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Kadence Theme Review & Tutorial (2023) | My Thoughts
There was a time when I focused most of the time on searching for the perfect WordPress theme that could provide fast speed, easy-to-customize options, intuitive, and, best of all.
I’m the type of person who focuses on website design, so most of my time goes to the design part. So, It felt like I was not giving them enough time for the content writing part (Anyone else?)
I have tried most of the fast-loading WordPress themes including the X Theme (by ThemeForest), Neve, OceanWP, Astra, and GeneratePress.
Generatepress was my favorite choice among them until I found the Kadence WordPress theme.
Now, I’ll share my experience with the Kadence WordPress theme and also tell you about the Kadence theme review.
So, moving forward to know more about the Kadence wordpress theme.
What is Kadence Theme
Kadence theme is specially designed for multi-purpose websites which means we can build any type of website with it. From a 4-page portfolio website to a bulky eCommerce website.
The best things about this theme are its speed and versatility. Versatility means we don’t need any bulky page builder like Elementor to customize the website.
Kadence theme has a lot of options to customize it even in its free plan.
Kadence theme is divided into two parts. One is the Kadence theme, and another is Kadence Blocks.
Kadence Blocks make the theme versatile. So that we can use it for almost all purposes.
We will also share the detailed review of Kadence free vs pro later on this article. So, keep reading.
Do you know the best thing that makes me install this theme instantly?
Most of the themes including Generatepress provide attractive premium features but in their paid plan.
But, the Kadence theme provides the same attractive features in their free plan with the Kadence Block plugin.
Is it Amazing :)?
In this Kadence theme review, we’ll also share all the Important points that you have to know before installing the Kadence wordpress theme.
Now before moving to the main section of this Kadence wordpress review article, Let’s see its Speed and performance.
Kadence Theme Real World Performance
Speed Test
No matter which and how many premium features a theme provides for free but if its Loading Speed is slow then there is no point to use that theme.
So, my #1 priority here is its Loading Speed.
As a blogger or wordpress developer, you must be aware that Google’s Core Web Vitals is officially an SEO Ranking factor.
So, at this point, we have to make sure that we use the lightweight wordpress theme that can provide good scores in Google’s Core Web Vitals.
Now, if we talk about the Kadence wordpress theme then its Developers are using the latest technology to power this wordpress theme.
I’ll not only write content to prove this but also share the Picture Proof for the same.
I have tried it on GT Matrix and Google Page Speed Test, Let’s see its result.
Take a look there.
Here is its speed test on GT Matrix
I have installed more than 13 plugins in my website and, still my performance score is 91% with A.
WOW!
It’s amazing, right?
This is the speed test of one of my websites that is using the Kadence theme. You can also get the same website speed and optimization.
Do you know How fast the Kadence Theme is?
On this website, I received a score of 99 in Google page speed Insights on the “mobile” tab.
- Here LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) time was 1.6 seconds.
- Total Blocking Time of 60 MS
- Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.001 seconds which passes all of Google’s Core Web Vitals.
It will increase your chances of ranking higher on Google.
You can also increase your website speed (for better ranking) if you use a better hosting provider than mine.
I’m using the WordPress plan of this amazing HostArmada hosting company. So, you can also try this.
Read HostArmada Hosting review.
But you have to make sure that you are using the optimized version of the Kadence WordPress theme so that you can get the maximum benefits of it.
Here are the Quick Points that you must follow to get the best speed of the Kadence theme –
- Using fast, reliable hosting
- Using an easy-to-customize and lightweight WordPress theme (Kadence Theme)
- Strongly recommended to not use any third-party page builders like Elementor
- Use a caching plugin that makes your website Ultra-Fast (such as WP Rocket)
I hope after applying all these optimizations on your website. You will get to know How fast the Kadence Theme.
Website speed is the top priority, but there are many important points that we need to focus on whenever we are reviewing any WordPress theme.
So, let’s see the Kadence theme performance on the next point.
Load Gravatar Locally
Whenever someone leaves a comment on your website then an image is shown just before the name of the person.
That image directly loads from Gravatar. Image loading is a time taking task for the server.
So, in a situation where you have a lot of comments on your website. Your website might experience slow loading because these images are loading from the external server over which you don’t have any control.
But the Kadence theme provides here an option to host Gravatar images locally.
That means You will save a lot of servers loading time by enabling this feature.
Here is how you can do it under the appearance tab of the Kadence theme.
This option will make your website more optimized.
