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Today I'm going to talk to you about the GeneratePress theme for WordPress, since most of the people who have tried it no longer want to hear about any other theme, due to the ease of use, flexibility and performance of this template.
So would I have missed something so essential?
To find out, I have decided to do a very detailed test of this topic, which is very much in the news (forever).
I will focus on its handling, customization, impact on performance and SEO, and its value for money.
So am I going to fall in love at first sight at the same time? Answer at the end of this article, which means that you will have to read all this content very wisely (without skipping a paragraph, I will look at you).
And that way, at the same time you can find out if I really am a loser.
In the meantime, discover the summary:
- What is GeneratePress?
- How easy to handle
- Theme customization: discover the 14 premium modules
- What adaptation for page builders and plugins?
- What user experience does a site have that uses GeneratePress?
- What value for money?
- Our final opinion
GeneratePress What is it?
A theme that rises, rises, rises, rises, rises
But who will dare to criticize GeneratePress (I will often abbreviate it as GP throughout this article)? Yeah, who's going to find something wrong with it? A crack?
If you start your research on the topic reviews page, good luck.
Out of 788 user reviews, GeneratePress received the highest rating (5 stars) 780 times! Personally, I have seen this very rarely, if ever, before.
The handful of people who presented a more mixed opinion regretted, by way of example, that the topic "It is not completely free", "It is not multilingual" or "Lacks design".
I don't know what you think, but we've had worse negative reviews, haven't we?
Since we are talking about numbers, let's keep talking. GP has already been downloaded nearly 2 million times, is active on over 100,000 sites, and has nearly 40,000 satisfied customers.
This is a freemium theme - it is available completely free from the official WordPress directory.
If you want more options, you can get the premium version ($49.95, or € 44). I'll come back to all its specifics a bit later, don't worry.
For the record, this critically acclaimed theme was created 5 years ago by a 20-year-old Canadian developer / designer named Tom Usborne.
The success is such that he had to put aside his freelance activity to dedicate himself to the 100% on his subject.
A theme created with performance in mind
As he explained in this interview, Usborne created GeneratePress so that he could use it as "A lightweight foundation for your own clients".
"The perfect lightness theme for your next project"says your product home page.
Without a doubt: GP focuses on performance. He is well known (and rightly so) for it.
Ultralight, the track is considered one of the fastest on the market. As you will see in Part V, our speed results speak for themselves.
It must be said that with it, a default WordPress installation does not weigh more than 30kb.
At the same time, Tom Usborne makes it an honor to use clean code that respects WordPress standards.
Now that you know a little more about this topic, I suggest you go into more detail by addressing a first fundamental point: manageability.
GeneratePress Features Summary
East freemium theme offers many useful features and benefits:
- It is SEO-Friendly
- It is well coded and secure
- We can easily operate on sensitive design
- Supports most page builders
- It is compatible with WooCommerce
- Customer service is effective
Unfortunately, GeneratePress in the free version seems to be too limited. You will then need to use the Pro version to successfully implement your web projects.
We will compare these two versions throughout this article.
The free version is directly available from the official WordPress directory and has over 200,000 active installs with over 99.9% of reviews rated 5 stars. That is how much it is appreciated!
Who is GeneratePress for?
If you are a true WordPress beginner, you might be disappointed with the GeneratePress installation: At first glance, it seems simple, basic and uninteresting.
This is often the case for many topics, you you will have to configure it to make your site look like something!
This is precisely the role of the options available in the tabAppearance> Customize of all WordPress sites (or almost).
The advantage is that GeneratePress doesn't offer a whole battalion of options, as per example OceanWP.
This simplifies the work.
Only the most important options are there and above all, they are well classified so that you can immediately understand where on the site you are working (not the case for all topics, trust me!).
Thus, it could be said that GeneratePress is Aimed at bloggers or site builders concerned about their WordPress performance and referencing.
At the same time it is the ideal theme for those who have a tight budget because the pro version is offered at a very reasonable price: $49.95 per year for an unlimited number of sites!
With a 40% discount when renewing the license….
The blogger will find his way around the cost, the freelancer and the web agency at the same time will be able to reduce their costs since 1 license makes it possible to create several sites.
