Sydney

When I first started building WordPress websites years ago, finding the perfect multipurpose theme was always a challenge. Thankfully, things have changed and there are now some really great options on the market – including Sydney. 

Recently, I was thrilled to welcome Sydney and the aThemes team to the WPBeginner ecosystem. With over 100,000 active installations and hundreds of 5-star reviews, it’s clear there are plenty of people who love Sydney, but is it the right theme for you? 

In this detailed review, I’ll share my personal experience with Sydney to help you understand if it’s the right fit for your website. 

Sydney Review: My Honest Experience

Earlier this year, I was thrilled when aThemes joined the Awesome Motive network. And a big reason for that excitement? They brought Sydney with them!

For those who might be unaware, Sydney is a seriously popular, all-purpose WordPress theme. I’m talking about a massive community – over 100,000 users and still growing strong!

Straight off the bat, what really caught my attention was Sydney’s massive collection of professionally designed starter sites. Instead of a blank screen, you can simply pick a demo that matches your creative vision, and you’ve got a fantastic starting point. 

But here’s where things get really interesting for me: Sydney also comes with a template builder, dedicated header and footer builders, an integrated popup builder, and a whole lot more. This gives you the freedom to tweak and optimize practically every part of your WordPress website. 

For bloggers, Sydney has a ton of features specifically designed to help you get more page views and engagement. I’m talking about cool stuff like featured posts to highlight your best content, those essential social sharing buttons, handy reading progress and reading time bars, and a bunch of different layout options to play with.

If you’re just starting out or watching your budget, then the free version of Sydney is a fantastic place to start. You can grab it straight from WordPress.org or the official Sydney website.

Even this free theme comes with a nice selection of ready-made demo sites, plus a few different  blog and header layouts. And if you want to start selling online, it even has basic WooCommerce support. All-in-all, it’s a solid starting point.

However, if you want to unlock all the demo sites, layouts, and customization options that Sydney has to offer, then I recommend upgrading to the premium theme.

Plus, the premium version has far more advanced WooCommerce support, so it’s a no-brainer if you run an online store.

Sydney Review: Is It the Right Multipurpose WordPress Theme for You?

I’ve spent years trying out all kinds of themes, helping tons of you awesome folks find that perfect design for your WordPress blog or website. So I like to think I’ve got a pretty good handle on what makes a theme truly shine.

In this detailed Sydney review, I’ll show you how this popular theme compares to the competition. I’ll deep-dive into every feature, see how Sydney performs under pressure, and figure out just how easy it is to use. 

By the end of this review, you’ll know whether Syedney is the perfect fit for your WordPress project. Let’s get started! 

1. Ready-to-Use Demo Sites

Want to get your site looking professional and ready to go in no time? Then pre-built demo sites are definitely your friend.

Instead of staring at a blank screen and wondering where to even begin, these ready-made templates give you a great head start. Sydney totally gets this, which is why they offer a fantastic selection of demo sites.

And to make the whole process even smoother, Sydney includes a really user-friendly importer tool. 

Just a few clicks, and you’ll have a professionally-designed foundation for your website.

Our Honest Review: With Sydney’s demo sites, you can literally have a fully functional, professional-looking website up and running in minutes. It really doesn’t get much easier or faster than that.

2. Your Editor, Your Choice

Sydney is built using blocks, which is fantastic because it means Sydney integrates perfectly with the standard WordPress Customizer. So, if you’re already familiar and comfortable using the built-in WordPress interface, then you’ll feel right at home with Sydney. 

Are you using a page builder plugin instead? No worries! Sydney also works seamlessly with Elementor. In fact, it even comes with some additional Elementor widgets that you can easily add to your layouts. This includes a MailChimp widget so you can add a newsletter subscription form to your designs. 

Beyond individual widgets, Sydney includes pre-designed Elementor sections, headers, and footers. Just import these ready-made elements directly into the Elementor editor and then customize them to match your brand and website’s style, as needed. This can be a huge time-saver and provides a great starting point.

Our Honest Review: No matter how you prefer to design and build your website, Sydney gives you a really smooth and efficient way to do it. I’ve got absolutely no complaints about that kind of flexibility!

3. Intuitive, Real-Time Customization

Sydney lets you edit every part of your site’s design in real time, so you can see your changes straight away. 

I’m talking about customizing everything: from the overall layout of your pages to the different styles you can choose for your header and footer. You can even play around with sidebars, select the perfect layout for your blog, fine-tune how the individual posts look, and so much more.

