Thesis & Genesis from a Developer's Standpoint?

  • I’m a developer that has always done custom XHTML/PHP sites. I’m starting to get more requests from people wanting simple sites for them to be based on WordPress so they can easily edit and add content pages for their business site.

    I’m also planning on doing some product brand enthusiast sites for SEO purposes.

    I’ve read a lot of discussions about Genesis and Thesis but there are usually two problems in the responses. Either 1) people commenting only have extensive experience with one or the other so they really can’t contrast the two, or 2) most people using these themes are looking to avoid any coding or having to learn CSS, etc.

    Some may say, well since you are a developer, you don’t even need these frameworks, but I think it would be useful to base our WordPress sites on one of them should a client decide to ‘go it allow’ with managing their site including the layout and design. For my clients though they will be original designs. Not some theme that anyone else can purchase and then just change a few colors/fonts and the basic layout. For the enthusiast sites they can be various cookie cutter themes. Don’t have to be original designs.

    I’ve read one advantage of Genesis (which many don’t point out because they aren’t developers) is that unlike Thesis, if you upgrade WordPress and/or the framework you don’t have to re-install your customizations because you can just modify a child theme. Where Thesis you have to backup files and reinstall them.

    Anyone with more of a technical perspective that has used both can comment on how the compare. Of the people commenting that have experience with only one or the other, you’re always going to see more recommending Thesis simply because it has been around longer. Older isn’t necessarily better.

    However I’m concerned that I see some consistency in comments saying Thesis has better on-page SEO capabilities (and results) although can’t you use a plug-in with thesis (like Yoast SEO) to overcome any SEO limitations for Genesis or does the latest Genesis version have built-in SEO functions that are now as good or better than Thesis?

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  • I’ve read one advantage of Genesis (which many don’t point out because they aren’t developers) is that unlike Thesis, if you upgrade WordPress and/or the framework you don’t have to re-install your customizations because you can just modify a child theme.

    You can do that with any child-friendly theme – not just Genesis.

    For details specific to Genesis, I suggest you ask on the relevant support forum: https://www.studiopress.com/support

    Thread Starter consultant1027

    (@consultant1027)

    I think the support forum of one of the frameworks is going to be biased towards that framework and not a very good place to get un-biased comparisons, no?

    I think what I’m really getting at here is which is better suited if you want to do a completely custom design that was created in Photoshop and then sliced, requiring extensive XHTML/CSS work. And does either one play better if you are doing some serious PHP coding of more advanced functionality?

    I’ve read one advantage of Genesis (which many don’t point out because they aren’t developers) is that unlike Thesis, if you upgrade WordPress and/or the framework you don’t have to re-install your customizations because you can just modify a child theme. Where Thesis you have to backup files and reinstall them.

    That is indeed correct.

    which is better suited if you want to do a completely custom design that was created in Photoshop and then sliced, requiring extensive XHTML/CSS work. And does either one play better if you are doing some serious PHP coding of more advanced functionality?

    They are both the same in that regard. PSD to HTML really depends on the design itself – which markup matches the design better? Go with that.

    As for serious coding.. they are both php and with php anything is possible. ??

    Genesis has built in SEO options and also lets you use whatever SEO plugin you like (it disables its own if you do). As to whether it’s better, or not, I can’t say. I know Yoast consulted with us on the SEO aspects.

    (Disclaimer: I do work for Studiopress. Just tossing that out there.)

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