GeneratePress Review: Fastest WordPress Theme for Your Site

Are you thinking about using the GeneratePress theme for your WordPress site? Our in-depth GeneratePress review will help you decide whether or not this lightweight theme is right for you.

GeneratePress is a lightweight WordPress theme that allows you to create any type of website, including a business site, portfolio site, agency site, eCommerce store, etc.

In this GeneratePress review, we’ll discuss GeneratePress best features and their pros and cons. Also, showing some best GeneratePress alternatives.

GeneratePress Theme Overview

GeneratePress theme was developed by Tom Usborne, who also developed the GenerateBlocks plugin for GeneratePress.

As of writing this post, GeneratePress had over 4.3 million downloads and 1000+ 5-star ratings from customers.

The GeneratePress theme is compatible with almost all page builder plugins, including Elementor and Beaver Builder. You can use GenerateBlocks along with the GeneratePress theme to create stunning websites.

GeneratePress Review: Best Features

There are several GeneratePress features that can help you in creating your website. Here are the most important features that we think explain its popularity:

1. Performance Optimized And Fast Page Load Times

One of GeneratePress’ main selling points is its focus on performance optimization and clean code.

In a nutshell, it’s one of the fastest and most reliable themes you’ll find.

If you create a new WordPress install with GeneratePress, it clocks in at an incredible less than 30KB.

For comparison, Astra (another lightweight theme) measures 40 KB for the same test.

Furthermore, it still stays lightweight even as you start customizing your site and activating premium modules.

Other lightweight themes may slow down as you add more functionality, but GeneratePress always maintains things light.

It also includes tools for making your WordPress site faster. For example, it’s really simple to use a system font stack, and GeneratePress has built-in code optimization features.

Overall, GeneratePress is the fastest and most speed-optimized theme available. It is an excellent choice for users who value every millisecond of performance.

2. Flexible Options in the Real-Time WordPress Customizer

Aside from performance, another area where GeneratePress wins is its customization options.

GeneratePress uses the WordPress customizer for customization, which is handy because you can see all the changes you make in real-time.

The free version of GeneratePress provides sufficient options, but GeneratePress Premium allows you to customize almost every aspect of your site.

For example, if you go to the Layout area, you can configure detailed options for your:

• Header – you can move and style your header
• Sidebars – you can use one or two sidebars
• Blog – like featured image size, metadata, etc.
• Footer – like how many widgets to include

Similar to this, the Typography section of your site lets you choose the font for every single element, including buttons:

You also get a detailed area where you may control the colors of every single element on your site.

Overall, GeneratePress provides far more customization options in the WordPress Customizer than most other themes.

3. Page-Level Controls

GeneratePress includes powerful page-level controls for adjusting content layout piece by piece.

You can, for example, change the content width, sidebar layout, page header, and so on.

These are useful when using the block editor or a page builder plugin like Elementor.

To save time, you can also create your own layout settings.

4. 85+ Starter Templates – GeneratePress Review

With GeneratePress Pro, you’ll get access to 85+ pre-built importable demo templates covering niches, including business websites, eCommerce stores, and blogs.

Most of these demo sites are now built with the native block editor and GenerateBlocks. This means it allows them to load fast while allowing easy modification.

While some of the earlier demo sites were built with Elementor or Beaver Builder.

With a few clicks, you may import a demo site. When doing so, you can import all of the content or simply the customizer settings.

5. GeneratePress Elements

For more sophisticated users, GeneratePress Elements brings you a whole new world of customization options.

With Elements, you may create unique layouts that you can include across your website. You can inject content into specified areas of the theme by using GeneratePress’ multiple hook locations. You can also entirely replace entire templates, such as creating a new header, footer, and more.

When creating a new element, you have four options:

• Block – create any custom content using the block editor.
• Hook – add custom code to any theme hook place.
• Layout – create unique layouts for certain content, such as a sidebar, content width, etc.
• Header – create unique page headers for specific content.

You also have a Display Rules and Block Element Type for every element.

You can use Display Rules to target your design to specific content and users. Also, you can make unlimited rules as you want.

You can use the element type to specify where you wish to inject/use this content. You have ten options to choose from:

• Hook
• Site Header
• Page Hero
• Content Template
• Post Meta Template
• Post Navigation
• Archive Navigation
• Right Sidebar
• Left Sidebar
• Site Footer

Having all of these elements kinds opens up a whole new world of possibilities, including full block-based theme building!

6. Full Theme Building Support With GenerateBlocks

With GeneratePress 3.0, you can create full-fledged themes using the native WordPress editor. This is similar to the theme-building functionality provided by plugins like Elementor Pro’s Theme Builder and the Beaver Themer add-on for Beaver Builder.

As previously stated, theme templates can be created using Blocks from GeneratePress Elements. Then, using blocks, you can create your own theme templates. To insert dynamic content (such as a post title or content), you can use the dynamic content feature in the GenerateBlocks plugin and the native theme blocks.

GeneratePress Pricing – GeneratePress Review

A free version of the GeneratePress theme is available on WordPress.org.

If you want to add extra features and access the GeneratePress site library, you may upgrade to GeneratePress Premium, which is actually an add-on plugin that you’ll install alongside the theme.