This level of control is something our readers are always asking for, and Sydney puts it right at your fingertips.

What’s also super cool is how Sydney lets you rearrange the individual elements within your layouts. Want to move something around? Just click on it and drag it exactly where you want it to be.

Our Honest Review: Sydney totally takes the guesswork out of designing your site. Not to mention the fact that you can make all these changes without having to write a single line of code. This kind of easy, hands-on control is exactly what I look for when recommending themes to the WPBeginner community.

4. Built for Speed

Google really favors websites that load quickly, since they’re easier to crawl and index. 

On the other hand, a website that takes forever to load is bad news for your WordPress SEO. It can also be incredibly frustrating for visitors. This often leads to people leaving your site quickly (what we call a high bounce rate), lower engagement with your content, and potentially even lost opportunities if you’re selling things online.

That’s why I was genuinely thrilled to see that Sydney has been designed with performance as a top priority.

Our Honest Review: I personally put Sydney through its paces, and I was really impressed by how quickly it loaded and how responsive it felt, no matter what I tried to do with it. The bottom line is that speed matters, and Sydney delivers.

5. Effortless Header & Footer Customization

I’ve heard from countless WPBeginner readers who are struggling to customize their site’s header and footer.

But Sydney knocks it out of the park with its super user-friendly header and footer builders. Imagine just dragging and dropping different elements exactly where you want them – it’s as simple as that. 

Both builders let you work with up to three rows, and you can even decide how many columns each row has. This kind of control is something our community has been asking for, and Sydney delivers beautifully.

Plus, the developers have clearly thought about how things look on different devices. It’s great to see that Sydney has responsive settings so you can fine-tune the experience for smartphone and tablet users.

And the customization doesn’t stop there. Each component comes with its own style settings.

This means you’ve got a TON of options to play with – things like colors, backgrounds, those little separator lines, fonts, and even the spacing around elements. 

Our Honest Review: For anyone who wants complete creative control over those super-important header and footer sections, Sydney delivers. It’s as simple as that. 

6. Unlimited Custom Sidebars

Having the flexibility to add different sidebars to your website can be a real game-changer. With Sydney, you’re not limited to just one or two; you can create as many sidebars you need. 

You can then change the sidebar width as well as the padding and the vertical space between the widgets you place inside those sidebars. 

But the real power comes from controlling where these sidebars appear, using conditions. Instead of being stuck showing the same sidebar everywhere, you can strategically place specific sidebars where they’ll be most effective. 

Think about it: you could display related items on a particular product page, or you might display an email newsletter signup form on your latest blog post. In this way, Sydney gives you the tools to put the right information, promotions, or calls to action in front of your visitors, at exactly the right time.

Our Honest Review: When it comes to sidebars, Sydney gives you a ton of flexibility. In particular, the display conditions mean you can strategically place specific sidebars where they’ll have the biggest impact.

7. Powerful Template Builder

Let’s talk about taking complete control over your site’s design with Sydney’s template builder. This powerful feature lets you replace the standard theme elements on specific pages, groups of pages that share a characteristic, or even across your entire website.

Sydney gives you the freedom to design these custom templates using either the built-in WordPress editor or the Elementor page builder. This includes creating custom archives, single posts and pages, headers, footers, and your site’s 404 page. In fact, you can create as many unique templates as you need to achieve your vision.

Our Honest Review: I’m really impressed with Sydney’s template builder. It gives you total design freedom.

I spent a good chunk of time exploring the settings and creating different designs, and I was always happy with the results. The template builder gets a big thumb’s up from me! 

8. Handy ‘Scroll to Top’ Button

When a visitor reaches the bottom of a page, having to scroll all the way back to the top can be frustrating. In fact, people may get so annoyed that they leave your site altogether.

That’s why I was really happy to see that the Sydney theme includes a built-in scroll to top button. When a visitor clicks this button, the page automatically scrolls right to the very top, so the visitor doesn’t have to do it manually.

By default, this handy button appears across all devices. However, Sydney lets you limit this button to computers or mobile devices only. For example, you might not want to show this button on smaller screens like smartphones and tablets.

Our Honest Review: I know how frustrating endless scrolling can feel to visitors, especially when it comes to long pages and articles. Sydney solves this common problem with a single click. 

In my opinion, this is the perfect example of a simple feature that actually has a BIG impact on the user experience.

