Theme Switcha – Easily Switch Themes for Development and Testing

Theme switching done right.

Preview any theme privately on the front-end
Develop themes privately behind the scenes
Enable your visitors to switch themes

There are many theme-switcher plugins but none of them provide the simplicity, performance, and reliability that I require for my own sites. So I wrote my own plugin using the WP API and kept the plugin as focused and solid as possible. Only essential theme-switching features have been added, along with a simple yet informative UI. This gives you a consistent, quality theme-switching experience that you can optionally share with your visitors.

Switch to an alternate theme for preview or development while visitors use the default theme 🙂

What it’s for..

Theme Switcha:

• Enables visitors to switch themes via the frontend
• Enables admins to test alternate themes for debugging
• Enables developers to build/customize themes privately
• Enables you to create links that switch to specific themes
• Enables live private previews of any installed theme

What it’s NOT for..

This plugin should not be used together with WordPress features such as Gutenberg Block Editor, Theme Customizer, Widgets, Menus, and other theme-related options. Doing so may result in private changes being made public on the current active theme. Learn more.

Theme Switcha = Best Theme Switcher for WordPress

Plugin Features

• Develop new themes while visitors use the default theme
• Control who can switch themes (admins, w/ passkey, or everyone)
• Administrators can switch themes directly via the WP Admin Area
• Enable visitors to switch and preview themes on the front-end
• Each visitor can choose their own theme
• Send preview links to clients via the passkey
• Choose your own custom passkey code for preview links
• Set the duration (cookie timeout) for switched themes
• Enable/disable theme preview in the Admin Area
• Enable/disable all theme switching without deactivating the plugin
• Provides several shortcodes to enable visitors to switch themes
• Shortcodes display themes as a list, select menu, or thumbnails
• Changed options are saved when working on switched themes
• Dashboard widget to switch themes via select menu
• Simple, stylish UI featuring screenshots of each theme
• Works with any theme, parent themes and child themes
• Works with or without Gutenberg Block Editor
• Works with WP Multisite

Theme Switcha makes it easy for the site admin to preview and develop new themes without changing the default theme. So visitors will continue to use your site normally without ever knowing that you are testing new themes behind the scenes. And if you want to enable your visitors to switch themes, you can do that as well by adding a shortcode to any WP Post or Page. Then each visitor will be able to select and preview any of your WordPress themes.

Core Features

• Easy to use
• Squeaky clean code
• Simple and focused
• Built with the WordPress API
• Lightweight, fast and flexible
• Focused on performance and security
• Regularly updated and “future proof”
• Works great with other WordPress plugins
• Plugin options configurable via settings screen
• Plugin cleans up after itself upon uninstall
• One-click restore plugin default options

Plus you get free, responsive support from a top WP professional 😉

The Theme Switcha plugin is useful for things like:

• Maintenance mode – display a temporary theme to visitors while you update your primary theme
• Theme test drive – preview and test new themes without disrupting anything on the frontend
• Theme development – perfect for developing new theme templates to fit existing site content
• Client presentations – send clients special “theme preview” links to show off new templates

I use Theme Switcha to develop new themes for my own sites like Perishable Press and Plugin Planet. The beauty of Theme Switcha is that visitors will never know that you are hard at work testing and building new themes behind the scenes 🙂

Privacy

This plugin does not collect or store any user data. It does not set any user cookies, and it does not connect to any third-party locations. Thus, this plugin does not affect user privacy in any way.

Theme Switcha is developed and maintained by Jeff Starr, 15-year WordPress developer and book author.

Support development

I develop and maintain this free plugin with love for the WordPress community. To show support, you can make a donation or purchase one of my books:

• The Tao of WordPress
• Digging into WordPress
• .htaccess made easy
• WordPress Themes In Depth
• Wizard’s SQL Recipes for WordPress

And/or purchase one of my premium WordPress plugins:

• BBQ Pro – Super fast WordPress firewall
• Blackhole Pro – Automatically block bad bots
• Banhammer Pro – Monitor traffic and ban the bad guys
• GA Google Analytics Pro – Connect WordPress to Google Analytics
• Simple Ajax Chat Pro – Unlimited chat rooms
• USP Pro – Unlimited front-end forms

Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thank you! 🙂

Credit

Thanks to Ryan Boren for the original Theme Switcher plugin.