Ixian: A Lean Full-Site-Editing WordPress Theme for Service Businesses and SaaS Companies

Go looking for a WordPress theme and you will find, over and over, a theme built to sell physical products. Shop grids, cart pages, product filters, forty hero variations you scroll past on the way to the one you want. That is a reasonable thing for a theme to be. It is just not what most of the businesses we work with are doing. A consultancy, a design agency, a bookkeeping firm, a small software product — none of them need a checkout. They need one homepage that makes a convincing argument, a pricing page, somewhere to show past work, and a contact page that works.

Ixian is the theme we built for those sites. It is a full-site-editing WordPress theme aimed squarely at service businesses and SaaS products: one consistent design system, five ready-made starter pages, and no assumption anywhere that you are running a store. It is live on our demo site now, and this post walks through what is actually in it — the business case first, with the code tucked into expandable sections for anyone who wants it.

What’s Actually on the Demo

Most theme demos are gray boxes and lorem ipsum, which tells you nothing about whether the layout can carry a real argument. So we filled the homepage starter page in with a made-up product — a deployment platform — and wrote it properly: a real headline, real pricing, real FAQ answers. Top to bottom, the page runs:

• A centered hero with a headline, a search bar, and quick-pick chips (Landing Page, Online Store, SaaS Dashboard, Portfolio, Docs Site)
• A trust bar of credibility badges — certification, uptime, customer count, support response time
• Headline metrics in large type
• A three-step “how it works” section with a visual timeline
• A filterable “old way vs. our way” comparison table
• A deeper comparison table across four dimensions
• Persona cards for three different buyer types
• A capability grid and a centered compatibility section
• A three-tier pricing table
• Client quotes, a second feature-comparison matrix, a centered FAQ accordion, and a plan-inclusions grid

None of that structure is specific to software. Swap “deployment platform” for “bookkeeping firm” or “accessibility consultancy” and the same sections — hero, trust bar, metrics, comparison, pricing, FAQ — carry a service business just as well. That is the point of building the demo as a real pitch rather than placeholder text: it shows the layout can hold an argument, not just fill a screen.

Five Starter Pages, Not Fifty Fragments

Ixian ships exactly five full-page starters: Homepage, Pricing, About, Contact and Portfolio. Insert one, replace the words with your own, and you have a finished page — not a pile of sections you still have to assemble in the right order.

That is a deliberate contrast with a theme like Elayne, which ships 143 patterns across five industry verticals with eight style variations, because Elayne’s job is to cover a wide spread of small-business niches straight out of the box. Ixian’s job is narrower, so the pattern set is narrower too. Here is how our three themes divide the work:

Aviendha is the one worth explaining, because it is where Ixian came from. It is a deliberately minimal starter theme — a design system, WooCommerce templates and style variations, and no theme-level patterns whatsoever. It exists to be forked. Ixian is that fork: same skeleton, a new palette, and the five starter pages added on top.

The reason the pattern count stays at five rather than fifty is that reusable pieces belong in a plugin, not in theme files. Ixian contains no blocks of its own. Every content block on that demo page — mega menu, carousel, FAQ accordion, pricing tiers, comparison tables — comes from Aludra, our shared block library plugin. A starter page is just an arrangement of those blocks, which keeps it thin and keeps it working when the blocks improve.

In practice that means a new section type gets built out of existing blocks first, and only gets promoted into a real Aludra block when a pattern genuinely cannot express it. Fewer things to maintain, and every improvement lands everywhere at once.

<?php
/**
 * Title: Pricing
 * Slug: ixian/page-pricing
 * Categories: ixian
 * Block Types: core/post-content
 * Description: A pricing page — intro hero, trust bar, the three-tier
 *              spec-sheet pricing table, a billing-focused FAQ accordion
 *              and a closing call to action.
 *
 * @package Ixian
 */

$ grep -oh "wp:aludra/[a-z-]*" patterns/*.php | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
  64 wp:aludra/comparison-cell
  24 wp:aludra/spine-section
  16 wp:aludra/faq-tab-answer
  16 wp:aludra/comparison-row
  12 wp:aludra/stat-item
  10 wp:aludra/feature-cards
   8 wp:aludra/trust-bar
   8 wp:aludra/hero-banner
   ...

register_block_pattern_category(
	'ixian',
	array(
		'label'       => __( 'Ixian', 'ixian' ),
		'description' => __( 'Full page layouts composed from the Aludra block library.', 'ixian' ),
	)
);

function ixian_template_part_areas( $areas ) {
	$areas[] = array(
		'area'        => 'menu',
		'area_tag'    => 'nav',
		'label'       => __( 'Menu', 'ixian' ),
		'description' => __( 'Template parts for navigation and mega menu content.', 'ixian' ),
		'icon'        => 'navigation',
	);
	return $areas;
}
add_filter( 'default_wp_template_part_areas', __NAMESPACE__ . '\ixian_template_part_areas' );

What Makes Ixian a Lean FSE Block Theme

The practical promise of a full-site-editing block theme is that you can change how the site looks from inside WordPress, without a developer and without a page builder. That only holds if the theme keeps its design decisions in one place. Ixian keeps all of them — color, type, spacing, corner radius — in a single configuration file that the WordPress editor reads directly. Change a color there and it changes everywhere, including inside the editor, because there is no separate stylesheet quietly overriding it.

