GeneratePress is one of the most popular freemium WordPress themes that is designed to help you get your website up and running quickly. It's a lightweight responsive theme, which means it works well on all devices, from desktop computer screens to mobile phones.
If you're confused about whether to go for GeneratePress free theme or directly go for the premium version, this article will help you decide.
In this article, I have compared both the GeneratePress Free vs Premium versions in terms of features, benefits, ease of use, pros & cons and more.
After reading through this article, you would have a clear understanding of what makes GeneratePress Premium different from its free version and whether you need to stay with the free version or upgrade to the premium one.
Let's get started.
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What is GeneratePress?
GeneratePress is a free and premium WordPress theme that helps you create a professional blog with ease. It’s fast, lightweight, and packed with features.
This is the ultimate theme for anyone looking to start a blog or website. GeneratePress provides a lot of useful features like SEO optimization, responsive design, custom menu support, social media integration and more.
The developer of this theme is Tom Usborne who launched this theme 6 years ago. The theme has received numerous update to make sure that it always remains light weight, stable, fast, secure and perfectly optimized for SEO.
In addition to the free theme, GeneratePress also offers a premium plugin that extends the theme, adding more options like Site Library, Premium Module, Theme Builder to help you build your websites the way you have always wanted.
GeneratePress is compatible with almost all the popular website builders like Elementor, Divi, Thrive Architect and more. Plus, you can also build an eCommerce site with GeneratePress as it also supports WooCommerce or a forum site with BBPress.
If you want to learn more, check out my detail review on GeneratePress where I have explain in details it features & benefits, pros & cons, ease of use, pricing and more.
The theme behind this blog, Technicalwall.com is also GeneratePress. If you check the speed of my site on GTMetrix or Pingdom, you can see that it loads super fast even though it is running on a shared hosting plan of A2 Hosting.
How Popular is GeneratePress?
Before I began to explain you the difference between the GeneratePress Free theme vs the Premium version, let me tell you little bit about its popularity among webmasters around the world.
As of 2022, GeneratePress has around 90000 plus customers in different parts of the world and has already gathered around 1000 plus 5-star rating in WordPress.org where it has hosted its free theme for anyone who wants to try it before upgrading to the premium version.
GeneratePress has an active installation in more than 400,000 plus websites and supports latest WordPress version - 5.2 or higher and PHP version 5.6 or higher.
You can dowload the free theme by GeneratePress from WordPress.org or from its official website.
Features of GeneratePress Free vs Premium
GeneratePress offers a completely free theme for beginners who may want to try it first. The free theme comes with some basic features that will help you set up your blog in WordPress environment.
Those who may want to upgrade are needed to buy the premium plugin that comes with loads of advanced features.
Here is the detail comparison of the features offered by GeneratePress in both the free version and the premium version.
Features of GeneratePress Free Theme
Features of GeneratePress Premium
Pros & Cons of GeneratePress Free vs Premium
Pros of GeneratePress Premium
Pros:
Cons:
Pros of GeneratePress Free Theme
Pros:
Cons:
Support of GeneratePress Free vs Premium
There are many reasons why companies must provide customer support.
First, it helps the company to maintain their reputation as a reliable brand. Second, it builds trust with customers who may not have interacted with the company before. Third, it helps the company grow by increasing customer satisfaction and retention rates and fourth, it ensures that customers will return for future purchases or services from the company.
And GeneratePress is not far behind in offering world class customer support both in the free version as well as the premium version.
GeneratePress Free Theme Support
The free theme by GeneratePress can be downloaded by users from WordPress.org for free. For any queries, they can post their issues on the forum.
The developer or the customer support team of GeneratePress will answer your queries. Sometimes users of the GeneratePress theme also offers comments that answers your questions.
Since priority support is not offered, you should expect some delay to get resolution to your queries.
GeneratePress Premium Support
GeneratePress has offered extensive documentation containing lots of useful articles and also uploaded some video tutorials on their YouTube channel to help users with their queries. Despite that some users may have doubt to their queries that need clarification or resolution from the support staff.
When you buy GeneratePress Premium you get access to the premium support. To raise any issues, you need to log in to your account on GeneratePress and post your queries.
