Intro Best WordPress Themes Video
Over the past ten years, I have used a great deal of different WordPress themes and have been really disappointed. Up till recently, I was using MyThemeShop, that was fairly excellent. However, I had to perform a lot of customization to allow it to do and work how I needed it to. A couple weeks ago I decided to provide GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it’s by far the best WordPress theme I have found in 10 years. I was dismissed and am now moving all my sites to GeneratePress. I will enter precisely why in my comprehensive GeneratePress review under. And if you are wondering, yes I have attempted Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X motif, Divi as well as several other lightweight and heavier multi-purpose themes. Best WordPress Themes Video
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.
GeneratePress Review
GeneratePress is a free WordPress theme created by Tom Usborne, a developer from Canada. I’ve actually seen it for years in the WordPress repository. Most of you know that I am pretty picky when it comes to web performance, and so I have a tendency to dismiss everything from the repository. Typically because a great deal of stuff on there isn’t that great, or not supported for long. Nonetheless, in this case, that was a mistake. The motif currently has over half a million downloads, 80,000+ active installs, with over 500 5-star ratings. So clearly Tom is doing some thing right here.
I Actually installed the free version of the motif and in a matter of 15 minutes purchased the premium version. I could tell right off the bat, the developer was thinking exactly how I was imagining a theme should get the job done. And I will go into that more below, but let’s first look at a number of the features. I’m going to be covering the premium version of the subject, because it’s worth . In fact, Tom, in the event that you read this and so are seeing Scottsdale, Arizona, coffees on me.
Features
Super lightweight and quick. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable things you don’t want running. This is only one of the greatest reasons I love GeneratePress.
Responsive, looks fantastic across all of the devices.
Schema built-in, for better results in SERPs.
Dramatic integration using the WordPress Customizer. I haven’t been a fan of this customizer previously, but Tom does it correctly.
Compatible with all popular plugins, Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, EDD, BuddyPress, bbPress, and WPML. Fantastic browser support back to IE8.
Additionally, it works great with the popular fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you would like to dive into even more customizations, these really are a terrific combo. I have also read that individuals using Beaver Builder have experienced success.
Resumes prepared.
Font awesome built in.
Tons of hooks and filters which make it good for developers.
Great active service from the programmer. On average, 3 updates per month.
The Documentation can be unbelievable. Besides have good documentation on their site, the theme has existed long enough that what I wholeheartedly throughout the setup procedure was found inside a few seconds in their forum.
Diving Into GeneratePress
Now it is Time for the fun part! I test a brand new theme right from the box without any customizations to see how quickly the foundation is. This tells me a great deal of what I can expect by the time I add everything for this. Running the inventory GeneratePress WordPress theme on Kinsta hosting clocked in at a whopping 265 ms load time. I was very impressed.
One Thing I was worried about with GeneratePress was that the modular layout was going to produce a whole lot of big files, but that isn’t the situation. You can tell that Tom actually worked hard on ensuring every record loaded in GeneratePress is as little as possible. With HTTP/2, the amount of documents is not as important. But the dimensions is! Take a peek at a few of the core GeneratePress files below:
/generatepress/css/unsemantic-grid. min.css 2.9 KB
/generatepress/style. css 7.1 KB
/generatepress/css/mobile. min.css 1.6 KB
/generatepress/js/navigation. min.js 1.1 KB
/generatepress/js/dropdown. min.js 1.5 KB
This is a programmer that cares about functionality! And I have Seen exactly the same during all the premium add-ons. They’re literally as small as you can possibly get them. In fact, Font Awesome is probably the biggest file included. And that is not even his. With Font Awesome 5 coming round the cornerwe could anticipate this to get smaller also.
The premium add-ons Are installation in what I’d call a modular layout. You can activate/deactivate anything you are not using to ensure they don’t load on your site. Since the co-developer of this perfmatters plugin that has a script supervisor built-in, I felt right at home with this. Everything ought to be designed this way.
If You are curious, I am using the following add-ons on this site:
Website
Colors
Copyright
Hooks
Page Header
Spacing
Typography
No Child Theme Needed
One of The best characteristics of GeneratePress is I no more have to use a young child motif . This makes my life so much simpler. No more editing my functions.php or header.php documents. I can literally upgrade my GeneratePress theme this very moment and not lose a single customization. The hooks add-on definitely helps make this possible. It allows you to incorporate custom code/PHP anywhere throughout your WordPress website. Best WordPress Themes Video
Other Things I Love About GeneratePress
On each Page/post that you have a great deal of alternatives. You are able to change the sidebar layout and the footer widgets.
You Can easily swap a page involving the default to a complete width page, as well as disable components.
The WordPress customizer options is where GeneratePress really shines! Bear in mind, lots of these choices are permitted from the premium add-ons. I can not show you everything, otherwise, we would be here daily. But let me show you few which actually come in handy.