Where to start with GeneratePress?
To get started with GP, it is extremely simple.
All you have to do is go to the tab Appearance> Themes> Add that you will find in the administration part of your site.
To look for "Generatepress" then click install Then in Activate.
For more information on installing WordPress themes, here is a guide that can help you.
From then on, your site has changed its appearance and you can start customizing it.
But for the moment, you will not be able to enter all the options.
If you wish, you must install the paid version of GeneratePress that will unlock all access.
You can get this premium version from the official website and install it as a plugin.
In other words, you will keep the free theme active and you will add a extension that will bring many customization possibilities that we will discover together ...
Is it easy to handle?
Theme installation process
Let's start by detailing the installation process of the theme. To use it, it is even better
The easiest option is to use the WordPress Dashboard.
Go to Appearance> Themes. Then, at the top of the page, click Add.
In the search bar, enter GeneratePress, then install and activate the theme.
And that's it, GeneratePress is now installed on your site, congratulations.
Without further ado, let's see what its parameters have in store for us.
The superpowers of the customization tool
One of the main strengths of the theme is its ease of use and handling.
With it, you will not get lost and intuition will take over. All settings are grouped together in the WordPress customization tool, accessible through the Appearance menu> Customize.
Change gasworks themes full of options that drown us under the information.
More specifically, this is what you will get at your disposal with GeneratePress:
- Layout: I develop it right after.
- Colors: change the colors of the text, links, background, etc.
- Typography: You can choose from over 50 Google fonts and adjust the size, line height, and paragraph margin of your font.
- General: You can enable a dynamic CSS cache generated by your options to increase performance.
I will dwell in a little more detail on the Layout option, which allows you to modify:
- The container: you can set its width so that its center fills the entire screen size, for example.
- The header: by For example, adjust the location of your header and align it to the left, right, or center.
- The main navigation: change its internal and external width, its alignment, add a search bar. In the menu position, you can even embed it in the sidebar on the left or right.
- Side bars: to change the layout of the side bars.
- The footer: the theme makes it possible to add a return arrow at the top of the page and offers widgets with up to 5 footers.
- The blog: You can choose to show an extract of your article or the entirety of it.
Race report: everything is very easy to handle. If you are a beginner, you will love it.
Apart from this, if you do not have a minimum command of the code (CSS and PHP in particular), you must recognize that the customization options are still quite limited.
Remember: the theme bias is to emphasize performance.
But don't worry, I have the solution. Well, Tom has it mostly, to be precise.
If you installed the theme at home while reading this article, you may have noticed the presence of a GeneratePress menu in Appearance> Customize.
Inside, you will find 14 Premium modules that will allow you to go much further in customizing the theme.
These modules will be automatically added to the WordPress customization tool once you have purchased them.
You have to wonder what they are like. Stay here, I'll tell you all about it in the next part.
3 / The customization of the theme: discover the 14 Premium modules
Technically speaking, GeneratePress Premium is a plugin that will be added to your theme.
You can get it on the theme's main page by clicking the Premium tab or button, then the button Get it now (price: 49,95$ or € 44).
Once the payment is made, you will find a link at the bottom of the confirmation page to download the GP Premium extension.
Otherwise go to Account> Downloads and select GP Premium.
Download it and install the plugin on your site. Now, I suggest you specifically dive into modules.
You will find them in Appearance > GeneratePress.
In total, there are 14 of them that we will detail below.
You can see that you must enable them if you want to use them (this is not the case by default).
This is called a modular structure, and it avoids loading files and functions that will not be used.
As Tom Usborne explains, “You won't notice a big difference in loading time, but it helps keep things simple.
We are validating, Mr. Developer.
At this level, I would like to draw your attention to two points:
- Remember to fill in your User License (menu Upgrades, to the right of the previous screenshot) to enable automatic updates.
- The WooCommerce module can only work if you have previously activated the famous e-commerce plugin.
Come on, it's time to discuss each option in detail.
Background
We start with background.
To activate the module, click the button Activate.
Now go back to the customization tool. And there, magic: you will notice that the Background Images module has just appeared.
