The Best Classified Ads WordPress Themes

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The classified ads business model is one that has worked for many people, in a range of different markets, for people who want to buy and sell cars, or sell CD’s & Mini-disks or those looking to take their piece of the second-hand market. Many classified ads websites are built and nurtured into thriving communities, and can quickly start to turn a profit with minimal investment and marketing. With the right idea, subject and a bit of passion, you too can have your own online business, based on a great WordPress classified ads theme.

I’m no stranger to working with Classified Ads themes, I recently undertook the task of creating my own classified ads website – which is aimed at helping families buy dogs and puppies from reputable breeders. A site still in its infancy, but growing steadily. I wrestled over the various WordPress themes out there on which to build my thriving new community, and in many ways, this article is born out of my exploration of all those options, I spent hours testing and using the themes you’ll find listed below to make the right choice for my project; to build a profitable community driven classified ads website.

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There are several premium themes in the classified advertising niche, and hopefully this article will save you some time and help you make a decision about which classified ads theme is right for you. Each theme reviewed comes with a star rating, which takes into consideration a number of factors, including:

Ease of set up and configuration
User Interface and front end options
Price tag/ Value for Money
Complex Functionality
Robustness

ClassiPress

[rating=5]

$99

GET THEME Developer Theme Demo Admin Demo

There’s no way to have a list of the best classified ads themes without mentioning this amazing theme by App Themes. If you’ve done any research into these types of WordPress themes, chances are you’ll already have come across Classipress. It’s the most popular classified ads theme now available for WordPress. It’s exciting array of features makes it a versatile solution for any classified ads based website and the simple admin interface makes the set up and configuration of the theme very simple. It’s also very well documented and comes with great support from a thriving development community, so for the first timer this is a great solution.

The current release (at the time of writing) is 3.3, it’s now a well established theme, and was one of the first to be created by App Themes. This makes it a really viable option, as it’s been around long enough that most of the bugs have been ironed out, and what’s left is a solid, tight well thought out theme application, and one that’ll get you up and running in no time at all.

Key Features

Easy to customize front page
2 page layouts
Upload your own banner ads and logo
5 Colour schemes to choose from
Custom fields/ form builder
Edit and expand the categorization from the back end
Membership packs – decide on your own pricing structure
Advanced search functionality

Coupons and Discount Codes
Real time twitter feed
WordPress Multilanguage (WPML) Support
Fully responsive design
Auto complete and site suggest search
Login/ registration with Facebook, Twitter and other social networks
Customer dashboard and ad manager
Visitor stats on your ad listings

ClassifiedTheme Classified Ads Theme by Sitemile

ClassifiedTheme by Sitemile

[rating=5]

$69.99

GET THEME Developer Theme Demo

ClassifiedTheme by Sitemile is my classified theme of choice. Don’t get me wrong, other themes on the market have lots of amazing features too, but this Sitemile theme, for me, is the best solution when it comes to wanting to really develop your own website. ClassiPress for example, is a great theme for someone looking to get off the ground quickly, however I find it rather restrictive – it does have options to change the visuals and add custom skins, but you’re essentially boxed in to the way that theme works. ClassifiedTheme by Sitemile is much more organic. It’s a little more dev focused, and works really well with plugins like Types or Advanced Custom Fields – so you can easily and quickly build out your own custom taxonomies to really make the theme your own.

It also has all the usual out of the box features you might expect from a solid classified ads theme, such as pre paid ad packages, out of the box payment gateways, social network login and lots of other rich features.

Once you get down into the nuts and bolts of the theme, it’s really easy to edit and alter the templates, to create new landing pages and change the way in which users navigate and interact with your site. The theme lends itself to almost any classified ads industry, including Real Estate, PC Ads, High Tech, Auto/Car ads and custom fields make it possible to create your own.

The theme is built on Sitemile’s world class theme framework, which has been solidly tuned over several years, giving you a really stable platform to work with. A minor irritation I noted when using this theme was when trying to configure the social networking login, this part of the theme requires the use of a third party plugin, and the whole process is rather clunky and doesn’t work terribly well, with some solid dev knowledge it’s possible to get it working, but beginners may struggle. Furthermore, the UI and design of the theme out of the box isn’t great, so be prepared to spend time crafting your own design – this might put some people off but for me it just means I’m forced to work on a better more intuative UI, and means you end up with a front end user experience which is different and stands out from the crowd. Other classified ads themes which come with a nice UI out of the box tend to look similar, as website creators don’t put the time into make the design their own – just take a look at the App Themes Showcase and you’ll see what I mean.

