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GeneratePress Theme Review: Worth the Hype or Not? (2024)

A Quick Overview

GeneratePress is a modular, lightweight WordPress theme designed for speed, performance, and usability. It offers a free version with basic features and a premium version that extends its capabilities. The theme is known for its minimal footprint, with a page size of just 7.5 KB, contributing to faster load times and improved website performance.
the perfect foundation for your wordpress website

Editor's Rating

Overall rating
3.7/5
(3.7)
GeneratePress focuses on speed and efficiency to ensure that websites maintain fast loading times. However, it’s not without areas for improvement — the ease of use for beginners could be enhanced, and the free version of GeneratePress could offer more features to provide a fuller experience.

Pros and Cons

Here are the pros and cons of GeneratePress:
Pros
  • High performance: GeneratePress is one of the fastest WordPress themes, with a 100% page speed score and minimal page size.
  • Responsive customer service: The theme comes with a responsive customer service team that offers timely support through forums and email, ensuring your issues are resolved promptly and improving your user experience.
  • Extensive documentation: GeneratePress provides comprehensive and well-structured documentation that makes it easy for you to find information and troubleshoot issues, whether you’re a beginner or a developer.
  • Flexible pricing options: GeneratePress offers both free and reasonably priced premium versions, with choices like annual or one-time payments and a 30-day money-back guarantee to cater to your needs.
  • Customization and modular approach: The theme allows you to activate only the modules you need and offers basic customization options in the theme customizer, including layout, color, and typography adjustments.
  • Regular updates: GeneratePress receives regular updates to ensure compatibility with the latest WordPress versions, providing you with security and modern features.
Cons
  • Limited advanced features: GeneratePress lacks advanced features, which may not suit users seeking extensive customization within the theme.
  • Additional cost for full functionality: Users may need to purchase GenerateBlocks Pro for advanced block functionalities, increasing the overall cost of using GeneratePress.
  • Lack of real-time support channels: The absence of phone or chat support and limited social media interaction could inconvenience users who prefer direct communication or need immediate assistance.
  • Manual activation of modules: The need to manually activate modules, despite offering flexibility, can be cumbersome for beginners who prefer all features to be active by default.
  • No setup wizard: The absence of a theme setup wizard may make the initial setup less intuitive, potentially increasing the learning curve.
  • Update process issues: Some users have reported update-related problems, which, while not a deal-breaker, can be bothersome.

Ease of Use

I would rate the overall ease of use of GeneratePress as 3.5/5.

Here’s why:

  • GeneratePress employs a modular approach, enabling users to activate only the features they need.
  • The absence of a theme setup wizard or guided functionality is a significant drawback, particularly for beginners.
  • Some users might prefer having all features activated by default and then choosing to deactivate the unnecessary ones.

This rating reflects a theme that is manageable for most users but could benefit from improvements in guiding new users through the setup process.

Installation Process

GeneratePress follows the free theme-pro plugin pattern, where you need to install a separate plugin for the pro version.

To get started, you will have to go through the normal process of installing a theme to your website from the repository:

  • Go to appearance > themes > add new
  • Search for the GeneratePress theme
  • Install and activate the theme
install and activate the free generatepress theme

This will then give you access to the features of the free version, which unfortunately isn’t really that great as it only gives you a basic setup.

For the pro version (you need to purchase GeneratePress premium), you need to download the pro add-on plugin first from your account.

Then all you need to do is install the plugin:

  • Go to plugins > add new plugin > upload plugin
  • Browse through your files and select the plugin
  • Click the install now button
upload and install generatepress premium plugin

Like other themes that follow this pattern, you need the plugin since it contains the core GeneratePress theme features.

One of the things I like about GeneratePress is that it doesn’t bother you or force you to activate the premium theme right away.

In fact, you can even leave it as it is and all the premium features will still work — but if you don’t register it, you also won’t get future updates.

To enter the license key:

  • Find and copy the license key from your GP account
  • Go to appearance > GeneratePress
  • Enter your license key in the field provided

Click the save key and you’re good to go:

enter your license key to activate updates

If the license key is valid, the notification at the top of the license key field will return “Receiving premium updates.”

Theme Setup

Unlike other themes, GeneratePress has no theme setup wizard or functionality that works you through setting up the theme.