Thanks to it, you will be able to add background images in all the components of your site individually: header, navigation (main menu and drop-down), content, sidebar, footer, etc.
Depending on the selected area, you can customize it very finely by choosing to display the photo in full width, just as a cover, etc.
Look at the result in my navigation menu, as an example:
Without transition, we move on to the next module: Blog.
Blog
You're getting used to it: to find this module, you have to go back to the WordPress customization tool, at Layout> Blog.
Compared to the free version of the theme, you will notice that the options are much more abundant.
As for the rest, the principle is really very simple: check and uncheck the options you want.
As an example, you can show the date, the author's name, the number of comments, the excerpt size, the text to be highlighted to read the rest, the cover images, etc.
At the same time it is possible to display your articles in columns (up to 5) to create a masonry effect.
At the same time, I liked:
- the function of infinite scroll which enables you to activate the display of your articles as the visitor navigates through your page.
- the fact of having divided the settings of the general page of the Blog (Records) and those of the articles in particular (Unique). Thanks to this, you can customize each item with precision.
Colors
You have just viewed the content. Let's move on to the colors. With the GP Premium plugin, you have access to more than 60 color options.
At this level, the customization is really advanced. As an example, you can:
- assign a color for each title level (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5).
- Choose a different color for your links in general, and selected links.
- Change the color of your buttons (text and mouse background), etc.
- Customize the colors of your menu and submenu (text, background, mouse hover, chosen link).
Credits
How many times have you been in your head to change your site credits (copyright)? If you want to do it by hand, you have to go through the code, find the correct file, and pray a little not to break everything, you have to say so.
With this module, everything becomes simple. Go to Design > Footer. You will see a Copyright section where you only have to enter the text of your choice.
Deactivation items
Disable Elements It is a module that I love. It enables you to deactivate items in the content of your choice.
Let's take a page, as an example. At the bottom of your content, you can temporarily clear the display of the header, footer, navigation, etc.
This can be very useful for creating your own landing pages, as an example.
Elements
Elements is a more advanced module that allows you to customize 3 types of items:
- The header (GeneratePress page header).
- Hooks (a hook, in French, is an entry point to a WordPress function).
- The Layout (the layout).
You will find this module at Appearance> Items.
With it, you will really be able to go a long way in customizing the theme.
As an example, you can create a custom header that will only display on your Blog page using specific rules.
Or you can design a standard layout that will only apply to all of your articles.
Lastly, while still technical, you can take advantage of the power of GeneratePress hooks, if you are closely interested in them. I advise you to do so.
The element Hook him makes it possible to add pieces of code in about 40 different places.
An example of how to use the hooks? As an example, you can use the name wp_head to add the Google Analytics tracking code.
For more information, do not hesitate to consult the documentation on the subject, which is very well designed.
The only thing that is wrong is that it is in English. But I'm pretty sure you understand a bit of Shakespearean language ;-).
This module enables you to configure:
- A sticky menuIn other words, a menu that remains pasted at the top of the screen, even when the user scrolls down the page.
- A sliding menu, a menu that is highlighted on the screen - left or right - when a visitor clicks on the dedicated hamburger icon.
It is definitely possible to customize the menu colors and fonts by activating the modules Colors and Typography.
Secondary navigation will makes it possible to add a second menu if you have additional information to display.
This can be useful, by way of example, to add items on the header (by way of example, email, phone number, links to your social networks, call to action button, etc.).
To do this, you must first create a second menu in Appearance> Menus, by example.
Later, in Layout> Secondary Navigation, You can customize the position of this new menu by displaying it, as an example, above the header, below the main menu, floating left or right, etc.).
Sections
Sections is a module that works as a mini page builder, since it allows you to create blocks that contain your own content, which you can then drag and drop (all this is set by checking the box Use sections in your page).
However, don't expect such advanced options as in Elementor, Divi or Beaver Builder.
This is still very basic and only saves you time designing your pages.
Other than this, if you use Gutenberg on your website, you won't necessarily have much interest in using the Sections module, which is still less comprehensive or less meaningful.
