Our verdict: Highend is a solid pick if you like working in WPBakery and want a theme that is being actively improved again. HB-Themes shipped 20 updates in 2026, including four new demos, and the newer demos look modern and score well on speed. It suits small businesses and freelancers who want to start from a demo. Skip it if you want Elementor or the block editor, a one-time purchase for a single site, or a large demo library. As of October 2026, a one-site license costs $59 a year.

This review is based on HB-Themes’ official live demos, documentation, changelog and checkout page, checked on October 4, 2026. Highend has no free version, so we did not buy or install it.

Highend Quick Facts

Item	Details
Developer	HB-Themes (Gekik LLC), based in New York and Belgrade
Latest version	4.6.0 (October 2026)
Updates in 2026	20 releases, from 4.3.4 (April) to 4.6.0 (October)
Price	$59/year for 1 site, $69/year for 5 sites, $299 one-time for the Unlimited plan
Where it is sold	Directly from HB-Themes, with checkout through Lemon Squeezy
Refund policy	30-day money-back guarantee, according to the vendor
Page builder	WPBakery Page Builder (bundled and required), with 40+ Highend elements
Prebuilt websites	17
Bundled premium plugins	WPBakery, Slider Revolution, LayerSlider and Essential Grid
WooCommerce	Supported, with styled shop, cart, checkout and product pages
Free version	None
Vendor-claimed usage	85,000+ websites, 4.9/5 from 3,000+ reviews (vendor figures)
Best suited for	Small business, portfolio and blog sites built from a demo in WPBakery

What Is the Highend Theme?

Highend is HB-Themes’ flagship multipurpose WordPress theme, competing in the same space as names like Avada, BeTheme and Salient. “Multipurpose” means it is not tied to one niche: the same theme can run a gym, a church or a small shop.

The theme has been around a long time. Its changelog goes back to December 2014, and the oldest demos still use images uploaded in 2014. HB-Themes says Highend now powers more than 85,000 websites, up from the 38,000 users it claimed in 2020.

Three things have changed in recent years:

How you buy it. HB-Themes now sells Highend directly, through the Lemon Squeezy checkout. The one-site and five-site licenses are yearly subscriptions.
The builder name. The bundled Visual Composer plugin is now called WPBakery Page Builder. It is still the only builder Highend’s elements and demos are made for.
The pace of updates. After a quiet stretch in early 2026, updates picked up sharply, with new demos, page builder features and redesigned admin screens.

Is Highend Still Maintained in 2026?

Yes, and the changelog shows it.

Recent releases: 4.6.0 came out in October 2026. There were 12 releases between September and early October 2026 alone.
New demos: Fitness, SaaS, Hairdresser and Conference were all added in September 2026.
Compatibility work: recent versions fixed issues with PHP 8.5, WordPress 6.8 and WordPress 7.0, and repaired Google Maps after Google retired the loader the theme used.
Security: version 4.5.8 (September 2026) fixed a security issue in the live search.
Live demos: the official Fitness and Main demos were running version 4.6.0 when we checked, with WPBakery 9.0.1 on the Fitness demo.

One caveat: there were no releases between 4.3.3 (December 2025) and 4.3.4 (April 2026).

Prebuilt Websites

The Highend prebuilt websites section on the official site showing the Main Demo, Fitness, SaaS and Hairdresser demos

The top of the prebuilt websites section on the official Highend site, with the four newest demos marked New, October 2026.

Highend ships with 17 prebuilt websites. That is far fewer than BeTheme’s 700+ or Avada’s 110+, but every Highend license includes all of them, and the vendor promises new demos for free.

They fall into two clear groups:

The 2026 demos (Fitness, SaaS, Hairdresser, Conference) look current. They use large type, scroll animations and background video, and need no extra plugins beyond WPBakery (Hairdresser also uses Contact Form 7).
The 13 older demos (Main Demo, Café, Church, Photography, Bloggera, Online Shop and others) look their age. Most need Slider Revolution or Essential Grid.

The Highend Fitness demo homepage with a full-width gym video and the headline Stronger starts here

The official Fitness demo, added in Highend 4.5.4, October 2026. The Get Highend button in the corner is the vendor’s promo badge, not part of the design.

On the Fitness demo, the hero is a looping gym video on desktop. The page markup tells the theme to show a still image on phones instead, which keeps mobile pages light. Further down, it uses a scrolling text strip, stacked cards and reveal animations, all added in September 2026.

The Highend SaaS demo homepage with the headline Answers from your data, in plain language and a dashboard mockup

The official SaaS demo, a software landing page added in Highend 4.5.6, October 2026.

The SaaS demo is a clean, dark landing page with a dashboard mockup, a good starting point for a software or app site.

The WPBakery Page Builder

The WPBakery backend editor on a Highend site showing rows, columns, a Revolution Slider block and Highend title and skill bar elements

Vendor image: the WPBakery backend editor with Highend elements, from the official Highend documentation, October 2026.

The documentation calls WPBakery “required”: every Highend element, page template and demo is made with it. It comes with the theme, so you do not need a separate WPBakery license.

