Soledad
Elementor Wpbakery Classic Theme One-time Purchase
Author: PenciDesign | Last Updated: 19.01.2026

Soledad v8.7.1

Quick Verdict

Soledad is a feature-rich, multipurpose theme with an enormous library of pre-built designs, making it ideal for content-heavy sites like blogs and magazines. However, its history of critical security vulnerabilities and an overwhelming number of options present a steep learning curve and significant maintenance risks.

View Theme

Analysis

Soledad is one of ThemeForest’s best-selling multipurpose themes, celebrated for its vast collection of over 2,200 pre-built demo sites and visually stunning layouts, particularly for magazine, news, and blog websites. Its design quality allows users to create a professional-looking, content-rich site with a single click, and it comes bundled with numerous proprietary plugins for features like AI content generation and advanced filtering. The developer also provides fast and responsive technical support, which is a significant plus for such a complex product.

However, the theme’s greatest strength—its immense flexibility—is also its primary weakness. The backend is packed with thousands of options, creating an overwhelming experience and a steep learning curve, especially for beginners or clients who need a simple interface. This complexity can make site management and handoffs challenging. More critically, Soledad has a documented history of severe security vulnerabilities, including flaws that allowed unauthorized users to take control of site settings. This history necessitates constant, careful maintenance and immediate application of security patches.

Ultimately, Soledad is a powerful but demanding theme. It is best suited for experienced developers or agencies who can navigate its complex options panel, manage its performance, and diligently stay on top of security updates. While it can produce beautiful results, businesses and beginners seeking a straightforward, secure, and low-maintenance solution should consider more streamlined alternatives. The risk of breaking changes during updates and potential conflicts with essential plugins like Elementor and Yoast further cement its position as a tool for experts rather than a simple solution for everyone.

Elementor, WPBakery
Blog & Magazine
Classic Theme
✅ Pros
• Massive library of 2200+ pre-built demo sites
• Excellent designs for magazine and blog layouts
• Fast and responsive developer support
❌ Cons
• History of critical security vulnerabilities
• Overwhelming options panel creates a steep learning curve
• Updates have been known to cause breaking changes
Plugin Compatibility
Will my plugins work?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
Soledad is an excellent choice if your project relies on the Toolset plugin suite, as the theme is specifically optimized for it, enabling advanced features like custom field searches and front-end submission forms [19].
Check before purchase
Be cautious if you rely heavily on SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math, as there are recurring reports of these tools being unable to analyze content and reporting "0 words" on pages built with the theme's custom blocks [15].
Avoid if
Avoid this theme if you require immediate stability after every Elementor update, as Soledad's custom Penci Elementor widgets can break with new Elementor versions, creating a dependency that requires waiting for a theme patch [12].

Community Quotes

"Users report that popular SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math often cannot read content placed within Soledad's custom blocks or ACF fields, resulting in an incorrect '0 words' analysis."

— ACF Support [15]

"After major updates to Elementor, Soledad's custom 'Penci Elementor' widgets can break, requiring users to wait for a theme patch to restore full functionality."

— PenciDesign [12]

Freelancer Recommendation

The theme offers excellent integration with Toolset but shows potential conflicts with major SEO plugins and a dependency on patches for Elementor updates, so careful testing is required for all third-party plugins.

Alternatives: Kadence, Astra, GeneratePress
Client Handoff
Can the client manage it?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
This theme is a safe choice for experienced developers who are comfortable navigating a complex options panel and appreciate having thousands of granular settings available for deep customization [7].
Check before purchase
Use caution when handing this theme off to non-technical clients, as the sheer volume of options and settings has been described as "quite overwhelming for newcomers" and can be challenging to master [7].
Avoid if
Avoid Soledad if you need a simple, streamlined admin experience for a client, as the "Option Overload" from over 6,000 homepage demos and countless settings can lead to confusion and support requests [7].
Panel Difficulty
Complex
Documentation
Good
Learning Curve
Days

Community Quotes

"The theme includes thousands of settings and options, which can be overwhelming for beginners and non-technical clients, making the backend difficult to navigate and manage."

— Darrel Wilson [7]

Freelancer Recommendation
Soledad is best suited for experienced WordPress users or agencies who can manage its complexity. The vast number of options, while powerful, makes it a poor choice for beginners or clients who require a simple, easy-to-manage backend.
Alternatives: Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence
Performance & SEO
Will the site be fast?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
Soledad is a suitable choice for performance-focused projects, as official demos demonstrate good mobile scores (84/100) and excellent Core Web Vitals, proving it can be configured for fast loading times.
Check before purchase
While the theme can be fast, be aware that some reviewers note it can have a larger page size and more requests out-of-the-box compared to lightweight competitors, potentially requiring manual optimization work [7, 12].
Avoid if
Avoid this theme if you lack the time or expertise for performance tuning, as achieving optimal speeds may require billable hours to configure caching and delay specific scripts, which can be a complex task [12].
84
Mobile
Benchmark: 90+
99
Desktop
Benchmark: 90+
1.93s
LCP Mobile
Benchmark: <2.5s
1.77s
LCP Desktop
Benchmark: <2.5s
0.060
CLS Mobile
Benchmark: <0.1
0.010
CLS Desktop
Benchmark: <0.1
Overall Performance Rating
92/100
Test Information
Test Date: 2026-02-22
Tested URL: https://soledaddemo.pencidesign.net/24h-news-magazine/

Code Observation (demo):

The theme's demo achieved a good mobile PageSpeed score of 84/100 and an excellent desktop score of 99/100 when tested on 2026-02-22. Core Web Vitals were strong, with a mobile LCP of 1.93s and a CLS of 0.06, indicating a well-optimized foundation on the tested demo site.