Performance Optimization Settings
When it comes to website performance, we focus on website hosting, which theme we are using, and no plugins, etc.
But very few focus on how they can make their lightweight theme extra lightweight and beast performance ready.
Kadence theme provides here an option to optimize your full website in a few clicks.
Isn’t Amazing?
And, the best part is, Kadence free version provides this functionality that also makes it unique in the WordPress theme market.
Most of the lightweight WordPress themes provide this Optimization option, but they provide it in their PRO version.
So, your doubt here about Is Kadence Theme fast? Should be solved.
So, our Winner is Kadence Theme here.
Here is how you can do it.
- Go to the customize option under appearance.
- Go to performance settings under the general tab.
Here, you see plenty of options.
Just enable these options and after that, Click on the flush local font files button.
You have done it!
Google Font
I hope you are aware of Google fonts. In most WordPress themes, Google provides whatever fonts we are using.
Again, we are using the external server here so, it makes our website slow. It is one of the best ways to lose google ranking.
So, probably you should use only those wordpress themes that can provide the system’s default font.
System default font means your font will not be loaded by an external server. Your theme host fonts, It will increase the speed of your website.
Kadence WordPress theme provides an option too.
Here is how you can do it in the Kadence theme wordpress review guide.
Under the customization option, Select Typography.
Then choose here, System Default fonts.
It will increase your website; however, it is completely optional for you.
So, these are some important points that can make your website super-fast by optimizing these Kadence performance options.
Now, let’s talk about the Kadence theme features that make it multipurpose with performance and security.
Kadence Theme Features
Kadence theme offers a wide range of features in its pro and free versions, even though they offer some of the premium features for free.
WordPress themes including generatepress offer the same features in their premium version.
Now, I’m going to share some of the best features of the Kadence free theme –
- Header and footer builder
- Sticky and transparent header
- Global color palette
- Extremely intuitive design
- Beautiful SVG social icons (no plugin needed)
- Related posts built-in
- Scroll to top
- Tight integration with Gutenberg and Kadence Blocks
These are some of the features that Kadence theme offers.
I could take more time to explain each feature, but I’ll only share those features which I liked the most in this Kadence WordPress theme review.
Suppose you are using a theme like Generatepress. So, in that WordPress theme you have to install Elementor Pro and (Header and Footer plugin) to build a custom header like this one.
I have used Elementor Pro for this.
But the good thing here is, you can build the same header with the free Kadence theme header builder.
Here is a screenshot of the Kadence free theme header footer builder.
Amazing right??
Certain WordPress themes advertise heavy page builders to do the same task, but if you install Kadence free theme then you can do the same task for FREE.
In the screenshot, you can see there are 3 rows where you can make a custom premium header for free.
Top header row, main header row, and bottom header row.
The top header can be used to show your social icons and some announcement-related things. Main header can be used for a logo menu and a button (or whatever you can put there).
There is also a bottom row, which you can use for some other things like CTA.
You can do all these things with their Drag and Drop page builder.
And guess, all these things come with the Kadence Free version.
You can also build the website Footer with the same Header and Footer builder. In the footer section, you will get 3 rows that you can use to create an attractive Footer.
Now, let’s move to the next feature of this theme.
Kadence Global Color Palette
Kadence Global Color Palette options allow you to set your website color globally.
You don’t have to deal with copying and pasting colors (hex code, HSL, RGB) over and over and over again in certain areas.
You can set your website’s dominant or main color by selecting the first 2 colors.
The next 4 colors can be used for contrast like your strong text, medium text, and border colors, and, the last three colors can be used to set your website background color like white or light gray.
Now. Let’s move to the next feature of this theme.
Kadence Theme WordPress Customizer
Kadence offers a wide range of customization options and that is its + point here. Now, let’s see what these options are.
Suppose you want to create your website header.
So, in other themes you have some confusing options like you have to set the logo from different sections, then you have to put your menu and search icon from the different sections.
But Kadence free theme provides you the easy-to-customize option so that you will get all the Header customization options under the “Header” section in the Kadence theme customizer.
This is not applicable to the header only, but it applies to other sections like the footer also.
You will get all the customization options in one place only.
The best thing here is, each section of your website in the Kadence theme customizer has a design option, which means you can separately design your website section in terms of its background color, font, color, font size, etc.
Kadence Free SVG Social Icons (without any plugin)
This is a simple feature but yet very useful to make your website fast. Most of the themes lack this feature, but the Kadence theme has.
