In case you know GeneratePress is one of the best and most popular themes for WordPress. And if you are finding the best GeneratePress alternatives theme, then you are in the right place. Here in this article, we are going to share similar themes that are lightweight and fast in performance as the GeneratePress theme.
There are plenty of WordPress themes available free and paid, but here we are listing the most popular themes and lightweight in size and fast in performance. If you once installed one of the themes, then don’t need to switch to another.
GeneratePress Premium that is we are using since we have launched our (in Dec. 2019) website, our experience is great with GeneratePress and the support forum. However, we have tested other awesome themes for our other sites and our client’s sites.
The best thing that we experienced with GeneratePress:
- Modular Functionality
- Custom Elements & Hooks support
- Fully Gutenberg & Elementor support
- Lightweight Size
- Fast performance
- Best Documentation & Support Forum
In this article, we are going to list the best similar themes to GeneratePress and those that are passing Google’s Core Web Vitals. On May 28, 2020, Google introduce the Core Web Vitals search algorithm update. This update is included with three website performance measurement metrics – Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Perhaps, we are not going into the deep of this, you can read the Core Web Vitals complete guide from Search Engine Journal.
So, our main objective is to GeneratePress alternatives that are as fast in performance and lightweight as GeneratePress.
Here are the Key Features of the GeneratePress Theme:
- Advanced Styling Controls (Limited on Free version)
- 12 Modules (Only for the paid version)
- WooCommerce Integration
- Advanced Hook System
- Custom Layout Features
- Off-canvas Menu
- Secondary Navigation menu
- Pre-Built Site Library/Templates
- Great Support
- Dynamic Content with GenerateBlock Pro
GeneratePress Pricing:
| GeneratePress Premium – Yearly Plan | $59 (1 Year of Updates + Support + 500 websites) |
| GeneratePress Premium – Lifetime Plan | $249 (Lifetime Updates + Support + 500 websites) |
10 Best GeneratePress Alternative Themes for WordPress 2021
| GP Alternative | Pricing | Free Version |
| Astra Pro | $47 | Yes |
| Kadence Pro | $59 | Yes |
| Neve Pro | $59 | Yes |
| Genesis Pro (comes with multiple themes) | $360 | Yes |
| Hestia Pro | $49 | Yes |
| Schema | $39 | Yes |
| Divi (Bundled) | $89 | No |
| Avada | $60 | No |
| Soledad | $59 | No |
| Total | $59 | No |
Our Best Picks as GeneratePress alternative themes for WordPress in 2021
We have picked a total of ten WordPress themes that are the best alternatives for the GeneratePress theme. Using these themes, you can create fantastic blog websites or e-commerce websites. All these themes have similar functionality to GeneratePress even though some have more features compared to GeneratePress.
Astra Pro – Lightweight & Highly Customizable
Astra Pro is one of our favorite themes for WordPress websites. It is a highly customizable, fast, and lightweight theme. Support almost every popular page builder like Elementor, Beaver Builder, and more. Astra theme also has a free version that you can download from the WordPress repository, with this free version you will get some advanced features compared to the GeneratePress. However, for more advanced features you must upgrade with Astra Pro Addon.
If we compare Astra (Free & Paid) theme with GeneratePress (Free & Paid) theme, then GeneratePress is losing the race. The past year (2020) Astra launched their newer version of the theme with fantastic features (We will discuss that below), before the update, Astra and GeneratePress were very similar in features like modular functions, theme customization, and others. Perhaps now Astra is ahead of GeneratePress because GeneratePress is not much evolving. Check out the comparison between Astra vs GeneratePress theme.
