Introduction Popular Themes For WordPress

Over the past ten years, I have used a lot of different WordPress topics and have been very disappointed. Up until recently, I was using MyThemeShop, that was pretty good. However, I still had to perform a lot of customization to allow it to do and operate how I wanted it to. A few of weeks ago I decided to provide GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it is by far the finest WordPress theme I have discovered in 10 years. I had been dismissed and am now moving all of my websites to GeneratePress. I’ll go into exactly why in my in-depth GeneratePress review below. And if you’re wondering, yes I have attempted Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X motif, Divi in addition to many other lightweight and heavier multicolored themes. Popular Themes For WordPress

To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.

GeneratePress Evaluation

GeneratePress is a totally free WordPress theme made by Tom Usborne, a programmer from Canada. I have actually seen it for many years from the WordPress repository. Most of you realize that I am fairly picky when it comes to web performance, so I have a tendency to dismiss everything from the repository. Typically because a great deal of stuff on there is not that good, or not encouraged for long. However, in this case, this was a mistake. The theme now has over half a million downloads, 80,000+ busy matches, with over 500 5-star ratings. So clearly Tom is doing something right here.

I Actually installed the free version of the theme and in a matter of 15 minutes bought the premium version. I could tell right off the bat, the programmer was thinking exactly how I was imagining a theme should work. And I’ll go into that more below, but let us first look at some of the qualities. I will be covering the premium version of the theme, since it’s worth very penny. Actually, Tom, in the event that you read this and are seeing Scottsdale, Arizona, java on me.

Features

Super lightweight and fast. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable items you do not 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.

Dramatic integration using the WordPress Customizer. I have not been a lover of this customizer in the past, but Tom does it right.

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

It also works great with all the popular fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you would like to dive into even more customizations, these really are a terrific combo. I’ve also read that people using Beaver Builder have had success.

Resumes prepared.

Font awesome built-in.

Tons of filters and hooks which make it good for developers.

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

The Documentation is also incredible. Besides have good documentation on their site, the subject has existed long enough that everything I wholeheartedly during the setup procedure was found within a couple of seconds in their forum.

Diving Into GeneratePress

Now it is Time to 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 lot of what I could 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 design was going to produce a lot of big files, but this is not the case. You can tell that Tom literally worked hard on ensuring that every record loaded in GeneratePress is as small as possible. Together with HTTP/2, the amount of documents isn’t as significant. However, the dimensions is! Have a peek at a few of the core 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

This is a developer that cares about functionality! And I’ve Seen the same throughout each the premium add-ons. They are as small as possible get them. In fact, Font Awesome is most likely the largest file contained. And that is not even his. Together with Font Awesome 5 arriving around the corner, we could expect that to secure smaller too.

The premium add-ons Are installation in what I would call a modular layout. You can activate/deactivate anything you are not using to ensure they do not load on your website. As the co-developer of this perfmatters plugin that has a script manager built-in, I felt at home for this. Everything should be designed this way.

If You’re interested, I am using the next add-ons on this site:

Website

Shades

Hooks

Page Header

Spacing

Typography

No Child Theme Needed

One of The best characteristics of GeneratePress is that I no longer need to use a Child theme. This makes my life so much easier. No more editing my functions.php or header.php files. I can literally update my GeneratePress motif this exact minute and not shed one customization. The hooks add-on certainly helps make it possible. It permits you to add custom code/PHP everywhere throughout your WordPress site. Popular Themes For WordPress

Other Things I Love About GeneratePress

On every Page/post you have a great deal of options. You are able to change the sidebar layout and the footer widgets.

You Can quickly swap a page between the default to a complete width page, in addition to disable components.

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

Responsive Columns

Another Plugin I highly recommend grabbing is your free Lightweight Grid Columns. Not to my surprise, this is also created by precisely the same developer as GeneratePress. It allows you a super simple way to add 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 incredible WP Display Posts plugin too. View my featured articles on the sidebar of this website? That’s using the WP Show Posts plugin. I have it set to show posts from a specific”featured” category. You might also get it show last modified/updated posts, recent posts, etc.. I am 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 in terms of design. Consider it like a page builder with no bloat. GeneratePress is definitely not just for blogs! I am in reality utilizing GeneratePress for our ecommerce website (perfmatters.io) which is operating Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to look it over. However, as you can see below, it looks like a site.

Speed Tests

For all those Of you that are regular readers, you likely didn’t even notice I changed the whole theme that powers woorkup.com. It only took me about an hour to get GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop theme that I had spent a year customizing. Here is a comparison below.

woorkup.com Old MyThemeShop Theme

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

woorkup.com New GeneratePress Theme

Together with the New GeneratePress motif I managed to attain faster speeds and 600 fewer lines of code! And remember, I do not have a child theme. 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’re in luck. Tom asked if he could create a replica of woorkup for the brand new GeneratePress site library. I’m pleased to allow you to know that now you can put in my woorkup motif in your GeneratePress website with just a single click! It is called the Marketer theme. Get started using a great blog layout immediately.

brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme

I also Moved within my private site, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a theme from Array Themes. It’s a fairly basic minimal website, since I don’t use it to get much. Since you can see it already loaded pretty fast.

brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme

I was 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 eliminate a couple plugins which 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 pretty basic minimal site, as we just use it for our LLC. Since you can see it already loaded pretty fast. Popular Themes For WordPress

forgemedia.io New GeneratePress Theme

I was Able to again 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 whole page weight 2x!