You can edit pages three ways:

Classic Mode: build with rows, columns and elements inside the WordPress admin.
Frontend Editor: edit on top of the live page.
Gutenberg Editor: use the block editor, where the whole page becomes a single WPBakery block.

Highend adds more than 40 of its own elements under a Highend Shortcodes tab. Version 4.5.2 added newer ones such as Animated Button, Scrolling Text and Fit Text, plus sticky columns, Stacked Cards and Fluid Typography.

What this means for you: if you know WPBakery, Highend will feel familiar. If you prefer Elementor or the block editor, look elsewhere. Highend has no Elementor support, and WPBakery pages do not move cleanly to another theme.

Demo Import and License Activation

The Highend Import Demo Templates screen showing 17 available templates with Import demo buttons and category filters

Vendor image: the Import Demos screen from the official Highend documentation, October 2026.

Demos import from Highend > Import Demos. A dialog lists the plugins each demo needs and lets you choose what to import, such as content, media, theme options and menus. Since version 4.4.1, imports run in small batches, which the changelog says fixed timeouts on hosts with strict PHP limits.

The catch: according to the documentation, an active license is needed to:

install and update WPBakery, Slider Revolution, LayerSlider and Essential Grid,
import any of the 17 demos,
install theme updates, and
open a support ticket.

The theme itself still activates without a license, but without WPBakery none of Highend’s elements work. If you are new to installing premium themes, our guide on how to install a WordPress theme covers the upload step.

Design and Customization Features

Site-wide settings live in the Highend Options panel, and each page has a tabbed Highend Settings box (rebuilt in 4.6.0). According to the vendor’s features page and documentation, you can control:

Layout: boxed or stretched layouts, content widths of 940px, 1140px or full width, left or right sidebars, unlimited custom sidebars and 10+ page templates.
Header and footer: several prebuilt header and footer layouts, a sticky header, a top bar for contact details or a language switcher, mega menus, and three mobile menu styles (added in 4.5.8).
Typography and color: 1,500+ Google Fonts, 10+ color presets and a color customizer.
Icons: 1,600+ icons from IcoMoon and FontAwesome, with a searchable icon picker in 4.6.0.
Blog and portfolio: standard, minimal and masonry blog layouts, and filterable portfolio grids with lightbox galleries.
Extra content types: Portfolio, Gallery, Team Members, Clients, Testimonials, FAQ and Pricing Tables.
Animations and coming soon mode: entrance and text reveal animations, plus a built-in countdown page.

Bundled Premium Plugins

Highend includes four premium plugins with every license: WPBakery Page Builder, Slider Revolution, LayerSlider and Essential Grid. The vendor values them at “over $200”.

That is a real saving, with two limits. These are bundled copies, so updates arrive through Highend, not straight from each plugin’s developer. And extras such as a plugin’s own template library still need that plugin’s own license, according to the documentation.

WooCommerce and bbPress

Highend styles WooCommerce out of the box, with its own cart, checkout and product templates, a dropdown header cart and sale badges. The Main Demo, Bloggera and Online Shop demos include shop pages. It suits a small store, but there is no WooCommerce template builder like the one BeTheme includes.

Highend is also bbPress compatible, so you can add a styled forum.

Performance

HB-Themes says Highend sites load “92% faster” than other sites. We could not verify that, so here are Google Lighthouse scores for two official demos, run on October 4, 2026 (one run per page). These are the vendor’s demos on the vendor’s hosting, not a site you would build yourself.

Official demo	Lighthouse performance (mobile)	Mobile LCP	Lighthouse performance (desktop)	Desktop LCP
Fitness (2026 demo)	83	3.5 s	85	2.3 s
Main Demo (classic)	57	10.1 s	75	3.0 s

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is how long the biggest visible element takes to appear. Google treats 2.5 seconds or less as good.

The gap between the two is the takeaway. The Fitness demo stays lean on phones because it swaps its 3.5 MB hero video for a still image. The older Main Demo carries a Slider Revolution slideshow and large 2014-era images, which drag down its mobile score.

The vendor’s speed guide is candid: it says Highend “loads a fairly complete set of front-end libraries by default”, and most slider, carousel and form scripts load on every page. You can switch off unused modules under Highend Modules, and the guide recommends caching and a CDN. If speed is your top priority, our list of the fastest WordPress themes covers lighter options. Good hosting matters too; see our guide to managed WordPress hosting.

SEO Friendliness

The vendor describes Highend as “SEO optimized”, but its documentation has no SEO section and lists no settings for meta descriptions, schema or sitemaps.

Using a plugin like Yoast, Rank Math or SEOPress is the best way to handle on-page SEO with Highend. Our roundup of the best SEO plugins for WordPress compares them.

Translation and Multilingual Support

Highend ships with ten bundled translations, including French, Spanish, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Swedish (most added in June 2026). It also includes an RTL stylesheet for right-to-left languages.

For multilingual sites, WPML is the better partner. Highend includes a WPML configuration file and a WPML language switcher for the header. The documentation says Polylang works only at a basic level, without a built-in switcher.

Support and Documentation

The documentation on the new Highend site is one of the theme’s strengths. It covers every options panel, every element, the integrations and developer topics such as child themes and hooks.

