Why are there so few Drupal Themes?

With Drupal being one of the larger CMS platforms out there, why is that there are few themes available for it. With Joomla, you see plenty of template clubs and some sold on DP. And with Wordpress you see so many on sale on DP and all over the web that you end up seeing the same templates with different names. And if you find a theme coder, then it seems that they are usually expensive, usually more than the others.

So I ask, why is it so hard to find themes for Drupal. You'll never see any for sale in the Template Sales section, and yet you see several people looking for them with no responses. I would figure that someone would want to fill that void. Why aren't there more theme clubs for drupal?

 

I found the same thing when I started using Drupal, no themes for what I needed. Many of the themes available are very plain too. I think this is because...

Maybe there is no theme clubs because themers think there is no demand. Drupal has a higher learning curve than Wordpress (In my opinion and I'm not sure about Joomla). The people that do stick with Drupal are more likely to have the knowledge to make their own theme.

Themers tend to make Wordpress themes as there is more Wordpress users who can't make a theme themselves and who just want to blog - so that's where there is lots of demand for theming.

Drupal with CCK + Views is the best imo and the lack of themes is letting it down.

 

I also read from a similar post on the Drupal.org forum, that many people don't consider creating free themes for Drupal, simply because the people who are more likely to use Drupal, are more likely to be serious coders themselves, or are more willing to 'flash the cash' to buy customised themes.

There is one thing I can do with Drupal, but not with WordPress, and that is to use the same installation/files for both the static content, and the blog (in seperate sub-folders). Either I haven't worked out how to do it in WP properly, or it just can't be done with the standard WP installation. And so because of that I'm looking at using Drupal, but without a large number of themes, I'm stuck trying to code my own theme, and fit it into Drupal, which is hard for me at the best of times.

So maybe there is a need for a Theme repository, similar to the WordPress one (http://www.wpdesigner.com), or something else. If I could code, and had the time, I would love to be a part of something like that.

 

Drupal is much harder to learn and master.
The core community is actual coders.

Wordpress is "too easy", so many people are attracted to it.

I've never tried to work on changing Drupal's default theme.
Does anyone know if the learning curve is tough?

 

At the moment I'm working on creating a theme using the Zen theme (http://drupal.org/project/zen) as the basis of my new theme.

It mainly involves simply changing the CSS file to create the look you want.

 

Cool, thanks...
I'm getting better with CSS, maybe I'll take the time to experiment.

/So much to do, and so little time.

 

I think Drupal is very focused on standards, so themes ive seen are built to a very high standard, yet very plain. Basically the attitude is "this is a basic template, its designed to a very high standard, if you want something flashy go ahead and use this as the basis for it"...that seems to be the prevailing thought, its one of the reasons Drupal will never have the market share with the average webmaster community that a product like wordpress, or joomla enjoy, even though it is a better "system"

If you got the time and the patience its well worth learning. I dont have either.

 

For newbies drupal are harder than the other CMS..so this is why not popular

 

I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone on this matter. I wonder if it would be possible to have themes like those from Rockettheme and the other clubs that seem to have lots of options and features. I would hope that someone would take advantage of the demand and put together a drupal theme club. Or maybe as people requesting themes, we should organize our own club/org that we can hire designers to create templates that we share and split the cost. Or at the least, maybe start a list of Drupal users that would be interested in joining a club and we could approach developers with it.

 

There are hundreds of themes: http://drupal.org/project/Themes

Also check out www.TopNotchThemes.com for paid ones.

 

We're all quite aware of how many there are, but they are all so generic. Some of us are looking for more specialised niche themes than the ones published on the Drupal Themes page.

And not all of us have the $300+ to have a custom made theme from Top Notch Themes made for a site which we don't plan to make money from.

 

The title of this thread is "Why are there so few Drupal Themes?" And those aren't custom, they're just nice ones that are designed for e-commerce and more sites. You wouldn't get a custom theme for $300, try $2k. No one should work for free, not even designers.

There are plenty of themes out there, and the free ones are much better then free WP ones imho. It's harder to find a good WP theme then it is a Drupal one, especially since all the free WP themes already have a thousand sites on them.

The other good thing about Drupal themes is that you can just use the Zen theme and build/change it as you go.

 

try building a theme for drupal and you would know. I myself got frustrated of this and wrote Jtemplate , Joomla templates on drupal , works for me ... but still work in progress.

You can check http://joodr.org/demo/ ( Its Drupal runing joomla theme )

 

Drupal sucks when it comes to themes. Both opensource and commercial. I think the reality is that it doesn't have the following that Joomla and Wordpress have. The big sites that use Drupal tend to develop themes specific for their site themselves.

I also find that the themes that do exist tend to look 'Drupaly'. I hope this changes.

I started with Drupal simply because I needed multi-levels of content catagorization and Drupal was the only CMS that did it for me. The learning curve was insane. Took me months and i'm still learning.

I can tell you.. from a SEO standpoint.. performance standpoint.. and feature standpoint.. Drupal is better than anything I've ever used.

Once I installed the location module, gmap module, and views.. I knew this was one powerful CMS and I love it.

 

Well, well, the Drupal team once wanted to start their market with Premium themes like Joomla, too, the drawback is they are already voted over Joomla cz' of its extensibility of coding. They then decided to just stay on top notch with their serious coding NOT THEMING.

This I heard from one of the team leaders there. Anyway, we have our voice when everyone stand up for that.

 

Hi, maybe you can find some new good looking themes over at itemplater.com or worthapost.com

 

I've used WordPress for a few months now and had no problems creating my own themes. It's really not difficult at all, and with a relatively small amount of coding and html experience most people could could do the same. Drupal themes are a totally different beast. I've tried hacking the default theme and although it's possible it's certainly MUCH more involved. I probably could produce a half-decent theme but right now I just don't have the time. That's why I'm just sticking with the default theme for the moment and concentrating on getting some useful content uploaded. I'd rather have a content-rich site that had a plain looking theme, but maybe I'm in the minority.

http://bangkok-library.com

 

drupal is harder than the other CMS

 

Checkout worthapost.com - they have some excellent themes.

 

I'm a fan of RoopleTheme - they have some excellent themes that are quite powerful, and well utilize the best aspects of Drupal.

I've always been interested in the long term - and I think Drupal is fundamentally a more powerful CMS - so I'd rather work with a paucity of themes than to have a CMS with tons of themes, but a poorer underlying code. Tis my opinion, anyway.

I'm more interested in getting some good content up than in having it look pretty... time to make it look pretty after I've got a good investment of quality material.