Headway 3.0 Review : The Easiest Way to Customize a WordPress Blog

{ 48 Responses }

1. Brandi says:
   I originally got Headway back in 2010 and really liked it. The problems I have experienced are lack of support or inaccurate support. I can post a question and after three days still have no response. Also, I was really excited about the marketplace; however, since March it has been coming "this month". My suggestion would be find something else until support gets better.
   • Clay Griffiths says:
     Hey Brandi, I just wanted to check in and make sure you received an answer. If not, please e-mail me directly at clay@headwaythemes.com Also, we will be launching the marketplace during Blog World Expo NYC next week.
     • Brandi says:
       Hi Clay, Thanks for responding to my comment. I haven't emailed because I was hoping to just use something from the Marketplace at this point. Today is the last day of Blog World Expo and there is no word on the Marketplace release... I was hoping to get a project going but at this point am looking at other alternatives. Best of luck with your framework.
2. Kelly Phillips says:
   I've been using WordPress for about 2 years and I've been using Headway for a few weeks. I LOVE Headway Themes. I struggled for weeks trying to find a theme that I could hack to do what I needed it to do. I installed Headway and had the site layout I wanted in a day and a half. Admittedly, I'm no expert web designer, but I know CSS and can hack a bit of PHP. You may be frustrated if you are an expert theme builder, but then I don't think Headway is really what you need. I think this product is for people like me who know enough to be dangerous and need some help achieving the level of customization we want. I'm extremely happy with what I've accomplished so far. I did not buy the support package, but I've found answers to everything I had questions about in the documentation or in the forums.
   • Clay Griffiths says:
     Hey Kelly, Glad to hear you're loving Headway! That's what we like to hear :-)
3. Martin says:
   Hi Hesham, 3.1.2 is out, what about bugs now? 4 stars now for you? Or do we have to wait some years until HW 3 works properly?
   • Clay Griffiths says:
     Hey Martin, I know this is coming straight from the horse's mouth, but 3.1.2 is a very solid release. If you have any questions, be sure to drop me an e-mail at clay@headwaythemes.com.
4. Cornelius Soyo says:
   Soooo.... any updates?? I see that child themes are still not available - but have the latest updates created a serviceable environment yet? Thanks
   • Clay Griffiths says:
     Hey Cornelius, It pains me to say it, but our child themes aren't available quite yet. They will be soon though (I promise!). We've been working diligently on the new system that'll handle the marketplace that way we can release child themes to our customers. It has taken way longer than we originally anticipated, but we want to make sure the system is solid. As far as the latest updates go, the updates since 3.0 (3.1.2 is the latest at the time of me writing this) have been great and have solidified Headway 3. If you have any questions, be sure to e-mail me at clay@headwaythemes.com.
5. Amit says:
   Hi Hesham, Nice post and I do agree: 1. Headway 2.0 was great 2. Headway screwed-up with the release timing of 3.0 I was a big fan of Headway till all the initial problems with 3.0. However, I tried 3.0 for a new site of mine around 2 weeks ago and it worked like a charm for me. The team at Headway has been working hard to make things right and I think they have. Do have a look at my article below, which provides more details about my Love-Hate relationship with Headway :)
6. Sam says:
   Hesham, Thanks for the response and I agree from your perspective that people that don't know what they are doing struggle with design, layout etc. I know I did. I also have to agree with Mark and Jenny, I wouldn't of dreamed to attempt to put buisness logic or anything similar in the site because as Mark pointed out it simply isn't that easy. However as Jenny as pointed out they market it as drag and drop framework and everything is easy, which it is not. I think everyone laughed at the email on the 29th, haven't a clue how it is going to pan out, whats going to be standard, whats going to be premium and whats going to happen come the 1st of February when 2.X "support" is removed. Jenny's comments around the forum and especially lack of documentation are not far off the mark. If someone with the experience and knowledge of Mark is struggling you can imagine what it is like for a "newby". I appreciate its very hard with someone with knowledge and skills in CSS, PHP and the web to review a product from a novice's perspective, however 3.0 as launched and still now isn't a novice product. Given the issues highlighted I probably think moving it to 3 stars was overly generous, I will reiterate my point, if someone is a novice, just wants a pretty site with flexibilty and real support imho they would be better off going to a theme that does the job for you even if it is 95%-99%. As it is marketed now it looks a very attractive proposition for an inexperienced user, as it stands nothing could be further from the truth. Sam
