Although we are now living in the theme builder era whereby you can customize every single part of your WordPress site without coding, themes still have their own place (read: WordPress Theme vs Theme Builder). The fact is that most prominent WordPress themes now come with a theme builder feature to offer limitless customization options. Avada is one of WordPress themes that comes with a built-in theme builder feature — as well as a page builder feature. We have given the Avada theme a try and explored its built-in features and will show you in this post shortly.
The key features Avada offers include page builder, theme builder (although it doesn’t specifically call the feature “theme builder”), form builder, popup builder, WooCommerce builder, and premade websites. Read on to learn more.
Avada Theme: A Brief Intro
Avada — developed by ThemeFusion — is one of the most popular premium (paid) WordPress themes which is marketed exclusively via ThemeForest. Its concept is pretty similar to Divi whereby it includes a page builder — called Avada Live — as its built-in feature. You can use the feature to create the stunning static pages on your WordPress site. Just like other page builders Elementor and Divi Builder, Avada Live also offers a live editing experience with tens of design elements you can add to your page.
What set Avada apart from these days’ themes is that it doesn’t require a subscription fee. Instead, you only need to spend money once upon the theme purchase. The theme is available at $60. In addition to its built-in features, the price includes third-party premium plugins bundle and lifetime theme updates (theme updates, not technical support). Avada is by far the most selling WordPress theme on ThemeForest with over 700,000 sales.
Avada is a great fit if you want to develop a single website and don’t want to spend money on a yearly basis for theme updates, which is required if you use Divi and most premium themes nowadays.
A little note. Avada will replace the WordPress default editor (Gutenberg) upon activation with its page builder on all content creation areas, including blog post. You can disable it via theme options screen if you want to keep using Gutenberg on blog post creation.
Avada Theme: Built-in Features
1. Page Builder
You can play the video above to learn the interface of Avada Live.
As said earlier, Avada theme comes with a built-in page builder called Avada Live. Same as Divi Builder (the built-in page builder of the Divi Theme), Avada Live is also an integral part of the Avada theme. However, you need to activate the required plugins in order to make it work properly. The required plugins are Avada Core and Avada Builder. The two are included in the theme bundle. As you can see on the video above, the built-in page builder offers a live editing experience to help you create beautiful pages the modern way. The responsive editing feature ensures the page you are editing looks nice on every device.
You might have a question in mind. What is the difference between Avada Live and Avada Builder? It’s quite confusing indeed.
Avada Builder is a wireframe editor you can access from back-end. It allows you to build the page layout and add the content by easily dragging and dropping the elements to the columns of the page layout. Avada Live, meanwhile, is the front-end editor that offers a live editing experience. Every change you make is applied in real-time. Avada Live can’t work alone. It requires Avada Builder to work.
In other words, Avada Builder is required to create the page layout while Avada Live adds a live editing experience. The combination of the two offers a modern page editing experience just like Elementor and Divi Builder.
The built-in page builder comes with about 88 design elements (including WooCommerce elements):
| Alert | Menu | Toggles |
| Audio | Menu Anchor | Tooltip |
| Avada Form | Modal | Twitter Timeline |
| Avada Slider | Modal Text/HTML Link | User Login |
| Blog | News Ticker | User Lost Password |
| Breadcrumbs | One Page Text Link | User Register |
| Button | Person | Video |
| Chart | Popover | Views Counter |
| Checklist | Portfolio | Vimeo |
| Code Block | Post Cards | Widget |
| Content Boxes | Post Slider | Widget Area |
| Countdown | Pricing Table | Woo Cart Coupons |
| Counter Boxes | Progress Bar | Woo Cart Shipping |
| Counter Circles | Recent Posts | Woo Cart Table |
| Dropcap | Scroll Progress | Woo Cart Totals |
| Facebook Page | Search | Woo Checkout Billing |
| FAQ | Section Separator | Woo Checkout Order Review |
| Flickr | Separator | Woo Checkout Payment |
| Flip Boxes | Social Links | Woo Checkout Shipping |
| Gallery | Social Sharing | Woo Checkout Tabs |
| Google Map | Soundcloud | Woo Featured Products Slider |
| Highlight | Star Rating | Woo Notices |
| Icon | Syntax Highlighter | Woo Product Carousel |
| Image | Table | Woo Product Grid |
| Image Before & After | Tabs | Woo Shortcode |
| Image Carousel | Tag Cloud | Woo Sorting |
| Image Hotspots | Tagline Box | Woo Up/Cross-sells |
| Lightbox | Testimonials | YouTube |
| Lottie Animation | Text Block | |
| Media Slider | Title |
In addition to design elements above, you will also get the following features when editing a page:
— Global Settings
Global settings allow you to work smartly and more efficiently. The feature is especially useful if you always start your website project by creating the design system. You can define everything upfront before you start creating the pages and other elements of your website. From colors to typography settings (font size, style, font family, etc).
