Quick Summary:

If you are building a new site or moving an existing site to our WordPress themes, we recommend you use our newest theme, Kadence.

Kadence Theme is built for the modern era of WordPress. It is lightning-fast with a unique approach to performance. Kadence was built with a deep integration with Gutenberg, but it also fully integrates with popular builders such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy, etc. You can build any kind of site with Kadence Theme. Get started with our site template importer today!

Key Features in our Kadence Theme

  • Lighting-fast lightweight theme
  • Powerful header builder
  • Footer builder
  • Woocommerce-ready with extra features built-in
  • Works with any page builder like Elementor or Beaver Builder
  • LMS plugin support for LearnDash, LifterLMS, and Tutor
Get the Kadence Theme

Our Theme History

Kadence Theme was built in the current era of WordPress, after WordPress version 5 when arguably the largest change to ever take place in WordPress core development was initiated. That was the introduction of the Block Editor and it has ramifications that have affected the entire editing experience on WordPress and will continue to for many years to come. Because of such a radical change in WordPress, we found it necessary to create a theme that could be coded from the ground up with a new structure and new ways of doing things.

Prior to the announcement of the Block Editor, we at Kadence WP had created three themes, each having a premium and free version. These themes are Virtue, Pinnacle, and Ascend. We now refer to these themes as our “classic” themes because they were built in a time when the “classic” editor was how you created content within WordPress. These themes are still used on thousands of sites and we will continue to update and support them and their users for many more years. However, we suggest you use our newest product, Kadence Theme if you are interested in redesigning your site or starting a new site.

Key Similarities in our Classic Themes:

All of our classic themes are highly editable and customizable. They can be used for any type of site.
All of our classic themes work well with Woocommerce for an online store and they come with custom features that extend WooCommerce.
All of our classic themes have the same optional custom post types (staff, testimonial, and portfolio).
All of our classic themes are designed to work well with Page Builder by Siteorigin.

To this end, if you are choosing one of our classic themes we don’t recommend one over another based on what type of site you’re building as all the themes can be used for any type of site.

The main thing to consider when choosing is the style so I strongly encourage viewing and exploring the classic themes demos. While there are some differences in features throughout, the style and feel of the site is the best way to make a great decision if you are choosing one of our classic themes.

*please note that all our themes have several demo sites so check them all out.

Key Differences in our Classic Themes:

Style:

While Looking through the demo sites, take note of the feel and style of each demo. You will see output differences in every section from the way blog posts are displayed to how widgets show in the sidebar.

Key Functionality Differences:

Header:

Ascend theme has the most options for your header and menus including an option to have your header vertical along the side of the page.

Pinnacle theme can have a transparent header (so the page title image appears behind it) and then as you scroll change to have a background. It also has a topbar option. There is not a secondary menu option or options for widget areas in the header. So if you’re looking for a larger, non-sticky header that has lots of content, Pinnacle is probably not your theme.

With Virtue theme, you get more header options than Pinnacle. For example, you can have the menu sit below the logo and you can also have up to three menus in the header (Pinnacle only allows for two). You can also add a widget area into the header next to the logo to add whatever content you like. This isn’t an option in Pinnacle. But you don’t have transparent header options.

Unique to Virtue it has an option to place the slider above the header. See here: http://themes.kadencethemes.com/virtue-premium-4/

Boxed Mode:

Virtue and Ascend have a boxed mode (not possible in Pinnacle) where you can have a background behind your content like this demo:
http://themes.kadencethemes.com/virtue2/

Full Width Portfolio:

Pinnacle has a fullwidth portfolio option (not an option in virtue).  http://themes.kadencethemes.com/pinnacle-premium/our-portfolio/

There are numerous other small differences, and again, most everything comes down to the style of the content. If you still can’t decide, consider our Kadence Membership. For not much more money, you can get access to all of our themes and plugins. Not to mention new content coming out all the time.