The Thesis team – developed by Chris Pearson, may be his finest work by far. This theme stands out from the rest because of simplicity, but yet complexity at the same time. By this I mean at first glance, you may not see a lot of flash or extravagant Web 2.0 graphics – it’s sharp, clean and simple. But looking at the  mechanics of Thesis, behind its shell: amazes even the best web designers. Therefore complex at the same time.  This thing is packed with features. Let me explain:

1. It’s SEO optimized – per Chris: this theme boasts “the strongest SEO of any theme“.  A quick side note about SEO (stands for Search Engine Optimization): Search engines such as Yahoo, MSN and Google keep a database of what your pages contain. This process is known as indexing. Indexing a website does take time – and takes even longer if the source code of your pages contain a lot of junk. By junk I mean – stuff that is not part of your content. This can include unnecessary tags, images, spacers, formatting elements and so on. So a theme that boasts “the strongest SEO of any theme” – really mean that it has surpassed the standard CLEAN coding practices. By having clean code  - it is easily indexed by search engines. This is particularly useful – if you want your website to show up in the search engines.
2. Also part of the SEO feature: the Title Tag Constructor. Thesis allows you to contol how your site name and tagline appear. This is extremely useful for keyword optimization – and usually requires a separate plugin for this function.
3. A customizable navigation menu: First time I’ve seen this in any theme. What this allows you to do is control the what goes on the navigation bar without going in the code. You can add or exclude pages, categories or even links to anywhere in the web. It even allows you to edit the text of the “Home” link.  Below is a screenshot of Thesis Navigation Bar:
4. A Font selector – again a unique feature is very useful when you want to customize your website’s look and feel. Although Thesis has very good typography out of the box – some people would still like to have their own font signature added to their website. This feature allows them to do just that – without having to go into the code. 
5. Layout Constructor – you want your page to be a single, double or triple column? From the Thesis options menu is this now possible. It even allows you to set the width of the columns. Again – without having to touch the code.

In addition, the home page includes an customizable image rotator (image changes when you hit refresh), as well as a feature section for your – well…feature post:

Thesis is best for personal blogs – especially ones with a lot of activity.  Thesis sells for $87 – personal use and $164 for developers. It is NOT cheap, but you get quality with the price. Documentation is excellent, updates and upgrades are lifetime, plus a guarantee of excellent support - what more can you ask for.