Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Theme Forest VS MainWP

Compare Theme Forest VS MainWP and see what are their differences

Theme Forest logo Theme Forest

The #1 marketplace for premium website templates, including themes for WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Joomla, and more. Create a website, fast.

MainWP logo MainWP

A Free, Open-source, & Self-hosted one-stop solution to manage Unlimited WordPress websites from a single dashboard. MainWP is the only management plugin with 2000+ โญโญโญโญโญ reviews on WP.org
  • Theme Forest Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-28
  • MainWP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-02

MainWP is a suite of open-source self-hosted plugins & extensions for users that have multiple WordPress sites and want to control them from one central location. This includes sites on different hosts or servers.

Once you have connected your sites (called Child Sites) to your Dashboard, you can do almost anything from your MainWP Dashboard that you would be able to do from your Child sites wp-admin.

Combined with the MainWP extensions, here's a glimpse of what you can do to manage hundreds of WordPress websites effortlessly:

๐Ÿ’ฐ Free Forever

๐Ÿท White Label

โ™พ๏ธ Connect Unlimited Websites

๐Ÿ‘ฅ Organize Sites in Groups

๐Ÿ•’ Uptime & Site Health Monitoring

๐Ÿšฉ Lighthouse

๐Ÿ”„ Effortless Bulk Updates

๐Ÿšง Staging, Clone

๐Ÿ“ Client Reports

๐Ÿ”’ Full Privacy, Self-hosted

๐Ÿ”— Security & Backup Integrations

๐Ÿ˜Œ Bulk Content Management (Draft, Publish, Edit, Trash)

๐Ÿ’ฌ Comments

๐Ÿ›  Maintenance

๐Ÿ›ก Security

๐Ÿ“ˆ SEO, Traffic, etc. Analytics

๐Ÿš€ Rocket

And a lot more ๐Ÿ‘‰ https://mainwp.com/mainwp-extensions/

The MainWP plugin is 100% FREE, forever! However, MainWP Pro offers a wide range of 30+ premium Extensions at a single price. The extensions aren't required, but they extend the functionality to improve your workflows.

During the subscription, you'll get Priority Support, Important security & performance updates, and access to all new extensions.

  • Monthly: $29/mon

  • Yearly: $199/year

  • Lifetime: $499 (One-time)

MainWP

Website
mainwp.com
$ Details
freemium $29.0 / Monthly (32+ Premium Extensions & Priority Support)
Platforms
Browser Web Wordpress WooCommerce
Release Date
2014 January

Theme Forest features and specs

  • Wide Selection
    ThemeForest offers a vast array of themes and templates for various platforms, including WordPress, Joomla, and HTML, thus catering to a large audience with diverse needs.
  • Quality and Design
    The themes available on ThemeForest are generally well-designed and visually appealing, often coming with modern and professional designs that can enhance the look of your website.
  • Regular Updates
    Many themes on ThemeForest are regularly updated by their developers, ensuring compatibility with the latest versions of platforms and incorporating new features and security updates.
  • Customer Reviews and Ratings
    The platform includes customer reviews and ratings for each theme, allowing buyers to make informed decisions based on the experiences of others.
  • Support and Documentation
    Most themes come with detailed documentation and support from the developers, which can be very helpful in setting up and customizing the themes.

Possible disadvantages of Theme Forest

  • Cost
    Unlike free themes, the themes on ThemeForest come with a price tag, and some of the premium themes can be relatively expensive.
  • Inconsistent Quality
    While many themes are of high quality, there can be inconsistencies since different developers create them. Therefore, some themes may not meet the same standards.
  • Licensing Issues
    ThemeForest uses a split licensing model, which can sometimes cause confusion regarding what is covered under the license and how you can use the themes.
  • Complex Customization
    Highly customizable themes can sometimes be overly complex for beginners, requiring a steep learning curve or additional development skills to fully utilize.
  • Support Limitations
    Although many themes come with support, the level and quality of support can vary. Some developers offer limited support, which might not be sufficient for all users.

