WordPress Framework Comparison: Thesis, Genesis and Headway
NOTE: THIS POST IS OUTDATED SO IGNORE IT. 🙂
Genesis is the way to go now, which you can find out more about here.
Whether you’re on WordPress or thinking about switching, you’ve probably heard of WordPress themes and frameworks. Thesis, Genesis and Headway are three of the most talked about frameworks for WordPress. Frameworks have the most flexibility for building custom websites and killer designs (themes are built on top of frameworks). They also have a larger learning curve due to so much flexibility.
A while back I asked Blog Clarity followers to tell me what topics they were interested in and holy crap! This topic of frameworks was by far the most popular!
Since I’ve only used Thesis (update: I’m now using Genesis), I brought in two others ladies who will give you the low-down on Genesis and Headway. This post is by no means a technical comparison of these three; it’s a post to help bloggers without much coding experience learn more about these three frameworks.
Whether you’re doing the blog design yourself or hiring someone, you’ll still have to use the framework so you should choose the one that’s a best fit. Let’s get to it!
Thesis Framework
UPDATE: Thesis 2.0 is now available and is quite awesome!
Description of the platform:
Over 37,000 people use Thesis so that should tell you a bit about its popularity. It’s known for SEO capabilities, easy-to-use controls and great support staff to get the most out of Thesis. They also tout killer typography and visual clarity as benefits to using this framework.
Screenshot:
Features:
- Search-Engine Optimized
- Layout generator- easily pick 1, 2 or 3 column layouts
- Easy to change fonts, colors and navigation menu order and titles
- Dedicated forum for Thesis support and customization questions
- Customizable multi-media box (look up to your right- the welcome area of the sidebar is my multi-media box)
- Hooks for easier coding (I’ll explain in the next section)
- Skins available for purchase (similar to child themes in Genesis)
Pros:
Thesis users definitely love the flexibility in their design. You can customize so much of your blog just from checking or unchecking options. One of my favorite features about Thesis is the teasers at the bottom. It’s a good way to showcase more posts on the homepage without having the length of full posts. You can also upload your header and favicon as well as number comments with the click of a button.
Hooks are a big feature of Thesis too. They basically allow you to modify your custom functions file without leaving WordPress. This basically means you can customize your site without messing with the theme files. For example, there are hooks for things like putting content below your footer, before the comments or after your header. Once you get the hang of hooks, they really do come in handy.
Finally, they have a great forum to help with customizations, upgrading or any questions you may have. It’s the first place I go when I have a question and I usually find my answer from a quick search in the forum.
Cons:
Without customization it’s pretty easy to spot a Thesis blog (they can all end up looking the same). Unlike Genesis, you have to update manually which is a little cumbersome (it’s more involved than just checking an “update” button). Most developers will say you should know CSS (cascading style sheets) to get the most out of Thesis. While this is probably true, I can say that I designed this site and Adventuroo without knowing a lick of code other than what I googled to figure out.
UPDATE: I switched to Genesis here on Momcomm because I needed integration for my course shop and it only really worked with Genesis. I still use Thesis on my other blog though and am still happy with it!
Examples:
Organized Simplicity
Why I like it:
Thesis has come a long way for us non-developers since I started using it. I love how many things I can change about my blog without knowing a lot of code. Since it’s a popular platform, I can always use the active forum or google a question when I can’t figure out how to do something. Finally, the SEO capabilities make it so much simpler to optimize your entire blog and each post.
Price: $87 for personal option or $164 for developer option
Where to buy: DIY Themes
Genesis Framework
Thauna from Design by Thauna has been building her clients’ sites in Genesis for over a year now. I invited her to give you the scoop on the Genesis platform as this girl knows her stuff.
Description of the platform:
Genesis is a premium framework that empowers you to build strong, solid websites. It will give you a solid foundation with code that you can trust so you can focus on your design and content. Genesis touts that it’s a good choice for both novices and advanced developers.
Famous users include: Problogger, Chris Brogan, rapper Vanilla Ice’s Real Estate Program. The showcase also highlights 41 pages of awesome sites from varying degrees of ‘famous-ness’.
Screenshot:
Features:
- Search-Engine Optimized
- 40 Child Themes– beautiful as is but also highly customizable
- Unlimited Everything– support forums are amazing and you can use the framework and child themes you purchase over and over (on your sites and on client sites)
- Automatic Updates– The code is updated and improved for you. You never have to worry about being out of date. When the updates are rolled out just click the update button. Easy peasy.
- Widget ready– Genesis also has a growing list of specialized plugins and widgets
- Layout Options are a breeze– You can have different layouts for different pages with just click.