⚠️ Note: From henceforth, I’ll be calling GeneratePress “GP” since typing the whole name is a bit mouthful (or typeful, since I’m typing this). 😅

GP is also a member of what I want to call the “manual themes club” since you have to enable the modules yourself.

You can find the GeneratePress premium modules by going to appearance > GP and activating all the modules that you want to use:

activate all the modules of the premium generatepress theme

⚠️ Note: The WooCommerce module will stay locked (grayed out) until you install the WooCommerce plugin.

Honestly, why don’t these themes just activate these features or modules first and then have the user deactivate those that he/she won’t be using? 🤷

If you scroll a little bit, you will get to a section where you can open the options for different site settings like site identity and color options.

start customizing section on generatepress

I thought they were special theme options — but they’re basically just shortcuts to those site settings in the theme customizer.

On the bright side, I like the fact that you can import and export customizer settings easily — saves a lot of time if you’re creating another similar site.

By the way, after you activate the different modules and then restart the page, different sections will start appearing on the GP theme page under the appearance section.

👋 My thoughts here

Besides the fact that you need to install a separate plugin for the premium features, the installation and setup are fairly straightforward.

Here’s a summary of what I think:

  • It’s good that GP uses a modular approach to its features. But I wish that they activated all the features first instead of the other way around.
  • GP lets you import and export customizer settings easily — and that’s a check on my list as it saves a lot of time when you need to set up an identical site.
  • Not having a theme setup wizard or functionality is a bit of a downer since it’s useful for newbies in guiding them through setting up the theme.

If we’re talking about the ease of use in installation and theme setup, GP is barely average — it’s not that bad, but it’s not that good either.

Features

I would rate the overall features of GeneratePress as 3.5/5.

Here’s why:

  • GeneratePress offers a substantial collection of well-designed demo sites (around 100), which are particularly appealing to authors and bloggers.
  • Although GeneratePress includes essential customizer settings, it falls short in comparison to other themes that offer more extensive options even in their free versions.
  • While the element feature is beneficial for users avoiding complex page builders, its reliance on Gutenberg blocks limits the design possibilities.

GeneratePress has its strong points like an extensive range of demo sites and basic customization options.

The score also reflects the areas where it lags behind competitors, such as in the depth of customizer options and the limitations of its theme builder feature.

1. Live Customizer Options

During my early years of blogging, I had already heard of GeneratePress since some of the authors I’ve been following were using the theme.

So imagine my surprise when all I saw was this:

customizer settings for generatepress premium

Besides the “standard” ones that you see, the only settings here that are a bit special are:

  • Layout
  • Colors
  • Typography
  • Background images

For the layout, you get options to change the container, header, primary navigation, sticky navigation, blog layout, etc.

With the blog layout, you can choose specific meta to show/hide and change some options for the featured images including the size.

blog layout configuration in the generatepress customizer

I want to add that they have some header presets and related options — but they’re about layouts and not designs.

For the colors, I was a bit surprised as the theme allows you to change the color of almost any element on the site.

That includes the sidebar widgets and footer widgets, which I only saw once or twice (unfortunately, I can’t remember what those themes were).

colors configuration in the generatepress customizer

GP did something different in typography. Initially, you would be able to see 2 options:

  • Font manager
  • Typography manager

How it works is that you need to add a font first via the font manager before you can apply it to a specific element using the typography manager.

typography customizer in the generatepress customizer

It’s a little different, and I suspect it helps keep the theme file size down to keep the website speed up (though it’s not that intuitive).

On the bright side, I like the fact that you can target almost any text element on the website including off-canvas menu items.

The background images option is a little weird though since it basically allows you to add a background on different elements:

  • Body
  • Header
  • Navigation
  • Content
  • Sidebar
  • Footer

All in all, if I compare this to other themes, even free themes like Astra have more customizer options available than GeneratePress Pro.

👉 Related: Astra Theme Review: Popular Choice or Just Overhyped?

2. Elements (Theme Builder)

GeneratePress WordPress theme has a (sort of) theme builder where you can build different elements on a site using blocks without the need for any codes.

You can find it on appearance > elements > add new element:

add a new element selection on generatepress

From what you can see from the screenshot above, there are four elements you can create:

  1. Block
  2. Hook
  3. Layout
  4. Header

To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed here since on their website, they imply that the “options are endless” and you can create singe post templates to 404 pages.

