GeneratePress: Responsive Versatile Wordpress Theme, Even the Free Version
I noticed some discussions here about GeneratePress as a fast and versatile Wordpress theme, and I decided to give it a try on an old site of mine that I'm revising before bringing it over to be hosted at WA. I assumed I would need to pay the fee (close to fifty dollars, usable for all your sites) to get the theme's pro version, and I suppose some reason still might come up for me to do that, but WOW I am impressed with how much you can change around--colors, fonts, layout,etc.--with the free version.
So I installed the free version in the usual way in my Wordpress backend. Before I took the old theme off, I checked my speed using GTMetrix, a plugin you won't need for any WA site. But I had it there and with my old theme, this site was not doing great. I don't know the exact meanings of the numbers I'm about to tell you, but the comparison is good enough. GTMetrix said that the page speed was 86%, for a grade of B. The yslow (no idea what that is) was a C at 77%. So then I made GeneratePress the active theme, but didn't remove the old one in case I wanted to go back to it. Well, the same site with GeneratePress was A for pagespeed, with a score of 95% and B for yslow, at 80%. I was impressed. And I hadn't even started getting rid of a bunch of plugins I didn't need. I soon dumped the old theme too.
(Since I got rid of GTMetrix, I just now went to its website and ran the same test. WELL, with my site mostly cleaned up the pagespeed is 100% and the Yslow is 91%. Both get grade A.)
So back to messing around with the theme.. in my wordpress backend I went to the left sidebar, where it says Appearances. I clicked on Themes. There I read the description of the theme, and I liked what I read. Next I clicked on Customize and don't be surprised when you do this, with this theme or any other, because the whole appearance changes. There is a completely different left sidebar, where you can see the effects of changes you can make in a variety of categories. They will be different with different themes. In this case I saw
- Site identity
- Layout
- Colors
- Typography
- General
- Menus
- Widgets
- Homepage settings,
- Additional CSS
At the top of this list, there is a link in red letters that says Premium Modules Available. Click on that to go to their site and find out about the goodies. Or don't bother.
So I messed around with the settings and changed a bunch of colors. I was pleased to see that the main bar across the site did not have to stay the stark black it was.
But I was not pleased that there was only one menu you could display with the free version because I wanted two: a main one with the five topics the site is about and then another one for About, Contact, Earnings Disclosure, and Privacy Policy. Okay, I would buy the premium site to get that, I thought, until I began playing around with the widgets. Among them was one for a top sidebar. Hooray, I could put a menu on there for the second items. I did, and I also put a statement about it being an affiliate site in the same sidebar. I couldn't find a way to make that widget also be blue so it remains a black. I can live with that.
If you go to the Generatepress website (which is that word plus dot com) and scroll to the bottom, there is more help about using the theme. I found some answers in the Documentation section. If you want to see some examples of how the theme looks, go to Google or your search engine of choice and put in "powered by generatepress." You may have to scroll down a bit to find some examples, but I found them and they have a real diversity of looks.
If you want to see the one site I've put Generatepress on (I am quite sure there will be more), then go to my profile page and scroll to my list of websites, on the bottom right of the page. It's the first one on the list.
I went and got my old (very small) iphone and looked at the site on it. Hmm, I may change the font to a stronger one. But then I do get too fiddly!
Recent Comments
21
Hi Rosana and thank you for sharing your experience with GP.
I am using GP too! I just switched to GP theme last week.
I've been thinking of changing my theme to GP since last month but can't just let go of my old Omega theme. I really like simple themes like Omega but the last update they had was way back in 2016.
I checked your site and it looks clean and simple.
Cheers,
Marissa
Hi Rosanna, thanks for the theme suggestion. I had a look and it just might work for me. I like that there’s a free version. Will definitely keep this one in mind for the future.
I had seen your older site, and this looks nice and clean. I can see why it loads very fast. I debated on using it for the SAC but went with Thrive. Somewhat of a learning curve, but ok so far.
A good review of Generate press.
Thank you so much Rosana for this post it is just what I need right now. I am not happy with my website's appearance but have not been too keen to change it, fear of the unknown, I will look at Generatepress on and will go and view your site.
Thank you
Have a great day
Denise
I have the Generate Press premium version. I didn't like it so I bought two different themes. I was looking for star rating theme for products review and I found what I was looking for and still ultra fast for SEO. I am keeping the GP premium version for later use if I decide to use it. Thanks for sharing with us your experience. Jay is using that theme now I think on his site. You may need to add Elementor plug in to help with your layouts.
Thanks, Brenda. I like the layouts fine but I'm kind of old school and don't need anything fancier than it provides.
I like that Theme (I might grab it and give it a test run ..
'tho I don't imagine I would Pay for it .. unless it came with
"Chocolate Pudding and Cookies")
So far, I am liking the "Aki" Theme .. Pretty customizable,
and at least so far, easy to work with.
Thanks for Pointing it out.
Joe
I personally have the pro version of Generate Press on my website and I use it in combination with Elementor Pro. They both work great together.
Generate Press is very stable and does the trick for me and has pretty much all of the features I need. With the pro version you get all the menus you want 🙂
No it's not Thrive themes and all the fancy stuff, but with Elementor, I am able to create pretty much anything I want. It just took me some practice and it was a lot cheaper. Approximately $80 total (For both GP and Elementor) as I got Elementor at a discounted price.
What is great with Elementor, is that you can have three "visual versions" of what you do: Desktop, Tablet and Mobile and set them separately.
We installed Generate Press on our website over eight months ago and just love it. We likely will install the premium version eventually but up to now haven't seen the need.
Colette and Philip
See more comments
Hi Rosana
Thank you for this review. I selected Generatepress on Kyle's recommendation and so far I like the clean open layout although it is evidently 'wordpressy'. Looking at what some people have done with the Pro version however, I think it is possible to create some very individual-looking and modern sites. Maybe for the future if my site takes off.
I have a question which was puzzling me yesterday when I was tinkering with the theme, adding my logo etc. With the free version, must the header always have a white background? I noticed on your website there is also a white border around the header graphics so I am wondering if this is something that cannot be changed unless you upgrade to Pro, or whether it is simply your own style choice. I can work with it either way, I just couldn't find a way to fill that space without a border and wasn't sure if it was my own usually goofiness or simply just the way it is.
Of course, I then got distracted by 'The Dog Barked Murder' so I closed the site again quickly before I lose a day's work to buying and reading books! You sure know how to hook a reader with a book title!
Hi -- I didn't find a way to put color around the header in the free version, and I looked a couple of times, so that border is white. I also didn't notice a way to make the header image fill the space, though that was more of a late-night attempt and I could have missed something.
You got distracted by one of my cozies? Great!