As regular readers know, I’m a huge fan of the Genesis framework; it’s all I use to build websites, whether for myself or for clients. I believe Genesis provides the best foundation for any WordPress site, as I’ve outlined in a previous post.
Last week I received an email from someone who purchased Genesis based on my recommendation and she was… angry. I have no way of knowing what her expectations were, but it’s safe to say Genesis did not meet those expectations. She let me know that she had requested a refund and seemed offended that I would recommend a framework she found difficult to use.
While I did try to speak with that individual directly (she didn’t respond), I thought it might be a good idea to clarify a few things about Genesis – why I recommend it, things you should know before you purchase, and some examples of how it may be different from what people expect.
The Genesis Framework: What You Should Know
1. You may find it difficult to customize a Genesis child theme if you don’t know CSS and PHP.
There are tons of Genesis child themes available for sale, most of which look great. But if a pre-made theme doesn’t float your boat, you’re likely planning to customize it.
I cannot say this plainly enough. With a few exceptions, Genesis does not provide you with a huge options panel where you can select fonts and colors. Here is the entire settings screen (click to view larger):
Top half of the theme settings
Bottom half of the theme settings
If you want to change the way your theme looks, you’re going to need to edit the style.css file. If you want to change some of the functionality (the elements that display and where they show up), you’ll need become familiar with PHP and Genesis hooks.
Now, about those exceptions I mentioned before…. Here are a few ways to customize Genesis without a lot of coding:
Beaver Builder – Beaver Builder is a premium page builder plugin that lets you create drag and drop layouts. It works extremely well with Genesis themes and is much loved by the community.
Genesis Design Palette Pro – This premium plugin gives you the ability to select different parts of your site and change padding, margins, colors, fonts, etc. It’s extremely easy to use and requires no coding whatsoever.
Design Palette Pro
Price: Starting at $49
Genesis Extender – This is another premium plugin that allows you to add custom functions and styles to Genesis child themes. Extender was recently updated with some new features and an interface that is more intuitive, and it works with any Genesis child theme.
Dynamik Website Builder – Dynamik is nearly identical to Genesis Extender (they’re made by the same company) but it is a child theme instead of a plugin. This means you don’t have to purchase additional child themes – Dynamik lets you create your own, and you can even export the themes you create to use on other sites.
Dynamik Website Builder
Price: $99
2. Many Genesis child themes use a custom homepage template.
All Genesis child themes allow you to display blog posts on your homepage just like a “normal” blog. That said, a lot of Genesis themes include a template called home.php or front-page.php – this template allows you to create a custom homepage layout based on widget areas.
Here’s why that matters. Let’s say that your Genesis theme gives you some widget areas called Home Top, Home Middle, and Home Bottom. In many cases, if you put widgets into those areas, that’s what will show on your homepage instead of blog posts. (Some child themes show the widget areas, then blog posts, but many leave articles off the homepage completely.)
If you encounter this when you just want to display posts, it’s easy to become frustrated and blame Genesis. In reality, though, there’s a very simple fix. Use FTP or your host’s file manager to navigate to your child theme’s folder, then rename the homepage template. If your theme uses home.php, name it home-old.php, or whatever you’d like. When you name the file something else, Genesis can’t find the template and will use the default blog template instead.
3. Every Genesis child theme comes with setup instructions and demo content.
When you go to your Downloads area to download the framework and your child theme(s), there is a big gray button next to each download that says “Theme Setup.” Clicking that button takes you to a screen that will explain, step by step, how to set up your theme to look like the demo.
I will admit, sometimes the instructions are kind of sucky, but for the most part, they’ll show you enough to get started.
4. Simplicity is the reason people love Genesis.
Ever use a theme that had sliders, forms, a portfolio, font icons, Google fonts, social sharing icons, a color picker, shortcodes, 15 extra buttons on the post editor, its own special widgets, and a pet llama? (Okay, maybe not a llama, but you know what I mean.)
The problem with those themes is that they include everything under the sun. While that might sound like a good idea, it’s generally not – how many of those “features” do you actually need? And what happens after your blog posts or pages are filled with shortcodes and custom theme stuff and you decide to change themes?
Remember in the late 90s when everyone bought VCR/DVD combos? Remember when the VCR half quit working, so you had to buy a new VCR yet couldn’t quite justify another DVD player because the old one was still okay? Ever push “play” for a DVD but a VHS tape started playing instead? That is EXACTLY the problem with themes that offer too many features. If one thing goes wrong, you end up with all kinds of junk piled up and you aren’t sure what most of it even does.
With Genesis, you can add anything you need fairly easily, but only if you want to. If you just need a basic site where you can share your thoughts with the world, you don’t have to use a gigantic, bloated theme to do it.
5. When you purchase Genesis, you get a developer license. Even if you aren’t a developer.
A developer license simply means you can use Genesis on as many sites as you’d like without getting in trouble. If you buy Genesis and one child theme, you can install them both on 400 sites if you feel like it. There are no license keys to enter and all your sites will receive framework updates when they become available.
This is awesome because you’re getting a LOT of bang for your buck. You’re spending $60 for the framework, maybe $20-45 for a child theme, and you can use them as many times as you want. Forever. That’s not some kind of shady practice – that’s the way Genesis is intended to be used.
6. You MUST use a child theme with Genesis. Also, it’s safe to edit the child theme files.
If you purchase the Genesis framework by itself, you’ll see the Sample child theme in your Downloads area. Why? Because you absolutely must use a child theme. If you don’t, any customizations you make will be lost when Genesis updates.
The reason for child themes is to keep your changes safe. When you alter files in the child theme’s folder, those files remain untouched during updates to WordPress, your plugins, or the Genesis framework, meaning you won’t lose any of your hard work. You are welcome to edit those files directly because they will never, ever change unless you change them yourself.
7. Help is available!
If you purchase Genesis and need help getting started, there is a ton of information available FOR FREE on the good old interwebs. If you search for things like “genesis how to remove page titles” or “genesis how to add widget areas” you will find tons of step-by-step tutorials. You can also post on the StudioPress support forums and a helpful moderator (like yours truly) or another community member will jump in to answer your questions.
If you want to dive into Genesis and learn more, there are communities on Facebook, Google+, Slack, and even Twitter where you can get to know other people, pick up some new tricks, get help, or just waste that last 30 minutes before you get off work. (Not that I would know!)
There you have it – some things to be aware of before you purchase the Genesis framework. If you’re already using it, what do you think of it? Did you have trouble getting started? If you’re contemplating Genesis, what’s keeping you from taking the leap?
Comments are now closed for this article.
Henry Sanchez says
Ok Andrea, you have definitely convinced me of the powers of the Genesis framework. Time to give it a spin. Thanks for the great article.
Glad it was helpful! If you decide to try it out, be sure to check back in and let me know what you think. 🙂
Good stuff as always Andrea! It is a bit daunting at the beginning but your reasons of why this person probably did not like Genesis are exactly the reasons I’m glad I’m “here” learning it. 🙂 I wanted less-is-more for lots of reasons but mainly so it would FORCE me to learn what and how to make changes. I’d rather start from a small pile of new stuff and add as I go rather than a huge pile if “here’s all what you can do” stuff where I would feel overwhelmed from the start. I’m still somewhat overwhelmed because there are many ways to “do” things in CSS but I know I will get it. I know me and if I stare at something long enough it will eventually “click” LOL
You’re right - there are always a million things to learn, and that can make it overwhelming. That’s why I love Genesis so much; it’s only as complicated as you make it. You can start with the most basic child theme, no plugins, and learn with that before trying a more complicated theme. Or you can focus on CSS and ignore the PHP side for awhile (or forever, as some of my training clients prefer to do). I think a lot of people just don’t know where to go for help, or they haven’t realized what a huge community surrounds StudioPress - that’s the whole reason I stopped using anything else! 🙂
Almazia says
I was really interested in Genesis framework but I only have the gut to purchase it when I discover about Dynamik Website Builder. I had no clue about php and even css so I thought Dynamik is a cool solution (I got to work with the strongest WP framework without having to touch codes).
A week or two after playing around with Dynamik + Genesis I was almost angry too (not at you, Andrea :D) since I cannot get them to work as I want to. But thanks to the amazing community of Genesis, the tutorials and articles are massive that I can start to learn little by little building my own website that looks and functions the way I want, be more comfortable playing with css and php codes.