Kadence’s inbuilt feature allows you to use the SVG icons as Social Media icons in your footer or header without installing any extra plugins.
You will notice that most of the lightweight WordPress themes force you to install a plugin to use the SVG icon on your website.
Which will add a large number of codes to your website, again which will impact your website speed.
But Kadence’s free SVG social icons make it really lightweight because it helps you to use free icons without any extra plugins.
Kadence Extra Features
Above are the main features of this theme, but It also has a lot more features that almost every lightweight theme provides.
So, we will not describe them all but list them.
And one amazing thing here is, you get all these features with the Kadence free version that most themes provide in their premium version.
These features are –
- Sticky sidebar
- Scroll to top
- Spacing control for padding and margins
- Multiple navigation menus
- Extra custom WooCommerce options
- Sticky and transparent header
- Typography options for any section of your site
- Three rows for both your header and footer
- Related posts slider at the end of your blog posts
We are finished with Kadence theme-free features. Now, we’ll be moving between Kadence free vs pro.
Kadence Free vs Pro
Kadence’s free version provides unique features that no other WordPress theme provides for free.
So, in this Kadence free vs pro comparison, I’ll tell you what Kadence pro offers apart from its free version.
What features does Kadence Theme Pro offer?
- Element hooks
- WooCommerce add-on
- Custom sticky header
- Advanced header builder add-on
- Conditional Headers
- Mega Menu
- Header/footer scripts
Elementor Hooks
It’s a feature of the Kadence premium version. This feature includes –
- Display at any location
- Targeted Placement
- Show to specific users
- Expiration On Specific Date
- Build Custom 404 Page
- Replace Header / Footer
Suppose you want to create a custom element like this one.
And you want to place this on your website post or page. Not on a single post or page but on each and every page in automation.
So, you can do this thing with Kadence Hook.
You get more than this feature and you can try them all.
WooCommerce add-on & Mega Menu
This Kadence premium add-on will help you if you have an eCommerce website. This add-on will fulfill all your needs regarding mega menu and woocommerce.
Mega Menu will help you to show off all of your website’s pages, categories, services, and much more in an attractive way.
And Guess what?
You don’t have to install any separate plugin for this. This all comes with the Kadence Premium version.
For example, you can create a mega menu with this add-on.
If you want me to create a separate post for “How to use Kadence mega menu” then, please comment below. I’ll be happy to create a dedicated post on this.
Not only limited to Mega Menu, but it also has a lot of extensions for woocommerce.
Let’s say, It helps your user to view your product on the same page, that is Quick View.
It also has AJAX add to cart, a sticky adds to cart banner while you scroll the page.
These are very useful features regarding saving a lot more space and website speed by Not Installing any Single Plugin on these functionalities.
Kadence is definitely going to disrupt the market. So, they will definitely add more and more features in this theme.
So, it will be good to purchase its Lifetime Deal.
Lifetime deal is a money saver deal where you don’t have to renew your subscription each year. You purchase it one time and that’s it.
Custom sticky header
As its name suggests, Kadence sticky headers will help you create a different header when users scroll on your website.
With the Generatepress, this thing was possible with Elementor page builder, but with the Kadence Premium, you can do it without any heavy page builder plugin.
Here is my Generatepress Theme Review.
Advanced header builder add-on
Kadence free version Header builder is good for most of the users, but, if you want to create a more complex website header.
(Let’s say, for eCommerce site or Membership site) then you have to use Kadence premium add-on.
This add-on will help you to create a complex header where you can include elements like an extra divider for HTML/CSS purpose, a CTA, dropdown menu, search bar or any additional button.
Let me list out all the features of Kadence Header Builder Addon –
- Account Icon with Dropdown/Modal
- Search Bar
- Contact Elements
- Widget area
- Toggle with slide-out panel (Widget Area)
- Divider
- Divider2
- Divider3
- HTML2
- Button2
- Navigation3
- Navigation4
Here are some Kadence theme demo sites where you can see what type of header you can build with this feature.
These headers are possible with a page builder plugin but with the Kadence theme pro. You can create these types of headers with ease.
Apart from this Kadence theme review, you want me to create a separate guide on How to customize website header with Kadence theme. Then you can comment below.
I’ll be happy to help you.
Conditional Headers
This is an amazing thing for any creator. This will give a whole new experience to your users.
Also, it was the most demanding feature in the Kadence theme since its release.
So, basically conditional headers allow you to create a custom header for each of your website categories, pages, or posts.
