Kadence - What's new in our Kadence themes?

If you've used one of our original Genesis WordPress themes, you might be wondering what's different about the newer Kadence versions. Are they the same designs on a new framework? What features have been added? And just how much has changed?

The short answer: A whole lot!

A Whole New Generation of Themes

For years, we built our WordPress themes on the Genesis Framework. As WordPress evolved, we wanted to offer a more modern, flexible, and user-friendly website-building experience. Kadence gave us the tools to do exactly that.

When we made the move to Kadence, we took the opportunity to completely reimagine some of our most popular designs. Rather than simply moving the existing themes to a new framework, we rebuilt them from the ground up, introducing new homepage designs, expanded page templates, hundreds of predesigned blocks, modern features, and significantly more customization options.

While our Kadence themes retain the familiar style and personality of their Genesis predecessors, they're entirely new products, packed with new designs, features, and possibilities.

Learn more about why we made the switch from Genesis to Kadence.

Let's take a closer look at what's new!

Which Themes Were Redesigned for Kadence?

We redesigned eight of our original Premium Themes for Kadence:

We also rebuilt five of our original Simple Themes as part of our new Starter Themes collection:

As of 2026, all of our Genesis themes have been retired. While select themes have been redesigned for Kadence, we do not plan to release Kadence versions of any remaining Genesis themes.

1. Multiple Homepage Designs

One of the biggest changes to our Premium themes is the addition of multiple homepage designs!

Most of our original Genesis themes included one primary homepage design, with limited options for changing the layout. Our redesigned Premium Kadence themes now include multiple homepage options, each with its own layout, content sections, and features.

And here's where it gets even better: you're not limited to using a single homepage design exactly as it appears in the demo.

Love the introduction from Home 1 but prefer the featured posts section from Home 3? You can combine them! Every section can be rearranged, duplicated, removed, or moved between pages using the WordPress Block Editor.

You can also build an entirely custom homepage using the predesigned sections included in your theme's Block Collection.

2. Completely Redesigned Page Templates

The improvements go far beyond the homepage!

In our original Genesis themes, most secondary pages were fairly basic, typically featuring a page title, text, images, and a few styled elements.

With Kadence, we've transformed these simple pages into beautiful, fully designed layouts with multiple sections, custom styling, and features that help you make the most of your website.

For example, let's look at the About page in our Charlotte theme:

  • BEFORE: A traditional two-column layout with text, an image, a styled quote, and a signature. Simple and functional.
  • AFTER: A custom hero section, introductory content, service offerings, fun facts, calls to action, team profiles, a newsletter signup, and more. Quite the difference, right?! Instead of a simple page for introducing yourself, you now have a complete, thoughtfully designed layout that can showcase your business, highlight your services, connect with visitors, and encourage them to take the next step.

And that's just ONE page in ONE theme. 👏

Plus, what's even better: Every section is fully customizable. Unlike Genesis, you aren't limited by code or inflexible widget areas. You can freely rearrange the layout, remove sections you don't need, add new ones, and adjust the design to suit your content.

We've also significantly expanded the number and variety of page templates included with our Premium themes.

Depending on the theme, you'll find predesigned layouts for:

  • About and Contact pages
  • Services and Portfolio pages
  • Sales and Landing pages
  • Newsletter Opt-In and Thank You pages
  • Resources and Favorites pages
  • Affiliate Shops and Product Showcases
  • Category Indexes
  • FAQ and Social Links pages
  • And more!

For example, Charlotte for Kadence includes 16 styled page templates, giving you a whole collection of professionally designed pages to work with.

These aren't just basic page layouts. They're complete designs with thoughtfully arranged sections, beautiful styling, and lots of opportunities to share your content and promote your services.

3. Built-In Block Collections

This might be one of our favorite additions to our Kadence themes!

Every Premium Kadence theme includes its own Block Collection, a library of predesigned sections, layouts, and individual blocks that coordinate beautifully with your theme. The Block Collection is available right inside your Block Editor so you can easily drop in blocks and layouts wherever you need them.

Think of it as having a whole collection of ready-to-use design elements at your fingertips, anytime you need them.

Want to add a testimonial section to your homepage? Create a new Services page? Add a newsletter signup to your About page? Simply insert a predesigned block, replace the demo content with your own, and customize it however you'd like.

Our Block Collections include designs such as:

  • About and introduction sections
  • Featured posts and category layouts
  • Newsletter signup sections
  • Testimonials and reviews
  • Services and pricing layouts
  • Product and affiliate showcases
  • Call-to-action sections
  • Buttons, headings, and decorative elements
  • Complete page layouts
  • And lots more! Some of our Premium themes include over 200 predesigned blocks and sections.

And because everything is built with Kadence Blocks, you can easily adjust the fonts, colors, images, backgrounds, spacing, and layout of each block.

Want even more design options? You can also purchase Block Collections from our other themes to mix and match designs across collections.

4. A Completely New Way to Build & Edit Pages

Our original Genesis themes relied heavily on widget areas and predefined templates, especially for the homepage.

While this worked well for creating a website that matched the demo, making changes to the layout often required custom code or additional plugins.

Kadence changes all of that!

