Background Generatepress Problem Long Menu
Within the past ten years, I have used a great deal of different WordPress themes and have been really disappointed. Up till recently, I had been utilizing MyThemeShop, which was pretty good. However, I had to perform a great deal of customization to make it perform and operate the way I needed it to. A couple of weeks ago I decided to give GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it is undoubtedly the finest WordPress theme I’ve found in a decade . I had been dismissed and am moving all my websites to GeneratePress. I’ll enter precisely why in my in-depth GeneratePress review below. And if you are wondering, yes I’ve attempted Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X theme, Divi in addition to several other lightweight and heavier multi-purpose themes. Generatepress Problem Long Menu
To Begin, 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 from the WordPress repository. Most of you know that I am fairly 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. However, in this case, this was a mistake. The motif currently has more than half a million downloads, 80,000+ active installs, with over 500 5-star ratings. So obviously Tom is doing something right here.
I Actually set up the free version of the theme and in a matter of 15 minutes purchased the superior 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 a number of the features. I’m going to be covering the premium version of the subject, because it’s worth very penny. Actually, Tom, if you ever read this and are visiting Scottsdale, Arizona, coffees on me.
Characteristics
Super lightweight and fast. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable things you do not want running. This is one of the greatest reasons I adore GeneratePress.
Responsive, looks fantastic across all devices.
Schema built-in, for greater results in SERPs.
Impressive integration using all the WordPress Customizer. I have not been a lover 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 support back to IE8.
Additionally, it works great with all the popular fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you want to dive into even more customizations, these are a terrific combo. I’ve also read that individuals using Beaver Builder have had success.
Translation ready.
Font awesome built in.
Tons of filters and hooks that make it good for developers.
Excellent active support from the programmer. On average, 3 updates per month.
The Documentation can be unbelievable. Besides have good documentation on their site, the theme has been around long enough that what I Googled throughout the setup process was found inside a few seconds from their forum.
Diving Into GeneratePress
Now it is Time to the fun part! I always test a new theme right out of the box with no customizations to see how quickly the base is. This tells me a lot of what I could expect by the time that I add everything to it. 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 design was going to produce a whole lot of big files, but that isn’t the case. You can tell that Tom actually worked hard on ensuring that every record loaded in GeneratePress is as small as possible. With HTTP/2, the amount of documents isn’t as significant. But the dimensions is! Have a peek at some 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 have Seen exactly the same during each the premium add-ons. They are literally as small as possible get them. In reality, Font Awesome is probably the largest file contained. And that is not even his. Together with Font Awesome 5 coming around the cornerwe can expect that to get smaller also.
The premium add-ons Are setup in what I’d call a modular layout. You can activate/deactivate whatever you aren’t using to guarantee they do not load on your site. Since the co-developer of the perfmatters plugin that has a script supervisor built, I felt at home with this. Everything should be made this way.
If You are interested, I am using the next add-ons on this site:
Website
Shades
Copyright
Hooks
Page Header
Spacing
Typography
No Child Theme Needed
One of The best characteristics of GeneratePress is that I no longer have to use a Child theme. This makes my life much easier. No more editing my functions.php or header.php files. I can literally update my GeneratePress motif this very minute and not lose a single customization. The hooks add-on certainly helps make it possible. It allows you to incorporate custom code/PHP everywhere throughout your WordPress website. Generatepress Problem Long Menu
Other Things I Love About GeneratePress
On each Page/post that you have a lot of alternatives. You can change the sidebar layout and the footer widgets.
You Can easily swap a page involving the default option to a complete width page, in addition to disable components.
The WordPress customizer choices is where GeneratePress really shines! Bear in mind, lots of these options are permitted by the premium add-ons. I can’t show you everything, otherwise, we’d be here daily. However, let me show you couple which really come in handy.
Responsive Columns
Another Plugin I highly suggest grabbing is the free Lightweight Grid Columns. Not to my surprise, this is also made by precisely the exact same developer as GeneratePress. It allows you a super simple way to add responsive columns to any page or post. Features include:
Desktop grid thickness
Tablet grid width
Mobile grid thickness
Insert Customized classes
Add custom inline styles
Equal height columns
This is An example under:
You might want to Also catch his amazing WP Display Posts plugin also. See 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 can also get it show past modified/updated posts, recent articles, etc.. I’m using the free version and it works terrific.
