Blocksy vs GeneratePress – Which Theme is Better?

In this Blocksy vs GeneratePress post, we are comparing the two finest WordPress themes.

If you are into WordPress for some time, I’m sure you have heard about GeneratePress. But Blocksy WordPress theme is quite new and because of its features, this theme is getting a lot of attention these days.

Both Blocksy and GeneratePress are powerful, multi-purpose, blogging-friendly themes that you need to compare and choose which one’s the best for you.

What is Blocksy WordPress Theme?

Blocksy is a free multi-purpose WordPress theme that is not only blazingly fast but also feature-rich.

Blocksy WP theme is a freemium theme. Meaning, you can use the Blocksy free forever. But if you want to take your website to the next level, you will need to go with Blocksy Pro – a premium Blocksy plugin.

Blocksy Pro is your go-to theme that can be used for creating a service-based website, an e-commerce product website, or even an affiliate and blogging site.

For more information on which features you get with the premium version of Blocksy theme, have a look at Blocksy free vs pro.

Update:- The Blocksy theme WordPress active installs have crossed 100,000 recently.

What is GeneratePress?

GeneratePress is a fast, multipurpose, and feature-rich theme. Unlike other themes that are created a few years ago. GeneratePress has been there for the past 6 years.

It has created its name in the WordPress market because of its speed, usage flexibility, and stability.

If you have a little knowledge of CSS front-end, I would recommend you go with GeneratePress. Because, this theme makes up to speed by not including unnecessary features, which you might need to code. If you want to use them.

GeneratePress free version does not actually give you many options, but its premium version will surely hook you onto it.

Also Read: GeneratePress free vs premium

Blocksy vs GeneratePress Overview

The generic overview done below is between Blocksy Pro and GP Premium.

Get 10% off on Blocksy Pro by using the coupon code bloggingidol10

GeneratePress does not give the simplicity of creating Headers & Footers by using builders, but one can easily get free SVG icons and apply them using GeneratePress Elements.

Plus, you can easily create Author Box, GeneratePress related posts section, Author Pages, Advanced Page, or Post layouts using simple CSS and plugins like GenerateBlocks and WP Show Posts.

I have included all the features that are required for a professional website. Now let’s start comparing both themes.

Is Blocksy A Good Theme?

Blocksy is created using the latest technologies like React, Babel, and WebPack, making this theme lightweight and fast. Plus, you get a lot of features. So, yes Blocksy is a good theme.

The WordPress theme industry right now is all about which theme performs faster and offers more features.

The one that has a good balance between performance options and customization options will surely swoop away to number 1.

Blocksy Pros & Cons

Blocksy Promo Code

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Is GeneratePress Worth It?

GeneratePress is one of the oldest, yet most modern-style WordPress themes with a dedicated theme customizer. It is a multi-purpose theme with a modular approach. GeneratePress is a responsive theme and is SEO-friendly.

So yes, GeneratePress is totally worth it.

GeneratePress does not offer you as many features as Blocksy does. But, it is more like a DIY kind of theme. You can create all sorts of fancy things like Author Boxes, Social Share sections, Related posts, etc. manually.

Use plugins or create the required things manually, then GenratePress is kind of a Blocksy alternative.

These things take time and you need to know a little bit of coding, to get things started.

But, that’s the downside one faces if they need a super fast theme.

GeneratePress Pros & Cons

Blocksy vs GeneratePress – Installations, Reviews & Ratings

Before starting out the real comparison at the technical level, it is important we take note of the number of installations, reviews, and ratings for both of these themes.

Note:- We are comparing a theme that is almost 3 years old vs another theme that has built a rock-solid foundation over the last 8 years.

All data has been taken from WordPress.

Is Blocksy Faster Than GeneratePress?

For performing the Blocksy vs GeneratePress speed test, I’ve used two different sites on the same hosting with the same set of plugins.

Blocksy theme customizer allows you to easily enable/disable additional page features.

I have enabled the following;

• Featured Image
• Share Box
• Author Box
• Posts navigation
• Related Posts Comments
• Read Progress

Note:- None of these sites has any cache plugin, AMP, or page builder installed.

Plus, I have tested the same blog page with a similar number of images on both sites.

Blocksy Website Speed Test

I have done a quick Google Page Speed Insights speed test.

And, for the desktop.

The FCP and speed index for the Blocksy website on mobile is a little bit on the higher side. This is due to no AMP, no-cache plugin, and shared hosting used.

