Nata Leto
Flothemes joins Pixieset : What it means for Flo users + Roadmap
Many of you might be surprised by our announcement of joining the Pixieset team. Some of you will feel happy and excited, others may wonder what this means, how it impacts your current Flothemes website, and what you can expect from us as a company in the short and distant future.
We understand that your website is a critical part of your business, and we want to reassure you that with this news, nothing changes in terms of the support you will receive from our team. Depending on the Flothemes products that you use, here’s what you can expect and look forward to (select Roadmap section below).
Flexthemes & Pronto Users
Clients with Ongoing Setup Services
Classic Theme users
Plugins and StyleKits
Flothemes roadmap
FAQs
Flextheme & Pronto Users
Nothing changes for you. You’ll continue receiving free updates for your themes.
As you know, per our terms of use, we commit to supporting and maintaining your theme for 18 months since the theme’s release date. Yet, we’ve always tried our best to prolong a theme’s lifespan for as long as possible. Some of our clients continue using themes that have been released back in 2016-2017, and they’re still fully functional and compatible with the latest version of Flex, WordPress and PHP 8.0.
Your theme came with 12 months of free support subscription after purchase. Once that period expires, you have the option to prolong your support subscription for another year and get full assistance from our team with questions and issues, or, you can choose to pay per request when you encounter an issue. Both can be done through your Flothemes account.
Apart from maintenance updates, you’ll receive new Flex features and a fresh collection of pre-made Flex blocks. These will all further expand your website design possibilities and layout options (see Roadmap section for more details).
Lastly, we released a new core version for your theme, called Pronto, that you can upgrade to in case you’re craving for a deeper integration with Gutenberg, you want more WP native options, and better site performance scores right out of the box. Pronto is a subscription based upgrade. If interested, you can find more details about its characteristics, performance scores and new features in this article. But truthfully, Pronto is probably all you’ve ever wanted from a WordPress website – it taps into all WP features, while still allowing you to experience Flex’s incredible design freedom.
While we can’t predict future changes to PHP and WordPress that could impose limitations or incompatibilities for your theme, our intention is to continue supporting you for the next 24-30 months. We will keep you informed on all important changes and updates within the WordPress world, throughout this whole period.
Clients with an ongoing Setup Service
Our terms are exactly as they have been before. If you’ve purchased a website setup service with us, yet haven’t kicked off the process yet – know that you have 3 months from purchase date to fill out the form and get started. Then, you have another 3 months to complete the setup process. Failure to meet these deadlines may be subject to repurchase or a new setup fee. Exception are individual agreements that you’ve confirmed with the setups team directly, by email.
If you have an ongoing website installation at the moment, simply proceed with the steps as originally discussed with your appointed setups person. Nothing changes for you.
Classic theme users
Per our terms you get 18 months of updates to your theme since the theme’s release date. Nonetheless, we’re doing our best to find workarounds and keep your theme fully functional for as long as possible. And although some of our classic designs date back to 2016, this year, all Classic themes got an update that makes them compatible with PHP 8.0. This is the latest, most viable version for your theme that we recommend to use for your website.
Based on trends and previous records of PHP updates, this should allow you to continue using your Classic theme for at least another 12 months.
If you need support for your Classic theme, you can purchase a 1 year support subscription and enjoy assistance from our team.
While we can’t predict future changes to PHP and WordPress that could impose limitations or incompatibilities for your theme, our intention is to continue maintaining your theme for the next 12 months, under an active support subscription. We’ll do our best to keep you informed on all important changes and updates in the WordPress world.
Plugins & Style Kits Subscribers
If you currently use FloForms, FloPicTime (including the Pro versions) or the Style Kits subscription – nothing changes for you. You’ll continue receiving support and updates for your product, just like before. Those subscribed to Style Kits can expect 2 stunning new additions to your library (Kaya and Nico), each with 20 unique Flex blocks. These style kits will be added into your library by mid-August.
FloHub Plugin
Back in 2016, most photographers were using pdfs to present their pricelist to clients. It was inconvenient, took forever to update and was hard to view on mobile. This is how the idea of FloHub came to life – an interactive and responsive solution to present pricing that integrates directly with your contact form and makes the client experience more engaging. That being said, online solutions have evolved since then, and with a multitude of options currently available to present pricing, we no longer see the necessity to keep FloHub as a separate solution.