Responsive Columns
Another Plugin I highly suggest grabbing is your free Lightweight Grid Columns. Not to my surprise, this is also created by the exact same programmer as GeneratePress. It allows you a super simple way to incorporate responsive columns into any page or article. Features include:
Desktop grid width
Tablet grid thickness
Mobile grid thickness
Add custom classes
Insert custom inline styles
Equal height columns
This is An example under:
You might want to Also grab his incredible WP Display Posts plugin too. View my featured posts on the sidebar of this website? That is using the WP Show Posts plugin. I have it set to show posts from a particular”featured” category. You might also have it show past modified/updated posts, recent posts, etc.. I’m using the free version and it works terrific.
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.
Sections Add-on
The Sections add-on in the premium version of GeneratePress allows you to do all kinds of things in terms of design. Think of it like a webpage builder without the bloat. GeneratePress is certainly not only for blogs! I am in reality utilizing GeneratePress for our ecommerce website (perfmatters.io) that is running Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to check it out. However, as you can see below, it looks nothing like a site.
Speed Tests
For those Of those who are regular readers, you probably did not even notice that I changed the whole theme that forces woorkup.com. It just took me about an hour to get GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop theme which I had spent annually customizing. Here’s a comparison below.
woorkup.com Old MyThemeShop Theme
My older MyThemeShop theme was pretty fast, but I spent a great deal of time scrutinizing it. In reality, I’ve gotten a lot of emails from you guys asking me to print all of my customizations. My advice now is, simply get GeneratePress!
woorkup.com New GeneratePress Theme
With the New GeneratePress motif I was able to attain faster speeds and 600 fewer lines of code! And keep in mind, I don’t have a child motif. All the customizations were made with the awesome GP hooks and snippets plugin (both CSS and PHP).
Like the WordPress theme I’ve working on woorkup? You are in luck. Tom asked if he can make a replica of woorkup to your brand new GeneratePress blog library. I’m pleased to allow you to know that you can now install my woorkup motif on your own GeneratePress site with only a click! It is known as the Marketer motif. Get started with a fantastic blog design immediately.
brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
I also Moved over my personal website, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a motif from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimal website, as I do not use it for much. Since you can see it loaded pretty quickly.
brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme
I had been Able to replicate the entire look 100 percent in GeneratePress in under an hour. And as you can see it loads even faster! Amazing. I was able to get rid of a couple plugins which weren’t needed due to GP.
forgemedia.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
I also Moved over our organization site, forgemedia.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I had been using a motif from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimal website, as we just use it for our LLC. As you can see it loaded pretty quickly. Best WordPress Themes Video
forgemedia.io New GeneratePress Theme
I had been Able to move everything over and get it looking just how I needed it in under an hour. And since you can view it loads even faster! Amazing. I managed to eliminate a total of four plugins and it dropped my whole page weight 2x!
I can not express my Excitement about finding GeneratePress and I’m moving over all my websites to it (which comprises some EDD e-commerce websites ). After I have my 9 websites all running in GP with no child topics, my life will be a breeze! The programmer has revived my faith in multi-purpose themes, which when done the right way, can actually perform quicker.
And The best thing is, I now have a billion more choices to pick from than I did before.
What GeneratePress Is Good For…
GeneratePress Is the perfect alternative for performance-focused users that want to have the ability to customize and control exactly how their site looks.
You Can make GeneratePress perform pretty much anything. And because GeneratePress has a focus on performance, the site that you build will have a great base to make it load quickly.
Since Of that, people who assemble WordPress websites for a living love GeneratePress. They will normally pair it with a WordPress page builder and use it for literally any type of site.
But GeneratePress Might Not Be A Good Combination If…
…you Need something that will immediately look perfect from the box.
For Example, if you realize you want to create a style blog, you might be happier picking out a niche theme that is developed exclusively for trend bloggers.
Even though GeneratePress is becoming a lot easier to use, thanks to its pre-built Site Library, GeneratePress still seems very barebones if you initially install it.
So To make GeneratePress look how you want it to, you will most likely need to go in and personalize matters. And while the substantial benefit of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, some users, particularly casual users, don’t like having to make those changes themselves.
GeneratePress Features That Make It Unique
Here Are a few of the particular features that clarify why GeneratePress is indeed popular.
Lots Of Customization Options In The Real-Time WordPress Customizer
Past Performance, another area where GeneratePress does nicely is its customization options.
GeneratePress Utilizes the WordPress Customizer for customization, and this is convenient as you will have the ability to see all of the changes that you create in real time.
The Free variant of GeneratePress provides you adequate options, but should you own GeneratePress Premium, you will have the ability to customize nearly everything about your website.
For Example, if you go in the Layout area, you can configure detailed settings for yourown:
- Header — you can move your header around and change its own styling
- Navigation — GeneratePress gives you two different navigation options, including sticky menus
- Sidebar layout — you can utilize one or two sidebars
- Blog post design — such as featured image dimensions, metadata, etc..
