Introduction Wp 2016 Theme
Over the previous 10 years, I’ve used a great deal of different WordPress topics and have been very disappointed. Up till recently, I had been utilizing MyThemeShop, that was pretty excellent. However, I still had to do a lot of customization to make it do and operate how I needed it to. A couple of weeks ago I decided to give GeneratePress a try, and let me just say, it is by far the best WordPress theme I have discovered in a decade . I was dismissed and am moving all my websites to GeneratePress. I will 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 as well as several other lightweight and thicker multi-purpose themes. Wp 2016 Theme
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.
GeneratePress Evaluation
GeneratePress is a totally free WordPress theme created by Tom Usborne, a developer from Canada. I’ve really seen it for many years in the WordPress repository. Most of you know that I’m fairly picky when it comes to web performance, and so I tend to ignore everything in the repository. Typically because a great deal of stuff on there isn’t that great, or not encouraged for long. Nonetheless, in this case, this was a mistake. The motif now has more than half a million downloads, 80,000+ busy matches, with over 500 5-star evaluations. So obviously Tom is doing something right here.
I Really installed the free version of the theme and in a matter of 15 minutes purchased the premium version. I could tell right off the bat, the programmer was thinking precisely 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 edition of the subject, since it’s worth . Actually, Tom, if you ever read this and are visiting Scottsdale, Arizona, java on me.
Features
Super lightweight and fast. Modular design allowing you to enable/disable things you don’t want running. This is only one of the biggest reasons I love GeneratePress.
Responsive, looks fantastic across all of the devices.
Schema built-in, for greater outcomes 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 all popular plugins, Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, EDD, BuddyPress, bbPress, and WPML. Fantastic browser service back to IE8.
Additionally, it works great with the popular fast-growing Elementor page builder. If you would like to dive into even more customizations, these are a terrific combo. I have also read that individuals using Beaver Builder have experienced success.
Resumes prepared.
Font awesome built-in.
Tons of filters and hooks that make it good for programmers.
Excellent active service from the programmer. Normally, 3 updates per month.
The Documentation is also incredible. Besides have good documentation on their site, the subject has existed long enough that what I wholeheartedly during the setup procedure was found inside a couple of seconds from their own forum.
Going Deep Into GeneratePress
Now it is Time to the fun part! I test a new theme right out of the box with no customizations to see how quickly the foundation is. This tells me a lot of what I could expect by the time I add everything to it. Running the inventory GeneratePress WordPress motif on Kinsta hosting clocked in at a whopping 265 ms loading 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 is not the case. You may tell that Tom actually worked hard on ensuring that every file packed in GeneratePress is as little as possible. With HTTP/2, the number of documents is not as important. But the dimensions is! Take a look 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 performance! And I’ve Seen the same during all the premium add-ons. They’re literally as small as possible get them. In fact, Font Awesome is probably the biggest file contained. And that is not even his. Together with Font Awesome 5 coming around the cornerwe could anticipate that to get smaller too.
The premium add-ons Are installation in what I would call a modular design. You can activate/deactivate anything you are not using to ensure they do not load on your site. As the co-developer of the perfmatters plugin that has a script manager built-in, I felt at home with this. Everything should be designed this way.
If You are interested, I’m using the next add-ons on this site:
Blog
Colors
Copyright
Hooks
Page Header
Spacing
Typography
No Child Theme Needed
One of The best features of GeneratePress is I no longer need to use a Child theme. This makes my life much easier. No longer editing my functions.php or header.php files. I can literally upgrade my GeneratePress motif this exact moment rather than lose a single customization. The hooks add-on definitely can help make it possible. It permits you to incorporate custom code/PHP anywhere throughout your WordPress site. Wp 2016 Theme
Other Things I Love About GeneratePress
On every Page/post you have a great deal of alternatives. You can alter the sidebar layout and the footer widgets.
You Can easily swap a page between the default option to a full width page, as well as disable elements.
The WordPress customizer choices is where GeneratePress really shines! Remember, a lot of these options are enabled by the superior add-ons. I can not show you everything, otherwise, we’d be here all day. However, allow me to show you few which really come in handy.
