Kadence - Why upgrade from Genesis to Kadence?

Thinking about upgrading from a Genesis theme to a Kadence theme?

Over the last couple years, we've been hard at work converting our older Genesis themes to Kadence, a powerful WordPress theme framework made for today’s websites. Kadence is easier to use, more flexible, and packed with modern tools that make customizing your site SO simple and fun. We are big fans of Kadence around here and we know you'll love it too!

As Genesis reaches end of life, now is the perfect time to make the switch. Let’s dive into why so many people are making the jump to Kadence:

1. Drag & Drop Page Building

No more inflexible widget areas and code! Our Kadence themes use the WordPress Block Editor for every page, making it incredibly easy to build beautiful layouts and customize them. Unlike Genesis, which relies heavily on widgets and PHP templates, Kadence gives you a fully visual, drag-and-drop experience.

2. Fully Customizable

Kadence is an incredibly powerful framework that gives you complete control of your website. You can easily:

  • Customize the fonts
  • Choose your own colors
  • Customize the header, navigation, and footer structure
  • Freely rearrange sections on any page, or move sections between pages
  • Create your own custom sections using Kadence Blocks + the included Block Collection
  • Fine tune margins, padding, borders, font sizes, letter spacing, and line height
  • Adjust mobile styles separately from desktop and use built-in visibility controls to show or hide sections on mobile
  • And lots more — all without any coding. It’s as flexible as it gets!

3. Modern Features Built-In

Sticky headers, contact forms, scroll-to-top buttons, animation effects, author box, related posts, a large library of social icons... and that’s just the beginning. All the modern touches you’d expect are built right into Kadence, no extra plugins required.

4. Faster, Leaner Code

Kadence is incredibly lightweight, which means faster load times for your visitors and better SEO performance. If your Genesis theme has started to feel clunky or outdated, Kadence is a breath of fresh air! And don't just take our word for it... check out WP Rocket's article on the fastest WordPress frameworks.

5. Better Mobile Experience

With Kadence, your site won't just work on mobile — it will look and feel amazing. Kadence offers built-in mobile design controls so you can tailor font sizes, spacing, and layout specifically for phones and tablets. That means a polished, seamless experience for every visitor, on every device.

6. Seamless WooCommerce Integration

Planning to open a shop or already have one? Kadence makes it easy to create a beautiful, user-friendly shopping experience. You can customize product grids, tweak the checkout flow, and style every part of your store through the Theme Customizer.

7. Foolproof Demo Content Setup

Setting up your website has seriously never been easier. Our Kadence themes include a one-click demo import feature, so you can get your site looking like the demo in just minutes. It's faster, simpler, and more intuitive than the Genesis setup process.

8. Easy Migration

Switching from Genesis to Kadence is super easy! Our step-by-step guide walks you through the entire process. You can keep your existing content, and with just a bit of setup time, your new Kadence site will be up and running. Check out the migration guide.

9. The 17th Avenue Touch

Kadence is powerful on its own, but paired with a 17th Avenue theme? That’s where the magic really happens. ✨ We bring in thoughtful, feminine design, purposeful layouts, and top-notch support to help you create a website that’s both stunning and strategic.

And the best part: our Kadence relaunches aren't just a simple direct port from Genesis. We’re taking the opportunity to reimagine and elevate every theme with brand new homepage designs, refreshed and new page templates, and TONS of new features. Each theme relaunch is a completely new theme, rebuilt from the ground up for the modern web.

If you’re wondering whether a 17th Avenue theme is right for you, this guide is a great place to start!

Ready to Upgrade?

Each time we release a Kadence version of one of our Genesis themes, we offer a special upgrade discount for one year. If you originally purchased the Genesis version of a theme, you may be eligible! Visit our Kadence Transition Guide for details, or send us a quick message and we’ll be happy to help.