Are you looking for a professional WordPress theme for your website? Then, this StudioPress themes review is for you.
Creating a WordPress site has been easier and faster than ever before. But, the real struggle is in choosing a WordPress theme that’s fast, secure, and SEO-friendly. There’s a large selection of themes to offer choices but leaves you with confusion every time.
Amongst all, StudioPress is one of the best developers of SEO-friendly, fast, and responsive themes. It’s also the proud creator of the robust WordPress framework ‘Genesis’.
No doubt that StudioPress has proven its worth among its huge customer base and community. But, does StudioPress offer the best WordPress themes out there? Also, is it the best option for you?
So to help you solve your queries, we’re here with our StudioPress themes review. By the end, you’ll have a better idea of what StudioPress and the Genesis framework have to offer. You’ll also find out how it’s the perfect fit for your websites.
Now, let’s start!
A) What is StudioPress?
StudioPress is a popular WordPress development agency offering a variety of themes for creating beautiful WordPress websites. Their themes are based on Genesis and are known for beautiful designs, responsiveness, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendliness.
It boasts a customer base of over 260,000 worldwide powering over 600,000 WordPress sites. Not to mention its online community of 390,000+ WordPress users. Isn’t that fascinating?
Being in the business for over a decade, StudioPress has been creating themes that meet the needs of any kind of online presence. From small blogs to huge enterprises, from portfolio sites to eCommerce shops, StudioPress has themes for all.
In June 2018, WP Engine, a popular managed WordPress hosting service, acquired StudioPress. And now, WP Engine handles its development, updates, and support. That’s sure to bring up the quality of the StudioPress products.
StudioPress aims to make its themes lightweight, fast, and secure with the use of optimized code and frequent updates. Moreover, it offers some handy customizable features if you want a more unique look to your site.
The fact that StudioPress themes work on the Genesis framework, they’re fast, secure, and easy to build. But, how does the Genesis framework work? Let’s see!
What is the Genesis Framework?
Genesis Framework is a WordPress theme structure that gives a basic underlying structure to your WordPress site. For providing your site a good appearance, you also need to install a child theme made compatible with it. And, the child themes are the themes that handle the design of your site and allow you to give it a personal touch.
In other words, Genesis provides a strong framework that serves as a base for your site. Moreover, it comes with awesome in-built functionalities that you’ll have on any Genesis-based website.
Check out some features of Genesis.
- Lightweight
- SEO optimized
- Responsive design
- Secured base
- Easy customization based on Widgets
- Many site layouts
- Breadcrumb settings
- Constant updates
- Affordable cost
Note that there are lots of child themes available out there. And, only the Genesis-based child themes can work with it.
Anyway, let’s see what the StudioPress child themes are all about.
StudioPress Child Themes
As mentioned above, the child themes handle the design on your StudioPress site. They’re installed on top of the Genesis framework and combine the Genesis features to make a site of your desire in no time.
StudioPress itself is the leading developer of the Genesis compatible child themes with over 35 beautiful templates. Moreover, lots of other developers are involved in developing and contributing to creating more child themes.
The StudioPress themes are available for specific niches like business, photography, eCommerce, lifestyle, etc. And thus, you get the design options as per the theme you choose.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t have the flexibility to build the site you want. But, you can play around with the provided customization options and come up with your own design. If you don’t get the features you need, then you might need to use plugins.
What we like about it is that you’ll not be bloating your theme with excessive features that you might not even touch ever. Limiting the theme to only the specific features will reduce your website size. This will save up your hosting space and eventually speed up your site.
Now, let’s see more about what the StudioPress themes have to offer.
B) StudioPress Themes Review: Features, Pros, and Cons
Well, there’s no denying that StudioPress is one of the best developers of WordPress themes. In addition, it offers other countless features that you should look into. This will help you decide if the StudioPress theme is for you.
So, next on our review of StudioPress themes, let’s see the features you’ll have on StudioPress themes.
1. Lightweight and Fast
A slow website is a killer of your business. It hurts your SEO and makes your visitors leave.
