Today in this post I am going to review Kadence vs GeneratePress. Both GeneratePress and Kadence are fast loading and easy to use themes.

GeneratePress is from a solo developer, Tom Usborne. He has also developed the GenerateBlocks plugin for GeneratePress which increases the design flexibility of the default WordPress block editor.

GeneratePress is by far the most popular WordPress plugin. Compared to it Kadence is relatively new. But, it’s making a lot of noise due to the ease of use and tons of customization options it offers.

Along with the theme, Kadence also provides you with additional plugins like Kadence Blocks, Kadence Conversions, Kadence Cloud, etc.

If you are stuck at choosing the best theme among Kadence and GeneratePress, this post will help you decide.

Let’s cut the chase.

Product	Kadence	GeneratePress
Pricing starts at 💸	$129/year $649/Lifetime	$59/year $249/Lifetime
Sites usage	You can use on unlimited sites	Restricted to 500 sites
Addons available	Kadence Blocks Kadence Cloud Kadence Conversions	GenerateBlocks
Unique features	Conditional headers Header & footer builder Color switch	–
Coding skills needed? 👨‍💻	No. You get almost all the features built-in within the theme	Yes. The built-in theme lacks many features.
Integrations	Kadence has a good number of integrations. For instance, WooCommerce, LearnDash, Tutor LMS, etc.	GeneratePress doesn’t integrate with other plugins except for WooCommerce.
Which is best for WooCommerce? 🛒	Kadence. Along with built-in WooCommerce addon, for Elementor users it has “WooCommerce Elementor Pro” addon.	Its WooCommerce addon is less feature rich than Kadence.
Explore	Explore Kadence	Explore GeneratePress

Upfront bottom line

Go with Kadence, if you are looking for more customization options, design freedom, and integrations without any coding requirements. It comes with some unique features like color switch, intuitive header & footer builder, and Kadence Cloud.

Choose GeneratePress, If you want a lightweight theme for your blog with fewer integrations.

But if you are a developer, we would recommend you to go with GeneratePress as it gives you more freedom to play with the code. When using GeneratePress without any coding skills, you end up spending a lot of time to get that extra pagespeed boost (beyond the point of diminishing returns).

Or, even worse, you may install 3rd-party plugins to compensate for your lack of coding skills – thus defeating the entire purpose why you chose GeneratePress (speed) in the first place.

What do we like about Kadence over GeneratePress 👍?

• Kadence is feature-rich and comes with additional addons like Kadence Conversions, Kadence popup builder, etc, giving you more design freedom to customize the website.
• Kadence Blocks is more powerful than GenerateBlocks. Kadence Blocks has more number of powerful blocks so you have more freedom to design whatever you want. Its design library is a game-changer. Kadence Blocks offers some exclusive blocks like Lottie animations which is a game-changer if you want to make your website more user-attractive and eye-catchy.
• With Kadence Cloud you can connect multiple websites and reuse the design library across various websites. So you can save your tonnes of hours and hard work.
• Unlike GeneratePress, which limits you to using the theme on 500 websites, all Kadence products can be used on unlimited websites. Also,
• GenerateBlocks costs are high and you need to go with higher plans to use on more sites. Its lowest plan costs $39/year and it limits to 1 site usage, for 10 sites it costs $69/year, and the highest plan costs $99/year for 250 sites.
• Kadence free version gives you more freedom & options than GeneratePress free version. For instance, copyright removal, site library, global typography options, etc.
• Kadence Pro comes with a color switch feature. This is really helpful for users to switch the color palettes for their convenience. If you are a dark mode lover and want to add it to your website without actually disabling light mode, this is going to be very beneficial for you. As users can choose a dark or light mode with a click.
• The Kadence theme supports conditional headers. With this, you can display the relevant header targeting specific customers for increased conversions. You can also set the expiry for these headers.
• Kadence has a good number of integrations. For instance, WooCommerce, LearnDash, Tutor LMS, etc. On the other hand, GeneratePress doesn’t integrate with other plugins except for WooCommerce.
• Kadence & GeneratePress both support full site editing but Kadence is in a better position than GeneratePress. It has more versatility in customization than GeneratePress.
• Kadence drag and drop header & footer builder helps in building an amazing header and footer within minutes.
• Similar to Astra, Kadence Cloud gives pre-made sections and wireframe templates for quick designs. GeneratePress lacks this.

What do we like about GeneratePress over Kadence 👍?