Let’s say you are creating a WooCommerce website, and you want to show different headers for your website categories like Clothing has a different header, Electronics has a different header, and Book category has a different header.
These things are possible with Kadence conditional header.
Mega Menu
I have already described the mega menu add-on with the WooCommerce add-on. So, you can get the Kadence theme here.
I had installed a separate plugin in one of my websites, especially for Header/Footer scripts. That somehow added the extra piece of code to my website.
Which was making my website slow, but thanks to the Kadence premium version.
Now, I don’t need to install any extra plugins for this. They provide this feature within their Kadence Pro version.
Isn’t it awesome?
So, this was the Kadence premium features and a detailed guide on Kadence free vs pro. If you need these functionalities, then go with the Kadence Premium version.
Kadence Theme comparison
Our Kadence wp theme review is incomplete without its comparison with other top performing wordpress themes.
If you are using WordPress for a long time, then you may be aware of Astra and Generatepress themes.
Generatepress was my personal choice until I got to know about the Kadence WordPress theme.
At that time, it was quite difficult for me to select the Kadence theme over the Generatepress theme, although I was using the Generatepress premium with the Elementor Premium.
Also, there are many bloggers and WordPress developers who are using the Astra theme. Which is also a good and reputed theme.
So, I did a comparison between Generatepress vs Kadence and Astra vs Kadence.
In our comparison, you will get to know why Kadence’s free version is the winner among Generatepress and Astra themes.
Generatepress vs Kadence
This will be a quick comparison between Generatepress and Kadence themes where we will be comparing their Free and Paid features along with their pricing.
Features
Header and Footer builder comes with Kadence free version, where you can fully control the design of your header and footer without installing any extra plugins.
If you want to design a custom header and footer in Generatepress you have to install the Elementor plugin for this.
So, installing an extra plugin will impact your website speed.
If you don’t want to learn programming, then Kadence will be a good choice for you as it comes with a lot of free and premium features.
Generatepress lacks some of the features that Kadence provides, so to use those features you may have to use custom HTML/CSS.
For Example –
Kadence provides you with a section design customization. In section design customization, you can design a section of any part of your website with different color options and fonts.
Generatepress does not provide any options or customization like this.
If we solely compare the Generatepress vs Kadence themes, then both will provide the almost equal website loading speed.
But the difference comes when we install any extra plugin for a design or a feature to implement on our website.
Installing an extra plugin will make your website’s loading speed slow.
That is where the Kadence theme comes into the game. It provides a lot of features in its free and premium versions.
So, you don’t need to install any extra plugins for most of the changes and functionalities.
Kadence theme vs Astra
Back in 2017, When I started my first website, I wanted to install the best wordpress theme at that time. So, I searched it on google and found that the Astra theme is one of the best themes.
Astra theme was one of the few wordpress themes which surpass 2,000,000 active installs as non-default wordpress themes.
Now, when we compare the Kadence theme vs Astra. We get some straightforward points that may help you to choose one theme from both of them.
Website Speed
We took a new domain name and tested it for the website speed by installing the Kadence theme and Astra Theme.
And we didn’t install any optimize or cache plugin to increase the website speed performance. We just tested it without any plugin to get its actual speed.
Here is what we get –
Now, By Analyzing the above table, we can see that the website speed of Kadence theme vs Astra themes is almost the same. That is 0.8 Sec.
For the second parameter, which is the Page Size. Kadence free theme is about 50 KB while Astra Free theme is about 43 KB.
Although the page size of the Astra free theme is smaller than the Kadence theme, when you see the free features in both the themes then you will get to know about how the Kadence theme is better than the Astra theme.
Features
Wide range of customization options in Kadence free version which is not present in Astra free version.
Kadence free theme load fonts locally which will speed up your website speed.
Overall, both themes are good, but if we talk about one theme than, you can go with Kadence free version because it provides a lot more features that many themes provide in their premium version.
Kadence Pros vs Cons
Pros
- Easy to customize light weight theme.
- Free version comes with premium features.
- Header and footer builder is available in Free version.
- Affordable pricing for Kadence Premium and membership
Cons
- Starter templates and pre-built library are good but some of their competitors are providing more extensive templates.
Kadence Theme Examples
Now at this point, If you want to know about Kadence Theme Examples then I guess you want to see some advanced websites that are developed with Kadence Theme.
So, I’m listing a few websites that will help you to get a few Kadence sample websites.
You can also go to those websites to see their website speed and customization in real time.