From the type of elements, maybe you can do that using hooks, blocks, and layouts. Unfortunately, the actual work is more complicated than that.

Here’s the page that you will see when you opt to create a new block element:

add a new block element using generatepress

GP recommended that I install their GenerateBlocks (free) plugin for more functionality, and I got six new blocks. 😓

GenerateBlocks has a pro version that starts from $39/year for one site and includes 200+ patterns (so I guess it’s a way to advertise this).

But to be fair, I like the display rules where you can add rules related to the location or placement, exclusion, and users.

👉 Related: How to Create a Custom WordPress Block Without (Much) Coding

Here’s what you see when you create a new header element:

add a new header element using generatepress

I can see that GP’s element feature might help some users who don’t want to use page builders and their complexities.

Instead of a drag-and-drop feature to design new theme elements, there are clickable options and settings that are easy to understand.

But since they basically just ride in on what Gutenberg and its blocks can do, what you can do/design with them is also limited.

3. Demo Sites

The question now is — how good are the demo sites in GP? How many are there?

When I saw the demo sites, I kind of understood now why a lot of authors like using the GeneratePress theme.

To find them, go to appearance > GP > site library and you will see all the available demo sites:

the demo site library in generatepress

There are a lot of them (around 100), and many of them fit what authors and bloggers are looking for in a demo site.

Quality-wise, the demo sites are well-designed (and I can certainly see the exact demo sites that some blogs and author sites are using).

Here’s one example:

first part of the generatepress info demo site
second part of the generatepress info demo site

If you want to use a demo site, simply click on it and you will be given a few options like whether or not to import theme options and demo content.

You also need to confirm your intention to import the demo site and that it will make changes to your website.

import a demo site from generatepress theme

The process is fairly simple and easy to understand, though there are certainly some features that I wish GP had in terms of importing demo content.

For example, it would be cool if I could see what pages are included and if I could choose specific pages to import.

👋 My thoughts here

I feel that the strongest point of GP’s feature is the demo sites.

Since there is a lot to choose from, and most of them are great, there are only a few things you need to change on the site.

Unfortunately, I had to mention on this GeneratePress review the things that it should improve upon:

  • More customization options
  • More features in general

Although it’s true that once you find a demo site that’s closer to what you have in mind, you won’t need to change a lot of elements anymore.

However, that rarely happens, right? That’s why it would be better if GeneratePress added more customization options in the customizer.

In addition, having more features, especially those related to design, would make GP more worth it (and usable).

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Reliability

My rating for GP’s reliability is 4.4/5.

Here’s why:

  • GeneratePress demonstrates excellent performance metrics, including a 100% page speed score with a minimal page size of just 7.5 KB for the free theme.
  • While the theme is regularly updated to keep up with the latest WordPress versions, there have been some user reports of issues related to updating the theme.
  • GeneratePress, despite having fewer features compared to some other themes, excels in web performance.

The score reflects GP’s excellent performance in speed and efficiency and continuous updates for compatibility.

However, the reported issues with the update process and the trade-off between features and performance slightly affect its reliability rating.

Performance

GeneratePress heavily advertises on their site how they have a 100% page speed score with just a 7.5 KB page size (for their free WordPress theme version).

To evaluate its performance and make comparisons with other themes, I installed the Info demo site and analyzed it using GTmetrix.

Here are the results:

generatepress got an a grade with 94% in performance
generatepress full loaded in 1.3 seconds

True to its word — GP got an “A” grade in GTmetrix, with 94% in performance, and fully loaded in only 1.3 seconds.

That’s even better than I expected! 🎉

I imported the demo site that I showed you earlier, and it has a few images (though they are only thumbnails).

Let's take a look at how GeneratePress compares to other multipurpose WordPress themes that I’ve tested using GTmetrix:

ThemeFully Loaded TimeTotal Page SizeTotal Page Requests
Elementor Simple Kit1.3 seconds1.51 MB53
Elementor Pearl Kit3.7 seconds1.57 MB106
Betheme Default Template1.6 seconds0.97 MB55
Astra Outdoor Adventure905 milliseconds1.54 MB21
GeneratePress Info1.3 seconds719 KB17

Here are some comments:

  • GeneratePress excels in web performance, loading in a swift 1.3 seconds, comparable to speedy themes like Elementor Simple Kit.
  • In terms of total page size, GeneratePress is the winner, boasting a minimal footprint of just 719 KB, which is notably smaller than the other themes.
  • GeneratePress excels in speed optimization, with a mere 17 total page requests (this optimization is vital for SEO and user experience).