Support is for license holders. You open a ticket from the Support Center after verifying your email and license key. The vendor says it responds within 24 hours on business days, and its FAQ also points to a forum with more than 20,000 resolved questions.

User feedback is mixed. HB-Themes’ Trustpilot page had only four reviews as of October 2026, with a 2.6 rating, and the most recent (February 2026) complained about an unanswered ticket. That is a tiny sample from before the September updates, but worth knowing.

Highend Pricing (as of October 2026)

The Highend checkout page listing Highend Plus at $59 billed every year, Highend Pro at $69 billed every year, and Highend Unlimited at $299

The three Highend licenses on the official Lemon Squeezy checkout page, October 2026.

License	Price	Sites	Billing
Highend Plus	$59	1	Every year
Highend Pro	$69	5	Every year
Highend Unlimited	$299	20 (see note)	One-time, with lifetime updates and support

Every license includes the theme, all 17 demos, the four bundled premium plugins, updates and support. The 30-day money-back guarantee applies when HB-Themes cannot fix an issue you hit, according to its FAQ.

A few things to know before you buy:

Unlimited is not clearly unlimited. The Highend FAQ says unlimited sites, but the checkout page says 20. Ask HB-Themes before buying it for more than 20 sites.
When a yearly license lapses, updates, premium plugin installs, demo imports and support pause until you renew, according to the documentation. Your site keeps working.
Look for a discount. When we checked, the site advertised a 40% discount code, which would bring Highend Plus to about $35. We could not confirm whether it also applies to renewals.
Pro is the value pick. Five sites for $10 a year more is a good deal for freelancers.

Compared with similar themes, $59 a year for one site is on the high side over time. Avada, Enfold and Salient cost $59 to $69 once on ThemeForest, with lifetime updates. The7 moved to a yearly plan in 2026 at $39 for the first year, then $49.

Highend Pros and Cons

Pros

Actively maintained again, with 20 releases in 2026 and four new demos.
The 2026 demos look modern, and the Fitness demo scored 83 for mobile performance in Lighthouse.
Four premium plugins are included, with no separate licenses to manage.
Pro license covers five sites for $69 a year.
Clear, up-to-date documentation.
30-day money-back guarantee.

Cons

Locked to WPBakery. No Elementor support, and layouts do not transfer to another theme.
Only 17 demos, and the older ones look dated.
The one-site license is now a yearly subscription.
Many scripts load site-wide whether a page uses them or not.
Mixed recent user feedback on support, and a four-month release gap in early 2026.
The Unlimited plan’s site limit is unclear.

Highend vs Other Multipurpose Themes

	Highend	Avada	Salient	BeTheme
Price (1 site)	$59/year	$69 one-time	$60 one-time	$69 one-time on ThemeForest
Builder	WPBakery	Avada Builder	WPBakery-based	BeBuilder, WPBakery, Elementor
Prebuilt websites	17	110+	470+ templates	700+

Choose Highend if you want a small set of polished, current demos, you like WPBakery, and five sites on one $69 plan suits you.

Choose another theme if:

You want the biggest library of starting designs: see our BeTheme review.
You want a mature builder and a huge user base: see our Avada review.
You want a creative, design-led WPBakery theme: see Uncode or Enfold.
You want Elementor or the block editor: The7 supports both, or pair a light theme like Astra or Kadence with your builder of choice.
You want one membership for unlimited sites: see our Divi review.

Verdict: Is Highend Worth It in 2026?

For the right buyer, yes. Highend is no longer the slow-moving theme it looked like in early 2026. The 2026 updates brought modern demos, new page builder tools and much better docs, and the official Fitness demo shows the theme can produce a fast, current-looking site.

The trade-offs are the yearly price, a small demo library and a firm tie to WPBakery. If you’re weighing other multipurpose themes, how Salient compares is a useful read. If you are on a tight budget or want a one-time purchase, a ThemeForest theme with lifetime updates or a free theme with a page builder will cost less over a few years.

FAQ

How much does the Highend theme cost?

As of October 2026, Highend Plus costs $59 a year for one site, Highend Pro costs $69 a year for five sites, and Highend Unlimited costs $299 one-time. All plans include all 17 demos, the bundled premium plugins, updates and support.

Is Highend still updated?

Yes. HB-Themes released version 4.6.0 in October 2026 and shipped 20 updates in 2026, including four new demos and fixes for PHP 8.5 and WordPress 7.0.

What page builder does Highend use?

WPBakery Page Builder. It is bundled with the theme and required for its 40+ elements and all demos. Highend does not support Elementor.

Is there a free version of Highend?

No. Highend is premium only, and it is not in the WordPress.org theme directory. You can browse all 17 demos for free on the official site before you buy.

Does Highend work with WooCommerce?

Yes. Highend styles WooCommerce shop, cart, checkout and product pages, adds a header cart, and includes shop pages in the Main Demo, Bloggera and Online Shop demos.

What happens if my Highend license expires?

Your site keeps working. According to the documentation, theme updates, premium plugin installs and updates, demo imports and support pause until you renew the license.