StudioPress themes are made with clean and lightweight codes to boost your page speed to load in under seconds. Besides, being specific purpose themes, they have concise features and no extra. This would prevent your site from that unwanted weight. As a result, your site loads fast.
Besides, you can also improve your website speed with the best WordPress speed optimizing plugins and tools.
2. SEO Optimized
Since the StudioPress themes are fast, you’ll have a smooth and fast web surfing experience. Also, the Genesis framework provides a secure layer of codes with no possible technical errors. This means, your site will have a good search engine ranking.
This doesn’t mean that you should always expect to have good SEO rankings with only the theme installed. But also, adopt proven SEO measures with useful plugins and tools. Also, check this WordPress SEO guide for full information.
3. Responsive
Lately, a huge number of users have started using mobile phones to browse the internet. So, it makes sense to make your WordPress site mobile-friendly. It not only provides a good user experience but also helps your site rank.
Thankfully, all the StudioPress themes have responsive designs capable of fitting perfectly in any screen size. Thus, you don’t need to worry about it at all.
4. Secure
Security is one of the vital concerns for all WordPress users. We’ve seen big websites compromised with the loss of all their data due to security failure.
Now, the Genesis Framework and StudioPress themes are built by experts with review from the core WordPress developer Mark Jaquith. That’s to make Genesis the most secure framework. So, there is a negligible chance of any security threat on a StudioPress site.
Also, with constant updates, they’re giving more effort to improve security on the entire StudioPress site.
5. Appealing Design
There’s a big competition going out there on anything you do. And, if your site doesn’t look good, then you might be losing your customers to your competitors. So, focusing on website design is a primary thing to do.
In StudioPress, you’ll find that all the themes look absolutely astonishing that speak for themselves. There’s a huge collection of themes with all sorts of design, typically fitting particular niches. With a modern and professional look, you’re sure to catch the eye of your visitors.
6. Customizable
The theme would help you give an overall general look to your site. But if you want your site to stand out, then you should be able to customize the theme.
Fortunately, StudioPress themes let you customize your site to a fair extent. All the themes are Gutenberg compatible that let you edit all your pages and posts as blocks. You don’t need to use any codes at all!
Also, your site can be edited as widgets as well. For that, you can take help from the setup instruction that comes with the purchase of StudioPress themes.
7. Accessibility Ready
The accessibility-ready feature makes your site accessible for users with physical disabilities like visual or hearing impairments.
And, StudioPress offers the best accessibility-ready themes that would help you make your site easier for impaired people. Things like font size increment, navigational ease, etc. make your StudioPress site accessible.
8. Dedicated Support
When you use a StudioPress theme, it’s very unlikely that you will get into technical support. Because the features and customizable options are straightforward, you can rarely mess it up.
However, the support team is there for you to guide you through the learning curve. You’ll get help related to installation, tutorials, troubleshooting, and advice for all StudioPress products. But, you can’t receive support for third-party Genesis-based child themes.
9. Documentation
StudioPress offers a huge library of tutorials on the Genesis framework and StudioPress child themes. They cover everything from Genesis and child theme installation, customization, demo data import, page setup, etc.
Also, you also get a PDF on beginners’ guide to the Genesis framework that helps you easily get started.
These are the features that StudioPress provides to its users. Now, are there any other benefits of using StudioPress themes? Of course, there are! Let’s see some of them.
Pros of StudioPress
- Genesis Plugins: If your site is built on the Genesis framework, then you can achieve more with Genesis plugins. They’re lightweight plugins useful for adding extra features to your site.
- Awesome community: StudioPress has a big community of 390K+ WordPress developers, users, and enthusiasts all over the world.
- Online resources: There are hundreds of articles and tutorials on StudioPress over the internet. You can find theme reviews, tutorials, step-by-step guides, etc. on many YouTube channels and blogs.
- Developer-friendly codes: StudioPress codes are clean and open-source. If you know how to code, then you can also tweak your site with codes without a hassle. A lot of developers are earning good by making premium Genesis-based child themes.
Cons of StudioPress
- No multipurpose themes: Some users have their way with multipurpose themes. But, they might find some features missing in StudioPress themes.
