At a glance: GeneratePress Premium is a super-fast, lightweight and easy to use WordPress theme that offers a modular design, which makes it my favorite theme overall. While not extremely user-friendly when it comes to customization, you can use it as it is or with minor, easy to make changes without a problem.
I’m a happy GeneratePress theme owner since 2019, when I first installed it on one of my websites. Since then, GeneratePress has become my go-to theme thanks to its lightweight build, clean code, and tons of options that let you really make it stand out, if you want to.
In other words, even though it’s several years old, thanks to constant updates, GeneratePress remains a super-fast, versatile and beautiful WordPress theme – especially if you upgrade from the FREE version to the Premium one (which is what I use).
You can check out GeneratePress here.
Now, the main reason why I switched to GeneratePress initially was speed. With websites required to be as fast as possible nowadays, and with many otherwise good looking WordPress themes being very slow, I decided to give GeneratePress a try.
And I am happy I did. Since then, all my websites are using this theme – and I also recommend it to any blogger and website owner that asks for a good one.
Best part? I saw instant boosts to my PageSpeed scores by simply installing and activate the free GeneratePress theme and the Premium Plugin. I did nothing else and still got a MASSIVE boost.
But let’s get in depth and let’s check out my GeneratePress WordPress theme review after using it on multiple websites for the past 5+ years!
GeneratePress Free vs Premium
There is a free GeneratePress theme that you can download from the WordPress repository, offering the same speed benefits as the Premium version, but with fewer customization options, so you can’t really make it your own.
Also, the free theme has a footer link to the GeneratePress website, one that you are not allowed to remove.
But if you’re just starting and you want to do it in style, with the advantage of an insanely fast theme, you have the option to do so for free and upgrade to the Premium version later. It’s easily done, as the Premium version comes in form of a plugin that’s easy to install and requires no prior changes to your current setup (if you have the Free GeneratePress theme installed).
I personally jumped straight into getting the Premium GeneratePress and switched ALL my sites to it. I opted to do this because it offers a lot more in terms of customizations and options to further personalize your blog.
You can also download ready-made templates from a variety of available ones, like in the screenshot below:
Here are the main features that the Premium version offers (listing my favorite at the top):
- Site library: a bunch of pre-made sites (that are pretty beautiful, I must add) available with a one-click import.
- Blog options: Featured image controls, columns & masonry, infinite scroll & more.
- Typography & Colors: It gives you full control over your fonts and colors used (which is a must in my opinion, if you want to properly brand your website).
- Secondary Navigation: Add a second navigation with all the same options as the primary navigation (an extra menu, for example).
- Sections: If you want to do it yourself, this is a fast page builder that offers a bit of customization (I used it to build the home page from scratch, for example, with no coding needed).
- Copyright removal (in most cases, you won’t want to link out to a theme’s developer and have your own copyright instead).
- Spacing – to further control how your blog looks like.
- Menu Plus: Good for adding mobile navigation, off-canvas menus and a sticky menu if you want it.
- Backgrounds: Again for even more control over your design – it’s not something I actively use, though.
- Elements & Disable Elements: some more advanced stuff for those with a bit of coding experience, to customize the theme even more and quickly introduce various codes, such as your Analytics, Ad Network codes and so on.
- Import / Export options to quickly transfer the same settings over to other blogs or backup yours before making any changes.
- Woocommerce extras: I don’t use Woocommerce, but for those who do, it offers a bunch of more options to further customize it.
- Theme Builder: If you are great at coding, you can easily and fully customize every aspect of your blog’s look, including by using the new Gutenberg Blocks.
All in all, as you see, the Premium version of GeneratePress does give you more options to make your blog really stand out and really your own.
But the core is the same and using the free version of the WordPress theme would still give you the same benefits in terms of speed.
Speed Test: GeneratePress vs Other Themes
The biggest and most important test for GeneratePress is if it delivers (or not) in terms of page speed improvements.
And in order to see that, I ran a PageSpeed check of a page on one of my blogs before changing the theme.
(IMPORTANT: Always check the page speed score of an article, not the home page, because these are built differently and most people will see your articles and not the home page!)
Here are the scores that this blog was getting before GeneratePress Premium:
Mobile Speed Score Before GeneratePress
Desktop Speed Score Before GeneratePress
Ouch! On mobile, the blog needed 16.5 seconds to load the page and it took 3.4 seconds before it moved from a blank page to showing something to the reader.
With an overall score of 22 (which is the score that Google calculates, since its indexing is mobile-first), things didn’t look that good. Back when I switched, the Core Web Vitals were not a thing, but now I will update them as well to see how good things are.
But check out the HUGE leaps in speed scores after installing GeneratePress Premium on the same website (and using the same article for testing):
Mobile Speed Score: After Installing GeneratePress
Desktop Speed Score: After Installing GeneratePress
As you can see, the speed instantly jumped on mobile and the image speaks for itself. From 22 to 98 speed score without me doing anything but changing the theme!
I think that this alone is a solid enough reason for you to switch over to GeneratePress INSTANTLY. Just imagine how useful this boost in speed can be, especially now when Google Core updates are not friendly towards smaller bloggers.
IMPORTANT: Amazing hosting also helps a ton. I personally use and recommend BigScoots – they are a premium hosting company that beats, in terms of speed & customer service all the other, cheaper, hosting companies that I have tried (from Bluehost to Siteground or Dreamhost). I just love them, although they are a bit on the pricy side.
