Genesis Theme and GeneratePress are the go-to theme options for creating WordPress websites.
In terms of lightweight and optimized WordPress themes, Genesis has a big reputation.
On the other hand, GeneratePress has a straightforward approach, making website creation easy and flexible for beginners and newbies.
The main difference between Genesis theme and GeneratePress is the approach of these platforms.
If you want to customize Genesis child themes, you still need to code a lot, using CSS and function. With Genesis themes, it’s obvious it has a developer-friendly approach for creating websites.
On the other hand, GeneratePress has easy and on the go customization options available that give full control over all the design aspects.
It’s not easy to make the final comment on which is reliable and which isn’t.
To have an insider view on these theme providers, we have written an in-depth side by side comparison of Genesis Theme and GeneratePress. We have covered all the comparison aspects, such as performance, speed, customization options, website building experience, ease of use, and so on.
Read on to know which is the best option available for you.
Genesis Theme vs GeneratePress: Overview
Genesis Theme Overview
Genesis Theme is popular and has some of the best WordPress themes available. Genesis Theme is well-known for its flexibility, clean code, customization options, and responsiveness.
However, to start building a website with Genesis child theme, you’ll need to install the Genesis Framework before you start building your website.
Genesis Framework is a reliable and popular theme framework that enables developers and WordPress users to create child themes and design WordPress websites with ease.
We have featured an in-depth Genesis Framework review to help you gain deep insights into this platform.
Getting started with the Genesis Framework and Genesis Themes is easy. To start building the WordPress website, you need first to install the Genesis Framework and then a Genesis child theme. Installing the Genesis Framework and the child theme will enable you to start customizing the theme and building a website from scratch.
Genesis themes give you flexible control of the design and appearance of your website. The appearance options include layouts, design, colors, typography, etc.
What’s more, Genesis Framework is popular, and there are hundreds of premium child themes available. You have the flexibility to choose from both free and premium Genesis child themes for different niches and business types.
The best part is that the Genesis Framework is flexible, SEO optimized, and has clean code. In conclusion, it provides fast loading times that help it perform better on search engines as well.
GeneratePress Overview
GeneratePress is another WordPress theme available. GeneratePress appeals to WordPress lovers because of its fully-fledged free theme.
The GeneratePress premium version comes as a robust WordPress theme right out of the box.
Truly, the premium version outranks the free version with a huge library of templates, customization options, and robust design options.
This theme has a minimal approach and is lightweight, which makes it a perfect choice to create any kind of professional website with ease.
Regardless of your expertise and knowledge, GeneratePress makes it super easy to create fully functional websites. GeneratePress has an importable library of demo sites that can help you build fully-functional websites on the go.
What’s more, it works like a charm with all major WordPress page builder plugins such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi, etc.
GeneratePress vs Genesis: Key Features
Now that we have the basic take away between GeneratePress and Genesis, it’s time to check out the features offered by these themes providers.
Genesis Key Features
Here we have listed the features that make Genesis the best option available for a reliable WordPress theme.
SEO Optimized
The best part of the Genesis Framework and Genesis theme is that they are fully SEO optimized. The Genesis child themes have clean code, and it’s fully SEO optimized to help you perform better on search engines.
Widget Ready
The Genesis child themes offered by StudioPress are fully widget-ready. The widget option makes it super easy to add robust features and customizations. With the Genesis widgets options, you can add sidebars, social media sharing buttons, opt-in forms, and so much more.
Theme Options
The premium Genesis child themes come with flexible theme options. You can use the Genesis theme option to get up and running in minutes and start customizing your website on the go.
Easy to Use Theme Customizer
The premium Genesis child themes come with a flexible and easy to use Theme customizer. You can use the theme customizer to tweak all the theme’s settings, color, scheme, background images, and content. You can also check all the changes in real-time.
Page Templates
Almost all the premium Genesis child themes provide fully-customizable page templates, which makes it super easy to create new websites. You can even customize the templates to meet the look and feel of your website.
This isn’t the end of the features list for Genesis theme; there’s a long list.
GeneratePress Key Features
GeneratePress is well-known for minimal design and tons of notable features that enhance the website creation process.
Let’s have a look at some of the features offered by GeneratePress.
