Building a Salla theme: when you need one, and how it is built and published

This guide has two readers. The first is a merchant who thinks their store needs its own theme. The second is a developer who wants to build a theme for Salla and sell it on the theme store or deliver it to a merchant.

For the merchant, the short answer: most stores do not need a custom theme. A ready-made theme's settings, plus a little code where needed, cover most of what merchants ask for. A custom theme is a software project with build and maintenance costs, and every update goes through Salla's review.

Full disclosure: we at AfterAds make the Angel theme, published on the Salla theme store since 2023. We use it as an example in its own section near the end.

Do you need your own theme? Three levels of customization

Before you commission a theme from scratch, try the levels in order:

Level 1, theme settings: colors, fonts, home page elements and product page options that you change from your store's dashboard without code. They survive updates, and the theme developer maintains them.
Level 2, CSS and JavaScript: for visual changes the settings do not offer. Salla requires the Pro or Special plan and a custom domain, and you are responsible for checking the code after every update. We explain the safe method in our guide to custom CSS on Salla.
Level 3, a custom theme: pages and elements built for your store alone. It needs a developer, time to build and review, and a maintenance plan.

When is level 3 worth it? When you need something no theme in the store offers, and it matters on every visit. For example, a special way to present made-to-order products, or an integration with an internal system in your company. A "different look" on its own is usually achievable at level 1 or 2.

To judge ready-made themes before you decide, follow our guide to choosing a Salla theme.

What Salla offers merchants who want a custom theme

Salla's help center describes a feature for creating a fully custom theme for a store with external developers. Once the theme is published on the Salla theme store, it is installed and customized like any other theme (Building your custom theme with Twilight, in Arabic, updated 31 August 2026). Salla says building a theme requires web development experience, and the same article lists developers you can contact.

In the comparison table on the Salla plans page, "Build a custom theme with Salla Twilight" appears under the Pro plan, as of 27 October 2026.

Can a theme be for your store alone? Salla's documentation for setting up a theme in the Partners portal describes an option that makes a theme private, so it can only be installed through an installation link the developer shares (Setup a theme). Updates to a private theme also go through Salla's review (Publish a theme). The metadata review page sets a minimum price of 1,000 SAR for a private theme, against 250 SAR for a public one (Metadata review).

Questions to ask a developer before you sign

A custom theme stays with you for years, so ask before you sign:

Will the theme be public on the theme store, or private to my store? What will its price on the theme store be, and who pays it?
Where is the theme's code kept, and do I get a copy?
Will it have documentation that explains its settings? Where will the changelog be published?
How fast are support requests answered? Salla asks theme developers to reply within two business days.
What is your plan when Salla changes its theme engine or adds a feature?
Will the theme pass the speed and accessibility thresholds in Salla's review? Will you show me the measurements?
Will you test it with my real products before handover, not only with sample data?

For developers: where to start

Start with an account on the Salla Partners portal. Salla's portal FAQ says there is no registration fee, and that Salla takes a share of earnings once you start earning from themes, apps or services.

Then set up your environment following the React engine quick start: Node 20.19 or newer, pnpm 10 or newer, and git. Install Salla's command-line tool, check your environment, and create a theme:


npm install -g @salla.sa/cli

salla theme doctor

salla theme create --type react

salla theme dev

The development server opens the storefront under two paths: /ar for Arabic and /en for English. The theme shows a default demo store, and you can connect it to your own store with the --store option.

The React engine: what changed

Salla's developer docs have a "Twilight (React)" section. According to its overview page, pages render on the server first, so customers and search engines receive a finished page, and the engine handles translations and page direction in Arabic and English (What is a theme).

The docs for the older Twig-based engine were labelled "Deprecated" when we read them on 26 October 2026. As of that date we found no merchant-facing announcement of an end date for current themes. If you are starting a new theme today, start with React.

Merchant settings: customization without code

A twilight.json file is required for publishing, and it is where you define the settings merchants see in their store dashboard. Those settings are what make a theme work for many stores, or for one store that changes with the seasons.