7. jenny says:
   Thanks Mark, for your honest review of Headway, like many others I bought Headway to find out that my expectations of the product were way to high! They fish out great customer service, and say they'll get back to you, but don't believe the hogwash. They give you a forum where your not allowed to ask certain questions unless as they put it " unless we ask you too" Really! I've been having so many problems with my blog, because of headway, and their bugs. I received the same letter, and NO! I haven't seen any changes or fixes as they say. I'm launching a new business, and I'm pretty sure I'm on my way to switching to studio press, or just editing one of wp free themes, rather than put up with anymore HEADWAY.I'm going to give the 2.0 a try, if that becomes an issue, I'm out, I don't have time for the games, or the lies that Headway is issuing! I love supporting companies like Headway, but not dishonest ones! I didn't pay for the $200.00 dollar packet, but I'll say Thank You Headway for the lesson learned!
8. Mark says:
   Hesham, After spending several weeks with HW 3.0.X and the excruciating unhelpful private forum, I think you owe it to your readers to put your caveats about 3.0 now at the bottom at the top of your review. Calling 3.0 a beta is too kind. HW sent out an email on Dec. 29th admitting they shoved what they had out the door just to meet the deadline. We are told how hard the pitifully overmatched 2 person development team is, working hard. As a customer who paid almost $200 I DON'T CARE how hard they are working. I want a product that works. And even as 3.0.4, the grid system can not handle anything beyond the most simple layouts. Multiple threads in the support forum document total disconnect between geometrically aligned grids and what gets displayed. Headway almost NEVER answers these issues (even when documented with code and screenshots and system info). All they do is wait a few days and call the thread "answered". It's become a joke among the user base. One HW support member, in the face of multiple, multiple threads about a common problem said HW simply didn't see the matter as a bug, not a big deal and might not get around to dealing with it. Talk about giving the finger to the user base. Of course, one can always go into CSS and PHP - but HW marketed this as a means of getting away from that. It's just not ready for prime time. And almost $200 down the drain. Reviews like yours Hersham might mislead people. Even if I would like to bill HW $X for *my* time beta testing (and a refund) so am somewhat acerbic, if you do spend time reading the support forums you will see alot if you look (i.e., items marked answered or resolved to make them go away, etc.) Headway 3.0 is the WordPress Fail of 2011.
   • Hesham Zebida says:
     Wait a second Mark, I've updated my review sometime ago, I also gave 3 stars for Headway 3.0, people are not blind! At least I left comments on their review open for the public to breath!
   • iusedtoluvheadway says:
     I am a pretty patient person.......but when it hits 2 years for a product I have paid for to come out of Beta ....I start to loose that patience. I too received that email dated 29 December....and giggled to myself whilst reading the whole thing...I had to read it twice. IMO headway themes has been steered wrong by its dictator has anyone noticed the lack of participation in the forums>? pre 3.0 it was a buzz ...the theme was cookin along and was almost there...maybe its just the holidays ....but my guess is that your right ... headway themes = epic fail......and they were soooooo close, pre 3.0 deserved 4 stars post 3.0 deserves NO stars At one time they gave 30 day refunds,now no refunds ,I wonder why? Junk,steer clear ,at least for now anyways
     • Clay Griffiths says:
       Hey there, Your comment doesn't really say anything about what's wrong or what issues you're experiencing. In order to address whatever problems your facing, we have to know what they are. If you e-mail me at clay@headwaythemes.com I'd be glad to help out :-).