To Begin, Click here to download GeneratePress.
Sections Add-on
The Sections add-on in the premium edition of GeneratePress allows you to perform all kinds of things concerning design. Think of it like a webpage builder without the bloat. GeneratePress is definitely not only for blogs! I am in reality utilizing GeneratePress for our ecommerce site (perfmatters.io) that is operating Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to look it over. However, as you can see below, it looks like a blog.
Speed Tests
For those Of you that are regular readers, you likely did not even notice that I changed the whole theme that forces woorkup.com. It just took me about an hour for GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop motif that I had spent annually customizing. Here is a comparison under.
woorkup.com Old MyThemeShop Theme
My old MyThemeShop theme was pretty fast, but I invested a great deal of time scrutinizing it. In fact, I’ve gotten a great deal of emails from you guys asking me to publish all of my customizations. My advice now is, just get GeneratePress!
woorkup.com New GeneratePress Theme
With the New GeneratePress theme I was able to achieve faster speeds and 600 fewer lines of code! And remember, I don’t have a kid motif. Each of the customizations were made 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 make a copy of woorkup to your brand new GeneratePress site library. I am pleased to allow you to know that now you can install my woorkup theme on your own GeneratePress site with only a single click! It is called the Marketer motif. Get started with a fantastic 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 motif from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimal site, as I do not use it to get much. Since you can see it already loaded pretty quickly.
brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme
I was Able to replicate the whole look 100% in GeneratePress in under one hour. And as you can see it loads even faster! Amazing. I was able to eliminate a few plugins that weren’t needed due to GP.
forgemedia.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
Additionally, I Moved over our business site, forgemedia.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a theme from Array Themes. It is a fairly basic minimum site, as we just use it to our LLC. As you can see it loaded pretty quickly. Generatepress Problem Long Menu
forgemedia.io New GeneratePress Theme
I was Able to move everything over and get it looking just how I wanted 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 total page burden 2x!
I can’t express my Excitement about locating GeneratePress and I am moving over all my sites to it (which comprises some EDD e-commerce sites). After I have my 9 sites all running in GP with no child themes, my entire life is going to be a breeze! The programmer has restored my faith in multi-purpose themes, and that when done the correct way, can actually perform faster.
And The best news is, I now have a billion more choices to choose from than I did earlier.
What GeneratePress Is Good For…
GeneratePress Is the perfect alternative for performance-focused users that wish to be able to customize and control precisely 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 base to make it load fast.
Since Of that, people who build 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.
But GeneratePress Might Not Be A Good Combination If…
…you Want something that will immediately appear perfect out of the box.
For Example, if you know you wish to create a style blog, you might be happier picking out a niche theme that’s developed exclusively for trend bloggers.
Even though GeneratePress has gotten a great deal easier to use, thanks to its pre-built Site Library, GeneratePress still seems very barebones if you initially install it.
So To create GeneratePress look how you would like it to, you will most likely need to go in and personalize matters. And while the substantial advantage of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, many users, particularly casual users, do not like having to make those changes .
GeneratePress Features Which Make It Unique
Here Are a few of the specific features that clarify why GeneratePress is indeed popular.
Plenty Of Customization Options In The Real-Time WordPress Customizer
Past Functionality, another place where GeneratePress does well is its customization choices.
GeneratePress Utilizes the WordPress Customizer for customization, which can be convenient as you will be able to see all the changes that you make in real time.
The Free variant of GeneratePress provides you decent options, but should you own GeneratePress Premium, you will be able to customize nearly everything about your site.
For Example, if you go into the Design area, you may configure detailed settings for your:
- Header — you can move your header around and alter its own styling
- Navigation — GeneratePress gives you two different navigation options, such as sticky menus
- Sidebar design — you can utilize a Couple of sidebars
- Blog post design — such as featured image dimensions, metadata, etc..
- Footer layout — like how many widgets to include
Likewise, The Typography area lets you control the font for every single element on your website, such as buttons:
And You also receive a thorough region to control the color of each and every element on your website.
All In all, GeneratePress will provide you much more customization options from the WordPress Customizer compared to most other topics. This amount of detail may be a little overwhelming if you’re a beginner. But once you understand how the preferences come together, you will have complete control over how your website appears.
