Help with choosing a multipurpose theme for my newly created agency

The Astra and Kadence theme are very popular options.

I think you have a misconception of WordPress and the ecosystem here.

First, these are support forums for the code code of WordPress. You are unlikely to find business consultants hanging out here to answer your request for research.

Second, there is nothing for sale here, and we don’t discuss external products.

Third, with WordPress, there is a separation of style and functionality. The theme presents and styles whatever content core (and plugins) retrieve from the database, and that’s it. Plugins provide functionality that core doesn’t have. The themes in the WordPress repository follow this guideline, but external themes might not. The intent is to allow you to switch themes at any time.

Your list indicates that you want to mix theme and plugin into a theme you can use for all your clients. That’s up to you, but it might not be best for your clients. Points 1 and 5 are not for a theme, and point 2 is really crazy for anyone.

@chrisbadgett – Thank you for your reply, Chris. I will check them out.

@joyously – Thank you for your reply, Joy. I am sorry for not understanding the etiquette of this forum. But even with google searches, blog articles and so many forums out there, sometimes it is hard to get a specific answer for the question etching in my brain. And also, I completely understand my naivety when it comes to wp development.

But I should say that your answer has definitely broaden my understanding of wp ecosystem. Thank you again for that.

Can I ask a follow up question to you if you wouldn’t minding help me out another time?

Basically, as a digital marketing company, what we actually do is more of SEO, photography, videography, social media, Google and FB advertising, Graphic design – those sort of things. We aren’t software (web) developers. For web design, we make do with Wix and Shopify for our clients. But at times, these 2 platforms just doesn’t cut it.

So, We feel we need to build wp service capability into our offering. As far as backend development is concerned, we will hire contractors. But quite frankly, I don’t know where to start. I understand wp plugins. In fact, I was hoping to use plugins like Yoast for SEO and Jetpack for performance and all (preliminary research).

Can you please help us in giving some directions?
Like
1. Internal vs External themes – which one to choose?
2. Is there a way to bypass creating mobile responsive design front-end design without coding? Is it a good practice?
Just an overview to point us in the right direction. This would be immensely helpful, Joy. Thanks

1. The decision of which theme to use should be specific to the needs of the client. Trying to find one theme for all clients is very limiting. The themes in the WP repository are reviewed with the intent to prevent theme lock-in, so you can switch themes at any time (even each page request). Some external marketplaces review the themes sold there, but I have no idea what they look for.
Surely your company would best serve your clients by doing your own research, knowing the criteria the client needs, instead of trusting strangers on the forum for that.

2. Some people call CSS code. I guess it is. That is what is used to make web pages responsive. Most themes these days handle that as a part of the theme’s design. When you create the content, don’t use explicit widths or it won’t be responsive. Expecting the theme to handle all the possible combinations of HTML that page builders or block authors can create is a bit much. You can make some generic CSS that adjusts for width, and either apply that class to your content or add whatever classes are used to your CSS. But keep it separate, so you can use it regardless of theme.