9. Forms & HTML Designer

Sydney includes a handy designer tool that lets you style some of the fundamental elements of your site like your forms, lists, tables, blockquotes, and headings. For example, for forms you can easily tweak things like the text color, the size of the borders, the border radius, and a whole bunch of other settings. 

It’s all about giving you control over the finer points of your website’s appearance.

Even better, this designer is built right into the WordPress Customizer so you can play around with different settings, and see your changes happening live. This makes it super easy to experiment and see what you like the best. 

Our Honest Review: I think Sydney’s built-in designer tool is a really thoughtful addition. It’s about empowering you to get those little details perfect, without needing to touch any code.

10. Social Sharing Buttons 

I think we can all agree that social media is one of the main ways people discover new content.

That’s why we make it super easy for WPBeginner readers to share our articles by including social sharing buttons right at the top of every post. We’ve seen firsthand how effective this is in bringing in new visitors and boosting engagement.

Sydney understands this perfectly, which is why it lets you enable post sharing without needing to install a separate plugin. 

Right within the theme’s settings, you can simply select the social media platforms you want to use. You can even rearrange them using simple drag-and-drop, so your preferred networks always appear first.

Our Honest Review: Sydney really gets how important social media is for content discovery. I love that it offers sharing buttons by default, so you don’t have to worry about finding and installing a dedicated social media plugin. 

11. Reading Progress and Time

Here at WPBeginner, we’ve learned a thing or two about keeping readers engaged, especially when it comes to longer articles. That’s why I’m excited to see that Sydney has really thought about ways to improve the reader’s experience.

One really neat feature is the option to add a reading progress bar. This usually appears at the very top of the screen and gives visitors a clear visual indication of how much they’ve already read, and how much they have left. 

For those longer posts, this progress bar acts as a helpful visual cue, reassuring readers that they’re making good progress. It’s a subtle but effective way to keep them motivated and engaged.

Similarly, Sydney lets you add an estimated reading time to your archives and individual posts. When folks see that an article is just a quick read, they’re way more likely to click and dive right in. 

Our Honest Review: At WPBeginner, we’ve written over 3000 blog posts, and we’ve seen firsthand how simple things like progress bars can make a big difference. The fact that Sydney makes these features readily available is a big plus in my book. 

12. Spotlight Your Best Content

We all know that showing off your must-read articles is a fantastic way to keep people engaged with your site and get those page views soaring. And guess what? Sydney makes that incredibly simple right from the get-go. 

With Sydney, you can display featured posts right in your blog’s hero area. This is fantastic as it’s a prominent section right at the top of the page, so visitors see it straight away.

Sydney gives you a choice of three different layouts for this section. Plus, you can decide whether you want to contain the hero section within your site’s regular width or stretch it to the full width of the screen.

By default, Sydney will automatically display your latest posts in this featured area, which is super convenient for keeping fresh content front and center.

But what’s really powerful is the ‘Choose Your Posts’ option. This lets you hand-pick specific articles that you want to highlight. This is perfect for drawing attention to cornerstone content, popular posts, or any other important content. 

Our Honest Review: I’m really impressed with Sydney’s built-in features for highlighting important articles. It’s a fantastic way to draw attention to your best content.

13. Unlimited Custom Fonts

Using a variety of custom fonts can really take a website’s look and feel to the next level, and ultimately improve the experience for your visitors. I’ve even used custom fonts on many of WPBeginner’s partner sites, so I know firsthand the kind of impact they can have.

That’s why I was excited to see that Sydney lets you upload as many font files as you want.

Once you’ve uploaded your custom fonts, Sydney makes it super easy to select and use them inside the standard WordPress content editor and Customizer.

This means you can apply these unique fonts to your content without any hassle.

And if you’re using Elementor, then you’ll be happy to hear that your custom fonts show up directly inside the editor. That means all your unique typography is right at your fingertips.

Our Honest Review: Sydney really understands the power of great typography. It’s all about giving you the freedom to use the perfect fonts to craft a fantastic user experience.

14. Multiple Pagination Options

As you add more content to your WordPress site, your site’s archive will naturally grow and span multiple pages.

That’s where pagination comes in. 

Pagination helps visitors move between these different pages, and typically appears at the bottom of your site.

Sydney actually lets you choose between three types of pagination: the traditional numeric links (like page 1, 2, 3), an infinite load option where more posts automatically appear as the visitor scrolls, and a convenient load more button. 

