Themeum has integrated Droip into Kirki, transforming the widely used customizer toolkit framework plugin into a combined website builder and customizer, a move that expands its capabilities while sparking debate over its changing direction.
From Customizer Framework to Freeform Website Builder & Customizer
Kirki was originally created in 2014 by Aristeides Stathopoulos as a lightweight framework designed to simplify the WordPress Customizer for theme developers.
The plugin changed hands in 2020 when it was acquired by David Vongries and was later acquired by Themeum in 2023. Later that year, Themeum launched Droip, a no-code visual website builder.
That separation no longer exists. With Kirki 6.0.0 update, Themeum has merged Droip’s builder functionality directly into Kirki, with the changelog noting, “ Rebranded from Droip to Kirki — the Customizer framework and the visual builder are now unified under one product.”
Why Themeum Merged Droip Into Kirki
Themeum, in their announcement post, highlighted that Droip struggled with search visibility due to its name, explaining that “the challenge was the word ‘Droip’ being constantly autocorrected to ‘Drop’.” It added that “This made it difficult for people to find the product, even when they were actively looking for it.”
The company said the solution came from within its own product lineup. As they described the decision, “After a lot of thought, we realised the solution was right in front of us. Kirki, the product we already had in our hands, felt like the perfect fit to solve this puzzle.”
Themeum further pointed to Kirki’s existing strengths, noting that “It just made sense with its powerful theme customizer capabilities, established organic visibility, and the bigger community around it.”
The move also reflects a broader shift in direction, expanding its audience beyond developers. as noted, “ Droip integrating into Kirki, however, evolves Kirki from just a customizer framework to a visual website builder and customizer, expanding Kirki’s dev-focused audience to a wider range of people and vice versa.”
As of now, Kirki’s docs page still says, “The #1 customizer toolkit for WordPress theme developers. “
The Community Response
The integration of Droip into Kirki has not been well-received by majority of its users.
In a support thread on WordPress.org, rzepak questioned the direction of the project, ““Why have you ruined such a great plugin?”. He also stated, “ You essentially abandoned it and now, after four years, you come back with a page builder? No one asked for yet another page builder bundled into Kirki. That’s not what made it valuable, and it completely misses the point of the project.”
Gnodesign asked whether it would be possible to disable the builder entirely, noting that, “ Would it be possible to add an option/hook/filter to fully disable the builder? Some of us have been using the plugin mainly as a customizer framework within our themes for years. This new builder feature will just confuse our customers and create more support issues. A hook or filter to disable the builder programmatically would be really helpful for us developers.”
In response, Md Rashed Hossain (Lead, Tech Support at Themeum) said, “ At the moment, there isn’t an option or hook available to fully disable the builder. That said, I’ve shared your request with our team so they can consider adding this flexibility for developers like you in future updates.”
Bence Szalai also criticized the direction of the update and highlighted the broader intent behind the transition, suggesting it leverages Kirki’s existing install base, stating, “You had this plugin, installed on large number of sites, because it was a go to Customizer extension for developers for many years. It was obviously not installed by end-users, it was used by devs. So looking at the large install base you just decided to effectively hijack all those sites and try to push you new and completely unrelated product onto those websites, hoping the end users would pick it up.”
Michael Travan highlighted on Slack that numerous 1-star reviews posted after Kirki’s 6.0.0 update were quickly removed from the WordPress.org plugin page, raising concerns about how and why negative feedback is being moderated, “ ..People also started leaving 1-star reviews: most of them were disappointed by the sudden takeover of what used to be a lightweight framework, some referred to their websites broken after the update, some were unsatisfied by the plugin authors replies in the support forums. But what really left me speechless is that all those reviews got cancelled shortly afterwards. …”
The merger marks a pivotal shift in Kirki’s trajectory, balancing Themeum’s vision for growth against developer concerns over stability and purpose. Whether this gamble pays off will depend on how well Themeum manages to reconcile its expanded ambitions with the expectations of its long-standing user base.