Practical rules for writing them:

Name each setting the way merchants see it: "Logo size in the header" is clearer than a technical name.
Group them by page area: header, home page, product card, product page, footer.
Choose safe defaults: the theme should look right before a merchant changes anything.
Write every label in Arabic and English: a merchant may use the dashboard in a different language from their store.
Hide what is not needed: a setting that only matters when another one is on should appear only after it.

What Salla checks before approval

Salla reviews a theme technically and in its metadata before publishing it. The key points of the technical review:

An average Lighthouse score of at least 60 for performance and 90 for accessibility, across the product, category and home pages, on desktop and mobile, on the default preview store.
A theme size of no more than 1 MB.

The key points of the metadata review:

A documentation link that explains how the theme works, and a changelog with version numbers and dates.
Support inquiries answered within two business days.
A one-word name under 14 characters, with no emojis or spaces.
At least 4 screenshots with Arabic and English titles, for desktop and mobile, and at least one preview store.

Then you publish from the command line, following the publish guide:


salla login

salla theme publish

Before publishing, the tool requires:

A Partners account linked to your GitHub account.
At least one category and one screenshot for the theme.
A price for the theme.
A changelog in English and one in Arabic, each at least 25 characters.

The theme stays read-only during review, so withdraw the publishing request first if you need to edit it.

Watch the price: the publish tool accepts 150 to 99,999 SAR, but the metadata review page sets a minimum of 250 SAR for a public theme. So do not price a public theme below 250 SAR, or a private one below 1,000 SAR.

After publishing: updates, support and changelog

Publishing is where the work starts. Every update is a new publishing request that goes through Salla's review, even for a private theme. So:

Bundle fixes into clear releases rather than sending an update for every line.
Write in the changelog what changed for the merchant, not what changed in the code.
Update the documentation with every new setting.
Answer support within two business days, as Salla asks.
Re-measure Lighthouse after every major addition, before Salla measures it.

Angel as a worked example

This section is about our own theme.

We launched Angel in 2023. Its changelog on Salla starts on 21 March 2023, and we still update it. On 26 October 2026 it was among the top 3 themes in the «من الأعلى مبيعًا» (best sellers) section at the top of the Salla theme store.

We include it not to compare Angel with other themes, but because it is a live example of everything above: a theme that passed Salla's review and has been updated through successive publishing requests since March 2023.

What applies to this guide:

Documentation: Angel's settings and elements are explained in Angel's documentation, grouped by page area as in the settings list.
Changelog: every published Angel release appears in the theme-changelog tab of its Salla page, linked from our changelog page.
Settings: Angel has more than 80 options for controlling the store without code, according to its page on Salla.

To see what the theme offers, read the Angel page. If you have a question about the theme, write to us.

Frequently asked questions

Can I build a theme for my store alone?

Yes. Salla's docs describe an option that makes a theme private, installable only through an installation link. Its updates go through Salla's review, and the metadata review page sets its minimum price at 1,000 SAR.

Is a Salla Partners account free?

Yes. Salla says there is no registration fee, and that it takes a share of earnings once you start selling.

Do I need a particular plan for a custom theme?

The Salla plans page lists "Build a custom theme with Salla Twilight" under the Pro plan, as of 27 October 2026.

What is Salla's minimum speed for a theme?

An average of 60 for Lighthouse performance and 90 for accessibility, across the product, category and home pages, on desktop and mobile, according to the technical review.

Should I start with Twig or React?

Start with React if you are building a new theme. Salla's docs label the older engine as deprecated, and the current tools create a React theme with one command.

Does a merchant need coding skills to use a custom theme?

No, if the developer defines the settings in twilight.json. The merchant changes them from the store dashboard like any other theme.

Your next step

If you are a merchant, list three things you want and cannot find in your current theme, and look for them in the settings of three themes from your industry before you commission your own. If you are a developer, create a Partners account, run salla theme doctor, then create your first React theme and open it on the demo store.

Last reviewed: 27 October 2026.