Genesis Framework Review: Is It Still Worth Your Money in 2025?

Are you looking for the Genesis framework review? You’re in the right place.

The first impression is the last impression when it comes to online.

You need an appealing website design if you want better conversions and audience retention rates on your blog.

You also need a website design that’s FAST and SECURE.

If you’re looking for a clean coded and easy-to-use theme, the Genesis framework is exclusively for you.

It is perfectly optimized for search engines, mobile responsive, and well-coded for all kinds of websites.

Here’s our in-depth review of Genesis with all the features, pros, cons, pricing, and few other alternatives to it.

Honest Review of Genesis Framework Along With Its Alternatives

Quick note: Genesis framework is FREE as it is open-source now. But if you want Genesis Pro to get access to powerful website building tools for WordPress, you need to pay $360/year.

Features List 

Here’s a list of some of the amazing features offered by the Genesis theme.

What is Genesis framework?

Genesis framework can be treated as a premium WordPress theme (aka super theme) that handles all the design and layout aspects of your WordPress sites.

Genesis is a powerful framework designed by experts to provide you a search engine optimized, lightweight, and mobile responsive framework for your sites.

Think of your website as a car. WordPress acts as the engine of your car.

Genesis can be considered as your car’s frame and body (in other words, it’s responsible for your website’s basic design, security, SEO foundation).

The good thing about using Genesis is it supports a wide range of (hundreds of) child themes that you can install on their framework to customize and change the look of your website effortlessly.

To put it simply, a child theme can be treated as a paint job on that car (you can include any color you want such as red, blue, yellow, black, and so on).

Why Choose Genesis Over Other Premium Themes?

So why go for Genesis framework when you’ve access to so many other WordPress themes? Here are some of the biggest benefits.

It’s FREE now!

Whether you know it or not, the cost of the Genesis framework was around $60.

Now… it’s completely free. It’s an open source framework now.

You can grab it FREE from here. All you need to do is to enter your name and email and request the zip file download containing the Genesis Framework. That’s it!

If you’re interested, you can visit this link to see a live demo of Genesis.

Access to page building blocks

Genesis Framework gives you exclusive access to an incredible plugin called “Genesis Blocks” which helps you add a ton of site-building blocks to help you customize page layouts.

The plugin is totally free and you can download it from here. If you’re curious about what you can do with this plugin, here are some of its features.

To put it simply, this is their plugin for Gutenburg which is used for premium block library and block editor enhancements.

This plugin has free and paid versions. You cannot buy its pro version separately as it comes for free with the Genesis Pro subscription.

Offers a ton of useful add-on plugins

One big reason most people choose the Genesis framework is that it offers exclusive add-on plugins. You can check out all the StudiPress plugins from here. 

If you’re curious to find what they are, here are some of those plugins.

• Genesis Blocks is a collection of page building blocks for the Gutenberg block editor
• Genesis Custom Blocks provides all the tools you need to take control of the block-first reality of WordPress

Search engine optimized framework

One BIG reason to grab Genesis framework is that it is fully optimized for the search engines like Google. It offers you clean, optimized code along with clever design architecture, which means, you don’t have to do extra coding work on your website design to get additional SEO benefits.

Genesis is developed by a team of WordPress experts and developers who have years of experience in building search engine friendly websites and they have carefully crafted their framework to meet all your SEO needs.

Unlimited websites & Support 

Another big reason to pay for Genesis is it lets you use their framework on any number of sites you own. If you want to use and install their framework on your client websites, you can do that too. Isn’t it a wonderful package?

Also, it offers unlimited support. Once you purchase Genesis Pro for $360, you’ll get access to their customer support team. You’ll also get access to their community forum where you can find lots of threads around customizing your framework and website design.

Easy customization 

Most beginners who use premium themes find it really hard to customize their site. 

But when you’re using Genesis, you don’t need to go through a ton of tutorials or videos as it lets you customize your theme design however you want as it offers you a ton of widgets, layouts, and so on.

Professional customer support assistance

One of the reasons most people choose the Genesis framework over other premium frameworks or themes is because of their expert support.

In fact, you can also outsource your website design if you want to make it look unique and appealing from their developers. They will design and customize your website look from scratch by taking care of your brand.

You can also check out the sites in their showcase to see how those developers build websites.

How Much Does Genesis Framework Cost?

First things first: Genesis framework is FREE as it is open-source now.

If you want to grab the Genesis framework for free, visit this page.

Once you’re on the page, enter your name and email address and you’ll get access to a zip file download containing the Genesis framework.

But if you want to get access to Genesis Pro, you need to pay $360 (plus tax) per year.

What You Will Get with Genesis Pro?

Here are some of the incredible things you’ll get with Genesis Pro.

Once you’ve access to the Genesis Pro, you’ll get instant access and support to Genesis and all the StudioPress-made themes.

Does Genesis Pro offer a money-back guarantee?

Yes, Genesis Pro comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

How to Get Genesis Child Themes for Free?

Want to know how to get Genesis child themes for FREE? 

There are two ways to do it.