Pros:
The child themes give a ton of design flexibility for both do-it-yourselfers and designers. Once you purchase Genesis you have access to the forums where you can ask questions of developers and Genesis gurus. There are also tutorials on just about anything you need. Each child theme has its own folder in the forum so you can ask theme specific questions. The child themes are beautiful out of the box. Add a bit of creativity and some CSS, PHP, HTML knowledge and really there is nothing you can’t do. Some of the new themes even have color choices built right in to the theme options.
As a blogger Genesis doesn’t get in my way when I’m blogging. It adds additional options (SEO, layout changes, featured images) to my posts without getting in the way of business of blogging.
Cons:
Honestly, I’ve been using Genesis as a blogger and a designer for over a year and I haven’t found any cons. However, some people wish there were more design options built into the framework. Also, the forums can be fairly technical when you ask questions but the tutorials are very well written and go through the basics.
Examples:
Life: Besprinkled
Why I like it:
As a designer I love Genesis because it provides the perfect jumping off place for me. I can choose a child theme to give me a framework. And then I can go in an decorate or even move the walls around and change the framework. Regardless of how far I take the code customization I can rest assured that I haven’t broken or lost any SEO benefits. I know that the structure is still sound. It gives me the freedom to remodel and not worry about whether or not I just took out a structure support. The community of Genesis programmers and designers is amazing. And I’m always learning new ways to use Genesis to enhance my designs.
Price: $79.95 (Genesis + 1 child theme) or $299.95 for the ProPackage
Where to buy: StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework
Headway
You may know Ashley from My Front Porch Swing but you may not know that she’s worked with Headway on over 100 blogs! As you can see, it was a no brainer to invite her to talk about Headway.
Description of the platform:
Headway is a user-friendly theme with a live visual editor and drag and drop capabilities. The live visual editor is a unique feature that makes this theme easy for any blogger to use, even without a designing or technical background. With options to drag your items around on a page, you can customize your site without breaking into the code. You can adjust the colors, fonts, and more with a few clicks and without CSS knowledge.
For the code-enjoying people, you can still manipulate with php, css, and html as much as you want- there are even leafs making it easy to do this. A prime example of a headway-powered site to look at is Remarkablogger.
Screenshot:
Features:
- Again, I go back to the visual editor- make changes to your site without a bit of code.
- Drag and drop capabilities make designing your pages a breeze- and easy to change.
- Amazing resources, including a css map to effectively target various elements.
- Built in SEO tools, sitewide and for Posts and Pages individually as well.
- Skins available for purchase to style your site (similar to child themes in Genesis).
Pros:
The visual editor is by far the option that clients get most excited about- and with good reason. Even if you prefer to use CSS, the live css editor allows you to see the changes you’re making before making them live. Being able to adjust design details, drag and drop your navigation to wherever you want it to be, and ready-made leafs such as About leaf and Twitter leaf make customizing your site easy to do.
Also, the support is AMAZING. They have the best team of support I have ever seen. When I began using the theme, I was having the worst time with a task. One of the creators of the theme CALLED me to help me adjust it. (I’m embarrassed at how silly and easy this was to fix). I cannot sing praises loudly enough for this team. There is rarely a need to even start a new thread- searching the archives in the support forums finds answers to just about everything
Cons:
There are no major cons of the Headway options. However, I do tend to hesitate on upgrading to the newest version for at least a week or two. There are so many options and great features that sometimes newer versions can be a little buggy. The easy fix to this is to be sure you download a copy of the latest stable version. (Note that this is not always an issue, just something I’ve run into a few times).
Examples:
Tiffany Romero (one of the creators of The SITS Girls)
My Front Porch Swing (okay, okay, that one’s mine).
Why I like it:
I have worked with countless themes for WordPress, both free and premium, on the back end, and partnered with many designers. Through these projects, one of the most user-friendly themes I have come across is the Headway theme. Having been a Thesis fanatic for quite some time, it took me awhile to give it a try. But, I’m glad I did.
Through working with over a hundred people to successfully transfer their blogs to WordPress, a top complaint is not being able to alter anything on their site after it is designed. With Headway, users can easily make adjustments without having to code or hire someone for each teeny change. In addition, the top notch SEO settings eliminate the need for any of the heavy plugins that can slow down your site.
Price: $87 for the personal option (Support for two (2) Headway sites that you own or develop) or $164 for the developer option (Unlimited).
Where to buy: Purchase Headway here: Headway Themes. If you want to try the personal option before deciding on the Developer’s option, you can easily upgrade.
It’s Mel again! I hope this post helped you wrap your head around three of the most talked about WP frameworks: Thesis, Genesis and Headway. As you’ll notice, I stayed away from recommending one over the other as each ones has its own set of unique features as well as pros and cons. Feel free to post any questions in the comments and be sure to follow @thaunak and @porchswingmom on Twitter!
Note: Each “where to buy” is an affiliate link. Just wanted you to know.
