Intro WordPress User Generated Content Theme

Within the previous ten decades, I have used a great deal of different WordPress topics and have been very disappointed. Up until recently, I was utilizing MyThemeShop, which was pretty good. However, I had to do a great deal of customization to allow it to perform and operate the way I needed it to. A couple of weeks ago I decided to provide GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it’s undoubtedly the best WordPress theme I have discovered in 10 years. I was dismissed and am moving all my sites to GeneratePress. I will go into precisely why in my comprehensive GeneratePress review under. And if you’re wondering, yes I’ve tried Genesis, Astra, OceanWP, Avada, X motif, Divi as well as several other lightweight and heavier multicolored themes. WordPress User Generated Content Theme

To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.

GeneratePress Review

GeneratePress is a totally free WordPress theme made by Tom Usborne, a developer from Canada. I have really seen it for 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 stuff on there isn’t that good, or not encouraged for long. Nonetheless, in this circumstance, this was a mistake. The motif currently has more than half a million downloads, 80,000+ active 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 purchased the superior version. I could tell right off the bat, the programmer was thinking precisely 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 features. I will be covering the superior version of the theme, since it’s worth very penny. Actually, 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 things you don’t want running. This is one of the biggest reasons I love GeneratePress.

Responsive, looks great across all devices.

Schema built-in, for better results in SERPs.

Impressive integration using the WordPress Customizer. I have not been a fan of this customizer previously, but Tom does it right.

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

Additionally, it works great with all the favorite fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you would like to dive into even more customizations, these really are a great combo. I have also read that individuals using Beaver Builder have experienced success.

Translation ready.

Font wonderful built in.

A lot 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 great documentation on their website, the subject has existed long enough that everything I wholeheartedly during the setup procedure was found within a few seconds from their forum.

Diving Into GeneratePress

Now it’s Time for the fun part! I always test a brand new theme right out of the box with no customizations to see how fast the base is. This tells me a great deal of what I could expect by the time that I add everything for this. Running the stock GeneratePress WordPress motif on Kinsta hosting clocked in at a whopping 265 ms load time. I was very impressed.

One Thing I was concerned about with GeneratePress was that the modular layout was going to generate a whole lot of big files, but that isn’t the situation. You can tell that Tom literally worked hard on making sure every record packed in GeneratePress is as small as possible. Together with HTTP/2, the amount of documents is not as significant. However, the size 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 developer that cares about functionality! And I’ve Seen exactly the same throughout each the premium add-ons. They are as small as you can possibly get them. In fact, Font Awesome is most likely the largest file included. And that isn’t even his. Together with Font Awesome 5 arriving around the cornerwe can anticipate that to secure smaller too.

The premium add-ons Are installation in what I would call a modular design. It is possible to activate/deactivate whatever you are not using to ensure they do not load on your website. Since the co-developer of this perfmatters plugin which has a script manager built, I felt at home for this. Everything ought to be made this way.

If You are 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 features of GeneratePress is I no longer need to use a young child motif . 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 definitely can help make it possible. It permits you to add custom code/PHP everywhere throughout your WordPress website. WordPress User Generated Content Theme

Other Things I Love About GeneratePress

On every Page/post that you have a great deal of options. You are able to alter 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 choices is where GeneratePress really shines! Bear in mind, a lot of these options are enabled by the premium add-ons. I can’t show you everything, otherwise, we would be here all day. However, allow me to 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 created by the same programmer as GeneratePress. It enables you a super simple way to incorporate responsive columns to any page or article. Characteristics include:

Desktop grid width

Tablet grid thickness

Mobile grid width

Insert Customized courses

Add custom inline designs

Equal height columns

This is An example below:

You might want to Also grab his amazing WP Show 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 display posts from a specific”featured” category. You might also get it show last modified/updated articles, recent posts, etc.. I’m using the free version and it works great.

To Begin, Click here to download GeneratePress.

Sections Add-on

The Sections add-on in the premium edition of GeneratePress lets you perform all sorts of things concerning design. Think of it like a page builder with no bloat. GeneratePress is definitely not only for blogs! I’m in fact utilizing GeneratePress for our ecommerce website (perfmatters.io) which is operating Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to check it out. But as you can see below, it looks nothing like a blog.

Speed Tests

For all those Of you that are regular readers, you probably did not even notice I changed the entire motif that forces woorkup.com. It just took me about an hour to get GeneratePress to mimic my MyThemeShop motif that I had spent annually customizing. Here’s a comparison below.

woorkup.com Old MyThemeShop Theme

My old MyThemeShop theme was pretty quickly, but I spent a lot of time scrutinizing 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, just 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 do not have a kid theme. Each of the customizations were created using 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 am happy to let you know that you can now install my woorkup theme in your GeneratePress site with only a click! It is called the Marketer motif. Get started with a great blog layout immediately.

brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme

Additionally, I Moved over my personal site, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a motif from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimal site, since I don’t use it for much. Since you can see it loaded pretty fast.

brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme

I was Able to duplicate the entire appearance 100 percent in GeneratePress in under one hour. And since you can view it loads even faster! Amazing. I was able to get rid of 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 had been using a theme from Array Themes. It’s a fairly basic minimum website, as we simply use it for our LLC. As you can see it already loaded pretty quickly. WordPress User Generated Content Theme

forgemedia.io New GeneratePress Theme

I was Able to move everything over and get it looking exactly how I wanted it in under one hour. And as you can view it loads faster! Amazing. I managed to get rid of a total of four plugins and it dropped my total page weight 2x!