- Little learning curve: StudioPress themes have a little different approach than regular themes. However, the support team is there to help you with that.
Now that you know all the features and benefits of StudioPress themes, you might want to get it for your site. So, let’s see a review of the brilliant child themes offered by StudioPress.
C) 5 Outstanding StudioPress Themes
StudioPress doesn’t compromise on quality. All of them let you customize and design your site according to your likes.
Anyway, we’ve narrowed down the list to 5 based on our own preferences. If you like any, then feel free to pick.
1. Essence Pro
Essence Pro is a StudioPress child theme with a visually compelling design. You can use it mainly for niches like health, fitness, and lifestyle.
The demo home page consists of a large switchable image with compelling overlay text and call-to-action buttons. With that, you’re likely to catch your visitors’ attention and lure them to take actions like sign up or buy your product.
With the one-click theme setup feature, you can import the demo content to your site. Moreover, you’ll have the design flexibility to create with your own design. Due to the responsive layout, it looks good on the desktop as it looks on other devices as well.
2. Magazine Pro
Magazine pro is a responsive Genesis child theme optimal for blogs, news sites, and magazines. If you’re a blogger or a publisher, then Magazine pro is the best one for you.
With this theme, you can make your published content look great on any device. Use your home page to display your featured publications and important content. You can display ads on your header, sidebar, etc. to earn revenue.
You can easily import the demo site if you want it to look exactly the same. Or, you can tweak around the colors, fonts, widgets, sidebar options, Gutenberg blocks, etc. as well.
3. Academy Pro
Academy Pro is a clean and minimal StudioPress child theme for creating a professional e-learning platform. Use this theme if you’re looking to sell online courses, or create a winning membership site.
It lets you create a menu with multiple sub-menus of categories for easy navigation for your customers. You can also showcase elements like testimonials, services, teams, etc. on your home page as widgets to gain users’ trust.
To convert your visitors into buyers, you can add attractive call-to-action buttons on various site areas. You can also import the demo site and start filling in your own information.
4. Authority Pro
Authority Pro is a perfect theme if you’re an expert looking to build your personal branding. With this theme, you can showcase your knowledge, expertise, and experience in a nice display. So, your users can trust you even more.
To save time, you can import the demo site and create your site without any hassle. Highlight your expertise with a little bit of introduction, a beautiful image, and a convert with a call-to-action button.
If you publish articles regularly, then you have many options for the blog layout. Moreover, it has eCommerce support for receiving paycheques for your product or online service sale.
5. Revolution Pro
Revolution Pro is a minimal Genesis child theme focused on portraying images and graphical work. It provides a perfect space for photographers and designers for displaying their pixel-perfect images and graphics. It’s also effective for agencies, bloggers, experts, and small businesses for their online presence.
With Revolution Pro, you have the option to choose from 5 different home page designs. Importing them is easy with a single click. Being a Gutenberg compatible theme, you can edit your pages and posts easily as a drag-and-drop block.
D) StudioPress Pricing
As we see, the StudioPress themes provide the best value for their price. Also, you’ll have to purchase it once i.e. no recurring payment or renewal cost. That’s the best it can get.
Here are the details on StudioPress pricing:
- The first need for creating your site on StudioPress is the Genesis Framework. When you buy it separately, the cost is a one-time payment of $59.95.
- However, it comes bundled with each StudioPress child theme. The price ranges from $99.95 to $129.95 depending on the theme you choose.
- Moreover, if you sign up for the managed WordPress hosting of WP Engine, then you’ll have free access to all StudioPress child themes and Genesis. The hosting plan costs as low as $25 per month.
E) StudioPress Themes Review: Conclusion
On a final note, StudioPress offers a powerful structure and beautiful themes for creating fast, secure, and SEO-friendly websites. With the abundance of design choices, create any kind of website quickly without any trouble.
For just a one-time payment with no additional cost and the value you get is totally worth the money. Furthermore, the StudioPress support team, online resources, and documentation are always there for your help.
So, this concludes our review of the StudioPress themes. We hope you find some value in reading this article.
If you have any suggestions or feedback, then please feel free to comment below.
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