   • Stéphane Bergeron says:
     Did Headway make mistakes with the 3.0 release? Yes Did they release it way too soon? Yes The product is not feature complete yet when compared to the previous 2.0.13 version so I think that calling it a beta is a fair criticism. But Headway 3.0 is still a great product with even greater potential. Do not forget it was a complete rewrite that makes it a far more viable base for future development, especially with the intruduction of child themes. But, one thing that really, REALLY irks me is the "no coding required" bullshit marketing and Headway Themes are not the only ones guilty of it. If people think they can create professional Web sites (meaning for paying clients) with ANY product (on WP or desktop based) without knowing any code, they are seriously delusional. Creating Web sites is a craft, one that requires real and solid expertise in many disciplines (if you are a one person operation): UX, graphic design and technical know-how. I've been doing it for over 15 years myself and I still learn new things every day. Web design is not a simple or easy task and no product can do it for you. It's very easy to fake it and create "pretty" sites that meet no business requirements or don't convert potential clients because the design is completely wrong for the intended audience because no prior research or competitive analysis has been done or the person who did it has no real expertise in color theory, typography or page layout principles and they just used theirs or the clients favorit fonts or colors. That is not design, it's decoration. Now, aside from the above, is Headway all it was touted to be? Not yet, but it's getting there fast and, in the hands of someone who can code CSS and a little PHP it can yield great results now as did Headway 2.0.x. But you just cannot drag and drop any layout you dream up in the visual editor without writing any code and expect it to look perfect. You need to think of the Visual Editor grid as a "wireframe" or outline of the real site. Unless Clay finds a way to draw blocks on top of each other or find some way to draw generic containers you can place element within, you won't be able to create any kind of layout without coding and you'll need to use CSS to get what you want. The good thing is that Headway produces markup that gives you plenty of CSS hooks and containers to attach backgrounds and other stuff to. I just finished my first client site with Headway 3.0. This one is not my own design (I was subbing for a young graphic designer and I needed to get her design pixel perfect and I did). The layout in the Visual editor's grid is different from the finished product but Headway 3 enabled me to do it. I couldn't have done it without code in Headway 2.0.x either. Now, I understand that many people got frustrated that Headway didn't live up to the hype they created themselves. But you really need to realize that no product out there will create Web sites for you without some coding knowledge of at least CSS. You need to a serious reality check if you think that. Now I really wish premium theme developers would ease up on the "no coding required" marketing. Headway will get you closer than most but it's still very misleading. It makes for a great sales pitch but it needs to stop...
     • Mark says:
       Stephane, Congrats on your 15 year career. I marked up my first web page with an early copy of Vermeer right about the time of its acquisition. *No one* is arguing that design is a craft combining the technical (code, server/db) and UX, color, layout, etc. That's not an issue. HW is irresponsible in my mind for shoving this product out the door (by their own admission) to meet a deadline. First, we agree on the flawed, deceptive advertising of 'no coding' - that guaranteed a support burden they couldn't possibly service. Second, the grid *can not* as of this writing handle anything but very basic layouts. That's a second over promise. Third, the product released *on its own merits* was buggy - it wouldn't generate recognized menus in WP 3.+ until HW admitted users had to create and delete navigation blocks several times. Writing CSS for blocks wouldn't save. Aside from the beginner questions, the forums are replete with examples of users being used to report bugs - i.e,, beta-testers. I gave HW a shot and wasted X hours/days of design time to simplify things down to a barely functional site displaying properly. Even then, inside HW it would crash, the grid would find itself in total disarray, etc. HW's 'repair blocks' functionality in 3.0.4 finally helps but does not resolve stability and replicability issues even now. These issues have *nothing* to do whether one is an experienced designer or a beginner. The environment was and still is unstable. I do not pay companies almost $200 for the privilege of joining their dreams of what might be. Perhaps you do. I can work around HW's stability and other limitations. Why should I? Why should anyone? There are plenty of frameworks out there that are stable, have hooks, have child themes. Defend HW if you wish. I'd rather have my money back.
