Intro Slide Out Menu Generatepress Automatic
Over the past 10 decades, I’ve used a lot of different WordPress themes and have been very disappointed. Up until recently, I had been using MyThemeShop, that was pretty excellent. However, I still had to do a lot of customization to allow it to perform and work the way I needed it to. A couple weeks ago I decided to provide GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it’s by far the finest WordPress theme I’ve found in a decade . I had been blown away and am moving all of my sites to GeneratePress. I’ll go into precisely why in my in-depth GeneratePress review below. And if you’re wondering, yes I’ve tried Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X theme, Divi in addition to several other lightweight and thicker multi-purpose themes. Slide Out Menu Generatepress Automatic
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.
GeneratePress Review
GeneratePress is a free WordPress theme created by Tom Usborne, a programmer from Canada. I’ve really seen it for years from the WordPress repository. Most of you realize that I am fairly picky when it comes to web performance, and so I tend to dismiss everything from the repository. Typically because a lot 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 some thing right here.
I Actually installed 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 envisioning a theme should get the job done. And I will go into that more below, but let’s first look at some of the qualities. I’m going to be covering the superior version of the theme, because it’s worth very penny. In fact, Tom, if you ever read this and so are seeing Scottsdale, Arizona, java on me.
Characteristics
Super lightweight and fast. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable items you do not need running. This is only one of the greatest reasons I love GeneratePress.
Responsive, looks fantastic across all of the devices.
Schema built-in, for greater outcomes in SERPs.
Impressive integration with the WordPress Customizer. I have not been a lover of this customizer in the past, but Tom does it correctly.
Compatible with 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 really are a terrific combo. I have also read that individuals using Beaver Builder have experienced success.
Translation ready.
Font wonderful built in.
Tons of filters and hooks that make it great for developers.
Great active service from the programmer. On average, 3 updates per month.
The Documentation can be unbelievable. Besides have good documentation on their website, the subject has been around long enough that what I wholeheartedly during the setup procedure was found inside a couple of seconds in their forum.
Diving Into GeneratePress
Now it is Time for the fun part! I always test a brand new theme right out of the box with no customizations to just see how quickly the foundation is. This tells me a lot of what I can expect by the time I add everything to it. Running the inventory GeneratePress WordPress theme on Kinsta hosting clocked in at a whopping 265 ms loading time. I was quite impressed.
One Thing I was worried about with GeneratePress was that the modular design was going to generate a whole lot of big files, but this isn’t the case. You can tell that Tom actually worked hard on ensuring that every record packed in GeneratePress is as small as possible. With HTTP/2, the amount of documents is not as significant. However, the dimensions is! Have a look at some 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
That is a developer that cares about performance! And I’ve Seen exactly the same during all of the premium add-ons. They’re 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 coming round the corner, we could anticipate that to secure smaller too.
The premium add-ons Are setup in what I’d call a modular layout. It is possible to activate/deactivate whatever you aren’t using to guarantee they don’t load on your site. As the co-developer of the perfmatters plugin which has a script supervisor built-in, I felt at home for this. Everything ought to be designed this way.
If You are interested, I’m using the next add-ons on this site:
Website
Shades
Copyright
Hooks
Page Header
Spacing
Typography
No Child Theme Needed
One of The best features 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 documents. I will literally update my GeneratePress theme this very minute and not lose a single customization. The hooks add-on certainly helps make this possible. It allows you to incorporate custom code/PHP everywhere throughout your WordPress website. Slide Out Menu Generatepress Automatic
Other Things I Love About GeneratePress
On every Page/post that you have a great deal of options. You can alter the sidebar design and the footer widgets.
You Can easily swap a page between the default option to a complete width page, as well as disable components.
The WordPress customizer choices is where GeneratePress really shines! Remember, a lot of these choices are permitted by the premium add-ons. I can not 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 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 incorporate responsive columns to any page or post. Characteristics include:
Desktop grid thickness
Tablet grid width
Mobile grid width
Insert custom courses
Insert custom inline designs
Equal height columns
This is An example below:
You May Want to Also catch his amazing WP Show Posts plugin too. View my featured articles on the sidebar of this site? That is using the WP Show 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 Begin, Click here to download GeneratePress.
