Proposal: Establishing a High-Quality Bootstrap 5 Theme Marketplace with a Royalty Model to Revitalize e107

[kreossino]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been a long-time supporter of e107, and I frequently propose this CMS to friends and colleagues who are looking for a flexible and powerful solution. However, I’ve hit a consistent roadblock that I believe is hindering our growth: Visual First Impression.

Most newcomers—especially beginners and non-technical users—choose a CMS based on how their site will look out of the box. Currently, when I show them e107, the first question is always: "Can I see some modern, high-quality design previews?" Unfortunately, our current library lacks the "wow factor" found in other modern ecosystems, which makes it difficult to compete.

The Proposal:
I would like to suggest creating a dedicated initiative or area focused on High-Quality Bootstrap 5 Themes, encouraging a more professional "Marketplace" approach.

Specifically, I propose
Premium/Paid Tier: Allow and encourage developers to offer high-quality themes for a fee. This provides a necessary financial incentive for designers to invest hundreds of hours into building polished, professional, and feature-rich templates for e107.
Bootstrap 5 Standardization: All new featured themes should be built on Bootstrap 5 to ensure a modern, mobile-first, and easily customizable foundation. Our goal should be to reach the aesthetic and functional standards seen on major marketplaces like ThemeForest (for WordPress) or the Magento Marketplace. We need themes that look like professional products, not just basic templates.
A Sustainable Royalty Model for e107inc: To ensure this initiative supports the core project, a small royalty or commission from each theme sale could be allocated directly to e107inc. This would create a steady revenue stream to help fund core development, server costs, and the project's long-term roadmap.
Showcase Gallery: A curated space where beginners can visually "shop" for the future look of their site, making the CMS instantly more attractive and "market-ready."
Why this matters:
If we want to make e107 appealing again in 2026, we must bridge the gap between "technical excellence" and "visual appeal." High-quality themes attract quality users, who in turn grow the community and the pool of developers. It’s a win-win: designers are rewarded for their craft, users get a beautiful website, and the core project gains resources to stay competitive.

I would love to hear the thoughts of the maintainers and the community on how we can implement a structured way to encourage "Marketplace-grade" themes for our beloved CMS.

Best regards,
Graziano

[Jimmi08]

Hi Graziano,
because I know a feeling when nobody is answering a question, I will try to answer at least with something. But I could be mistaken.

They are great points — the "visual gap" is something we all feel.

Just a couple of important clarifications:

1. e107inc no longer exists as a formal entity, so a centralized royalty model isn't currently feasible. The project runs on volunteer effort.

2. Direct support works best — if anyone wants to contribute financially, donating directly to active developers is the most impactful route. Claude is not cheap. Now I understand why Deltic is paying $200/month. I will pay $100/month soon, I am sure, but I am still resisting...

3. On your theme quality question — could you point to some specific examples of what you have in mind? You can browse ThemeForest or Envato Elements for HTML Bootstrap 5 themes as a reference.

That said, from my experience, most themes labeled "Bootstrap 5" use the name loosely — they either just use the grid system or override everything with their own custom classes, which makes integration significantly more complex. Finding a truly clean Bootstrap 5 theme that also includes a proper SASS source is genuinely rare.
So the "what theme" question is actually more nuanced than it appears — and it's one of the real challenges in setting a realistic target standard.

As a side note — I am actually doing a complete rewrite of e107sk.com, which will serve as developer base (or showcase in far far future) for my next project e107 + eFiction together. Bootstrap 5 will be used as the technical foundation, but the visual direction is intentionally classic — the design will draw from eFiction skins, bringing back 10-15 years old look as a deliberate creative choice.

Which, in a way, proves your point from a different angle: Bootstrap 5 is just the foundation — what you build on top of it is entirely up to the designer.

[rica-carv]

Which, in a way, proves your point from a different angle: Bootstrap 5 is just the foundation — what you build on top of it is entirely up to the designer.

@Jimmi08 Indeed, for instance i used the BS5 theme as a base to make my custom theme...
It's a real mess, but it's my theme, and working as intended...

[Kanonimpresor]

Hi Graziano — welcome to the conversation. 🙂

Your points are valid and your timing is perfect, because this exact conversation has been happening across several discussions this week — marketplace, royalty model, Bootstrap 5 standards, plugin discoverability. The community is already moving in that direction.

But I'll be direct: proposals are easy. The hard part is putting your hands to the plow.

If you believe in e107's potential — and clearly you do — the best thing you can do right now is contribute something concrete. A theme, a plugin, a translation, a PR, a tested issue. That's what moves this project forward. Words on a discussion thread, however well-intentioned, don't ship code.

The infrastructure for everything you're describing is already being built — check #5608 and the Lite fork issues. The foundation is there. What it needs is people willing to build on it.

---

@Jimmi08 — I want to say this publicly: you have a rare gift. Not just technical skill, but the ability to see e107 as a whole — the architecture, the community, the history, the future. The chatbox rewrite, the Lite fork, the marketplace issues, the DEV_NOTES standard — all of it reflects someone who genuinely understands this CMS at its core.

The $100/month Claude bill is coming. We all know it. 😄 Worth every cent.

Keep going. The project is in good hands.

— Martin / Kanonimpresor

[kreossino]

I'm available to help with the project. My PHP skills aren't great, but I can work on templates, translations, and beta testing. Happy to help however I can!

[Deltik]

Thank you for putting this together, @kreossino, and for offering to help with themes, translations, and testing. That kind of hands-on help is worth a lot to e107 right now… especially since I'm the only core maintainer now.

Because I'm already stretched thin keeping the core maintained, setting up and running a marketplace is an ongoing commitment I can't take on myself right now. And as @Jimmi08 noted, e107inc is no longer a legal entity, so there isn't an organization that could collect or distribute royalties even if I set one up.

What I can get behind is a curated, free showcase of high-quality themes for e107, which would help boost e107's appeal and point donations toward the developers who made them. If someone in the community wants to build and run a marketplace or a showcase, I'd rather endorse a good one than try to operate it myself. The infrastructure side of that is already under discussion in #5608, so that may be a good place to keep shaping it.

For now, I appreciate your offer to help with themes and translations and stuff. Thanks for being part of the e107 community!