Only recommended for Advanced Users and Developers

Hi there,

Thanks for taking the time to leave a review!

GeneratePress is intentionally very lightweight and developer-friendly. We’ve stuck by this philosophy since the beginning (over 6 years ago), and it has allowed us to provide our users with a fast and stable theme they can trust.

Instead of bloating it with tons of options you may or may not need (that may become obsolete over time), we prefer to focus on things like performance, stability, and usability. From there, you can extend it as needed.

In some cases, that may require using code (which we’re happy to help with in our support forums). For those that need more options from the theme and don’t want to touch code, our premium version allows them to conditionally add more options to the Customizer as they need them. It also provides a Site Library you can use to import pre-designed demos that you can then customize as needed. This is a great option for beginners who may have trouble when it comes to designing.

With GeneratePress you need to be a coder to be able to build a Professional looking website.

Of course, we disagree here. We’ve watched and helped thousands of beginners build professional and unique websites with GeneratePress (free and pro), especially when coupled with a content builder like GenerateBlocks.

When you take all of that into consideration and then include the level of support we provide every GeneratePress user, I don’t think there’s a better WordPress theme out there for beginners.

Thanks again! If you have any specific feature requests, feel free to open a support topic and we’ll be happy to take a look.

Hi Tom, in my review I’m Not referring to the GeneratePress flexibility to build “Business/Corporate” websites, because for this type of websites GeneratePress is very good. I’m referring to the “Blog/Archive” and “Single Posts” customization through the GeneratePress Customizer. There are a Lot of things/elements that can Not be customized “Out of the Box” for the “Blog/Archive” and “Single Posts” because simply the options for that are Not available even in GeneratePress PREMIUM. I can’t give you some suggestions of options that I think should be included in the GP Premium Customizer because there are Too many missing Design customization options for “Blog/Archive” and “Single Posts”. My best advice is to install for example the “Blocksy”, “Suki” or “Kadence” theme, any of them in a testing website and see for Yourself what options are missing in GeneratePress Premium. The only way that you understand me is to try any of these themes for yourself.

Like a said in my review, if a “Non-coder” wants to create a Unique/Professional looking “Blog” with GeneratePress, this “Non-Coder” user will have to spend a Lot of time with the GeneratePress support forum asking for the “Custom CSS” needed for each design customization that he want. That would be a Lot of time and back and forth with the GeneratePress support for days. Otherwise, the user will end up with a Non-Professional, too generic and too basic website design.

On the other hand, with a theme like the ones mentioned above, any Beginner & Non-coder will be able to customize almost Everything they want using only the Customizer. Fast and easy, saving this way a Lot of valuable time.

Ah, I wasn’t aware that we were talking about the blog/single post options, specifically.

While I disagree that the theme is missing too many blog options to mention, I do agree that it’s missing some easy post meta options in the Customizer. GP Premium 1.13.0 is going to make this much easier thanks to our upcoming GeneratePress 3.0 update, and we’re also working on something really exciting regarding blog posts in our Block Elements feature as well. Lots to cool things on the way!

Thanks again for your feedback! ??

@perfgrade
My English is not good, I used Google Translate to see
I absolutely support what you said
my used GP Premium ,Blocksy, Kadence,hello,elementor
The only theme I only buy is GP Premium and elementor pro

GPP Not suitable for beginners
Missing a lot of customized settings
such as
Blog
Archive
Single Posts

Because of bad English
I have not been able to use gpp proficiently
But can use Blocksy, Kadence proficiently

Gutenberg’s route is for beginners

These sites all have the same layout
They are coder
Non-Professional, too generic and too basic website design

https://guides.wp-bullet.com/
https://woorkup.com/

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by lee.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by lee.

If you have any specific feature suggestions, we’d love to hear them: https://generatepress.com/contact

Thanks!

I do agree that GeneratePress (GP) can look underwhelming for beginners. But to say it is not a theme for non-coders is not true at all. Otherwise, all those 5-star reviews would not exist. Myself, I am not a coder but I know how to edit code, so I can build a professionally looking blog with GP (and I mostly make blog sites for friends).

I share your frustrations with the free version of GP. In fact, I have had a few of my suggestions shot down because they were not popular with other users. One of those was having h4 font settings in the free theme (I have to use code both on the frontend and in the block editor to style the h4 headings). I would also prefer if the off-canvas menu was in the free version and I like Suki theme for this (Suki even tested faster in my theme tests than the current version of GP). Lastly, just like you @perfgrade mentioned, I requested better font controls for single posts (which, again, I have to use code to control because single posts borrow their settings from body class), but that was also shot down.

I even switched from GP to underscores starter theme so I could get better control of my site’s structure and speed, but with the recent GP version 3.0 (now in beta), I have come back to GP full time.

I am sure all those themes @perfgrade mentioned have robust features. I tested Suki and Blocksy and I liked blocksy even more and still recommend it to beginners who cannot get around GP.

Indeed, it is true that GP free is very limited in its features and other users and reviewers have pointed this out quite often.

But then, we cannot forget the premise upon which GP is built upon- SPEED. GP is meant to be lightweight and the premium version is even better for both coders and non-coders (developers and non-developers). I have used both versions, and the reality is, there is a slight learning curve to using GP.

But saying it is good but not great is really downplaying how robust the theme is…I would urge you to take the time to learn how to use the theme, including the styling coz you will need it if you also want to have a fast website.

It is true that GP ist probably not the most intuitive theme for beginners. But please keep in mind: If you are a beginner and/or not a coder you might build yourself a website. But it will never be a good one in terms of performance and speed.

I really hope that Tom and his team will stay to their philosophy. We don’t need another bloated WordPress theme using a super slow and super unneeded live editor.

If you need a more powerful customizer, go buy GB Pro. It is very affordable and worth every penny.

GP is a gem, and I don’ say this lightly.