The palette itself is where Ixian departs most visibly from the theme it forked. Aviendha’s default is warm — rose on cream, which suits a shop. Ixian’s is cool: near-black text, an indigo primary, a teal accent, and two very light neutrals for cards and section backgrounds. It reads as a platform or a professional service rather than a storefront. Every text color in the palette clears WCAG 2.1 AA contrast against the theme’s light backgrounds, and the dark variation clears it comfortably too.

Typography leans the same direction. Headings use Bricolage Grotesque; labels, eyebrows and numbers use JetBrains Mono — setting a figure like “0.9s median deploy time” in a monospace face is what makes it read as a measurement rather than a marketing claim. Both are self-hosted as single variable-font files, 72KB for the pair, so the site makes no request to Google’s servers for fonts and does not download a separate file per weight. That is a speed win and, for European clients, one fewer third party receiving your visitors’ IP addresses.

{ "name": "Base",           "slug": "base",           "color": "#F6F8FB" }
{ "name": "Tertiary",       "slug": "tertiary",       "color": "#EAEFF7" }
{ "name": "Border Light",   "slug": "border-light",   "color": "#D9E1EE" }
{ "name": "Contrast",       "slug": "contrast",       "color": "#0F1620" }
{ "name": "Main",           "slug": "main",           "color": "#16202E" }
{ "name": "Primary",        "slug": "primary",        "color": "#2B3FB5" }
{ "name": "Accent",         "slug": "accent",         "color": "#0E7490" }
{ "name": "Secondary",      "slug": "secondary",      "color": "#47536A" }
{ "name": "Main Accent",    "slug": "main-accent",    "color": "#5C6B82" }
{ "name": "Primary Accent", "slug": "primary-accent", "color": "#E5E9FA" }
{ "name": "Primary Alt",    "slug": "primary-alt",    "color": "#1E2C86" }
{ "name": "White",          "slug": "white",          "color": "#FFFFFF" }
{ "name": "Terracotta",     "slug": "terracotta",     "color": "#B34309" }
{ "name": "Sand Deep",      "slug": "sand-deep",      "color": "#AFBCD0" }
{ "name": "Indigo",         "slug": "indigo",         "color": "#101A3D" }

                on base    on tertiary
contrast         17.08        15.73
main             15.42        14.21
primary           7.96         7.33
secondary         7.27         6.70
terracotta        5.30         4.88
main-accent       5.09         4.69
accent            5.04         4.64   <- tightest pair
white on primary  8.46   |   white on accent  5.36

fontSizes
  xx-small  clamp(0.65rem, 0.62rem + 0.15vw, 0.7rem)
  x-small   clamp(0.72rem, 0.68rem + 0.2vw,  0.8rem)
  small     clamp(0.8rem,  0.75rem + 0.25vw, 0.9rem)
  base      clamp(0.9rem,  0.85rem + 0.25vw, 1rem)
  medium    clamp(1rem,    0.95rem + 0.3vw,  1.125rem)
  large     clamp(1.25rem, 1.1rem  + 0.75vw, 1.75rem)
  x-large   clamp(1.75rem, 1.4rem  + 1.75vw, 2.5rem)
  xx-large  clamp(2.25rem, 1.6rem  + 3vw,    3.5rem)
  display   clamp(3rem,    2rem    + 5vw,    5rem)

spacingSizes
  2-x-small clamp(0.25rem,  1.5vw, 0.5rem)
  x-small   clamp(0.375rem, 2vw,   0.75rem)
  small     clamp(0.5rem,   2.5vw, 1rem)
  medium    clamp(1.5rem,   4vw,   2rem)
  large     clamp(2rem,     5vw,   3rem)
  x-large   clamp(3rem,     7vw,   5rem)

{
  "name": "Display",
  "slug": "display",
  "fontFamily": "'Bricolage Grotesque', 'Segoe UI', system-ui, sans-serif",
  "fontFace": [{
    "fontFamily": "Bricolage Grotesque",
    "fontWeight": "200 800",
    "fontStyle": "normal",
    "src": [ "file:./assets/fonts/bricolage-grotesque-variable.woff2" ]
  }]
}

$ ls -l assets/fonts/
41344  bricolage-grotesque-variable.woff2
31432  jetbrains-mono-variable.woff2

One Click to a Dark Style Variation

Ixian ships a second style variation called Twilight — a dark, cool-toned palette layered onto the identical design system. Switching to it from Appearance → Editor → Styles takes seconds and breaks nothing: same starter pages, same layouts, same spacing, just re-colored. For a software product or a developer-facing service, a dark option is frequently the expected default rather than a novelty.

