This is one of the hardest decisions I had to make when it comes to Dev4Press: Dev4Press will no longer make or sell themes for WordPress. From now on, the primary focus is on WordPress premium plugins.
The main element of Dev4Press themes was our own xScape Theme Framework. Years ago, with the first version of the framework, we had 8 themes released. They were moderately successful, but they were released in the time where the number of premium theme shops was still relatively low. Over time, xScape was getting older and new technologies were changing how themes were designed and made. Due to the rise of popularity of WordPress in the past 4-5 years, the number of theme shops was on the rise, Envato ThemeForest has expanded as the top player in the themes market. Huge (bloated) multipurpose themes became the hit.
So, in 2014, I have decided to revamp the xScape and create a new framework that will remain modular, feature-rich and lightweight. I decided to use Foundation for layout, grid, and other responsive components. xScape2 Theme Framework and 5 themes were released last year, and Dev4Press Network was immediately switched to new themes and a new framework. And, we have seen lower loading time, increase in the number of visits, lower loading times for our visitors and overall improved experience when using the website.
But, over the past 14 months, since the xScape2 Theme Framework was released, our themes were not selling as well as I have expected, and with the overall saturation of the themes markets, I guess that developers were not ready to get into the new framework that was made to do things a bit differently.
So, after a lot of time going back and forth, I have decided to stop trying to sell premium themes. Starting today, themes will not longer be available for sale on Dev4Press. But, I don’t plan to abandon xScape2 Theme Framework, so I have built a new theme around Foundation 6.2 and updated xScape2 for use on Dev4Press, and you can already see it working on this website.
What about themes licenses? They are all safe, and here is what you need to know:
- All current themes licenses will remain active until the expiration dates, but they will not be available for extension.
- All current and active themes licenses will be extended for another 6 months for free.
- You can continue to use our themes after the license expires (standard license terms, nothing changes with that).
What about the xScape2 Theme Framework? As I said, I will not abandon it, and Dev4Press websites will continue to use custom built themes around this framework. I will take some time to think about what to do with the framework, and most likely I will be open sourcing it some time next year, depending on the free time.
