With over 610,000 licenses sold on Themeforest, the Avada WordPress theme is one of the world's best-selling premium themes. But what can the Avada theme do and what advantages and disadvantages does it have? You can find the answers in this article.

Some people love them - others hate them: so-called multipurpose themes for WordPress, which come with many functions and design options as standard. The WordPress theme Avada is one of them and does indeed have a lot to offer. But what can the most successful WordPress theme do and what are its strengths and weaknesses?

What's in the Avada theme?

You can currently purchase the Avada theme from Themeforest for $60 and receive an unlimited license to use the theme for one domain. The license also includes six months of support from the Theme Fusion development team. A very comprehensive English documentation of the theme can be found 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 approximately 265 MB ZIP file on your local computer, you will receive the corresponding child theme in addition to the actual Avada theme (more on this later).

There is also a folder with all Photoshop files from the standard demo site. There is also a language folder with translated language files for many countries. These can also be installed later via FTP in order to translate specific English terms at a later date.

In the Extras folder you will also find documentation on the included premium sliders "Layer Slider" and "Revolution Slider".

Installation of Avada

You can install the Avada.zip and Avada Child.zip files in the WordPress dashboard under Themes and then activate the Avada Child Theme.

Child Theme Installation Advantages:

•      Custom CSS modifications in the child theme CSS file
•      All basic settings of the theme are saved in the child theme (theme updates + patches)
•      PHP code additions can be accommodated in the supplied functions.php file

After activating the Avada Child Theme, you must activate the additionally required plugins "Fusion Core" and "Fusion Builder" in the included plugins section. You will also receive a note about this.

In the area of Avada's own extensions, you can choose from further premium and free plugins for activation. These include the Slider Layer Slider and Revolution Slider, ACF PRO, Convert Plus and many more.

Licensing for updates and support

To receive updates and support for the Avada theme, you must activate the theme using a token key. You can obtain this token key via your Themeforest account. How exactly this works is also explained in a short video in the documentation.

The system requirements

Since the Avada theme offers a lot of functions and therefore requires a lot of resources, you should rely on fast WordPress hosting.

Under the "System Status" tab, you can view information about your current WordPress and server environment. You should try to optimize areas marked in red:

The minimum server requirements of 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, simply google "WordPress max_execution_time", for example. There are lots of instructions on the web.

With Raidboxes, you can adjust the max_execution_time in your website settings with just one click.

Further information on the system requirements of Avada can be found in the documentation under Requirements For Avada.

Avada demos

Over 40 demos on various industries and topics are available after installing the theme. The demo websites can be installed either completely or page by page. When importing demos, however, it should be noted that the photos used are subject to copyright and should not be used for your own website, or more precisely, exchanged!

Here you can find an overview of all Avada demos: https://avada.theme-fusion.com/demos/

The Avada Theme Options: Basic settings and configuration

The Avada Theme Options are the heart of the theme. Here you can style and configure your entire website. The typography and color scheme, the blog styling and much more - you can make many detailed settings in the theme options.

However, this also means that you should allow for a certain training period in order to understand all the settings and use them optimally. You can find an overview of the Avada Theme Options here.

Page layouts with the Fusion Builder

The Avada theme has its own page builder for designing pages and posts. The Fusion Builder offers you countless options for designing a website using drag and drop.

To list all the features here would certainly go beyond the scope of this blog post. 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 functions that the Avada Fusion Builder offers.

Mobile First Designs

A great feature can be found in the options for column containers. Here you can specify whether a container should only be displayed for mobile views (cell 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 saved in the Fusion Builder Library and re-inserted anywhere. This saves you a lot of time when it comes to recurring page structures or call-to-action elements, for example. With the additional "Global save" function, you can save multiple instances of a built element globally. Any changes you make to it later will be applied to all instances at the same time.

Performance optimization of the Avada theme

The theme options also include an area for optimizing the performance of your website. In this area, you have options for combining CSS and JavaScript files, lazy load for delayed loading of images or deactivation of emoji scripts.

In addition to the performance options, you should also consider installing a professional caching plugin in WordPress if your host does not provide server-side caching. As I use the Avada theme myself, I have had excellent experiences with WP Rocket.

The advantages and disadvantages of Avada at a glance

The advantages:

• Unlimited design options for creating website layouts
• Own drag and drop page builder
• Many premium plugins included, including ACF Pro and Revolution Slider
• Over 40 demo versions for immediate use
• 7 different header variants incl. top navigation and sticky header
• Saving page layouts and elements in a library
• Creation of portfolio & FAQ pages
• Integrated cookie notice for data protection information
• Optional deactivation of scripts that are not required
• Performance optimization options
• Integrated Mega Menu for complex page navigation
• Advanced settings of the navigation menus incl. mobile menu
• WooCommerce compatible plus additional options
• Advanced options for the internal search
• Many custom sidebar widgets
• Installation of own font files
• Comprehensive documentation
• Large community forum

The disadvantages:

• Long familiarization period
• High minimum requirements for web hosting/server
• Additional caching plugin advisable for optimum performance
• Changing the theme becomes problematic as shortcodes remain in place
• Documentation in English only
• Theme updates require updates of the "Fusion Core" & "Fusion Builder" plugins
• Additional update through Fusion Patches
• German language translation of the backend partly incomplete
• Partly additional upload of the German language files necessary
• Somewhat cumbersome licensing via token key
• No frontend editor (to be added in version 6)

Helpful sources:

• Buy Avada Theme via Themeforest
• Avada Documentation
• Avada Theme Support
• Avada Community Forum
• Facebook group of Avada Users
• Development team Theme Fusion

My conclusion about the Avada theme

To say it up front: You will need some time to familiarize yourself with the Avada theme. Because the multipurpose theme is so extensive in its possibilities that you will only get to know many things by trying them out.

As a web designer myself, I use the theme for my own website as well as for numerous customer projects. And it also took me some time to fully exploit all the possibilities of the Avada theme. However, the design possibilities are almost unlimited.

Avada is ideal for creating extensive websites, e.g. for associations, larger companies or online stores. For a simple blog site, the theme is certainly too oversized, there are better solutions. However, if you miss a frontend editor like Elementor, you should wait until version 6.  

Do you have any further questions about using Avada or would you like to tell me about your experience with the theme? Then please leave me a comment!