Intro Generatepress Center Logo

Over the past ten decades, I have used a great deal of different WordPress topics and have been very disappointed. Up till recently, I had been utilizing MyThemeShop, that was pretty good. However, I had to do a great deal of customization to make it do and operate how I wanted it to. A few weeks ago I decided to give GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it’s by far the finest WordPress theme I have found in 10 years. I was dismissed and am now moving all of my sites to GeneratePress. I will go into precisely why in my comprehensive GeneratePress review under. And if you are wondering, yes I’ve attempted Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X motif, Divi as well as many other lightweight and thicker multi-purpose themes. Generatepress Center Logo

To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.

GeneratePress Evaluation

GeneratePress is a totally free WordPress theme created by Tom Usborne, a programmer from Canada. I have actually seen it for years from the WordPress repository. Most of you realize that I am fairly picky when it comes to web performance, so I tend to dismiss everything in the repository. Typically because a great deal of things on there is not that great, or not encouraged for long. Nonetheless, in this case, this was a mistake. The theme now 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 bought the premium version. I could tell right off the bat, the programmer was thinking precisely how I was imagining a theme should work. And I’ll go into that more below, but let us first look at a number of the features. I’m going to be covering the premium edition of the theme, because it’s worth . In fact, Tom, if you read this and so are seeing Scottsdale, Arizona, java on me.

Characteristics

Super lightweight and quick. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable items you don’t need running. This is one of the greatest reasons I love GeneratePress.

Responsive, looks great across all of the devices.

Schema built-in, for better outcomes in SERPs.

Impressive integration using all the WordPress Customizer. I haven’t been a fan of this customizer in the past, but Tom does it right.

Compatible with all popular plugins, Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, EDD, BuddyPress, bbPress, and WPML. Fantastic browser service back to IE8.

Additionally, it works great with the favorite fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you want to dive into even more customizations, these are a great combo. I have also read that people using Beaver Builder have experienced success.

Resumes prepared.

Font wonderful built-in.

Tons of filters and hooks that make it great for programmers.

Great active service from the developer. On average, 3 updates per month.

The Documentation can be incredible. Besides have good documentation on their website, the theme has been around long enough that everything I wholeheartedly during the setup process was found inside a couple of seconds in their own forum.

Diving Into GeneratePress

Now it’s Time for the fun part! I test a new theme right out of the box with no customizations to see how fast 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 concerned about with GeneratePress was that the modular design was going to produce a whole lot of big files, but this isn’t the situation. You can tell that Tom literally worked hard on ensuring that every record loaded in GeneratePress is as small as possible. With HTTP/2, the number of documents isn’t as important. However, the dimensions is! Have a look at a few of the center 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

That is a programmer that cares about performance! And I have Seen exactly the same during all of the premium add-ons. They are as small as you can possibly get them. In fact, Font Awesome is probably the biggest file contained. And that is not even his. Together with Font Awesome 5 arriving round the corner, we can anticipate that to get smaller also.

The premium add-ons Are installation in what I’d call a modular layout. It is possible to activate/deactivate whatever you aren’t using to ensure they do not load on your website. As the co-developer of the perfmatters plugin which has a script supervisor built-in, I felt at home with this. Everything should be made this way.

If You’re curious, I am using the next 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 need to use a Child theme. This makes my life much easier. No more editing my functions.php or header.php documents. I will literally update my GeneratePress theme this exact minute and not shed one customization. The hooks add-on certainly helps make this possible. It allows you to incorporate custom code/PHP everywhere throughout your WordPress website. Generatepress Center Logo

Other Things I Love About GeneratePress

On each Page/post that you have a lot of alternatives. You are able to alter the sidebar design and the footer widgets.

You Can easily swap a page between the default to a full width page, as well as disable components.

The WordPress customizer options is really where GeneratePress really shines! Bear in mind, lots of these options are enabled by the premium add-ons. I can’t show you everything, otherwise, we would be here daily. But allow me to show you couple which actually come in handy.

Responsive Columns

Another Plugin I highly recommend grabbing is the free Lightweight Grid Columns. Not to my surprise, this is also made by the exact same developer as GeneratePress. It allows you a super simple way to incorporate responsive columns to any page or post. Characteristics include:

Desktop grid width

Tablet grid thickness

Mobile grid thickness

Insert Customized courses

Insert custom inline designs

Equal height columns

This is An example below:

You May Want to Also catch his amazing WP Display Posts plugin too. View my featured articles on the sidebar of this website? That’s using the WP Display Posts plugin. I have it set to show posts from a specific”featured” category. You can also get it show last modified/updated posts, recent articles, etc.. I’m using the free version and it works terrific.