       • Stéphane Bergeron says:
         Hi Mark! I'm not really defending HW and I understand you want a refund. I was mostly reacting to other comments were people felt cheated because they couldn't draw their design in the Visual Editor like they would create a layout in a graphic app and have it display pixel-perfect without knowing or writing any code. Many applications with far deeper toolsets have promised that and failed to deliver over the years... Headway can't do it either and never will. That's why this "no code required" marketing irritates me to no end because it's complete bullshit. But, coming back tothe heart of the matter, version 3.0.4 was the first version that was even remotely usable on a client site for me. I used it on a "simple" site to see if I could get there the same as with 2.0.13 and I did. I had to use relative positioning in CSS to get the nav where I wanted to be just as I would have in 2.0. I could have used a hook to place the actual menu code in a better container for where I needed it to display but I wanted to see if I could do it with just CSS and could. So I now know I can use 3.0 to build sites at least as easily as I could with 2.0 bot the way you select pages to edit in the 3.0 VE makes it a lot more flexible than 2.0. Before 3.0.4, key features were missing (how you would release a theme for WordPress without pagination on blog and archives pages is beyond me). I will write a complete review very soon and it will not be all positive believe me. But I believe the Headway team will get there as they've done it before. For me the real prize in HW 3.0 is not the new VE and especially not the grid (which is a step in the completely wrong direction IMO) but the child themes feature. It makes the theme far more viable as a framework for the future. So I'm willing to wait for them to get it right. I consider 3.0.4 like a late beta and I know it will get much better. Again, I completely understand why you'd want a refund. Not applicable to me as I've owned Headway since version 1.5 or 1.6 so the 3.0 upgrade didn't cost me anything as I'm on the old licensing. But I did get an iThemes Builder license to give me another option. WordPress has revolutionized my business in the last 2 years and I need a powerful theme framework I can rely on to build the kinds of sites my clients need. I've also owned Thesis since before Headway but I will not go back to it unless the long promised 2.0 version is truly revolutionary. Headway has been great to me in the last 2 years and I can get great results now in 3.0 as well so I'm sticking to it while slowly learning the Builder way. There's a lot to love there as well. I would not assume to tell you what to do but, if i were you, I'd try to stick to Headway 3 as well. I tested HW 3.0.4 thoroughly on my sandbox site (on a VPS at FutureHosting) and while building that client site I mentioned above (on a shared account at MDDHosting). I never got any of the errors some people are reporting. Aside from missing features, Headway 3.0.4 has been quite stable for me so far and I'm willing to give the guys a break. At least I can be productive now. Thanks for the good conversation :)
   • Clay Griffiths says:
     Mark, We are not ignoring any issues. We're especially not ignoring the fact that certain layouts cannot be created in the Grid. However, the Grid can still handle more layouts than any other competitor framework I can think of. When I say this, I completely mean it. We take all of this feedback very seriously and are working our butts off to get it the best it can be. 3.0.4 has already came a long way since 3.0. Just in those 4 updates we've already introduced numerous features and fixed many bugs. Anyway, please send me an e-mail at clay@headwaythemes.com and I'd be more than glad to help you out.
     • Mark says:
       Clay, Everyone knows you're working hard. HW reminds us all the time. As I said before, as a *customer* that's irrelevant to me. You could be pool side in Vegas with a drink. I just want a product even proximately close to what I paid almost $200 for. HW 3.X ain't it. To release 3.0 as a professional developer is imo grossly negligent if not irresponsible. To require payment for it unethical if not subject to potential liability. To put this in context, MSFT in its heyday wouldn't have released it even as a 1.0. The code base is better but still quirky/unstable even at 3.0.4. I have little confidence it will replicate its actions (w/no intervening activity at all). I can't tell readers here how many times HW has blown up a web site when firing up first thing in the morning. 3.0.4 has reduced this from 75% of the time to 25%. Still unacceptable. The grid is what it is - marketing ploy divorced from its advertised capabilities. CSS can make it perform better. But then why use HW? And that kills the unrealistic 'you can build without CSS or PHP" ads - an unexpected upside. Clay, I am new to HW with 3.0. People spoke and speak so highly of you and your team under 2.X. So understand this is not personal or ad hominum. But when people spend 90% of their time *fighting* the framework and trying CSS kludges and work arounds (not billable time, btw) to get display pages beyond 1999 state of the art or so -- something's off. Stephane and others here say HW's heart is in the right place. Maybe by 3.2 it will be a stable development environment. Although I am mystified that HW spent the 2011-2012 holidays building a Word Press 101 Primer (as if that's not choking the Interwebs, at Amazon, B&N, etc.). A rival framemaker provides a free 50 page PDF "XXXXX for Absolute Beginners" with purchase that preemptively soaks up newbie questions, if that's what you were going for. I submit to you the code base and missing or curtailed features in HW 3.X are supremely indifferent to whether "Dolly says hello". I'm rooting for you to succeed Clay -- and the HW team. It will be a while, probably. If HW 3.0.5+ makes a big difference, I will be the first to say so. In the interim, for those of us who bought 3.0, still think you should offer refunds.