• GeneratePress is a lightweight theme that doesn’t bloat with heavy code with additional tools and plugins. Also, it doesn’t integrate with other plugins to maintain the lightweightness of the theme.
• GeneratePress offers more freedom to developers as CSS is required to do certain addition and customizations like author boxes, and changing the post layout in certain posts/pages.
• Its site library has more templates and is highly professional than that of Kadence.
• GenerateBlocks comes with pre-made templates to design various elements like page heroes, content templates, custom footers, post meta, navigation, etc.
• GeneratePress support is much quicker to respond and the documentation is also much more detailed than Kadence. So, you can easily contact the support team of GeneratePress whenever you need any help.

Ease of use and user interface

Kadence is very easy to use compared to GeneratePress. GeneratePress needs some coding knowledge of HTML/CSS/PHP if you want to add some extra customization or additional features to the theme.

Kadence is a no-code theme whereas GeneratePress is a low-code theme. So, with GeneratePress be ready to shell out some bucks to your developer.

Both GeneratePress and Kadence have a user-friendly interface. They have links to customizer settings right inside the dashboard for easier access.

One disadvantage with GeneratePress is it has split its WooCommerce features some under layouts and some under the WooCommerce section. This will confuse the beginner users. But, meh. Doesn’t matter much!

Winner: Kadence. Kadence is very easy to use and you don’t need any coding skills. To use GeneratePress, you need to have some coding knowledge of CSS/HTML/PHP.

Speed and performance

Let’s analyze the speed and performance metrics of the GeneratePress and Kadence themes with GTmetrix.

Test environment:

• WordPress site running on Closte (powered by Google Cloud and Litespeed)
• Tests are run keeping Closte’s CDN server-side cache that includes OPCache and advanced-cache.
• Litespeed cache plugin on WordPress.

GeneratePress free

GeneratePress premium

Kadence free theme alone

Performance with Kadence Pro

From the above results, we can conclude that both GeneratePress and Kadence themes load faster.

With GeneratePress, if you’re a non-coder, you end up using a lot of third-party plugins, and they may slow your site. Whereas, Kadence is feature-rich and negates a lot of dependence on external plugins.

People who are getting better pagespeed results with GeneratePress are relying on custom code than third-party plugins or have a lean website.

Page builder compatibility

Both Kadence and GeneratePress work well with any of the page builders you like. Both these themes recommend Elementor and Beaver Builder as their top choices. But you can also use Divi, page builder by SiteOrigin, Brizy, etc.

Note that both GeneratePress and Kadence themes come with their own block addon (Kadence Blocks and GenerateBlocks) to enhance the design flexibility of the WordPress block editor.

If you don’t want to make your site heavy with page builder plugins, you can use these addons. If you are already using page builders like Elementor Pro, then you can skip using these plugins and instead use Elementor’s theme builder.

Kadence Blocks has over 20 blocks whereas GenerateBlocks has only 4. Kadence Blocks has a lot of options, so you can completely eliminate any other page builders but in GeneratePress, you might feel difficulty eliminating any other bloated page builders.

Winner: Kadence. Kadence + Kadence Blocks is more powerful than GeneratePress + GenerateBlocks.

Starter templates

With Kadence free theme you will get access to only a few templates. If you buy the Kadence bundle, it gives you access to plenty of premium templates. Compared to GeneratePress, Kadence has limited templates.

These starter templates can help you save hundreds of dollars and valuable time. You don’t have to build a website from scratch if you use these starter templates. You can just change the logo, site title, tagline & color scheme. That’s it.

To access the site-library of GeneratePress you need to be its premium user. If you are using the free theme, it will disappoint you.

Kadence provides the starter templates for Elementor and Gutenberg. While GeneratePress provides templates for Elementor and Beaver Builder.

Kadence has nearly 50 pre-built templates whereas GeneratePress has 85 pre-built templates. Kadence has some better pre-built templates for agencies and freelancers & GeneratePress has some really elegant templates for professionals like Doctors.

Both Kadence and GeneratePress templates look highly professional and are available in various categories like blog, eCommerce, agency, business, etc.

Note that with Kadence Cloud, you will get access to sections and wireframe templates to design the websites quickly. GeneratePress lacks sections and wireframe templates.

Winner: Kadence. Kadence provides a few starter templates to use with the free theme. Whereas GeneratePress provides pre-built templates only in its premium version.

Design and customization 🎨

Header and footer builder

GeneratePress doesn’t have its own header and footer builder. It just provides basic features in the customizer settings.

But still, they have got you covered.

You can create custom headers and footers using GeneratePress elements (GeneratePress theme builder) along with GenerateBlocks. GenerateBlocks provides you with quite a good number of templates to design your headers and footers.

Kadence Pro theme comes with a built-in header and footer builder. It has a drag & drop header and footer builder. It has 20+ widgets to design your header.

Along with sticky and transparent headers, Kadence also supports conditional headers. This is a great feature to display different headers for different users at different times using expiry dates. Think of Black Friday or Christmas campaigns!

