TemplateMonster Review: Is MonsterONE Worth It?
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TemplateMonster — often searched as Theme Monster or ThemeMonster; about one search in ten that surfaces this page spells it another way — is a marketplace of website templates, WordPress themes, graphics and presentation files, plus a subscription called MonsterONE. Every price and count below was read from its own pages on 2 September 2026.
The short version
Buy one theme if you need one site; take MonsterONE only if you will use three or more themes a year. At the prices listed on 2 September 2026, a yearly MonsterONE plan ($169) costs 2.9 times a single Monstroid2 Personal licence ($59), so the subscription pays off from the third theme.
The marketplace is large and legitimate, but quality and support vary by author, the refund policy is narrower than a “money-back guarantee”, and TemplateMonster’s own item counts do not agree with each other. Details below.
What TemplateMonster is today
TemplateMonster describes itself on its homepage as “the biggest collection of HTML templates, WordPress and ecommerce themes, web graphics and elements online” and as a “digital marketplace”. That second word matters: it is not a studio selling its own work. Products come from independent authors, and the WordPress theme category page credits “an international authors community”. The featured author on that page, ZEMEZ, showed 140,199 sales.
The catalogue is broad and mostly not WordPress. The homepage tiles read, on 2 September 2026: WordPress 7,000 items, eCommerce 4,700, HTML 9,000, and PPT & Graphics 330,000. Beyond themes, the site lists Shopify, PrestaShop, Joomla, Magento and OpenCart templates, PowerPoint and Keynote decks, fonts, icons, logos, plugins, 3D models, video templates and stock audio. If you arrive here wanting a WordPress theme, you are shopping in a small corner of a very large store.
How small a corner is harder to pin down than it should be. The WordPress theme category page states “3679 premium WordPress themes”. The homepage tile says 7,000 WordPress items, which presumably includes plugins and Elementor kits. MonsterONE’s own homepage claims “WordPress 47 000+”. Three pages, three counts, read the same day. We treat the 3,679 figure as the honest one for themes, and the rest as marketing scope.
Prices on the theme category page ran from $32 to $101 on 2 September 2026. The flagship, Monstroid2 by ZEMEZ (affiliate link), listed at $59 for a Personal licence and $86 for a Commercial licence, with 14,670 sales, 839 reviews, and a changelog entry dated June 11, 2026. It is built on Elementor (affiliate link), and the category page offers filters for Elementor, Gutenberg and WooCommerce compatibility.
What MonsterONE is, and what it costs
MonsterONE is the subscription. Its homepage describes it as “unlimited downloads of CMS & eCommerce themes, PowerPoint templates, Graphics, Audio & Video”, with “over 540000 items”. The pricing page, read on 2 September 2026, listed three plans, each shown as a discount against a struck-through regular price.
| Plan | Listed price | Struck-through price | Billing | Support and licence terms stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $49 | $69 | 1 month | 1 month product support, 1 month general assistance, unlimited projects |
| Yearly (“Recommended”) | $169 ($14.08 per month) | $229 | 1 year | 1 year product support, 1 year general assistance, unlimited projects |
| Lifetime | $499 | $799 | One-time fee | Lifetime general assistance, lifetime product licence, unlimited projects |
The pricing page does not say whether the monthly and yearly figures renew at the listed or the struck-through price. Confirm the renewal amount at checkout before you enter a card.
Two licence sentences from the pricing page are worth quoting in full. On cancellation: “the license will remain valid for all final products created during the active period of your subscription.” On refunds: “As long as you have not downloaded MonsterONE products within 14 days of your initial purchase, you are entitled to a refund.” Read together, they mean a subscription is safe to try for a fortnight if you download nothing, and safe to leave later without losing the sites you already built.
One theme or the subscription: the arithmetic
This is the figure the marketing pages never put side by side. Using the prices listed on 2 September 2026:
- A Monstroid2 Personal licence is $59. The yearly MonsterONE plan is $169, or 2.9 Personal licences. If you will genuinely use three or more themes in twelve months, the subscription is cheaper; if you need one theme, it is almost three times the price.
- Against the Commercial licence ($86), the yearly plan is 2.0 licences. An agency that would otherwise buy two Commercial licences a year breaks even and gets unlimited projects instead of five sites per licence.