Thank you Andrea, your blog is one of my go to Genesis resources 😉
Thanks for sharing your experience with Genesis and Dynamik! I think it definitely takes some patience in the beginning, along with the willingness to do a little research and learn new things, just as you mentioned. You’ll learn far more by trying it yourself (and breaking things every now and then) than you’d ever learn otherwise 🙂
claudia says
Hi Andrea! Thanks so much for your awesome site. I’ve learned so much about my options for rebuilding my business website. What is keeping me from pulling the trigger on Genesis is that I need to get comfortable that this platform isn’t just the current flavor of the month and that it has true longevity. I need a site that I won’t have to totally rework in 2 years time because my theme choice/framework choice is no longer supported or got f-ed up by the developer.
I am a curious amateur who speaks HTML and CSS at the kindergarten level and is looking sideways and suspiciously at PHP. But so far the parent-child setup of Genesis has me close to pulling the trigger over its closest competitor.
Hi Claudia,
I understand your caution and I think you’re smart to consider the longevity of any theme or framework you’re planning to use. That said, Genesis has been around for a very long time and I don’t see its parent company, Copyblogger Media, going anywhere anytime soon. The great thing about purchasing a framework from an established company (versus an individual developer) is knowing that support isn’t going to dry up overnight and there is a whole team available as opposed to one or two people.
Rick says
“You may find it difficult to customize a Genesis child theme if you don’t know CSS and PHP.” My minor correction to that would be not that you might find it difficult - you *will* find it difficult. The combination of WordPress and Genesis is great out of the box - but content and customization go hand in hand to create the unique site, whether it is a blog or something else entirely. Even non-coders have access to great tools and a great support community, but you have to assume some responsibility for knowing what it is you are trying to build and then doing the research to see if the tools being presented match your skill set and abilities.
Stay green and teachable, and you can learn something new daily about some aspect of doing the web as work that helps you help the next person.
Sorry I’m late to the party, Andrea - little problems like moving, flooded basements, and restarting in the field kept me from getting back over in a more timely fashion. I like the new look. 🙂
Thanks for chiming in on this, Rick - I agree 100%. The one disadvantage of WordPress being open source is the attitude (from some people, not all) that everything should be free, themes should be free, others should teach you to code for free, etc. When I started in the early 90s, I taught myself HTML by pasting the page source of websites into a text editor and changing/breaking things to see what happened. Even now, if I run into a problem I can’t solve, I hit up Google. Maybe I appreciate Google more because it didn’t exist when I started, but I couldn’t imagine doing this kind of work without being willing to learn and experiment.
StudioPress is very clear about the skills needed to customize their themes, so I’m not sure why people are so surprised: http://my.studiopress.com/customization-skills/
Hi Andrea
Great article, very informative. I’d be really interesting in trying some of the plugins you suggested for customisation. You say that you can safely edit the child theme as all the updates are linked to the genesis framework and not the child theme itself. I have watched a tutorial elsewhere that says you need to create a custom css file, almost creating a child theme for the child theme. Is this true?
Thanks
Hi Katie,
I think some people are very paranoid about editing theme files because they’ve always heard you should create a child theme to house customizations; they don’t seem to understand that Genesis has already done that for them. That’s the whole point of the child theme system - Genesis updates, while child themes do not. Brian Gardner, the creator of the original theme that became Genesis, edits child theme files directly, so that’s always been good enough for me.
Hi Andrea
Thanks so much for putting my mind at rest. I’m completely new to WordPress and creating/customising sites but from what I could make out, it did seem a bit strange.
I can move forward now with confidence 🙂
Oh THANK YOU for asking, and answering, this!! It’s been driving me crazy reading all the conflicting information around the web on whether a Genesis Child Theme receives updates. So, the way I see it said here confirms that security, functionality, etc updates are made to the Genesis Framework and to WordPress, while the Child Theme stays safely untouched in its original set up formation (as StudioPress says but seemingly not in point blank, clear language suitable for the intrepid newbie 🙂
Yep, that’s correct - if you ever see an update notice in your dashboard for your child theme, something is very wrong. For example, last year someone released a free WP theme called Prose, and everyone running Genesis Prose was prompted to update, which broke their sites and installed some random new theme. StudioPress worked it out with the theme’s owner but it was pretty horrible! The child themes should never ever update. 🙂
Wow Andrea! You are so ‘onto it’! Thanks for your response and further info. Your articles and comments are amazing.
Gust says
Thanks for a very informative post. I used Thesis for a few years and it became quite difficult for me after they started playing with blocks. I read a lot about Genesis and was convinced this was the way to go. (Istill do) The last child theme that I bought which is on my current website, has a widgetized home page, and the content widget is my only complaint. I’ve been doing more reading and found some code to place in the functions file. As soon as I feel real gutsy, I’ll do it and hope for the best. If you are aware of an easier way to have the home page without the widgets, I’d be eternally grateful.
Hi Gust,
If you remove the widgets from the home widget areas, you can set a static page as the homepage in Settings > Reading. The widgets need to be empty, as they will override your homepage settings if they’re populated. Hopefully that helps!
Hello Andrea,
Thank you for this informative article. I am currently weighing to use Genesis and one of its Childtheme or the popular themes from Themeforest like Avada and X. When time permits, can you please let us know if Genesis framework would be compatible with Revolution Sliders? because the mockup design that we are working on seems to require a slider that at the moment only Revolution slider can provide. I have looked into Soliloquy, unfortunately there’s very few samples are available and I can’t get a demo out of it so I’m not sure. Thank you very much for your time.
Heru
Hi Heru,
Yep, Revolution Slider will work just fine with Genesis. I’m a huge fan of Soliloquy but I’m not sure why the developer removed the examples from the website - doesn’t really help anyone make a decision!
Wow, thank you for the prompt reply Andrea.
Mike Hemberger says
Hey Andrea, don’t forget about my Styles for Genesis add-ons! Pardon the self-promotion, but it’s definitely a popular option to change fonts and colors of your Genesis site without touching any code. Tons of happy customers since I started selling them 🙂
http://thestizmedia.com/styles-genesis-add-ons/
Definitely didn’t forget, but since I haven’t tried them yet, I couldn’t speak intelligently about the benefits. Maybe you should do a guest post in all your spare time! 😀
Mike Hemberger says
I could always get you a free license so you can try it out in all of your spare time 😉
Who needs sleep? I’d love to try them out sometime! Sounds like it’s time for a “showdown of all the Genesis design things” post.
Mike Hemberger says
Check your email… you should have a license waiting for you 😉
I really enjoyed this conversation and am looking for a new theme for my business websites. My current themeforest wordpress theme has become bloated and slow, the support is poor and learning about the revolution slider vulnerabilities, has pushed me to find something more effective, quick loading and slick.
So I have been researching genesis .
Question : running my business takes most of my time. Is the learning curve from typical themes and genesis that big? I know some html and CSS but never advanced to php. I am hoping I can find a genesis corporate type theme that is easy to get up and running and looks great that I can customise and “grow with”
Or am I pushing my luck and genesis will be more work than I think?
Hi James!
The learning curve isn’t that big if you are fairly comfortable with CSS and Inspector/Firebug. There are TONS of tutorials available for any PHP changes you might want to make. In general, I would advise you to look for a theme that is pretty close to what you need as far as layout goes, then you can always edit the stylesheet to modify things as needed. Once you’re a little more comfortable with the framework, you’ll find it easy to use PHP snippets to make additional changes. It’s really not all that different, but it can be overwhelming if you’re used to a ThemeForest theme with a gigantic options panel to set colors, fonts, etc. Hopefully that helps!
Coffee says
Hi! Can you tell me please what child theme are you using? Look great.
Thanks!
It’s a custom theme I built for the site. Thanks for the compliment!
Diane says
Hi Andrea! I just stumbled on your site and I’m going to bookmark it for all the useful information. WOW! Thank you so much!
I am in the planning and building process of my blog. After sifting through hundreds of themes, I have found one that is ideal from Restored316 Designs that is based on the Genesis Framework. Will I still need to learn CSS and PHP?