9. Jason says:
   Headway 3.x Product doesn't work, still runs like a beta. Very limited support. No refunds.
   • Clay Griffiths says:
     Jason, Please e-mail me at clay@headwaythemes.com and we'll see what's wrong with your installation.
10. Sam says:
    Hi Hesham, I bought Headway a few months ago and I would probably echo John's comments and wonder how many are affliates. Headway sells itself very heavily on "No Code" flexibilty etc. to the none technical users so its a very attractive proposition. It also has a "Very Strict NO Refund Policy". I can fully understand the buzz it creates within the more technical audience and those that like leading edge technology, but if you really want to do anything special the answer is always the same CSS, PHP, HTML which the normal users usually doesn't want to hear, know or have the time to learn, this is not what the blurb tends to infer. As for Headway 3, I can't think how they thought it was anywhere near being a release of the product as it had very fundemental issues that the testers surely must of knew about, its the reason it has an "agressive upgrade strategy" or really trying to get it to do what it is supposed to do in plain english. As with any new realise there are always issues, but it appeared to have issues with everything. There is still no upgrade path to it from the present version although having seen the issues I don't think that many will be in a big hurry anyway. The support forum is very much hit and hope and relies on users helping eachother out more often than not and not public. The documentation is again aimed at the technical rather than casual user. I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the eating and which angle the particular user is coming from, but for people like me who are non technical want speed, flexibility, ease of use and support then they are probably better off buying a good theme with decent support. If I knew when I purchased Headway what I know how thats the way I would of went and probably saved myself some time and a great deal of frustration. Probably not a comment you wanted to hear, but an honest appraisal of the product from a non technical perspective. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everyone Sam
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Hi Sam, Just to let you know, I read every single comment on the blog, and I appreciate the honest and thoughtful ones. I totally agree with you, creating a special website is not an easy process without having some coding and design experience, and it's really hard to change this fact! With that has been said, I think Headway will fit mostly creative users, those who actually have some imagination, I still think it's a great tool. Allow me to tell you a little story... I totally understand what you mean because I faced the same challenge on one of my designs, the design was extremely easy to use, but the problem was the "blank page" that you will get after installing it! Yes, the design generate a blank page that you as a user must decide which elements you would like to have on the page! Here.. Creativity is an issue! Some users do not realize the power tools they have in hands! Many of them copied the exact layout of the demo site, probably because they had no idea what else to do! I am sure that once Headway launches their new child themes, things are going to be more clear as I imagine that users prefer to see something out of the box, then they maybe able to modify it rather than getting a blank page that makes them "think" of how to design it, and that's why most people got stucked! I hope this explains part of the problem that I see, and thanks again for your feedback, I appreciate it.
11. Clay Griffiths says:
    Hey Hesham, First off, thanks for the review! Headway 3.0.3 is now available and it fixed many bugs and added a few features. Also, we're going to stick with a fairly aggressive update cycle so we can constantly release new features and address any bugs that may be out there. Regarding the support platform, I'm surprised people are saying that don't like it here. Overall, our community has really liked it. With that said, we are still making changes to make the support platform even better. We listen to everyone's feedback and we've been working very hard to make sure the Headway experience is the best it can be :-).