Now, let us look at the results from the GeneratePress site.

GeneratePress Website Speed Test

Similarly, do for the GeneratePress site.

Unlike Blocksy, our GeneratePress site showed excellent results under FCP but showcased a moderate LCP.

That is okay. Both FCP and LCP are not so bad in either of the themes.

Let us look at the desktop result.

Top-notch.

Remember, I had enabled most of the Single Posts features, under the Blocksy website. That is why you see a big performance score the GeneratePress site desktop speed test.

Apart from the Featured Image and Page Navigation, you would need to manually create or install a plugin for GeneratePress Related Posts, Author Box, and Read Progress.

If done, that will surely show a drop in performance. Except if you are using a good performance cache plugin.

For me, the winner is Blocksy Pro. You get very good performance results with lots of customization features.

Blocksy vs GeneratePress – Header & Footer Builder

Effortlessly creating Headers and Footers on a WordPress website is the key requirement for every theme in this industry.

Blocksy free theme comes with Header and Footer Builder but offers limited elements.

On the other hand, Blocksy Pro gives you a lot of elements to give the most elegant look to your site’s header and footer.

But, GeneratePress does not actually have a header and footer builder. Instead, there is something else.

Blocksy Header Builder and Elements

Blocksy has an amazing header builder for desktop and a separate one for mobile layout.

It is just easy drag-and-drop. Meaning, any non-technical user can also start making beautiful websites from SCRATCH.

Note:- You get Blocksy transparent header and sticky header once you install the free version of Blocksy companion plugin.

Look at the number of Header elements you get with Blocksy Pro.

Blocksy Footer Builder With Elements

Similarly, Blocksy Footer builder is as intuitive as the header builder.

You get 3 rows, with the default copyright message row.

Let us look at all the Blocksy footer elements.

Bonus: Blocksy Pro Conditional Headers & Footers

With the premium version of the Blocksy WordPress theme, one can easily create multiple Headers and Footers and use them on different parts of their website.

These are called conditional headers and footers. Normally, you’d have to perform some PHP and CSS coding. But with Blocksy Pro, it happens in a few simple clicks.

Isn’t this theme amazing?

Let us see what we can do with GeneratePress.

GeneratePress Header Builder

GeneratePress does not actually have a header builder built into the theme customizer.

You can only avail of this feature if you’ve got GP Premium. It comes under the GeneratePress Elements section.

Once you choose the Header Element, you get something like a GeneratePress Header Builder Dashboard.

Add a new title to your header element, select merging if you’d like the header to merge with page hero, upload site logo and select navigation option.

This can also be called a GeneratePress Page Header since you can select the display rules to display anywhere or everywhere on your site.

The next tab is about Page Hero. You generally use this if you’d want dynamic page hero content.

For example, I’ve used Featured images of articles to get displayed as Page Hero on all single posts. on the BloggingIdol website.

Finally, you can apply display rules as to where you want your Page Header to be displayed.

This is an example of a perfectly created GeneratePress Custom Header.

I agree it is not so easy and intuitive as the Blocksy Header Builder. But, you still get to somehow create multiple headers with different styles.

GeneratePress Footer Builder

Just like the GeneratePress header builder, the footer builder is also not a drag-and-drop list of elements on two to three-footer rows.

Instead, you will need to work around with GeneratePress Blocks and GenerateBlocks plugin.

GenerateBlocks is a free plugin with mainly 4 blocks;

1. Grid
2. Container
3. Buttons
4. Headline

GeneratePress Blocks is different from GenerateBlocks. It is a block type element built into the GeneratePress theme. Whereas, GenerateBlocks is a separate plugin.

GenerateBlocks is a freemium plugin. Meaning, you get the Grid, Container, Buttons, and Headline blocks with the free GenerateBlocks plugin.

But, GenerateBlocks Pro offers a lot of more features like;

• Advanced Styling
• Custom Attributes
• Advanced Backgrounds
• 150+ Professional Ready-to-Use Templates
• Blocks Effects
• Asset Library
• Container Hover Effects

Let’s get back to the GeneratePress Footer Builder.

To make beautiful GeneratePress footers, create a new GeneratePress Blocks Element.

Once you’ve opened the block element page, add a title and select Site Footer Hook.

This hooks the Block Element as Site-Wide Footer. Unless you’ve used certain exclusions under-display rules.