With global settings, you can apply a certain change to multiple elements at once. For instance, you can change the colors of header, background, and font at once from the global settings panel — as long as the elements you want to change the colors of use a global color. Global settings are a common feature on page builders. Elementor and Divi Builder also have the feature.
The global settings you can set on Avada include:
- Colors
- Typography
- Layout
You can define the global settings via theme panel.
— Responsive Editing
Responsive editing is another common feature offered by page builder plugins. With the feature, you can make sure the page you are creating looks nice on every device type (desktop, tablet, and smartphone) by using custom settings on certain elements (e.g., margin and padding). You can also hide unnecessary elements on certain device types. Thanks to the feature, you can also implement the mobile-first web development in case your target audience is smartphone users.
In Avada Live, you can use a different setting for each device type by clicking the device icon on the associated setting.
— Dynamic Content
WordPress comes with some default dynamic content that you can use on your designs (page or site parts — header, footer, etc.). Featured image, post title, and post meta are examples of the default dynamic content of WordPress.
The ability to add dynamic content is crucial to create a dynamic website with WordPress. Be it a blog, listing site, or e-commerce. Thankfully, Avada Live supports dynamic content to allow you to display the dynamic content to any area you like. The dynamic content types supported by Avada Live include:
- Post featured image
- Site logo
- Author ava
- Site title
- Site tagline
- Page title
- Post excerpt
- Post meta (date, time, etc.)
- Author name
- Author Description
And several other dynamic content types.
In addition to the default dynamic content, Avada also allows you to add custom fields. We have tested displaying custom fields created with ACF and worked perfectly.
— Image Masking
The image masking feature allows to turn an image into a unique shape. It works by adding a foreground layer to the image to cover some portions of the image.
Avada offers 18 default mask shapes and you can add a custom mask to create a unique image masking. You can use an SVG or PNG file to add a custom mask.
— Animation Effects
First impression is crucial for new visitors. You can attract your new visitors’ attention by applying animation effects to some areas of your website. Avada Live comes with some built-in animation effects which you can add to the elements of the page you are editing. The animation effect types offered by Avada Live are:
- Entrance animation
- Hover effect for image and column
— Display Condition for Columns
Display condition is a feature that allows you to show/hide an element based on certain criteria. With this feature, you can show an element only to a specific audience (e.g., those who access your website from smartphone). Avada Live comes with this feature. Unfortunately, the feature is currently only applicable to columns. As a comparison, the same feature is applicable to rows, columns, and modules in Divi Builder.
The display condition feature of Avada Live allows you to show/hide a column based on the following parameters:
- Device type
- Variable
- User agent (web browser)
- User role
- User state (logged in/logged out)
- Custom field
- Cart status
- Sale status
- Stock quantity
If you want to use Avada to create an e-commerce website, the last three parameters will be useful.
2. Theme Builder
As stated in the opening section, a theme builder allows you to customize every single part of your WordPress site without coding skills required. Elementor, Divi Builder, to Brizy have this feature to give limitless customization options over your website.
Avada also offers the same feature although it doesn’t explicitly mention the feature as “theme builder”. Instead, it uses the term “layout builder”. The Layout Builder feature of Avada has precisely the same function as Elementor Theme Builder and Divi Theme Builder whereby it allows you to create custom templates for theme parts such as header, footer, archive pages, single post, single page, to 404 page. The custom templates you created can be edited using Avada Live.
The custom templates can be used on the entire website (as global templates) or specific areas. For instance, you can assign a particular single post template to posts under a category or tag.
If you use WooCommerce, you can also use the feature to create custom template for single product and product archive pages. Furthermore, you can also create a custom template for a custom post type.
With the fact that Avada Live supports custom fields, the Layout Builder feature allows you to go beyond.
3. Popup Builder
Want to create a popup on your website? If you use Avada theme, you don’t need to install an extra popup builder plugin as Avada already has a built-in popup builder feature. Same as the theme builder above, Avada doesn’t use the term “popup builder”. Instead, it uses the term “off canvas”. The point is that the feature allows you to create popups on your website. The popup can be created using either Avada Builder or Avada Live.
In addition to popups, you can also use the feature to create sliding bars (useful to create an off-canvas menu).
The Off Canvas Builder of Avada comes with a wide range of features, including display conditions to allow you to set where the off canvas to appear, trigger type to set when the off canvas to appear, to ability to customize the off canvas elements (close button, overlay, etc.)
4. Form Builder
Form is one of the online marketing tools. You can use a form to collect email addresses of your visitors or other types of data according to your needs. Avada comes with a built-in form builder feature to allow you to create forms on your website. You can use it whether to create a contact form or email opt-in form. You can integrate your form with Mailchimp and HubSpot. You can also edit your form with Avada Live so that you can create a stunning form.
The Form Builder feature of Avada supports the following actions:
- Save to database
- Send to URL (you can select this option to send form submissions to a form backend service like Getform, Formcarry, and Formspree
- Send to email
- Save to database and send to email
If you prefer to save the form submissions to database, Avada has provided you with a submission manager to manage the submissions.
