WordPress X Theme vs Thesis vs Genesis – 2017 Best ?

I have been blogging for almost 10 years now and I have been using all kinds of themes ranging from free themes on blogger to buying frameworks like Thesis Theme or Genesis Theme Framework. I was an ardent fan on Thesis theme for a very long time…due to the non-active development from them I decided to try out Genesis theme and finally once I stumbled upon X WordPress theme. I will try to compare each of them and give my suggestion.  I am not a developer and do NOT have a full time technical person to maintain anything. I try to do minor tweaks here and there and make things moving…

Thesis Theme Gensis Theme WordPressX WordPress Theme

Comparison of X Theme vs Thesis vs. Genesis WordPress Themes

Features / WordPress ThemeThesis  ThemeGenesis X Theme
History, Release Cycles, InnovationThesis is a framework for WordPress and lets you do many things.
There were many versions from 1.x to 2.1.x that was released in 2016.  Has been in market since 2007, quite mature. Not many updates in few years, latest released in 2016
Genesis is also a framework and  has been in market since Thesis days about 2007 or so as well. This is quite mature as well. Updates come up here and there…but nothing ground breakingStarted much later than thesis and Genesis themes, but sold more than both of them in Themeforest. The innovation cycle is amazing….they do a lot of releases…The approach is not like a framework, but has all the features
Ease of Use for basic setupIt is quite easy to setup. Has all the SEO things can be configured quite easily, applying basic theme is quite easy.Same thing with Genesis as well, quite easy to setup, SEO options for home page, each of the pages is available.X theme is also in the same category, nothing specific required and quite easy to setup basics.
CustomizationsCustomizations like changing look and feel can be a little tricky and requires code changes.  some basic customizations like layout sizing, colors can be done easily, but good customizations require code changes.  You need to work with something called Boxes. You can download boxes from other developers and use free or paid onesYou work on the concept of Hooks in Genesis and you will need to get code to do the same.  It is more or less same or even complex than Thesis…Both thesis and genesis fall in the same boat…I had lot of hard time to get things moving as I am not a pure developerX theme is a little different than others. You can do many customizations and look and feel changes a little easier than the other two. If you want to change colors and give some special effects to pages, you can use the options like Cornerstone in X theme, which is quite amazing…This is a huge differentiator. Also, they have out of the box supported extensions that you can use to convert to ecommerce site, etc.
Templates, Child ThemesLess templates, less child themes, only 2 to 3 available. Community has a lot of paid themes and free as well.Decently large amount of templates and child themes…but many have not been updated…community has a lot of free and paid themesX theme has Stacks and quite easy to get different looks. It has a lot of options and each of them can look very different, You will never need to worry about a new version or option of theme…that’s how many options of themes and child themes are in X.
SupportGreat support, you have email support and community support as wellDecent support from the team. I never had to work with the supportGreat support. The forum is amazing and they will help you with anything that is not too much of code customizations. It is quite good.
Value for moneyI would say ok…but not many child themes and no innovationsstill better than Thesis, but less value for money compared to XX is the best value for money. You get a lot in X theme
SEOIt was known for SEO. there was some conflict with Yoast at times..but goodVery good, works well with Yoast tooVery good, works well with Yoast plugin.
Overall  Rating6.5 /107.5/109/10

Overall X Theme beats  Thesis and Genesis by a big factor.

What’s the verdict ?  Which is the Best Theme among three ?

I am not an affiliate or anything of any of the themes. I tried installing and working with all the three in various of my sites..My experience tells me that  X theme is probably the best in the market and you should go for it. The fundamental reason is the number of options you get with X are unlimited. I have been using Thesis theme for over 7 years and waited for 1 year or more always worried about the SEO and if my site will lose SEO if I move from Thesis to X theme…one final day in early part of 2016, a new WordPress update came in and  Thesis theme support was not able to help and it was not working…I was so fed up and I made the bold decision and moved to X theme. I can tell you that’s the best decision. I have bought about 3 more licenses of X and suggested to many. It is just the options available in X are unlimited…the mobile UX is great, the menu is great, there are so many options to customize pages with cornerstone…I can just tell you, there is no reason to even think…just buy X WordPress theme and you will be happy.

How was your experience  with X Theme ?

7 Comments

  1. Going from Atahualpa to… well, that’s the question. I polled my developer friends and I find that most like Genesis, few even know about X. Divi is a winner by far – I don’t need a multi-license product or the infinite possibilities that come to a price (and I don’t need), Avada is a runner up in my polls.

    However, Avada is too similar to Divi (except the price), so I’m going to drop it from my final list.

    Now, between Genesis and X, I’m very much in favor of X (this article just confirmed a decision I’d already made), and now it’s a question of migration – will I have trouble migrating my site from Atahualpa to X?

    I am an ex web-developer, so I do code, but I don’t want to do heavy coding. I would like to do the migration on my own (do I need a sandbox? Ouch!). Any help you can offer for this migration would be greatly appreciated. I didn’t buy the theme yet, but I can test it with a free version.

    Thanks for this article, it was specific and vey helpful!

    Reply
    • I cannot really speak for Atahualpa, but frankly it should not matter. It is another wordpress theme. It should be fine and easy. I actually have not much customization, I write to their help or post on forum and get snippets that I want. We do not really offer any services as such, if you have any question, please ask. I have moved all my sites to X and very happy with it. I have full life time licenses for Genesis and Thesis, but I prefer this over them, just the options are super cool and I do not ever need to look for anything.

      Reply
  2. I was using X in some of my site, but never using Cornerstone, mostly Visual Composer, it’s more easier, but make more query..

    Overall in SEO i much like X, even Genesis not bad too.

    Reply
  3. If I change my Genesis theme to X theme, do you think it will be a hassle? Will I lose any benefits associated with the Genesis framework? I mean, will it cost me any SEO, etc?

    Been using Genesis for about 5 years but debating either a new child theme from Genesis or X theme…

    Reply
    • Matthew,
      I hear you. I have contemplated it for more than year. After I moved to X, I did not see any drop in SEO or rankings. In fact, the UX improved and I like it better, it is more friendly for search also, I feel. I have changed my genesis and Thesis sites to X theme.

      Reply

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