In this Bridge WordPress Theme review for 2018 and 2019, we’ll evaluate and analyze
the Bridge WordPress theme by Qode Themes.
Here, you will find everything you need to know about the Bridge theme including its
core features, design options, unique characteristics, and key performance metrics.
As we speak, we are in the process of creating a free step by step tutorial on how to make
your own WordPress website using the Bridge theme that will be coming out really soon
- so subscribe to our YouTube channel to get access to that.
If you want a WordPress theme that can do pretty much anything, then Bridge may be for
you.
There is one small trade off you’ll need to make however, which we’ll cover off in
this video.
So let’s get to it.
We’ve created a post that you can follow along with in the OHKLYN blog.
A direct link will be in the description below, and in the info card for this video.
In that post, you’ll find more information regarding our analysis, as well as a link
to the Bridge theme and discount hosting - should you decide it’s right for you.
These will also be in the description below and are affiliate links that help fund future
free videos like this one, so we appreciate you using the links provided.
First off let’s take a look at Bridge from a design & functionality perspective
Few themes manage to (ahem) bridge the gap between functionality and design quite like
the Bridge WordPress theme.
With many themes, one often comes at the expense of the other, as creating a theme that is
both beautifully designed and loaded with functionality is incredibly challenging.
Therefore, it’s quite impressive that a smaller theme provider like Qode has managed
to make a theme that doesn’t compromise on either.
This adds so much value as you don’t need to spend time, money or energy investing in
more plugins or themes.
For many, Bridge will be your one-stop solution.
One of the most impressive aspects of Bridge’s design is its collection of over 320 complete
demo sites.
As you can imagine, this number covers almost every type of website and niche you can think
of.
You’re guaranteed to find something representative of the kind of site you are going for, and
with the simple one-click content import tool, that will give you a massive head start.
While demo content is great for getting an idea of what’s possible with a WordPress
theme, we always like to see how people and businesses are actually using a theme.
Let us quickly run through a few examples of website that are leveraging Bridge, the
first being Ocho Videos
Ocho is the online portfolio and business website of Alejandro Portaz, a director who
creates all kinds of short films and clips for clients.
This is an example of how you could create a one-page website with Bridge and incorporate
an eclectic yet professional design.
Next is Mani Pine
If the previous theme didn’t convince you of Bridge’s design versatility, then maybe
Mani Pine will.
It’s a business that provides customized furniture.
You can also find a working example of a Bridge store here.
We then have Archers
This is the business website of a Parisian law firm specializing in business law.
Here, you can get a glimpse of the tasteful and elegant animations that Bridge ships with.
Much like Ocho, it’s a blend of professionalism and creativity that seems to be a hallmark
of sites built with Bridge.
Lastly is Nueve Seis
Nueve Seis is a digital business consultancy.
As you can expect in that line of work, you need a site that catches the attention and
is professional.
You can see how Bridge helped them achieve this with numerous sliders, animations, counters,
and design elements.
From a functionality perspective, You are spoiled for choice in regards to the features
that are available through functional modules, graphical design elements, and customization
options.
One of the more notable is the magazine module that turns your site into a newspaper or magazine
platform with sharing and reaction widgets built in.
Similarly, the listing module is equally impressive as it allows you to list any kind of content
in various ways with advanced filters and user account controls.
There are a huge number of shortcodes, including slider, infographic, showcase, typography,
and presentation shortcodes that allow you to quickly add almost anything from accordions
to Google Maps, and advanced image galleries to pie charts.
Then there’s the store.
You can expect the same level of choice when it comes to their fully-equipped store.
There are plenty of product hover states, layouts, and product types to use.
It also comes with all the functionality you expect in an online store with extensive filtering
options.
Ok so let’s explore the customization options available with Bridge.
A WordPress theme’s customization options are undoubtedly one, if not the most important
factor.
After all, you’re on WordPress because it’s supposed to make creating stylish, modern,
and functional websites easy, fast, and accessible to everyone.
Although Bridge doesn’t come with its own page builder, it seamlessly integrates with
the Visual Composer plugin by WP Bakery which is a solid page builder, and for a long time
the industry standard
The two main built-in ways for you to customize the Bridge theme is via shortcodes and the
theme’s various settings under the Qode entry in your left-hand menu.