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for stopping by! You don’t need to know any coding to set up your site to look like the theme demo, but if you want to change colors (outside of the color schemes offered) or make template changes, you’d need to know some basic CSS and/or PHP. These are the basic skills StudioPress recommends for anyone interested in customizing a Genesis child theme: http://my.studiopress.com/customization-skills/
I am so new to this arena and actually find it very frustrating because I don’t yet know the terms. For me, it seems that it’s assumed that I know what is meant by “category” or author vs. user or even widget (I’ve heard the term certainly but didn’t know that was the name of the place holders). I have a theme but now don’t know what to do with it-after about 5 hours of looking at and working through several of the recommended starter guides. Even the studiopress beginners’ guide seems a bit out of date with the current version of WordPress so their examples don’t always match what is actually visible in my dashboard.
It’s not that I’m afraid of tech things: I learned some of the old MS-DOS codes, etc so this is also a skill to learn, right?!
I appreciate your clear article and others’ comments on frustrations. I’ve heard so many people say, “if you can send an e-mail, you can build a site”-I’m not believing it yet! But, I’ll keep persevering!
Hi Melinda,
Thanks for stopping by! You know, I started building static HTML websites in the 90s and I was a late convert to WordPress (2009 or so). And when I first started using WP, I absolutely HATED it. As you mentioned, all the terminology was different, and suddenly all the skills I had weren’t useful or helpful because I was back to being a complete beginner again. I don’t even know if frustration was the right word for what I felt for the first year or so.
By the time I came across Genesis in 2011, I was finally comfortable with WordPress, but Genesis was a whole new animal. It’s like I could speak the language technically (PHP, CSS, HTML) but Genesis was a new dialect all its own. Once I learned the “Genesis way” of doing things, I realized what a valuable tool it was, but it definitely took some time.
Anyway, that’s a long way of saying I do feel your pain! Technology moves so incredibly fast and there’s always something new to learn no matter how long you’ve been building websites or using computers. I would definitely recommend following the setup guide for your particular theme, as those are always kept up to date, and searching YouTube for videos that might help make things more clear. The first few times you set up a Genesis site will be kind of stressful but after awhile it does get easier, I promise!
I’m gonna go ahead and ask this even though I realize it might be a very stupid question: can I use non-genesis WP themes with genesis? I would love to try genesis, but I also already own several premium WP themes, many of which I really like. Will I no longer have the option of using those on any site where I’m also using genesis?
Unfortunately Genesis is only compatible with Genesis child themes. Genesis is basically just a parent theme - you would install it first, then the child theme you wanted to use (which is a skin that changes how Genesis looks) would be the active theme. Themes have to specifically say they are for Genesis or they won’t work. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much for the quick response! Yes, that is very helpful. I still might try Genesis anyway.
Not a stupid question Dorrie, I needed to know the answer too 🙂 Thanks for all this info Andrea. I have some experience running an eccommerce site but none in starting my own website. Eek! I’m sure it’ll be fine though with info like this to help us all out 🙂
You’re very welcome! There are tons of resources out there, especially for Genesis, if you get stuck. Hopefully the setup process will go smoothly!
hey andrea,
nice post and very helpful too.
I was planning to buy genesis but due to some reaons, you mentioned above, i am not able to convince myself. then i reach this post and now i will surely give genesis a try.
I have one question that if i buy genesis and child theme then can i use both of them on my client sites or will i have to buy another child theme for my client?
The license for Genesis allows unlimited use on as many sites as you’d like. However, if you use your license for client sites, they won’t be eligible for access to documentation or support, so you would be responsible for any support needs that might come up. It’s usually best to have them purchase Genesis (they don’t have to purchase the child themes) so they have a license, but that’s up to you - it really depends on whether your clients will be maintaining an ongoing relationship with you and will be able to contact you for support.
Hi - good piece…and still drawing attention a year on.
Question: Can ANY WP plugins be installed/activated/used with Genesis + child theme, or is one limited only to Genesis-specific plugins?
Thanks
Yep, you can use any WP plugin you want. There are lots of Genesis plugins that will only work with Genesis themes, but you don’t have to use any of them unless you want to. Hope that helps!
Rani says
This was …AMAZING. My team and I have started to get away from purchasing themes for this reason. Starting large isn’t the way to go. Starting small, from the ground up, makes so much sense. But I have clients who can’t afford custom builds and all they want is a theme, so this Genesis might be the way to go. In fact, I’m pretty sure it is. I’m excited about the tutorials. I just need to make the time to learn, so I can help someone else. Thank you!!!!!!
Genesis is a great time-saving tool once you know how the framework operates. It’s pretty easy to learn and is endlessly customizable, so I think it’s a good choice!
Hi! I’ve got a question.
I’ve just passed the genesis framework installation file to a client so he can go on and install the theme, till I meet him, without having him to give me his web passwords (special client…).
The fact is that I think he is spreading the file around to others and using it freely as it was of his own.
How can I know if this is happening? can I?
Thanks in advance.
Unfortunately there is no way to know if he is giving Genesis to others. However, keep in mind that none of those people will have access to support, documentation, etc. without a StudioPress account, so having the zip probably won’t help them much. If they ever want to do anything with the theme (including purchasing child themes), they’ll have to buy a license for Genesis to become a StudioPress member.
Hi Andrea.Thank you for sharing.
I have an old site,wich is not mobile friendly.I want to create a new one with wordpress and Genesis framework.I need to mention that I know nothing about coding…I’m willing to learn some basic stuff.
Are Genesis frameworks and themes SEO friendly?and how hard is it with Genesis?
Are they mobile-ready?
Should I buy only the framework,and try another theme,from another developer?
Thank you in advance.George
Hi George,
Genesis is very SEO friendly. If you aren’t using a plugin for SEO, Genesis has its own options built in. If you’re using a plugin, though, those options will be hidden and your plugin’s settings will take priority. Genesis is also HTML5 compatible and includes schema.org markup, which helps with SEO.
All the Pro child themes sold by StudioPress are mobile responsive. If one of them fits the look you want, I’d go ahead and purchase both the framework and your child theme directly from StudioPress. You can set up any Genesis site to look like the demo without coding, but you may need to learn some CSS if you want to customize. I hope that helps!
Many thanks for the promt reply.
I don’t want to change colours,positions,nothing special,I like it simple,and simple is best nowadays.
I just want to add some pages and modify the text now and then.Also I need social buttons and a call button,because my company services is based on phone calls.
Is there an expiring date for the framework or the theme(I know it sounds stupid),is there a time when you will not recieve updates from the developers?
How is the support team,If I need some help?
Thank you.
Hi Andrea, i am have issues deciding on a new studio press theme for our existing out of date one. I need a site with a slider and portfolio page. The Executive pro theme comes close, but can i make the home page longer (more full width text) without affecting seo. Can i also make the Nav bar sticky. All without slowing down the site. If none of this is possible, what would you recommend.
Regards Rob
Hi Rob,
Anything is possible if you’re comfortable editing CSS and PHP. You’d need to make a number of customizations to put those changes in place, but if code isn’t an issue for you, you won’t have any trouble. If you’re not too excited about the idea of editing the theme files, I’d suggest looking at this list I made of third party Genesis theme sellers - you might find something a little closer to what you were looking for: https://nutsandboltsmedia.com/third-party-genesis-child-themes/
Ian says
Good article. Have you viewed this post on an iPad? The offscreen canvass menu slides out as you scroll half way down the site, which is really annoying. Also have you thought of putting the comments form at the beginning of the comments section and below so people don’t have to scroll to the bottom of the page to add a comment. Not being narky, just letting you know about the menu bug on your site and a suggestion to improve your comments section.
Hi Ian,
The iPad shouldn’t be using the mobile menu at all - I’m looking right now and I see the regular menu in both portrait and landscape, using Safari or Chrome, with no sign of the off-canvas menu. Can you let me know what generation your iPad is, what version of iOS you’re running, and which browser you’re using so I can check into this further?
Re: comments, I prefer that people read the existing discussion before posting as often a question may be answered already. I do appreciate the fact that some people prefer to have the comment form appear first, but right now that’s not something I plan to change.
Jeremy says
Hello Andrea,
I know Genesis is your choice but I wanted your opinion on Theme X http://themeforest.net/item/x-the-theme/full_screen_preview/5871901
I’m making my final decision today between it and Genesis and I just want to make the best choice. I don’t mind having to learn some basic css but I am a newbie.
Hopefully this question is not too loaded but I just need some guidance.
