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Thesis Theme Vs Genesis: A Detailed Comparison To Help YouDecideby JaneSheeba

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Even though there are anumber of WordPressf rameworks, Thesis andGenesis are the oneswhich of f er great f eaturesthan any other f ramework.

These f rameworks areef f icient and can be usedf or your extensivepublishing purposes.

As I already mentionedlast week in one of theweekend read seriesposts, I moved some ofmy niche sites and myblogs Jane Sheeba andMerry Relationships toGenesis f ramework (I wasusing Thesis earlier).

The thought of movingProblogging Success toGenesis is still not in myheart. And I don’t intend todo so.

Coz with Thesisf ramework I can make myblog look unique while withGenesis, things are easierto conf igure with child themes. Its a tough decision to make, I know.

That’s why I decided to give these two f rameworks a try to be able to see f or myself how both thesethemes perf orm at various levels. I also wanted to help my readers decide which one should they choose.

Obviously there is no “one-size-f its-all” solution. This post will help you to “see” how both thesef rameworks perf orm at various aspects and you can then choose depending on which aspect you wantmore than the others and which one you can compromise.

This is my ef f ort to put bef ore you the strengths and weaknesses of these two f rameworks. An unbiasedanalysis will help you know the merits and demerits to implement f or your business needs.

By the way, bef ore you dive in, don’t f orget to read my f ull review of Thesis theme.

Similarities

Both are f rameworks.

Both are developed by great developers.

They load f ast.

These f rameworks are used by serious WordPress users who would like to take maximumadvantage f rom SEO implementations.

Importance of select ion of right framework

It is very important to select the most appropriate f ramework f or your blog. You cannot keep on jugglingamong a set of f rameworks as it will cost you much in terms of t ime, money and ef f ort (trust me, I’ve had itall).

When you switch over to a new f ramework, the major impact will be on the revenue earning part, and moreimportantly user experience .

When you change f rom one f ramework to another f ramework you are required to select the appropriatesettings in the new f ramework to get optimum traf f ic results in terms of SEO.

Hence, you should be caref ul enough to select the most appropriate f ramework f or your blog.

Installation

To install the Thesis f ramework, you will need an FTP program plus a set of permissions to install. Thiscannot be achieved through the Dashboard of WordPress. It is important to f ollow the instruction caref ullyotherwise, Thesis f ramework will not be installed properly.

Compared to Thesis Framework, installation of Genesis is very easy. You can f ollow the steps mentionedbelow to achieve the same:

WordPress Dashboard -> Appearance -> Themes -> Install Themes -> Upload

Select the Genesis Z ip f ile.

Follow the same procedure to install the child theme as well (you need to activate the child themeonly, not the Genesis f ramework, if you don’t want the def ault Genesis theme; but you need to havethe Genesis f older in the themes f older of your website in order f or the child theme to be f unctional).

As you can see, installation is very easy with Genesis f ramework.

How fast a f ramework loads

The way a webpage loads in the browser is dif f erent f rom one f ramework to another f ramework. Howeverboth Thesis and Genesis load f aster compared to the other themes. And they are equally competent in thismatter.

In order to load a page on the browser, a number of HTML requests are to be processed. These requestsinclude HTML content, CSS styles, background images, Java scripts, etc.

As the number of style sheets is reduced, the page will load f aster on the browser. There is cut throatcompetit ion between Thesis and Genesis in terms of page load time.

Thesis has a slight edge over Genesis to be precise. Thesis of f ers options to add additional style sheetf or Internet Explorer and the same is not true with Genesis.

Coding and design

Yes you need to know some coding in order to make your blog look prof essional with Thesis. This is amajor downf all, since Thesis itself doesn’t of f er any child theme packages as Genesis does.

A f resh Thesis installation will only give you a white blog – a very simple and a clean slate. Thesis indeedwants you to paint your white board as you want it to be.

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As a result, with Thesis you can make your blog look theway you want – standing out from the crowd of peopleusing the standard themes/skins or child themes.

However you should be prepared to spend some time ormoney on it. You need to either know some codingyourself , or you should hire someone who can do it f oryou. Alternatively you can also opt f or skins (I love theones f rom Thesisawesome).

When I started Problogging Success on Thesis, I knewZERO coding. But with the help of Thesis tutorials available online, I tweaked my website and here – whatyou see now at Problogging Success is designed by me f rom scratch.

On my hubby’s site (we both write on that site, by the way), we use Thesis and the blog skin f romThesisawesome.

So yes you need to be willing to spend some time or money to make your blog look unique and stand outf rom the crowd, if you’re a Thesis user.