Responsive Columns
Another Plugin I highly suggest grabbing is the free Lightweight Grid Columns. Not to my surprise, this can be made by precisely the exact same developer as GeneratePress. It enables you a super easy way to incorporate responsive columns to any page or article. Characteristics include:
Desktop grid thickness
Tablet grid width
Mobile grid thickness
Add custom classes
Add custom inline designs
Equal height columns
This is An example under:
You might want to Also catch his amazing WP Display Posts plugin also. View my featured articles on the sidebar of this site? That’s 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 articles, recent posts, etc.. I am using the free version and it works terrific.
To Get started, Click here to download GeneratePress.
Sections Add-on
The Sections add-on in the premium edition of GeneratePress lets you do all kinds of things concerning design. Think of it like a page builder without the bloat. GeneratePress is certainly not just for blogs! I am in fact utilizing GeneratePress for our ecommerce website (perfmatters.io) that is operating Easy Digital Downloads. Don’t hesitate to look it over. However, as you can see below, it looks nothing like a blog.
Speed Tests
For those Of you that are regular readers, you likely did not even notice I changed the whole motif that powers woorkup.com. It only took me about an hour for 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 theme was pretty fast, but I invested a great deal of time customizing it. In reality, I’ve gotten a lot of emails from you guys asking me to publish all of my customizations. My advice today is, simply 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 keep in mind, I don’t have a child motif. All the customizations were made using the wonderful 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 could create a copy of woorkup for the brand new GeneratePress site library. I’m happy to let you know that now you can install my woorkup theme on your GeneratePress website with just a single click! It is known as the Marketer motif. Get started using a fantastic blog layout instantly.
brianjackson.io Old Array Theme’s Theme
Additionally, I Moved within my personal website, brianjackson.io, to GeneratePress. Previously I was using a theme from Array Themes. It is a pretty basic minimum website, since I don’t use it to get much. As you can see it loaded pretty fast.
brianjackson.io New GeneratePress Theme
I had been Able to replicate the whole look 100 percent in GeneratePress in under an hour. And since you can see it loads 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 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. Since you can see it already loaded pretty fast. Wp 2016 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 since you can view it loads even faster! Amazing. I was able to eliminate a total of four plugins and it dropped my total page weight 2x!
I can not express my Excitement about finding GeneratePress and I’m moving over all my websites for this (which includes some EDD e-commerce websites ). Once I have my 9 websites all running in GP with no child topics, my entire life is going to be a breeze! The developer has restored my faith in multi-purpose themes, which when done the correct way, can actually perform quicker.
And The best news isI finally have a thousand more options to pick from than I did before.
What GeneratePress Is Good For…
GeneratePress Is the ideal option for performance-focused users that want to have the ability to personalize and control exactly how their site appears.
You Can make GeneratePress do pretty much anything. And because GeneratePress has a focus on performance, the website that you build will have a great foundation to make it load fast.
Because Of that, people who assemble WordPress sites for a living love GeneratePress. They will typically pair it with a WordPress page 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 look perfect from the box.
For Example, if you realize you want to create a fashion blog, you may be happier choosing a niche theme that’s developed exclusively for fashion bloggers.
While GeneratePress is becoming a great deal easier to use, as a result of its pre-built Website Library, GeneratePress still looks very barebones if you first install it.
So To create GeneratePress look how you want it to, you’ll almost certainly will need to go in and customize things. And while the substantial advantage of GeneratePress is how customizable it is, some users, particularly casual users, do not like having to make those changes .
GeneratePress Features Which Make It Unique
Here Are some of the particular features that explain why GeneratePress is indeed popular.
Lots Of Customization Options In The Real-Time WordPress Customizer
Beyond Functionality, another area where GeneratePress does nicely is its customization options.
GeneratePress Uses the WordPress Customizer for customization, and this can be convenient as you’ll be able to see all the changes that you make in real time.
The Free version of GeneratePress gives you decent possibilities, but if you own GeneratePress Premium, you’ll be able to customize pretty much everything about your website.
For Example, if you go in the Layout area, you can configure detailed settings to your:
- Header — you can move your header round and change its own styling
- Navigation — GeneratePress gives you two different navigation options, including sticky menus
- Sidebar layout — you can utilize one or two sidebars
- Blog post design — like featured image size, metadata, etc..
- Footer layout — just like how many widgets to add
Likewise, That the Typography area lets you control the font to get each and every element on your website, including buttons:
And You also get a detailed area to control the colour of each and every element on your website.
