Kadence Theme Review 2023: Free and Pro Version – Exactly what you need for a blazing-fast Website

Introduction Kadence Theme Review

Kadence is one of the market’s most popular free WordPress themes. It offers an extensive list of features and allows for high customization. This article will discuss some key features that make Kadence Theme a premium theme and why it might be the right choice for your next project.

I’ll be talking about what makes it so great, some of the features that make it stand out from other themes, and my overall opinion on whether or not this is the right one for you.

The first thing you need to know is that this theme has an extensive list of features. You get many customizable theme options with over 600 Google fonts, unlimited color combinations, many layout options, including full-width pages like blog posts and landing pages, and standard layout templates like portfolio sites or product listing websites.

Kadence Theme has over 30 starter templates full of valuable content to get you started quickly. HTML5 and CSS3 coding make it easy to customize to suit your needs.

A big plus is that it integrates with your favorite plugin and page builder.

• Gutenberg Block
• Elementor
• Beaver Builder
• Woocommerce
• LearnDash
• LifterLMS
• Tutor LMS
• Restrict ContentPro
• bbPress

What Is Kadence WordPress – custom solution ease of use

Kadence Theme is a professional, modern, responsive theme suitable for any website. Kadence is ideal for small business websites as well as large corporate sites. Kadence has been coded in HTML5 and CSS3 and uses the latest WordPress features like meta boxes; it offers much more functionality than many other themes like Astra, Generatepress, Blocksy, and Kalium.

Kadence has been built using the Kadence framework, which allows you to add custom sidebars and widgets with Kadence components easily; these components can be used by the Kadence elements, which integrate into WordPress core.

Easy Installation, no child theme needed

Extra value with friendly Kadence Starter Templates

If you’re looking for a WordPress theme that’s easy to use and comes with a great selection of starter templates, Kadence is an excellent option to consider. With Kadence, you can quickly launch a custom site without having to code anything. There are over 30+ starter templates to choose from, covering many niches. Some are free, and some templates are only available in the Pro (paid) theme. You can select which builder you want to work for each template. Choices are Gutenberg Editor or Elementor.

A unique feature is when you import a starter template Kadence retains your global colors and applies them to the theme. And if you want to customize your text or colors, Kadence makes it easy to do so.

In short, Kadence is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a theme that’s easy to use and comes with a great selection of starter templates.

Kadence theme for Bloggers

Kadence is a beautiful, modern WordPress theme that lets you customize your blog layout just like any other page on your website. Kadence also saves time by updating easily and quickly.

To get started, install and activate the Kadence free Blocks plugin. With Kadence Blocks, you can easily add sections like featured posts, the latest posts in a particular category, or a call-to to action to your homepage. You can also change the layout of your blog posts to be different than your website. The table of contents block is perfect for longer posts.

Kadence Theme is a good fit for your blogging website. It offers many customization options and elements (hooks). Elements is a Pro feature where you can showcase your affiliate products.

Responsive design

Responsive design is a web design technique that allows a website to adapt to the user’s environment. It means that if you are viewing a website on a mobile phone, the website will adjust to fit the phone’s screen size.

The responsive design prevents users from zooming in on content to see it and keeps content aligned perfectly for different screens. Responsive web design uses breakpoints, which are specific points at which a style change should occur based on the device’s capabilities.

As we all know, the internet has changed dramatically in recent years. With the release of smartphones, tablets, and other devices that use different screen sizes, the way we view websites also needs to change.

Fixed positioning is no longer an option – it’s become necessary to use responsive design so that we can view websites properly on any device. All elements on a page must be positioned relative to the device’s screen size to adjust its size and position.

The Kadence Theme is designed to meet all these requirements. From tiny screens to large monitors, you can control the style and customize it differently for desktop, tablet, and mobile.

What Does The Free Version of the Kadence Theme Offer You?

The free version of the Kadence theme offers a simple, clean design that is perfect for creating a professional website. The theme includes a powerful options panel that allows you to customize your site to your heart’s content. You also get access to all the Google Fonts, color palettes, and a responsive design that looks great on all devices.

Kadence offers more choices for design and customization than many free themes. There are many desirable features even in the free version.