- A single month of MonsterONE is $49, which is $10 less than one Personal licence. The catch is support: the monthly plan includes 1 month of product support, while the individual purchase includes 6 months from the author.
- The Lifetime plan at $499 equals 8.5 Personal licences or 5.8 Commercial ones. It only makes sense for someone who ships several sites a year, every year.
Our recommendation follows from that: one site, buy the theme; three or more a year, subscribe yearly; a steady pipeline of client sites, price the Lifetime plan against your real annual spend.
Licensing and support: what you actually get per item
On the Monstroid2 product page, read on 2 September 2026, the two licences are defined like this. Personal: “This license can be used only for one personal website. With this license, you can’t resell or redistribute the template or the end product based on it.” Commercial: “With this license, you and your clients can create up to five different websites. The license allows you to transfer or resell the end products (websites based on this template).”
Support on that product is “6 months of support from the author”, with an extended-support add-on of “6 more months” at $18, shown as reduced from $44. The theme category page separately promises “24/7 technical support” from TemplateMonster’s own specialists. In practice that is two layers: the marketplace helps with orders and downloads, and the author handles the theme itself. The refund policy confirms the split, telling buyers to report defects “directly to the product author” and to escalate to TemplateMonster within 7 days only if the author does not respond.
We have reviewed one TemplateMonster theme in depth: JohnnyGo, a home-services theme (demo, affiliate link). That review predates our current standard, so treat its prices as historical. Our Monstroid2 review is the more current one, held to the same read-date standard as this page, and it covers the flagship theme most buyers land on first.
Refunds: what the 14 days actually cover
Earlier versions of this page repeated a “14 days money back guarantee”. The refund policy page, read on 2 September 2026, does not contain the phrase “money back guarantee” at all. What it does say:
- Non-delivery: written claim to the billing department within 14 days of the order date.
- Major defects: report to the author, who has 3 business days to fix them; a full refund follows if the problem is not resolved.
- Not as described: report to the product author within 14 days of purchase.
- “We can not issue full refunds after product delivery.” A $1 handling fee and extended-support purchases are non-refundable, and conflicts with third-party software are excluded.
So the 14 days are a window for specific complaints, not a change-of-mind guarantee. Once you have downloaded a theme, a refund depends on demonstrating a defect or a mismatch with the listing. MonsterONE is more generous on paper, but only until your first download.
Where TemplateMonster loses
Quality is per author, not per marketplace. With 3,679 themes from a community of authors, the sales counts and changelog dates on each product page are your only quality signal before purchase. A theme with a June 2026 changelog and 14,670 sales is a different risk from one with neither, and the storefront does not make that difference obvious.
Support is per author too. Six months from the author is the stated term on the product we checked, and the refund policy routes defects to the author first. If an author goes quiet, your route is a 7-day escalation to the marketplace, not a guarantee of a fix.
The refund policy is narrower than the old “money-back” language. No full refunds after delivery, in the policy’s own words. Buyers who assume a no-questions window will be disappointed.
Its own numbers disagree. 3,679, 7,000 and 47,000+ WordPress items across three company pages on the same day is not a rounding difference. A buyer cannot tell from the site how much of MonsterONE’s “540000 items” is usable WordPress material rather than graphics and slides.
Per-item licences cap at five sites. The Commercial licence allows up to five websites. A freelancer building a sixth site on the same theme needs another licence or the subscription, which is the point at which the arithmetic above starts to favour MonsterONE.
Discount pricing with no renewal statement. Every MonsterONE plan is shown as a markdown from a higher regular price, and the pricing page does not say what the second month or second year costs.
For a broader field of options, see our list of ThemeForest alternatives, and the wider reviews hub for other marketplaces and themes we have checked. Our method, including why every price carries a read date, is set out at how we review.
Who should buy, and how to buy well
One site, one theme: buy the Personal licence of a theme whose product page shows recent changelog entries and a meaningful sales count. Check the support term before paying; it was 6 months on Monstroid2.
Freelancer with a handful of projects a year: the Commercial licence covers five sites for you and your clients. Past that, or past three themes a year, the yearly MonsterONE plan is cheaper and removes the per-site cap.
Agency or serial builder: compare the $499 Lifetime plan with what you actually spent on themes last year. Confirm the renewal price of the yearly plan first, because the pricing page does not state it.