On the other hand, if you don’t care about standing out and just want to kick start with blogging, Genesis isa sweet option. With a number of Genesis child themes available, you can simply pick one that suits yourblog and start blogging.

Also if you know a bit of coding you can customize the Genesis child themes as well – like tweaking theheader, f onts, colors etc.

SEO Options

I don’t f ind a big dif f erence between the SEO options provided by Thesis and Genesis. Both thef rameworks of f er great room f or homepage optimization.

And both f rameworks of f er additional custom SEO options f or every post.

The way the theme structures the site is also so elegant f or easy crawling f or search engines, in both thef rameworks.

It is also possible to set 301 redirects f or any post, page or URL.

With both Thesis and Genesis there is no need f or a third party SEO plugin.

In my opinion, I will give Genesis an extra score because it has more options to customize single posts andpages – like the layout, custom body and class, custom redirect, custom canonical, custom tracking code –and all these options are much more easier to implement than with Thesis (some options are not availablewith Thesis).

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Support

No matter what f ramework you select and to which f ramework you hook on, it is essential that you shouldexpect a decent support both at current t imes and in the coming days.

If the f ramework is supported by a good development team, you will get updates at regular intervals of t ime.

Both Thesis and Genesis are backed by a noteworthy bunch of developers.

Even though Genesis is backed by a number of support staf f , it lags behind in attracting enough communitymembers.

On the other hand, communities around Thesis are bustling with activity. You can f ind exhaustive tutorialson Thesis. The same is not true with Genesis. But this could be also because users of Genesis are justhappy with what the child themes of f er.

In addition to the ‘How Tos’, Thesis of f ers detailed documentation on any hook or f ilter.

You can f ind extensive inf ormation on various f acets of the f ramework f rom community members.

Genesis has the advantage of the auto-upgrade f eature which gives the least trouble to users. While withThesis, updating is bit of a PITA. I ref er to the step by step tutorial of upgrading every time; and if I doanything slightly wrong, my site breaks down!

Future

Genesis has great prospects to excel in the coming months. The f ramework has shown tremendous growthin the past six months.

Thesis had shown a consistent track record over the past two years and it is expected that it will growleaps and bounds in the coming months.

Thesis 1.8 which brought revolutionary changes in the f ramework with the inclusion of Google Fonts andWordPress Security API will take it a long way and many WordPress users are going to embrace it.

Good documentation and support f rom community members is a plus point f or Thesis’ growth.

Pricing

The cost of the product is one of the main f actors that decides its success. Genesis is comparativelypriced lesser than Thesis.

Thesis f or personal users costs $87 and developer version costs $164 (developer version is not the clientversion. Developer version allows you to use Thesis on unlimited sites that you own. For client sites youhave to pay extra $40 f or each site).

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Genesis f ramework costs $59.95 and and child theme plusf ramework costs $79.95. Genesis Pro Plus costs $349.95.

Thesis personal option allows you to work on one livewebsite and one local server. Developer ’s option allowsyou to use Thesis on a number of websites owned by asingle user. If a developer is working f or a client website,he/she can pay $40 f or every single client site license.

Genesis f ramework which costs $59.95 can be used to work on unlimited number of websites whether ownor those which belong to a client. Theme plus Genesis Framework allows you to use on unlimited number ofsites whether to own sites or client’s sites.

Proplus packages let you use Genesis Framework plus every child theme developed by StudioPress onunlimited number of sites whether they are owned by you or by clients.

So when it comes to pricing, Genesis clearly is a winner in my book.

Takeaway

Genesis and Thesis are undoubtedly the two big giants in the online world helping people to build beautif uland ef f ective websites. With my personal experience in using both these f rameworks, all I can say is theyare similar at the performance level.

However as a site owner, if you dare not to spend any time and money (apart f rom buying thef ramework+child theme/skin) Genesis should be the option f or you.

Since Genesis doesn’t want you to go through building your site f rom scratch, you have everything inposit ion with Genesis f ramework so that you can simply start blogging.

At the same time, you should be prepared to give up the option to make a unique looking site. SinceGenesis of f ers child themes, unless you spend on a hef ty custom design, your site will look pretty muchlike many other sites that use the same child theme. With Thesis, this is not the case.

So there you have it – now it all depends on what you want. Every person and every business is dif f erent.So what I opt will not suit everyone.

If you know what you want, it should be easy f or you to make a decision f rom the detailed comparison I’vegiven in this post.

I appreciate your comment as always!

Art icle by JaneSheeba

+Jane is the f ounder of Problogging Success. She is an expert blogger, consultant, f reelance writerand blog designer. Don't f orget to get your hands on two FREE Ebooks she of f ers.

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