With over 610,000 licenses sold on ThemeForest, the Avada WordPress theme one of the world's best-selling premium themes. But what can the Avada theme do and what are its benefits and drawbacks? You'll find all the answers in this article.
Some love them, others hate them: so-called "multipurpose WordPress themes", which already come ready with different functions and design possibilities. The WordPress theme Avada is one and does indeed have a lot to offer. But what comes with the most successful WP theme and where are its strengths and weaknesses?
What is included in Avada?
Currently you can purchase the Avada theme at ThemeForest for $60 and get an unlimited license to use the theme for one domain. The license also includes six months of support from the development team Theme Fusion. You can find extensive documentation on the theme at https://theme-fusion.com/documentation/avada/.
Avada full package download
In your ThemeForest account, you can download the Avada full package under "downloads" and save it on your computer. After unpacking the 265 MB zip file on your local computer, you will get the Avada theme full package and the corresponding child theme (more on this later).
Additionally, there is a folder with all photoshop files of the standard demo site. There is also a language folder with translated language files. These can be installed later via FTP to translate specific English terms.
In the extras folder you will find documentation on the included premium sliders "Layer Slider" and "Revolution Slider".
Installation of Avada, child theme and plugins
You can install the files Avada.zip and Avada-child.zip in the WordPress dashboard under themes and activate the Avada child theme afterwards.
Child theme installation advantages:
- Own CSS modifications in the child ThemeForest CSS file
- All basic settings of the theme are saved in the child theme (topic updates + patches)
- PHP code additions can be placed in the supplied functions.php file
After activating the Avada child theme, you also need to activate the required plugins "Fusion Core" and "Fusion Builder" in the supplied plugins section. But you will also be reminded to do this.
In the area for Avada's own extensions, can select further premium and free plugins for activation. Among them are the sliders Layer Slider and Revolution Slider, ACF PRO, Convert Plus and many more.
Licensing for updates and support
To get updates and support for the Avada theme, you need to use a token key to activate it. You can get this token key through your ThemeForest account. How this works exactly is also described in the documentation and explained in a short video .
System requirements for the Avada theme
The Avada theme offers a good deal of features and, in turn, needs a lot of resources. You should therefore make sure you use a fast web hosting environment .
Under the tab "System Status", you can view information about your current WordPress and server environment. You should try to optimize areas marked in red:
Minimum server requirements for the Avada theme:
- WordPress 4.6 or higher
- PHP 5.6 or higher
- MySQL 5.6 or higher
Recommended PHP limits and configuration
- max_execution_time 180
- memory_limit 128M
- post_max_size 32M
- upload_max_filesize 32M
If you don't know how to adjust the PHP limits, just search for "WordPress max_execution_time" on Google. You can find plenty of how-to guides online.
Don't forget, at RAIDBOXES you can adjust the max_execution_time in your website settings with a single click.
For more information about Avada system requirements, check out the documentation in Requirements For Avada.
Avada demos
More than 40 demos for different industries and topics are available after the theme has been installed. The demos can be installed either as complete sites or page by page. With the demo import, however, it should be noted that the photos used are subject to copyright and should not be used or exchanged for your own website!
Here you will find an overview of all Avada demos: https://avada.theme-fusion.com/demos/
Avada theme options: basic settings and configuration
The Avada theme options are the heart of the theme. Here you can style and configure your complete website. The typography and colour scheme, the blog styling and much more - in the theme options you can make many detailed settings.
You should therefore factor in some time for a Training period so you can understand and make the best use of all settings. An overview of the Avada theme options can be found here.
Website layouts with fusion builder
For the design of your sites and articles you have your own page builder in the Avada theme. Fusion Builder offers you countless possibilities to design a website via drag and drop.
There simply isn't enough space in this article to list all the included features. But basically column layouts are built with responsive containers and design elements are used in these containers (headlines, images, text blocks, sliders). On theme-fusion.com you will find a comprehensive overview of the features that the Avada Fusion Builder includes.
Mobile first designs
A great feature can be found in the options for column containers. Here you can specify whether a container should be displayed only for mobile views (mobile phone, tablet) or only for desktop screens. This saves an enormous amount of time when it comes to mobile views.
Create, save, and reuse templates
Complete page layouts, containers and individual elements can be created in the Fusion Builder Library and can be saved and inserted again at any position. This saves you a lot of time when it comes to, for example, recurring page structures or call-to-action elements. "Global save" you can save multiple instances of a built element globally. Any changes you make to it later will be applied to all instances simultaneously.
Performance optimization in the Avada theme
In the theme options, there is also an area for performance optimization of your website. In this area, you can choose between options to combine CSS and JavaScript files, Lazy Load for delayed loading of images or deactivation of emoji scripts.
In addition to the performance options, you should consider installing a professional caching plugin, if your WordPress hoster does not provide server-side caching. I work with the Avada theme myself and so far I've been happy with WP Rocket .
The advantages and disadvantages at a glance
The advantages:
- Unlimited design possibilities for the creation of website layouts
- Own drag and drop page builder
- Many premium plugins included, such as "ACF Pro" and "Revolution Slider"
- Over 40 demo versions for immediate use
- 7 different header variants incl. top navigation and Sticky Header
- Save page layouts and elements in a library
- Create portfolio and FAQ sites
- Integrated cookie notice for data protection notice
- Optional deactivation of unneeded scripts
- Options for performance optimization
- Integrated mega menu for complex page navigation
- Advanced settings of the navigation menus incl. mobile menu
- WooCommerce compatible plus additional options
- Advanced options for internal search
- Many own sidebar widgets
- Install custom font files
- Extensive documentation
- Large community forum
The disadvantages:
- Long training period
- High minimum requirements for webhosting/server
- Additional caching plugin advisable for optimal performance
- Theme change is problematic because shortcodes remain
- Documentation only in English
- Theme updates require updates to the plugins "Fusion Core" and "Fusion Builder"
- Additional updates through fusion patches
- Translation of backend into European languages is partly incomplete
- Additional upload of the European language files is sometimes required
- Somewhat cumbersome licensing via a token key
- No frontend editor (will be added in version 6)
Helpful resources:
- Buy Avada theme from ThemeForest
- Avada Documentation
- Avada theme Support
- Avada Community Forum
- Facebook group from Avada Users
- Development Team Theme Fusion
My Final thoughts
It is safe to say that you really do have to factor in some time for training with the Avada theme. As the possibilities offered by this multipurpose theme are so extensive, you will only truly get to know some of them by trying them out first.
As a web designer, I work with this theme for my own website as well as for numerous customer projects. I also needed a fair amount of time to fully exploit all possibilities in the Avada theme. The design possibilities are virtually unlimited.
Avada is particularly well suited to creating large-scale websites, such as those for associations, larger companies or online shops. This theme is certainly too broad for a simple blog for which there are better solutions out there. If you're still holding out for a frontend editor such as Elementor, then you should wait until version 6 is released.
Picture: José Alejandro Cuffia | Unsplash
Do you have any further questions about using Avada, or would you like to share your experience with it? Then please leave me a comment!
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