Anyone: if you take MonsterONE to evaluate it, do not download anything until you are sure. The refund right lasts 14 days and ends at the first download.
Affiliate link: WPNeon may earn a commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect the verdict above.
Frequently asked questions
Is TemplateMonster free?
No. TemplateMonster is a paid marketplace. On 2 September 2026 its WordPress theme category showed prices from $32 to $101 per theme, and the MonsterONE subscription started at $49 for one month or $169 for a year. We did not find free-download pricing on any of the pages we checked.
Is MonsterONE the same thing as TemplateMonster?
No. TemplateMonster is the marketplace where you buy items one at a time. MonsterONE is the separate subscription that TemplateMonster promotes alongside the marketplace, giving unlimited downloads for $49 a month, $169 a year or $499 one-off, as listed on 2 September 2026. The Monstroid2 product page shows it as available through MonsterONE; check each product page for the same note.
Can I get a refund from TemplateMonster?
Only in defined cases. The refund policy covers non-delivery claimed within 14 days, a major defect the author fails to fix within 3 business days, and a product not as described if reported to the author within 14 days. It states that full refunds are not issued after product delivery. MonsterONE refunds are available within 14 days if you have not downloaded anything.
Can I use a TemplateMonster theme on client websites?
It depends on the licence. On the Monstroid2 product page read on 2 September 2026, the Personal licence covers one personal website and forbids resale; the Commercial licence lets you and your clients build up to five websites and transfer or resell the end products. MonsterONE allows unlimited projects, with the licence staying valid for work created while subscribed.
How long is support on a TemplateMonster theme?
Six months from the author, on the product we checked. Monstroid2 listed 6 months of author support on 2 September 2026, with a further 6 months offered for $18 (reduced from $44). TemplateMonster separately states 24/7 technical support from its own specialists. MonsterONE monthly and yearly plans include product support for the length of the plan.
What changed on this page
- Rewritten on 2 September 2026 with every price, count and policy quote read from TemplateMonster and MonsterONE pages that day.
- Removed the earlier claims of a “14 days money back guarantee” and “24/7 free lifetime support”; the current refund policy and per-item support terms are quoted instead.
- Replaced the 2019 theme count (“over 1600”) and 2019 theme prices with the category page’s 3,679 themes and current Monstroid2 pricing.
- Added the MonsterONE plan table, the per-theme break-even arithmetic, the licensing definitions and the refund breakdown.
- Dropped the 2019 Trustpilot and SiteJabber ratings, which were not re-verified.
Sources, all read 2 September 2026: templatemonster.com homepage; templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes.php; the Monstroid2 product page; templatemonster.com/refund-policy.php; monsterone.com homepage; monsterone.com/pricing. Misspelling share from this site’s Google Search Console, 1 March to 28 August 2026.
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The support at TemplateMonster is awesome. Spoke to Luigi and he was so helpful. Answered all my questions and made it easy for me to choose the perfect template for my startup.
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The customer support was quick, helpful and very knowledgeable. After speaking to them I was comfortable to proceed with my purchase. The template matches me and my business well.