Despite its few features, if you're aiming for a theme that offers both speed and efficiency, GeneratePress is a strong contender.

Its performance metrics, particularly in terms of load time and page size, are ideal for anyone looking to optimize their site for speed and user experience.

Updates and Maintenance

Despite not having that many features, GeneratePress is one of the popular WordPress themes (again, I had already heard of it when I started blogging).

Fortunately, GeneratePress is continuously updated to ensure compatibility with the latest WordPress versions​.

You can check its changelog here:

changelog page of generatepress premium

Here are some highlights from the changelog:

  • There’s an update that introduced several features focused on enhancing the site library (like the ability to search within the library and improved overall filters).
  • GP has an update that emphasizes security with a feature disallowing scripts in custom field template tags​​.
  • An update introduced the search modal element type, improving the search functionality within websites and fixing some integration issues.

These updates highlight GeneratePress's dedication to security, user accessibility, and compatibility with modern web technologies.

👋 My thoughts here

Without a doubt, GP has a solid performance, supported by excellent performance metrics as you can see from the screenshot earlier.

It also has no problems with updates since it’s continuously updated to ensure compatibility with the latest WordPress versions.

While reading the theme’s documentation, I saw that they included a section on manually updating the theme.

Did a quick search about it and learned that some users have reported issues related to updating the theme.

It’s not really that a “break dealer issue” since you can just download an updated GP premium plugin — but it’s certainly a hassle.

Support

I would rate the overall support of GeneratePress as 4/5.

Here’s why:

  • GP is known for its effective customer service, with a high level of responsiveness to queries on its forums.
  • The absence of phone or chat support and no 24/7 support availability can be a limitation for users who prefer real-time assistance or need immediate help.
  • GeneratePress provides extensive and well-written documentation, covering a wide range of topics with supporting images and videos.

This rating suggests that while GeneratePress provides robust and responsive support through traditional channels:

There is room for improvement in offering more immediate support options and enhancing social media engagement.

Customer Service

How well does GP handle its customer service? Are there a lot of places where you can ask for help?

Thankfully, GeneratePress is known for its good customer service, with a shortcut right inside the theme settings page:

shortcut to the support page from the admin dashboard

This will bring you to the main support page of the GeneratePress website, where you can see different customer service options:

  1. GenerateSupport forum
  2. WordPress forum
  3. Contact form
  4. Documentation
Questions? We’re here to help from start to finish.

GeneratePress is generally responsive to customer queries.

For example, checking over their WordPress forum, almost all posts have answers from GP, and those answers aren’t generic either.

I can see that they hired someone to handle the questions in the forum and the community is responsive as well.

generatepress generally responds in wordpress forum

A quick visit to their GenerateSupport forum showed a similar pattern (though all posts have comments), with the same person answering the queries.

While they lack phone support, they offer email assistance where responses are typically provided on the same day (according to users), often within a few hours.

Well, that probably has something to do with the fact that email assistance is specific to account/billing issues and pre-sale questions. 😅

generatepress offers email assistance as support

Overall, customer service is robust in many ways, particularly in responsiveness and the provision of comprehensive resources.

But it does have areas for improvement, such as the absence of phone support and social media channels (they have a page though).

Documentation

GeneratePress is also doing well in the area of documentation.

Similar to the link to the support page, you can also find a button right inside the admin dashboard that will take you to the documentation page.

shortcut to the documentation page from the admin dashboard

This will take you to the home page of the documentation subsite where you can find the pages divided into 4 categories:

  1. General
  2. Customization
  3. Modules
  4. Developers
homepage of the generatepress documentation

They have a vast range of topics in the documentation, from installation to hooks to beta testing (in fact, they probably covered every nook and corner of the using theme).

As for the quality of the documentation pages, they are written well, with images and videos (some) that support the content.

Here’s an example:

transparent header generatepress documentation

Some of the pages, especially those specific to developers and those that are self-explanatory, don’t have any images.