Later on, use GenerateBlocks Plugins to select a 3-layout grid for adding the Site Logo and GeneratePress Footer Widgets in each of those grids.

Just like creating a header, this is another GeneratePress Custom Hook, but it is for the footer.

Not very user-friendly, but does a fantastic job.

Winner: Blocksy

Blocksy vs GeneratePress – Content Blocks vs Elements

The next comparison we will look at is about Blocksy Content Blocks vs GeneratePress Elements.

Both Content Blocks and Elements are powerful premium-level features in Blocksy and GeneratePress, respectively. With these features, you can easily apply blocks or elements on more than one page or post of your website.

They come with a display rule function that easily lets you include/exclude certain parts of your site.

For example, you can create a newsletter subscription pop-up modal that pops up every time a new user tries to leave your site.

Blocksy Content Blocks

Content Blocks is a Blocksy Pro theme feature. These are basically Blocksy Hooks.

Once, you try to add new Content Blocks, the dashboard shows you 5 types of blocks;

1. Custom Content Hooks
2. PopUp Template
3. 404 Page Template
4. Header Template
5. Footer Template

In fact, Blocksy Hooks comes with detailed Blocksy Page Settings on the left-hand side.

Wherein, it includes Container Structure settings, Location & Priority, Display Conditions, Expiration Date & Time, Block Position, and Device Visibility.

Create top bars, custom headers, footers, sidebars, pop-ups, sections, or anything you need.

My favorite feature here is the Expiration Date/Time feature. It lets you easily add the date and time for any section that you’d like to expire automatically, without even looking at the blocks again.

For example, if you are running a promotional offer displayed on the top bar of your entire website. If you would like that to automatically go away after a few days, then this is possible with Blocksy Pro.

The 404 Page Template Block is more or less very similar to one found under the Blocksy Pro Theme Customizer.

Blocksy Header & Footer Templates offer better control over Display Conditions, User Authorizations, and User Roles.

Moreover, the coolest block here is Pop Up Modal Content Block with pop-up position, size, animation, speed, trigger conditions, and lots of design settings

Blocksy Pro offers a lot of Hooks;

GeneratePress Elements

The set of Elements found under GeneratePress Elements are as follows;

1. Block
2. Hook
3. Layout
4. Header

With GeneratePress Block Element, you can easily create Hooks, Custom Headers & Footers, Sidebars, Page Hero, and Content Templates.

GeneratePress Hooks allows you to easily add custom code via Hooks.

Hooks are specific locations within the entire website. The reason to have hooks built into a theme is that the user can add custom codes without changing the core files of the theme.

For example, you’d like to add breadcrumbs to your GeneratePress site. Simply, activate the Elements module, create a hook and select the Hook option – “generate_before_content”. Supply the PHP code and you are done.

List of GeneratePress Hooks;

Blocksy offers a Pop Up Block and Expiration Date/Time settings. GeneratePress offers lots of Hooks.

Blocksy vs GeneratePress – Page, Post & Category Layouts

Layouts are one of the most preferable features everyone needs from a premium theme.

Themes offering multiple layouts often get liked and installed sooner than the ones which don’t possess more options.

Therefore, let us see the Post Layouts, Page Layouts, and Category Layouts in this Blocksy vs GeneratePress comparison guide.

We will first start with Blocksy Page Layout, Author Page Layout, and Search Page Layout.

Later on, we will look at all the Post type layouts in Blocksy Pro.

Finally, go through what options GeneratePress offers for Post, Pages, and Categories.

Blocksy Page Layout

A standard Blocksy Page Layout offers 4 types of page structure; Narrow, Normal, Page with Left Sidebar, and Page with Right Sidebar.

You get options to make the Content Area Style as wide or boxed, for Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile devices.

Plus, Blocksy WP theme also offers toggle switches to turn on or off the Page Title, Featured Image, Share Box, Comments, and Read Progress (in Blocksy Pro only).

Blocksy Author Page Layout

Unlike many other premium themes, Blocksy offers an Author Page Layout especially needed to customize author pages on a site.

This feature is most commonly used by blogging websites that need to showcase multiple author profiles and guest authors on their websites.

Blocksy Author Page Structures are as follows;

Simple Page Structure with a name and brief author information

Classic Author Page Structure that showcases a wide image with a long excerpt.

Grid Style Page Structure showcasing 3-tile grid with thumbnail image and very short information.

Enhanced Grid that starts with a 2-tile grid, followed by a 3-tile page grid.