Thanks a bunch,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
I don’t have a very high opinion of most themes from ThemeForest. I don’t have any personal experience with Theme X, but I’ve found that most TF themes are poorly coded and bloated with features that should be incorporated via plugins instead of through the theme. I do see that Theme X has a number of features built in, such as a page builder, but my question is, what happens if you change themes later? All that content will be lost because the new theme won’t have the same page builder available. If you are newer to WordPress, the bells and whistles may be appealing (and this is definitely a good looking theme) but you might find yourself frustrated if you need to move on to something else.
Basically, I think Theme X would be easier to use today and a headache down the road, but Genesis would be more difficult to use today and easier later if you decided to switch themes. That’s not an easy decision to make if you just want a website! I would recommend trying Genesis first, since StudioPress has a 30-day “no questions asked” return policy. You can try it out, and if it doesn’t work for you, you’d just open a support ticket and your money would be refunded within a few hours. I don’t think Envato has such an easy policy as shown here: https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/202821460-Can-I-Get-A-Refund-
I’m not sure whether that helps or makes things worse, but hopefully it helps!
Jeremy says
It definitely helps. I’m optimistically looking at this as a longterm project so I agree with you. Genesis is the way to go.
I seen through your services page that your design services are booked and I am sifting through your recommended developers.
How can I find out what theme a certain site is using?
I know I’m being a copy cat but basically I want my site to look exactly like:
https://www.khanacademy.org
Thanks for your time.
Jeremy
Khan Academy actually isn’t a WordPress site, judging by the source code, but you might take a look at the Altitude Pro theme. It’s not quite the same out of the box but could be customized. You might also look at the third party themes available for Genesis in case one of those is a closer fit.
Jeremy says
Andrea you rock man!
Thank you for all your help. You’re awesome. I guess that’s why you’re all booked up with a four month waiting list huh?
I wann be like you when I grow up. 🙂
Keep up the good work.
Take care,
Jeremy
You’re very welcome! I’m glad I was able to help. 🙂
Jeremy says
Hello Andrea,
I am prepared to purchase Genesis and the Altitude child theme as you suggested.
Do you have an affiliate link so I can purchase through you?
Let me know.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy! Thanks for asking! You can use this link: https://nutsandboltsmedia.com/go/genesis/
I really hope you like Genesis once you give it a try!
Jeremy says
Hello Andrea,
Just made the purchase.
You’re support has been great. The sincere manner in which you answer questions is invaluable (even when some people seem to need babysitting. 🙂 ).
I always go through your site to access any information you link.
I know it’s only peanuts you receive from it, but…
Keep up the good work.
All the best,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
Welcome to the Genesis community! I’m definitely not getting rich from affiliate commissions, but every little bit helps. 🙂
One of the reasons I use Genesis exclusively is because of the strong community behind it. There are a ton of resources and tutorials available from people who share just because they want to help others. If you run into any issues, I’d recommend starting with the StudioPress community forums or the Genesis Facebook group if you’re a Facebook user. Lots of great people are around to share their knowledge!
Terp says
Andrea, great thread, I’ve just read every single post. I’m on the cusp of buying Genesis and one child theme (I am only planning to build one site). I assume I can buy another individual child theme later without having to re-purchase the framework again, but I don’t see that option anywhere on the site. Do you know if this option is available?
Yep, once you purchase the framework (which gives you a StudioPress membership), you’ll be able to purchase child themes by themselves when you’re logged into your account. You’ll also get an automatic 25% off any future purchases - all the prices will update to reflect that. Most child themes end up being $34 or so with the member discount. Hope that helps!
Terp says
Thanks, Andrea. I bought the framework and one theme and may buy a different one later if my first one doesn’t work out.
Michael Einstein says
Thanks for the article on the Genesis themes.
I am looking at moving my site over to Genesis for the great support they provide and the huge number of options. I was looking at “Prose” because of the ability to customize every element in the theme itself.
However, how does this customizer inside Prose compare to what I would get if I went with a different theme and purchased the Genesis “Design Pallet Pro”.
Does that do the same things (and more?) then the Prose customizer?
Thanks.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Genesis Design Palette Pro is very similar to the options in Prose. Personally, I’d recommend against Prose since it’s not HTML5 compliant; I have a feeling it may eventually be phased out in favor of newer themes. In either case, the focus is on changing fonts, colors, etc. and doesn’t provide a page builder or a way to change layouts - I like to make sure people know that upfront.
Michael Einstein says
Andrea,
Ok.. Thanks.. Then sounds like I would be better of using a newer Genesis Theme, since I definitely want the latest/greatest coding. And then I can get Design Palette Pro and customize away to my hearts content.. hopefully..
Any recommendations for which child themes to explore.. there are so many.
I’m a small niche blog that focuses on Email Overload issues and solutions. Mainly my blog posts and some assorted resources pages, and a few banner ads that make no money… oh well.. not doing it for the money.. or so I keep telling myself… .
http://www.EmailOverloadSolutions.com
Thanks.
MIchael
There are definitely tons of options out there! All the child themes work the same way, so I’d focus on which one has the look you like most. I’d also look at the list of themes that are compatible with Design Palette Pro. There is a list below the pricing table on the DPP website.
Jame says
I believe that angry reader feel the same like me before. I have bought Genesis framework about a year already, but it’s a pain to use it. Not because it’s bad but creating something custom with it to look like what we need.
Anyways, with just under 100 bucks, I have decided to not refund and just keep it.
Until currently, I found Dynamik Website Builder.
Does it add more loading pressure or speed to Genesis?
Does it break the SEO friendly of Genesis?
Is it easy to customize as we want?
Thanks!
Dynamik was created to work with Genesis, so it shouldn’t slow down your site or have a negative effect on SEO. It provides you with some extra options - it may seem a little overwhelming at first, but if you check out the videos showing how to use it, you’ll probably like it. I would suggest contacting Cobalt Apps with any specific questions as their support is very friendly and they’ll be glad to make sure you are comfortable with the features.
Jeremy says
Hey Andrea,
Just checking back in with an update.
Genesis was everything you said it would be. There is a slight learning curve, but it’s not too steep. Once you cross your mental obstacles it’s actually quite easy. I am by no means a techie. My advice is: take your time, search for tutorials (there are many of them out there) and enjoy the process. Considering all the features, I really don’t see how they could have made it any easier.
I’m also enjoying the Altitude Pro theme you suggested.
Thanks again,
Jeremy
Thanks for checking in, Jeremy! I’m glad you’ve been happy with your purchase so far. It took me awhile to get used to how Genesis is organized, but once I did, I began to appreciate the lack of bloat and the fact that it’s always predictable no matter what child theme you use. The more you use it, the easier it gets. 🙂
Jeremy says
Yes I am enjoying it more and more.
I had one question though Andrea. What are your thoughts on this themes affect with regards to SEO?
With only one keyword or target per page and themes like Altitude having various content on one parallax page?
What are your thoughts or how do you strategize the Homepage keyword (if at all)?
I’m just curious because its quite possible to elegantly have your entire website on this one homepage.
If you were going to use Altitude as a one-page theme, I think you might have difficulty ranking for your chosen keyword(s) simply because there wouldn’t be any other pages to support your keyword choices. I’d suggest checking out this detailed guide from Moz: https://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization
Excellent article! Just wanted to point out that I have used the customized plugin available through http://thestizmedia.com/styles-genesis-add-ons/ on my own site, and have to say that it resolved much of the frustration I was feeling with the Genesis framework. Kudos to Mr. Mike Hemberger for developing a great product and producing some clear and informative tutorials.
Speaking as a person with no coding knowledge or expertise, the Genesis framework is great, and there are plenty of varied Studiopress child themes to choose from to suit your purpose. The Stizmedia plugin is a great start to tweaking your site to make it your own while you learn some coding.
I have to check the Stizmedia site every now and then to see which child themes are being supported, as it seems Mr. Hemberger is updating and adding new ones all the time.
So, thank you Andrea and Mike Hemberger!
Yes, Mike’s Styles plugin is a great one! I need to add it to the post, come to think of it. I’m glad to hear you found a plugin that worked for your needs; there is definitely nothing wrong with using a tool that makes life easier! 🙂
Hi Andrea
Thank you for your website and the information that I have found on it so far.