Kadence includes many starter templates to choose from so you can start your website immediately. The 30+ Starter templates cover almost all niches. You will find templates for Blogs, Businesses, eCommerce, Learning, and Membership.

Typography

The Kadence Theme provides extensive typography settings that allow you to easily modify your website’s fonts, headings, buttons, links, and more. With the WordPress customizer, you can change the site-wide fonts, colors, and other typography settings. Kadence also allows you to change the fonts on specific pages and posts.

You can use the typography system to create a unique design for your website. If you want complete control over the typography on your website, then Kadence is an excellent theme for you.

Global Colors / Color Palette

Additional Design features and extensive Customization Options

Kadence offers various customization options and design settings so content creators can create the site they want for their business. With Kadence, you have theming colors, typography, and layout changes at your fingertips. The free version allows you to change the look of your website with one click.

Advanced Header Builder / Menu design

The header layout settings panel is a unique feature of Kadence that differentiates it from other free themes using which you can quickly change the look and feel of your site header even if you are a non-coder. Transparent or sticky headers highlight two of the remarkable features.

What are the Premium features only available in Kadence Theme Pro?

Header Pro Addons

Header builders are a great way to quickly and easily create high-quality headers for your site. With access to twenty new header elements, you can customize the position of your logo, search bar, social icons, and site title on any page, giving it a unique and stylish look. You can apply personalized colors to each element with an adjustable color wheel to get the desired shade. Header builders always make sure that your website looks its best!

Conditional Headers Building

Conditional Headers are an incredibly useful feature many content creators have wished for. Instead of having one consistent header across their entire website, they now can have multiple headers customized for each page and content piece. This allows content to be truly tailored to reflect the page or content. It provides a great visual experience, allowing readers or viewers to easily distinguish content without navigating far away from the main page. Rather than having other WordPress themes that struggle with flexible header designs, Conditional Headers provide content creators with an easier way to manage and control their website’s look and feel with much more precision.

Kadence Elements / Hooked Elements

Place blocks and page builder content anywhere, conditionally, and within a timeframe. Hooked elements are set to display on specific dates and times. For example, show a text block with your contact information only during business hours (9 am-5 pm).

Instead of using hooked Elements, Kadence released Kadence Conversions with more options to increase conversion rates. Read my separate article here.

Ultimate Menu

This feature is awesome for website admins who want an easy visitor experience. Curated content is made more accessible when mega sub-menus, highlight tags, and icons are used to draw attention. It allows viewers to quickly identify the content they’re interested in. Having menu links consciously highlighted through this feature makes each visit more likely to be seamless and successful for the viewer.

Fixed Elements

Enjoy design freedom with Kadence. This popular design tool is well-known for its extendable hooks, allowing for page-fixed content that fits any design you have in mind. Whether you’re a professional user or an amateur hobbyist, take advantage of pro features like fixed footers and banners and show-by-device design elements. Take your design to the next level with Kadence and make something truly special!

Header/Footer Scripts

Kadence comes with inbuilt scripts that allow you to place your Javascript files and style sheets in the Kadence header and footer.
Regardless of the theme you install, Kadence scripts will be available to run without hiccups.

Woocommerce Addon (Kadence Full Bundle only)

Kadence is a great theme for Woocommerce shops. It’s easy to use and customize and comes with many features specific to Woocommerce. One of the best things about using the Kadence theme is that it has an addon called Shop Kit. This plugin ensures that Kadence can change and add features specific to Woocommerce products. It’s a fantastic add-on for Woocommerce, which I highly recommend for any Woocommerce shop built with Kadence WP.

Kadence performance and loading speed

Kadence Theme comes with some awesome features, but what about its speed?
The theme is lightweight and quite fast. Kadence does not slow down and provides a remarkable UX. Speed is important nowadays, mainly if you use Kadence for an eCommerce or business site.

You can verify this using Gtmetrix or google page speed tester. Kadence performs well and scores points on both Kadence’s speed and optimization. Kadence theme almost earns 100 or A+ for page load times.

SEO friendliness

With the Kadence theme, the chance to rank well on search engines is intact. The theme enables you to optimize your posts for SEO. The Kadence search engine optimized design provides that Kadence will get top rank in SERPs, though I suppose it depends on how good you are at optimizing Kadence content (images and texts).
Additionally, Kadence supports schema markup, which is helpful for advanced SEO users and completes the SEO loop.