I can’t express my Excitement about finding GeneratePress and I’m moving over all of my websites for this (which includes several EDD e-commerce websites ). After I have my 9 websites all running in GP without any child topics, my life will be a breeze! The programmer has revived my faith in multi-purpose themes, and that when done the right way, can actually perform quicker.

And The best thing is, I now have a billion more options to pick from than I did before.

What GeneratePress Is Good For…

GeneratePress Is the ideal 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.

Because Of that, those who build WordPress websites for a living love GeneratePress. They’ll normally pair it with a WordPress site builder and use it for literally any type of site.

However GeneratePress Might Not Be A Fantastic Combination If…

…you Need something that will immediately appear perfect from the box.

For Example, if you know you wish to produce a style blog, you may be happier picking out a niche theme that’s developed exclusively for trend bloggers.

Even though GeneratePress has gotten a lot easier to use, thanks to its pre-built Site Library, GeneratePress still seems very barebones when you initially install it.

So To create GeneratePress look how you want it to, you’ll most likely need to go in and customize things. And though the significant advantage of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, some users, especially casual users, don’t 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 indeed common.

Lots Of Customization Options In The Real-Time WordPress Customizer

Past Functionality, another area where GeneratePress does well is its customization options.

GeneratePress Uses the WordPress Customizer for customization, which is convenient because you’ll be able to see all of the changes that you make in real time.

The Free variant of GeneratePress gives you adequate possibilities, but if you have GeneratePress Premium, you will be able to customize pretty much everything about your site.

For Example, if you go in the Design region, you may configure comprehensive settings for yourown:

Header — you can move your header around and change its styling
Navigation — GeneratePress gives you two different navigation options, including sticky menus
Sidebar design — you can use a Couple of sidebars
Blog post design — like featured image dimensions, metadata, etc..
Footer layout — like how many widgets to add

Similarly, The Typography place lets you control the font for each and every element on your website, such as buttons:

And You also receive a detailed area to control the colour of each and every element on your website.

All Whatsoever, GeneratePress will give you much more customization choices from the WordPress Customizer compared to most other themes. This amount of detail may be a little overwhelming if you’re a beginner. But once you understand how the preferences come together, you’ll have complete control on how your site appears.

Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times

Across All its attributes, GeneratePress always has a focus on exceptional performance and tidy code. The entire motif is less than 30 kB, and it is about as little as you are ever going to find for a WordPress theme. Even most other optimized WordPress themes are still 200+ kB. And a few poorly coded themes can even exceed 1 MB!

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

Place That together, and you obtain a superfast-loading theme. How quickly? To give you an idea, I ran a little test.

First, I put up a vacant website utilizing a haphazard popular WordPress.org theme (Envo Magazine). After testing its functionality 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 in any way! But GeneratePress can perform.

Next, I triggered GeneratePress on exactly the exact same test website without altering anything else. Here is how GeneratePress did:

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

If You do that same test with different topics, you are going to continue to find that GeneratePress is among those fastest-loading WordPress topics in life. Popular Themes For WordPress

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 useful features such as:

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

To Remain lightweight, GeneratePress also gives you a modular interface where you could pick and choose what features you would like to trigger.

That Way, you don’t have to slow down your site for a quality that 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 regardless of what, which left the theme difficult for casual users to install.

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

You Can import them directly from the WordPress dashboard.

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

Page-Level Settings Provide You Comprehensive Control Over Each Bit 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 past that.

GeneratePress Changes that by providing you a new Layout meta box for every single post and page:

You Can use this meta box to:

Change the number of sidebars your website uses, or the sidebar orientation (like altering the sidebar from right to left)
Choose how many footer widgets to use
Disable certain elements, such as your header, navigation menu, post featured picture, article title, or footer
Create a special”container” to 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 in a position to create the proper baseline for your own page builder layout, which makes it easy to create custom content as needed. Popular Themes For WordPress

GeneratePress Replies: Affordable And Works On Unlimited Sites

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

That said, If you’re serious about utilizing GeneratePress, I believe you should purchase the GeneratePress Premium plugin, as that is what makes the theme so flexible. The free version doesn’t give you nearly as many configurations from the WordPress Customizer. And you’ll also miss out on the premade Site Library.

GeneratePress Premium is also still quite affordable. It costs just $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 after the first year (you can, of course, keep using GeneratePress after the initial year without renewing — you won’t receive any more updates).

When You consider the typical premium WordPress theme will usually cost around $60, GeneratePress offers a fantastic value.

Wrap-up

As I said, I don’t believe GeneratePress is for everybody.

If You want a niche-specific theme, you can probably save time by buying a theme that satisfies your needs for your market from day one.

But If you are willing to spend time altering settings, GeneratePress’ mode controls give you the flexibility to turn it into any sort of WordPress site. Or, you may even have the ability to find a starter site that fulfills your needs to save a little time.

Additionally, It’s among those fastest-loading WordPress topics that you will find. So if you’re seeking the best performance possible, utilizing GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s foundation is a great decision.

If You blend it with fast-loading hosting, so you shouldn’t have any problem making your site load in under one second. Popular Themes For WordPress