I have now got answers to many of my questions that I have thought of in this week, which I have used mainly to search for themes others than twenty fourteen; the theme that I have used for about 10 websites with different customizations. I can do pretty much with that theme, but it tends to be a bit boring working with just one theme.
On the other hand Twenty Fourteen do support those main demands that I have to the functionality of a website; and the I have found a couple of page full width templates.
I think that I have looked thoroughly at more than 100 themes in this week and every day I went back to look and read about Studio Press and Genesis Framework. I have not find one genesis theme at Studio Press, that supports all my demands for at theme, but I am sure I - with help of the support - will be able to make those few alterations, that will make me satisfied with the themes.
Now I hope you can answer a couple of questions.
You give a link in one of your answers to a site, where there are genesis themes that can be bought, but how about the free genesis themes.
Will a free genesis theme - if it supports my demands - be ok to use. (Along with the genesis framework, which I am strongly considering to buy in the that offer Studio Press has in this week.)
And according to the Pro Plus Packet and your information about the code knowledge which I am supposed to have to gain advantages of the packet.
Do I need to know all about PHP. I can set up websites with HTML and CSS. And I can make a few other things using code, that I find on the net.
In WordPress I can also delete content elements without spoiling page templates and the whole site. But so far I have problems putting elements into PHP code.
I have thought about alternatively buying the whole package from for example Woo Commerce or Elegant Themes, but I think that I in the long run will end up being more satisfied with Studio Press and Genesis Framework.
What is your opinion to this.
Thanks in beforehand and sorry about the a bit long comment.
Mikael
Hi Mikael,
Thanks for stopping by!
You can definitely use free Genesis child themes with the framework if you’d like. The disadvantage with a free theme is that there is generally no support available, so if you run into a problem with the theme, you may be on your own to look for a solution. The ones you pay for are supported by the developer in most cases. But if you find a free Genesis theme that works for you, there’s no reason you can’t use it.
Genesis uses a hook system (just like WordPress does) that involves PHP. For example, if you want to move something from one location to another in the theme, you’d need to use a bit of PHP code to do that. (Silly example: If you wanted to show your comments above the post instead of below the post.) If you don’t want to reposition elements and just want to change colors, fonts, etc., you can do that with CSS.
I’ve used both WooThemes and Elegant Themes in the past, but I found the code base to be bloated in both. Also, you’re required to pay on an ongoing basis to keep getting updates for themes from either Woo or Elegant Themes. When you purchase Genesis, you get access to updates for life with no renewals required (that may change, but for now that is the case), so you’ll never have to worry that you have to pay more money to keep the framework up to date. To me, that’s a huge plus since I hate paying annual fees.
I hope that helps!
Hi Andrea
Many thanks for your answers.
I think I will use Genesis Framework, and instead of using a lot of time reading about other themes and themes packages, I will use some time at w3schools trying to learn as much PHP as needed to move elements around.
I guess that will be the absolute best solution in the long run.
…and thanks again
You’re welcome, and good luck! There are lots of tutorials, so it will probably be easy to find the right code for anything you want to change. Let me know what you think once you’ve had some time to get used to it! It really does simplify your work once you know how Genesis works. 🙂
Michael Einstein says
Mikael and all,
Not trying to be a heretic, but one option I am also investigating is “DIVI”. Its a very full featured theme that includes a very advanced page builder with tons of built in features and options. Its probably about 180 degrees opposite of the pure simplicity of Genesis, but that it offers is a single environment where I can potentially do almost everything I want. It offers a huge amount of built in customizations and you can avoid things such as CSS and hooks by using the theme options. I’m not a coder, so anything that makes it faster to create a page or a post is good for me, and the less plugins i have to find/manage/update/maintain the better. Just another option that some may wish to consider.
Regards,
Michael
Michael Einstein says
So. I have Genesis Framework and Eleven40Pro child theme up on a sandbox site and am playing around with it.
It seems nice and clean, but here are my questions:
1) If I want to change fonts, colors, header styles, etc,., etc. then there is nothing in Genesis that lets me do this. Seem a bit crazy to pay $100 for a framework and child theme and have to hire someone to code custom CSS to get the colors/fonts/style I want. I did see the ad for “Design Pallet Pro”, which seems to offer the ability to customize Genesis design elements, but adds another $49 a year. Just a bit amazed that the framework doesn’t come with the options to set design styles for the key elements. Just want to make sure I’m not missing anything.
2) My current theme has a whole bunch of built-ins shortcodes for things like buttons, columns, tabs, boxes, pullquotes, etc., etc. NOTHING at all in Genesis. So, it looks like I need to go to a plugin to get this functionality. Any suggestions as to which shortcodes plugin is designed to work efficiently with Genesis and also be fully responsive?
3) My current theme comes with a built in custom.css file for putting custom style elements into. I don’t see one anywhere in Genesis. Just want to make sure I’m not missing something. Or do I need to add this myself also (or add a plugin to add it?).
Thanks.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Genesis is definitely a “developer’s framework” in that it doesn’t have a large options panel where you can make customizations (unless you choose to use a plugin such as Design Palette Pro). However, if you’re comfortable editing the stylesheet, you can make any needed changes directly within the child theme’s style.css file. Genesis child themes are basically just a skin to change how Genesis looks, so they don’t ever update - you can edit them however you’d like and you’ll never lose those changes when Genesis updates. There is no need for a custom CSS file unless you just prefer to use one for orgnanization; if you do, there are lots of plugins out there. Jetpack also has a custom CSS module if you’re using Jetpack already.
Re: shortcodes, I’d recommend looking at Shortcodes Ultimate. It’s a free plugin available in the WordPress plugin repository and includes all the typical elements you’d expect. You can read more about it here: http://gndev.info/shortcodes-ultimate/. It’s actually better to add shortcodes via a plugin vs. your theme - that way if you switch to a different child theme later (or a non-Genesis theme) you won’t have a bunch of broken shortcodes in your posts and pages. Hope that helps!
Paolo says
Hi Andrea,
really nice and helpful article!
I get in searching on the web, strugglin myself about what kind of framework/template/page builder plugin can help me in building nice looking, well performing websites and landing pages without many skills in coding and development. I started using WP just one year ago, buying some themes on ThemeForest and finally building my website with XTheme. Now I need something more powerful and suitable for SEO purpose, and I came out with a big dilemma between the infinite solutions on the web. I would like if u can help me to make my decision.
I would like to base my online business on Genesis because of its clean and well performing code, but im scared about the learning curve and i can’t spend a lot of time learning how to code.
May I use Design Palette Pro, Beaver Builder or Thrive Content Builder, or Conductor or something like that in order to have a well code framework and the agility to build fast websites and pages like XTheme?
Or could you suggest me other better solutions?
Do you know Thrive Themes and Make? What do you think about these products?
Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Paolo
Hi Paolo,
If you’re looking for a page builder to use with Genesis, I’d definitely recommend taking a look at Beaver Builder. I haven’t used it personally but I know a lot of people who love it for use with Genesis themes. I’m not very familiar with Thrive so I can’t really share much about their themes, but I do think Make is okay. Personally, I think it would really benefit you in the long run to get started with Genesis now, and you can always adjust how you use it as you learn more. The best part is that your clients will always be able to get updates and support (assuming they have a license) even if they aren’t actively working with you anymore, so they won’t be left with a theme they can’t update. Hopefully that helps!
Paolo says
Thank you very much for the advice 🙂
Eric says
Thanks heaps for this, like others, I found it very helpful.
I have a website/blog which is based on a Themify theme and I’m considering upgrading to Genesis + one of their child themes. My only concern is that most people who recommend Genesis seem to be developers and I am a humble amateur.
But I think this review has convinced me I can do it. I am comfortable with CSS and can modify PHP files OK most of the time. For my existing site, I kept the pages separate from the blog (I’m not sure why now) so I had to adapt the blog CSS files to give the same appearance on the website section, and write some CSS to do a quiz and some feedback options, and I think that is probably as much as I’d have to do with Genesis.
Thanks.
There are lots of end users with Genesis sites, so you’d be in good company! I’d definitely suggest joining the Genesis Facebook group as well as the Slack team - you can connect with other users (both developers and non-devs) there and ask any questions you might have.
If you’re comfortable with CSS, you won’t have any trouble using Genesis. I hope that helps!