You can also use Kadence elements along with Kadence Blocks to design your headers and footers, similar to GeneratePress.

Kadence footer builder gives you so much freedom. You can easily add anything you want, from an image to animation, the sky is the limit. However, in the case of GeneratePress, you won’t get that ease of use and freedom like Kadence.

Layouts and sidebars

In the customizer settings of both themes, you can design the layout for blog posts, single, and archive pages. Kadence has additional features to design search pages and 404 pages.

You can choose the layout, content style, and design the meta titles for each of the page types. Choose the colors, typography, and breadcrumbs.

Featured image, title, category, meta, excerpt, and read more are the elements available with Kadence to design the search pages and archive pages. You can add breadcrumbs for single post pages.

You can use Kadence elements to design custom layouts, custom hooks, and sidebars.

You can add anything in the sidebar using Kadence elements. Be it a CTA, Table of contents, etc. For instance, I’ve added a fixed TOC in sidebar using Kadence elements.

Using GeneratePress elements you can create custom layouts and hook elements.

The downside with GeneratePress is you can’t create custom sidebars using its built-in features. You need to integrate with Content-Aware Sidebars to create custom sidebars.

WooCommerce

With both themes’ WooCommerce addon features, you can design the WooCommerce store notice, single product pages, and product catalog pages.

Both theme’s WooCommerce customizer settings don’t have any special features to design the WooCommerce checkout pages. In Astra, you have some unique features like you can enable the two-step checkout, display the coupon field, and add an order note.

Here’s something unique in Kadence.

Kadence has a special WooCommerce addon called Shop Kit which comes with some advanced features to customize your WooCommerce store. It has a checkout manager to create your own custom fields and design the checkout pages.

Also with this addon, you can customize the cart CTA, add cart notes, add variation price controls, and much more. This add-on is a game-changer if you want to optimize your checkout process for conversions..

Kadence also has a WooCommerce addon specifically designed to work with Elementor Pro. This plugin allows you to create custom templates for WooCommerce products, archives, and checkout pages.

Similar to this, it has a dedicated WooCommerce plugin for SiteOrigin.

GeneratePress just relies on its customizer settings to design the store. That’s it. There are no additional plugins for WooCommerce.

Winner: Kadence. Kadence has more customization options built in. Even with its additional plugins like Kadence Blocks, the Kadence Shop kit gives you plenty of features with good customization options.

Kadence vs GeneratePress: Free themes compared

GeneratePress free theme is very limited and has fewer customization options compared to Kadence free theme.

Kadence free version has modules like global colors, branding, typography, header and footer layout, etc. You can add scroll to top button, add breadcrumbs, social links to over 35+ social networks, design the 404 pages, etc.

If you use any of the premium page builders like Elementor (recommended), Kadence’s free theme is enough for you. You can do more by just using your page builders theme builder.

GeneratePress free theme just provides the layout, colors, and typography modules with limited customization options. That’s it.

To access the site library, WooCommerce addon, hooks, and sticky navigation, you need GeneratePress pro.

Kadence provides features like site library, typography, WooCommerce, backgrounds, copyright & Import or export for free whereas GeneratePress requires a premium version for the same.

Winner: Kadence free theme has more features built-in compared to GeneratePress. You will get a decent number of modules even in Kadence free theme with good customization options. It makes sense as they needed to stand out in the WordPress theme directory being a newcomer.

Kadence and GeneratePress Addons

Kadence Blocks vs GenerateBlocks

Kadence Blocks is more powerful and feature-rich compared to GenerateBlocks.

GenerateBlocks comes with only four blocks: grid, container, buttons, and headline. You can customize these blocks’ backgrounds, and control the gradient, spacing, typography, etc.

It also comes with an asset library to save your design into the GenerateBlocks library and access them inside the editor.

With these four blocks, you can design any of the layouts and the content you imagine. Its pro version gives you access to more premium templates, advanced backgrounds, custom attributes, etc.

On the other hand, Kadence Blocks come with more blocks, some of them include row layout, infobox, countdown, table of contents, accordion, testimonials, advanced buttons, advanced heading, etc. The premium version provides access to additional blocks like video popup, image overlay, page-specific scripts, and much more.

Kadence Blocks Pro comes with a premium design library where you can access your design assets and starter sites to build the site quickly. Install Kadence Cloud to get the most from this feature. With this, you can connect to multiple websites and access the assets wherever needed.

Winner: Kadence. Kadence Blocks comes with more blocks than GenerateBlocks. With Kadence Blocks design library integrated with Kadence Cloud, you can connect multiple websites to access the design assets in one place.

Other Kadence addons

Kadence Cloud

To get started with Kadence Cloud, first, you need to have Kadence Blocks installed on your site.