Sections Add-on
The Segments add-in in the premium version of GeneratePress lets you do all sorts 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 using GeneratePress for our ecommerce website (perfmatters.io) which is operating Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to look it over. But as you can see below, it looks nothing like a blog.
Speed Tests
For those Of those who are regular readers, you probably didn’t even notice that I changed the whole theme that powers woorkup.com. It only took me about an hour for GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop motif that I had spent annually customizing. Here is a comparison below.
woorkup.com Old MyThemeShop Theme
My old MyThemeShop motif was pretty fast, but I spent a great deal of time customizing it. In reality, I have gotten a lot of emails from you guys asking me to publish all my customizations. My advice today is, just get GeneratePress!
woorkup.com New GeneratePress Theme
Together with the New GeneratePress motif I managed to achieve faster speeds and 600 fewer lines of code! And remember, I do not have a child motif. All the customizations were created using the awesome GP hooks and snippets plugin (both CSS and PHP).
Like the WordPress theme I’ve working on woorkup? You are in luck. Tom asked if he can create a copy of woorkup for the new GeneratePress site library. I am pleased to allow you to know that you can now install my woorkup theme in your GeneratePress site with just a click! It’s known as the Marketer motif. Get started using a great blog design instantly.
brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
I also Moved over my personal website, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a theme from Array Themes. It’s a pretty basic minimal site, as I do not use it for much. As you can see it loaded pretty quickly.
brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme
I was Able to replicate the entire look 100% in GeneratePress in under one hour. And since you can see it loads even faster! Amazing. I was even able to eliminate a few plugins which weren’t needed due to GP.
forgemedia.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
Additionally, I Moved over our organization website, forgemedia.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I had been using a theme from Array Themes. It’s a pretty basic minimum site, as we simply use it to our LLC. As you can see it already loaded pretty fast. Slide Out Menu Generatepress Automatic
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 even faster! Amazing. I was able to eliminate a total of four plugins and it dropped my whole page weight 2x!
I can not express my Excitement about finding GeneratePress and I’m moving over all of my websites to it (which comprises several EDD e-commerce websites ). After I have 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 themes, which when done the right way, can actually perform quicker.
And The best thing is, I finally have a thousand more choices to pick from than I did before.
What GeneratePress Is Good For…
GeneratePress Is the perfect alternative for performance-focused users that want to be able to customize and control exactly how their site looks.
You Can make GeneratePress do pretty much anything. And since GeneratePress has a focus on functionality, the site that you build will have a fantastic foundation to make it load fast.
Since Of that, people who build WordPress websites for a living love GeneratePress. They will normally pair it with a WordPress site builder and use it for literally any kind of website.
But GeneratePress Might Not Be A Fantastic Fit If…
…you Want something that will immediately look perfect out of the box.
For Example, if you know you wish to create a fashion blog, you may be happier picking out a niche theme that’s developed exclusively for trend bloggers.
While GeneratePress has gotten a lot easier to use, thanks to its pre-built Website Library, GeneratePress still looks very barebones if you first install it.
So To make GeneratePress look how you want it to, you’ll most likely will need to go in and customize matters. And though the substantial benefit of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, many users, particularly casual users, do not like having to make those changes .
GeneratePress Features That Make It Unique
Here Are some of the particular characteristics that clarify why GeneratePress is indeed popular.
Lots Of Customization Options From The Real-Time WordPress Customizer
Beyond Performance, another area where GeneratePress does nicely is its customization choices.
GeneratePress Utilizes the WordPress Customizer for customization, and this can be convenient because you’ll be able to see all the changes that you make in real time.
The Free variant of GeneratePress provides you decent possibilities, but should you own GeneratePress Premium, you will be able to customize nearly everything about your site.
For Example, if you go into the Layout area, you may configure comprehensive settings to your:
- Header — you can move your header round and alter its styling
- Navigation — GeneratePress gives you two different navigation options, including sticky menus
- Sidebar design — you can utilize a Couple of sidebars
- Blog post layout — like featured picture size, metadata, etc..