Thank you Andrea, for all the excellent information. I am currently using a theme that I followed Youtube directions to set up. Since I am new to owning a website - I am not sure of what plugins one needs to have a robust site - so I am considering as an end user whether to purchase genesis framework + a child theme or to purchase Michael Hyatt’s Get Noticed theme . One of the problems I have is that I don’t know how you would make the comparison between them to know which is best to use - any help that you might be able to give would be greatly appreciated. I would like to commit more time to blogging and less time to wondering if I have a robust website.
Hi Evelyn,
Thanks for stopping by! I’m only familiar with the Get Noticed theme because a friend used it about a year ago, so I’m probably not the best person to judge its quality as I haven’t reviewed the code. In looking at the theme’s sales page, I notice there are a LOT of features built in that are probably better off as plugins. While an “all in one” type of theme can sound like a great idea, the disadvantage is that, should you ever change themes down the road, you would lose all those features that were built into the theme. For example, Get Noticed has a built-in event calendar. If you used an event calendar plugin, you’d keep all your events no matter what theme you used. But if you used the one built into the theme and changed to another theme, all that information would be lost.
In general, it’s better to use themes for presentation (overall look and feel) and plugins for functionality. That way you’re never stuck if you want a different look - all your functionality will still be there. For that reason, I’d recommend Genesis simply because you wouldn’t be tied to it if you ever changed your mind.
Nina says
Oh my. I’m crushing so hard on knowledge right now, or rather the generous sharing of it for free. It was about a week ago that I first registered the name Genesis on my radar, and then a couple of days ago saw the blog post below on Creative Market. I’m in the process of updating the branding of my two concepts/shops or whatever I should call them and need something that won’t kill the budget.
https://creativemarket.com/blog/2015/06/26/what-is-a-wordpress-child-theme
I have no skills in coding apart from tweaking html in WP text widgets, but it’s like you said in an earlier comment, you took it apart to see what happened. Despite this lack, I intend to pursue Genesis, and now with fervour. Based on what I grasped from the blog post and now your excellent explanations, I’m confident that I’ll figure stuff out, with the help of a theme for sale to begin with. I don’t mind buying one as long as I get away from the Twenty-something I’m using currently. Have looked at it for too long without a real chance at tweaking anything of substance.
The fact that you can’t destroy stuff when using child themes is what has me mesmerised. And then you get the latest security stuff updated anyway. This is so cool. It’s blissful to exist when you don’t know just how mad your decision to take the leap will be. As long as I know what I shouldn’t touch where/when, I’m positive one step at a time will work. Please don’t correct me 🙂
Hi Nina,
Glad to hear you’re considering Genesis! I definitely think you’ll like being able to tweak a child theme as much as you want without affecting the parent. The Genesis community is very active and there is SO much help available if you need it. There are a ton of child themes available (including third party themes) so you can get something that is close to the look you want, then make changes as needed. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to help!
Nina says
Hi and thanks for a swift reply! I read a bit more after commenting here and realised I should probably buy a premade theme to tweak.
The thing I’m worried about is support; if it isn’t an SP theme but from an indie designer, could things go really wrong in regards to troubles down the road? I can’t foresee what could happen, since I’m a newbie still, but I do know that I will want to know that a designer is available to explain their work to me, and how to fix a problem.
The other thing I’m not entirely sure I’ve grasped correctly is the tweaking possible to me. I have a style guide worked out almost completely and would love to use my own fonts and colour palette among others. So if I buy a premade theme, how easy would it be to substitute these where needed? From what I understand, working with for instance Google fonts should be something like a single line of code? That I’m sure I could eventually find. But if it’s something I need to upload myself, then insert in some other place, it’s a bit trickier. (I have a few from MyFonts with web licence.)
Oh, and I’ve already learned the part about plugins, a clean theme with few bells and whistles, then plugins. I’ve found quite a few blog posts online by various bloggers on their favourite plugins, but is there a place where they are reviewed? I’ve only worked with the standard theme widgets so far, but installing seems quite straight forward. It’s the security I’m worried about.
I’ll stop now 🙂
Most third party developers are great about providing support. I have a list of reputable sellers here: https://nutsandboltsmedia.com/third-party-genesis-child-themes/
Google fonts can be replaced within any Genesis theme’s functions.php file. There are lots of code examples available online, but it’s generally just a matter of swapping out the font family. For example, the Genesis Sample theme uses this function to enqueue the Lato font:
//* Enqueue Google Fontsadd_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'genesis_sample_google_fonts' );
function genesis_sample_google_fonts() {
wp_enqueue_style( 'google-fonts', '//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:300,400,700', array(), CHILD_THEME_VERSION );
}
To change that to something else, you’d only need to change the part that says
family=Lato:300,400,700to your preferred font and weights (Google fonts will give you exactly what you need when you click on Use) and make sure not to lose that closing single quote shown above.If you want to use MyFonts, you can use @font-face to import the fonts after adding them to a /fonts/ subfolder in your child theme folder. There is a tutorial for that here: http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/custom-fonts-css/
For plugins, you can generally read reviews by visiting the plugin repository, searching for the one you want, then clicking the Reviews tab. The repository is here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/. If a plugin isn’t part of the repo (it’s a premium plugin, for example) I’d recommend googling for reviews. I hope that helps!
Nina says
Does it help? Good heavens YES! Thank you so much!
I started listening to your YouTube thingy, but had to stop at around 37 minutes, because there’s just so much to take in. I’m unemployed currently (MSc in biochem) and it’s impossible to find a PhD position due to high unemployment, so whilst pondering what to do with my life, I’m trying to get some regular income other than aid. The whole coding stuff has made me convinced I won’t learn any of that in a flash, but when you talk about outsourcing as a designer, maybe I could learn more. I have no formal training, but have learned through trial and error, and have a deep interest in art and design in general, budding quilt pattern designer, too. In other words, learning about websites etc. on a conceptual level seems doable, but then someone else could take care of the implementation. I’m rather okay at organising, too, and am learning more about project management (Coursera), where they have a webdesign course that I intend to take. Wheels keep turning is all I care to say in public.
Thanks once again, will check those links and learn more. This is exciting and you’re so kind.
Hi Andrea, great post!
I’ve heard about Genesis before and actually found this post on Google while looking up some Genesis stuff.
I’m a bit cash strapped at the moment, so can’t afford the Pro plus themes package that StudioPress has, so I’m wondering what your opinion is on purchasing Genesis and a child theme? Perhaps I could purchase all themes down the road, though with the StudioPress pricing changes that I hear they will be making, purchasing all themes could be a huge mistake and result in heavy renewals if what I hear is true ultimately.
I don’t know what the possible prices will be for renewal, but if that hdoes happen, I’d still prefer to go with Genesis no matter what.
Maybe I’ll bookmark this in the hopes that when you learn more, you’ll update this review with updated details on whatever StudioPress makes public.
Take care, and have a great week!
Hi Keith,
Thanks for stopping by! I highly recommend starting out with Genesis and one child theme to make sure it’s a good fit for you. Once you become a member, you get an automatic 25% discount on any future purchases (including Pro Plus) when you’re logged into your account - that would make the Pro Plus upgrade $374.96 instead of $499.95. I’m not sure what the plan is for ongoing pricing, but if you try Genesis and decide you want to use it going forward, I’d highly recommend upgrading before the end of the year if possible since that’s when the new pricing is supposed to take effect.
Hi Andrea, thanks for your reply and advice!
Sadly, as things go at this point, I have very little cash sitting around and certainly don’t have nearly $375 or whatever to invest either.
I’m working on that, however, but I cannot guarantee that things wil change before the end of 2015.
What I am going to do though no matter what happens is keep an eye on this post as I am sure you will update it to reflect current stuff StudioPress is up to, and will look at what changes StudioPress implements. I guess time will tell if your still using Genesis in the next ten years or better along with the other sties presently using it as to if people like the Studiopress price changes and so on. But I guess they’re in the right to do those changes after all, so I guess I’ll come along for the ride and see what happens! 🙂 Thanks again for your response!
