Results from the MH Magazine customer survey (happiness study)

It's now more than 4 years ago since we released the first version of our popular MH Magazine WordPress theme. A lot has happened in all those years and we're very thankful for all your loyalty and support over the years. The success of MH Magazine wouldn't have been possible without you!

While you're sending us great customer feedback and suggestions on a regular basis (some of that can be found in our showcase or here), we wanted to gather additional insights about how you use MH Magazine and about what you like or don't like. Therefore we started a customer survey through our newsletter a while ago and we now want to share the results with you.

177 customers took the time to answer the questions in our MH Magazine customer survey. In the following we'll list the most important questions and results from the survey. In addition, we'll add comments where necessary in order to provide additional information:

• Since when are you using WordPress?
• Since when are you using MH Magazine?
• Are you happy with MH Magazine?
• Would you recommend MH Magazine to other people?
• What would you say is a fair price for MH Magazine?
• How do you like the documentation for MH Magazine?
• Was it easy to configure your website with MH Magazine?
• Would you like to see more theme demos?
• Which of the following features do you like most?
• Which change would you like to see most?
• What other changes or new features would you like to see?
• Is there anything you don't like in MH Magazine?
• What kind of WordPress themes do you prefer more?
• Would you like to see more of these surveys?
• Is there anything else you would like to say?

Since when are you using WordPress?

Almost 80% of the users who participated in this customer survey are using WordPress since at least 2 years. 5.7% are WordPress newbies which is great because it's always good to get feedback from less experienced WordPress users as well.

Since when are you using MH Magazine?

When it comes to MH Magazine usage, we have a mixed picture which is ideal for this survey. Almost a 3rd of the people who've answered the questions are using MH Magazine for less than one year. On the other hand, more than 40% of users have been using MH Magazine for more than 2 years.

Are you happy with MH Magazine?

95.5% of users are happy with MH Magazine which is extremely encouraging. We're doing our best on a daily basis to create reliable products while providing quick and helpful support. It makes us very happy to see that this pays off and leads to great customer satisfaction. Thanks for that!

Would you recommend MH Magazine to other people?

What even makes us more proud is that 94.3% of customers would recommend MH Magazine to other users. We know that customers are referring new users on a regular basis, but we haven't been aware that the acceptance is that high. By the way, did you know that you can earn commission for referred customers? If not, then have a look at our affiliate program.

What would you say is a fair price for MH Magazine?

The market for WordPress themes is changing rapidly and we've been very curious to know how you feel about our pricing. It seems 55% of customers are happy with the current price for MH Magazine. 26.3% would be willing to pay $69 and 9.4% would be fine with $89 for a single theme license.

For this question in the survey it also was possible to suggest a custom price. The answers have been interesting and the suggested price ranges from $1 (yes, you've read correctly...) to $150 per single theme license. We've kept prices at a stable level for a very long time and $49 for a professional WordPress theme is within the lower price range for WordPress themes on the market. While we currently have no immediate plans to raise prices, we may do this at some point in the future.

How do you like the documentation for MH Magazine?

The next question was about the MH Magazine documentation. We've created extensive documentation for this theme to help you configure your website with ease. More than 97% of users think the documentation is great or at least sufficient to configure their websites. We're constantly working on additional documentation for all kinds of stuff. For example we've just published a complete overview of custom widgets, which was a much requested piece of content.

If you're one of the 2.9% who thinks that the documentation isn't helpful, then please keep in mind that the documentation is about the MH Magazine theme, not about WordPress itself. That means if you've no idea how WordPress works (publishing posts, working with categories, creating menus, etc...), you may want to check some WordPress tutorials instead.

Was it easy to configure your website with MH Magazine?

More than 88% of users think that it was easy to configure their website with MH Magazine. This is a great result, especially since MH Magazine is a very flexible WordPress theme with lots of possibilities. Due to the extensive documentation and intuitive workflow users don't seem to have issues with the many available features, options and custom widgets. This is great, especially since 5.7% of users in this survey are rather new to WordPress and may not be familiar with everything.

Would you like to see more theme demos?

As you may have seen already, we've created various theme demos of MH Magazine to demonstrate the flexibility and possible uses of this theme. In addition to our showcase with real user sites, this can give you a good impression of what you can achieve with the MH Magazine WordPress theme.

Which of the following features do you like most?

MH Magazine comes with a fully widgetized Homepage template where you can arrange widgets to create unique layouts. It seems this is also what people like most. Almost half of the users in this survey say that this is their favorite feature. On the other hand it seems the 2 sidebar layout isn't that popular anymore, although this especially has been implemented due to many requests from users.

Which change would you like to see most?

Since the widgetized Homepage template is the favorite feature of almost half the users, it's no surprise that almost the same number of people would like to see more custom widgets. Although MH Magazine already includes 23 custom widgets (this is way more than most themes offer), we'll keep working on new widgets for unique, appealing and flexible layouts on your website.

What other changes or new features would you like to see?

Source: Pexels / Pixabay.com

For the next question we were asking if there are any other changes or feature requests customers would like to see. We've not received that many answers to that question and most of them were pretty much the same. Most of the requests were about more additional custom widgets, additional archive layouts, etc... This is something we're constantly working on anyway.

But there also have been feature requests for stuff that actually is already included. We've decided to list these requests here so that the people who requested it know that this is already available:

1.) Possibility to EXCLUDE post from certain widges (e.g. NO category XYZ)

Most of the custom widgets have an option to filter multiple categories by ID. You can exclude categories by setting the category filter to ALL and then exclude particular categories by adding the ID with a minus, for example -26. This will exlcude the category with ID 26.