Kadence Cloud helps you create your own library of content. If you have multiple websites, you can connect them to Kadence Cloud to access the design assets in the library. This is really helpful for agencies. You can have various templates designed and use them on client websites with just a click of a button.

You can use Kadence Blocks and Kadence Cloud on unlimited websites.

There’s more.

You can create collections like private, public, clients, etc. And have categories to easily access the files.

You can even sell your assets by allowing access to your customers for a fee. If you are a web design expert, selling the assets with Kadence Cloud helps you earn good revenue.

Kadence Conversions

Kadence Conversions is a lightweight popup-up plugin for WordPress. It is not so feature-rich, but if you are just beginning and have a small website, it gets the job done.

You can create only three types of forms; popups, banners, and slide-ins. The plugin provides only a few templates to design the popups.

You can customize the popups using the block options. You can add triggers,set the display conditions, and user roles. To display the popups, you can choose the target pages, target visitors, target devices, etc. You can add overlays, customize the popup container, add animation settings, design the close button, and much more.

It also has a built-in feature to schedule the popups. You can schedule it over a certain time range or enable recurring scheduling. Best to run time-sensitive campaigns.

Note that if you are already using Elementor Pro, it has a built-in popup builder which is very advanced and feature-rich compared to this.

In addition to these, there are also premium plugins available for creating pricing tables, promoting the related content, creating albums & galleries, and much more. Besides being one of the fastest pop-up builders, it also adds minimal code to your site. Click here to see all the Kadence WordPress plugins.

Integrations

GeneratePress is zero in integrations. It doesn’t have any external integrations. Their forum is filled with unfulfilled promises dating back to 2019.

As Tom is the sole developer for GeneratePress, providing support for integrations can be a daunting task.

On the other hand, Kadence has a good number of integrations with page builders, membership site plugins, LMS plugins, etc. These include Elementor, Beaver Builder, LearnDash, LifterLMS, bbPress, RestrictContentPro, etc.

Both Kadence and GeneratePress integrate well with WooCommerce. So, they work well with all the WooCommerce tools and plugins.

Winner: Kadence. For the integrations it offers.

Pricing 💲

GeneratePress costs $59/year, while its lifetime pricing costs $249. You can use GeneratePress on up to 500 websites.

Kadence Pro theme pricing costs $59/year, and you can use all Kadence plugins on unlimited websites. Note that both GeneratePress and Kadence lack white labeling features, unlike Astra.

Kadence’s full bundle costs $199/year and it gives access to all its themes and plugins. Kadence also has lifetime pricing and costs $649/one-time.

Winner: Kadence. Though Kadence pricing is quite high it is worth the money for the features it offers. You can get access to all Kadence themes and plugins for lifetime use.

Support 👋

Both Kadence and GeneratePress have knowledgebase articles, community forums, YouTube videos, to assist you. Still, GeneratePress has an edge over Kadence when it comes to support.

GeneratePress response time is quicker and its documentation is vast.

Like GeneratePress, Kadence also has a Facebook group. Additionally, You can also submit your queries through the contact form.

Winner: GeneratePress. In the communities, you can expect quick responses.

FAQs on Kadence vs GeneratePress ❓

Wrap up

Both Kadence and GeneratePress are the best themes for WordPress. But the choice depends on your needs.

Go with GeneratePress if:

• Site speed is your main concern as GeneratePress is a simple and vacant theme. Hence, the speed of GeneratePress is generally better if many other plugins are not being used.
• You want a lightweight theme with not a lot of additional features as GeneratePress has very minimal features and integrations. It is also possible to disable any feature that you believe will not be useful for you.
• You do not need any native integrations with other notable WordPress plugins like LearnDash, LifterLMS, bbPress, etc.
• You have basic coding knowledge of HTML and CSS as GeneratePress needs knowledge of CSS to modify and add some elements such as author box, padding, the font in some specific post/pages, etc.

Go with Kadence if:

• You need excellent customization options including header and footer builder, conditional headers, color palette switch addon, etc.
• You are a non-techie and want to build an astonishing website without coding. Kadence lets you add and build anything without CSS skills. For instance, Kadence allows you to change the font on any specific post or page but you will need CSS to do the same in GeneratePress.
• You need access to its additional plugins like Kadence Blocks which eliminates the need for bloated page builders, Kadence Cloud (big for agencies) which saves you a lot of time by storing your favorite elements and lets you copy and paste them in any website, Kadence Conversions which helps in lead generation, Kadence Shop Kit which helps in building an ultimate eCom-store, etc. It eliminates the need to use multiple third-party plugins and run into compatibility issues.
• You have an agency and want truly unlimited site usage as Kadence allows you to use the theme and its plugins on unlimited websites on the higher plan.

I hope you found this post on GeneratePress vs Kadence helpful.