How to Check If a Website Template is Responsive Before Buying It

Now that you are able to choose a website template of your liking that matches your brand well, you need to make sure now that it is responsive before you pay for it. But how do we do that? In this article, I will teach you how to check if a website template is responsive before buying it.

If you are planning to launch a new website or revamp a website for your business, you need to make sure that it works for both desktop and mobile phones. According to Statista, 58.33% of web traffic comes from mobile phones.

A great method to save time and prevent design mistakes is to use pre-made templates from a marketplace. To avoid unsatisfactory outcomes, you must learn how to determine correctly whether a website template is responsive. 

What is a responsive design?

Before we dive deeper into how to check a website template, let us first discuss what is a responsive website template. 

According to W3School, a responsive website template is a design that automatically adjusts to different screen sizes. The design of the website will load correctly despite the change in screen dimension.

A responsive website template’s layout enables you to show your website’s content, graphics, and video equally regardless of the screen size and processing capabilities of the device.

We have examples of responsive website templates that you can check for inspiration and visualization. 

Responsive website design helps you to avoid the following:

• Incorrect resizing
• Inconvenient scrolling
• Incorrect zooming
• Wrong panning

One more thing about responsive website templates is a media query. It is an important part of a responsive website since this allows the template to adapt to different screen sizes without breaking the visuals of the design.

Why is it important to check?

The number of individuals using their smartphones for social media, commerce, informational purposes, and entertainment is rising daily. It is essential that your website is accessible to different devices and is mobile-friendly.

To avoid issues with your site’s commitment to providing the finest user experience for your users, responsive design testing is the best solution.

How to check if a website template is responsive before buying it

Most website templates are created to be responsive on mobile devices. Besides being affordable, they are made to be mobile-responsive. This is used to guarantee that users, regardless of the device they used to view the site, had the best possible experience. 

You can either use tools or Google Chrome to help you check if your website template is responsive.

How to check using Google Chrome

If you do not want to use any tool just use Google Chrome, here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Open the site that you want to check on Google Chrome.
2. Right-click on the landing page of the site that you want to check, this will open the menu.
3. Once you opened the menu, click “Inspect.”
4. And then click “Toggle device toolbar”
5. Now you can see how your site will adapt and respond to different screen dimensions. 

Here are some tools to use to check if a website template is responsive.

Emulators

Emulators are a tool that allows you to view how your website will look on various phone and operating system combinations, tablets, and browsers kinds. 

The price for this tool is free for the trial days but can cost up to $29 per month once you purchase the tool.

Responsinator

The tool Responsinator is probably one of the simplest ones you can use. It shows how your website will appear on particular types of devices. To view the information about your page, enter the URL of your website and wait a few seconds. 

On many smartphones, the utility displays both the portrait and landscape view. The best thing about this tool is it is free and you can donate to the creator of the tool if you have an extra budget to spare.

Screenfly

A wonderful tool for checking your website on different screen widths is Screenfly. Your site’s display can be viewed with no issues on phones, laptops, computers, tablets, and smartphones with a variety of screen extensions. 

All you have to do is type in your website’s URL and it works like magic already. Another great thing about it is it is free!

Cross Browser Testing

You can test your site’s responsiveness using the easy and versatile technology known as cross-browser testing. You can use it to test simultaneously the website on a range of screen sizes and mobile devices. 

Full-page screenshots can be taken using Cross Browser Testing, and they can compare the results to earlier iterations. The price of this tool starts at $29 per month.

Even if you have these tools to help you check the response rate of your website template, it is still important to test the design on real devices. This will allow you to see the actual visuals and see where the parts need to be improved or changed.

Checklist to make sure your website template is responsive

• Make sure the font, content, and alignment are the same for all devices.
• View the primary difficulties associated with changing viewports by minimizing and expanding the browser window.
• Check how quickly your page loads on multiple devices with various screen resolutions.
• Make sure all the links are working.
• Verify that all the content on your page—images, videos, and audio—is being displayed and played with no issues.
• Think about effortlessly going between pages and getting back to the home page.
• Verify that the header and content are both aligned properly.
• Verify that there are no scrolling problems.

Here are some elements to check to make sure the website template you are buying is responsive.

Mobile-friendly 

Most website developers are creating websites with mobile device dimensions in mind as more people use mobile devices to explore the internet.

This involves creating every aspect of the website to provide mobile users with the best possible experience. This includes optimizing the photos, limiting the use of multimedia, and selecting a font and font size that appear fantastic on mobile displays.

Screen dimensions

You don’t need to view the design on several platforms. Your browser comes with a tool that makes it simple to check a website’s responsiveness.

You may next see the website design on various mobile screen sizes to evaluate its responsiveness and see how it appears on different smartphones and tablet screens.

Loading time 

The success of your website depends heavily on the loading speed of the website template you choose. Test the loading speed of a website template before you buy it. 

Navigation

People will typically use touch gestures when utilizing a mobile device to navigate a website. They will tap on the screen to access links, swipe up to navigate down the website, and swipe across to view photographs.

Browser compatibility

On mobile platforms, a wide range of browsers are now accessible, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, UC Browser, Dolphin Browser, and Brave. It’s essential to ensure that your website design works properly on many browsers.

It will assist you in making sure the website functions properly on every platform or browser that your visitors use.

Fluid layouts

Fluid layouts allow elements to resize appropriately and are used frequently in responsive designs. This enables the website to resize and enlarge itself to fit the size of the user’s screen.

Bottom line

A key component in ensuring a positive user experience and the proper operation of your website is testing the responsiveness of the website. Don’t skip this step even if it can occasionally be a challenging and obscure process.

You may start working toward that objective by creating a responsive website that works and performs effectively across all devices, browsers, and operating systems.

FAQs

How to check the responsiveness of a website template on a different device without purchasing it?

You can simulate different devices and screen sizes using a variety of online tools and emulators. You may check the responsiveness of your website template using no physical devices by using tools like Responsinator, Screenfly, and Cross Browser Testing.

What should I do if ‌a website template I bought isn’t responsive?

You have a few options if a website template you bought has responsiveness problems. First, see if there are any help or troubleshooting resources available from the template vendor. They might offer suggestions on how to handle the problems. If it still doesn’t fix the issue, you might think about asking the template provider’s customer care for help or employing a web developer to perform the modifications.

Are there any design components or characteristics I should consider while checking a website template’s responsiveness?

Pay close attention to how the content is organized and laid out to make sure it fits on various screen sizes. Make sure the navigation menus are simple to use and responsive on a variety of devices by checking them.