Like with any quality WordPress theme you’ll get access to extensive theme specific documentation.
Bridge does an awesome job of guiding you through every aspect of the theme via their
intuitive and easy to follow theme documentation pages.
Here they cover everything from getting started with Bridge, to customizing its most powerful
features.
Let’s now take a look at the Bridge theme settings
Conveniently, the different settings for each type of element are divided into separate
tabs in the menu.
These include the: General settings: Here you can change site-wide
settings like the backgrounds, fonts, social media elements, and main colors of various
parts of your site.
Header: Here you can change the header style and associated options.
They proudly boast that through the customization options, you have unlimited header styles.
Logo: You can upload different versions of your logo and adjust its dimensions.
Elements: Here you can adjust the basic settings for different elements like the styles, margins,
and text colors.
Page settings: There are also a few page tabs that cover settings for common pages like
a 404 error page, portfolio page, and Blog page.
These settings make changing your global theme settings to control the look and feel, navigation,
and organization of content on your pages a breeze.
Once you have played around a little and seen the changes in action, you’ll find that
you’ll get up to speed very quickly.
Most of these settings can also be set at the individual page-level with Qode settings
appearing below the editor when you edit pages.
This will give you finer control by allowing you to create pages that have their own unique
layouts.
In regards to customizing pages, when it comes to web design customization begins with adding
elements to your page.
Bridge comes with an exhaustive set of over 70 shortcodes with which you can quickly and
easily add elements to your page.
While shortcodes can be a little confusing for a new WordPress user, they are incredibly
powerful once you understand how they work.
Shortcodes are basically small snippets of code that represent an entire graphical element.
When you add the shortcode in, the theme knows to display that specific element in its place.
The shortcodes are added to the Visual editor on the Edit Page.
For those more comfortable using a drag and drop page builder, Visual composer will make
this process a lot easier.
Qode is big on sliders!
When you install the theme, entries will be created in your left-hand menu for Qode Slider,
LayerSlider WP, and Revolution Slider.
Here you can create, import, and edit new sliders using these three slider tools to
add sliders to your pages.
Where Bridge had pretty much every other theme covered is when it comes to Demo Content.
There are already 320+ demo sites that you can leverage to start you off with an amazing
site.
Of course, you don’t want to keep it exactly as is, but they serve as an excellent example
of what’s possible with the Bridge theme and can give you a good framework to add your
own content and panache.
To give you an idea of the range, these are just some of the demos you can expect:
A modern eCommerce website A food or lifestyle blog
A business or consultancy website A portfolio or personal cv site
A sport or yoga website As you can see, all the most common types
of sites are present as well as some more interesting and obscure niches.
In fact, most niches have multiple demo sites which give you even finer control of where
you want to start your blog or website.
What makes these 320+ demo sites even better is the fact that you can also use their demo
content.
This means you can technically have a complete website by just clicking a few buttons through
their handy one-click demo importer.
To use it, once you have installed the Bridge theme, just go to the ‘Qode Import’ option
in the left-hand menu.
There you can select the demo content for the site you want to import from a drop-down
and just click “Import”.
Ok, let’s now take a look at how you can customize the demo content as well as add
and remove elements using the drag and drop builder.
It’s no wonder that Qode recommends you use the Visual Composer page builder by WP
Bakery to build your website using their theme.
As far as page builders go, it’s one of the best out there and can compete with many
of the top page builders like the Divi page builder, Elementor page builder, or Themify
builder when it comes to features.
The great news is that Bridge includes the premium Visual Composer plugin for free, saving
you $34.
It comes with a frontend and backend page builder.
Here’s a quick look at what that backend page builder looks like
And, this is what the frontend builder looks like.
The frontend builder allows you to edit the page and see the changes in real-time.
As far as design is concerned, Bridge is pretty solid.
Let’s explore Bridge from a performance perspective.
First up, let’s analyze it’s page load speed.
No one likes to wait, and internet users can be incredibly impatient often ‘bouncing’
from frustratingly slow websites.