Kadence Theme Pros

• good integration with page builders like Elementor
• well-organized customizer
• load Google fonts locally
• Starter Templates growing library
• Global colors and typography
• Only turn-on features needed

Kadence is also available on WordPress.org and can be downloaded free from your WordPress backend under plugins. The Kadence theme is listed under the most popular themes. It stands out with five stars out of 5 from over 200,000 plus downloads (March 2023).

Kadence Theme Cons

• sometimes not easy to find the option to tweak settings in the customizer
• Some users say overwhelming, too many options
• steep learning curve compared to other WordPress themes
• no white-label options

Support

For support, the Kadence website has thorough documentation that you can use to solve your issues. You can also use the official WordPress forums to ask questions to the theme makers. Kadence also has a dedicated support forum.

I have bought the Full Bundle and when I have an issue, I open a support ticket from the website. You will usually get a reply by email within 24 hours (not on weekends). The answers are top class, with a solution provided even though the question was not written so clearly.

Kadence vs. Astra

Kadence Theme and Astra Theme are great options for WordPress users, but which is the best?

Astra’s page-building tools make it easy to create beautiful websites with just a few clicks. Astra has more starter templates than Kadence. This can be a great advantage if you want to get started quickly without spending time configuring everything yourself.

Here is a short comparison of the two themes:

• Price: Kadence Theme is more affordable than Astra Theme.
• Design: Kadence Theme has a more modern look than Astra Theme.
• Ease of use: Kadence Theme is easier to use than Astra Theme.
• Functionality: Kadence Theme has more features than Astra Theme.

So, which theme is the best? Kadence Theme or Astra Theme? The answer depends on your needs and preferences. If you’re looking for an affordable, modern-looking, and easy-to-use WordPress theme, Kadence Theme is the best option. Astra Theme is the better choice if you’re looking for a theme with more features. Regardless of your chosen theme, Kadence Theme and Astra Theme are great options for WordPress users. So, don’t hesitate to try either one! You can’t go wrong with either Kadence Theme or Astra Theme.

What are some other alternative themes to Kadence?

You can use a few other WordPress themes in place of Kadence. Some popular alternatives include:

• Blocksy Theme
• Elementor Page Builder
• Divi Theme Builder
• Generate Press
• Beaver Builder Theme

Elementor Cloud is an All-in-One package that includes the popular Elementor Pro with hosting.

Kadence Pro Pricing

Kadence provides access to its theme and plugins in several different ways.

• Free Version, download from WordPress
• Buy Kadence Pro

Alternatively, you can buy the Essential Bundle, which includes

• Kadence Theme Pro
• Kadence Blocks Pro
• Pro Starter Templates

and the third option is to purchase the Full Bundle

• Kadence Blocks Pro
• Kadence Theme Pro
• Pro Starter Templates
• Kadence Cloud
• Kadence Conversion
• Child Theme Builder
• Kadence Shop Kit
• Kadence AMP
• will also include all future plugins when available.

I recommend buying the Kadence Full Bundle. It is a perfect bundle for you if you have several websites and a ‘must-have if you have an eCommerce website. The Kadence Shop Kit plugin enriches Woocommerces, and Kadence Conversions (see my separate article) help you increase your conversion rate.

You can go with the Essential Bundle if you have only one website. Kadence Blocks plugin provides you with more Gutenberg Blocks for the designing process.

Kadence Blocks Pro

Kadence Blocks Pro is the perfect complement to the Kadence theme. As for the Theme, there is a Free and Pro version available. Kadence Blocks Pro gives you even more control over the look and feel of your site while still being easy to use. If you’re looking for a way to take your Kadence site to the next level, Kadence Blocks Pro is the way to go. Read my separate article for Kadence Blocks.

FAQ

Conclusion

Kadence is a powerful and responsive WordPress theme that can help you create a site for any business type. With features like SEO, multi-language support, WooCommerce integration, and drag & drop builder customization options, it’s hard to find another with as many capabilities as possible at this price point. If you want your site to stand out from the crowd or need something simple yet effective, Kadence could be the perfect option for your needs! To ensure we are on the same page about what’s possible when using this theme, let us know in the comments below to answer any questions before they arise!