We review every theme before it is live on the site. New themes will always go through a full review before they're allowed on Bootstrap Themes whereas updated themes will go through an abbreviated review. We've broken down each step of the process below in order to make it as clear and predictable as possible. If you need help with the actual upload you can see a step by step at the following article.
Overarching Requirements
- Clean, well-considered design
- Organized, high-quality code that mimics Bootstrap’s core library style
- Targeted purpose, meaning themes that aim to solve a specific category of problem
- Creators that have shown a history of excellent customer support
- Are different than other existing themes on our site
New Theme Review Checklist
- Product needs to attach a single zip file. Attaching any other file type will result in a rejection. We want to keep the deliverables accessible to everyone and zips work the best.
- Screenshot needs to be an unedited screenshot of a theme view. This means no “marketing screenshots” with extraneous text or edited layouts. It needs to be an exact screenshot of an actual view in the theme.
- Live preview needs to be exactly what you’re selling. This means it must represent the latest version of your theme and everything available in the preview must be available in the theme download.
- Live preview needs to load in a reasonable time. Since we’re iframe’ing live previews, we require the load times of these views to be snappy. There’s no exact cutoff, but if they’re not reasonably performant, we'll send it back to you before approving it.
- Details in the description must be accurate. Any product claims made in your description (or anywhere in your theme pages) must be true.
- Categorization must be accurate. Put your theme in the most accurate category of theme. If your theme doesn't fit in a category we already have put it under Uncategorized and a quick note in the description so we can sort out where to put it.
We are also looking at the overall quality of your code so ensure it's well documented and well laid out. While it's hard to come up with a list of every thing we look at from a code perspective we'll continue add examples here as we see common issues crop up!
- Bootstrap 4 must be used. This is to ensure that customers are using the most modern technology and have a common base to work from.
- Must include documentation for new components, extended Bootstrap components, and to install or get started with the theme. If there’s compiling involved, that also must be documented.
- Any dependencies should be reasonably up to date. Essentially just be sure you're not using a wildly outdated plug-in that would cause buyers to second guess
- All external assets most be properly licensed unless specified otherwise. If you're going to use external plug-ins or other assets they must be properly licensed. If there is anything that isn't included (such as demo content) just be sure to note it.
In general, reviewing the articles in our "Creating your theme" section of the Help Center will help get you started on the right track.
Theme Updating
We want to strike the right balance between allowing you to make changes quickly and protecting customers from un-reviewed changes that might hurt more than they help. With that in mind, here's how updates will work:
- If you only update your theme's details (not the theme .zip): We will allow you to update your theme's details instantly without review. This allows you to freely change your marketing, pricing, screenshots, etc. without waiting for us. They must still adhere to the practices we've laid out and we'll check in here and there as needed.
- If you update your theme's .zip: We will review all your changes, both those in the .zip and the product details. It won't be with the same fine-tooth comb of our original review, but we need to make sure all the changes are up to snuff :) .
We'll stay in close communication during the update process to make sure we can get updates out as quickly as possible.