Key Features

Classified Ads Custom Post Types
Easy to assign new categories, locations, tags and your own taxonomies
Upload your own banner ads and logo
Google maps and street view integration
Signup/ Register Email notifications, report ads feature and ad expiry notifications
Custom fields to easily add to forms and taxonomies
Integrated payment gateways including PayPal, AlertPay, MoneyBookers and Google Checkout
Multiple currency support including USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, JPY and others

Lifetime developer support
Twitter feed integration
Ad expiry
Social integration – share ads with Facebook, Twiiter and others
Autocomplete and site suggest search
Login/ registration with Facebook, Twitter and other social networks
Customer dashboard and ad manager
Flexible pricing and ad packs

Classifieds

[rating=3]

$79

GET THEME Developer Theme Demo

Classifieds by PremiumPress is a little more basic than the last two classified beasts. It’s simple set up includes easy to administer membership packages, website ad slots and functional design. What the theme lacks in functionality, it makes up for in an abundance of available front ends, there’s over 20 colour schemes and designs to choose from, and whilst none of them will blow you away, they do provide a good starting point for you to lay out your own styles.

Like ClassifiedTheme by Sitemile, if you want to do anything really cool with it you’re going to need to invest some dev time, and unlike the two themes featured earlier on, the development community behind the theme isn’t very rich or responsive, for all intents and purposes you’re likely to be going at this one alone. That being said, the code is open source and you can play around with it to your hearts content.

According to PremiumPress, Classifieds “allows anyone to easily turn a standard WordPress blog into a powerful community driven classified ads serving platform”. I’m not sure If I would agree 100% with this statement, but it will get you off the ground. The ads themselves are basically well presented, and the categorization and tagging is chosen by your customers which means you’ll spend less time worrying about it. How you choose to set up and market the theme is up to you, but there are a few cool additions which give it something of an edge – Multiple Payment Gateways, Google Integration for Analytics, Adsense and Webmaster tools and the automatic eBay import tool.

Key Features

eBay Import tool
User driven categorisation and tagging
Google Apps support – Analytics, Adsense and Webmaster Tools
Over 20 color schemes and layouts
Simple, Fast set up
Multiple language options
Integrated payment gateways
Customizable search fields

Built in packages with custom fields
Unlimited Installations
Ad management
Printer friendly pages
Monthly sales chart
Auto removal tools
On/Off theme options
Flexible pricing and membership packs

Classicraft

[rating=4]

$97

GET THEME Developer Theme Demo

ClassiCraft is a lesser known and greatly overlooked classified ads WordPress theme. With a 1 off cost of $97.00 it’s a bit steep given it’s lacking in a few areas. ClassiCraft is a little bit different to the three theme’s we’ve already mentioned, it seems to be largely based on the ever popular Craigslist, or at least it was greatly inspired by it. Think of it like a feature rich WordPress version of Craigslist.

The UI, like so many other classified ads themes leaves a lot to be desired, though as you’ve probably figured out by now, I like this. It’s simple, functional and easy to use, and can be easily themed and skinned to your brand or desired style. Like the first two themes mentioned, it has a featured slider at the top, but unlike the first two themes mentioned it is not customisable, so you can’t choose which ads end up here without putting in some dev time. Again, unlike the first two themes, the content boxes on the front end can’t really be changed, the listing count and sub-categories will show on the front end and cannot be altered in the admin area. Like ClassifiedsTheme by Sitemile, Classicraft includes functionality to allow users to submit a gallery of images to their ads and integrates automatically with Google Maps, making your classified ads much more engaging. Unfortunately the Google Maps integration does not allow you to select a default city, which can be problematic if you have country targeted site, with Google Maps automatically loading in a different locale or country. Some other minor design tweaks would go a long way to improving this theme, larger prices for example have a tendency to get cut off and listings are not grouped well which can be confusing. Another real irritation with this theme is the inclusion of the WordPress header when users log in, for some reason this has not been removed. You will need to remove this manually with a plugin or in code if you plan to run your business on this theme. ClassiCraft is mobile ready out of the box, the design is fully responsive and really looks great on tablets and modern mobiles.