I can definitely understand - $375 is a significant investment, and most of us don’t have a money tree in the backyard! 🙂
It’s very possible you may never need access to all the themes, so it might make sense to start with one, see how it goes, and maybe add others here and there as you need them. I did that for several years until I decided to upgrade to Pro Plus. As of right now, StudioPress will refund your past theme purchases when you upgrade to Pro Plus, with the exception of (1) your original purchase of Genesis and (2) any third party themes. So if you have spent $150 on themes over a year or two and you buy Pro Plus later for $375, they’ll refund the $150 you already spent on child themes. That’s just one example of how awesome they are as a company - they really want to make it worthwhile for people to upgrade if they need access to all the themes. Should that change change down the road, I’ll be sure to update the post.
What a great read! And such great info! I’m very tempted to buy a genesis powered theme from the Creative Market (there’s several that I love there) but wasn’t sure if it’d be a good investment. With most you have have to buy the theme (for about $50) and then the framework separately (another $50) and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend $100 overall on a wordpress theme. I do have one question: I found a theme on the Creative Market that conveniently offers the Genesis Framework & wordpress theme together- but isn’t that illegal to do? Are they allowed to turn around and sell the framework at a cheaper cost? I know you’re not a lawyer, but if you have any advice on the legality of this, I’d greatly appreciate it 🙂
In general, Genesis shouldn’t be packaged with a theme for sale by a third party - you wouldn’t own a licensed copy, so you wouldn’t be eligible for access to support and documentation from StudioPress. Can you fill out my contact form with a link to the theme so I can send it in to the StudioPress legal team?
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the great explanation on Genesis Framework issues. I maintain a static wordpress page, and while I think I know the answer to my question, I’m considering installing the framework and building from there. Do you know of any problems using the Genesis Framework with a static page?
Thanks!
You shouldn’t have any trouble using Genesis with static pages - you definitely don’t have to publish blog posts to use it. I hope that helps!
Yes. That does help!
That was my assumption, but I wanted to be certain before going forward. I’m looking forward to updating and improving the ease of use and look of my site.
Thanks again!
Scott
Hi Andrea
I not sure that I am going to make my own comment, or that I am just reply on another comment.
Now I just try.
First of all I am thankful for your answers some months ago, which made me take the decision to buy full access to Genesis. I can work with html and css, and very little PHP, but it has been so easy to work with Genesis. And I think that I through Genesis will learn more PHP. I am sure, it is a way to learn it.
I have earlier made some sites for customers in Twenty Fourteen, and I thought that it was easy to work with and find page templates at the net, but with Genesis all is given from the start. In that way it is much easier to work with Genesis. Now I regret that I did not buy the access several months ago - that would have saved me a lot of working hours.
I have a question about SEO. I have used Yoast SEO plugin for every site I have made so far - also two sites in Genesis, but now Yoast has made a horrible update (and I am not the only one, who think so) with lots of errors. And I can see that the update has made the plugin even more controllable than the former versions, which means I as a user is limited in my work with seo.
Now I think it will be most reasonable just to deactivate and delete Yoast plugin, and just use the built-in seo in Genesis.
My question is what experiences you have with the SEO built-in plugin in Genesis. And do you have any knowledge about the differences between Yoast SEO and Genesis SEO.
Thanks again for all your answers.
Mikael
Hi Mikael,
I usually give clients a choice between Yoast SEO or the SEO built into Genesis when I build their sites. The Genesis SEO options aren’t as robust as those found in Yoast, but for someone who just wants to enter meta title, description, etc. the options work fine. There is a plugin from StudioPress called SEO Data Transporter you can use to import all your previous Yoast settings into Genesis, so that way you don’t lose any previous information entered. You can also use the plugin to go back to Yoast if you choose to in the future, or to something like All in One SEO. It’s definitely worth a look, though I have a feeling the Yoast team will get their plugin straightened out soon - it’s a disaster right now!
Hi Andrea
I have been following support questions and reviews at the Yoast plugin site over the last days and there are very few responses from Yoast - and when there are, it is almost the same answer: “Clear your cache”.
I have a feeling that the plugin unfortunately won’t be straightened out.
It is only one year since I was building websites in the old fashioned way only by html and css - and putting metatags in just into the code, and these websites that is still built in that way are actually wellplaced in Google.
So I have decided to use the built-in SEO in Genesis, which make me independable of any seo plugins.
The Yoast update showed me how vulnerable one can be, when one are relying on a externally company to manage most of the seo. It will probably take a bit more time to manage and control the seo without the advantages of Yoast, but on the other hand I will avoid spending time, if (and when) the plugin - as in last week - turns in to something that does not work. And additionally I have to think about all the aspects of seo myself instead of relying on a plugin.
In the end it might be better (-:
What’s your view on other frameworks like Headway , Themify , TemplateToaster and PageLines .
I’ve used Headway and Pagelines before and wasn’t impressed with either of them - Headway in particular is VERY bloated and difficult to use. I haven’t tried anything from Themify or TemplateToaster, but I really haven’t needed to look for anything else since Genesis can do anything I need it to do. It’s mostly a matter of personal preference - whatever works best for you and/or your clients. 🙂
Chaitu says
Hi Andrea,
This article helped me a lot.
I am planning to buy genesis framework.Can i use genesis framework on any theme.
Is it necessary to buy child theme ?
Please provide your suggestion.
Thanks in advance.
Genesis is a theme itself, with the child themes serving as skins to change the way Genesis looks. It can only be used with child themes that are specifically made for Genesis.
You should always use a child theme - if you just want to keep the look of Genesis itself, it comes with the Genesis Sample child theme for free. Genesis Sample looks exactly like the regular framework but gives you a safe place to make any needed customizations. Hope that helps!
stewart brown says
Hi Andrea, I know your post is last year but it still feels very relevant to me. I purchased Genesis and I use it on my 5 sites. So, you are correct, it has been great value plus it meant all my sites had the same look and feel. I am no coding expert either but I seem to be able to do enough to get a professional looking site using Genesis. I have however ended up with about 50 plug ins and I am wondering if that is too many or when it becomes too many. I also would like to add to your article that I have asked questions to the studio press team a number of times and I have found them to be among the most professional and helpful people on the web.
I wouldn’t get too bogged down by a target number for plugins - it depends on what they do, how they’re coded, and what impact they have on load times. This site is running about 40 plugins, but most of them are plugins I wrote myself to control functionality (thus not having a big impact on the front end). I have some sites with 20 or less and other sites with over 50. There are lots of tools out there like P3 Plugin Profiler to give you an idea of what plugins may be hogging resources, but if your site is loading in under 2 seconds (the usual standard) and functioning properly, you’re probably good to go. Hope that helps!
A very interesting article, full of useful information, thanks.
Just one point, and I’m playing devil’s advocate (!)….. you say:
“With Genesis, you can add anything you need fairly easily, but only if you want to. If you just need a basic site where you can share your thoughts with the world, you don’t have to use a gigantic, bloated theme to do it.”
If someone just needed a basic site, why would they use Genesis when they could (possibly) simply use a basic WP theme? Surely the complexity of frameworks is beyond the needs of a ‘basic’ site?
Genesis really isn’t all that complex compared to a free WP theme. In fact, the footprint of the actual theme files is often smaller (the framework zip is somewhere around 450kb). Genesis is just a theme like any other, but you don’t have the risk of a free theme that may or may not be maintained by the developer. A lot of people submit free themes to the WP repository, then abandon them, so people end up with a potential security risk and don’t even realize it.
I’m a “live and let live” kind of person - if someone finds a free theme that meets his/her needs and seems to be well supported, that’s perfectly fine. But I think having a strong foundation is the best option for a site that plans to stick around awhile and grow/change to fit its audience.
Granted, good to have a firm foundation if you’re serious, even with a basic site. Although there are probably good basic WP themes anyway, even the WordPress 2011-2015 ones …which one would expect to be supported!
Whilst you might not have the risk of a free theme, I suppose you might still have the risk of a child theme becoming unsupported, again depending on your source.
I’m very tempted to try Genesis, even though I’m slightly put off by the apparent lack of ‘easy’ styling/layout tweaks that propelled Thesis to such a following. But seeing as Thesis now appears dead and unobtainable, guess there’s only one show in town!
Child themes actually shouldn’t need support, as they are just a skin that changes how Genesis looks. Child themes never update, and while they won’t work forever (I’ve worked on a few sites lately where a child theme from 2009-2010 broke because it was so outdated), they also shouldn’t work forever. The average lifespan for a design is 36 months or so. Once you buy Genesis, member pricing for child themes is around $38, so that’s not bad for an investment you can use for 3-4 years.