- Footer layout — like the number of widgets to add
Similarly, The Typography area lets you control the font for each and every element on your website, including buttons:
And You also receive 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 choices in the WordPress Customizer compared to most other topics. This level of detail might be a bit overwhelming if you are a newcomer. But as soon as you realize how the preferences come together, you’ll have full control over how your website appears.
Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times
Across All its attributes, GeneratePress consistently includes a focus on excellent performance and tidy code. The entire motif is less than 30 kB, and it will be 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 some badly coded topics can even surpass 1 MB!
GeneratePress Also has no code dependencies, which will help you avoid the leave obstructing error that Google Pagespeed Insights often cites.
Put That collectively, and you get a superfast-loading theme. How fast? To give you a sense, I ran a small test.
First, I set up an empty website utilizing a random 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 requests
That’s Not bad in any way! However, GeneratePress can do better.
Next, I activated GeneratePress on the exact same test site without altering anything else. Here’s how GeneratePress did:
- 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% less
If You perform that same test with other topics, you’ll continue to find that GeneratePress is one of the fastest-loading WordPress topics in existence. Slide Out Menu Generatepress Automatic
Other Helpful Premium Extensions, Plus A Modular Approach
Beyond Giving you more style controls in the WordPress Customizer, GeneratePress Premium also comes with a lot of other useful features such as:
- Elements — a exceptional feature which allows you create custom hooks, page headers, or layout templates.
- Page Header — lets you create a exceptional page header on a per-page basis.
- Sections — that is kind of like lightweight page construction. It lets you create different”sections” onto a page, each with their own layout and column preferences.
To Remain lightweight, GeneratePress also provides you a modular port where you can pick and choose what features you want to trigger.
That Way, you do not have to slow down your site for a quality that you’ll never use.
Pre-Made Starter Sites Make It Easier To Design Your Website
In The last, you needed to construct GeneratePress websites from a blank canvas no matter what, which made the theme difficult for casual users to set up.
Earlier In 2018, though, the developer added a new Site Library feature for GeneratePress Premium users that allows you easily import any one of those 25+ pre-built demonstration websites .
You Can import them right from your WordPress dashboard.
Yes — this site still uses GeneratePress! All I did was click a couple buttons to import a demo site.
Page-Level Settings Give You Comprehensive Control Over Every Bit Of Content
With Most themes, each 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 giving you a brand new Design meta box for every single page and post:
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 the number of footer widgets to use
- Disable certain elements, like your header, navigation menu, post featured image, article title, or footer
- Create a special”container” for your page builder
Where These controls would be the most helpful is if you’re using a WordPress site builder.
By Disabling certain elements, you’re in a position to create the proper baseline for your page builder layout, which makes it easy to create custom content as needed. Slide Out Menu Generatepress Automatic
GeneratePress Pricing: Affordable And Works On Unlimited Sites
The Heart GeneratePress theme is available for free at WordPress.org.
That said, If you are seriously interested in using GeneratePress, I believe you need to buy the GeneratePress Premium plugin, as that’s what makes the theme so elastic. The free version does not give you almost as numerous configurations in the WordPress Customizer. And you will also miss out on the premade Site Library.
GeneratePress Premium can be still quite affordable. It costs only $39.95, and that provides you use on unlimited websites . You’ll also get a 40% discount if you want to renew to keep on receiving support and updates following the initial year (you can, obviously, keep using GeneratePress after the initial year without beating — you won’t get any more upgrades ).
When You consider the normal premium WordPress theme will usually cost around $60, GeneratePress provides a fantastic price.
Summary
As I mentioned, I don’t believe GeneratePress is for everyone.
If You want a niche-specific theme, you can probably save time by buying a theme that satisfies your requirements for your niche out of day one.
But If you’re willing to spend time changing preferences, then GeneratePress’ style controls give you the flexibility to turn it into any sort of WordPress website. Or, you may even have the ability to locate a starter site that fulfills your needs to save some time.
Additionally, It is one of the fastest-loading WordPress themes you will find. Therefore, if you’re seeking the best performance possible, utilizing GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s base is a good choice.
If You combine it with fast-loading hosting, you should have no problem making your website load in under one minute. Slide Out Menu Generatepress Automatic
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.