Today we’re doing a review on Blocksy vs Kadence. Blocksy and Kadence are both high-quality themes that you can use to build your WordPress website. In the past, we’ve used Kadence and Bocksy for several of our projects. We found both themes to be really good and you can build almost any type of website you want with either one. But which theme is better, Blocksy or Kadence?
In this post, we will try to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of both themes. Although both of these themes have a free and a pro version, we will still look at the overall features. We will see the installations, starter templates, extensions, customization, page builder, performance, and much more. So let’s start our Blocksy vs Kadence comparison.
Introduction
First let’s get introduced to both the themes. Kadence and Blocksy, both are amazing themes. In terms of features, both are quite similar. But there are certain differences. So before we compare between Blocksy and Kadence, it’s a good idea to have a proper introduction.
Blocksy
Blocksy is a lightweight and modern theme for WordPress. Blocksy was developed by Sergiu Radu and Andrei Glingeanu, two very passionate professionals. They noticed that they weren’t very good-looking WordPress themes at that time. The themes that were modern and stylish were not that fast. That’s when they thought of developing Blocksy, which was lightning-fast but also had a modern design.
In fact, Blocksy is well-known for its performance. It has a 95% Google PageSpeed and a 100% GTmetrix PageSpeed Score. With elegant, modern design combined with speed and performance, Blocksy became a theme that everybody loved and appreciated.
You can also import starter sites with the free version of Blocksy. Although really powerful features are only available on Blocksy Pro. It works great with Gutenberg and is fully responsive. We will take a look at more of its features later on in the article.
Kadence
Kadence is another popular theme for WordPress. With Kadence, you can quickly build your WordPress website. Just install the theme, import a starter template, customize the global color and fonts, and publish your site. Kadence also has a design library that you can use to import ready-made sections. This makes web designing a lot easier.
Much like Blocksy, Kadence is also well known for page speed and performance. All the products of Kadence are constantly optimized for the modern web. Kadence adds several blocks to your Gutenberg page builder that allows you to customize your site easily. If you want to grow your eCommerce site with WooCommerce, Kadence Shop Kit is a great WooCommerce extension to assist you in that case.
Kadence is also associated with LearnDash (both are from the same parent company), and has several LMS themes that you can use if you have a LearnDash site.
Blocksy vs Kadence – Ratings
We also would like to check the total active installations and review for Blocksy vs Kadence on wordpress.org. Ratings aren’t always the best way to determine which product is best for you. You might normally want to use the plugin or theme with the highest active installations and ratings, but that might NOT be the best product for you.
Both Blocksy and Kadence have high active installations and ratings on wordpress.org. When you search for themes from your WordPress dashboard, Blocksy, and Kadence will appear on the top. These two themes are loved by the WordPress community. So now let’s check out which has the highest active installations and reviews on wordpress.org.
Blocksy
Blocksy is a freemium theme that offers users several advanced features to build a modern website with lightning-fast performance. The number of Active Installations is 100,000+ and has a 753 five-star rating at the time of writing this article
Kadence
Kadence is also a freemium theme. It has 200K+ active installation and 180 five-star ratings on the .org directory. Please note: Those stats are as of we published this post.
Customization
Customization is the part where themes mostly differ. This is the part where you change your logo, customize your site color, and typography, change the design, tweak the posting page, change the favicon, and much more. Every theme has a unique way of theme customization. Usually, it is accessed from Appearance> Customization.
Once in the customization menu, you will find several options from where you can customize your WordPress website. Let’s compare the customization options between Blocksy vs Kadence.
Blocksy
Blocksy has a neatly packed customization menu. The menu is divided into sections such as General Options, Post Types, Pages, and Core. Each of these sections contains different menu items that help you customize your site. From the General Options, you can customize the header, footer, and sidebar. You can also change the global typography and colors from here.
You can customize your post page from this menu as well. Another interesting thing to mention about Blocksy is the header builder. This allows you to create your header menu by dragging and dropping elements. The header builder has three rows, the top, middle, and bottom. You can pick up and place elements onto any of the rows. As you work on your header, the live preview will show you how your header looks. This makes your header customization a lot faster.
The same goes for the footer. Blocksy has a footer builder too that you can use to customize your footer. The footer can be built with multiple widgets. You can edit the widgets from the footer menu or from your WordPress dashboard.
If you think the customization menu is a bit confusing for you (which is normal for beginners), Blocksy also has a customization shortcut. Simply click on the Blocksy option on your WordPress dashboard after you install Blocksy and you’ll find the customization shortcut. Now if you want to work on your header, color, blog page, sidebars, etc. you can directly access it from here.
This is a thoughtful addition by Blocksy as many WordPress beginners get confused about the theme customization menu. This makes things a lot easier as the important options are easily accessible.
Kadence
Kadence customization menu isn’t segmented like Blocksy’s but it’s not super complicated either. What we normally see with premium themes is they have a large number of options cramped into the customization menu. That makes the menu a bit overwhelming, especially for those who are new to the WordPress environment.