Features of Astra Theme
- 9 Free Modules (Custom Font, Adobe Type kit, Gutenberg Plugin + other features)
- 13 Pro Modules (Dedicated WooCommerce, LearnDash, LifterLMS, EDD support + other features)
- All New Theme Customization (Header, Footer Builder, Global Typography and Color Palette + other features)
- Load Google Fonts Locally for Best Performance
- Native AMP Support
- 150+ Free & Paid Pre-made Templates
- Advanced Grid Layout (with Pro Plan)
- Dedicated WooCommerce Support (with Pro Plan)
- Custom Layouts (Hooks, Header, Footer, 404 Pages, Display Conditions)
- White label
Pricing of Astra Theme
| Astra Pro – Yearly Plan | $47 (1 Year of Updates + Support + Unlimited websites) |
| Astra Pro – Lifetime Plan | $249 (Lifetime Updates + Support + Unlimited websites) |
There are other plans with bundled items, but for a blogger one of these two plans is enough. Using the paid addon user can customize more and build fantastic websites. However, you can use the license on the “Unlimited” number of websites, there are no restrictions like GeneratePress.
Should you buy Astra Pro instead of GeneratePress Premium?
buy Astra Pro, like pricing, features, performance, and other stuff. Astra Pro is about $12 less compared to GeneratePress Premium in the yearly plan, and here you can check out the Astra Pro review.
Kadence Pro – Similar to Astra Pro
Kadence is also very similar to the Astra theme, both have the same design language like the customization features and starter templates, however, the Astra theme is advanced from the Kadence theme. Although we are not going to compare here both themes, we are going to tell what features you will get with this theme.
Kadence supports almost every popular page builder plugin like Elementor theme builder, Gutenberg Block builder, and other popular plugins. When you purchase Kadence Pro then you will get some extra features, like a Header addon where you can customize various header elements, and you will get Hooked Elements. Using Hooked Elements similarly, you can create a custom layout as in GeneratePress and Astra theme.
Features of Kadence Theme:
- Drag & Drop Header, Footer Customization (Similar to Astra)
- Global Color and Typography
- Elementor, Beaver Builder, WooCommerce, LearnDash, LifterLMS, TutorLMS, etc. integrations.
- Dark Mode support
- Custom Layouts
- CSS pre-loading
- Custom Post Type Support
- Mega Menu Support
Pricing of Kadence Theme
| Kadence Pro – Yearly Plan | $59 (1 Year of Updates + Support + Unlimited websites) |
| Kadence Pro – Lifetime Plan | $599 (Lifetime Updates + Support + Unlimited websites + Bundled Addons) |
Should you buy Kadence Pro instead of GeneratePress Premium?
Specifically, if you are looking for GeneratePress and Kadence Pro, and want to buy one of them. Then we suggest you buy Kadence Pro yearly plan. Kadence Pro is modern customization features, is Lightweight in size and pricing is the same, and the website uses is more than GeneratePress. And if you have in mind other themes then, you can go with them, which are listed in the blog post.
Neve Pro – Frist Premium Theme That We Have Used in Past
Neve Pro is one of the first premium themes that we have used on our WordPress blogs, and our experiences with Neve Pro were fantastic. Neve Pro theme is an affordable multipurpose WordPress theme developed by Themeisle.com. They have also a free version of the Neve theme that you can download or apply to your WordPress site from the WordPress theme repository.
Neve was the first theme to bring the drag and drop header builder, which is still available in their theme. Neve has various advanced functionality and customization.
Features of Neve Theme
- Drag & Drop Header Builder
- Global Colors & Typography
- Adobe Custom Type kit
- Native AMP Support
- Elementor, LifterLMS, and WooCommerce Booster
- Advance Blog Customization
- Advance Header Customization
- White label
- Custom Layouts & Hooks
- Starter Sites (premade templates) & template cloud (premade blocks)
There are a lot of features of this theme, Neve has some fantastic free additional plugins, and using these plugins, you can expand your website’s accessibility far beyond. The theme is lightweight and fast in performance; you can try it installing the free theme on your blog.
Pricing of Neve Theme
| Neve Pro – Yearly Plan | $59 (1 Year of Updates + Support + Unlimited websites) |
| Neve Pro – Lifetime Plan |
Should you buy Neve Pro instead of GeneratePress Premium?