We know that many of you have asked to bring in more pricing options into Flex directly, so you can unify the process inside one single editor. And while we can’t integrate the calculator functionality directly into Flex, we will be releasing fresh, new Flex block layouts (for Flextheme and Pronto users), to offer you alternative options to present your packages and pricing, directly on your Flothemes website. These new Flex blocks will be released by mid-August 2021.
Flothemes Roadmap
Our first priority for 2021 was to release Pronto, the Gutenberg theme version, which is now available for Flextheme users as a subscription based upgrade. As we have accomplished this milestone, and are heading into the second half of 2021, we are taking the time to enhance our existing products – our themes and the FlexBlock editor. Below you will find our roadmap, so you know what to expect in terms of product updates and features.
FlexBlock
Throughout the next months, our team will be releasing new features for everyone who uses FlexBlock on their website (both, Flextheme users and Classic theme users). You can expect the following new features:
Released middle July:
- Slideshow element for all Flex users
- Predesigned Flex blocks built with Slideshows & Tabs (for Flextheme & Pronto users)
- Extended options for the Tabs element
- Option to adjust the crop on mobile without disabling the sync
Released by middle August:
- Before / After element
- Image masking options
- New hover effects for buttons
- Predesigned Flex blocks for Before/After, Animations, Pricing, Footers, Countdowns, and more (for Flextheme & Pronto users)
- Context menu functionality
- Anchor option
- Back to Top option
- New animation effects (i.e. fold, flip)
Plus, as always, we’ll be rolling out maintenance updates and enhancements for existing features.
Style Kits
We’re working to bring new style kits inside the style kit library, to offer you more visual options to customize your themes. These will be released at the beginning of August, and will be part of the Style Kits library.
We realize that this is huge news, hence if you have further questions our team is here to clarify them. Please leave your questions inside our Facebook Community, under the announcement post, and we’ll try to get back to you asap!
FAQs
🟡 1. Did Pixieset acquire Flothemes?
Yes, Pixieset did acquire Flothemes. This is not a standard acquisition, as Flothemes will continue to have autonomy. It was important to us that our teams share the same core values, approach to product creation, putting our customers and serving community first. From a professional level, this is why it made perfect sense, and we are excited to work together and shape the plans for our brands and products moving forward.
🟡 2. What are the benefits of this merger?
There are multiple benefits and things to look forward to.
One – your workflow and website setting remains the same. You don’t have to switch anywhere, or change your provider, and you are not expected to change to Pixieset. We have no plans to phase out Flothemes, and if you love your current site and the Flex editor – you can continue using it, just like you did before. Meanwhile, we will continue supporting you, maximizing on the features and design possibilities, to offer you the best solutions with Flexthemes and the Flex editor.
Two – this merger and partnership opens up an incredible opportunity to work together with the Pixieset team on enhancing and pushing forward their tools for photographers. Having worked for over a decade in this industry, connecting with so many of you personally, we understand your business and your website needs. We managed to bring the drag and drop design experience into WordPress through Flex editor, and create this incredible design freedom for photographers. Now imagine how much we can do when we work on a platform that we control? There’s lots of things that we have in plan, and we’ll be sharing more details soon.
🟡 3. Will I be forced to use Pixieset?
You are not forced to use Pixieset or switch into their products. You can continue using your current workflows and choose the best tools that work for your business. Our team’s intention is to work together with Pixieset to improve products inside the Pixieset suite, as well as further enhance the products we offer at Flo.
🟡 4. What happens with my Flextheme after 24-30 months?
You can still keep using your Flextheme beyond the 24-30months. The referred period is related to the current PHP and WP versions. Knowing the advances of PHP and WordPress for the past years, we cannot guarantee firmly that in 2,5 years from now, the currently available themes will be fully compatible with those future versions of PHP and WP. Hence, the 24-30 months estimation is specifically related to the currently available products, not to how long Flothemes will exist or support its clients.
We have no plans to stop (phase-out) Flothemes. We’re not going anywhere, we’ll continue expanding on our roadmap and supporting our products and users. And we will keep going for as long as WordPress allows us to.
To give you a perspective, changes in technology back in 2019 forced us to fully rebuild our theme core, and launch the Flexthemes collection to support current trends and websites needs of our users. Meanwhile, our Classic theme users are still able to use their themes (built in 2017-2018) to this day.