There are two ways to get GeneratePress Premium, both of which allow you access to all features and use on 500 sites. The only difference is the license term:

• Yearly – $59 per year for one year of support and updates. After the first year, your theme and all premium features will still function, but if you want to keep getting support and updates, you’ll need to renew your license.
• Lifetime – $249 for lifetime support and updates.

GeneratePress Support and Documentation

GeneratePress offers the best support and documentation.

Whatever GeneratePress templates you want to customize, you’ll find plenty of helpful resources and documentation for it. Although if you are using the free version of GeneratePress, you’ll have access to excellent help through a support forum.

GeneratePress provides free support (even for free theme users), where you may ask any question related to GeneratePress and get answers.

Documentation is critical when it comes to theme customization. GeneratePress theme has a massive knowledge base where you can find documentation for every template.

As seen above, you’ll find extensive documentation from general queries to a developer.

GeneratePress Free vs Premium

The free version of GeneratePress is fully functioning. However, we believe that most professional webmasters will want to upgrade to GeneratePress Premium.

Here are a few most vital features you will enjoy when you upgrade to GeneratePress Premium:

• More advanced style and layout options. You can, for example, have more control over your header, colors, blog layouts, and other features. This is one of the key reasons why most people upgrade to GeneratePress Premium.
• GeneratePress Elements This is the advanced custom layouts tool that we mentioned.
• More extensive WooCommerce support, which is essential if you’re starting an eCommerce store.

GeneratePress Review – Pros and Cons

Following are some of the pros and cons of our GeneratePress review.

Pros

• It’s incredibly lightweight and performance-friendly.
• The page-level controls are excellent for working with page builder plugins.
• The typography system is really nice for easily controlling your site’s fonts.
• GeneratePress Elements is incredibly powerful and useful.
• You can use the GenerateBlocks plugin with GeneratePress to extend your theme functionality.
• Extensive documentation and great forum support.

Cons

• GeneratePress’s free version does not include any pre-built importable demo sites.
• While GeneratePress provides full WooCommerce support, it does not have as many integrations as a theme like Astra.
• Less design flexibility in comparison to themes such as Astra or Kadence Theme.

GeneratePress Alternatives

While GeneratePress is an excellent theme, it’s far from the only option for this lightweight, multipurpose approach.

If you’re looking for other GeneratePress alternatives, here are some of the best.

Astra

Astra is a popular GeneratePress alternative that is used by over 1.6 million people worldwide. Learn more in our complete Astra theme review.

Features

• Astra requires less than 50KB of resources.
• It is compatible with page builders such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, and others.
• It is SEO optimized and fully responsive.
• Offers self-hosted Google fonts.
• Astra is completely WooCommerce ready.
• Use layouts to customize anything, including headers, blogs, single pages, posts, etc.
• Astra integrates seamlessly with LifterLMS to help you build an online course website.

Price

Astra offers a free version that is perfect for beginners. If you want to use all of the features included in the Astra theme, you should upgrade to their premium plans.

• Astra Pro: It costs you $49 per year, where you’ll get all Astra Pro modules and premium support from the developer.
• Essential Bundle: It costs you $169 per year, where you’ll get all Astra Pro features with 180+ premium starter templates and WP Portfolio Plugin. Alternatively, you can choose between Ultimate Add-ons for Elementor and Ultimate Add-ons for Beaver Builder. Both of these plugins work well with Astra Pro and are worthwhile additions.
• Growth Bundle: It costs you $249 per year, where you’ll get all Essential Bundle features together with Convert Pro and Schema Pro.

However, these packages can be purchased on a lifetime basis with no yearly fees at $239, $499, and $699, respectively.

Click Here to Get started With Astra Theme Today!

Divi

Divi is more than just a theme. It’s a full design framework that lets you customize every aspect of your website, including the header, footer, single post templates, etc.

It also has a visual editor and over 2,000 predefined website layouts to let you design any type of website. To use the Divi theme, you must have an Elegant Themes membership. Learn more in our complete Divi theme review.

Features

• Divi offers a drag-and-drop builder that is included in the theme.
• 2,000+ pre-made designs.
• Using the Theme Builder feature, you may customize every aspect of your WordPress website.
• Easy to use the split testing tool.
• Highly portability means easy to transfer your layouts and other assets between WordPress websites.
• Divi offers its own set of custom theme options.
• Comes with additional themes and plugins.

Price

Divi has two pricing options: yearly access and lifetime access. You can pay $89 per year for their most popular plan or $249 once for lifetime access and updates. Both plans include access to all themes (Divi and Extra) and plugins (Bloom and Monarch), theme updates, premium support, unlimited website usage, and a risk-free guarantee.

Click Here to Get started With Divi Theme Today!

GeneratePress Review Final Thought

GeneratePress has excellent performance, feature set, support, and pricing. Everything about it is positive.

Paying for the premium version will bring you a long way.

The only disadvantage of GeneratePress is its free version. Compared to other popular high-rated free themes, GeneratePress’s free version pales compared to the premium version. To fully enjoy its benefits, you must purchase the premium version. So, if you don’t want to pay any money, GeneratePress is probably not for you.

Having said that, we believe GeneratePress is well worth the money.

The code quality and level of support, together with the unlimited website usage, make it well worth the money. So if you’ve kept your eye on it, there is no better time than now to get the premium version and begin using it for your projects.

Click Here to Get started With GeneratePress Theme Today!

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