Default Gutenberg style Author Page Structure with Author name on top of the image, followed by a brief excerpt.

The Author Page Layout theme customizer settings also offer a number of columns and posts with card options and an optional sidebar.

Blocksy Search Page

The Blocksy Search Page settings in the Blocksy Theme Customizer, are more or less very similar to the one we saw under the Blocksy Author Page Layout.

It comes with a Page Title, 5 Page Structures to choose from, settings for the number of columns and posts, Card Options and a Sidebar.

My favorite feature from this is the Live Results option. This setting gives your visitors live results if they happen to search from the main search icon (located in the primary menu).

Blocksy Blog Post Layout

Blocksy offers 5 Blog Structure designs to showcase all your blogs under one page with multiple pagination styles as well.

Like other settings seen above, Blocksy offers Cards Options and the settings to choose Sidebar on the Blog Post page.

You also get Cards Reveal Effect feature that shows a cool reveal effect whenever your visitor hovers their mouse on each blog postcard.

I like the Posts Filter options, which come with 2 Design Styles, Filtering Behaviour, Filter Source, Spacing settings, Alignment, and Visibility on different devices settings.

Blocksy Single Blog Posts & Category Pages

With Blocksy’s Single Post Layout, you get 4 Post Structures designs, the option to choose your content Wide or Boxed, Vertical Spacing for Content, with Post and Page Elements.

The best thing about Blocksy Pro is the Elements it offers under Single Blog Posts settings

You get to switch on or off the following Post Elements and Page Elements;

Post Elements

• Featured Image
• Post Tags
• Share Box
• Author Box
• Posts Navigation

Page Elements

• Related Posts
• Comments
• Read Progress

Plus, there are more settings to all of them. Like what kind of design you’ve wanted them to be, how and where would they appear on the Single Blog Post.

Changing from the default blog structure design, creating boxed or covered styled cards, and applying cards reveal effect can literally help you achieve a unique Blocksy Custom Post Type.

Category page settings are very much identical to the ones we saw under Blocksy Search Page. The only difference between both of them is that Category Pages do not have Search Live Results, functionality option setting under the theme customizer.

But that does not mean, the search option doesn’t work on these pages.

Searches work just as normal, as they would work on the entire site.

Now, it is time to look at what its alternative, GeneratePress, has to offer.

GeneratePress Blog Layout

The settings under the theme customizer for GeneratePress blog page are limited, compared to Blocksy WP theme.

However, for these settings, you must own GP Premium.

GP Premium offers a Blog Module that should be enabled if you want to perform finer settings fr creating the perfect GeneratePress blog layout.

As you can see here, the Content Section has two tabs – Archives and Single Blog Posts; and the Featured Images Section has three tabs – Archives, Posts, and Pages.

To summarize, all I can say is that even the GeneratePress premium version theme does not have more Post, Page, and Category layout options, compared to Blocksy

Blocksy not only comes with basic layout structure settings but also offers additional settings like enabling or disabling all sorts of page/post elements, design settings for each option, etc.

To create a professional GeneratePress blog template that stands out and looks like the one Blocksy offers, one must be willing to apply GeneratePress hooks, use GenerateBlocks plugin, and apply CSS coding to give the final touch.

Blocksy vs GeneratePress Layouts Overview

GeneratePress does not a related post feature built-in. Learn how to display related posts in GeneratePress theme.

Winner: Blocksy

Blocksy vs GeneratePress Starter Sites

Many users tend to choose the theme which has the most number of starter sites or templates that revolve around their client’s industry.

Therefore, it is important to analyze Blocksy vs GeneratePress starter sites, giving us a complete a picture as to how many starter templates both of these themes have to offer.

Blocksy Starter Sites

For the past 2 years, Blocksy has managed to keep its customers happy and offer more for less.

They have a collection of 28 Blocksy Starter Sites so far that fall in the category of General, Health & Fitness, Nutrition, Lifestyle, Electronics, Marketing, Law, etc.

All these Blocksy Starter Templates are free. Meaning, you do not need Blocksy Pro theme to use them and they support Gutenberg, Elementor and Brizy page builders.

GeneratePress Starter Sites

To be able to access the GeneratePress Starter Sites, you will need to upgrade to GP Premium.

The free GeneratePress version does not offer any Starter Sites from the GeneratePress Site Library.

Being in the market for a very long time, GeneratePress has managed to clearly serve its customer’s needs. As they have around 97 Starter Sites, showcased on the GeneratePress Dashboard.