- Footer layout — just like the number of widgets to include
Likewise, That the Typography place lets you control the font to get each and every element on your site, such as buttons:
And You also get a detailed area to control the color of every single element on your website.
All Whatsoever, GeneratePress will give you a lot more customization options from the WordPress Customizer compared to most other themes. This amount of detail may be a little overwhelming if you’re a newcomer. But once you realize the way the preferences come together, you’ll have full control over how your website appears.
Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times
Around All of its features, GeneratePress always has a focus on excellent performance and clean code. The whole motif is less than 30 kB, which is about as small as you’ll ever find for a WordPress theme. Even most other optimized WordPress topics are still 200+ kB. And a few badly coded themes can even exceed 1 MB!
GeneratePress Also has no code dependencies, which helps you avoid the leave blocking error that Google Pagespeed Insights often cites.
Place That collectively, and you get a superfast-loading theme. How quickly? To give you an idea, I ran a little test.
First, I put up an empty website using a random popular WordPress.org theme (Envo Magazine). After testing its performance with Pingdom, it
- Had a performance tier of 77
- Loaded in 1.05 moments
- Had a page size of 243.9 kB
- Had 15 asks
That is Not bad in any way! However, GeneratePress can perform.
Next, I triggered GeneratePress on the same test website without altering anything else. Here is how GeneratePress failed:
- Had a performance tier of 87, 10 points better
- Loaded in 666 ms, ~37% quicker
- Had a page size of 26.8 kB, ~90% smaller
- Had 9 asks, ~40% less
If You perform that same test with other themes, you are going to continue to find that GeneratePress is among those fastest-loading WordPress themes in existence. Best WordPress Themes Video
Other Useful Premium Extensions, Plus A Modular Approach
Past Giving you more style controls in the WordPress Customizer, GeneratePress Premium comes with a lot of other useful features such as:
- Elements — a unique feature that lets you create customized hooks, page headers, or design templates.
- Page Header — allows you create a exceptional page header onto a per-page basis.
- Sections — this is sort of like lightweight page building. It lets you create separate”sections” onto a webpage, each with their own layout and column preferences.
To Stay lightweight, GeneratePress also provides you a modular port where you could pick and choose exactly which characteristics you would like to activate.
That Way, you do not need to slow down your site for a quality which you’re never going to use.
Pre-Made Starter Sites Make It Easier To Design Your Site
In The past, you had to build GeneratePress sites from a blank canvas regardless of what, which left the theme difficult for casual users to install.
Earlier In 2018, though, the developer added a fresh Website Library attribute for GeneratePress Premium users which allows you easily import any one of those 25+ pre-built demo sites.
You Can import them directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Yes — this Website still uses GeneratePress! All I did was click on a few buttons to import a demo site.
Page-Level Settings Give You Comprehensive Control Over Every Bit Of Content
With Most themes, each page and post will use the very same configurations for the most part. You may have some custom formats or templates — however you do not have very much control beyond that.
GeneratePress Changes that by providing you a brand new Layout meta name box for each and every page and post:
You Can utilize this meta box to:
- Change how many sidebars your website uses, or the sidebar orientation (such as altering the sidebar from right to left)
- Choose the number of footer widgets to utilize
- Disable certain elements, like your header, navigation menu, article featured picture, post title, or footer
- Produce a special”container” to your page builder
Where These controls would be the most helpful is if you’re using a WordPress page builder.
By Disabling certain elements, you’re in a position to create the correct baseline for your page builder design, which makes it easy to create custom content as needed. Best WordPress Themes Video
GeneratePress Pricing: Affordable And Works On Unlimited Sites
The Heart GeneratePress theme is available for free at WordPress.org.
That said, If you’re seriously interested in using GeneratePress, I believe you should buy the GeneratePress Premium plugin, as that’s what produces the theme so flexible. The free version doesn’t give you almost as many settings in the WordPress Customizer. And you will also lose out on the premade Site Library.
GeneratePress Premium is also still fairly reasonably priced. It costs only $39.95, and that gives you use on unlimited sites. You will also get a 40% discount if you would like to renew to continue receiving support and upgrades following the initial year (you can, obviously, continue using GeneratePress after the first year without beating — you just won’t receive any more updates).
When You consider that the normal premium WordPress theme will usually cost around $60, GeneratePress provides a fantastic value.
Wrap-up
As I mentioned, I don’t believe GeneratePress is for everybody.
If You want a niche-specific motif, you can probably save time by purchasing a theme that satisfies your needs for your niche out of day one.
However, If you are willing to spend some time altering settings, GeneratePress’ mode controls give you the flexibility to flip it into any type of WordPress site. Or, you might even have the ability to locate a starter website that fits your needs to save some time.
Additionally, It is among the fastest-loading WordPress topics you will locate. Therefore, if you’re seeking the best performance possible, using GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s foundation is a good choice.
If You blend it with fast-loading hosting, you should have no problem making your site load in under one second. Best WordPress Themes Video
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.