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A heads up warning about importing outside themes

Wow.

I was truly excited about getting Themify until one of their representatives sent me this email:

If your site is hosted on Weebly, our themes won't work. Do you have any hosting signed up? Most host providers have WordPress installation via cPanel. Once you install WordPress on your site, you will be able to install our themes.
Regards,
Devon
 
Apparently, according to that person, It won't work.
So, I am going to attempt getting mu investment returned and search ellsewhere.
Just a warning or heads up to any other curious seekers for outside themes.
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@PENicholson So you attempted to install a (Themify) WordPress theme on the Weebly platform? Okay, let's go back to step one:

  1. Weebly is one of many web hosting/content management platforms.
  2. Weebly is in the special space of drag-and-drop UI page builders that includes platforms like Squarespace and Wix. These platforms include everything a user needs in one package: hosting, content management system (CMS), domain management, theme library, app plugin library.
  3. WordPress is an open source CMS. The self-hosted version is a standard, usually one-click installation on most web hosting services. Users have to first set up a website hosting account, e.g., through HostGator, Bluehost, Godaddy, etc., and then run the installation to set up the WordPress CMS on that hosting service.
  4. After WordPress is set up, the user can then install a WordPress theme and, if needed, plugins to extend the functionality of their site. There are many thousands of WordPress themes available from a huge number of theme builders one of which is Themify. These themes of course only work in WordPress - they DO NOT work in any other CMS (in much the same way that Windows software does not natively run on a Mac).

It appears that you are under the impression that any web hosting platform will run any website theme built by any vendor for any platform. This is incorrect.

Given the significant number of posts you've made here, you appear to have skipped the Weebly knowledgebase (https://www.weebly.com/app/help/us/en) that is essential for new users to really learn how this platform works. Sure, the page builder UI is quite friendly and tech-savvy users can certainly follow their nose with decent results. But most novices would be wise to invest a little time to properly learn the platform and that's what the knowledgebase is there for.

Weebly offers a decent variety of excellent themes in its theme library. You simply need to invest the time to learn how they work. And there are plenty of third-party vendors who build custom themes for the Weebly platform if you'd like something that goes beyond what's in the theme library. I use a variety of CMS platforms for my clients and any notion that WordPress themes are a panacea for whatever ills you feel afflict Weebly themes is misplaced. I have to do no less custom coding in WordPress than I do in Weebly to get the result my clients want. And the slick WordPress theme demo results you see don't just magically appear right out of the box after installation. Not even close.

My advice to you is first, RTFM: https://www.weebly.com/app/help/us/en. Next, build a standard site within the confines of one of the excellent Weebly themes in order to really learn the platform. Finally, seek out support for things that aren't working as you'd like. Avoid bounding ahead to more advanced topics that are well beyond the grasp of a novice. If you're still dissatisfied, try a third-party Weebly theme. And, if that doesn't suffice, move to another platform like Squarespace or Wix or, if you want to get serious about investing some time in a steeper learning curve, WordPress.

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