Note:- For clear terminology, the Starter Sites section is better known as the GeneratePress Site Library section.

Just like the Blocksy WordPress theme, GeneratePress also supports major page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder.

Note:- Most of Starter Sites from the Site Library are built with GeneratePress transparent header method.

Blocksy vs GeneratePress – Documentation & Support

This is another important parameter to consider before buying a theme.

Since, Blocksy is new to the WordPress eco-space, it does not have so many documented articles like GeneratePress does.

Blocksy is a type of theme with multiple features making it easy for users to directly switch the feature on or off.

On the other hand, GeneratePress is known for its speed and performance. Therefore, the developers have not loaded this theme with multiple features. Making it somewhat like a DIY theme.

When a theme has lesser features, you’ve got to start creating the looks and design by yourself. That involves help at each and every step.

Thereby, increasing the number of ‘How To’ and other technology-related articles under GeneratePress documentation.

Nevertheless, Blocksy still has an official documentation page where all their ‘How To’ articles are documented categorically.

With technical documentation articles, they also have a YouTube Channel and a Facebook Group. Where users can directly ask questions and get curated answers from the developers and other experts within the group.

Blocksy premium theme has a support system that guarantees to answer any ticket within 24 hours. In some cases, one of their support agents tries to resolve the ticket within the first 2 to 3 hours of ticket submission.

GeneratePress, on the other hand, is a very popular theme with tons of documentation on their official website, YouTube Channel, and other 3rd Party sources available on the Internet.

When it comes to supporting, GeneratePress has an impeccable support system and is one of the most famous to be known throughout the WordPress theme industry.

Pricing

This is one of the most crucial parameters anyone would need to understand before making a purchase, and I will uncover all the pricing details of both themes.

Blocksy Pricing

To start with, Blocksy is a freemium theme. Meaning, there is a Blocksy free and Blocksy Pro version of theme.

Have a look at my article, for more information on what you get with Blocksy Pro.

The Blocksy pricing model is based on on-site licenses, the more the licenses needed, the more the price.

Note:- Blocksy Whitelabel feature is only available with the Agency plan.

All Blocksy premium plans come with a 100% no-risk money-back guarantee with a refund period of 14 days.

GeneratePress Pricing

GeneratePress WordPress theme also follows a freemium model, having both GeneratePress free and premium versions.

Most commonly, GeneratePress premium version is called a GP Premium.

Also Read:- GeneratePress Free vs Premium

GeneratePress free version is not at all like Blocksy free. It offers very limited features. So, if you are planning to get GeneratePress, I’d say, you better invest in GP Premium.

Note:- GeneratePress focuses on its primary strength, i.e., Theme Performance. As a result, it lacks a few features, that can be introduced via using plugins, or hard coding manually.

Both the plans offer the same features, the same number of sites from the GeneratePress Site Library, support for 500 websites, i.e., 500 licenses.

The GeneratePress lifetime plan offers lifetime updates, premium support, and access to future releases for lifetime.

GP premium annual or lifetime plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Blocksy Promo Code

BloggingIdol.com Special Offer

Use bloggingidol10 as Blocksy Coupon Code

Click on Coupon to get 10% Discount on all Blocksy Pro Plans

FAQs – Blocksy vs GeneratePress

Conclusion – Blocksy vs GeneratePress

Blocksy and GeneratePress are two popular multi-purpose WordPress themes. They are not only fast and mobile-friendly but are also responsive and SEO-friendly.

Developers of Blocksy WP theme have made the theme so simple, that the requirement of coding is merely ruled out. If you’d really want to create something, then I’d suggest you go with GenerateBlocks for GeneratePress theme and Stackable for Blocksy theme.

If you are even somewhat familiar with coding PHP and CSS, then I’d suggest you go ahead with GeneratePress. Otherwise, Blocksy is a fantastic theme that is as fast as GeneratePress and also offers lots of customization features.

Blocksy is really good if you need to eCommerce stores.

It is a difficult decision to make. Since both of them outperform each other in one or the other way.

Considering all the factors, if I’d have to choose only one, I would surely opt for Blocksy Pro. Especially, for a few features that do not come with GeneratePress.

Plus, for a beginner, price is always a major factor. That is why Blocksy has a budget-friendly package supporting up to 1 single license.

Additional Reading

• Kadence vs GeneratePress
• Blocksy Theme Review