Which free WordPress theme works best with Gutenberg instead of Kadence?
Right now we are using Kadence, but the free version feels a bit overloaded and not very convenient for building simple pages.
What is important for us:
- good compatibility with Gutenberg
- ability to create clean pages without buying a Pro version
- lightweight and fast
At the moment I’m considering:
- Blocksy
- Astra
- GeneratePress
In the future we plan to move to a theme from WPManageNinja, but for now we’re looking for a good temporary option.
Would appreciate hearing your experience – which theme would you recommend?
Who is using FluentCommunity without the /portal slug?
Have you experienced any performance issues during high traffic spikes?
And overall, how is your site performing?
Artur Abakarov I am using FC without /portal.
My FC is my main domain, honestly I haven't experienced performance issue, I'm using shared hosting on it as well.
I believe performance of a site depends on the hosting company, the company hosting your FC.
WiLson Eberechi Have you managed to style your 404 page to look like FCom?
Artur Abakarov I don't have a 404 page. What do you want with 404 page, isn't it the page that displays page not found? If a link is mismatched
WiLson Eberechi This page will return the user to the base theme and will be out of place with fcom overall style. I was wondering how you solved this.
Artur Abakarov I have never thought about 404 page until now. I will look into it. 404 only shows when link is mismatched. But I will look into 404 and see how it shows
Artur Abakarov you are right, the 404 goes back to the base theme instead of FC theme
Artur Abakarov why not just redirect 404 back to the default home or fcom Portal?
Sophia S It doesn't seem like it's very good for SEO, but I could be wrong.
My preference is Astra. I use both the free and pro depending on the site. I also pair it with Spectra.
I have moved to GeneratePress (Free Version). The others Blocksy, Astra and Kadence were all not suitable for my entire suite of tools, and were a bit clunky, bloated etc. - I use the entire fluent suite, Directorist, AI engine and a bunch of other plugins for various other smaller requirements. GeneratePress has been the easiest to work with to date, super fast, and clean👌
I have rebranded and am in the process of redeveloping my website, here is one of the pages I set up in under an hour yesterday: https://staging.herpershavenqld.com/australian-reptile-industry-ethos/
I have some loading to fix with the menu/header, and most of the links/buttons are non-functional at this stage.
Blocksy +1
I've been using GeneratePress for years and it works great.
For lightweight themes with excellent Gutenburg compatability I’d currently look at Ollie or GeneratePress. Those are very good & very capable but also very different from each other - and I’d pick between them based largely on personal preference.
I use Full Site Editor as in default themes and modify. This means default theme of Twenty Twenty Five or Four. I have also used Blocksy. It is so much about the preferences one has. Explore and see how you feel about the different themes.