Intro Generatepress Child Theme Generator
Within the past ten decades, I’ve used a great deal of different WordPress themes and have been really disappointed. Up till recently, I had been using MyThemeShop, which was fairly good. However, I still had to perform a great deal of customization to make it perform and operate how I wanted it to. A few weeks ago I decided to give GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it is by far the finest WordPress theme I have found in 10 years. I was blown away and am moving all my websites to GeneratePress. I will go into precisely why in my comprehensive GeneratePress review under. And if you are wondering, yes I’ve tried Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X theme, Divi as well as many other lightweight and thicker multi-purpose themes. Generatepress Child Theme Generator
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.
GeneratePress Evaluation
GeneratePress is a totally 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’m 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 good, or not encouraged for long. Nonetheless, in this circumstance, that was a mistake. The motif currently has more than half a million downloads, 80,000+ busy installs, with over 500 5-star evaluations. So obviously Tom is doing some thing right here.
I Actually installed the free version of the theme 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 envisioning a theme should work. And I’ll go into that more below, but let’s first look at some of the features. I’m going to be covering the premium edition of the subject, since it’s worth . Actually, Tom, if you ever read this and so are visiting Scottsdale, Arizona, coffees on me.
Features
Super lightweight and quick. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable things you do not want running. This is one of the biggest reasons I adore GeneratePress.
Responsive, looks fantastic across all devices.
Schema built-in, for better results in SERPs.
Dramatic integration using all 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. Great browser service back to IE8.
It also works great with the favorite fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you would like to dive into even more customizations, these are a great combo. I have also read that individuals using Beaver Builder have experienced success.
Resumes prepared.
Font awesome built in.
A lot of hooks and filters which make it good for programmers.
Great active service from the developer. Normally, 3 updates per month.
The Documentation is also unbelievable. Besides have great documentation on their website, the subject has been around long enough that what I Googled during the setup process was found inside a couple of seconds from their forum.
Going Deep Into GeneratePress
Now it is Time for the fun part! I always test a new theme right from the box with no customizations to just see how quickly the foundation is. This tells me a great deal of what I could expect by the time I add everything to it. Running the inventory GeneratePress WordPress motif on Kinsta hosting clocked in at a whopping 265 ms loading time. I was very impressed.
One Thing I was worried about with GeneratePress was that the modular layout was going to generate a whole lot of big files, but that isn’t the case. You may tell that Tom literally worked hard on making sure that every record loaded in GeneratePress is as small as possible. Together with HTTP/2, the amount of documents is not as important. But the size is! Have a peek at a few of the center GeneratePress files under:
/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 functionality! And I’ve Seen exactly the same throughout each of the premium add-ons. They are as small as you can possibly get them. In fact, Font Awesome is probably the biggest file included. And that isn’t even his. Together with Font Awesome 5 coming around the cornerwe could expect this to get smaller too.
The premium add-ons Are setup in what I would call a modular design. It is possible to activate/deactivate anything you are not using to guarantee they don’t load on your site. As the co-developer of the perfmatters plugin which has a script manager built-in, I felt at home with this. Everything should be designed this way.
If You are interested, I’m using the following add-ons on this site:
Blog
Shades
Copyright
Hooks
Page Header
Spacing
Typography
No Child Theme Needed
One of The best characteristics of GeneratePress is I no longer have to use a Child motif . This makes my life much easier. No more editing my functions.php or header.php documents. I will literally upgrade my GeneratePress theme this exact minute and not shed a single customization. The hooks add-on definitely can help make it possible. It permits you to incorporate custom code/PHP anywhere throughout your WordPress site. Generatepress Child Theme Generator
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 design and the footer widgets.
You Can easily swap a page between the default option to a complete width page, in addition to disable components.
The WordPress customizer options is where GeneratePress really shines! Remember, a lot of these options are permitted from the superior add-ons. I can not show you everything, otherwise, we would be here daily. However, allow me to show you few which actually come in handy.
