which are more than what’s featured in the Flatsome UX builder.

While you have to walk around Flatsome to create themes, Avada features a theme builder. Also, it features a WooCommerce builder for creating product pages and others for an online store.

Avada features more notable integration than Flatsome. This includes Slider Revolution, Convert Plus, Layer Slider, ACF, etc – these are premium plugins you get for free.

2. BeTheme 

BeTheme is a multipurpose WordPress theme. The theme is a light one as the package is just 8 MB in size. 

BeTheme triumphs over Flatsome when it comes to demo sites. While Flatsome features just 21 demo sites, BeTheme features more than 600 demo sites which can all be installed with one click. In fact, these demo sites can be customized with Elementor.

Aside from Elementor, BeTheme features a native page builder – the Muffin Builder. There are theme options for site-wide customizations and separate header and footer builders. 

Like Flatsome, BeTheme is responsive-ready, WPML compatible, and great for SEO. It supports WooCommerce with more than 200 store building elements.

The theme integrates with MailChimp, Contact Form 7, BuddyPress, Yoast, W3 Total Cache, and several other third-party plugins and platforms.

Check out how Avada and BeTheme square up against each other. 

Conclusion 

Flatsome is a recommended WordPress and WooCommerce theme and website builder. 

The theme has so many pros with just a few cons and it is not so expensive.