Every theme in this catalogue is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. That is not a formality — WordPress itself is GPL, and any theme that builds on it inherits those terms. It has real consequences, and we would rather state them plainly than bury them.
What the GPL gives you
You receive the complete, unobfuscated source. You may read it, modify it, and use it on as many sites as you like — your own or your clients’. You may keep your modifications private. You may also redistribute the theme code under the same GPL terms. We do not restrict any of that, because under the GPL we cannot.
What you are actually paying for
Given the above, a purchase does not buy permission to use the code. It buys three concrete things: the packaged, ready-to-install download with its demo content; access to future updates for the lifetime of the theme; and a defined period of direct support from the people who wrote it. This is the standard and legitimate commercial model for GPL software, and it is why the price is per licence rather than per installation.
What “single-site licence” means here
The single-site tier means we provide updates and support for one production installation. It is a support boundary, not a technical lock — nothing in the theme phones home, counts domains, or stops working. If you run the same theme on staging and production, that is one site as far as we are concerned. If you are deploying it for several unrelated clients and want support on each, contact us about a multi-site or agency arrangement.
Bundled assets are licensed separately
The GPL covers the theme code. It does not automatically cover everything shipped inside the zip:
- Typefaces are bundled under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and may be used and redistributed under those terms.
- Third-party libraries, where present, carry their own licences (MIT and similar), recorded in each theme’s
CREDITS.txt. - Demo photography is the important exception. Images are included so the demo looks like a real site. Depending on the theme, they may be CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-SA — the last of which is a share-alike licence with obligations attached. Read the theme’s
CREDITS.txtbefore reusing any bundled photograph in your own project, and replace anything whose terms do not suit you. Several themes are shipped on the assumption that you will substitute your own imagery anyway.
Demo content is fictional
Company names, projects, staff, testimonials, addresses and figures in the demo content are invented for presentation purposes. Any resemblance to a real organisation is coincidental, and none of it should be published as though it were factual.
What we do not permit
The GPL covers the code; it does not license our brand. Please do not resell a theme under our name, imply that we authored or endorse a derivative, or reuse the Kiln name and marks. Redistribute the code freely if you wish — just do it under your own identity.