Responsive Columns
Another Plugin I highly recommend grabbing is your free Lightweight Grid Columns. Not to my surprise, this can be made by the same programmer as GeneratePress. It enables you a super easy way to incorporate responsive columns into any page or article. Features include:
Desktop grid thickness
Tablet grid width
Mobile grid thickness
Insert Customized classes
Insert custom inline designs
Equal height columns
Here is An example below:
You might want to Also grab his amazing WP Display Posts plugin too. View my featured posts on the sidebar of this site? That is using the WP Display Posts plugin. I have it set to display posts from a specific”featured” category. You might also have it show past 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 version of GeneratePress allows you to perform all kinds of things in terms of design. Consider it like a page builder with no bloat. GeneratePress is certainly not just for blogs! I’m in reality utilizing GeneratePress to our ecommerce site (perfmatters.io) which is running Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to look it over. However, as you can see below, it looks nothing like a blog.
Speed Tests
For all those Of those that are regular readers, you probably didn’t even notice I changed the whole theme that forces woorkup.com. It just took me about an hour to get GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop theme that I had spent a year customizing. Here is a comparison under.
woorkup.com Old MyThemeShop Theme
My older MyThemeShop theme was already pretty quickly, but I invested a great deal of time scrutinizing it. In fact, I’ve gotten a lot of emails from you guys asking me to publish all of my customizations. My advice today is, simply get GeneratePress!
woorkup.com New GeneratePress Theme
With the New GeneratePress theme I managed to achieve faster speeds and 600 fewer lines of code! And remember, I don’t have a child theme. All the customizations were created using the wonderful GP hooks and snippets plugin (both CSS and PHP).
Like the WordPress theme I’ve running on woorkup? You’re in luck. Tom asked if he could create a replica of woorkup to your new GeneratePress site library. I am happy to allow you to know that you can now install my woorkup motif on your GeneratePress website with just a click! It is called the Marketer motif. Get started with a great blog design immediately.
brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
Additionally, I Moved within my private website, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a theme from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimum website, as I don’t use it for much. Since you can see it already loaded pretty quickly.
brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme
I was Able to replicate the whole look 100 percent in GeneratePress in under an hour. And since you can see it loads even faster! Amazing. I was able to get rid of a few plugins which weren’t needed because of GP.
forgemedia.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
Additionally, I Moved over our organization website, forgemedia.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a theme from Array Themes. It’s a pretty basic minimal website, as we simply use it to our LLC. Since you can see it loaded pretty fast. Generatepress Child Theme Generator
forgemedia.io New GeneratePress Theme
I was Able to move everything over and get it looking just how I needed it in under one hour. And as you can see it loads even faster! Amazing. I managed to get rid of a total of four plugins and it dropped my whole page burden 2x!
I can’t express my Excitement about locating GeneratePress and I’m moving over all my sites for this (which includes several EDD e-commerce sites). Once I’ve got my 9 sites all running in GP with no child topics, my entire life will be a breeze! The developer has restored my faith in multi-purpose subjects , which when done the correct way, can actually perform faster.
And The best news isI now have a billion more options to choose from than I did earlier.
What GeneratePress Is Great For…
GeneratePress Is the perfect option for performance-focused users that want to be able to personalize and control exactly how their site appears.
You Can make GeneratePress perform pretty much anything. And because GeneratePress has a focus on functionality, the site that you build will have a fantastic foundation to make it load fast.
Because Of that, those who assemble WordPress websites for a living love GeneratePress. They will typically pair it with a WordPress site builder and use it for literally any type of website.
However GeneratePress Might Not Be A Good Fit If…
…you Need something that will instantly look perfect from the box.
For Example, if you realize you wish to create a style blog, you may be happier picking out a niche theme that is developed exclusively for fashion bloggers.
Even though GeneratePress is becoming a great deal easier to use, thanks to its pre-built Site Library, GeneratePress still seems very barebones if you first install it.
So To create GeneratePress look how you would like it to, you will almost certainly need to go in and customize matters. And though the significant benefit of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, some users, especially casual users, do not like having to make those changes .
GeneratePress Features Which Make It Unique
Here Are a few of the specific characteristics that clarify why GeneratePress is so popular.
Plenty Of Customization Options From The Real-Time WordPress Customizer
Beyond Performance, another area where GeneratePress does well is its customization options.
GeneratePress Utilizes the WordPress Customizer for customization, which is convenient as you will have the ability to see all the changes that you make in real time.
The Free variant of GeneratePress gives you adequate options, but if you have GeneratePress Premium, you’ll have the ability to customize pretty much everything about your website.
For Example, if you go into the Layout region, you can configure comprehensive settings for your:
- Header — you can move your header around and change its own styling
- Navigation — GeneratePress gives you two different navigation options, such as sticky menus
- Sidebar design — you can use a Couple of sidebars
- Blog post design — such as featured picture dimensions, metadata, etc..