The support staff of GeneratePress is very quick to answer your queries. You can expect to get replies within a couple of hours. I have seen that sometimes Tom Usborne, the founder and developer of GeneratePress himself takes time to answer the users queries.
Thus, as a premium customer, you get faster response to your queries that will help you design or set up your website as per your requirement.
GeneratePress Premium Pricing
Users can buy the GeneratePress Premium using the following two paid plans - Yearly Plan ($59 per year) and Lifetime Plan ($249 one-time fee).
Yearly Plan: This is the most popular plan by GeneratePress. At only $59 per year, you get the following advanced features:
Unlimited Plan: If you don't want to pay every year to use the GeneratePress Premium, I would recommend you to buy it at a one-time fee of only $249. You get the following features and benefits with this plan:
Whether you buy the Yearly Plan or the Lifetime Plan, both offers you a 30-day money-back guarantee so that you can try GeneratePress risk-free. If you don't like it, you can claim 100% refund within the guarantee period.
GeneratePress Free or Premium?
So far I have cover all the benefits, features, pros and cons of both the GeneratePress free as well as the Premium version.
Now, the question arises whether you should go for the free theme or buy the premium version.
you are looking for a theme to get started with your blog, then it is worth checking out some free ones. There are some premium templates that offer free versions as well.
You should go for the GeneratePress Free Theme if:
- You're just starting out in the blogging field and if you're not ready to spend any money on your blog yet, then using a free theme might be the best option for you.
- You're still exploring and want to try out different WordPress themes to figure out which one is best suited for your blog niche.
- You're a newbie and don't have much experience with WordPress, then it can be a good idea to start off with a free WordPress theme. This way, you will get an idea of how to customize your site and get a hang of the basics.
Free WordPress themes are a good option for those who are just starting out with their website. They don't have to spend too much money on a premium theme and they can always upgrade to the premium theme later.
You should go for the GeneratePress Premium if:
- You're looking for more features and functionality than the free theme, then you should go for a GeneratePress Premium WordPress theme. It will offer you more customization options and add-ons that might be useful to you in the future.
- You don't want to start designing your website from scratch, you can use the Site Library under GeneratePress Premium and select one of the pre-built websites.
- You want to have a more design control on your website. Block-based Theme Builder by GeneratePress Premium gives you the flexibility to make changes to your theme as per your need.
- You need priority support from the theme developer.
Premium WordPress themes like GeneratePress are the best way to get a professional website that has a beautiful design, loads quickly, mobile-responsive and is easy to use.
They come with many features and benefits, including SEO optimization, responsive design, eCommerce support, social media integration and more.
It will provide you with an excellent opportunity for your business or brand to make a lasting impression on your potential customer or audience.
Which one do I recommend among GeneratePress Free vs Premium version?
If you're starting a blog just as a hobby or want to experiment with different themes before committing to buy a premium theme, I would recommend you to go with the GeneratePress free theme. It is limited in feature but it will help you get started in the blogging field.
On the other hand, if you're serious about blogging and want to create a successful online business, then I would recommend you to go with the GeneratePress Premium as it will give you more control over your website design with unlimited customization options and advanced features like Premium Modules, Site Library, Theme Builder and more.
Wrapping Up
GeneratePress is a freemium WordPress theme for bloggers, content creators, and business owners. It is best for startups, small businesses, freelancers and bloggers who want to get a blog up and running quickly.
You can customize the theme via WordPress's built-in Customizer. This allows you to change the design, layout, fonts, and colors of your site without having to use any code.
When it comes to fully-featured WordPress themes, I believe that GeneratePress is the fastest theme you can choose for your website.
If you're a beginner who doesn't want to spend a lot on premium theme and is happy with the limited features and customization options a free theme offers, I would recommend them to go with the GeneratePress free theme.
However, if you want to have a complete control in designing your website and need lots of customization options with advanced features, GeneratePress Premium would be worth your investment.
I hope by going through this article your confusion to choose between the GeneratePress free theme and the GeneratePress Premium is cleared.
If you want to share your experience of using GeneratePress on your site, feel free to use the comment section below.
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GeneratePress paid plans comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee so that you can try it risk-free for 30 days. If you don't like it, you can claim 100% full refund within the guarantee period.