Distance
The module Spacing add additional options in the menu Configure page of the customization tool to manage the padding (internal margin) of your content, header and widgets, or the width and height between menu items.
Typography
Now, let's look at the script font case through the menu Typography.
For each element of your site (body text, header, navigation bar, buttons, titles, widgets, footer), the module allows you to choose the font of your choice and modify it:
- Your fat.
- Its size.
- Display in uppercase or lowercase.
- The height of the line and the margin between paragraphs (for the body of the text).
WooCommerce
Yes, WooCommerce can work with GeneratePress!
More specifically, there is a dedicated premium module, which requires that you have already activated WooCommerce on your site beforehand.
Below you will find all the settings available in Design> WooCommerce.
Notable options include:
- The ability to display your products in multiple columns.
- The visualization or not of options such as the description of your product, the button to add to the cart, the title and the image of the product, the associated products, etc.
- Color management for titles, annotations, texts, buttons, prices, etc.
If you are interested in creating and customizing a WooCommerce store, I suggest you watch this video from the WPMarmite channel on YouTube:
library
The Site Library is a collection of 33 ready-to-use site designs that you can install in a couple of clicks.
If you like a style, you can end up with a ready-to-go site without doing anything.
Not bad, although it necessarily lacks a bit of customization. It is up to you to see what is right for you.
The module imports the contents and even installs the necessary extensions for the template to work properly!
Be careful though, some require Beaver Builder Pro Version or Elementor Pro to be enabled on your site to work.
Apart from this, if a demo no longer suits you and you want to go back to the classic version of the song, you will have to do everything by hand.
Thus, you will have to remove your articles, pages, plugins, menus, widgets, etc. The theme doesn't make it possible, and frankly, to get back to its original settings, good luck.
As an example, I had installed the demo of Tasty to see how the import works.
On that side, no problem: everything is done in about ten seconds and you come across a site that fits the detail presented in the preview.
However, when cleaning, it is important to think about removing and changing everything, including colors and font.
Otherwise, this is what it looks like: You will be
okay, it still doesn't have the design look of the starting theme… ..
Import Export
The tour of these modules is completed with Import Export.
This feature, which you will find on the right in Appearance > GenerarPrensa, allows you to import or export the settings of the customization tool to add them to another site, as an example.
4 / GeneratePress and page builders
GeneratePress loves page builders and says it loud and clear: ladies and gentlemen, it's a"Friendly page builder".
If you have these two little favorites - Elementor and Beaver Builder, which you are promoting in your Site Library module, it promises to be incredibly integrated with any other page builder.
I could not test the theme with all the page builders on the market, you can imagine.
Other than this, I had fun crushing it with Beaver Builder. And I can guarantee you that the two are the perfect couple.
But then why is GeneratePress so convenient, along with a builder page? Well, because with it, you have full control over the structure of each page:
- You can choose to show 1 or 2 sidebars (or zero).
- You can disable the title of your pages.
- You can choose the number of widgets to display (from 0 to 5).
- You can disable the items you don't use (eg footer, header, navigation menu).
And above all, you can easily choose to display your site in full width, or not.
In the past, as an example, I used the Genesis framework, and was a bit annoyed at this level with some of its child themes when I used a page builder.
To make sure my content is displayed in full width, I had to use a plugin called Genesis Dambuster.
With GeneratePress, you no longer have to worry about this.
GeneratePress and plugins
After the page builders, let's move on to the plugins. One of the "fears" of the webmaster is the accounting of the theme he uses with the plugins he will use.
Because if you have a problem at your disposal, your site may crash. And that's not funny to anyone.
In fact, if you ever find yourself in a bind on this topic, feel free to check out our guide to fixing the main WordPress errors.
With the Tom Usborne theme, you can live more serenely. Definitely, no one is immune to an insect.
But as Usborne says, "Thanks to our obsession with complying with WordPress code standards, you can rest easy knowing that your favorite plugins will easily integrate with our theme."
GeneratePress and Gutenberg
Gutenberg. With all the hype around the new WordPress content editor, I'm pretty sure you've heard of it.
As a reminder, Gutenberg has been officially integrated with WordPress version 5.0, released in November 2018.
