Using Guide themes from the Zendesk Marketplace

Guide comes with a standard theme for your help center that you can customize for your own use. Additionally, in the Zendesk Marketplace you can purchase new themes created by Zendesk and third party developers or download updates to the themes that you've already purchased. See About the standard theme and custom themes in Help Center.

When you purchase a theme in Zendesk Marketplace, you can select either a standard or developer license. Both license types allow you to use the purchased theme in your Zendesk account for all help center brands (if you have set up multiple brands and help centers for those brands). See Understanding theme licensing and use.

If you're looking for information about how to develop your own themes, see Customizing your help center theme. To make your own themes available for others to purchase in the themes marketplace, see Publishing your theme in the Zendesk Marketplace.

This article contains the following sections:

• Opening the themes marketplace
• Adding a new theme from the marketplace
• Understanding theme licensing and use across help centers
• Buying a trial theme
• Next steps

Opening the themes marketplace

Once you open the themes marketplace, you'll be able to browse and install themes, or start a trial of a theme.

To open the themes marketplace

1. In Guide Admin, click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar.

   The Themes page opens and shows you your current live theme and any themes you've added to your themes library.

2. Click Add theme, then select Add Marketplace theme.

   

The Help Center Themes page loads in your web browser.

Adding a new theme from the marketplace

From the themes marketplace, you can browse for and install trials for the themes of your choice.

Consider the following when trialling and purchasing themes:

• Zendesk does not provide support for themes from the marketplace. Contact the theme developer with any issues.
• Themes might be available with both standard and developer licenses. Purchase the developer license if you want to customize the theme.
• You can trial standard themes for 14 days within your account. A trial enables you to preview changes in your account. However, you can't change the theme code and you can't make it your live theme until you purchase it. Once the trial expires, that theme is automatically locked from the account until it's purchased.
• Free themes don’t have a trial version.

To add a new theme

1. In the themes marketplace, click the theme you want, then click View theme.
   Tip: To help you find the theme you want, you can search for themes and filter by rating, payment type (free or one-time payment), price range, and license type.
2. Alternatively, to reach the themes marketplace from the Guide Themes page, click Add theme then select Add Marketplace theme.

   

3. On the theme page, review the requirements for the theme, then choose one of the following options:
   • View demo: See a preview of how the theme will look.
   • Start 14 day trial: Add the theme to your library and trial it for 14 days. Before you can buy the theme you must start a theme trial. You can buy the theme at any point during or after your trial.
4. After you select to start a trial, on the theme installation page, choose the subdomain where you want to test the theme, then click Install.

The theme trial will now be available in the Theme Library section of the Guide Themes page. For help managing your themes, see Managing your help center themes.

Understanding theme licensing and use across help centers

Themes come in three license types: trial, standard, and developer. Regardless of license type, you can use themes across all help centers in the Zendesk account that you used to purchase the theme.

• Trial license: Provides temporary access to a pre-built theme that you can add to your library and try for a limited amount of time. Before you buy a theme you must start a theme trial. You can buy the theme at any point during or after your trial.
• Standard license: Provides a pre-built theme that you can enable directly in your help center. Standard licenses don't provide access to the source code and only allow preconfigured settings.
• Developer license: Provides a pre-built theme with access to the theme code, meaning you can customize the theme to your needs. Once you customize a theme it becomes a custom theme and you can no longer download updates to it. However, if you make changes to a copy of the theme, the original version can still receive updates. You can upgrade a standard license to a developer license on the theme settings page.
  Tip: If you buy a developer theme and then downgrade to Suite Team you'll no longer be able to modify the theme's code.

Buying a trial theme

Once you've tried a theme, you must buy it before you can use it as your live theme. In this section, you'll learn about the purchasing process for marketplace themes.

To buy a theme

1. In Guide, click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar.

   The Themes page opens.

2. On the trial theme you want to configure, click the options menu (), then choose Buy.
3. On the theme license page, choose which license type you want to buy, then click Buy now.

   

4. Review your purchase, enter the required details, then click Buy now.

The theme is now purchased and you can use it as your live theme.

Next steps

Once you've installed a theme, see Managing Guide themes from the Zendesk Marketplace to help you keep your themes up to date. You can also manage, purchase, or get help with your themes.