Yes, you should buy the Neve Pro theme instead of GeneratePress, if you are looking for a lifetime deal, because Neve is the only theme that provides you lifetime deals at $189, with all features. And the price is comparably lower than any themes in our list. If you consider buying a yearly plan then you should consider Astra Pro instead of GeneratePress and Neve.
Genesis Framework – Widely Loved & Developer Friendly WordPress Theme Framework
Genesis is a framework or a parent theme for WordPress. It is an open-source project from Studio Press by WP Engine. They also have huge numbers of premium child themes, and you can buy them from the official site. In case you are a customer of WP Engine then you are eligible for using those all-child themes for free.
Anyone can download the Genesis Framework and the sample child theme from GitHub and their official website. However, if you are a tech-savvy person or can build a WordPress theme then you can create your Genesis child theme from scratch and can sell it online.
Perhaps, if you consider buying pre-built child themes from StudioPress then you can buy from the official site, and these Genesis child themes have different-different features of their own. However, you will find some common features that all themes have, even if you build a from scratch.
Features of Genesis Framework
- Responsive
- eCommerce Friendly
- Inbuilt SEO Optimization Features
- Simple Setup
- Guttenberg Support
- Accessibility Ready
- Build Your Child-Theme or
- Buy From StudioPress
- Custom Blocks
- Custom Hooks
Pricing of Genesis Framework
| Genesis Pro – Yearly Plan | $360 (1 Year of Updates + Support + Unlimited websites) |
| Host website on WP Engine or Flywheel | Get All StudioPress theme access for Free |
Should you buy Genesis Pro instead of GeneratePress Premium?
If you are just wanting to purchase a theme, then I don’t recommend buying the Genesis Pro subscription. Instead of that, you can buy any lightweight theme, that we have listed here. In case you have budged buy WordPress premium hosting from WP Engine then great, you will get free access to all the StudioPress themes.
Hestia – Lightweight Material Design WordPress Theme
Hestia theme is a lightweight WordPress theme developed by Themeisle.com the same company behind the popular theme Neve. Hestia is also a popular theme under the WordPress theme repository. This theme is built with modern material design, supports popular page builders, and seamlessly works with WooCommerce.
If you are looking for a modern theme, with fast performance, highly customizable, and support page builders then this theme could be a great choice. Here are some key features of the Hestia theme.
Features of Hestia theme
- Translation & RTL Ready
- SEO Optimized
- Advanced Live Customizer
- Page Builders Compatibility
- Core Web Vitals Optimized
- Mega Menus
- WooCommerce Friendly
- Material Design
Pricing of Hestia theme
| Hestia – Yearly Plan | $81 (1 Year of Updates + Support + 1 website) |
| Hestia – Lifetime Plan |
Hestia theme is a good alternative to GeneratePress in terms of modern design and compatibility. But pricing is seeming to be overpriced, but in India, Hestia theme’s pricing is way lower compared to the global market. For now, we are not recommending this theme, but we are saying it could be a good alternative. So, you can try out the free theme from the WordPress repository.
Schema – SEO Optimized & In-built Rich Snippet Schema Markup
Schema theme is one of the best WordPress themes for well SEO optimization and proper schema markup. The theme is very lightweight and fast in performance. If you are using an ad network for monetization then this theme also has well optimized for that, you can place various sizes of ads.
Fully compatible with Elementor website builder, and you get a powerful customization/options panel. Built-in review snippet schema markup for getting higher and fast ranking on Google search. Here are some key features of the Schema WordPress theme.
