Salient is a premium multipurpose theme from ThemeNectar, sold through ThemeForest rather than the free WordPress.org directory. It's been tracked in our database since 2018 and still ranks among the fifty most used themes we detect across live sites — a long run for a theme built on WPBakery. If you're weighing it against something newer, the real question isn't whether it works, it's whether you want to buy into its particular way of building pages.
Built around WPBakery, not the block editor
Salient predates full-site editing and it shows. Page layouts are assembled with WPBakery Page Builder, tracked in our plugin data as js_composer_salient, alongside ThemeNectar's own salient-core plugin that handles the theme's animations, parallax effects, and header styles. salient-portfolio and salient-nectar-slider show up constantly too — these aren't optional extras so much as the theme's feature set split into separate files. That's workable, but the lock-in is real: strip WPBakery out and most Salient sites lose their layout entirely.
Who actually runs it
Across the sites we detect, Salient leans toward agencies and marketing firms, with nonprofits, software and SaaS companies, photographers, and medical or dental practices making up much of the rest. None of these dominate — it's a leaning, not a rule — and the business-type breakdown backs that up: services and nonprofit sites together make up a solid chunk, but ecommerce, corporate, and personal sites all use it too. Examples in our data range from ad-tech firms like Kochava and Cuebiq to nonprofits like the American Thyroid Association.
What it gets right
Salient's real strength is design flexibility for content-heavy service sites — full-width sections, parallax headers, portfolio grids — without needing developer time for every page. It's frequently paired with Contact Form 7 for lead capture and Yoast (wordpress-seo) for on-page SEO, sensible and boring choices rather than anything exotic. Child themes are common too, which gives agencies building on top of Salient for clients a real head start instead of a blank template.
The competition
Salient sits in the same bracket as a handful of other WPBakery-era multipurpose themes. Enfold and Betheme cover similar ground — page-builder-driven, business-focused, long track records. Flatsome is worth a look if the site is primarily a WooCommerce store, since it's built store-first rather than portfolio-first. The differences between all three are more about builder feel and support than philosophy.
Where the cost shows up
WPBakery-based themes have a reputation for getting heavy, and Salient is no exception — the more bundled modules and sliders you switch on, the more scripts a page loads. There's also the licensing reality of anything sold on ThemeForest: no free version, and updates and support tied to a license you renew. Multilingual site owners will likely reach for sitepress-multilingual-cms (WPML), which turns up often enough alongside Salient to suggest translation isn't handled natively.
Before you decide
Is Salient free?
No. It's a premium theme sold through ThemeForest, not distributed on the free WordPress.org theme directory.
What page builder does Salient use?
WPBakery Page Builder, tracked in our data as js_composer_salient, working alongside ThemeNectar's own salient-core plugin for the theme's specific features.
Is Salient good for an online store?
It can run WooCommerce — we do see the two paired together — but it isn't built store-first. Flatsome is the closer fit if ecommerce is the main goal.
Who this is really for
Salient makes sense for agencies, consultancies, and nonprofits that want a flexible, visual-heavy site without hiring a developer for every layout tweak, and for anyone already comfortable with WPBakery's drag-and-drop approach. It's a poor fit if you want to build with the native block editor, run a lean fast-loading blog, or avoid recurring theme-license renewals. For ecommerce-first projects, Flatsome remains the more direct alternative.
Last updated 2026-07-19