MainWP features and specs

  • Monitoring
  • Backups
  • Staging
  • Google Analytics
  • Core Web Vitals
  • Client Reporting
  • SEO
  • White label
  • WordPress plugin

Analysis of Theme Forest

Overall verdict

  • Yes, ThemeForest is considered a good resource for purchasing themes due to its extensive library, quality standards, and supportive community. However, potential buyers should carefully evaluate each theme's ratings, reviews, and developer support to ensure they meet their specific requirements.

Why this product is good

  • ThemeForest is a well-known marketplace for purchasing website themes and templates. It offers a vast selection of themes across various platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, which cater to different design preferences and functionality needs. The themes on ThemeForest are created by talented developers and designers and undergo a review process to ensure quality. Additionally, the platform provides user ratings and reviews, which can help buyers make informed decisions.

Recommended for

  • Web developers seeking a diverse array of theme options.
  • Businesses and individuals looking for professional and affordable website design solutions.
  • Anyone who values customer reviews and ratings before making a purchase decision.

Theme Forest videos

DO NOT BUY Any Wordpress Theme Until You Watch This! (Envato Market/Theme Forest)

MainWP videos

How to Manage Multiple Websites with ManageWP on Wordpress (MainWP Alternative)

More videos:

  • Review - Manage and control all your WordPress sites with MainWP
  • Review - Using MainWP for Client Website Maintenance (a biased review)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Theme Forest and MainWP)
WordPress Themes
100 100%
0% 0
WordPress
58 58%
42% 42
Tool
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
100 100%
0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Theme Forest and MainWP.

What makes your product unique?

MainWP's answer:

It's Open Source, Self-hosted, and privacy-focused WordPress plugin.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

MainWP's answer:

Digital Agencies, Freelancers, Developers, in fact, everyone who has multiple WordPress websites.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

MainWP's answer:

It's Privacy-Focused and affordableโ€”single pricing to get everything.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

MainWP's answer:

Can't disclose that, however, as per our public stats on wp .org, 10k+ users are managing over 600,000 WordPress sites which makes 60 sites on average.

User comments

Share your experience with using Theme Forest and MainWP. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Theme Forest should be more popular than MainWP. It has been mentiond 65 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Theme Forest mentions (65)

View more

MainWP mentions (8)

  • Managing Performance Across 50+ WordPress Sites Without Burning Out
    MainWP offers another centralized management option that's self-hosted on your infrastructure, which works well if you want full control over the management layer without relying on external services. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Flat Rate Website Acceleration Tools for Agencies
    MainWP is a management dashboard making plugin deployment and monitoring simpler. Pairs well with free optimization plugins if you control hosting. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Does WP-CLI have a command to detect out-of-date plugins?
    I've inherited about 40+ of wordpress sites and I need to produce a report on any plugins that are no longer maintained. I know that MainWP can do this but I would like to be able to run a search through the command line so that I can export into a spreadsheet. I need a centralized report that I can pass around other people in order to make larger decisions. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Website Developer Mentor - side job
    Each site is connected to MainWP. This allows us to monitor and patch all sites from a central place. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Nextcloud checking wordpress sites for updates?
    Currently I use mainwp.com from one WP site, but I thought it would be kinda neat to just see it on my daily Nextcloud homepage. Source: over 4 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Theme Forest and MainWP, you can also consider the following products

Creative Market - Buy and sell handcrafted, mousemade design content like vector patterns, icons, photoshop brushes, fonts and more at Creative Market.

ManageWP - ManageWP is a service for bloggers, site owners and web based companies helping them manage multiple WordPress sites from one dashboard.

Elegant Themes - Simple, yet beautiful WordPress themes with easy to use implementation and support.

InfiniteWP - Manage unlimited https://alternativeto.net/software/wordpress/ sites from a central admin panel.

CodeCanyon - Scripts and Snippets From $1 for PHP, JavaScript, ASP.NET, CSS, Plugins, HTML5, Mobile and more

WP Umbrella - The easiest way to manage multiple WordPress websites effortlessly.