Optimized Performance And Fast Page Load Times
Across All its attributes, GeneratePress always has a focus on excellent performance and tidy code. The whole theme 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 topics are still 200+ kB. And a few poorly coded themes can even surpass 1 MB!
GeneratePress Also does not have any code dependencies, which will help you avoid the render obstructing error that Google Pagespeed Insights often cites.
Place That collectively, and you get a superfast-loading theme. How fast? To give you an idea, I ran a small test.
First, I set up a vacant website using a haphazard popular WordPress.org theme (Envo Magazine). After testing its performance with Pingdom, it
- Had a performance tier of 77
- Loaded in 1.05 seconds
- Had a page size of 243.9 kB
- Had 15 asks
That’s Not bad at all! However, GeneratePress can perform.
Next, I triggered GeneratePress on exactly the same test website without altering anything else. Here is how GeneratePress failed:
- Had a performance grade 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% fewer
If You perform the exact same test with different themes, you’ll continue to find that GeneratePress is one of those fastest-loading WordPress themes in life. Generatepress Problem Long Menu
Other Helpful Premium Extensions, Plus A Modular Approach
Past Giving you more design controls from the WordPress Customizer, GeneratePress Premium comes with a lot of other helpful features like:
- Elements — a exceptional feature which lets you create custom hooks, page headers, or layout templates.
- Page Header — allows you create a unique page header on a per-page basis.
- Sections — this is sort of like lightweight page building. It permits you to create separate”sections” on a page, each with their own layout and column preferences.
To Remain lightweight, GeneratePress also gives you a modular interface where you could select and choose exactly which characteristics you would like to activate.
That Way, you don’t have to slow down your site for a quality which you’ll never use.
Pre-Made Starter Sites Make It Easier To Design Your Site
In The last, you had to construct GeneratePress sites from a blank canvas no matter what, which left the motif difficult for casual users to install.
Earlier In 2018, however, the developer added a new Site Library attribute for GeneratePress Premium users which lets you easily import any one of those 25+ pre-built demo sites.
You Can import them right from your WordPress dashboard.
Yes — this Website still uses GeneratePress! All I did was click a few buttons to import a demo site.
Page-Level Settings Provide You Detailed Control Over Every Bit Of Content
With Most themes, each post and page will use the same settings for the most part. You might have some custom formats or templates — but you don’t have very much control beyond that.
GeneratePress Changes that by providing you a brand new Layout meta box for every single page and post:
You Can utilize this meta box to:
- Change the number of sidebars your site uses, or the sidebar orientation (such as altering the sidebar from right to left)
- Choose the number of footer widgets to utilize
- Disable certain components, such as your header, navigation menu, article featured image, post title, or footer
- Produce a special”container” for your own page builder
Where These controls are the most useful is if you’re using a WordPress site builder.
By Disabling certain elements, you are able to create the proper baseline for your own page builder design, which makes it effortless to create custom content as needed. Generatepress Problem Long Menu
GeneratePress Replies: Affordable And Works On Unlimited Sites
The Core GeneratePress theme can be obtained for free at WordPress.org.
That said, If you are serious about utilizing GeneratePress, I believe you should buy the GeneratePress Premium plugin, as that’s what makes the theme so flexible. The free version does not give you nearly as many configurations in the WordPress Customizer. And you will also lose out on the premade Site Library.
GeneratePress Premium is also still quite affordable. It costs only $39.95, which gives you use on infinite sites. You’ll 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 just won’t receive any more updates).
When You believe the typical premium WordPress theme will often cost around $60, GeneratePress offers a fantastic value.
Wrap-up
As I mentioned, I don’t believe GeneratePress is for everyone.
If You want a niche-specific motif, you can probably save time by buying a theme that satisfies your requirements for your market from day one.
But If you are ready to spend time changing settings, GeneratePress’ style controls give you the flexibility to turn it into any sort of WordPress site. Or, you might even be able to find a starter website that fulfills your needs to save a little time.
Additionally, It is among the fastest-loading WordPress themes you will locate. Therefore, if you’re seeking the best performance possible, utilizing GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s foundation is a great choice.
If You blend it with fast-loading hosting, so you shouldn’t have any problem making your site load in under one minute. Generatepress Problem Long Menu
To Begin, Click here to download GeneratePress.