Our Honest Review: Sydney makes it easy to choose the pagination style that best fits your website’s design. I know this kind of flexibility is something our audience really appreciates.

15. Simplify Site Navigation with Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumb navigation tells users where they are on a website relative to the homepage. They’re great for improving navigation, but breadcrumb trails also show up in search results, so they can help your website stand out.  

I use breadcrumbs across WPBeginner, and they’ve significantly improved how our visitors navigate between different pages.

That said, Sydney makes it easy to add breadcrumb navigation to your WordPress website. 

Sydney actually comes with its own built-in breadcrumbs system, which is fantastic if you don’t want to install an extra plugin.

However, Sydney also integrates seamlessly with popular plugins that offer breadcrumbs functionality (All in One SEO, Yoast, Rankmath, and Breadcrumb NavX), so you have lots of options. 

Our Honest Review: What’s really great about Sydney is that it gives you the best of both worlds: it has its own built-in breadcrumb system for a no-fuss solution, but it also plays nicely with many popular SEO plugins that offer breadcrumbs.

16. Make Content Theft Harder

I know that protecting your content is a big concern for many online publishers. 

If you’re worried about people stealing your original work, then Sydney offers a genuinely useful feature called ‘Prevent Text Copying.’ This stops people from selecting the text on your website using a mouse or touchpad, so it’s more difficult for them to scrape your blog content. 

Our Honest Review: It’s important to be realistic. This feature isn’t guaranteed to stop 100% of content thieves. However, it does make things less convenient for them.

Think of it as adding a good lock to your door – it might not stop a determined professional, but it sure makes it harder for the casual thief to just walk in and take what’s yours.

17. One-Click WhatsApp Communication

Let’s talk about making it super easy for visitors and customers to connect with you via WhatsApp.

Sydney has a really handy feature that lets you add a floating WhatsApp icon to your site. When someone clicks this button, Sydney will either open WhatsApp in their browser or launch the WhatsApp app on their phone or computer.

Our Honest Review: I think Sydney’s floating WhatsApp icon is a fantastic way to connect with visitors and customers, and even collect potential leads.

It’s all about instant communication – a quick click is all it takes, and it doesn’t get any easier than that.

18. Sell Smarter: Extra WooCommerce Features

Running an online marketplace? Then you’ll be thrilled to hear that Sydney works perfectly with WooCommerce, so you can create a seamless shopping experience for everyone who visits your site.

What’s even better is that Sydney actually enhances WooCommerce by adding features that aren’t available by default. For starters, you can add a wishlist to your online shop, so customers can save all the products they love. This simple addition can really boost engagement and sales.

Do you sell products with variations, like clothes in different colors? Then showing these options clearly is SO important. 

Sydney handles this beautifully with its Variation Swatch feature. Instead of clunky dropdown menus, you can showcase these choices as visually appealing swatches, such as color samples or size buttons. This makes it much easier for customers to see exactly what’s available.

Sydney also comes equipped with instant Ajax search. As your customers type in what they’re looking for, Sydney will show matching results in real time without having to reload the page. This can help shoppers find exactly what they need, almost instantly. 

Beyond these extra features, Sydney also provides additional layouts and styling options specifically designed for WooCommerce. This gives you the power to customize and optimize every single part of your online store in ways that simply aren’t possible using the core WooCommerce plugin.

Our Honest Review: Sydney doesn’t just work with WooCommerce; it actually extends it with some really valuable features that can make a big difference to the shopper’s experience.

Bottom line? If you run an online store, then I really recommend giving Sydney a try. 

19. Reach a Worldwide Audience

If you’re serious about growing your website and reaching more customers, then you absolutely need to think globally.

That’s why I’m so impressed that both the free and premium versions of Sydney come translation-ready, right out of the box. This makes it incredibly easy to create a website that speaks to people in many different languages, using a plugin such as WPML. 

Sydney even includes a dedicated language switcher component that makes it super easy for visitors to select their preferred language.

Our Honest Review: I truly believe that Sydney’s seamless compatibility with plugins like WPML is a total game-changer if you want to create a multilingual website. It just removes so many of the usual hurdles and makes connecting with an international audience completely straightforward. 

20. Built-In Popups

Popups are a really effective way to capture the visitor’s attention (which is exactly why I created OptinMonster, a tool packed with everything you need to design really eye-catching popups).

And guess what? Sydney comes with its own modal popup builder. This is seriously convenient, as you can create engaging popups without necessarily installing a separate WordPress popup plugin. It’s a great way to highlight important announcements, special offers, calls to action, and more. 