I can not express my Excitement about locating GeneratePress and I’m moving over all my sites to it (which includes several EDD e-commerce sites). Once I have my 9 websites all running in GP with no child themes, my entire life will be a breeze! The developer has revived my faith in multi-purpose subjects , and that when done the right way, can actually perform quicker.

And The best thing is, I now have a thousand more choices to choose from than I did earlier.

What GeneratePress Is Good For…

GeneratePress Is the ideal option for performance-focused users that wish to be able to customize and control precisely 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 great foundation to make it load quickly.

Since Of that, those who build WordPress sites for a living love GeneratePress. They will normally pair it with a WordPress site builder and use it for literally any type of website.

However GeneratePress Might Not Be A Good Combination If…

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

For Example, if you know you want to produce a fashion blog, you may be happier choosing a market theme that is developed exclusively for trend bloggers.

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

So To make GeneratePress look how you would like it to, you will almost certainly will need to go in and customize things. And though the significant benefit of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, many users, especially casual users, do not like having to make those changes .

GeneratePress Features That Make It Unique

Here Are a few of the specific characteristics that explain why GeneratePress is indeed popular.

Lots 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, and this is convenient because you will have the ability to see all of the changes that you create in real time.

The Free variant of GeneratePress gives you decent possibilities, but if you have GeneratePress Premium, you will have the ability to customize nearly all about your website.

For Example, if you go in the Design area, you may configure detailed settings for yourown:

Header — you can move your header round and alter 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 — like featured picture dimensions, metadata, etc..
Footer layout — like how many widgets to add

Similarly, The Typography area enables you to control the font for each and every element on your site, such as buttons:

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

All Whatsoever, GeneratePress will provide you a lot more customization choices in the WordPress Customizer compared to most other topics. This level of detail may be a little overwhelming if you’re a beginner. But once you understand how the preferences come together, you will have full control on how your website looks.

Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times

Around All of its features, GeneratePress always has a focus on exceptional performance and tidy code. The entire motif is less than 30 kB, and it 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 surpass 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.

Put That collectively, and you obtain a superfast-loading theme. How fast? To give you an idea, I ran a little test.

First, I set up a vacant site utilizing a random popular WordPress.org motif (Envo Magazine). After analyzing its performance with Pingdom, it

Had a performance grade of 77
Loaded in 1.05 seconds
Had a page size of 243.9 kB
Had 15 asks

That’s Not bad at all! But GeneratePress can perform.

Next, I triggered GeneratePress on exactly the same test site without changing 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% fewer

If You do the exact same test with other topics, you are going to continue to see that GeneratePress is one of those fastest-loading WordPress topics in life. WordPress User Generated Content Theme

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 such as:

Elements — a exceptional feature that allows you create custom hooks, page headers, or design templates.
Page Header — allows you create a unique page header on a per-page basis.
Sections — this is kind of like lightweight page building. It permits you to create different”sections” on a webpage, each with their own design and column preferences.

To Remain lightweight, GeneratePress also gives you a modular port where you could select and choose exactly which features you would like to activate.

That Way, you don’t need 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 regardless of what, which made the theme difficult for casual users to install.

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

You Can import them right 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 Give You Detailed Control Over Every Piece Of Content

With Most topics, every post and page will use the very same configurations for the most part. You might have some custom formats or templates — but you do not have very much control past that.

GeneratePress Changes that by giving you a brand new Design meta name 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 (like changing the sidebar from right to left)
Choose how many footer widgets to use
Disable certain elements, such as your header, navigation menu, article featured image, post title, or footer
Produce a special”container” to your own page builder

Where These controls would be the most helpful 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 design, making it easy to create custom articles as needed. WordPress User Generated Content Theme

GeneratePress Replies: Affordable And Works On Unlimited Sites

The Heart GeneratePress motif is available for free at WordPress.org.

That said, If you are seriously interested in utilizing GeneratePress, I feel you should purchase the GeneratePress Premium plugin, as that’s what makes the theme so flexible. The free version doesn’t give you nearly as numerous settings in the WordPress Customizer. And you will also miss out on the premade Site Library.

GeneratePress Premium can be still quite affordable. It costs just $39.95, which gives you use on infinite websites . You will also get a 40% discount if you would like to renew to keep on receiving support and upgrades after the first year (you can, of course, keep using GeneratePress following the first year without beating — you won’t receive any more upgrades ).

When You consider the typical premium WordPress theme will often cost around $60, GeneratePress provides a fantastic price.

Conclusion

As I mentioned, I do not think GeneratePress is for everybody.

If You desire a niche-specific motif, you can probably save time by purchasing a theme that fits your requirements for your market from 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 type of WordPress website. Or, you may even have the ability to find a starter website that fits your needs to save a little time.

Additionally, It is among those fastest-loading WordPress themes that you will locate. Therefore, if you’re looking for the best performance possible, using GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s foundation is a good decision.

If You blend it with fast-loading hosting, so you should have no problem making your site load in under one second. WordPress User Generated Content Theme