1. Fluent CRM
2. WP Crafter
3. Guru99
These are a few websites that are on the top in our customization list for best Kadence theme examples.
Our website askbloging is also built with the help of Kadence free version. You can also take inspiration from the below screenshot of this website.
In case you want help from me regarding your website designing then you can comment below or contact me.
I’ll be very happy to help you.
Kadence Theme Pricing
For Kadence pricing, the one-line answer is, it is a free theme that you can download on Kadence official website or wordpress theme store.
The best thing about Kadence theme review is, Kadence free version offers few features that most of the themes included in their premium version.
That is the one thing that makes it different and apart from that, Kadence premium version is just a Kadence Pro Theme Addon that costs only $59 per year.
If you are a beginner, then you can go with this plan that is $59 per year. This is the most recommended plan just to have a feel of the Kadence premium version.
But if you want to have a true deal then you can opt for Kadence Bundle Deal.
The starting package of Kadence bundle included –
- Kadence Blocks Pro
- Kadence Theme Pro
- Pro Starter Templates
- Kadence Custom Fonts
Now, Kadence Bundle offers 3 types of pricing –
Essential Bundle: The Kadence Theme Essential Bundle provides users with a comprehensive package of premium WordPress themes and plugins that can be used to create professional-looking websites with advanced functionality and customization options.
With this bundle, users can enhance their website’s design and functionality, improve their online store’s sales and customer experience, and build a strong online presence.
The above listed Kadence Bundles are included in the plan.
The Kadence Essential Bundle costs $129 per year.*
Full Bundle: The Kadence Full Bundle is a complete package of premium WordPress themes and plugins offered by Kadence WP.
It includes everything in the Kadence Theme Essential Bundle, plus additional premium plugins such as the Kadence Cloud, Kadence Conversions, Kadence WooCommerce Shop Kit, Child Theme Builder, Kadence Recaptcha, Access to all plugins.
In the Kadence full bundle, Users can access all current and future Kadence products without any additional fees.
The Kadence Full Bundle costs $199 for the first year.*
Lifetime Full Bundle: The Kadence Lifetime Full Bundle is a one-time payment package of premium WordPress themes and plugins offered by Kadence WP that provides users with lifetime access to all current and future Kadence products.
This bundle is the same as Kadence Full Bundle, but the only difference is, this package is a one-time payment. Then you will get everything with Kadence for the lifetime.
This is the best deal that I prefer to you as it includes every current and future product with one-time payment option.
It cost you about $699 as a one-time payment.
Conclusion - Is the Kadence Theme worth it?
In my opinion, Kadence theme is worth its pricing because of many reasons. I’ll talk about a few important reasons in this Kadence WordPress theme review.
Kadence premium version provides you the Kadence block pro addon which is a page builder plugin that you can use to design your blogpost, Create your website’s homepage etc.
Now, Kadence this addon will eliminate the page builder that you were using on your website for designing pages, posts, etc.
This drastically helps you to speed up your wordpress website as you have uninstalled the heavy page builder, and this will also help you to rank higher in the search engine.
Apart from this, Kadence inbuilt Google reCAPTCHA is very useful in 2023. It will help you to stop spamming on your website.
This will save your time and your website from the spammers.
Now, if you have any doubt (Which might be possible) then you can try its FREE version. You don’t need to pay anything.
I’m damn sure you will love its FREE version as the Kadence free version itself provides premium features for free.
Kadence Theme Review: FAQ
What is the Kadence theme?
Kadence is a wordpress theme that is available in freemium version. This theme is provided by Kadence WP. Kadence wordpress theme is known for its superfast speed and optimization over mobile and desktop.
Is Kadence full bundle worth it?
Depending on your needs, but if you want a full crack deal with a lot of premium useful plugins that helps you to increase website speed, SEO, custom header footer without any extra plugin, etc then you may go with Kadence full bundle.
Is Kadence WordPress theme free?
Kadence theme is available for free on the wordpress theme store as well as on the Kadence official store.
Is Kadence theme fast?
Yes, Kadence theme is known for its performance and speed. Kadence themes provide a lot of options to optimize your website so that your website can be loaded very fast. In our experiment, our sample website got loaded in 0.8 second, which is very fast.
Is Kadence good for WooCommerce?
Kadence theme provides free features for WooCommerce that makes WooCommerce functionality even more customizable. Kadence premium version provides Kadence Shop Kit which adds many more functionality to your WooCommerce website.