Just a little heads-up: this modal popup uses cookies, so you’ll need to inform your visitors about this. Transparency is key, after all. 

Our Honest Review: Having a modal popup builder baked right into the Sydney theme is fantastic. It’s such a user-friendly and genuinely helpful feature to have readily available.

21. White Labeling for WordPress Agencies

Do you run a WordPress development agency? If you upgrade to the Agency package, then you’ll unlock Sydney’s White Label feature. This lets you hide all the Sydney branding and replace it with your own branding.

Our Honest Take: This White Label feature is an absolute must-have for agencies or WordPress freelancers who are serious about providing a top-notch experience to their clients. 

It’s all about adding that extra layer of professionalism and personalization, reinforcing your brand and building stronger client relationships. This is a significant value-add for anyone offering WordPress development services.

Sydney Review: Community and Professional Support

Right from the beginning, I was impressed by how easy it is to get started with Sydney. And believe me, after helping countless people launch their first websites, I have a pretty good idea of what makes a theme user-friendly.

With Sydney’s ready-made website demos, that super handy one-click importer, and its simple drag-and-drop builders, you can get a professional-looking site up and running in no time.

I also know that sometimes you might run into problems and need a helping hand. Thankfully, that’s another area where Sydney really shines.

If you’re the type of person who enjoys exploring and finding solutions independently, then the team behind Sydney has created some seriously comprehensive online documentation that’s available 24/7. 

Honestly, this documentation was my absolute go-to the entire time I was writing this Sydney review. It’s packed with helpful information and articles designed to answer all the most commonly-asked questions.

But what if you prefer one-on-one help? Well, if you invest in the premium version of Sydney, then you’ll get direct email support. Simply submit a ticket and get help directly from the very people who built Sydney – after all, who better to assist you than the experts themselves?

Sydney Review: Pricing and Plans

Do you want to try before you buy? You can absolutely grab the free version of Sydney from WordPress.org, or download it straight from the Sydney website.

Even in the free version, you’ll get some really nicely-designed demo sites, basic WooCommerce support, and a good selection of blog layouts.

Eager to unlock all the other incredible features I’ve highlighted in this Sydney review? Then you’ll definitely want to check out the premium theme.

No matter whether you upgrade to the Personal or Professional plan, you’ll get the entire suite of features, a much wider range of stunning demo sites, and far more advanced support for your WooCommerce store. 

Plus, both plans come with email support, so you can reach out to the Sydney team with any questions you might have. The key difference between these plans, is the number of websites where you can install Sydney: 

• Personal. For $63 per year, you can use Sydney on a single website, blog, or online store.
• Professional. Priced at $119 per year, this plan lets you install Sydney on up to 10 websites. 

Do you run a WordPress development agency? Then my top pick is definitely the Agency plan. Not only does it let you use Sydney on up to 100 websites, but it gives you the ability to white-label Sydney. It’s perfect for strengthening your branding.

Sydney Review: My Honest Experience

At WPBeginner, we’re always looking for high-quality WordPress themes that can help our users create stunning websites. While there’s no shortage of great themes out there, I have to say I’m really impressed with Sydney.

One of the things that immediately caught my attention was Sydney’s library of professionally-designed starter sites. Seriously, these are game-changers for anyone who wants to get a beautiful website up and running, quickly. Forget staring at a blank screen – Sydney gives you a fantastic head start with just a few clicks.

Another standout feature is its massive collection of professionally designed starter sites, which can help you get started quickly and easily without having to start from scratch.

But it’s not just about looks. I was also impressed by Sydney’s speed and performance. As someone who has spent years trying out different WordPress themes, I can confirm that Sydney is seriously speedy. 

And get this – Sydney plays nicely with many must-have WordPress plugins. Need to create a multilingual site? No problem, it’s compatible with WPML. Love the drag-and-drop ease of Elementor? Sydney integrates perfectly. Want to build an online store? It’s fully WooCommerce compatible. This makes Sydney a super flexible choice for all sorts of websites.

Bottom line? I was really impressed with Sydney, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a versatile and easy-to-use multipurpose WordPress theme. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a beginner just starting out, Sydney has something to offer everyone.

I hope this Sydney review helped you decide whether it’s the right multipurpose theme for you. You can also check out our ultimate WordPress security guide, or see our expert pick of the best email marketing services for small businesses.

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