For those who are reluctant, note that you can still use the old editor by using the Classic Editor extension.
After that, you will have to start a day. If you choose GeneratePress, you will not have to worry about it because it fits very well with Gutenberg.
And that is a real advantage. Too many themes on famous sales platforms like Themeforest say they are compatible with Gutenberg.
But when you dig a little deeper, you realize that they are still a long way off.
Among the cool features of the GP with Gutenberg, I could mention you guys:
- An option to disable the display of titles with a single click.
- The ability to display your content full width to erase your gutter.
5 / What user experience does a site using GeneratePress have?
Influence on site performance
To position a page in its search engine, Google uses more than 200 criteria.
Among them is the speed of your page. Thus, it is crucial that it charges quickly (Google recommends a charging time of less than 3 seconds for mobile phones).
In the same way, you will make a nice gift to your visitors, who hate to wait. To convince yourself of this, take these two statistics (source), as an example:
- 47% of consumers expect a page to load in less than 2 seconds.
- A slow load time of one second would cause a 7% reduction in conversions.
You have the context. It remains to be seen if GeneratePress will make the link on the subject of performance.
It must be said that you have no right to make mistakes and that we are waiting for you on your turn. Your main selling point is performance.
As Tom Usborne points out, "Making GeneratePress faster and more efficient is one of my top priorities".
To be safe, I ran a series of tests on him.
This is how I did it:
- Test services used: WebPageTest (using Paris as the location each time) with consideration of the criterion of "fully charged" (when the site is fully charged, including external scripts and apps); Pingdom Tools (using London as the location each time).
- Test site hosted on a shared o2switch server.
- I have not activated any plugins and GP Premium is not installed.
- I compared GeneratePress to another popular free theme (Sydney, 200,000 active installs) from the official WordPress directory.
Test in WebPageTest with GeneratePress enabled: load time 0.942s (fully loaded)
Test on WebPageTest with Sydney enabled: 2,237s load time (at full load)
Test in Pingdom Tools with GeneratePress enabled: 504ms load time
Test in Pingdom Tools with Sydney enabled: 2.03s load time As
you can see, the GP loading time is very fast (less than a second between the two services).
The theme is at the same time much more efficient than its competitor Sydney (2 to 4 times more efficient).
At the same time, GP makes fewer requests and the weight of the page is still very light (24.5KB against… 473.5 KB for Sydney). I would like to point out that the content was exactly the same for both topics.
In this way at this level, there was no deception about the merchandise. GeneratePress is a lightweight theme.
To go further on this topic, the theme developer recommends installing the Autoptimize extension.
But if you already use a full cache plugin like WP Rocket, you won't need it.
Note: Previous results provide a first overview, but cannot be considered a final and definitive judgment. You can have different data at home, depending on your hosting or the plugins you use.
SEO optimization
At this level, GeneratePress does things quite well.
As an example, use valid HTML code, which will not complicate the life of search engines that will visit your site.
Tom Usborne at the same time strives to minimize the scripts and styles, so that the subject is as light as possible.
So keep in mind that GeneratePress uses structured data from Schema.org. This is an HTML tagging method that helps Google understand what type of content you have.
In conclusion, there are no problems with title tags (h1, h2, h3, h4, etc.). In fact, there is one h1 title per page (you don't need more than one, be careful) and the h2 and h3 titles.
Note: If you are interested in SEO and want to explore the subject, do not hesitate to enroll in WPMarmite's special training course "In conclusion visible through SEO".
Responsive
In 2019 a responsive site (that can adapt to computers, tablets and smartphones) is essential.
For the user experience, of course, but at the same time for your SEO. Since March 2018, Google has implemented what is called mobile-first indexing.
This means that Google primarily uses the mobile device version of your site to index and position your pages in its search engine results.
When you think about it, nothing could be more logical: the French now use their smartphones more than their computers to surf the Internet.
What if you plan to use GeneratePress? To find out, we used a very practical tool: Google's mobile optimization test.
Here is the result:
Result? There are no issues to report. The page is adapted to mobile phones.
6 / What is the quality / price ratio?
