Intro Real Estate WordPress Theme
Within the previous ten years, I’ve used a lot of different WordPress themes and have been really disappointed. Up till recently, I was utilizing MyThemeShop, that was pretty good. But I still had to perform a great deal of customization to allow it to do and work the way I needed it to. A couple of weeks ago I decided to give GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it’s by far the best WordPress theme I’ve found in 10 years. I had been dismissed and am now moving all my websites to GeneratePress. I’ll go into precisely why in my in-depth GeneratePress review below. And if you’re wondering, yes I have attempted Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X theme, Divi as well as several other lightweight and heavier multi-purpose themes. Real Estate WordPress Theme
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 tend to dismiss everything from the repository. Typically because a great deal of things on there is not that good, or not encouraged for long. Nonetheless, in this case, that was a mistake. The motif currently has more than half a million downloads, 80,000+ active installs, with over 500 5-star ratings. So clearly Tom is doing something right here.
I Actually set up the free version of the motif and in a matter of 15 minutes purchased the superior version. I could tell right off the bat, the programmer was thinking exactly how I was imagining a theme should get the job done. And I will go into that more below, but let us first look at some of the qualities. I will be covering the superior edition of the theme, because it’s worth . Actually, Tom, if you ever read this and are visiting Scottsdale, Arizona, java on me.
Characteristics
Super lightweight and fast. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable items you do not want running. This is one of the biggest reasons I adore GeneratePress.
Responsive, looks fantastic across all of the devices.
Schema built-in, for greater outcomes in SERPs.
Dramatic integration with the WordPress Customizer. I haven’t been a lover of this customizer previously, but Tom does it correctly.
Compatible with popular plugins, Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, EDD, BuddyPress, bbPress, and WPML. Great browser service back to IE8.
It also works great with all the favorite fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you want 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 wonderful built in.
A lot of filters and hooks that make it good for developers.
Excellent active service from the developer. Normally, 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 Googled throughout the setup process was found within a couple of seconds from their own forum.
Diving Into GeneratePress
Now it’s Time for the fun part! I always test a brand new theme right from the box without any customizations to just see how quickly the foundation is. This tells me a lot of what I could expect by the time that I add everything to it. Running the stock GeneratePress WordPress theme on Kinsta hosting clocked in at a whopping 265 ms loading time. I was quite impressed.
One Thing I was concerned about with GeneratePress was that the modular layout was going to generate a lot of big files, but this isn’t the situation. You may tell that Tom actually worked hard on ensuring 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! Take a peek at some 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
This is a programmer that cares about functionality! And I’ve Seen the same during all of the premium add-ons. They’re as small as you can possibly get them. In fact, Font Awesome is most likely the largest file included. And that is not even his. Together with Font Awesome 5 coming round the cornerwe can 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 aren’t using to ensure they don’t load on your website. Since the co-developer of this perfmatters plugin which has a script manager built, I felt right at home for this. Everything ought to be designed this way.
If You are interested, I’m using the following add-ons on this site:
Blog
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 motif . This makes my life so much easier. No longer editing my functions.php or header.php documents. I can literally upgrade my GeneratePress theme this exact moment rather than lose one customization. The hooks add-on certainly helps make this possible. It permits you to add custom code/PHP anywhere throughout your WordPress site. Real Estate WordPress Theme
Other Things I Love About GeneratePress
On each Page/post you have a lot of alternatives. You are able to change the sidebar layout and the footer widgets.
You Can quickly swap a page between the default to a full width page, in addition to disable elements.
The WordPress customizer choices is where GeneratePress really shines! Remember, a lot of these choices are enabled by the superior add-ons. I can not show you everything, otherwise, we’d be here all day. However, let me show you few which really come in handy.