Optimized Performance & Fast Loading Time
Performance and fast website loading matter the most for a reliable WordPress theme. GeneratePress has always focused on providing optimal performance and clean code. The best part is that the size of GeneratePress is somewhere around 30 KB, making it lightweight and fast loading.
Robust Theme Customization Options
The GeneratePress premium version comes with easy customization options. It enables you to take control of all the design aspects of your website. Speaking of the layout options, you can easily configure and alter each element of your theme, which includes the header, footer, sidebar, typography, post archives, and more.
Easy Page-Level Settings
Most WordPress themes come with the same default settings for all pages, although you usually have the option to change the blog post layout or to eliminate slider bars. GeneratePress gives you the option of changing layout anywhere you like with a dedicated meta box for every single post and page.
Pre-built Starter Websites & Templates
GeneratePress gives an easy way to build a fully-functional WordPress site from scratch with fully-customizable templates and starter website templates.
With starter website templates, you can easily create a fully-functional WordPress website/blog on the go. It has a vast library with a repository of pre-made demo websites.
So, these are some of the handpicked and popular features of GeneratePress. This isn’t, however, the complete list of features for GeneratePress.
Genesis Theme vs GeneratePress: (Side by Side Comparison)
The Customization Options
Genesis Theme Customization
Genesis Themes are easy to customize in order to help you meet the look and feel of your website.
While some of the premium Genesis themes come with flexible customization options, some of them lack essential customization options, and in this case, you need to have some type of coding knowledge or technical background to customize the Genesis child themes.
Genesis Framework and Genesis child themes are best suited to developers and tech-savvy people.
Developers use Genesis Framework to create child themes and to get a head start with the flexible underlying code, features, and ease of use.
The customization options available with Genesis theme aren’t that complex. They enable you to customize the layout, design, color, typography, widgets area, and so on.
To summarize, with Genesis themes, you won’t find that flexible customization if you’re someone who is miles away from coding. If you’re a coder or developer, Genesis has great, flexible customization options.
GeneratePress Customization
The customization options available with the GeneratePress theme are flexible and easy. The GeneratePress theme gives you full control of the design of your website.
With the theme customizer, you can easily adjust the theme colors and typography. The premium version has a styling option for nearly every visible element.
The GeneratePress theme gives full control of your website layout on all devices, including desktop and mobile. There are various layout control options available, such as padding, margins, sidebar layouts, and much more.
What’s more, GeneratePress is a page builder-friendly, which makes the theme more customizable and user-friendly. With page builder integration, you’ll have more control over your customization and design options.
Speed & Performance: Which One is the Fastest?
Let’s check which theme provides blazing fast loading times and good performance on search engines.
Genesis Theme
As I have mentioned earlier, Genesis themes lack in customization options. If you need customization options, you will need to install third-party plugins such as Genesis Simple Hooks, Genesis Simple Edits, etc.
At some point, when you install and activate enough of these plugins, it will slow down your overall loading time. For this reason, you need to be very selective about what plugin you’re installing and using.
The plugin won’t contribute that much to your loading time, but you need to consider every aspect while choosing any theme.
GeneratePress
First of all, the GeneratePress theme is less than 30 kb, which makes it lightweight. GeneratePress has both a fast page loading time along with good response time.
The GeneratePress theme is well optimized, and a good to go option for creating a WordPress site. If you try to use some heavy elements, however, that will affect your website’s loading time.
The Final Word on Speed & Performance
The core Genesis Framework is well-coded for providing better performance and fast loading times. However, if you install other third-party plugins to make customizations, it will affect the loading time.
On the other hand, GeneratePress is lightweight, with easy customization options, making it the best choice available for beginners looking to create a WordPress website.
Genesis Theme vs GeneratePress: The Pricing Battle
Let’s explore the pricing plans of Genesis Theme and GeneratePress and determine which one is the best value for money and why.
Genesis Pricing
To start building your WordPress website, you’ll need the Genesis Framework and Genesis Theme. Genesis Framework alone costs $59.95. The StudioPress Genesis child themes will cost you $99.95, or you can buy any premium Genesis child theme bundled with Genesis Framework(Genesis Framework + Premium Child Theme) for $129.
The best part is that StudioPress- the main brand behind Genesis Framework– has hundreds of Genesis themes available.
You can choose from a plethora of premium Genesis child themes; you can explore the StudioPress directory to choose the best one.