GP is accessible first of all for free via the official WordPress directory.
To take advantage of all its features, you will have to choose the paid version and get the GP Premium plugin, which I presented to you previously in this article.
It will cost you 49,95$ (€ 44) and you will benefit from the following options:
- Use on an unlimited number of sites.
- 1 year of support and updates included. In terms of support, the response is very positive. The customer feedback that I was able to consult highlights the responsiveness of the developer (even for users of the free version). At the same time, he usually responds in person in the forum dedicated to the subject.
- 40% discount on theme renewal (for a total of € 26).
- 30 day money back guarantee.
Personally, I find the value for money excellent. Take a look, as an example, at how it compares to some of the competing solutions on the market:
- The most important: Most of the themes sold on the platform cost on average around 59$. They are not always usable on an unlimited number of sites and include 6 months of support.
- OceanWP: This ultra popular theme that Alex introduced you on Theme Instant costs $129 in premium for use on an unlimited number of sites.
- Astra: another theme known for its performance and very similar to GeneratePress. It will cost you $59 to use on an unlimited number of sites.
- Genesis: the frame itself costs $59.95 but you will have to buy a children's theme (generally priced at $129.95 for both). However, support and updates are permanently included and the theme does not need to be renewed.
7 / Conclusion
If you've gotten there you must have a little idea what I think of GP, but I suggest you summarize it.
The strengths of GeneratePress
- An easy to use theme, intuitive and flexible thanks to modules that can be activated and deactivated with a single click.
- Exclusive use of the WordPress customization tool.
- A theme accessible to all types of users: whether you are a beginner or an advanced user, you will find your account there.
- A theme that updates normally and is properly maintained. Tom Usborne is almost exclusively dedicated to this project (at the same time he develops plugins). The topic has already existed for 5 years and is growing exponentially: in principle, there is no indication that it will fall into disuse in the coming months.
- Documentation and support.
- The price: GeneratePress is still a great value for money product.
- A theme optimized for SEO and really effective.
- A clean code that respects the WordPress standards.
- The theme at the same time focuses on accessibility following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
- GeneratePress is translated into a score of languages.
Improvement areas
- Some options are not translated into French, which sometimes makes understanding a bit more complex, especially when it becomes technical. Let's take the module secondary navigation, by example. Well, it is not the sea to drink either. Through testing, we can quickly understand what this is all about.
- It is difficult to return to the basic version of the theme after installing a demo of the module. Site library. It is a pity that the option to go back to basic settings is not available.
- The use of the module Sections disable Gutenberg on the post in question (not on the rest of the site). This way you will have to use the GeneratePress or Gutenberg module, but not both. Personally, I think Gutenberg is more appropriate for building designs with minimal effort. And to go even further, nothing will be better than a good page builder on this topic.
- There is no option to pay for the item once and for all (such as the Elegant Themes Definitive License, as an example). Must renew every year.
Who is the topic for?
The theme adapts to any type of audience:
- Beginning creators they will appreciate its ease of use and handling. Clearly, finding all the options directly in the customization tool is a great advantage that will make your life easier.
- More experienced users will appreciate the presence of many hooks and filters. You will find them in the GeneratePress documentation and the theme developer at the same time provides almost 250 pieces of code on Git.
- As a general rule of thumb, users who are concerned about performance and the impact this can have on their SEO will be seduced by GP. If you are a freelancer (*), or at least a regular site builder, you can use it as a specific base (kind of starter theme) on which to build your site, for example with a page builder. In the latter case, the free version may already be more than enough.
(*)Note: in this regard, if you are interested in developing your activity as a site builder, WPMarmite offers the Become an accomplished WordPress freelancer training..
You have the last word
You are at the end of this article on the GeneratePress theme in WordPress.
In closing, you have discovered in particular:
- How to install this theme and its premium version on your WordPress.
- Main features and customization options.
- The impact it can have on your site's performance, SEO, and user experience.
Personally, this topic completely convinced me during my test. I will use it for future projects.
To obtain it, go to the official website through the button below.
The official website of GeneratePress
And what is your opinion about GeneratePress?
You use it? Planning to start soon?