The first option that you’ll see in the Kadence customization menu is the colors and fonts. These stuff are most likely first customized by many developers right after they import a starter site. If you’re using Kadence with LearnDash, you might see the LearnDash option here as well. You can customize your LearnDash course layout, course archive layout, essay layout, groups layout, and challenge exam layouts from there.
Kadence blocks are also added to your arsenal as you can use these blocks to create the ultimate design you want for your website. You don’t have to worry because all these blocks are fully responsive. Also, Kadence uses the Gutenberg block customization style which makes your life a lot simpler.
Kadence also has a customization shortcut just like Blocksy. So if you’re confused with the full customization menu, you can access the menu from here. To access the shortcut, go to Appearance > Kadence. From here you can access the important part of the customization menu.
Features
When using premium themes, you’ll notice it comes with a handful of features and functionalities. In fact, if you’re using a good theme, initially you might not need to install any extra plugins!
Blocksy and Kadence both come with a ton of features. The developers of both themes thought out what the users might need when they’re working on a website and added several features and extensions to help them out. There are several features of both themes, so we will take a look at the more interesting ones. So let’s compare the features between Blocksy vs Kadence
Blocksy
Blocksy comes with a ton of features. If you’ve read this far, you already have seen some of those features. Once you install Blocksy, you will be prompted with a notice asking you to install the Blocksy Companion plugin. This is a native plugin for Blocksy that will help you immensely so it is recommended that you install it.
Once you install the Blocksy companion plugin, you will be able to access several important options and features. Most importantly you can access the starter sites and extensions. We will discuss the starter sites later but let’s first take a look at the extensions you get from the free version of Blocksy.
- Cookie Consent
- Newsletter Subscribe
- Product Review
- Trending Posts
- Widgets
As you can see, some of the most essential features are available here and that’s the free version. With Blocksy Pro, you will receive advanced features such as Adobe Typekit support, Custom Fonts, Local Google Fonts, Advanced Menu, and much more.
That goes for the extensions, what other features can you expect from Blocksy? Well, here are a few:
- Header and Footer builder
- Form elements
- Social network accounts
- Google Analytics v4
- Scroll to top
- Website frame
- Transparent header
- Export/import customization options
- Reset options
- Lazy load images
We’ve already talked about the header and footer builders. But there are a ton more features just in the customization section. Talking about each one will make this post unnecessarily long so we just stated a few of those.
Kadence
When looking at Kadence’s features, they are quite similar to that of Blocksy. Here are some of these features:
- Kadence Blocks
- Header and footer builders
- Advanced layout options
- Global color palette
- Scroll to top
- Design library
- Sticky header
- Social media links and icons
- Custom post types
- Speed optimization and SEO
Inside the ‘Colors & Fonts’ option you will find the global colors, buttons, and typography. When you customize these settings, changes will take place all over your website.
Starter Templates
As you already know, both of the themes offer a lot of starter templates that you can import with one click. This is really important if you don’t wanna build a website from scratch. As all the sections and blocks are fully responsive and optimized to give the best performance.
When it comes to starter sites, some things are very important:
- The page builder used for the theme
- Are the blocks customizable?
- Is everything responsive and user friendly?
These are some questions that come to mind when importing a starter site. The page builder is very important because if you’re comfortable using Elementor, and suppose the starter site you’re trying to import was built with Gutenberg, you might not be comfortable with it. So before importing make sure that the page builder that was used to build the starter site is to your liking.
Blocksy
First, let’s talk about the starter sites of Blocksy. As soon as you install Blocksy, you will be prompted to install the Blocksy Companion plugin which will help you import your starter sites. Here you’ll find tons of starter sites. Most of these sites are built with Gutenberg and Elementor, which are very popular WordPress page builders.
Some of the themes were also built with Brizy. Simply hovering over a theme will show which page builder was used to create the site. When importing the theme, you can select your preferred theme and the importer will set everything up for you.
There are themes for almost every type of website you might need. For restaurants, portfolios, news blogs, online shops, etc.
Kadence
Kadence also has a large library of starter sites. To access it, simply go to Appearance > Kadence > Starter Sites. Now you can choose the page builder you prefer from the top right corner of the screen and the starter sites that were built with that page builder will be displayed.
Integrations
By integration, we mean how well a plugin or theme works with other plugins. Blocksy works well with many of the popular 3rd part plugins. It also works great with WooCommerce. If you import an eCommerce starter site, you’ll see it’s built with WooCommerce. While Kadence has a good number of integrations as well.
Both these themes are built with almost all the features that you’re going to need to build a standard site. That’s why using a third-party plugin isn’t always necessary. But if you do need to install other plugins, it’s good to know that they support some popular ones. If we compare between Blocksy vs Kadence in terms of integrations, you’ll notice some differences. Let’s check them out.
Blocksy
Blocksy has several extensions that you’ve already seen. For eCommerce, forms, page-builder, etc. you might need to install extra plugins. Blocksy works great with many 3rd party plugins. But we’re going to state those plugins which integrate perfectly with Blocksy. These integrations are:
- Stackable – Gutenberg Blocks
- WooCommerce
- JetEngine
- Toolset
- Getwid – Gutenberg Blocks
- WPML
- HubSpot
- Elementor Page Builder
- WPForms – Contact Form
These plugins can help you build the site you’re looking for. If you want to set up anchor navigation, or translate your webpage, and other functions you can utilize their Blocksy integration tutorials too.
