StudioPress Review

From StudioPress comes the famous website framework for WordPress – the Genesis framework. It’s a powerful type of theme which handles the security and SEO foundation of your site. It works alongside a child theme which is purely responsible for your site’s design and layout aspects. The two are inseparable and they need to go hand in hand in building your website.

Genesis is offered by StudioPress as a single package for $59.95 consisting of the framework itself and a starter child theme. You can also purchase a theme package which already includes the Genesis framework for a price range of around $99.95 to $129.95. But if you want access to and support for the Genesis framework and all the StudioPress-made premium child themes, you’ll have to pony up for Genesis Pro at $360 a year.

Wondering whether it’s worth your dollars? We took the time to carefully review the features of Genesis Pro to help you decide. Dive in for the details.

Where It All Begins – The Genesis Framework

A solid footing for your site. With Genesis as your WordPress framework, you’ll have a secure and SEO optimized foundation for your website. Put yourself, your brand, your products and services out there for the worldwide web to see, and get results. The Genesis framework handles the speed and SEO optimization of your site, so you’re all covered for high search engine ranking.

State-Of-The-Art Security

StudioPress built Genesis to follow all WordPress security best practices. Hence, you can rest assured that your site has the best security possible.

SEO Friendly

The Genesis framework is search engine optimized. It boasts of a clean, optimized codebase and smart design architecture. It also supports Schema.org code. Since Genesis is automatically updated, your code will always be up to date and fully optimized.

Style It Up With StudioPress Theme Packages

Meet your one-stop shop for WordPress themes. Genesis Pro gives you access to all of StudioPress’ themes as well as the future themes they are going to make. These are the child themes that take care of your site’s aesthetics. They’re powered by the Genesis framework so they’re rock-solid secure, fast, SEO friendly, mobile responsive, and super flexible.

Create your site with a click of the mouse. The newest themes also have a one-click theme setup feature so you can start building and customizing your website in just a matter of minutes.

From a theme for a Wellness biz to a theme for a Workstation, your imagination is the only limit to your options. StudioPress has a variety of theme packages so there’s definitely one that’s the right fit for you. The themes are categorized making it easier for you to browse through and take your pick.

You can see the entire collection of themes here.

Bring Out Your Brand With Customization Options

Customize your site without compromising on speed. Genesis Pro provides you with a whole load of features so you can build your site just the way you like it. What’s more, StudioPress guarantees that you can make all the modifications you want yet your page will still load as fast as ever. Here are a few of the customization features you can expect:

Theme Options

Easily tweak the theme of your choice. With these theme options, you can change the layouts, colors, and other settings of your website.

Pre-built Page Layouts, Content Sections, and Layout Options

Play around with your site’s presentation. With a library of professionally designed and fully customizable layouts and content sections, you can easily change the look of your site. You can select from 20+ full page layouts, mix and match layouts for individual pages or posts, or even make your own layouts.

Role Based Editing Permissions

If you’re working with a team in building your site, you can easily assign them the right levels of control, thereby making sure that your site stays on-brand and on your watch.

Widget Wonders

The Genesis framework was designed to be more than just widget ready. StudioPress also developed a few custom widgets for you to use on your site. With the User Profile widget, you can display the Gravatar of users, their bio, and a link to an About page. There’s also a Featured Posts widget which allows you to display post excerpts, and a Featured Page widget which displays the page content and a thumbnail to be used in a featured section of your site.

Comment Functionality

Make your site interactive with threaded comments and Gravatar integration. You and your site audiences can engage well with each other through the comments section.

Customizable Logo

What better to identify your brand with than your very own logo? Genesis allows you to upload your own logo image and customize it with a simple press of a button.

Mobile Responsive and Accessibility Ready

With Genesis, your site will not only work on any kind of device, but will also be accessible to different kinds of users.

Extend Functionality With Essential Plugins

StudioPress has also developed WordPress plugins that help extend the functionality of your Genesis powered website. To easily add share buttons to your site, you can make use of the Genesis Simple Share plugin. If you want to add a book library and display book details on your site, then the Genesis Author Pro plugin is perfect for you. There’s also the Genesis Responsive Slider plugin which allows you to create simple responsive sliders to display featured images on your site along with the titles and excerpts of your posts. You can explore the full list of StudioPress plugins here.

Genesis also works well with Design Palette Pro, a third party plugin for code-free customizations. With this plugin, you can easily make modifications on your website without need of writing code. You can quickly adjust and alter almost anything on your site – headers, content area, sidebars, footers, colors, fonts, and backgrounds, to name a few. The catch, however, is that you need to separately purchase a Design Palette Pro plan for $49 (Basic), $89 (Plus), and $199 (Deluxe).

Amazing Aftermarket Support Services

Once you’ve purchased Genesis and/or any of the child theme packages, the folks over at StudioPress have expert help readily available in their world-class support forum. You can receive one-on-one customer support by filing a ticket with their support team. They also have a dedicated support staff available to answer any of your questions.

You can expect to receive full support for installing and using the Genesis framework, all StudioPress-developed themes, and StudioPress plugins, as well as configuration assistance for included options and bug fixes.

Other Cool Features

Another notable feature of Genesis Pro is that you get to enjoy 1 year of free hosting on WP Engine. This is optional on your part, however, as it’s not necessary for you to host on WP Engine to use Genesis Pro.

You can also put up advertisements on your site as most StudioPress themes are advertising ready. All you need to do is just insert your advertising code into a text widget and wait for ad revenues to arrive.

Conclusion

With all the grandeur that Genesis Pro has to offer, you’d be making a worthwhile investment with $360 a year. Indeed, Genesis Pro provides you with powerful and professional site building tools. But you need a lot of additional plugins and extensions to make everything work perfectly.

If you prefer to get all the website tools you need in one place and all for one pricing plan, then there’s a solid all-in-one website building platform that’s just as powerful. Curious much? Check this out.