All In all, GeneratePress will provide you much more customization options from the WordPress Customizer than most other themes. This level of detail might be a bit overwhelming if you’re a newcomer. But as soon as you understand how the preferences come together, you’ll have complete control over how your site looks.
Optimized Performance And Quick Page Load Times
Around All of its features, GeneratePress consistently includes a focus on exceptional performance and tidy code. The entire motif is less than 30 kB, which 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 exceed 1 MB!
GeneratePress Also does not have any code dependencies, which helps you avoid the leave blocking error that Google Pagespeed Insights often mentions.
Place That together, and you get a superfast-loading theme. How quickly? To give you an idea, I conducted a little test.
First, I put up an empty site using a haphazard popular WordPress.org motif (Envo Magazine). After analyzing its functionality with Pingdom, it:
- Had a performance grade of 77
- Loaded in 1.05 seconds
- Had a page size of 243.9 kB
- Had 15 requests
That is Not bad at all! But GeneratePress can perform.
Next, I triggered GeneratePress on the exact same test site without changing anything else. Here’s how GeneratePress did:
- Had a performance grade of 87, 10 points better
- Loaded in 666 ms, ~37% quicker
- Had a page size of 26.8 kB, ~90% smaller
- Had 9 requests, ~40% fewer
If You perform the exact same test with different topics, you’ll continue to find that GeneratePress is among those fastest-loading WordPress topics in existence. Wp 2016 Theme
Other Useful Premium Extensions, Plus Much Modular Approach
Beyond Giving you more style controls in the WordPress Customizer, GeneratePress Premium also comes with a lot of other helpful features such as:
- Elements — a unique feature which allows you create custom hooks, page headers, or design templates.
- Page Header — lets you create a unique page header onto a per-page basis.
- Sections — that is sort of like lightweight page construction. It lets you create separate”sections” onto a webpage, each with their own design and column preferences.
To Stay lightweight, GeneratePress also provides you a modular port where you could pick and choose exactly which characteristics you would like to trigger.
That Way, you do not need to slow your site down for a quality which you’ll never use.
Pre-Made Starter Sites Make It Easier To Design Your Website
In The past, 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 programmer added a fresh Website Library feature for GeneratePress Premium users that lets you easily import any among 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 Provide You Detailed Control Over Each Bit Of Content
With Most topics, every page and post will use the very same configurations for the most part. You may have some custom templates or formats — but you don’t have very much control beyond that.
GeneratePress Changes that by providing you a new Design meta box for every single post and page:
You Can utilize this meta box to:
- Change the number of sidebars your site uses, or the sidebar orientation (like altering the sidebar from right to left)
- Choose how many footer widgets to utilize
- Disable certain elements, such as your header, navigation menu, article featured image, post title, or footer
- Create a special”container” for your page builder
Where These controls would be the most useful is if you are using a WordPress site builder.
By Disabling certain components, you’re able to produce the proper baseline for your page builder design, making it effortless to create custom content as needed. Wp 2016 Theme
GeneratePress Replies: Cheap And Works On Unlimited Sites
The Core GeneratePress theme is available at no cost at WordPress.org.
Nevertheless, If you’re serious about 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 nearly as many configurations from the WordPress Customizer. And you will also lose out on the premade Site Library.
GeneratePress Premium can be still fairly reasonably priced. It costs only $39.95, and that gives you use on infinite sites. You’ll also get a 40% discount if you want to renew to continue receiving support and updates after the first year (you can, of course, continue using GeneratePress following the first year without beating — you just won’t get any more updates).
When You believe the typical premium WordPress theme will often cost around $60, GeneratePress provides a fantastic price.
Conclusion
As I mentioned, I do not believe GeneratePress is for everyone.
If You want a niche-specific motif, you can probably save time by purchasing a theme that satisfies your needs for your market out of day one.
However, If you’re willing 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 find a starter site that fits your needs to save a little time.
Additionally, It is one of those fastest-loading WordPress topics you will locate. Therefore, if you’re looking for the best performance possible, utilizing GeneratePress as your WordPress site’s base is a great decision.
If You combine it with fast-loading hosting, you shouldn’t have any difficulty making your website load in under one second. Wp 2016 Theme
To Begin, Click here to download GeneratePress.