Themeforest Reviews 3,321

I was with this company for many years and when they on sale broken and bad themes, which is often they never refund your money. then when you make a claim on them they block your account taking away the access you have to the themes you paid for. I would stay away from these people and if your a developer you should rethink putting yout themplates on with these people. Tha owe me lots of money so I will file with the card companies and the FTC here in the US to try and get them blocked from doing business in the USA. Stay far away from these people they will do you wrong at some point

I used to love Themeforest and Envato but a recent experience has made me want to warn anyone and everyone off using this platform to purchase themes.

1. I purchased a theme as well as extended support. The theme didn't work, so I contacted the theme support for assistance. No actual support was provided, and I got into a dispute with the theme authors. I posted warnings about their products on the platform and Themeforest has DELETED my review of the product completely, even though I have screenshots evidencing the issues and the author's refusal to give me the tech support I paid for.

Themeforest did not contact me AT ALL to find out my side of the story as the paying customer and simply DELETED my product review.

2. In utter desperation - because I was trying to launch a July 4th sale on my website two days before the holiday - I bought ANOTHER theme. That theme didn't work either and the theme's tech support couldn't figure out what the issue was and so I had to buy a THIRD theme.

I am not only utterly DISGUSTED by Themeforest's policy of simply deleting verified buyer product reviews without any investigation, but one can't even rely on their platform to sell themes that actually work.

Not only a ENORMOUS loss of my time as a small business owner, but I completely missed the July 4th sale opportunity thanks to this atrocious situation and that cost me a small fortune in lost revenue and stock that I now cannot sell.

DO NOT USE THIS PLATFORM IF YOU NEED RELIABILITY AND FAIR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

I’m extremely disappointed with Envato Market (ThemeForest/CodeCanyon) due to their unethical and opportunistic handling of my account.

They disabled my account without warning and seized $42 USD worth of purchased digital products, simply because I was using GPL-licensed WordPress themes and plugins on my website — which were discovered during a normal customer support session.

Let me be clear:

✅ I did not use pirated files.
✅ I purchased those GPL files legally and in good faith from two of the most well-known and trusted GPL marketplaces:

These platforms fully comply with the GNU General Public License (GPL) — the same license under which WordPress itself is released.

⚠️ Envato’s Split Licensing Problem
Envato enforces a “split license”, where:

PHP code is GPL licensed (as required), but

CSS, JavaScript, and media assets are proprietary and restrict user freedom

This directly violates the spirit of the GPL license, which ensures freedom to use, modify, and redistribute the entire work derived from WordPress.

😞 The Outcome:
No refund

No warning

No chance to appeal

No respect for legally GPL-compliant purchases

I am now suffering from decision paralysis, legal confusion, and emotional stress, even though I acted lawfully and ethically.

Bottom Line:
Envato is profiting from the WordPress GPL ecosystem while violating its freedoms and punishing users who follow the rules.
They need to be held accountable for this abusive and one-sided behavior.

🛑 I strongly warn anyone who cares about open-source rights, GPL compliance, or ethical customer service — stay away from Envato.

Md Abu Suzan
Country: Bangladesh

Whenever you purchase a product - make sure to download it and store it somewhere, otherwise you will be greeted with:

"Download not available - Item removed by either staff or the author"

And you just lost your money.

Trash service, avoid at any cost. Also, they take commission from the buyer as well as the seller. Awful.

After multiple attempts to leave a truthful, 1-star review regarding the Porto WooCommerce Theme, ThemeForest (Envato) has now removed it—3 times. All removals were carried out by Lena Weaver and supported by Alex Greene, a so-called “Author Support” agent, despite me being the paying customer. Apparently, on this platform, you're only supported if you're the seller.
These people, Lena Weaver and Alex Greene have been removing negative reviews for the porto theme by many buyers. If you ever bought Porto and left 1 star go and check, your report is gone.

What I reported in my original review was real, evidenced, and part of a disturbing pattern:

Major bugs in the Porto theme that break core functionality (image imports, Slider Revolution, and persistent header overlays).

Useless, delayed support that copy-pastes irrelevant advice without addressing the actual issues.

Identity manipulation within the support team—agents replying under fake or shuffled identities.

And the worst: being told to request a refund in return for removing my negative review. That is manipulation—pure and simple.

Despite having screenshots, ticket history, and clear explanations, ThemeForest continues to protect the seller by deleting negative reviews—silencing consumer warnings while leaving a wall of glowing praise that doesn’t reflect reality.

This is systematic behavior. Review suppression is a violation of:

UK Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

CMA and EU guidelines on review transparency

Basic ethics for any digital marketplace

I have now submitted complaints to:

UK Trading Standards

The Competition & Markets Authority

And will be escalating this to relevant global consumer protection bodies

Trust in this platform is eroding fast. If you're a buyer, be aware: negative experiences are buried. Your voice doesn’t matter here—unless it’s 5 stars.

🚫 Avoid ThemeForest if you value honesty, proper support, or transparency.
Lena Weaver called me "abusive " for writing on my review the them had bugs and refused to pass me to someone senior to her or the complaint procedure.

Ticket References (for moderation verification):
#55063, #54817, #55090, #55189

Before you open a paypal case do the following:
1. Gather evidence. All support tickets with their late or not useful responses
2. Download all your purchases and save the activation codes for every purchase
3. Open a Paypal Case.

Envato will suspend your account, but will not do anything to stop you. They are scared. Once the case is with Paypal is a win, you just wait for the time to pass, Neither p-themes or envato will say anything or provide evidence.
Envato does not have the department to deal with paypal! GO TO PAYPAL OR YOUR CARD PROVIDER!
Envato later opened my account again as if they did me a favour so I don't report to ACCC. I already had and will keep on reporting them to the authorities.

