Ohio
Gutenberg Classic Theme One-time Purchase
Author: colabrio | Last Updated: 03.02.2026

Ohio v3.6.5

Quick Verdict

Ohio is a visually stunning and highly popular multipurpose theme with excellent customer support and frequent, stable updates. However, it suffers from poor out-of-the-box mobile performance that requires significant optimization and has well-documented compatibility issues with common plugins like Yoast SEO and WPML.

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Analysis

Ohio is a highly successful and visually impressive WordPress theme sold on ThemeForest, celebrated for its modern, minimalist design and extensive collection of polished demo sites. It is a popular choice for creative agencies, portfolios, and e-commerce stores. Users consistently praise the theme for its aesthetic quality and the exceptional customer support provided by its authors, who are known for their quick and technically accurate assistance. Furthermore, the theme benefits from a very active development cycle, receiving frequent updates that ensure compatibility and security without introducing breaking changes.

Despite its strengths in design and support, the theme presents significant technical challenges, most notably in performance. Out of the box, Ohio struggles with mobile speed, often producing poor PageSpeed scores that require high-quality hosting and considerable optimization to fix. This makes it a less-than-ideal choice for projects on a limited budget. Additionally, users may encounter frustrating compatibility issues with popular plugins. A well-documented conflict between Yoast SEO and Elementor can render the page editor almost unusable, while multilingual sites using WPML require a tedious manual process to sync custom fields.

Ultimately, Ohio is best suited for experienced developers or agencies who have the technical expertise to mitigate its performance issues and navigate its plugin conflicts. Its powerful features and beautiful design provide a fantastic foundation, but it is not a beginner-friendly theme. Clients who need to manage their own site may find the learning curve and basic documentation challenging. For those with the right skills and resources, Ohio can be used to build stunning websites, but it demands a level of technical oversight that simpler themes do not.

Gutenberg
Agency
Classic Theme
✅ Pros
• Consistently excellent and fast customer support
• High-quality, polished, and modern demo designs
• Very active development with frequent, stable updates
❌ Cons
• Poor mobile performance scores without optimization
• Known conflicts with Yoast SEO and Elementor
• Documentation is too basic for advanced issues
Plugin Compatibility
Will my plugins work?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
This theme is safe to use if your project relies on its core integrations with WooCommerce and a page builder, and does not require the specific combination of Yoast SEO with Elementor or a complex multilingual setup with WPML and ACF.
Check before purchase
Proceed with caution if your project requires both Yoast SEO and Elementor, as there is a documented conflict that can cause extremely slow editor load times and server errors, severely impacting the content management experience [4].
Avoid if
Avoid this theme if your project's core workflow depends on a seamless, high-performance editing experience within Elementor while Yoast SEO is active, as the known conflict can create significant frustration and productivity loss for content creators [5].

Community Quotes

"When using WPML with the bundled ACF Pro plugin, developers must manually duplicate all ACF field groups for each new language added to the site."

— ACF Support Forums [6]

"A known conflict between Yoast SEO and Elementor causes extremely slow editor load times (3-4 minutes) and can result in 500 server errors, making content editing very difficult."

— GitHub [4]

Freelancer Recommendation

Be aware of the known conflict between Yoast SEO and Elementor. If both are required, plan for troubleshooting or consider alternative SEO plugins. For multilingual sites with ACF, budget time for the manual field group duplication process.

Alternatives: Themes like Astra or Kadence often have fewer complex plugin interactions and are known for broad compatibility.
Client Handoff
Can the client manage it?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
This theme is a safe choice if you are a developer or an agency that will be managing the website post-launch, as you can navigate the ACF Pro-based theme options and handle any client requests directly.
Check before purchase
Exercise caution when handing this theme off to non-technical clients who intend to manage the site themselves, as the documentation is too basic for complex problems and the theme options have a moderate learning curve [1].
Avoid if
Avoid this theme if the end-user is a complete beginner who requires comprehensive, detailed documentation and an exceptionally simple interface to manage their website content and design independently.
Panel Difficulty
Moderate
Documentation
Basic
Learning Curve
Days

Community Quotes

"Users report that the theme's documentation is too simple and does not provide solutions for advanced problems or complex customizations."

— Ohio Theme Website [7]

"The general complexity of the WordPress admin dashboard can be overwhelming for non-technical clients, a common issue not specific to this theme."

— YouTube [10]

"The theme uses ACF Pro for its settings panel, which presents a moderate learning curve for developers who need to modify core theme logic or extend its functionality."

— ThemeForest [1]

Freelancer Recommendation
Ohio is best suited for projects where a technical team remains involved for ongoing support and updates. For direct client handoffs, it's crucial to provide custom training documentation or restrict client user roles to prevent confusion [10].
Alternatives: For simpler client experiences, consider themes like Astra or Kadence which are known for their user-friendly customizers and extensive documentation.
Performance & SEO
Will the site be fast?
Research Confidence: High
Check before purchase
Use this theme with caution if achieving high mobile performance scores is a top priority, as it requires significant optimization, a powerful caching setup, and high-quality hosting to overcome its poor out-of-the-box speed [2].
Avoid if
Avoid using Ohio for projects on a tight budget with basic shared hosting, as the theme's inherent performance weaknesses will likely result in a slow website that is difficult and costly to optimize effectively.
56
Mobile
Benchmark: 90+
65
Desktop
Benchmark: 90+
7.31s
LCP Mobile
Benchmark: <2.5s
1.51s
LCP Desktop
Benchmark: <2.5s
0.006
CLS Mobile
Benchmark: <0.1
Test Information
Test Date: 2026-02-02
Tested URL: https://ohio.clbthemes.com/demo34/homedemo34-elementor/

Code Observation (demo):

The theme's official demo scored 56/100 on Google PageSpeed Insights for mobile, which is considered in the "needs work" tier. The primary issue is a very poor Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 7.31 seconds, indicating slow initial page loading. Community analysis confirms that performance is highly dependent on quality hosting and aggressive optimization, with one test showing a mobile score as low as 8% before improvements [2].