- Footer layout — just like how many widgets to add
Similarly, That the Typography area enables you to control the font to get each and every element on your site, including buttons:
And You also get a thorough region to control the colour of every single element on your site.
All Whatsoever, GeneratePress will provide you much more customization options from the WordPress Customizer than most other topics. This amount of detail might be a bit overwhelming if you’re a newcomer. But as soon as you realize how the preferences come together, you’ll have complete control on how your site looks.
Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times
Across All its features, GeneratePress consistently has a focus on exceptional performance and clean code. The whole motif is less than 30 kB, which will be about as small as you are ever going to find for a WordPress theme. Even most other optimized WordPress themes are still 200+ kB. And some poorly coded topics can even exceed 1 MB!
GeneratePress Also does not have any code dependencies, which will help you avoid the leave blocking error that Google Pagespeed Insights often cites.
Put That together, and you get a superfast-loading theme. How quickly? To give you a sense, I conducted a small test.
First, I put up a vacant site utilizing a haphazard popular WordPress.org motif (Envo Magazine). After analyzing its functionality 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! But GeneratePress can do better.
Next, I activated GeneratePress on the exact same test site 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 asks, ~40% fewer
If You do that same test with other themes, you’ll continue to find that GeneratePress is one of those fastest-loading WordPress themes in existence. Generatepress Child Theme Generator
Other Useful Premium Extensions, Plus A Modular Approach
Beyond Giving you more design controls from the WordPress Customizer, GeneratePress Premium also comes with a lot of other useful features like:
- Elements — a exceptional feature which lets you create customized hooks, page headers, or design templates.
- Page Header — allows you create a unique page header onto a per-page basis.
- Sections — that is sort of like lightweight page building. It permits you to create separate”sections” on a webpage, each with their own design and column settings.
To Remain lightweight, GeneratePress also provides you a modular interface where you can select and choose exactly which characteristics you want to trigger.
That Way, you do not need to slow down your site for a feature that you’ll never 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, though, the programmer added a fresh Website Library feature for GeneratePress Premium users which allows you easily import any one of those 25+ pre-built demo sites.
You Can import them right from the WordPress dashboard.
Yes — this site still uses GeneratePress! All I did was click a few buttons to import a presentation site.
Page-Level Settings Give You Detailed Control Over Every Piece Of Content
With Most themes, every post and page will use the 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 giving you a new Design meta name box for every single post and page:
You Can use this meta box to:
- Change how many sidebars your website uses, or the sidebar orientation (like changing the sidebar from right to left)
- Choose the number of footer widgets to use
- Disable certain elements, such as your header, navigation menu, post featured picture, article title, or footer
- Create a special”container” for your own page builder
Where These controls are the most helpful is if you’re using a WordPress page builder.
By Disabling certain components, you’re able to create the proper baseline for your own page builder design, which makes it easy to create custom content as needed. Generatepress Child Theme Generator
GeneratePress Pricing: Affordable And Works On Unlimited Sites
The Heart GeneratePress motif is available for free at WordPress.org.
Nevertheless, If you are seriously interested in using GeneratePress, I believe you should purchase the GeneratePress Premium plugin, as that is what produces the theme so flexible. The free version doesn’t give you almost as many settings from the WordPress Customizer. And you’ll also miss out on the premade Site Library.
GeneratePress Premium can be still quite affordable. It costs just $39.95, and that provides you use on unlimited sites. You will also get a 40% discount if you would like to renew to continue receiving support and updates after the first year (you can, obviously, continue using GeneratePress following the first year without renewing — you won’t get any more updates).
When You consider the normal premium WordPress theme will usually cost around $60, GeneratePress offers a great value.
Wrap-up
As I said, I don’t think GeneratePress is for everybody.
If You desire a niche-specific theme, you can probably save time by purchasing a theme that satisfies your requirements for your niche out of day one.
But If you’re ready to spend time changing settings, GeneratePress’ style controls give you the flexibility to flip it into any type of WordPress website. Or, you might even have the ability to locate a starter site that fits your needs to save some time.
Additionally, It is among those fastest-loading WordPress topics that you will locate. Therefore, if you’re looking for the best performance possible, utilizing GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s base is a great decision.
If You blend it with fast-loading hosting, so you should have no difficulty making your site load in under one minute. Generatepress Child Theme Generator
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.