The predicted technical compatibility for Flexthemes, is not affected by the acquisition, but by WordPress’ environment.
🟡 5. Pronto – what happens with my Flex blocks and theme after 30months?
Pronto is a subscription based theme version. You will continue receiving support and have a working theme for as long as you have an active subscription. The 24-30months referenced are related to current technology and requirements of PHP and WordPress, as we can not predict how PHP and WP will change in the next 2.5 years. That being said, we do not intend to stop supporting our users after the mentioned 30 months. The predicted technical compatibility of Pronto, is not affected by the acquisition, but by WordPress’ environment.
🟡 6. I am a Classic theme user, will my site be available only for another 12 months?
The reference to 12 months is related to current technology and web requirements, which have advanced since Classic themes’ core has been created (about 5 years ago). This is not related to Flothemes and Pixieset acquisition, but specifically to Classic Themes as product.
Although the theme core of our Classic themes has been built 5 years ago, earlier this year we have updated all our Classic themes to be compatible with the latest PHP and WordPress versions. We cannot predict how technology will change, but we can guarantee that for the next 12 months Classic themes will work without a problem. If you happen to have issues with your theme after that period, our team will be there to help with it through paid support. We would still recommend upgrading to a newer theme version, ie. Flexthemes.
🟡 7. Will Flothemes design new themes?
We will not create new themes in the traditional way that we used to. Instead, we’ll release new design options, block layouts, features for our Flex Editor, that will be available inside Flexthemes and Pronto (some new features will also be available for Classic users)When we first created Flothemes, our model worked as individual themes. This forced our customers to continuously upgrade, in order to get a newer design and better technology. We decided to create Flex with two primary objectives: 1) allow you control and freedom over your page design, and 2) provide you with designs, layout blocks, and functionality – so you can easily change your website and page design with less effort. And most importantly, without changing your theme. As a result, we became a website framework company instead of a design theme company.
Therefore, we do not plan to design new themes, but we will create new designs, layouts, and features inside Flex Editor, Flexthemes and Pronto. So you, as the user, can have more options without a need to go through a full overhaul.
🟡 8. If 3 years from now I have an issue with my Flothemes, will I be able to get WordPress support from the team?
Yes, you will be able to receive support either as a one time payment or by extending your support subscription package.
🟡 9. I want to remain on WordPress x Flothemes due to the design flexibility/ SEO options. Will I have those if I want to move to Pixieset?
We are excited to work with the Pixieset team to bring innovation and creativity inside their Website platform, similarly as we poured our dedication into creating the Flex editor for our WordPress themes. We understand the importance of SEO, and that will be one of our focal points while working on the Pixieset tools. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.
🟡 10. What if I was hoping to get a Flotheme in the near future?
Thank you for considering Flothemes for your business. We are still here, fully committed to our clients, continuing to work on new features and exciting updates that will enhance our products. Nothing changes. Our terms and dedication to each Flo user remains the same, whether they’ve purchased last year, or plan to do it in the following months. If you have further question, feel free to message us, and we’ll try our best to clarify them.
🟡 11. Will I be forced to switch to a monthly subscription payment model?Currently, you can purchase a theme as a one-time payment. It comes with 12 free months of support, with options to further extend that support after, through yearly support packages.
We do plan to review bundled options that will simplify our offerings, and provide more perks and functionality, at a lower cost (as compared to buying them separately). They will be offered as part of our yearly support packages.
Those who’ve purchased their theme as a one time payment, will not be forced into subscription to continue using their theme. Unless you want to upgrade to Pronto, which requires an active support subscription at all times.
🟡 12. Will Flothemes leave WordPress and become Pixieset?
We have no plans to stop or change Flothemes. We’re not going anywhere, we’ll continue expanding on our roadmap and supporting our products and users, and we’ll keep going for as long as WordPress allows us to.
We do plan to simplify our current offerings, so plugins and subscription products are offered as part of our support packages, thus providing you with extended features and functionality, at a lower cost compared to purchasing them as stand-alone options.
🟡 13. Will the FloPicTime plugin be phased out?
No, we don’t plan to phase it out. Pic-Time has been a long time partner of the Flothemes brand, and we will respect our integrations with any and all partners. We believe in an inclusive approach to business integrations.
***
If there are any questions that we have not covered, please use this form, and we’ll get back to you asap.