They also have a search functionality built into every page in the documentation, which makes finding specific posts easy.

👋 My thoughts here

GeneratePress has a lot of plus points in the support section, with their quick and effective responses to customer queries.

They also provide extensive documentation that covers a wide range of topics with well-written articles.

Despite that, there are still a lot of things they could improve upon:

  • No phone/chat support
  • No 24/7 support
  • Limited social media support

Well, not having phone or chat support is probably tied up with not having any 24/7 personnel to handle the support.

This could be a limitation for users who prefer to discuss their issues over a call or chat or those who need immediate support.

For social media, they do have a Facebook page —but they don’t seem to actively reply to customers' comments there.

Pricing

I would rate the overall pricing of GeneratePress as 3.5/5.

Here’s why:

  • GeneratePress offers flexible pricing with both annual and one-time payment options, catering to different user needs and budgets.
  • Considering its features, the yearly cost may not align well with the value provided, especially when compared to other themes with more features.
  • While GP recommends pairing with GenerateBlocks, the need to potentially purchase a pro version can add to the total cost.

The theme is moderately priced with customer-friendly policies.

However, there are considerations for the overall value provided in terms of features and the necessity of additional purchases for full functionality.

Cost Breakdown

GeneratePress offers a pricing structure that caters to a wide range of users, from beginners to advanced webmasters.

They offer two versions:

  1. Free
  2. Premium
Take GeneratePress to the next level

The premium version has an annual plan that costs $59/year and they also have a one-time payment option for $249.

In terms of differences between the pricing plans, there’s no difference at all (the updates and premium support are there as long as you pay).

In the features section, I also mentioned that GP recommends installing the GenerateBlocks plugin, though they only provide the free version.

But GB has a pro version too:

GenerateBlocks Pro Pricing: Annual plans to fit everyone

In case you want to know how it differs:

  • While not required, pairing GB with GP is recommended for those using the native WordPress block editor.
  • The free version of GB should suffice for most users, especially if they’ve already purchased GP Premium.
  • GB Pro is available at $39 for use on a single site for extended capabilities for those needing more advanced block functionalities​.

Money Back Guarantee/Refund

GeneratePress offers a simple and customer-friendly refund policy.

If you're unsatisfied with the GeneratePress theme, you can request a full refund within 30 days of your purchase.

refund policy of the generatepress theme

This 30-day period starts from your initial purchase date. To request a refund, you can contact GeneratePress through their contact form.

Once the refund is issued, it may take about 5-10 days for the refund to reflect in your account, depending on your financial institution.

Please note that this refund policy excludes license renewals, subsequent purchases after a refund, and any refund requests beyond the initial 30 days of the original purchase.

👋 My thoughts here

In general, GeneratePress has “okay” pricing with its annual/one-time payment models and its strong refund policy.

However, I would like to point out 2 things:

  1. Price to features
  2. GenerateBlocks Pro

The yearly cost is $59, which doesn’t seem big — unfortunately, for the features that GP has, I don’t think that price is worth it.

Not to add, you might have to buy the GenerateBlocks Pro too if you want to make use of the theme builder functionality.

Final Thoughts

GeneratePress excels in performance, user-focused support, and a flexible pricing model that suits a wide range of users.

While excelling in fast loading times, regular updates, and a generous refund policy, there's clear room for improvement.

To enhance GeneratePress, it could improve the beginner's user experience, expand the free version's features, and offer quicker support options.

These enhancements could establish GeneratePress as both a reliable, efficient theme and an intuitive, comprehensive solution for users of all levels of expertise.

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About the author
Alan Anthony Catantan
Alan Anthony Catantan
Welcome to Darrel Wilson's corner of the web! While he's the genius behind this blog and YouTube channels, I'm the fun sidekick ensuring everything's in tip-top shape. From writing articles to video magic, we deliver content with a splash of fun! 🚀📝🎬

GeneratePress WordPress Theme

Overall rating
3.7/5
(3.7)
Pros
  • High performance
  • Responsive customer service
  • Extensive documentation
  • Flexible pricing options
  • Customization and modular approach
  • Regular updates
Cons
  • Limited advanced features
  • Additional cost for full functionality
  • Lack of real-time support channels
  • Manual activation of modules
  • No setup wizard
  • Update process issues

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