Also, if you have an agency, you have the option to purchase the Pro Plus All-Theme Package, which costs $499.95.
The plan includes Genesis Framework access, as well as all the existing themes available in StudioPress, and the packages also include all upcoming Genesis child themes.
GeneratePress Pricing
GeneratePress pricing is flexible and affordable, which makes it the best budget WordPress theme available.
GeneratePress has a freemium version with limited features and customization options.
On the other hand, the GeneratePress premium version is stacked with all the essential and advanced features that enhance the website building experience.
The GeneratePress premium version costs $49.95 a year, including all premium modules and full access to the pre-built website templates.
You can use GP aka GeneratePress premium on as many websites as you like, but there are limitations on theme usage.
Along with the themes, you will also get one year of premium theme updates and customer support.
The best part is that once your yearly license plan is over, GeneratePress offers a 40% discount on license key renewal.
What’s more, GeneratePress theme is backed with a 30 day money-back guarantee. If the themes don’t fulfill your requirements, you can request for your money back.
Customer Support & Theme Updates
Genesis Theme Support
StudioPress, the main brand behind Genesis child theme and Genesis Framework, are well known for providing responsive and fast customer support.
Over time, StudioPress has built a huge community of developers and web designers from all over the world. StudioPress knows how important customer support is, and it’s why they take a more modular approach to customer support.
StudioPress provides email and forum support to solve your queries and issues. In addition to those, you’ll also be getting an in-depth library of documentation from StudioPress, which holds a plethora of step by step guides and tutorials.
StudioPress also has a top-notch community that has thousands of active members. GeneratePress has a fully-fledged forum with a community of developers and web designers from all over the world.
What’s more, all the StudioPress Genesis child themes come with dedicated documentation to help you customize the theme you choose.
Overall, Genesis theme has solid customer support; you don’t need to worry about the customer support here.
GeneratePress Theme Support
GeneratePress takes customer support seriously; the customer support team is keen to help you out at any time.
With GP, aka GeneratePress premium, comes one year of premium customer support, and as an activation license key holder you have full access to and priority status for customer support.
GeneratePress has a popular forum where you can ask your queries and get real-time responses from both active members and GP support staff.
What’s more, GeneratePress has a huge amount of documentation, including step by step walkthroughs, for complete website creation as well as other types of setup. Also, GeneratePress provides top-notch optimization tips to help you optimize your website for better performance.
If you also have some questions before you buy, you can go and ask them right away; they would be happy to help and guide you.
Genesis Theme vs GeneratePress: Pros & Cons
Genesis Framework Pros
- Lightweight and fast
- Hundreds of child themes available
- Simple and affordable pricing
- Flexible layouts and customization
- Clean code and fully SEO Optimized
- Reliable customer support and forum
- Easy customization options with customizer live preview
Genesis Framework Cons
- You need to purchase a bundle, Genesis Theme and Genesis Framework, to create a website.
GeneratePress Pros
- Performance focused
- Fully secure and stable
- Lightweight with a 30kb size
- Provides blazing fast loading speeds
- Fully search engine optimized
- Supports hooks and filters
- Built-in schema.org structured data
- Theme supports all major page builders
GeneratePress Cons
- Single pricing, with no flexible pricing options available
Conclusion: Which One is Best for You?
Both Genesis Themes and GeneratePress are reliable choices available for customization, design options, and performance.
If you’re a developer and have some kind of coding experience, the Genesis theme is the best choice. Because the Genesis Framework has a developer-friendly approach, it is necessary that you have some kind of coding knowledge to customize your website.
Although it’s easy to create a professional website with Genesis Themes, when it comes to customizing your theme, you need expertise and coding knowledge to navigate it.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to build a stunning website on the go with no coding and no extra fuss, GeneratePress is the best affordable WordPress theme available.
With plenty of fully-customizable templates and demo website templates, it is super easy for beginners to create a stunning website. With affordable pricing at $49 a year, GeneratePress is the best deal available for beginners, as it’s both a beginner-friendly and affordable WordPress theme.
You should choose a theme that fits your workflow style.
Have you tried the Genesis Theme or GeneratePress before? If not, which WordPress themes have you tried before, and what was your experience? Which one are you going to choose, GeneratePress or Genesis?
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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