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Hey Clay, Thanks a lot for the info, and good to hear that you guys are making such progress. I am sure you are working very hard to make Headway more awesome that it already is, I really appreciate it, and I hope more people will do. I know that the support platform takes some time to get used to it, but any enhancement is appreciated, it was only my personal option. There is a difference between what I personally think about Headway 3.0 and what other members think about it, I mainly think of how much time and effort you guys put together to bring this awesome product out, I know how hard it is, but maybe others don't see the huge amount of work that you've done in a way or another Maybe it will take some time for people to understand it haha! Some times things goes crazy, and man, I can imagine when you try to make things easy for people (for example: drag and drop), they just give you more pain and work to do, I never been able to understand this part of product development! Headway is just amazing, I won't change my mind about it, never! I always can update my review based on changes I see, and especially after your comment, I know you listen and this makes a big difference. Thanks again for stopping by, this is super cool!
      • Clay Griffiths says:
        Glad to hear you're enjoying Headway! Oh, and you nailed it on the head about trying to make things easy. It does create a lot more work for us :-). Thanks again for the review!
12. Jeevan Jacob John says:
    I have tried the new version on my new site and it is great. But, it is still missing some good features like post excerpts, which will be coming out in the next version. So, I am still using Headway 2.13 for my site. But, like you said, Headway 3.0 is really flexible and easy to work with. Right now, I am waiting for the next version (and the child themes) :D Thank you for the review, Hesham! Jeevan Jacob John
13. John says:
    I'd really like to know how many of these so called reviews are affiliates or unimformed non users. I'm a member of Elegant themes, Studiopress, Premiumpress ,Woothemes and Headwat themes. Headway is the ONLY theme that I would not use on a production site. Headway 3.0 was rushed onto the market at the most as a beta. It has a small development team that is under a great deal of stress, because of the number of issues with the software. Dissatisfied members are still waiting on a usable product. If potential members could view the forum posting they would unlikely be paying out the increased fees being asked. Most people are viewing sites such as this and been given misleading info and then purchasing beta products....enough said.
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Hi John, I see what you mean, but as you may know, every single piece of software has bugs, nothing is perfect, however I think I got so excited when I reviewed 3.0 , but now I've changed my mind especially after they took a lot of time to roll out updates and the new child themes. P.S. I will update my review and probably I will take away a few stars, thanks.
14. iusedtoluvheadway says:
    Lets be realistic here ...headway has never gotten out of beta....2.013 is quite good ...needs a small amount of polish to be complete now as for 3.0....hahahahahha who in there right mind releases a product like that???? its buggy as hell My self I think the so called "owner" got all warm and fuzzy when he saw the developer drawing boxes on the screen on top of a pretty grid when he was tossing ideas around for the improvement of headway2.0.....and said "hey lets sell em a new (unfinished product) lets create some buzz around this ...weve got a following of 10,000 now lets pull the wool over there eyes...this looks snazzy ...ok guys november 25th is here ...I said we are releasing ...so lets roll out the doors...and we will deal with it in the forums.....( he deals with it by closing threads) for now at least stear clear of headway 3.0....what a waste of time
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      I've updated my review! Thanks for your input
15. Steve says:
    This comment might come out negative, but don't get me wrong, Headway 3 will be fantastic. But thats the problem. It's not yet. The grid, the block system, the quick customization, the live CSS are all brilliant. But it is still a bit rough around the edges, and not feature complete as yet. There are a few dissapointed folks from headway 2, as a lot of the features have not yet been implemented in 3. As it's called 3, a lot of people are expecting an improvement, whereas this is an entirely different product, coded from scratch. And as such in some ways not as versatile as Headway 2. As I said before, this will be great. The ability to create a complex site based on drawing the blocks onto the grid will be a game-changer. Though maybe wait a couple of months till it's feature complete.
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Hi Steve, I see your valid points, I can not agree with you more. Thanks a lot for your input.
