@donnacha | WordSkill - While they may be priced over what Brian prices his Studiopress at, the guys at iThemes offer more themes that have a wider design variety. Plus, iThemes has always focused on more of the business/CMS theme design, its not for everyone. WooThemes are great but many of the themes are stylistically "one-of-a-kind" i.e. they look the same (many aren't, but some are), but they also come with a continued "upkeep" fee each month to keep your account current. So at the end of the year with WooThemes, you're still paying $440.

Now referring to Andreas' comment about all the Thesis / Headway / Elastic themes all looking the same I think says more about the end user than the theme itself. Because there are many designers/developers who are using those themes and their finished products look nothing like the out-of-the-box feel.

There are good designers/developers and then there are piss-poor designers/developers who call themselves designers/developers. It reminds me of when Microsoft Frontpage first game out back in the 90s. Every kid in his bedroom started pretending they were "webmasters" who could make all sorts of cool websites using Frontpage Themes. They all looked the same and they all looked like crap. But there were designers who stepped beyond the simple Themes and made something great.

The same is true today.