Kadence
Kadence also integrates well with third-party plugins. For eCommerce, Kadence supports WooCommerce. Another interesting thing about Kadence is that it supports some of the major WordPress LMS plugins. So for Kadence, it supports the following major third-party integrations:
- WooCommerce
- LearnDash
- Restrict Content Pro
- LifterLMS
- Tutor LMS
- Elementor Page builder
- GiveWP
- The Events Calendar
The Events Calendar is also a very popular events calendar plugin for WordPress. This makes Kadence a popular choice for many people as it supports so many third-party plugins. Kadence has several native plugins for you. You can check out all the Kadence premium products from the official page.
Support
Even if you’re an avid WordPress developer, sometimes, you might need a little support and a good theme always provides good support for their users. Blocksy and Kadence both have amazing support teams who are ready to support you whenever you need them.
However, for direct support from the official theme support team, you need the premium versions. If you’re using the free version of the theme there are several sources you can take help from. We will take a look at the support of both themes.
Blocksy
Blocksy has a clean and organized documentation that you can read if you need it. There are video tutorials available and a Facebook group too. If you have the premium version you can get email support. So Blocksy provides the following support:
- Knowledge base (Documentation)
- Video tutorials
- Facebook group
- Email support through ticket system
If you read the reviews of Blocksy you’ll find that users are quite satisfied with Blocksy’s support. And so far, we’ve heard only good things about Blocksy’s support team.
Kadence
Kadence also provides support similar to Blocksy. Here are the support system for Kadence.
- Knowledgebase (Documentation)
- Community forums
- Premium tickets to ask questions
- Facebook group
- Video Tutorials
- FAQs
Kadence has well-organized documentation that is easy to navigate and get help. But if you want direct support through tickets, you need the premium version of Kadence. The FAQs and community forums are also a good place to get help from. The Facebook group is also very active so you might wanna check that out too if you’re looking for support.
Kadence support team is also praised by the users. Reading various comments of the users, we’ve come to know that Kadence also has a good support team.
Price
When talking about any WordPress product, price is a major element. While there are several plugins and themes that serve the purpose, there are differences in the price tier. If you’re purchasing a product that has a lower price than its competitors, it might have an issue somewhere. Although most of the plugins and themes on the WordPress repository follow the standard coding so you might not face any major issues.
But premium products always have a standard price. And if you’re purchasing a theme from a popular and reputed company, you know you’ll be getting the best product for your WordPress site. As we’ve stated several times on this post, Blocksy and Kadence are two freemium themes. Therefore you don’t need to worry about the themes having any issues.
Blocksy
Besides the free version, Blocksy has two types of paid licenses, annual and lifetime. If you purchase any annual license, you have to pay a price each year but for lifetime plans, you just have to pay once. Here are the Blocksy Pro price plans.
First, let’s take a look at the annual licenses:
- Personal (for 1 license) – $69/year
- Professional (for 10 licenses) – $99/year
- Agency (unlimited licenses) – $149/year
Now let’s take a look at the lifetime plans:
- Personal (for 1 license) – $199
- Professional (for 10 licenses) – $299
- Agency (unlimited licenses) – $499
Kadence
As we’re writing a Blocksy vs Kadence, it would be unfair if we didn’t compare the prices of both themes. There’s no doubt that these themes are some of the best and most popular WordPress themes. But when it comes to pricing, Kadence is a lot more pricey than Blocksy. Let’s first take a look at the pricing of Kadence.
- Free Forever – Free
- Essential Bundle – $129/first year renews at $149 annually (can be canceled)
- Full Bundle – $199/first year, renews at $219 annually (can be canceled)
There’s also a renewal fee for each of these bundles. For the Essential bundle, the renewal price is $149/year and the Full Bundle plan renews at $219/year.
There’s also a lifetime bundle plan which costs $699. This is a one-time payment and you’ll have all the premium features of Kadence including support.
Conclusion
Blocksy vs Kadence wasn’t that difficult post to write as we don’t say that one theme is better than the other. Both themes are great and offer great flexibility and features which are really good for WordPress novices. When you need advanced features you can purchase the premium version of Blocksy or Kadence and you’re good to go.
Both themes have a large collection of starter templates and give you proper customization features. You can simply import a starter site and customize the global fonts, colors, and buttons, and you have a website ready. It’s just that quick and easy to create a website in WordPress using Blocksy or Kadence.
So both of these themes are great. Although the themes are quite similar, there were some differences that we’ve noticed in the integrations and pricing. So before making a purchase, make sure what’s the feature you really want. If you want to build an LMS website, then its better to go with Kadence as it supports some of the major LMS plugins. But for a standard informative website, Blocksy can fulfil what you want.
So that brings our Blocksy vs Kadence post to a closing. What theme do you use and what’s the best feature of your theme? Let us know in the comment section as we always love to hear from you.
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