Twilight comes down from Aviendha, which ships its own version of the same variation. Inheriting it is part of the point of forking a starter theme: the mechanism is already proven, and Ixian only has to supply new colors.

WooCommerce Stays Out of the Way

Because Ixian is forked from a theme that supports stores, WooCommerce templates come along for the ride. On a site with no shop, those would normally show up as clutter — store templates listed in the Site Editor that cannot render, and a broken cart icon in the header.

Ixian actively hides them instead. With WooCommerce inactive, the store templates are filtered out of the editor entirely and the cart and account blocks are stripped from the header before it renders. Install WooCommerce later and all of it reappears, working. So the store capability is there if the business grows into it, and completely invisible until then.

function ixian_woocommerce_hooks() {
	if ( class_exists( 'WooCommerce' ) ) {
		add_action( 'init', __NAMESPACE__ . '\ixian_unregister_woocommerce_patterns', 999 );
		add_filter( 'woocommerce_admin_features', __NAMESPACE__ . '\ixian_disable_pattern_toolkit' );

		return;
	}

	add_filter( 'default_wp_template_part_areas', __NAMESPACE__ . '\ixian_add_to_cart_template_part_area' );
	add_filter( 'get_block_templates',    __NAMESPACE__ . '\ixian_filter_woocommerce_templates', 10, 3 );
	add_filter( 'get_block_file_template', __NAMESPACE__ . '\ixian_filter_woocommerce_file_template', 10, 3 );
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', __NAMESPACE__ . '\ixian_woocommerce_hooks' );

return (string) preg_replace(
	'#<!--\s+wp:woocommerce/(?:mini-cart|customer-account)\b.*?/-->\s*#s',
	'',
	$content
);

Who Ixian Is For

If you sell a service or a subscription rather than physical goods — a consultancy, an agency, a SaaS product, a developer tool — Ixian’s design system and starter pages are shaped around exactly that kind of site: a homepage that makes an argument, a pricing table, a portfolio or case-study page, a contact page. If a store is what you are building, Aviendha plus our WooCommerce development work is the better route, since that is what its store templates were designed for in the first place.

The code is public — github.com/imagewize/ixian, GPL v3, with MIT and OFL-licensed fonts and icons — but it is not on WordPress.org yet, so there is no one-click install from Appearance → Themes → Add New the way there is for Elayne. In practice that means cloning the repo, or more commonly having us build it into your site as part of our FSE block theme development work. If the demo looks like the foundation your site needs, we can set it up on a new build or adapt it onto an existing one.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the Ixian WordPress theme? Ixian is a full-site-editing (FSE) WordPress block theme built for service businesses and SaaS companies. It is forked from Aviendha, Imagewize’s minimal FSE starter theme, and adds a graphite-and-indigo design system plus five full-page starter patterns on top of it.
• Can I download Ixian from WordPress.org? Not yet — the code is public on GitHub (github.com/imagewize/ixian) under GPL v3, but it is not listed on WordPress.org yet, so it does not install with one click the way our Elayne theme does. For most clients we build it in directly rather than handing over a zip file to self-install.
• How is Ixian different from Aviendha? Aviendha is a minimal starter theme with a design system and store templates but no patterns at all — it exists to be forked. Ixian is that fork, re-colored from warm rose-on-cream to a cool graphite-and-indigo scheme, with five full-page starter patterns added and the WooCommerce templates hidden unless WooCommerce is active.
• Does Ixian work with WooCommerce? Yes. WooCommerce block templates ship with the theme and stay completely hidden unless WooCommerce is active. Ixian is not built around e-commerce, though — if a store is your main business, Aviendha is the better starting point.
• What plugin does Ixian rely on for its blocks? Aludra, our shared block library — mega menu, carousel, FAQ accordion, pricing tiers, comparison tables and more. Ixian recommends it but does not require it; without it, the theme still works as a plain block theme with core blocks, though the five starter patterns need it to render fully.
• Where can I see Ixian in action? The live demo is at demo.imagewize.com/ixian, showing the full homepage starter pattern filled in with real pricing, FAQ, and comparison content.
• How much does it cost to get a site built on Ixian? Imagewize works hourly at €65/hour or on a fixed-price quote once scope is clear — same as our other WordPress development work. Get in touch with what you are building and we will scope it.