Features of Schema Theme
- SEO Optimized
- Rich Snippet Schema Markup
- Page Builders Support
- Ad Management
- Easy Import & Export
- Powerful Customization
- Useful Shortcodes
- Custom Widgets
- Integrated social media
- WooCommerce Integration
Pricing of Schema Theme
| Schema – Yearly Plan | $39 (1 Year of Updates + Support + Unlimited websites) |
| MyThemeShop – Membership Plan | $99 (All Items + 30 – Day Money-back + Unlimited websites) |
If you are looking for an affordable and well-performing theme, then you should go with Schema Pro instead of GeneratePress. It will cost you $39 bucks and you can use it with unlimited numbers of websites without any restrictions. Theme installations and updating are very easy, 24×7 priority support, Facebook groups, and many things about the developer. You can also take the annual membership of MyThemeShop at just $99 per year and you can access 80+ premium themes, 17+ premium plugins, and more.
Divi – Best Premium Theme (Included Page Divi Page Builder)
Divi is one of the best and most popular WordPress themes in the market. The best thing is that about this theme is, that it’s included with an amazing visual drag and drop page builder. Using the builder or pre-made templates you can make stunning WordPress websites.
Themes visual impression is fantastic, easy to customize and choose templates over 800+, save your custom design, easy to Undo, Redo & Revisions. Divi also has global elements & styles, like typography, colors, and more.
Features of Divi Theme
- Comes with Visual Builder
- Control Every Element CSS
- Responsive Editing
- Design Options
- Inline Text Editing
- Sav & Manage Your Designs
- Global Elements & Styles
- 40+ Website Elements
- 800+ Pre-made templates
- 100+ Full Website Packs
Pricing of Divi Theme
| Elegant Themes – Yearly Plan | $89 (Access All Plugins & Themes + Unlimited Websites) |
| Elegant Themes – Lifetime Plan | $249 (Access All Plugins & Themes + Unlimited Websites) |
Divi theme is part of the Elegant Themes, and Divi is one of my favorite premium WordPress themes. If you are looking for the best alternative to the GeneratePress theme, then Divi could be the best theme. Using the membership, you can access all themes and plugins. Divi has an inbuilt visual builder and lots of templates.
Avada – Bestsellers Multipurpose WordPress Theme
Avada is the number one WordPress theme, and the bestseller for years on the Themeforest.com platform. Avada is a multi-purpose theme, and using this theme you can build, e-commerce, blog, or any other type of Website. This theme comes with 100+ prebuilt complete website templates. Avada has many features at an affordable price. Using Avada, no need for any third-party page builders, Avada supports native AMP and PWA.
However, you can use third-party page builders like Elementor, Visual Composer, etc. But for the performance, we do not suggest you use it, perhaps Avada has already given an inbuilt performance management tool. There you can optimize the theme’s static files like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, and you can minify them, and other optimizations are also available.
Key features of Avada
- Beautiful Layouts & Modern Designs
- Inbuilt Page Builder
- WooCommerce Integration
- Custom WooCommerce Builder
- 100+ Prebuilt Website Templates
- White label
- Global Colors & Typography
- Form Builder
- Enable/Disable Elements Features
- Image & Static Content Optimization
Pricing of Avada
| Avada – Regular | $60 (6 Months Update & Support + Single Website) |
| Avada – Extended | $78 (12 Months Update & Support + Single Website) |
Avada is a perfect alternative to the GeneratePress WordPress theme. However, in Avada, you get some limitations like single website usage and no lifetime plan. In case you are a Web developer or freelancer, then these limitations could be disappointing for you, but overall Avada is a perfect theme for a Blog or WooCommerce site.
Soledad – Blog & News Portal WordPress Theme
Soledad is the best WordPress news and blog theme known for its incredible performance on Google Page Speed Insight, GTMetrix, and Pingdom. According to the developer if you optimize the theme properly then you will get 90+ scores on Page Speed Insight with passing core web vitals.
And if you know most of the best performing websites, also get low scores when they use page ads (e.g., AdSense). Ezoic is one of the best Ad networks and partnered with Google, they recommend using its Soledad theme if you are using its Ad network platform, and Ezoic has many in-built tools to optimize your theme performance and your ad revenue.