Page load speed also factors into your sites search engine rankings, so it’s an important
metric.
Through our analysis, we found that the developers have done a thorough job optimizing the Bridge
theme.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are minified, redirects are kept to a minimum, and visible content
is prioritized.
However, with so many features and content on one page, there is only so much one can
do.
The page speed is still a bit slow, and this is the trade off you’ll need to make if
you want access to the extensive design and functionality options that Bridge offers.
We would give it a 6/10 in terms of page load speed based on our analysis using Pingdom
and Google PageSpeed Insights.
However from an SEO perspective, Bridge comes fully optimized for SEO and includes a section
to optimize the on-page elements of your site which is handy.
However, we would still recommend turning this off and leveraging a separate SEO plugin.
Yoast SEO is one of the best SEO plugins available and the Bridge theme fully supports it.
They also recommend using it for your SEO needs.
In terms of mobile responsiveness, Bridge translates perfectly to smaller screens.
It’s also ready to use on high-density retina displays featured on most Apple devices.
A major benefit of purchasing a premium WordPress theme is access to support and extensive theme
documentation.
Bridge provides in-house support services through the Ticksy platform.
Before you reach out directly to support, you can always view past tickets or forum
threads to see if previous users have had the same issues and found a solution.
Ticksy makes the process of submitting tickets extremely straightforward.
On the OHKLYN post here , we’ve included a link to the Bridge Theme documentation.
Here you can find extensive documentation to sift through.
It covers everything from getting started to some of the more advanced features and
functionality included in the theme.
In addition to that, the lively user forum is there to help you overcome any unique hurdles.
If learning via videos is more your kind of thing, they have a YouTube channel with tutorials
using mostly the Bridge theme.
Like we mentioned earlier, we’ll also have a free step by step tutorial using Bridge
out soon, so subscribe to our channel for more on that.
Lastly, let’s look at the pricing options for Bridge
Qode sell their themes, including Bridge, on Themeforest which is one of the largest
theme marketplaces in existence and forms part of the Envato Market.
As such, you purchase the theme for a once-off fee, or as part of an Envato subscription
that includes additional services.
To purchase the Bridge WordPress Theme, it’s a once-off payment of $39 and includes:
Future updates.
And, 6 Months of support by Qode
You can also extend your support from Qode to 12 months for an extra $10.
If you want to buy the theme through an Envato hosted subscription it will cost $19 on a
monthly basis, or $190 on a yearly basis.
The Envato hosted subscription comes with: A copy of the Bridge theme.
WordPress & theme installation.
Backups and WordPress updates.
Technical support.
Plus 10% off freelancer services listed on Envato.
The yearly subscription adds value by including:
A 30-day money back guarantee.
2 months free if you calculate the total cost of $19 per month for a year.
Custom site setup services.
And, 20% off freelance services listed on Envato.
To get access to that, follow the button on the OHKLYN post here, or the link in the description
below.
In summary, Bridge is a beautifully designed theme that includes extensive functionality
and caters to a number of niches.
Bridge is unrivaled when it comes to the stunning amount of demo content that will cover pretty
much every application you could think of.
Like with any multi-purpose WordPress theme that comes with such extensive functionality
and design elements, you have to compromise slightly on the page load performance.
However, the inclusion of Visual Composer makes customizing your site easy, and through
leveraging something like the Yoast SEO plugin alongside bridge, you’ve got a winning formula.
We recommend hosting your WordPress website on Bluehost who are an affiliate partner of
OHKLYN.
For those who are part of the community, you can access discount hosting via the button
on the OHKLYN post here.
If you want to upgrade your hosting solution to a premium option, we would recommend using
WP Engine to overcome any site speed concerns using this theme.
Once again, access a discount via the OHKLYN post by following this button here, or via
the link in the description below.
And that completes our review of the Bridge WordPress theme by Qode for 2018 and 2019.
We hope that you got some value from this video, and are in a better position to decide
if Bridge is the right theme for your project.
Leave a comment and tell us about your experience, as well as any feedback for how we can improve
future videos.
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kept up to date on the latest releases.
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time, happy building.