How do I switch themes in VeloCMS?

Switching themes in VeloCMS takes about two clicks and zero downtime — navigate to Admin → Themes, click the thumbnail of any theme you want, and hit Apply. Your content (posts, pages, media) is completely separate from the visual layer, so nothing gets lost or rearranged when you change themes.

Watch a speed-tour of every theme, including cinematic.

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Picking a look for your blog shouldn't take a weekend. VeloCMS ships with thirty-eight themes, and every one is fully responsive and ready to go. In the next few minutes I'll tour the marketplace, filter down to the right vibe, preview a few, and install one — live.

It all lives under Themes, then Browse. Here's the full grid — thirty-eight of them, from clean editorial layouts to bold, magazine-style spreads. Scroll through and you'll notice they're real designs with their own fonts and spacing, not the same template wearing different colors.

Thirty-eight is a lot, so narrow it down. The category filters up top sort by what you're building — Blog, Portfolio, Developer, Agency, Creator. I shoot photos, so Portfolio is where I'll look, and the grid instantly trims to the ones built to show images off.

Never install a look blind. Open a theme's preview and you get the real thing — the homepage, a blog post, the whole layout — filled with sample content so you can actually judge it. Flip through two or three, and one usually just clicks.

Worth calling out — some of the newer themes are genuinely cinematic, with motion and scroll effects baked in, and they still load fast. These are the kind of designs you'd normally pay a developer for, sitting right here in the same one-click marketplace.

Found the one? Install and activate — a single click — and it's live on your blog immediately. And nothing's locked in: you can swap themes anytime, and tweak fonts and colors in the design panel until it feels like yours. No rebuild, no losing your posts.

Thirty-eight themes, one-click install, swap whenever you like. Find your look on the free trial at velocms dot org.

Where do I find the theme gallery?

Log into your admin dashboard and click Themes in the left sidebar. You'll see a grid of every theme available on your plan. Hover over any thumbnail to get a full-screen preview that shows how your actual recent posts would look — not a generic demo with placeholder text. The preview renders a live iframe, so you're seeing your real content through the new lens before committing to anything.

What happens to my existing content when I switch?

Nothing happens to your content. Themes in VeloCMS are purely CSS and layout — they change colors, fonts, spacing, and component arrangements but never touch your post bodies, metadata, or media. Think of it as repainting a room: the furniture (your writing) stays exactly where it was. This is a deliberate architectural decision described in the theme system spec. Your SEO data, slugs, publish dates, and subscriber list all remain intact.

How long does a theme switch take to go live?

The switch itself is instant on the server side. Once you click Apply, VeloCMS updates your tenant's theme setting in PocketBase and the Next.js app picks up the new CSS preset on the next page load. If you have a CDN layer (Cloudflare, for example), the edge cache refreshes within 30–60 seconds after the change propagates. Most visitors see the new design within a minute. You don't need to trigger a redeploy or rebuild — the theme selection is a runtime configuration, not a compile-time decision.

Can I preview a theme before applying it?

Yes. The preview mode in the Themes gallery shows your real blog content through the new theme without making any live changes. You can click through to any article preview, check the homepage layout, and even inspect how your hero image looks at different breakpoints — all before committing. Only when you click Apply does the change go public. This means you can safely browse themes on a Friday afternoon without your readers noticing you're window shopping.

What if I want to go back to my old theme?

Just open the Themes gallery again and click the previous theme's thumbnail, then Apply. There's no undo button because you don't need one — every theme is always available in the gallery. VeloCMS doesn't delete or archive your old theme settings when you switch, so reverting is exactly as fast as switching forward. Some teams even cycle themes seasonally (lighter palette in summer, richer colors in autumn) and switch back without any friction.

Custom domain users: after a theme switch, your Cloudflare edge cache might serve the old theme to some visitors for up to 60 seconds. If you need it to propagate immediately, do a manual cache purge from Admin → Settings → Advanced → Purge CDN Cache.