Kadence vs Greenshift vs Neve
This is a direct comparison between three different themes, with different block builders: Kadence vs Greenshift vs Neve
You may have been in doubt for a while, or have you heard great things about one or more FSE (full site editing) themes and a number of block-builders, such as Kadence Blocks or Greenshift Blocks. This comparison on wpinsight is simple, gives a lot of insight and makes your choice even more difficult, uh, easier. The circumstances of the test are below. The tests themselves are performed with the Google Developer Tool PageSpeed Insight.
- Cache: no, no form of cache
- Optimization: no, no form of optimization
- Other plug-ins active at the time of testing: WooCommerce
- Type of hosting: simple shared hosting
1) Two FSE themes with Greenshift Blocks
We created a basic page, with a header (head H2), an image (JPG 400x600px), an ordinary text block and a simple list.
Neve FSE theme with Greenshift blocks
The Neve FSE theme is described as a fast theme. Editing is indeed fast, but Frontend (which the visitor experiences) was disappointing.
- PageSpeed Insight Mobile: 68
- PageSpeed Insight Desktop: 98
- The score of 98 (out of 100) is beautiful, but Google determines the performance score on mobile, and that was low
- Conclusion: slow theme
Greenshift FSE theme with Greenshift blocks
The Greenshift theme is also described as a fast theme. Not only is editing fast, but also Frontend is superfast.
- PageSpeed Insight Mobile: 95
- PageSpeed Insight Desktop: 100
- A mobile score of 95 is excellent. Everything above 90 is acceptable in my opinion.
- Conclusion: Fast theme.
2) Two FSE thema’s with Kadence blocks
We used the same setup: a basic page, with a header (head H2), an image (JPG 400x600px), an ordinary text block and a simple list.
Neve FSE theme with Kadence blocks
The Neve FSE theme is described as a fast theme. Editing is indeed fast, but Frontend (which the visitor experiences) also really disappointed in combination with the Kadence Blocks.
- PageSpeed Insight Mobile: 79
- PageSpeed Insight Desktop: 98
- The score of 98 (out of 100) is beautiful, but Google determines the performance score on mobile, and that was low
- Conclusion: slow theme
Greenshift FSE theme with Kadence blocks
The Greenshift theme is also described as a fast theme. Not only is editing fast, but also Frontend is superfast.
- PageSpeed Insight Mobile: 97
- PageSpeed Insight Desktop: 100
- A mobile score of 97 is splendid. Everything above 90 is acceptable in my opinion, and it is a score that would make many people very pleased.
- Conclusion: Fast theme.
- Remarkable: the Greenshift theme, in combination with Kadence Blocks, is faster than with their own Greenshift Blocks Builder.
3) Kadence (classic) theme with Kadence blocks
We used the same setup: a basic page, with a header (head H2), an image (JPG 400x600px), an ordinary text block and a simple list.
Kadence theme with Kadence blocks
The Kadence theme is also described as a fast theme. In my opinion, editing is slow (saving a page can take 3-10 seconds), but Frontend (which the visitor experiences) is fast.
- PageSpeed Insight Mobile: 97 PageSpeed Insight
- Desktop: 99 The score of 97 (out of 100) is magnificent.
- Conclusion: superfast.
- To be honest, this was not what we expected. FSE themes are praised for their speed, but Kadence is just as fast as the fastest FSE theme in our tests: Greenshift.
Conclusion
The Neve FSE theme, which we actually had our hope on, was disappointing. The Greenshift FSE theme turned out to be very fast, both with their blocks and Kadence Blocks. What was striking, however, is that the Kadence theme, a classic theme, in combination with their own Kadence Blocks, is just as fast as the Greenshift theme.
And if we test every theme with their own builder, Kadence is even faster than Greenshift. What makes this even more special is that the website of the test with the Kadence theme and Kadence block builder, was heavier loaded with more plugins, so less optimal conditions.
We hope that the promise of Kadence, an entirely new FSE theme, will be realized quickly. We will test that as soon as possible…. But given the results of this test, we have high expectations!
Addendum
- PageSpeed Insight Mobile: 92
- PageSpeed Insight Desktop: 99
- Saving the page in the editor was the fastest of all tests: 0.5 seconds.
This indicates that Divi is on the right track. Divi 5.0 (Alpha) is almost as fast as Greenshift and Kadence and a lot faster than the Greenshift or Kadence Block Builder with the Neve FSE theme. While Divi is not a Native Gutenberg and is still in Alpha…