If you want amazingly fast hosting that is also cheaper (but also a tad behind BigScoots overall, in my opinion), I recommend WPX – that’s where I host many of my websites too, without ANY reasons to complain. And prices are friendlier towards website owners who are still not generating a lot from their websites.
But the most important part related to these speed boosts gained after using GeneratePress is:
GeneratePress Premium Helps Me PASS Core Web Vitals:
Probably the most important thing is that the theme helps you pass ALL core web vital tests.
With CWV being a ranking factor, this is the most important thing to look at when deciding how fast your blog is. Here is a recent look at the PageSpeed score of the same page as above, years later:
Have in mind that, at the time of running the tests I was also running display ads on the site, via Ezoic which are notorious for slowing down websites. Even so, with just a bit of optimization, I managed to easily pass the CVW (and still do).
I tested the theme with other ad networks – from AdSense to She Media and Mediavine – and no matter the network, my websites running GeneratePress pass Core Web Vital tests, including the more recent INP scores which are difficult to figure out by most website owners (myself included).
Is GeneratePress Premium Worth Getting?
Definitely, by all means, you shouldn’t think twice before getting GeneratePress Premium for your blog!
It is indeed a super fast theme (the fastest that I ever found) and the Premium version is extremely cheap: it costs $59 per year (double check the price!), but its main advantage is that you can use it on up to 500 blogs, which is basically unlimited. So the more blogs you have, the cheaper it gets per blog!
Plus, as you probably saw in my top screenshot showing purchase histories, there will be discounts available after you purchase the theme, which will bring the overall costs a lot – as low as $2.28 per month for a basically unlimited amount of websites!
The biggest complaint you could have with GeneratePress is that, compared to other themes out there, it’s pretty basic.
It doesn’t offer all the bells and whistles that other themes offer, but there are two extremely important things to have in mind here:
1. You DON’T need all those bells & whistles! And if you really do, there are free plugins created by the theme’s development team (and supporters) to get them.
2. Those bells & whistles make your site slower, therefore negatively influencing user experience and ultimately ranking, so even though you have a beautiful site, fewer people will visit.
Nowadays, most of the traffic to our websites comes via mobile phones (just check your Analytics if you don’t believe me). And most themes and websites look about the same on mobile – including GeneratePress.
The main difference in design comes to the home page, but again that is one of the least visited page of most blogs (again, check your Analytics to see!).
So even though on desktop, GeneratePress might not look as amazing as some other themes out there do, only a minority of your visitors will actually see the desktop version and even so, it won’t be an ugly site they’ll be seeing.
Content is the most important thing when it comes to blogging and if that’s crap, you can’t get fans and readers no matter how good the design is.
This is one of the most important lessons that is also really difficult to learn: design doesn’t matter that much and most readers don’t see that extra splash of color that you add here or there, the extra line that you put at the end or whatever.
It’s the text that matters and the loading speed – and for that, GeneratePress is perfect!
If you’re just starting out, and you don’t want to invest much money early on, you can also go for the free version and use its limited options until your blog picks up – and afterwards upgrade to Premium.
Things you might not like about GeneratePress Premium
While I do love the theme, I have to admit that some parts of it are not beginner-friendly and truly customizing it to your linking will require either coding skills, or installing additional plugins (all of them having a free version created by the theme’s creator).
On most of my websites, though, I use a custom made homepage using the blocks feature and the basic functions of the theme. That is enough to offer a solid user experience and it keeps me happy with the look and feel of my websites.
On other blogs, I went ahead and installed one of the Site Templates that come with the theme (which usually require installing additional plugins), but I still had no problems customizing everything I needed to customize AND getting a more unique design for the said blogs.
But if you really want to make changes yourself, it’s not as beginner-friendly. However, in my experience, any WordPress theme requires at least some learning before being able to use all the features, even if they make it easier for the user to customize various aspects of their website.
Also, many features are not installed in the GeneratePress theme from the get-go, but can be activated via additional plugins (some of them requiring an additional recurring yearly subscription to get all the features). However, I am only using GeneratePress Premium with none of the additional paid plugins and I have everything I need – so it’s not truly a must to install them!
How to install GeneratePress Premium?
The Premium “theme” is actually a plugin that adds more features and code to the base, free version of GeneratePress – this is why upgrading from free to pro is extremely easy!
First, though, you will have to download and install the free GeneratePress theme via WordPress by going to Appearance – Themes – Add New Theme – and search for “GeneratePress” then click the install button:
After purchasing Premium, download the plugin on your laptop/computer, then simply go to Plugins -> Add New, hit the “Upload Plugin” button and install the archive you have downloaded, and activate it.
Then, you will get access to the options (they are called “Modules”) that you can activate or deactivate, as seen below:
I recommend activating them all first and disabling the ones you don’t need (if any) afterwards. And that’s it!
Head over to Appearance -> Customize and start taking advantage of all the new features, customizing the look and feel of your blog.
Conclusion
GeneratePress Premium is an amazing theme for your WordPress blog, offering plenty of customization options and additional plugins for features it might not offer from the start. Based on my own experience running the theme, most users will not need additional plugins for new features or they will get them from the free versions of the said plugins.
I think that the fact that I am using GeneratePress Premium on all of my websites since 2019 says a lot about my love for this trustworthy, constantly updated & super fast theme.
I did try others that I was happy with – including Neve, Mediavine’s Trellis and the good looking, yet chunky and slow Newspaper theme, but I always returned to using GP Premium. So I highly recommend it!
Is there anything else you’d like me to cover in this review? Is there anything in particular that you would like to know about my recommended WordPress theme? Let me know in the comments section down below!