Startuply: A WordPress Theme for Startups

This article was researched and written by our experts using our in-depth Analysis Methodology.
When starting a new business or launching a new product you always want to have a great website behind it. Finding a faster, more efficient way of building your website without compromising on either quality or looks would be the ideal solution. WordPress can offer this with the vast number of themes available, and today we'll be looking at one particular theme that is focused purely on startups - Startuply.
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  1. When starting a new business or launching a new product you always want to have a great website behind it. The website will help not only by portraying your product in the best possible light, but also by providing your potential customers with all the information the need and perhaps even an e-commerce platform.

Being part of a startup company is never easy, so finding a faster, more efficient way of building your website without compromising on either quality or looks would be the ideal solution.

WordPress can offer this with the vast number of themes available, and today we’ll be looking at one particular theme that is focused purely on startups.

The Startuply Theme

startuply-theme-2

Startuply was created to cover the basic startup creation needs and to help you, as the founders of a new company, in some of the most important aspects of your new website – the validation of your idea, bringing consumers on board, and efficiently shipping out your product.

All this is done through the combination of certain design aspects as well as a number of plugin integrations that aim to take this theme to the next level while making it as easy to use as possible, especially for the more novice WordPress user.

As stated by the developers themselves:

This theme is geared towards emerging startups; we are using it for our own project and website everyday. Moreover, we have studied a lot of additional startup website examples to discover what works and what doesn’t to deliver the best solution for validating your business idea and getting your first clients as fast as possible!

What Does It Offer?

The Startuply theme utilises the power of various plugins, the main one being Visual Composer, to allow you to create simple, but attractive coming soon pages, landing pages, lead generation pages, and more, either completely from scratch or by using a number of pre-packaged templates.

To get a better idea of the power of this theme I urge you to check out the available demo sites. They highlight the various uses that the theme can be put to.

startuply-theme-demo-sites

How Do You Set It Up?

Installing and activating the theme is as easy as any other premium theme. Simply install the provided zip file containing the theme through the Appearance section of your Dashboard and hit Activate.

Your next step is to install the integrated and recommended plugins. These will help you bring out the best in your new site by providing the necessary structure needed. The main plugin that is of most importance here is Visual Composer, which provides the site with its structure.

startuply-theme-1

Once that’s done you can choose the theme settings of your choice from the new “Startuply” admin panel in your Dashboard. From here you can first choose your basic settings such as the favicon, animation and grid size, amongst others.

The rest of the options provided include various menu options, typography choices, blog settings and footer options. There is also a section to include your own custom CSS and JavaScript and another section for integration options with Google Analytics, MailChimp and Easy Digital Downloads.

startuply-theme-admin-panel
The Startuply Admin Panel in the WordPress Dashboard

Another interesting feature is the powerful animation function. This provides you with a number of animations for any element on any of your pages. All you have to do is choose whether to use an animation container and put your content inside or to just animate a whole column or row. There are over forty five cool animation effects included with a number of timing and delay control options.

e-Commerce, Visual Composer and Other Integrations

Integrating e-commerce into your new WordPress site is made easier in the Startuply theme with the integration of Easy Digital Downloads. This is a very popular e-commerce plugin that makes it easier, safer and more secure to sell any of your own products, be it t-shirts, software packages, or anything else imaginable.

startuply-theme-edd-ecomerce
An Example of a Two-Column Grid for EDD Products

Once you’ve set up your main settings and options it’s then all about Visual Composer. Just head to the homepage and start editing, moving and adding all the aspects you want and don’t want on your site. It’s all as easy as clicking on the element you want to change, choosing the options you’d like, and hitting Save. That’s the beauty of using a plugin such as Visual Composer.

Of course, having the demo data installed will help guide you to creating a look for your site that is similar to that of the demo site, however you’re free to create any designs and templates that you deem necessary. Whether you’re a web developer or a novice WordPress user, you should always be able to use Visual Composer to create a great looking site.

startuply-theme-visual-composer

Another plugin integrated into this theme is Contact Form 7. This is one of the WordPress community’s favourite contact form plugins and it’s put to very good use in this theme. If you take a look through the demo site’s form pages you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Using the One-Click Demo Install

As I mentioned above, the demo data for Startuply is also made available to you, and it can all be installed in a simple one-click install. This gives you a platform to work off of if you’re still unsure about the design and feel of your site, or it can even be used just to give some structure to your site until you finalise the design of your choice.

startuply-theme-demo-pages

One of the advantages of using these demo pages is having pages like the above already created for you. These are examples of Coming Soon pages, signup pages, lead generation pages and more. They can save you a lot of time when setting up your own such pages while also ensuring that you’re doing them right.

What About Drawbacks?

Well, one of the drawbacks that I came across with Startuply is the absence of the Theme Customizer. The developers chose to do this since they are still working on a fully-fledged customizer that will do a lot more than just change the logo, title and tagline of your site.

While this might not affect some users since most of the customization and page layouts are completely dependant on Visual Composer and the Startuply admin panel, it’s still nice to see a live preview of the main changes you make to your site. We’ll just have to wait for the developers to finish their work on this and see how powerful it will be.

Documentation and Support

Support is fast to respond to any questions you may have. I was in contact with Eugene who provided clear and concise answers to all my questions in a very reasonable time-frame; always an important aspect when designing your new site and you come across an issue or two.

startuply-theme-docs

Besides that, the Documentation is extensive with great screenshots that take you through every step of setting up the Startuply theme. It’s also very easy to scroll through to find the exact topic you need. That’s always refreshing to see since it proves that these developers have actually taken the time to not only create a great product, but also to maintain and support it in the best way possible.

Conclusions and Recommendations

While there are a few finishing touches left on the Startuply theme, such as the Theme Customizer, it’s still a good choice for anyone looking to set up a new WordPress site for their startup company.

It does depend on the use of Visual Composer, however this plugin is both provided with the theme and a breeze to get used to. In fact, this can be seen as an advantage for the more novice user as they don’t need to write any code whatsoever.

Startuply provides all the aspects you’d need for a startup company’s website. By using the demo data as your initial structure, the documentation to get yourself started, and the support team wherever you get stuck, you can have a new WordPress site up and running in no time.

The Startuply theme is available for purchase from ThemeForest for $49 for a Regular License.

Mark Zahra

Mark is the CEO behind the WP Mayor project. He has been using WordPress since 2012, joining the WP Mayor team in 2014. Since then, he has helped to review, test, and write about hundreds of WordPress products and services; educating the community of millions of WordPress users around the globe.

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