To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.

Sections Add-on

The Segments add-in in the premium edition of GeneratePress lets you do all sorts of things concerning design. Think of it like a webpage builder with no bloat. GeneratePress is definitely not just for blogs! I’m in reality using GeneratePress to our ecommerce website (perfmatters.io) that is running Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to check it out. But as you can see below, it looks like a blog.

Speed Tests

For those Of you that are regular readers, you probably didn’t even notice that I changed the whole motif that forces woorkup.com. It just took me about an hour to get GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop theme which I had spent a year customizing. Here’s a comparison below.

woorkup.com Old MyThemeShop Theme

My older MyThemeShop theme was already pretty fast, but I invested a lot of time customizing it. In fact, I have gotten a great deal of emails from you guys asking me to publish all of my customizations. My advice today is, just get GeneratePress!

woorkup.com New GeneratePress Theme

With the New GeneratePress motif I managed to achieve faster speeds and 600 fewer lines of code! And remember, I don’t have a kid theme. Each of the customizations were created using the wonderful GP hooks and snippets plugin (both CSS and PHP).

Like the WordPress theme I have working on woorkup? You’re in luck. Tom asked if he could create a copy of woorkup for the brand new GeneratePress site library. I’m pleased to let you know that you can now put in my woorkup motif in your GeneratePress site with just a single click! It is known as the Marketer motif. Get started using a great blog layout instantly.

brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme

Additionally, I Moved within my private website, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I had been using a theme from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimum site, as I do not use it for much. Since you can see it loaded pretty quickly.

brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme

I was Able to duplicate the whole look 100% in GeneratePress in under one hour. And since you can view it loads faster! Amazing. I was able to eliminate a few plugins that weren’t needed due to GP.

forgemedia.io Old Array Theme’s Theme

I also Moved over our business website, forgemedia.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a motif from Array Themes. It’s a fairly basic minimal website, as we simply use it to our LLC. As you can see it already loaded pretty fast. Generatepress Center Logo

forgemedia.io New GeneratePress Theme

I was Able to again move everything over and get it looking exactly how I needed it in under an hour. And since you can see it loads faster! Amazing. I was able to eliminate a total of four plugins and it dropped my whole page burden 2x!

I can’t express my Excitement about locating GeneratePress and I am moving over all my websites for this (which includes some EDD e-commerce sites). Once I’ve got my 9 websites all running in GP without any child topics, my entire life is going to be a breeze! The developer has revived my faith in multi-purpose subjects , which when done the right way, can actually perform quicker.

And The best thing is, I finally 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 wish to be able to personalize and control exactly how their site looks.

You Can make GeneratePress do pretty much anything. And since GeneratePress has a focus on functionality, the website that you build will have a fantastic base to make it load quickly.

Because Of that, people who assemble WordPress sites for a living love GeneratePress. They’ll typically pair it with a WordPress page builder and use it for literally any kind of website.

But GeneratePress Might Not Be A Fantastic Fit If…

…you Want something that will instantly appear perfect from the box.

For Example, if you realize you want to produce a style blog, you may be happier choosing a market theme that is developed exclusively for fashion bloggers.

Even though GeneratePress is becoming a lot easier to use, as a result of its pre-built Site Library, GeneratePress still looks very barebones when you initially install it.

So To make GeneratePress look how you want it to, you’ll most likely will need to go in and personalize things. And while the substantial advantage of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, many 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 specific features that clarify why GeneratePress is so popular.

Lots Of Customization Options In The Real-Time WordPress Customizer

Past Performance, another place where GeneratePress does well is its customization choices.

GeneratePress Uses the WordPress Customizer for customization, which can be convenient because you will have the ability to see all of the changes that you create in real time.

The Free variant of GeneratePress provides you decent options, but if you have GeneratePress Premium, you will be able to customize pretty much everything about your site.

For Example, if you go into the Design region, you may configure detailed settings for your:

• Header — you can move your header around and change its styling
• Navigation — GeneratePress gives you two different navigation options, including sticky menus
• Sidebar layout — you can utilize a Couple of sidebars
• Blog post layout — like featured picture dimensions, metadata, etc..
• Footer layout — just like the number of widgets to add

Similarly, The Typography place lets you control the font for each and every element on your site, including buttons:

And You also get a thorough region to control the color of each and every element on your site.

All Whatsoever, GeneratePress will give you much more customization choices in the WordPress Customizer compared to most other themes. This level of detail might be a little overwhelming if you are a beginner. But as soon as you realize the way the preferences come together, you will have full control on how your site looks.

Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times

Around All of its features, GeneratePress always has a focus on exceptional performance and tidy code. The whole theme is less than 30 kB, and it will be about as little as you’ll ever find for a WordPress theme. Even most other optimized WordPress themes are still 200+ kB. And some poorly coded themes can even surpass 1 MB!

GeneratePress Also does not have any code dependencies, which helps you avoid the leave blocking error that Google Pagespeed Insights often mentions.

Put That together, and you get a superfast-loading theme. How fast? To give you a sense, I conducted a small test.

First, I set up an empty website using a haphazard popular WordPress.org motif (Envo Magazine). After analyzing its performance with Pingdom, it:

• Had a performance grade of 77
• Loaded in 1.05 moments
• Had a page size of 243.9 kB
• Had 15 asks

That is Not bad at all! But GeneratePress can perform.

Next, I triggered GeneratePress on exactly the exact same test website without changing anything else. Here’s how GeneratePress failed:

• Had a performance tier of 87, 10 points better
• Loaded in 666 ms, ~37% faster
• Had a page size of 26.8 kB, ~90% smaller
• Had 9 requests, ~40% less

If You perform the exact same test with other themes, you are going to continue to find that GeneratePress is one of the fastest-loading WordPress themes in existence. Generatepress Center Logo

Other Helpful Premium Extensions, Plus Much Modular Approach

Past Giving you more design controls from the WordPress Customizer, GeneratePress Premium comes with a lot of other helpful features such as:

• Elements — a unique feature that allows you create custom hooks, page headers, or design templates.
• Page Header — allows you create a exceptional page header on a per-page basis.
• Sections — this is sort of like lightweight page building. It permits you to create different”sections” onto a webpage, each with their own design and column settings.

To Remain lightweight, GeneratePress also gives you a modular port where you could select and choose exactly which characteristics you want to trigger.

That Way, you do not have to slow down your site for a feature which you’re never going to use.

Pre-Made Starter Sites Make It Easier To Design Your Site

In The last, you had to construct GeneratePress websites from a blank canvas no matter what, which left the motif difficult for casual users to install.

Earlier In 2018, however, the programmer added a fresh Site Library feature for GeneratePress Premium users that lets you easily import any one of the 25+ pre-built demonstration websites .

You Can import them right from the WordPress dashboard.

Yes — this site still uses GeneratePress! All I did was click on a couple buttons to import a presentation site.

Page-Level Settings Give You Detailed Control Over Every Bit Of Content

With Most themes, every page and post will use the same settings for the most part. You might have some custom templates or formats — but you do not have very much control beyond that.

GeneratePress Changes that by giving you a brand new Design meta box for every single page and post:

You Can use this meta box to:

• Change how many sidebars your website uses, or the sidebar orientation (such as changing the sidebar from right to left)
• Choose the number of footer widgets to use
• Disable certain elements, like your header, navigation menu, article featured image, article title, or footer
• Create a special”container” for your own page builder

Where These controls would be the most helpful is if you are using a WordPress site builder.

By Disabling certain elements, you’re able to produce the proper baseline for your page builder design, which makes it easy to create custom articles as needed. Generatepress Center Logo

GeneratePress Pricing: Affordable And Works On Unlimited Sites

The Heart GeneratePress motif can be obtained for free at WordPress.org.

Nevertheless, If you are seriously interested in using GeneratePress, I believe you need to buy the GeneratePress Premium plugin, as that’s what produces the theme so flexible. The free version doesn’t give you nearly as many settings from the WordPress Customizer. And you’ll also lose out on the premade Site Library.

GeneratePress Premium is also still fairly affordable. It costs just $39.95, and that provides you use on infinite websites . You’ll also get a 40% discount if you would like to renew to keep on receiving support and updates after the first year (you can, obviously, keep using GeneratePress after the initial year without renewing — you won’t get any more updates).

When You believe the typical premium WordPress theme will usually cost around $60, GeneratePress provides a fantastic price.

Summary

As I said, I don’t think GeneratePress is for everyone.

If You desire a niche-specific motif, you can probably save time by purchasing a theme that fits your needs for your market out of day one.

But If you’re ready to spend time changing settings, GeneratePress’ mode controls give you the flexibility to flip it into any sort of WordPress website. Or, you might even be able to find a starter website that fits your needs to save a little time.

Additionally, It’s one of those fastest-loading WordPress topics you will locate. Therefore, if you’re seeking the best performance possible, utilizing GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s foundation is a good choice.

If You blend it with fast-loading hosting, so you shouldn’t have any difficulty making your website load in under one second. Generatepress Center Logo

To Begin, Click here to download GeneratePress.