Listings themselves are stored in a custom post type, and users can register easily to submit their own ads. Paypal is supported out of the box to allow users to purchase premium listings on your site and can have an expiry time set in the admin panel. Unlike ClassifiedsTheme it is not possible to have ads which never expire, depending on your business or subject this may or may not be a problem. The theme provides it’s users with basic ad stats when they log into their dashboard, giving them an overview of the ad impressions and the status of each listing.

This theme has a great many positives, but it feels like a few significant areas have been missed or forgotten about, most significantly of which is the contact seller area. With the current version of Classicraft, it is not possible for users to contact sellers regarding their ads direct from the ad, the only method of contact is to leave a public comment on the ad listing itself, and if they do not want to or forget to leave their own contact information in the comment, then it’s pretty valueless to the seller.

Key Features

Listing management
Responsive design
Google Maps Integration
Paypal Support
Simple, Fast set up
Lifetime Support
Push Notifications
Multilingual support

Recurring Payments
Integrated user rating system
Ad management
Multiple color Schemes
Video Widgets
Premium Ads, Popular Ads & Recent Ads Widgets
Multiple Currency Support
One Click Auto Install

Classifier

[rating=4]

$79

GET THEME Developer Theme Demo

The Classifier WordPress Classified Ads Theme is (with the possible exception of ClassiPress) the best looking theme right out of the box. It features a crisp, mobile ready responsive design and it’s unobtrusive colour scheme means it can fit within most brand identities. It comes with all the standard bells and whistles such as memberships, photos, pricing, contact info and a form for ad inquiries, and even has a few functional extras such as the thumbnail resizer, SEO options, the tabbed category structure and multiple layout options.

Through some creative use of shortcodes you have great control over the front end of the theme, its easy to chop and change content and switch things around the way you like them, great for anyone with little coding knowledge but a love of tinkering. With Classifier it’s clear that the focus has been on building a crisp classified ads theme which is ready to go out of the box, and less thought has been put into those more complex features such as the custom fields and taxonomies. What this means is the theme works really well, and is very smooth to operate, but this comes at a cost as it doesn’t deliver some of those more complex features found in themes like ClassifiedTheme by Sitemile or even ClassiPress.

Key Features

Memberships packs and custom pricing
Clean Responsive design
Three templates for content layout
Superb documentation
Guaranteed compatibility up to WordPress 3.5
SEO Management
HTML5 & CSS3
Easy to update via framework

Automatic image resizer
Integrated with common social networks
Localization and translation support
Custom menu support
Tabbed categorisation
User Dashboard
Fast installation and configuration

That’s it for now, as I review and get to know other classified ads themes I will of course ad them to this list and grow it over time. Have you had experience with any of these or other classified ads themes? Do you agree with my ratings or think I’ve been overly generous or unfair? Leave a comment below, I like to read them and It may well help other readers make an informed choice on which classified ads theme to buy.

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Pascale Strauss

11 years ago

Hi Ben,

thanks for your complete evaluation of these themes. I really appreciate you have had the time to gather all this relevant information about the classified themes in wp. I have been looking around trying to find the theme that fits my needs, and it’s not an easy task, however I am sure your ranking will be of great help. Thanks again. !

I do agree with all your ratings… I have been trying with CLASSIFIER, as it looks really great in the screen.. could you elaborate a little bit more about the limitations it has ( for example what is the limitation with the custom fields, and other complex operations that doesn’t do ..?)

Do you have other reviews such as for “e-LIST” from Elegant Themes, “SofaOpnPress” from Themeforest, “Dolce Classifieds” form Dulce Pixel, “Classifieds” from Templatic, and 3 directory type themes that can be easily (as for what is said in the website) turned into a Classified site: “Directory Portal” from Templatic, “Avenue” from FabThemes and “Automotive Pro” from Themeforest.

It would be great if you can extend your analysis and evaluation to other classified themes available in the market. Wish you success with your interesting blog.

Pascale Strauss.

Ben

Author

11 years ago

Hi Pascale,

Thanks for dropping by.

Yep i found it a bit daunting trying to make the right decision on which theme to use for my classified ads site, so I’m glad you found this useful.

I’ve never used e-List or SofaOpnPress or indeed the other premium ones from Theme Forest, tho I would be very interested in including them.

