The Genesis WordPress theme is flexible. If you’ve read any other review, this is something you know. Genesis can do whatever you need, no matter what kind of WordPress website you’re going for.

One of the worst things is to sink money into a product and then realize, too late, that you want to do something slightly different than what the thing you purchased lets you do.

Genesis won’t let you get stuck in this position for a number of reasons that are outlined below.g In short, however, they have all of the options you need to do virtually anything you want with your WordPress website if you know how to use them.

In this Genesis framework for WordPress review, you’ll learn exactly what makes Genesis tick, how it stacks up against the competition, and what that means for you. By the end of this article, you’ll know if Genesis is something you want to use or not.

Genesis WordPress Theme Review Rating: 5/5 Stars

Why Use the Genesis Framework?

The Genesis Framework is easy to use for beginners. If you’re new to WordPress, this framework will allow you to get a professional looking site up and running right away.

Further, Genesis can grow with you and your skills. If you want to keep it simple, you can do that but if you want to get in-depth, you can do that too.

Customization – 60 Child Themes and Counting

Genesis is a parent theme. Yes, you can use and configure it on your own, but by using a child theme you’re going to save yourself a lot of time and trouble. Even better, if something goes wrong, replacing a child theme is a lot better than re-installing or reworking Genesis.

It’s also possible, with a poor-quality child theme, to lose some of the functions of the Genesis WordPress Framework. In order to better understand how child and parent themes work, please watch the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s09SIxyO4ho

If you want a professional child theme that was made with Genesis in mind, there are currently 60 Genesis-approved options available. You can install one of these and have the look and feel of your WordPress website completely customized in 10 minutes or less.

Premium child themes offered by StudioPress, the company behind Genesis, do cost a significant amount of money, but may also come with the package you chose to purchase your Genesis theme with. A few themes are included, and the customization options allow you to make one theme look quite different from its basic installation pattern.

Though themes set up certain color styles and page layouts, they all tend to have a handful of options, allowing you to set the main colors to either warm or cool tones, as a basic setting. More advanced settings allow you to change all default page layouts or set rules for widgets and plug-ins that may modify the appearance of your WordPress website.

Dedicated Plug-ins

StudioPress has created a handful of Genesis-oriented plug-ins to give you site powerful features. Though we won’t have time to go into all of them in this Genesis for WordPress review, it’s worth noting that just as many are meant for theme developers as for adding more features.

Mobile Responsiveness

More and more of the web is being viewed from mobile devices. People use their phones to read blogs, access social media, and even do their shopping.

That said, not all WordPress websites respond well to shrinking a page down to fit a mobile screen. Doing so can cause things to shift out of alignment, crash, or just take forever and a day to load.

With Genesis, you’ll never have to worry about losing readers or customers because they’re using a mobile device. Genesis, as a theme, responds well to any display changes you can throw at it – be it a tablet, mobile phone, or TV browser.

Cost and Overall Value

Like most WordPress themes, Genesis has a basic one-time fee to purchase the main framework. Then, after you have that, you can purchase child themes and plug-ins, if you want to.

Free options are also available, though they may have a few bugs or issues in and of themselves. Genesis, however, will remain stable and solid underneath any theme you want to hook on top of it.

As an additional option, you can purchase a Pro Plus package for $499.95 (as valued at the time of writing). This package includes all themes created by StudioPress as well as the Genesis Framework itself and a few themes created by third-party developers as an added bonus.

When it comes to value, anything that you only pay for once, in the subscription-heavy world of WordPress website development, is a plus. That’s especially true if the product you’re purchasing is something as long-lasting and industry-leading as the Genesis Framework.

Professional Coding and Professional Support

When you have a question about your free WordPress theme, what do you do? Leave a comment on the developer’s page and hope against hope that it will be answered and not buried?

With professional WordPress Themes, support is usually there, but not consistent. With the Genesis Theme, you get professional support from trained technicians or support professionals whenever you need it.

Further, bugs are incredibly rare with average use and the platform is water-tight and security tested with each WordPress update and new theme version. Those version changes are also regular and made to be compatible with a number of popular plug-ins, most of all those offered by StudioPress.

The knowledge base is also something a lot of new WordPress users will be thankful for. It goes above and beyond general Genesis information to provide videos and guides that explain basic WordPress procedures and best practices.

All-in-all, it feels like this is a company that wants you to succeed. The theme itself is an extension of that and comes with everything you need to make it work.

Where Can I Get The Genesis Framework?

The Genesis Framework can be purchased directly from the StudioPress website, the company that designs, maintains, and updates Genesis. Do not purchase Genesis or anything claiming to be the Genesis WordPress theme or framework from anywhere else.

Genesis Framework: The Pros and Cons

By now you know that Genesis is a good theme and that it works well for all WordPress site types and skill levels. But do you know why? Here are the top five pros and the only con for the Genesis Framework:

Pros:

• Easy to Use – The Genesis Framework is designed to appeal to all skill levels and is backed by knowledgeable support agents as well as an in-depth knowledge base.
• Time-Tested and Customizable – With over 30 themes developed by Studiopress and dozens more being popular in their own right, Genesis has been one of the top parent themes for nearly 10 years.
• Good Value – For less than $100, you can get both Genesis and a top-shelf child theme. That’s a single price for something you may use for years or decades.
• Trusted – The Genesis theme was recommended by Matt Mullenweg (the founder of WordPress) way back in 2010. He praised it for its “advanced support of WordPress functionality like child themes.”
• Worth More Than Looks – The Genesis Framework has also been mentioned by SEO-authority Yoast as an optimal theme to use with their plug-ins. That may mean an easier path to better search engine rankings.

Cons:

• Complexity – One con. When you first start using Genesis, it may seem a little overwhelming. Still, there is a learning curve, and with all of the child themes out there, you may choose to forge onward or take a step back and rely on the work of others.

There is one other thing that may be considered a con, but actually isn’t: too many users for the Genesis WordPress theme. With this in mind, you may worry that your WordPress website couldn’t possibly stand out.

However, this simply isn’t true if you have unique content and make the most of the customization options and dozens of child themes out there. Though Genesis has millions of users, once you add your content, the odds of your site looking like a carbon copy of someone else’s WordPress website are slim to none.

In Conclusion: The Genesis Framework Is Worth Your Investment

With all of its complexity, the Genesis Framework for WordPress is an incredible thing. It works well, is secure, and has a professional team behind it with well over a decade of experience with the product and WordPress itself.

If you need more than that, you’re unlikely to find it. The Genesis Theme is top of the line. It has been for quite some time and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

As far as competition goes, there is some. There are a few other themes out there that rival Genesis in flexibility but they do not, however, rival it in stability and their emphasis on continual first and third-party development.