2.) Possibilities to place advertisements and more options for advertisements

Source: JuralMin / Pixabay.com

MH Magazine comes already with plenty of possibilities to place advertisements. You can basically place as many ads as you like into the available widget areas and in addition there are options to display ads within the post content and between posts on archives. If you need even more ads on your website, then this would be pretty intrusive for your visitors and wouldn't be recommended.

3.) GERMAN translation

Actually the MH Magazine theme has German translation files included since the release in 2013. If you have a German website and in case your MH Magazine theme still is displaying in English, then you haven't set your WordPress to German language. After you've set your WordPress to German language, the theme will be in German language as well out of the box.

4.) PageSpeed optimizations

The MH Magazine WordPress theme has been coded while keeping performance and SEO best practices in mind. This magazine theme performs very well and achieves great results in the common performance tests and benchmarks. On the other hand, if your website doesn't perform well, then this isn't necessarily related to your WordPress theme. If you have performance issues on your site, then you may want to look into caching and minification.

5.) Easier transition between versions without the need to rebuild with each major update

You don't need to rebuild anything and you usually won't lose settings if you update your WordPress theme correctly. In 2015 we completely recoded the MH Magazine theme and that was the only situation where you needed to reconfigure stuff after installing the new theme. That's almost 2 years ago and usually updating is a matter of 1-2 minutes without any issues.

6.) Posts without sidebars

The MH Magazine theme already includes an option to site-wide disable the sidebar on posts, pages and archives for a long time. In addition in v3.7.0 we've added a full-width template for posts. That means, similar to pages, you can now also select a full-width template on a per posts basis.

Is there anything you don't like in MH Magazine?

Source: PDPic / Pixabay.com

For this question we've received almost the same answers as for the previous question. But there were a few things we would like to go through in detail for clarification:

1.) Very limited widgets and less customization

Honestly, if you think that the MH Magazine WordPress theme has limited widgets and customization options, then there is a pretty good chance that you're missing something. Have you checked the documentation or taken a look at the theme demos or other user sites? With the widgetized front page template there basically are almost no limitations to create unique layouts. If you need help with the configuration, please reach out to our support staff for assistance.

2.) Losing all front page setup when new version appears

This is the same as already explained in the previous section. You won't lose your setup if you update your WordPress theme correctly. Reconfiguring was necessary once in 2015 after the theme has been completely recoded. This isn't the case anymore since almost 2 years now.

3.) The price

One user said that what he doesn't like is the price. To be honest, statements like this are a bit daunting. A single theme license is currently available for only $49. This is within the lower price range for professional WordPress themes. It's the same price you pay when you go out to a restaurant or watch a movie in the cinema with your partner, at least in western Europe.

But here you get a fully functional layout for your website including support and ongoing development. If this isn't even worth the money you pay for a meal at a restaurant, then you probably should use a free theme instead or don't run a website at all. A small fraction of people seem to forget that actually other people are working hard day by day to maintain and support their WordPress theme. This can't be done for free because anyone needs to pay bills, etc...

4.) Free updates because it sucks when you have to pay for updates, I can't believe it.

This goes into the same direction as the previous statement regarding the price. A professional WordPress developer in western Europe costs between $75-100 per hour. Someone needs to pay people for their work. If you think that developers work for free and spend hundreds of hours to develop and maintain WordPress themes, then there is something wrong with your expectations.

For only $49 you have a full year of updates and support included and a lot can happen in one year. WordPress gets updated on a regular basis, things break, new standards are being introduced, new features, etc... It isn't that we release a WordPress theme and then sit back and relax. There is a lot of ongoing work involved here and obviously that cost needs to be covered.

Even after one year you can easily renew your license for updates and support with discount. If you insist on having free updates for lifetime, then this is possible as well, but of course not for only $49. That wouldn't be a sustainable business model. For those who would like to have everything included for lifetime we have the MH Themes Lifetime package as stated on the pricing page.

What kind of WordPress themes do you prefer more?

This is an interesting question because since a while some companies are preaching to only release WordPress themes with less features that only cover design aspects of a website and anything else is covered by additional plugins. Based on support requests and feedback from users we already felt that this isn't really what customers want. It turns out that 77% of users in this survey prefer WordPress themes where all features and options are bundled into the theme.

Would you like to see more of these surveys?

This was our first major customer survey in over 4 years and it was a great way to get feedback from users. We may do this again in the future and it's nice to see that almost 70% of customers would like to see more surveys like this. In the end it's a win-win as it helps to create products that meet customer expectations. Thanks to all who took the time to answer the questions in the survey.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Source: fancycrave1 / Pixabay.com

The last question was reserved for all kinds of other feedback people would like to give us. It was very nice and encouraging to see that most of it was very positive. Here are our favorites:

• Keep up the good work.
• Good work, this is one of the best magazine themes I know.
• Your support is great, had a problem and got help that soon! Great!
• I received timely and effective support.
• MH Themes is a one stop shop for me needing fewer third party plugins!
• Thank you for asking for user feedback.
• Fast and friendly support. Thanks!
• Great job by your team! You are making it possible for me to present my dreams and vision to a worldwide audience.

That's it, the results of our first customer survey. It has been very interesting for us and we've gathered some insights that we've not been aware of that much. It's very encouraging to see that the majority of customers highly appreciates the efforts and continous work we put into MH Magazine. We'll keep working on delivering the best magazine and news WordPress themes for editorial websites and wish you ongoing success with your website.