Theme Catalog
Attractive front-end theme switcher/preview allowing demo of all themes, with menu and widget handling.
Consider an alternative
Theme Catalog shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 11 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.2 (latest is 7.1)
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Theme Catalog stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| chooser | >100 |
| picker | >100 |
| selector | >100 |
| theme | >100 |
| themes | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Theme Catalog
From the official readme · v0.02Description
Attractive front-end theme switcher/preview allowing demo of all themes, with menu and widget handling.
Usage
Add the shortcode [theme_catalog_select] to any page or post to display an attractive list of themes available to preview
Shortcode Attributes
- errors (true,false,null) default:false – Display only themes with errors. true to only show errors, false to only show non errors, null to show both Read More
- allowed (true,false,’site’,’network’,null) default:true – Display only allowed themes Read More
- screenshots (true, false, null) default:true – Display only themes that have screenshots. true to only show themes with screenshots, false to only show themes without screenshots, null to show both
- lazyload (true,false,integer) default:20 – whether to use lazyload. true to always use lazyload, false to never use lazyload, integer to use lazyload if at least specified amount of results are found.
- display_screenshot (true,false) default:true – Display screenshots
- display_name (true,false) default:true – Display names
- display_author (true,false) default:true – Display authors
- display_version (true,false) default:true – Display versions
- display_description (true,false) default:true – Display description
Menus
Menus can be created/mapped on a per theme basis and global menus can be created which will be used in the event that the menus are not mapped for the selected theme.
- Individual Theme Menus can be set up. To do so :
- Turn on “Apply in admin” under
Settings -> Theme Catalog - Use the page you have the selector on to switch to the desired theme.
- Go to
Appearance -> Menusand set up menus as you wish - Repeat steps 2 & 4 for all the themes you want to individually map.
- Turn off “Apply in admin” under
Settings -> Theme Catalog
- Turn on “Apply in admin” under
- Global Theme Menus can be created by creating menus named “theme_catalog_menu_1” “theme_catalog_menu_2” etc. Menus will be populated into loaded theme in the order they are encountered.
Widgets
Widgets can only be handled on a per theme basis. To do so :
- Turn on “Apply in admin” under
Settings -> Theme Catalog - Use the page you have the selector on to switch to the desired theme.
- Go to
Appearance -> Widgetsand set up widgets as you wish - Repeat steps 2 & 4 for all the themes you want to individually map.
- Turn off “Apply in admin” under
Settings -> Theme Catalog
Issues
iThemes Builder themes and Artisteer themes (and I’m sure there are others) bypass WordPress’ wp_nav_menu function, so can not use global menus. You must use individual menu mapping for these.
TO DO
- Add ‘include’ & ‘exclude’ attributes
- Build a tool for bulk mapping theme menus.
- Allow sidebars (widget areas) to be created and mapped on a per theme basis or globally
Installation
The Easy Way
- Install and Activate from
Plugins->Add Newin WordPress - Go to Step 4 in “Manually” section
Manually
- Upload
theme-catalog.zipto the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Unzip
theme-catalog.zip - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Optionally set up menus for each theme, and/or global menus (more details under description)
- Optionally set up widgets for each theme
- Place
[theme_catalog_select]in your page or post
Changelog
Critical bug fixes
0.02
- Fixed settings menu not showing up for non multisite admins
- Use proper PHP open tag for compatability on more servers.
0.01
Initial release
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
FAQ
Theme Catalog: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 28, 2026
Is Theme Catalog free?
Yes. Theme Catalog is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Theme Catalog safe to use in 2026?
Theme Catalog shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 11 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Theme Catalog?
Theme Catalog is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,160 times since it launched in August 2015. It was downloaded 35 times in the last 30 days.
Does Theme Catalog work with WordPress 7.1?
Theme Catalog is officially tested up to WordPress 4.2.39, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Theme Catalog last updated?
The latest version, 0.02, was released on August 21, 2015 (11 years ago).
Who makes Theme Catalog?
Theme Catalog is developed and maintained by trex005.
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