Eta theme has arrived at start of this summer and become very popular between our customers, definitely NO. 1 theme in July & August so far - and we would like you to thank for your support and feedback ❤️. Anyway you might wonder why there is not more themes, why it takes so much time, why there are limited amount of themes for specific business like pets, real estate, adult services, cars, boats etc.
You might wonder how much time it takes us to develop theme - especially in "AI world". At very beginning let me note that unfortunatelly we've not found any model or service that would be able to design theme that would be at least close to our UX & UI standards. All AI models will generate generic, simple, amateur-looking themes those are significantly worse then Sigma theme - that should act as very default building stone.
So as usual we build themes slowly, precisely and manually, overall timeline can reach 6-9 months:
If you consider amount of time put into each theme, you must realize we put a lot of personal time and love into it, so each theme we produce is appreciated by our customers and it has as few bugs as theoretically possible.
Osclass is wonderful, fast, lightweight and powerful software for classifieds, marketplace, directories and similar kinds of business. But, Osclass is not Wordpress, Osclass is not Joomla, Osclass is not Magneto or any other "generic - ultimate" script where you can run anything. All these global brands are build with simple idea - you can run anything on it - blog, ecommerce, even classifieds, portfolio. For many of these it's great, for some businesses like ecommerce or classifieds, it's great at start, later you get into troubles, as it does not manage large sites well. It's not build for it, then you start looking for specific script - like Osclass, Prestashop, and similar.
What does it mean?
Simply - Osclass will never have millions of users like Wordpress has. Simply because business is not so large. This has direct impact on products - especially themes - there is not enough customers where it would make sense to build theme for let's say Real Estate only. It's simply not sustainable business, development effort is not worth of it.
Usually we rarely design anything from scratch without having idea. I personally like to browse tens and tens of various sites and check if there is something we've not integrated or used in any of themes. Something similar is done by whole team. We design inputs, selects and textareas, draft home page, search page, move to login/register/contact pages, then user account, item page and publish page are often last. Then we move to mobile design. It's not really what you could call as "professional design", but it's what always work. We also try to avoid pushing various "modern but useless" elements - many seen on different sites like ton of animations and crazy element shifts. These all usually results in wonderful theme - like Eta.
Finally we can summarize what we've tried to do in Eta theme - and you might evaluate if we've been successful there or not.
Comments section
About seller section
Boxed search section
Home page search section
Home page seo links section
User account dashboard section
User account listings section
User profile section
For OsclassPoint team, I truly believe you like our latest theme and you can understand why things are happening in given order and why it takes so much time. It's been 2 years from time Zeta theme has been deployed, but this of course does not mean that Zeta would be oldish or that everyone should switch to Eta. We try to create themes in way there is whole ecosystem with many free and premium options and you have good ability to choose what is best for your business and your classifieds or marketplace.
Question: Does Eta Osclass theme work on Osclass 8.1 and newer?
Answer: Eta is documented for Osclass 8.1 and newer, with responsive layout, RTL, and dark mode. Confirm the product page for the current minimum. Existing listings stay in the database when you switch themes. Test search, publish, and plugins on staging. An older core than 8.1 is outside the stated range.
Question: Does switching to Eta Osclass theme affect existing listings?
Answer: Switching to Eta keeps existing listings, users, and plugins in the database. Item pages, search, and account templates change. Plugins that inject markup may need a theme-compatible version. Slider stays a separate plugin. Preview on staging, then activate Eta in Appearance. Check comments and seller card on a live item.
Question: Can I keep Zeta theme instead of switching to Eta on Osclass?
Answer: Eta is not a mandatory switch from Zeta. Keep Zeta if it already fits the site. Eta ships a light header search, boxed home search, listing comments, a seller card, and account screens. Slider stays a separate plugin. Compare those templates on a demo before you change Appearance.
Question: Where do listing comments appear in Eta Osclass theme?
Answer: Eta places listing comments on the item page together with a seller card. Enable comments in Osclass Comments settings as usual. The theme provides the markup. A home slider is still a plugin, not a comment setting. If comments are missing, check Comments, Settings and that the item template is Eta.
Question: How does Eta home search differ from Delta theme on Osclass?
Answer: Eta uses a boxed search on home, plus recent search links and location shortcuts in a light header. Delta is a different OsclassPoint theme with its own search layout. You can keep Delta. Eta also includes footer SEO link areas. Neither theme requires a native app. Compare both demos before you switch.
Question: Is the home slider built into Eta Osclass theme?
Answer: The home slider is a separate plugin, not hard-coded into Eta. Install a slider plugin if you need one. Eta focuses on search, listing comments, seller card, and user account. Footer SEO links are in the theme. Skipping the slider is a valid setup. Check the home template after you activate Eta.