The after sales support is very low, gives me an answer few days after my request, I asked for a refund and didn't give to me.

I recently uploaded my item to ThemeForest, and unfortunately, it was rejected. However, the feedback provided was incredibly vague, as no specific reasons or issues were mentioned regarding the rejection. It’s incredibly frustrating when you're not given clear feedback on what exactly went wrong, making it difficult to improve the submission for the future. Communication and transparency are key when working with a platform like this, and I was really disappointed by the lack of detail in the response. I hope this improves for other authors in the future.

themeforst scammed me and i paid for a theme file and then ask me again to pay , the file dosent work at all and when i asked for a refund they ignored my request and no customer support is shit , this site got fake reviews and it a scam dont fall for it

I purchased a WordPress theme from Envato - Themeforest, and here's what happened. The theme is called Vankine - Insurance & Consulting Business, created by SteelThemes. As soon as I bought it, I wanted to return it because the theme was very inadequate.

However, SteelThemes refused to refund my payment. In response, I gave them a one-star rating and left a comment. This is my natural right, and users should know about this. But Envato - Themeforest immediately banned my account. Now, I cannot access any of the licenses I previously purchased. This is unprofessional.

I purchased a theme 15 years ago . . . Salient . . . which works and has great support, a good purchase . . . Ive renewed my annual support with Salient ever since. But thats were my positive experience with Envato / Theme Forest ends . . . that one introduction . . . Ive purchased 2 additional themes and a few other plugins from Theme Forest since then . . . both themes have had varying coding and design issues . . . none of which were ever resolved.

Ive learned my lesson . . . only deal direct with the theme coders . . . make sure they give a 30-day refund guarantee. Avoid Resellers like these as my experience has been mostly bad and they seem only interested in the sale and not the quality of the product.

I did receive a refund on one of my theme purchases mentioned but this is more the author of the theme giving me the refund after speaking with them in their support forum, rather than the refund coming from Themeforest directly for missing features like "responsiveness" within a theme. Themeforest in my opinion sell anything and their advertised quality control is poor, at best, false at worst.

I purchased a completely non-functional and broken theme. I received no support from the author or ThemeForest, and despite sending two emails, no one even bothered to respond. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t receive a refund either.

TieLabs Jennah theme:

the worst customer support EVER!

takes them days to answer automatically and i did everything they asked to solve the problem onsite and on the server - still they are sending automatic emails. this is the last ticket i am sending and if this wont work ill get the refund for my 7 Jennah themes. they dont care about the customer time and money.

I recently purchased a theme from their website, and it has been a nightmare. The theme doesn't work at all and the author has completely ignored my messages. I have to wait an unbelievable three days just to get any kind of response.

The instructions provided after downloading are vague and poorly written.

You have to waste your time manually searching for essential files because nothing is clear.

To make matters worse, Envato locked my account for absolutely no reason. Is this their way of silencing me for giving the theme a 1-star review because they can't handle criticism?

This has been the worst experience I've ever had purchasing a product. Save yourself the hassle and stay far away from this mess!

Dear trust pilot, i can produce you with images if you allow me to post it.

Here’s the latest update: I was forced to cancel a PayPal dispute as they claimed it was necessary to unlock my account. Guess what? Even after doing EXACTLY what they asked, my account is STILL LOCKED and I can’t access what I rightfully paid for. Their support team has completely ignored my emails. It has now been OVER EIGHT HOURS with no response.

This is absolutely unacceptable and potentially ILLEGAL. Locking a customer’s account without justification, failing to provide timely support and denying access to purchased products could easily constitute a violation of international consumer protection laws, including the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection and e-commerce regulations.

Let me remind you, Envato:

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (UK) and the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act (US), I am entitled to either full access to the product as described or a full refund.

The GDPR Article 5 emphasizes fairness, transparency and accountability principles you are blatantly disregarding.

This is a DEMAND for immediate action:

UNLOCK MY ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY so I can access the product I paid for.
Issue a FULL REFUND for this appalling experience.
Failure to act will leave me no choice but to escalate this further. I will:

File formal complaints with consumer protection agencies.
Pursue legal action against Envato.
Expose your unethical practices on every platform available to me.
To anyone considering purchasing from Envato DON’T. They don’t care about their customers, their products don’t work and their support is non-existent. This company is a disgrace and you’d be better off throwing your money away than giving it to them.

Trustpilot Note: I have evidence of everything I’ve mentioned and can provide screenshots if allowed.

My request and advice is don't waste your time and money, there are third class codes

There is no policy for purchase which is for the welfare of the user

All policies are for the author, whatever the author wants

I have exactly 30 purchases, 28 of them for WordPress themes. Four of them do not work anymore, and one of them is not getting updated with newest versions. Two of the themes also got removed completely and I can't download them anymore.

ThemeForest is constantly letting themes to stay active on their marketplace without getting support or new updates, making them a security issue first, and a big trouble for their clients second. Avoid using this marketplace to get new themes - and if you do, look closely at the reviews each one has.

I purchased a template and installed it, but it’s completely off. I tried to reach customer service through chat or phone, but nothing is available. This seems very unprofessional, and I wouldn’t recommend them at all.

I purchased 13 items with them, and none are working now. All my customers' websites are down. I requested a dispute only for 2 items, but they sent an email saying that I have to cancel the dispute with PayPal for access to my account, and now they have locked my account.

Purchased a theme didn't receive the service. when I complained to Paypal . I got locked out of the profile account . so I have nothing for my money. I do not recommend this company