So here’s the problem: WordPress has thousands of themes. These themes are currently divided into two arbitrary, self-titled, ambiguous, tiers: premium and other. The definition of premium may or may not include payment, servicing, licensing standards, features, and quality, depending on who you ask. So how is a chap to compare themes? Well, I think I may have a solution.

What I want to get down to is some way to compare one theme to another. For me that means leaving a few things out. It doesn’t really matter if a premium theme is GPL or not, is paid-for or not, offers services or not, because these are secondary concerns which can be listed separately.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument that I were to offer you the choice between two GPL, paid-for, premium themes with 12×7 phone and e-mail support, you would still know nothing about the theme and its suitability for you. On the other hand, if I listed the full feature-set of each theme and explained the kinds of uses to which it could be put, you would be able to decide which of themes best met your needs.

So my solution is this: A 5-star labelling system.

This system wouldn’t be some arbitrary judgement about how good the theme was, it would be a strict set of criteria which a theme author could choose to meet in order to be permitted to market their theme as an x-star theme.

The rating wouldn’t even be a matter of quality. We can leave that to the reviewers. It would be a statement that the theme contains the features specified within the star-rating, implemented in a way that was consistent with the scheme. It would also be licensed out to theme authors (for free) on the understanding that it could be revoked.

The rating wouldn’t encompass all themes though. A single star would be the first significant step on a long ladder. It would reflect our opinion of a minimum feature set. For example, the current Kubrick theme, while widgetised and offering some header modifications, would be considered decoration and wouldn’t be able to quote a single star.

A five-star theme wouldn’t necessarily be a kitchen sink theme either. Five stars might mean it provides significant functionality aimed at content management, as opposed to just blogging. The scheme would have to be far more detailed than that about what kind of functionality and implementation was appropriate, but the point is that each star would reflect a well considered, harmonious, feature-set, not just more options.

The system couldn’t stand still though. As some features become standard they would need to be relegated to ‘expected’ and newer more advanced features would take their place. A theme might be considered a three-star theme today, and a one-star theme in 18 months.

As I am sure you will get sick of hearing me say, ‘premium’ has outlived its usefulness, and I think a factual rating scheme could be a natural replacement. What we don’t need is more ambiguity, hyperbole, or unqualified assessment.