Hi there,
Dynamico is a completely new theme created from scratch to succeed the Dynamic News theme. It has the same design, but the code behind it is 100% different. Dynamic News was created 2014 and was simply outdated for modern browsers, which has led to various problems (mobile layout, plugin compatibility, accessibility issues, etc.).
Dynamico does not support the Post Slider anymore, but comes with a few extra features like multiple blog layouts and more options to customize. So yes, your are certainly right that there are not so many changes on the outside.
As nearly everyone in the industry we also only sell subscriptions. We did sell individual products and also had lifetime licenses, the problem is that these do not work in the long-term. The ongoing cost to keep themes updated and supported is way more effort than developing a new theme, and we need getting paid for existing products as well, not just new ones. Otherwise it just does not work.
Cheers,
Thomas
I don’t see the multiple blog layouts feature on the free edition. Is that only available on the premium? And by that do you mean theme skins? I’m interested in having multiple skins for my site – ie: different image/colors.
As for more options to customize; I don’t really see that many new features. At least not in the free version. I took screenshots of my News Lite theme (to copy the settings I had) and between it and the Dynamico customize section – a lot has changed and some things are missing. As for the slider I don’t care much about that. I could probably find a plugin or something that does the same thing. Is there a list of the customizable options for free vs premium somewhere?
You can find the Blog Layout setting on Appearance > Customize > Theme Options > Blog Settings. It is available within the free theme.
Color and Typography options are part of the Dynamico Pro add-on plugin. You can find a feature comparison table for free vs premium on https://themezee.com/addons/dynamico-pro/ The screenshots sections about that table shows screenshots of all settings in the Customizer.
Cheers,
Thomas