Our Kadence themes use the WordPress Block Editor, giving you a visual, drag-and-drop way to build and customize your pages.

With Kadence, you can:

  • Rearrange sections on any page, including the homepage
  • Copy entire sections or individual blocks between pages
  • Add, remove, or duplicate content whenever you'd like
  • Create custom page layouts without writing code
  • Combine sections from different homepage designs
  • Build new pages using your theme's Block Collection
  • See your changes visually as you edit

For example, if you love a particular section from your About page, you can copy it and add it to your homepage in just a couple clicks.

You're no longer limited to the original demo layouts. You have the freedom to build a website that works for your content and goals.

5. Significantly More Customization Options

Our Genesis themes offered some customization options, but many design elements were controlled by the theme's code.

With Kadence, you have so much more control over your website's appearance, without needing to know HTML, CSS, or PHP.

Here's just a small sample of what you can customize:

  • Fonts & Typography: Change fonts, font sizes, weights, line heights, letter spacing, and more.
  • Colors & Backgrounds: Create your own color palette and customize backgrounds, buttons, links, borders, and individual sections.
  • Headers & Navigation: Rearrange your header layout, change logo placement, customize navigation menus, and configure mobile headers.
  • Footers: Build your own footer layout with customizable columns, content, colors, and spacing.
  • Page Layouts: Adjust content widths, columns, alignment, margins, padding, and individual block settings.
  • Mobile Design: Customize font sizes, spacing, layouts, and visibility settings separately for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

You can keep your website looking close to the original demo or take the design in an entirely different direction. Take a look at how others have customized our themes in so many different, creative ways!

And because these changes are made through the WordPress Customizer and Block Editor, there's no need to edit theme files or modify any code. In fact, you'll never need to edit or interact with code while using Kadence. 🙌

6. New Blog Layouts & Features

We've also introduced new ways to display your blog posts and help visitors explore your content.

Depending on the theme, our Kadence designs include features such as:

  • Multiple blog feed layouts
  • Featured post sliders and carousels
  • Featured category sections
  • Custom category indexes
  • Related posts
  • Author boxes
  • Newsletter signup sections
  • Custom post navigation
  • Shop the Post sections
  • Recipe-related features

Our Premium Kadence themes also include predesigned Blog Blocks that can be inserted directly into individual posts. Click here for an example!

These are perfect for highlighting products, promoting your newsletter, sharing related content, or adding beautiful design elements to your blog posts.

Instead of creating these layouts yourself, you can insert a ready-made design and customize it for your content.

7. More Modern Features Built In

Our Kadence themes also include a wide range of modern features and functionality that weren't available, or weren't as easily customizable, in our original Genesis themes.

Some examples include:

  • Sticky header options
  • Flexible header and footer builders
  • Scroll-to-top buttons
  • Built-in social icons
  • Animation effects
  • Customizable buttons and forms
  • Related posts and author boxes
  • Responsive visibility controls
  • Additional post and archive settings
  • WooCommerce integration

We've also developed special features for individual themes, including custom recipe layouts, unique navigation styles, and additional content display options.

The exact features vary by theme, so be sure to explore the individual demos to see everything included.

8. Better Mobile Customization

Our Genesis themes were mobile responsive, and we've continued to prioritize mobile design in our Kadence themes.

One of the biggest improvements is the ability to customize many design settings independently for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. For example, you can adjust heading sizes, spacing, column layouts, and section visibility for different screen sizes.

We also carefully test our themes across a wide range of devices to make sure the designs look beautiful and function properly on smaller screens.

9. A Modern, Lightweight Framework

Along with all the visual improvements, our Kadence themes are built on a modern WordPress framework designed for performance, flexibility, and compatibility with the Block Editor. Kadence uses lightweight code and includes built-in tools for responsive design, accessibility, and website customization.

Kadence also works beautifully with WooCommerce and other popular WordPress tools, making it a great foundation for a growing website.

And you don't need to purchase Kadence Pro to use our themes! The Kadence features used in our demos work with the free framework and the included theme components.

What About Starter Themes?

In addition to our Premium Themes, we also introduced a brand-new collection of Starter Themes in 2026!

Starter Themes are simpler, blog-focused designs built on the same Kadence framework. They include all of the same customization capabilities, including flexible header and footer settings, blog layout options, and the ability to edit pages using the WordPress Block Editor.

Unlike our Premium Themes, Starter Themes don't include multiple homepage designs or extensive page templates. They're a great option for bloggers who want a beautiful, functional website without all the extras.

Want to learn more? Read our Introducing Starter Themes article for a closer look at the collection and what's included.

Are Our Kadence Themes Completely New?

Yes! While our Kadence themes retain the familiar aesthetic of their original Genesis versions, they've been rebuilt with new designs, expanded functionality, and significantly more customization options. They're not simply compatibility updates or copies of the original themes on a different framework.

We wanted to preserve what customers loved about the original designs while creating something much more flexible, functional, and exciting for today's WordPress websites.

Ready to Make the Switch?

If you're ready to upgrade to Kadence, we'd love to help you get started! Follow our step-by-step guide to switching from Genesis to Kadence, or visit our Kadence Transition Guide for more information about upgrading your theme.