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

Community Quotes

"Compared to lightweight themes like Astra, Soledad has a larger page size and makes more requests by default, which can result in slower load times if not carefully optimized."

— Darrel Wilson [7]

"To achieve the best performance, users must manually configure advanced settings, such as delaying specific JavaScript elements, which can be a complex and time-consuming task."

— PenciDesign [12]

Freelancer Recommendation

The theme demonstrates good performance potential. However, users should be prepared to actively manage its performance settings and potentially use caching plugins to maintain speed, especially on complex layouts with many active elements.

Alternatives: GeneratePress, Blocksy, Neve
Update Safety
Will updates break the site?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
The theme is safe for users who prioritize staying on the latest version, as the developers frequently release patches to address security issues and compatibility problems with plugins like Elementor [2, 12].
Check before purchase
Exercise caution with updates and always use a staging site, as major regressions have occurred, such as version 8.5.5 resetting all header styles to their default, which required an emergency patch to fix [12].
Avoid if
Avoid Soledad on mission-critical websites that cannot afford any downtime, due to its documented history of critical, unauthenticated vulnerabilities that posed a massive risk to sites before being patched [3, 4].

Community Quotes

"A past update (version 8.5.5) caused a significant issue where all header styles were reset to default, requiring an emergency patch from the developer to fix the problem."

— PenciDesign [12]

Freelancer Recommendation

Given the history of both breaking changes and critical security vulnerabilities, it is imperative to use a staging environment to test every Soledad update before deploying to a live site. Do not enable automatic updates for this theme.

Alternatives: Kadence, Astra, GeneratePress
Scalability
Can I use it for multiple projects?
Research Confidence: Medium
Costs
Pricing breakdown
Explicit Costs
  • Regular License $59
  • Support (6) Included
  • Regular License $59
  • Extended License $2200
Hidden Costs (Community)
No hidden costs reported.
Demo Gallery
0 example sites

No demos available.

Frequently Asked Questions
8 questions from community

Generated based on common user pain points and recurring support topics identified during the research phase.

How secure is the Soledad theme?

General

The Soledad theme has a troubling history of critical security vulnerabilities. In recent years, it has suffered from issues including a privilege escalation flaw allowing any logged-in user to change site settings [4], recurring Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerabilities [2], and unauthenticated PHP Object Injection flaws with a CVSS score of 9.8 [3]. While the developer releases patches, the frequency and severity of these issues require constant vigilance and prompt updates.

Sources: 2,3,4

Is Soledad a fast-loading theme compared to competitors like Astra?

Performance & Speed

While our direct PageSpeed tests show Soledad can achieve good performance (Mobile Score: 84), some third-party reviews indicate it is generally slower and more bloated out-of-the-box than lightweight competitors like Astra [7]. Achieving optimal performance may require significant manual configuration and optimization work [12].

Sources: 7,12

Is the Soledad theme easy for non-technical clients to manage?

Client Handoff

No, Soledad is generally not considered easy for non-technical users. Reviewers describe the admin interface as "quite overwhelming for newcomers" due to its thousands of settings and options, which presents a steep learning curve [7].

Sources: 7

Will my SEO plugins like Yoast work correctly with Soledad's custom layouts?

Plugin Compatibility

You may encounter issues. There are multiple user reports indicating that SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math often fail to analyze content correctly, reporting "0 words" on pages built with Soledad's custom blocks or advanced custom fields [15].

Sources: 15

Are updates for the Soledad theme generally stable?

Updates & Stability

Updates can be unstable. There are documented cases of updates causing significant regressions, such as version 8.5.5, which reset all user-configured header styles to the default and required an emergency patch from the developer to fix [12].

Sources: 12

What kind of support does the developer PenciDesign offer?

Support Quality

PenciDesign offers technical support through their official channel on ThemeForest, with a stated goal of a 1-business day response time. This support covers fixing bugs and issues with the theme, but it does not include custom development or design services [18].

Sources: 18

Does Soledad have good support for custom post types (CPTs)?

Plugin Compatibility

Yes, Soledad has excellent support for CPTs, particularly through its deep integration with the Toolset plugin suite. This allows for the creation of advanced CPT-based features like custom searches and front-end submission forms [19].

Sources: 19

Why are my site styles or settings not saving correctly after an update?

General

This is often caused by caching conflicts, which are a common source of "ghost bugs" with this theme [13]. After any update, it is critical to clear all layers of caching, including your browser cache, any caching plugins (like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket), and server-side or CDN caching.

Sources: 13
Sources & Methodology
22 sources indexed

Timeframe

Last 24 months

Analysis Date

February 6, 2026

Confidence Assessment

Data confidence: HIGH (21 analytical sources, 22 total)

Methodology Note

This analysis combines scraped data from the primary marketplace with a manual review of official documentation, security databases, independent reviews, and public user discussions to identify key strengths and weaknesses.

Referenced Sources 22