Soledad WordPress theme is a multi-purpose theme, you can use it to make different kinds of websites. However, Soledad is mostly used for making simple blogs or news websites. Soledad has a cloud template library; from there you can easily import premade templates and then customize them to your requirements.
Key Features of Soledad
- 90+ Speed Scores
- Popular Page Builders (Elementor, WP Bakery) Support
- Pre-made templates
- WooCommerce Builder
- Single Post Template for Different Article
- Native AMP Support
- White label
- Proper SEO Optimized & In-built Rich Snippet (Reviews, Recopies & more)
- Gutenberg and Custom Post Types Support
- RTL and WPML support
Pricing of Soledad
| Soledad – Regular | $59 (6 Months Update & Support + Single Website) |
| Soledad – Extended | $76.6 (12 Months Update & Support + Single Website) |
Soledad could be a very good alternative to the GeneratePress theme, however, Soledad and Avada theme’s pricing is very similar and the support terms are also the same. In case, you are a beginner in the Blogging field, then we suggest you go with one of them.
GeneratePress’s regular pricing is also the same as Soledad, if we compare both then Soledad has more features than GeneratePress, and if your primary purpose is to make a news site then Soledad is the alternative to GeneratePress.
Total – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme
The Total theme is also a best-seller WordPress theme on Themeforest.net with 49,203 sales and the rating is 4.86 stars out of 5 stars. Total theme can be used for various purposes, like building a business site, one-pager, portfolio, blogs, and many others. This theme size is very smaller compared to the other Themeforest themes. Total is one of the recommended themes on the Ezoic platform to use and improve your Core Web Vitals.
Total theme support page builder like WP Bakery, and for slides Slider Revolution, and many other plugins. This theme is very lightweight and comes with the premium WP bakery page builder, so you can easily build a website with drag and drop features. However, Total theme comes with 40+ pre-made templates, and you can customize it according to your purpose.
Key Features of Total Theme
- Lightweight
- 100+ Page Builder Blocks
- Typography & Theme Font Icons
- Global Images Sizes
- Lightbox features for Images
- Custom Post Type
- Comes with Premium Plugins
- Elementor Page Builder Support
- Filters & Custom Hooks
- Custom Layout
Pricing of Total Theme
| Total – Regular | $59 (6 Months Update & Support + Single Website) |
| Total – Extended | $76.6 (12 Months Update & Support + Single Website) |
Total is the perfect alternative to the GeneratePress theme, perhaps it depends on you now. We have listed the most popular theme that we have used and tested them, and some of the themes are recommended by popular sources like Ezoic, etc. The Total theme has exceptional features and great support and documentation.
FAQs Related to GeneratePress Theme and Its Alternatives
Why Should You Choose GeneratePress Alternative?
GeneratePress is not only the high-performing theme in the market. Like Astra, Neve, and Kadence has more features and highly customization options. The pricing is also very competitive, and the number of websites used is not limited to GeneratePress.
Is GeneratePress support AMP?
Natively GeneratePress doesn’t support AMP, for that, you must install a separate plugin on your WordPress websites.
Is GeneratePress theme best for News websites?
GeneratePress is good for blogs and e-commerce shops, and the GeneratePress premium also has a specific module for WooCommerce support, but we don’t think it would be best for News websites. You can use GeneratePress alternatives like Soledad, or Total, these themes are specifically having news-like templates.
Is the GeneratePress Lifetime plan worth it?
It depends on you, if you are a Freelancer or a web developer then definitely go with the lifetime plan. But if you are a beginner in the blogging field then simply buy the yearly plan or find a better alternative as we have listed in this blog post.
Final Thought
GeneratePress is a good theme for WordPress, and the possibilities for customizations are very high. Perhaps many other themes provide more features than the GeneratePress with comparably lower prices.
If you have any thoughts about the GeneratePress alternative, feel free to comment in the comment section.