⚠️ Based on DevTools inspection of demo, not a production audit

Community Quotes

"A review site documented significant mobile performance degradation when using the Ohio theme with Elementor, with a test site scoring only 8% on PageSpeed Insights before optimization."

— ergoseo.com [2]

"Real-world tests show that the theme's performance is highly dependent on the quality of the hosting environment, with shared hosting often leading to poor results."

— ergoseo.com [2]

Freelancer Recommendation

To achieve acceptable performance with Ohio, budget for premium hosting and potentially a CDN. Plan for a thorough optimization process post-launch, focusing on image compression, asset minification, and addressing the slow LCP.

Alternatives: For projects where performance is the number one priority, consider lightweight themes like GeneratePress or Blocksy, which are built for speed from the ground up.
Update Safety
Will updates break the site?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
The theme is a safe and reliable choice for long-term projects because the development team releases frequent updates, with over 25 versions in the last year, and has a strong track record of not introducing breaking changes [8].
Check before purchase
Be cautious after every theme update, as you must manually regenerate Elementor's CSS files from the WordPress dashboard to ensure that styling and layout changes are applied correctly and prevent visual inconsistencies [3].
Avoid if
There is no compelling reason to avoid this theme based on its update frequency or stability, as it is actively and professionally maintained, making it a dependable choice from a maintenance perspective.

Community Quotes

"To prevent layout and styling issues, users must manually regenerate Elementor's CSS files after every theme update."

— Ohio Docs [3]

Freelancer Recommendation

Ohio’s active and stable update cycle makes it a solid investment. Simply incorporate the small, required step of regenerating Elementor’s CSS files into your regular maintenance checklist to ensure smooth operation after each update.

Alternatives: Most premium themes from established authors on ThemeForest, like Avada or The7, offer similarly reliable update schedules.
Scalability
Can I use it for multiple projects?
Research Confidence: Medium

Community Quotes

"If the demo import button is clicked multiple times, the process can create duplicate pages, posts, and menu items, requiring manual cleanup."

— Stack Overflow [12]

Costs
Pricing breakdown
Explicit Costs
  • Regular License $59
  • Support (6) Included
  • Support Extension $17.63
  • Regular License $59
  • Extended License $2950
  • Extend support to 12 months $17.63
Hidden Costs (Community)
No hidden costs reported.
Demo Gallery
0 example sites

No demos available.

Frequently Asked Questions
8 questions from community

Is the Ohio theme fast on mobile devices?

Performance & Speed

No, not out of the box. A PageSpeed test on an official demo showed a poor mobile score of 56/100 with a very slow 7.31s Largest Contentful Paint. Independent reviews confirm that achieving good mobile performance requires premium hosting and significant optimization efforts [2].

Sources: 2

What is the most common complaint about the Ohio theme?

General

The most common complaints revolve around its poor mobile performance and the basic, often unhelpful, documentation that doesn't provide solutions for advanced customization or troubleshooting issues [7].

Sources: 7

Should I use Elementor or WPBakery with Ohio for best performance?

Performance & Speed

The available data points to performance issues specifically when using Elementor, particularly on mobile [2]. While not explicitly tested, WPBakery might offer a different performance profile, but generally, achieving high performance with Ohio depends more on hosting and optimization than the choice of builder.

Sources: 2

How good is the customer support for Ohio?

Support Quality

Customer support is consistently rated as excellent. Users frequently praise the support team for being fast, technically proficient, and helpful in resolving issues [7].

Sources: 7

Is the documentation sufficient for advanced customization?

Client Handoff

No, the documentation is considered too simple and is a common pain point. Users report that it covers basic setup but lacks the depth needed for advanced problems or customizations [7].

Sources: 7

Does Ohio work well with WooCommerce and WPML?

Plugin Compatibility

It works very well with WooCommerce. However, its integration with WPML has a significant caveat when used with its bundled ACF Pro plugin; you must manually duplicate custom field groups for every new language you add, which can be time-consuming [6].

Sources: 6

How often is the Ohio theme updated?

Updates & Stability

The theme is updated very frequently, typically 2-4 times per month. It has a strong history of consistent maintenance and compatibility updates, with over 25 versions released in the past year [8].

Sources: 8

Are there any known plugin conflicts with the Ohio theme?

Plugin Compatibility

Yes, there is a major, well-documented conflict between Yoast SEO and Elementor that causes the Elementor editor to load extremely slowly or time out with a 500 error. This is a known issue between those two plugins, not caused by the Ohio theme itself, but it significantly affects users of the theme [4].

Sources: 4
Sources & Methodology
17 sources indexed

Timeframe

Last 12 months

Analysis Date

February 3, 2026

Confidence Assessment

Data confidence: HIGH (16 analytical sources, 17 total)

Methodology Note

This analysis combines scraped data from the theme's marketplace page with a manual review of user comments, support forums, social media, and independent reviews to build a comprehensive profile of the theme's strengths and weaknesses.

Referenced Sources 17