Hi Andrea,
As you know when I recently tweeted you, I just purchased Genesis and the Pro Plus package yesterday!
Awesome stuff, for sure!
Currently working with the Workstation Pro theme, as it meets WordPress accessibility ready requirements.
I did have two questions though, the first thing I’d love to get working on my site is an author box. So I was curious how you’re implementing that on yours? And the second question, I notice your affiliate disclosure text on practicly every post. Are you using PHP code for this? 🙂 Thanks!
In general, I suggest that people get Genesis so they can experience it- it really has to be experimented with to believe it!
To get the author box to show up, go to Users > Your Profile and fill in the biography field (that’s where the box content comes from). Then scroll down a bit further and you’ll see a checkbox that says “Show the Genesis author box on this user’s posts.” Once you save your profile changes, you should see the author box on single posts.
I did use PHP to add my affiliate disclosure to every post. I added a function to the genesis_entry_footer hook: https://gist.github.com/nutsandbolts/03744e609c1a62c46521
Hi Andrea.
I am considering getting a Genesis-based theme and was wondering if it is an ideal opportunity for me to design templates and sell them? It means I can use the child theme to edit right? Also, if I want to have an ecommerce site with it, I do not want the blog to show below the homepage. For most Genesis themes, I see the blog and about sidebar and whatnots which is not how I want my site to look like. Is it possible to remove and hide it from public? I am still confused with how it works.
Hi Kimmy,
You can make any changes to a child theme you want, provided you are comfortable editing CSS and PHP. You can also build completely custom child themes to sell. You can definitely use the full width template to remove sidebars and take off the blog completely if you want - there are many ecommerce themes available for Genesis that don’t have those elements on the homepage. Hope that helps!
Hi Andrea!
I’m new to web development. I have just learned html/css and some php for wordpress and some design. I have my first client, yay! They are a non-profit and I want to do a great job for them. I’m on the fence on whether to use Genesis or another reputable premium parent theme from a good development group. I might be doing a lot of customizations like custom page layouts and post layouts and definitely home page customizations. I’m not afraid of diving into code ( I enjoy it 🙂 but I see that Genesis has a learning curve and I’m not sure if I can justify it. I would love your thoughts on this ?
Thank you so much for you help! (in advance)
If you’re looking for a “go to” framework to use from this point forward and you’re not crunched for time, Genesis is a good investment. (Obviously I’m at least slightly biased here since it’s all I use.) When I started using it, my biggest challenge was getting used to creating templates that don’t necessarily contain a lot of code - at least not as much as I was used to - because of the hooks and filters.
For example, let’s say I want to remove the date from single posts. Instead of copying over the entire single.php into my child theme and manually editing out the date, I can use a single function to modify the post info so it no longer contains a date. I can either create a single.php and place the function there to affect only the single post view, or I can add it to functions.php and use a conditional to target the single post view. Alternately, if I want to remove the date everywhere, I can add to functions.php without the conditional. I’m still accomplishing the same goal, but it’s just a different way to conceptualize it.
In the long run, Genesis allows me to develop far more quickly than I did before, but it definitely took some time to adjust my way of thinking. A little over 4 years later, I can hardly imagine going back to the “old” way of doing things. If you have some time to learn during this project, I think you’d probably enjoy it tremendously, but if your deadline is pretty soon, it might make sense to use something a little more familiar for now and look into Genesis afterward. Hope that helps!
Kay says
Thank you so much for your quick reply. You said “A little over 4 years later”, I hope it didn’t take you 4 years to get comfortable with Genesis 🙂 How long did it take you? So, the pluses are that development is quicker (once you learn genesis) and that when the wp core code gets updated it not affect your child theme and Genesis is a dependable/solid parent theme. Though, if you are customizing templates aren’t you using some core wp and genesis functions that could change or depreciate (newbie qu) ? I mean if wp doesn’t change or depreciate those function names either then how does Genesis help? …confused (newbie question) When do you use Genesis function calls instead of wp is there a list instead of wp functions? Still on the fence. Thanks for you replies! 🙂
It took me a few months, but please keep in mind that I’d been developing for about 15 years at that point, so I might have started from a different place.
When using Genesis functions, it’s rare that one of the hooks would become deprecated. When Genesis 2.0 was released in 2013, the hooks changed (due to a switch from XHTML to HTML5) but the older hooks are still supported for the XHTML child themes. So basically the older child themes I built still continued to function just fine, but they aren’t HTML5 compliant. It was up to each client whether to move to an updated child theme to get the benefit of schema markup or stay on the older theme.
Regular WP functions work just fine with Genesis, but you’d still generally use Genesis hooks to tell those functions when/where to execute. Keep in mind, though, that a design’s life expectancy is maybe 24-36 months, so nothing you do should be deprecated in that length of time. If your clients opt to keep the same theme/design longer than that, they are risking things beginning to deteriorate as web standards move and change incredibly quickly. (Not to mention the fact that the sites probably have an outdated look.)
shamsher khan says
Hi Andrea, nice reading this… Want to know one thing that in order to use Genesis. I need to buy 2/things ??
Genesis framework and
A Genesis framework compatible theme.
I m little confuse about this…
There are two options:
(1) You can buy the Genesis framework itself for $59.95 and use the free Genesis Sample child theme (which looks just like the “naked” framework).
(2) You can buy the Genesis framework and a different child theme if you’d like to change how Genesis looks. Once you buy Genesis, you can buy child themes by themselves and you also get a 25% discount when you’re logged into your StudioPress account.
Hope that helps!
Here’s why I haven’t taken the leap yet. I’m a newbie first of all, so I’m a-scurred (afraid/scared) to pull the lever. I want something that I’m not seeing in any of the child themes at Genesis. I want to be able to add a shopping cart (paypal) and aweber. I also want to have a footer where I can have navigation to other blog posts/pages on the site. None of the Genesis child themes I’ve seen have this, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to add it with some sort of widget or plug-in in thing-a-ma-jiggy. I also can’t quite figure out if I can mix a Genesis framework with other company’s child themes. So, still questions, and that’s why I haven’t lept yet.
You can definitely add any sort of ecommerce and email signup to a site using Genesis. Those aren’t really theme dependent; you could have those features with any theme. Many Genesis child themes do have footer widget areas where you can add a custom menu widget linking to anything you’d like. Third party themes will work just fine as long as they specifically say they are Genesis child themes. I hope that helps!
Awesome! Thank you for your response, Andrea! And thank you for the extensive list on your page at https://nutsandboltsmedia.com/third-party-genesis-child-themes/ (although it’s a little overwhelming in how extensive it is!). Do you have a page of third party Genesis that you recommend (a smaller list, that is)? Thanks, again!!
I don’t have a page, but my go-to recommendations for third party themes are Restored 316, Pretty Darn Cute, Web Savvy Marketing, and Appfinite. I know all those developers personally and have worked with their themes before; all of them provide good support. That’s not to say the others don’t, but those are the ones I’ve sent people to most often. 🙂
Hi Debra and Andrea
Yesterday I found a pretty new Genesis plugin called Blox Lite - Content Blocks for Genesis ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/blox-lite/ ), and I have watched a video about it.
I have not tried yet, but it seems to me that it can help putting in elements different places of a Genesis website.
Personally I use to try to put elements in just by code, but sometimes I need to get help by a plugin. And after some time I figure out via the plugin how to do it just with the code.
Adding a huge advantage to Andreas answers I want to supply with the fact that since I started to use Genesis august 2015 I have experienced only nice people in the community using Genesis, and I have always got very useful answers, when I have asked anyone for help.
Interesting - I hadn’t seen this plugin before. Thanks for mentioning it!
Thank you so much for your responses, Andrea & Mikael. I think I have one last (yeah, right!) question. I find that the format I like best at Genesis is the one they have listed as simply “Genesis Framework.” I assume (?) that somehow, I can add an extended footer like the one in the “Beautiful Pro” child theme. So is it possible to use only the “Genesis Framework” “theme” alone without a child theme?
Vivian says
Thanks! Is there an update about since Aug 2015 about the developer license and if that’s for a lifetime?
As of right now, the dev license is still offered for lifetime updates and support. I’m assuming it might change at some point this year, but so far all looks to be the same.