Responsive Columns
Another Plugin I highly recommend grabbing is the free Lightweight Grid Columns. Not to my surprise, this can be created by the same developer as GeneratePress. It enables you a super easy way to add responsive columns into any page or post. Characteristics include:
Desktop grid thickness
Tablet grid thickness
Mobile grid width
Insert Customized courses
Insert custom inline designs
Equal height columns
Here is An example under:
You might want to Also catch 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 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 edition of GeneratePress allows you to perform all kinds of things concerning design. Think of it like a page builder with no bloat. GeneratePress is certainly not only for blogs! I’m in reality utilizing GeneratePress for our ecommerce website (perfmatters.io) that is operating Easy Digital Downloads. Feel free to look it over. However, as you can see below, it looks like a site.
Speed Tests
For all those Of you who are regular readers, you probably did not even notice that I changed the entire theme that powers woorkup.com. It only took me about an hour for GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop theme that I had spent annually customizing. Here is a comparison below.
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 print all of my customizations. My advice today is, just get GeneratePress!
woorkup.com New GeneratePress Theme
Together 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 have running on woorkup? You are in luck. Tom asked if he could make 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 site with only a click! It is known as the Marketer theme. Get started using a fantastic blog design instantly.
brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
Additionally, I Moved over my private site, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a motif from Array Themes. It’s a fairly basic minimal website, as I don’t use it to get much. Since you can see it loaded pretty quickly.
brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme
I had been Able to duplicate the entire look 100 percent in GeneratePress in under one 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 organization website, forgemedia.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a theme from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimal website, as we just use it to our LLC. Since you can see it already loaded pretty fast. Real Estate WordPress Theme
forgemedia.io New GeneratePress Theme
I had been Able to 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 total page weight 2x!
I can’t express my Excitement about finding GeneratePress and I’m moving over all my sites to it (which includes several EDD e-commerce sites). Once I’ve got my 9 websites all running in GP without any child themes, my entire life will be a breeze! The developer has restored my faith in multi-purpose subjects , which when done the right way, can actually perform quicker.
And The best thing is, I now have a thousand more options to pick from than I did before.
What GeneratePress Is Great For…
GeneratePress Is the ideal option for performance-focused users that want to have the ability to customize and control exactly how their site appears.
You Can make GeneratePress do pretty much anything. And since GeneratePress has a focus on performance, the site that you build will have a fantastic base to make it load quickly.
Because Of that, people who assemble WordPress websites for a living love GeneratePress. They’ll typically pair it with a WordPress page builder and use it for literally any type of website.
But GeneratePress Might Not Be A Good Fit If…
…you Need something that will immediately look perfect out of the box.
For Example, if you know you want to produce a fashion blog, you might be happier picking out a niche theme that is developed exclusively for fashion bloggers.
While GeneratePress has gotten a great deal easier to use, thanks to its pre-built Website Library, GeneratePress still looks very barebones when you first install it.
So To make GeneratePress look how you would like it to, you’ll almost certainly will need to go in and personalize matters. And though the substantial advantage of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, some users, especially casual users, do not like having to make those changes themselves.
GeneratePress Features Which Make It Unique
Here Are a few of the particular characteristics that explain why GeneratePress is so common.
Plenty Of Customization Options In The Real-Time WordPress Customizer
Beyond Performance, another place where GeneratePress does well is its customization options.
GeneratePress Uses the WordPress Customizer for customization, which is convenient as you will have the ability to see all of the changes that you create in real time.
The Free version of GeneratePress provides you decent options, but should you own GeneratePress Premium, you will be able to customize pretty much everything about your site.
For Example, if you go into the Layout region, you may configure comprehensive settings to 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 use one or two sidebars
- Blog post layout — such as featured picture size, metadata, etc..
- Footer layout — like the number of widgets to include
Similarly, That the Typography area enables you to control the font for every single element on your website, such as buttons:
And You also get a detailed area to control the color of every single element on your website.
All In all, GeneratePress will give you a lot more customization options from the WordPress Customizer than most other themes. This level of detail may be a little overwhelming if you are a beginner. But as soon as you understand the way the settings come together, you will have complete control on how your website appears.
Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times
Around All of its features, GeneratePress always includes a focus on excellent performance and clean code. The entire theme is less than 30 kB, which is about as little as you’ll ever find for a WordPress theme. Even most other optimized WordPress themes are still 200+ kB. And a few poorly coded topics 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 mentions.
Place That together, and you obtain a superfast-loading theme. How fast? To give you an idea, I conducted a small test.
First, I put up an empty site utilizing 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’s Not bad at all! However, GeneratePress can perform.
Next, I activated GeneratePress on exactly the exact same test site without changing anything else. Here is how GeneratePress failed:
- Had a performance grade of 87, 10 points greater
- Loaded in 666 ms, ~37% quicker
- Had a page size of 26.8 kB, ~90% smaller
- Had 9 requests, ~40% fewer
If You do that same test with other themes, you are going to continue to find that GeneratePress is one of those fastest-loading WordPress topics in existence. Real Estate WordPress Theme
Other Helpful Premium Extensions, Plus Much Modular Approach
Past Giving you more style controls from the WordPress Customizer, GeneratePress Premium comes with a lot of other helpful features such as:
- Elements — a exceptional 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 — that is kind of like lightweight page building. It permits you to create different”sections” on a page, each with their own design and column preferences.
To Remain lightweight, GeneratePress also gives you a modular interface where you can pick and choose exactly which features you would like to trigger.
That Way, you do not need to slow your site down for a feature which you’ll never use.
Pre-Made Starter Sites Make It Easier To Design Your Site
In The past, you needed to construct GeneratePress sites from a blank canvas no matter what, which left the motif difficult for casual users to set up.
Earlier In 2018, however, the developer added a fresh Website Library attribute for GeneratePress Premium users that lets you easily import any among those 25+ pre-built demonstration websites .
You Can import them directly from the WordPress dashboard.
Yes — this Website still uses GeneratePress! All I did was click on a couple buttons to import a demo site.
Page-Level Settings Provide You Detailed Control Over Each Piece Of Content
With Most topics, each page and post will use the very same settings for the most part. You may have some custom templates or formats — but you do not have very much control beyond that.
GeneratePress Changes that by providing you a new Layout meta box for every single page and post:
You Can utilize 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 components, such as your header, navigation menu, article featured image, article title, or footer
- Create a special”container” to your page builder
Where These controls would be the most useful is if you’re using a WordPress page builder.
By Disabling certain components, you’re able to create the correct baseline for your own page builder layout, which makes it effortless to create custom articles as needed. Real Estate WordPress Theme
GeneratePress Pricing: Cheap And Works On Unlimited Sites
The Core GeneratePress motif is available at no cost at WordPress.org.
That said, If you’re serious about utilizing GeneratePress, I feel 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 settings in the WordPress Customizer. And you will also miss out on the premade Site Library.
GeneratePress Premium is also still quite reasonably priced. It costs only $39.95, which provides you use on infinite websites . You will also get a 40% discount if you would like to renew to continue receiving support and updates following the initial year (you can, of course, keep using GeneratePress after the first year without beating — you just won’t get any more updates).
When You believe that the normal premium WordPress theme will usually cost around $60, GeneratePress provides a fantastic price.
Wrap-up
As I mentioned, I don’t think GeneratePress is for everyone.
If You want a niche-specific motif, you can probably save time by buying a theme that fits your requirements for your market from day one.
However, If you’re ready to spend time altering preferences, then GeneratePress’ style controls give you the flexibility to flip it into any sort of WordPress website. Or, you may even have the ability to locate a starter site that fits your needs to save some time.
Additionally, It is one of the fastest-loading WordPress topics you will find. So if you’re looking for the best performance possible, utilizing GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s base is a good decision.
If You blend it with fast-loading hosting, you should have no difficulty making your site load in under one second. Real Estate WordPress Theme
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.