1. Purchase hosting from WP Engine
2. Purchase hosting from Flywheel

1. WP Engine: WP Engine offers powerful managed WordPress hosting that is optimized for speed and security. 

Features offered by WP Engine:

Here are the pricing packages of WP Engine.

• Startup plan costs you $22.50/mo where you can manage 1 website
• Professional plan costs you $44.25/mo where you can manage 3 websites
• Growth plan costs you $86.25/mo where you can manage 10 websites
• Scale plan costs you $217.50/mo where you can manage 30 websites

2. Flywheel: Flywheel also offers managed WordPress hosting along with an easy-to-use dashboard that makes it easy to manage your sites. 

Features offered by Flywheel:

Here are the pricing packages of Flywheel.

• Tiny plan costs you $12 per month where you can install 1 website
• Starter plan costs you $23 per month where you can install 1 website
• Freelance plan costs you $87 per month where you can install 10 websites
• Agency plan costs you $218 per month where you can install 30 websites

When you purchase hosting from any of these web hosts, you will get access to 10 Genesis child themes for FREE. You can check out all the StudioPress themes from here.

The best part? You’ll also get customer support for Genesis Framework and themes when you purchase hosting from either of the web hosts WP Engine or Flywheel.

Using Genesis Framework? Find beginner-friendly hosting options with our best web hosting for beginners list.

Pros & Cons of Genesis Framework

Here’s the list of pros and cons of Genesis.

Pros:

Cons:

Top 3 Genesis Theme Alternatives

If you’re looking for some other alternatives to Genesis, here are a few of them which are affordable and also offer you plenty of useful features to build your WordPress sites.

1. Elegant themes

Elegant themes is used by over 600,000 people worldwide and it is one of the very few premium theme networks that offer you stunning themes at affordable prices. You will also get access to Divi, Extra, Bloom, Monarch etc along with their Elegant themes purchase.

How much does it cost?

The best thing about using Elegant themes is that it comes at an unbelievable price of just $80 (10% discount when you sign up using our link). You can get full access to their over 80 excellent premium WordPress themes by paying just $80.

That being said, Elegant themes offers 2 pricing options which are listed below.

• Yearly access (costs $80 for 1 year and you’ll get access to over 80 themes along with 5 plugins and Divi theme builder)
• Lifetime access (costs $224 for lifetime, along with lifetime updates, theme and plugin downloads with lifetime support and Divi builder)

Features include;

You’ll also get a 30 day money back guarantee with Elegant themes, so you can ask for a full refund if you’re not happy with their themes or features within 30 days after signing up.

Pros:

Cons:

2. GeneratePress

GeneratePress is considered as one of the fastest loading premium WordPress themes as it’s cleanly optimized lightweight theme. It will work with almost every WordPress page builder and also offers you a ton of useful documentation to customize your sites however you want.

How much does it cost?

So how much does GeneratePress cost you?

GeneratePress WordPress theme offers you a free version as well as a premium version with all the features and it costs you just $49.95 for 1 year. You’ll also get a 40% discount from the next year if you’re an existing customer (which is really great).

Premium version of GeneratePress theme features include;

You’ll also get a 30 day money back guarantee with this theme.

All in all, GeneratePress is great for everyone who is looking for affordable themes which is faster and more secure and you are also free to use their Premium version on as many websites as you like, whether they’re for your own sites or your client websites.

Pros:

Cons:

Read: GeneratePress vs Divi: Which is Better?

3. My Theme Shop

If you’re looking for SEO friendly, fastest loading and professional looking premium WordPress themes, you should definitely check out the themes made by ‘My Theme Shop’ which is used by over 600,000 people around the world.

How much does it cost?

MyThemeShop offers you 4 free themes which you can check out from here.

Besides that, premium MyThemeShop membership offers several plans which are listed below.

You can pay for one theme that you want (and the pricing varies from $19 to $35 per year).

It also offers you “unlimited benefits” with 3 plans which are included below.

• License for 1 site where you can get access to over 150 WordPress themes & plugins with priority 24x7x365 support and it costs you $99.47 per year
• License for 3 sites where you can get access to over 150 WordPress themes & plugins with priority 24x7x365 support and it costs you $197 per year
• License for unlimited sites where you can get access to over 150 WordPress themes & plugins with priority 24x7x365 support and it costs you $420 per year

Pros:

It also offers you a 30 days money back policy so you can ask for a refund if you’re not satisfied with their themes or products.

Cons:

Read: Astra WordPress Theme Review 2025: Is It The Best Theme?

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FAQs

Here’s a list of few interesting questions around Genesis and StudioPress themes that you should know about.

Read: 3 Proven Ways to Add Google Analytics to GeneratePress Theme
Read: GeneratePress vs Astra: In-depth Comparison

Final Thoughts

Over 600,000 websites use the Genesis framework on their WordPress sites.

If you’re looking for clean and optimized code, the Genesis theme is just for you. It also has in-built features like SEO friendly design, easily customizable elements, mobile responsiveness, great customer support, etc

If you’re desperately looking to give a unique and appealing look to your WordPress sites, the Genesis framework is a great choice for you.