16. Ricardus says:
    Hi Hesham, Great writeup and provided a great insights.
17. J. Alan says:
    I'm just curious, if you can switch back to Thesis or even switch back to the "old" Headway, why do you recomend only using it (the new Headway) on a freah wordpress install? Taht suggests that I should go create a new site for the sole purpose of being able to use Headway theme. I think I'd wrather use it on an existing site to improve its aesthetics. Also, do check out the Catalyst theme... I think its got Thesis and Headway both beat (and I own ALL 3).
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Some people get excited, so this recommendation was to make sure that no one will install it on their live blogs and lose their customization, because simply you can not upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0
18. Sergio Felix says:
    Hey Hesham, I already own Thesis (dev license) but I was planning to become a Wordpress Theme Developer although that's for the mid-term plans. I was super close to buy the Genesis framework as well but I've seen many good pro bloggers and almost everyone roots for Thesis before anything else. I know that the Genesis platform is robust and stable but I don't see many people with it anyway. As for Headway Themes, I think that's an amazing solution for developing quick cool sites. I have a business partner who knows nothing about code but he's very keen to start working on developing small sites with wordpress for clients. That's where I think that Headway would be amazing to have, I'm still waiting as they just changed their site and are currently mentioning a "waiting list". What is up with that? Sergio
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Hi Sergio, first of all, I am glad you've found your way to Headway! I think you business partner will enjoy it a lot, and he will be able to produce websites in short time compared with other frameworks that requires more coding experience! To know how many members are part of any membership, here is a quick tip, open their support forum page, in many cases you will find the number of members or active members somewhere. This facts could be shocking, at the moment: - StudioPress has 61,208 members - Thesis has 47,084 members - Headway has unknown number of members (they are not showing it) What do you think? P.S. Headway is coming up with a whole new site , design, child themes and stuff, this explains the waiting list! The site will be updated soon, however I am not sure when! I am actually looking forward to this. However, you don't have to wait, you can login to your account, download Headway 3.0 and start playing with it, at least you will get some questions popping into your mind till the answers comes out :) I do see that they have an update 3.0.1 Thanks a lot for stopping by! Your comment inspired me and gave me some ideas!
19. Gera says:
    Hi Hesham, Really great review about the new Headway. I've installed this theme on my blog and love to code to the minimum. I didn’t play with the new version. I saw on red letters that it'll be an update from 2.0 to 3.0 in few weeks. My fear will be if things get wrong..I'll wait some time until all is settled and proved. Meantime I'll test the new version in new sites. Cheers, Gera
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Hey Gera, This is great! It's really cool to see how Headway can help and save time!
20. Lye Kuek Hin says:
    Hi Hesham, Great to see the first review on Headway. You mention that we should not install Headway 3.0 on a live blog. Does that means you don't recommend current version 2.0 user to switch to the new version? Will there be a loss of the customization and settings? Appreciate your attention on this. Thanks. Lye
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      You won't lose the customization (you can switch back to the old version), the thing here is Headway 3.0 have it's own set of settings, which will not work for the older version, this means you can not upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0, you only can install 3.0 then customize it as a brand new theme! I hope this explains!
      • Lye Kuek Hin says:
        Hi Hesham, Got it. Thanks for the explaination. I guess i will just leave it and use 3.0 for a new site.
21. James says:
    Great review Hesham, I have been looking at Headways themes for a little while now. I still prefer StudioPress and Thesis (with a ThesisAwesome skin) over Headway. But as a framework, I do like them and I have even recommended them a few times. I think I like Headway so much is the grid system and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy so I can start testing it and use it on it a future project.
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Headway is really easy to use, but I am still waiting for the new child themes and documentation to go live on their site. Thanks for stopping by body!
      • Headway User says:
        I own the Headway lifetime pass and must say the support and promised offerings have been a huge let down. They released the update in November, which lacked several basic features and was bug ridden. Then they failed to include any child themes. Its been over five months since its release and no child themes are available. They seem to over promise and under deliver. Almost a scam for more money if you ask me.