I’ll see if I can’t spare some time over the next few weeks to add them :-).

Ben.

Michael

11 years ago

Classified by Sitemile may be good if you just want to use it “out of the box” but if you want any customization doing then FORGET IT! – Andrei (the chap who created Classified by Sitemile) will just string you along; 6 MONTHS LATER (Yes really 6 Months later) you are STILL waiting for the project to be completed!!! – WORD OF WARNING TO ANYONE BUYING THIS & HAVING RECEIVED A QUOTE FOR CUSTOMIZATION! – ADD 6 MONTHS ONTO THE TIMESCALE!!!

(This isn’t just me having a rant – I have spoken to a number of dissatisfied buyers who have said the same – many of whom had to cancel their personalisation work and some even wrote the purchase off as a loss and bought another from somewhere else!

Ben

Author

11 years ago

Hi Michael,

Interesting comments there. I think as you said, Classifieds is a great out of the box theme, but it’s really ideal for people with development knowledge, individuals who have the skills to go in and customise the way it works. Support from the classified guys is not somthing I’ve ever used, so can’t comment. I made the customisations to the theme myself. For users without the technical know how to make changes themselves, Classipress from AppThemes is a much safer bet.

Arun

11 years ago

I am using Avenue theme by fab themes (http://www.fabthemes.com/avenue/). The theme uses custom post type called ‘listings’ and few custom taxonomies to add a listing from backend. But i want people to add listings through front end in the same custom post type using the same custom taxonomies and options as in backend of the theme. I have tried gravity forms and wp-frontend-user plugin but nothing is working. Please-2 help.

Stuart - Hidden Cortex

11 years ago

Excellent review! Big Thanks

Ben

Author

Reply to Stuart - Hidden Cortex

11 years ago

Thanks Stuart 🙂

man.o.man

10 years ago

Ben, any chance you can review this:

https://premium.wpmudev.org/project/classifieds/

man.o.man

10 years ago

Ben, can you also “rate” the classifieds themes starting from Number 1, and by that I mean if Sitemile Classifieds were not existing, then which one would be Number 2 on your list, and which one would be Number 3, and so on. I am seriously considering Sitemile Classifieds, but am now a little wary because of Michael’s comments.

thanks so much.

Ben

Author

10 years ago

Hey Man.O.Man – Sure thing –

1. Classipress
2. Classifieds (Sitemile)
3. Classifier
4. Classicraft

If you’re concerned about the support – definitely go with Classipress (http://www.appthemes.com/themes/classipress/?aid=5723) – The team behind it (AppThemes) have fantastic support.

Ben.

sonesh

10 years ago

good collection of classified themes

I must say classicraft is best amont this

Thanks

Dave

10 years ago

Thanks Ben. Really valuable insights you’ve supplied in the above article and also in the comments. I’ll probably go down the Classipress route because I’m not a developer or designer. It looks good, seems robust and thanks for the heads-up about the support team. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Ben

Author

10 years ago

Sure thing Dave, very welcome. It’s worth noting that App Themes don’t do support by email any more, but they do have a very active forum and they support people in there.

I actually prefer it that way, as more people benefit from the answers to one persons questions – but some people do prefer the one on one approach.

I also think tech companies are inclined to be more helpful when they’re on a public forum.

Ben

pia esther

8 years ago

I am using Jom Classifieds https://jomclassifieds.com for my classifieds website and it is very user friendly!!! I’m very impressed with how easy it is to set up and configure… This is one of the most useful extensions I’ve used to date,super easy to use,Great documentation and video tutorials It has everything I wanted for my listing site.Very nice team, they will help you at anytime you need them.

yendiftech

7 years ago

I recommend everyone to get Jom Classifields. I’m using it for my client’s website..which is one of the best PHP classifieds scripts I have seen.. It is available in Microdata format for better indexing and more advance data on sites. Check it http://jomclassifieds.com/

Bish

Bash

Boshanka

Let's get it done!

Based in London, Working Everywhere

I’m a Freelance Web Designer and WordPress developer, I’m based in London but work with client’s in the UK and all over the world.

The Best Classified Ads WordPress Themes

ClassiPress

Key Features

ClassifiedTheme by Sitemile

Key Features

Classifieds

Key Features

Classicraft

Key Features

Classifier

Key Features

Based in London, Working Everywhere

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