Furthermore, Avada also allows you to display the form to logged users only based on their user roles.
While the form builder feature is useful enough, it has drawbacks on third-party service integrations. Currently, you can only integrate your form with Mailchimp and HubSpot (read: MailChimp alternatives for WordPress).
The form builder of Avada supports the following field types:
- Checkbox
- Date
- Hidden
- Honeypot
- Image Select
- Notice
- Number
- Password
- Phone Number
- Radio
- Range
- Rating
- reCAPTCHA\Select
- Text
- Text Area
- Time
- Upload
5. Premium Plugins Bundle
Another good news you might be excited about is that Avada is bundled with several premium WordPress plugins. After installing and activating the Avada theme, you can go to its theme panel to install the following plugins:
- Slider Revolution ($85)
- LayerSlider ($23/year)
- Convert Plus ($23)
- FileBird ($39)
- The Events Calendar
- ACF Pro ($49/year)
Unfortunately, not all plugins really give you access to their premium features. Slider Revolution, for instance, doesn’t allow you to access its premade templates if you don’t register to premium version. So does Convert Plus. The plugin doesn’t even allow you to integrate your form with any email marketing service. So basically, installing and activating this plugin is useless.
Two premium plugins that are fully functional are FileBird and ACF Pro.
6. Font Awesome Integration
The use of icons is very common in today’s age. You can add an icon on any element on your pages. From buttons, lists, etc. Font Awesome is a font vendor widely used by page builders. The built-in Font Awesome integration in Avada allows you to use icons from Font Awesome. The icon collections are divided into three subsets:
- Brands
- Regular
- Solid
If you have a Font Awesome Pro account, you can unlock the Light subset as well.
Avada also makes it possible if you want to use your own icon set.
7. Custom Fonts
Just like most WordPress themes and page builder plugins, Avada also makes use of Google Fonts to provide users with font family collections. You can use popular free font families like Roboto, Montserrat, etc. Want to use a custom font instead? You can also do so in Avada. You can use font formats like WOFF, TTF, EOT, to SVG for your custom font.
Until version 7.6.1, Avada hasn’t supported integration with Adobe Fonts yet. If you want to use a font from Adobe Fonts, you need to download it first and then upload it via theme panel of Avada.
8. Custom Branding/White Label
Custom branding is crucial if you are a web agency who develops and manages websites for clients. Avada, same as Jupiter, comes with a custom branding to allow you to remove all Avada’s attributes from the WordPress dashboard and replace them with your company’s attributes. Also, the feature makes it possible for you to remove the WordPress’ attributes from the dashboard. Furthermore, you can also rename the menu labels on the WordPress dashboard.
Want to customize the login page? It is also possible in Avada. You can set things like background color, background image, logo, disable lost password link, and so on.
To be able to use the custom branding feature of Avada, you need to install the Avada Custom Branding plugin first. The plugin is included in the theme bundle. You can install and activate it via Avada theme panel.
9. Premade Websites
Most premium WordPress themes — including Jupiter and Newspaper — offer premade websites to allow you to get a website done more quickly. A premade website consists of pages, posts, custom templates, and other required elements (including demo content such as blog posts, project pages, etc.,). In Avada, you can import a premade website with just a few clicks. The rest is Avada’s turn.
Once the importing process is done, you can tailor the default content by replacing it with your own content. There are over 80 premade websites offered by Avada you can choose from. Before importing a premade, you can preview it first.
The Verdict – Avada Theme Review
Avada is one of the most popular paid WordPress themes. It is a multipurpose theme. Meaning that Avada is not designed specifically for a specific website type. You can use Avada to create any type of website. From blogs, e-commerce sites, to listing sites. Unlike some themes that rely on Elementor, Visual Composer, to Gutenberg, Avada comes with its own page builder aimed at making it easier to create pages.
An important thing to note. Avada will disable Gutenberg (the default editor of WordPress) upon activation. So, if you still want to use Gutenberg (to create blog posts, for instance), you need to change the default settings right after activating the theme.
Avada is a great fit for a single project, especially if you hate the subscription-based payment model adopted by most WordPress themes these days. You only need to spend $60 once upfront and can use the theme as long as you need it. More importantly, you will always have access to a newer version when available.
Avada is bundled with several paid WordPress themes, including FileBird, ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) Pro, to Slider Revolution — although not all of these plugins give access to their premium features.
The premade websites offered by Avada will make it easier for you to get a website done.
Here are the key features offered by Avada, as we have elaborated above:
- Page Builder
- Theme Builder
- WooCommerce Builder
- Popup Builder
- Form Builder
- Premium Plugins Bundle
- Font Awesome Integration
- Custom Fonts
- Custom Branding/White Label
- Premade Websites
Avada Pros:
- Comprehensive features
- One-time purchase
- Lifetime access to new updates
- Custom branding
Avada Cons:
- Requires plugins to use page builder
- Several premium plugins in the bundle are useless
- Lack of email marketing integrations