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I recently bought Monstroid2 from Monster Template. I was emailed a link to download “cherry-theme-wizard” instead of Monstriod2 itself. I dialed into the webpage and I was able to get someone on the online chat relatively quickly. She help me install the theme quickly but for some reason when I tried installing the skins, my whole webpage stopped working, it gave a 500 (Internal Server) Error. Monster Template told me to contact my hosting service to resolve the server error before Monster Template can proceed. I called my hosting service and they said all their service to my domain and hosting all good. A simple test of me being able to connect using FTP client (like FileZilla) proved that the hosting server was all good. After 3 days of webpage being down as the hosting service team said that it was Monster Template theme fault and Monster Template saying it was my hosting service fault, the hosting service managed to bring my web page live again. The problem was due to the scripting error in the php from the Monstroid2 theme from Monster Template. The hosting service team had to disable all my plugins from Monstroid2 theme. I am able to get access to the wp-admin tool now, but I cannot bring the Monstroid2 default template up. My paid ($75) Monstroid2 theme webpage looks like one of the free WordPress free theme. I am unable to apply all the bells and whistle that the Monstroid2 theme featured in the Monster Template webpage even after I enable the plugins; like video, slide image, etc. Its been 5 days now since the 500 (Internal Sever) Error had been resolved by my hosting service. And not one Monster Template tech support engineer is able to help me get to a standard and simple Monstroid2 theme default webpage look and feel. I keep getting bumped to different tech support engineers every 10 to 15 minutes. Not too sure why they do that. Maybe Monster Template as a company and answer that. One of the tech support engineer even told me that I could pay Monster Template US$69 to install the theme for me or pay US$49/hr to get help installing the theme bought in Monster Template. I am not too sure where those charges came about, and I have never been fore told about those charges when I bought Monstroid2 theme. I think I have spoken to 90%-95% of the tech support staff at Monster Template while trying to get this Monstroid2 theme working for me. I really, really hate to mention this but there was one tech support engineer who was very rude… Dakota. I am simply asking for help. Don’t get me wrong, this is not my first rodeo, I have bought 2 themes from Monster Template in the past and they all worked fine. Just this Monstroid2 theme. Monster Template has a great selection of themes. I really hope Monster Template get their acts together as there are other webpage template companys who have a matured and professional approach to customer request for support.
Regrettably, only 1 STAR.
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DO NOT BUY ONE MEMBERSHIP – None of the themes were up to date and none worked. I have been using wordpress for years and the one membership is just horrible. No refund would be given even thought I have been purchasing products from them for years. Had to contact my card company. Just not worth the money.
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Never Again…
Don’t take my word for it, this company has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau!!
I worked in the field of helping small retail stores restructure their companies to be more competitive to today’s market. In the last few years I have opened 29 templates monster accounts for a variety of clients wanting to enter the on-line commerce game. One of my last purchases was for the Levilon template, that has an over-seas vendor.
I had two specific fixes that I needed done, one was that the item stock quantities and the item number were appearing in the product description instead of below the item name (as customary), the second issue appeared after they attempted to fix the first; all images were erased from the site, I was able to reload all images at the exception of the language flags.
After 18 e-mails over a period of a month, including visual documentation on what needed to be done to fix the reference issue, they finally were able to get this done. Unfortunately the flag issue remains!
After running out of patients. I decided to contact Template Monster to rectify the issue, after explaining the same subject to 2 different people, I was eventually told that they would send a Ticket to the vendor!! When I complained that I had just spent a month on the issue, he tells me that my e-mails with the vendor were not obvious and my explanations were bad!! Just look at the site I have 1 flag that is 10 times bigger than the others, IT’S OBVIOUS!!!
To conclude Never Again will I be purchasing from them..and that is OBVIOUS
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Worst experience ever, NOT WORTH THE MONEY, they say they have 2 million clients but only one rude technician. I ask for help and his answer was did you read the manual, never was able to resolve the problem now two days working on the issue I usually charge $70 an hour what a saving I tried to complain they transferred me to support to the same person I was complaining about. That is like going to the police to complain about a rapist and the police send you back to your rapist. Nobody in management could help, nobody in pre-sales could help their only alternative was to wait six hours so the morning tech would come in. WOW 2 million clients one tech, things must really be going bad for them.
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Terrible Experience!!
I purchased a template and the professional installation from TemplateMonster as I have done many times over several years, but something has changed. I was given 72 hours to contact TM after my purchase to give them the details for logging into my website to upload and install the template. I purchased the template on 5/13 and provided the information on 5/20/2020, that is when I had the time to get things to them due to my schedule. However, TM closed my ticket on 5/23/2020 stating that I have gone past the 96 hr mark, I thought they were working for me and my schedule not the other way around! Anyway, they have yet to contact me and my template has not yet been installed. I’ve requested a refund of the installation fee but I don’t have a lot of confidence that they will comply. Don’t buy their services just go to Fiverr!
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Awesome blog. Thanks for sharing.
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DO NOT ENGAGE THEIR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. The Template I bought was fine, but I made the HUGE MISTAKE of engaging them to build the site for me. I mocked-up the entire site using their template – just changed the images and text, and it took them 6 months to get the site PARTIALLY working. Worst experience I’ve ever had. I finally fired them, hired a real website developer, and he had it up and running perfectly in 3 days. I can’t believe I wasted all those months with these bozos!