RocketTheme is one of the well respected template club for Joomla! In fact, one of their head developers is a member of the core Joomla! development team. RocketTheme subscribers tend to be enthusiastic users of the site, which says a lot about the user community that has built around the excellent tch support supplied on their forums.

Almost all the templates come with bonus plugins to get the most out of your Joomla sites, and they were first to proved an easy install solution (they call it their RocketLauncher) that not only installs Joomla on your site, but installs the template, components and modules along with demo content to get you on your way with very little bother.

What's Included:

What version of Joomla do the templates work on - Joomla 1.x or 1.5 ?

There is still a massive amount of Joomla sites out there using the older Joomla 1.x as there are some great components still not converted for the newest release of Joomla. RocketTheme understand this, so all of their new themes are both 1.x and 1.5 compatible. However if you are using Joomla 1.5 and it's enhanced features, you get an extra level of usability and features from your RocketTheme template. If you like some of their older templates and want to use 1.5 then don't stress, the older themes are being ported to 1.5 with extra features.

How many templates are there and how often do they get updated?

Heaps. As of July there is 68 and you get access to all of them. RocketTheme release a new theme every month, and each one seems to outdo the previous. That means if you join today for a year, before your membership expires you will have access to up to 79 professional Joomla templates.

How good are the templates and how much can I edit them?

RocketTheme's templates, especially the past 12 months, have been some of the most versatile and customisable templates on the market. In fact, they sometimes suffer from being too complex due to the amount of customisations that can be done. They provide you with numerous variety in module styles and module positions, and this allows you to take the basic RocketTheme theme and turn it into something unique for your site. Want to make it even more custom? Then leave a message in the forum and have one of the developers help you out with your custom changes.On top of that all source files are supplied so you can easily customise the theme further to suit your needs.

What other cool bonuses are offered?

Versatility 3 Rockettheme

One of the selling points is the previously mentioned user forum. Here you can connect with not only the theme developers, but hundreds of users who are all approachable and will offer to help each other out.Also you have access to some further customised versions of their templates suited to specific uses (video game web sites for example), as well as a collection of free Joomla addons.

How much does it cost and are their any restrictions on how I can use the theme?

RocketTheme offers three levels of membership

* 3 months $50US

* 12 months $75US

* Developer 12 months 250

Discounts apply for renewal of memberships.

It must be noted that on the basic memberships you are limited as to how many web sites you can concurrently use the templates. As stated in the RocketTheme Terms and Conditions :-

Limited usage granted: Your membership grants you the rights to use the RTTC templates on as many concurrent sites as described in the matrix below. For example, a 3 month membership entitles you to use any RocketTheme theme on a maximum of 2 sites. If you renew your membership for 1 year, you are entitled to use the templates on an additional 2 sites, for a maximum of 4 sites. Even after your membership expires, you may continue to use the templates on these 4 sites, so the templates are not time-limited. If you wish to use a theme for a non-profit site, they do not count against your maximum concurrent theme usages.

Now while I do not particularly like the limited license, it is standard fare across most theme clubs.

Overall Opinion

RocketTheme is definitely my favourite theme club at the moment. They provide toprate templates, with excellent features yet manage to maintain the ability to customise the site for your unique stylings. Many times I have been stuck for inspiration for a web site design and fooled around with a RocketTheme theme and come up with something great and individualunique. Although like most theme clubs the limited license is a setback, I believe the expense worth it for access to such a great user and support community. If you do only join one template club, it is hard to go past RocketTheme.