From Thesis Framework to StudioPress Genesis Framework

December 13, 2010 - Last Modified: April 1, 2014 by Hesham Zebida 7,007

Before you read this post, I would like you to know it’s not a StudioPress Genesis VS Thesis Theme post, it’s also not a try to compare Thesis Framework to Genesis Framework. This post is a try to answer this question: Should I Switch from Thesis Theme to Genesis Theme? Lucky me, I’ve got the chance to own the developer option for both frameworks or then I won’t be able to actually write this post.

But hey, Why I would need a Framework anyways?!

If you know what you need, and if what you need is to create a unique design for your blog, then you certainly need a WordPress Theme Framework, something that you can work it out from scratch, add your ideas and paint your own dreams blog!

This post will help two kind of bloggers who are trying to make up their minds on which premium WordPress framework to go for, I wrote it for those who do not own Thesis or Genesis, and it’s also for those who are thinking to move from Thesis to Genesis following the steps of the big guys who recently moved from Thesis, however I see it was clearly a business decision that has nothing to do with you!

Anyways, it’s your blog, it’s your money, and it’s your business, so you are the one who make decisions here.

Before you proceed any farther, I would like to point to Brian Gardner‘s post as it’s a must read for those who is trying to find an answer: Genesis is Not Thesis, and Thesis is Not Genesis, I hope you will enjoy like I did.

As you might notice, we are using Thesis Framework and a fully customized thesis skin on FamousBloggers, but I’ve made a new fresh WordPress installation of a sub-domain name to setup a Genesis Framework Demo for you, I wanted to show you how it’s possible to make the switch between WordPress Frameworks and keep the same and exact design elements of your blog.

Probably you are asking yourself what is a WordPress Theme Framework?

A Theme framework is a Theme designed to be a flexible foundation for quicker WordPress development, usually serving as a robust Parent Theme for Child Themes. Some Theme frameworks can also make theme development more accessible, removing the need for programming or design knowledge with options pages.

Source: Theme Frameworks

And What is a Child Theme?

A WordPress child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality of another theme, called the parent theme, and allows you to modify, or add to, the functionality of that parent theme.

Source: Child Themes

But what it takes to switch from Thesis to Genesis?

And is it really worth to make the move? This is what you are about to discover in this exciting blog post and experiment of mine.

Take a look to my Genesis Framework Demo, you will notice how I am able to keep most details of the original design, although there a few missing elements, but this is not an issue, it’s all regarding time, so put in mind that it took me one full day of work to discover the power of Genesis Theme, however I am sure if I give it another day of work I will be able to finalize the design completely to work exactly like FB customized Thesis Skin.

Powered by StudioPress Genesis Framework

Take a look to my Genesis Framework Demo

How I did it?

Alright, if you are wondering how I did it, I am pleased to explain the basic idea. I am going to tell you -in short- how I did it.

The good thing is I own Genesis developer option which allows me to play, so I picked the closet Genesis child theme to make my basic layout as this will reduce the amount of necessary work, then I started to add my touches and make over, basically it’s all about moving Thesis Skin functions to Genesis functions, and also the styles to the theme CSS file, of course it’s not a copy and past process, it’s not that simple, the key here is to tweak or rewrite functions or then it will not work or break your site as each theme has it’s own functions and hooks.

If you don’t know what Hooks are, then find out about it following the WordPress Plugin API page.

The reason I didn’t complete demo to the end is because I didn’t want to waste too much time working on it as it’s just a demo, my goal was to learn how to customize Genesis Theme and to show what I’ve done and what can be done if you are thinking to move from Thesis to Genesis, it’s actually safe, the road is open for you, but you should think for a minute, why actually you would move from Thesis to Genesis?!

Should I move from Thesis to Genesis?

Genesis Theme is really powerful theme framework, you just need to know if it’s the right theme for you. Put in mind that the more customized your Thesis Skin is the more work and time will take to switch between these two frameworks, however this can be done, it’s not impossible! Actually there is nothing impossible in this life, there are only hard to do things!

The thing is I don’t really see it necessary to switch your framework, if you are using Thesis, then you should stick with it and try to get the most out of it, although it’s a good decision for developers who may want to expand their market and target more clients who are welling to pay for Genesis customization, in this case it’s cool idea to buy Genesis developer package and put your hands on their awesome themes.

Decision Time!

Which way to go? I really can not tell you, as I’ve said before, it’s completely up to you because it’s your blog and you are the one who will use Theme Framework! If you want to create a unique blog design for your blog then frameworks is the right way to go, however it really depends on your needs and experience as it takes a little of design and development knowledge to customize a theme!

If you don’t have any experience with design and coding, I mean here you are a non techie guy, you don’t want to spend time learning new stuff, and at the same time you wish to have a highly customized design for your blog with less experience and no bloody coding stuff, then don’t worry! You also can do that, I would recommend Headway Framework, it’s much easier to use, and it’s famous by the drag and drop frame work 🙂

Another options is to hire a designer, this of course will cost you in most of the cases depending on your requirements, we are not talking here about cheap designs, you really don’t need that and I really don’t have to tell you why! Right? I bet you know the importance of design for your blog especially if you are planning it as a business.

There is also another way to design your blog, it can be done by posting a Design Job to our JobBoard, hire someone from our community, we have a few members who know how to design and work with frameworks like Thesis and Genesis, I recommend this option because you are the one who will decide how much depending on your budget and the amount of work needed, then you will be contacted by designers and developers who are interested to do the job.

I put my thoughts together about these two great WordPress frameworks to help you decide which WordPress Theme Framework to go for, and as I’ve stated earlier in this post, I was not trying to compare it’s features, but I wanted to show you what can be done, both are great, both are powerful, so it’s completely up to you go Thesis, Genesis or even Headway!

Tell me!

Tell me about your decision, which Framework you prefer? Why?

Are you thinking to make move from Thesis to Genesis? Why not?!

I hope I presented some useful information for you today!

Disclosure.. This post includes my affiliate links which allow me to earn a commission when a purchase is done through it.

About Hesham Zebida

Follow @hishaman

I create websites with WordPress, and I develop Schema Plugins to help SEOs. I am a social network lover. I am also the night creature who works hard to keep this project up. Owner and founder of the Famous Blog.

{ 124 Responses }

Holly says:

I switched from blogger to wordpress and feel a bit lost when it comes to designing my site. I would love to design myself to save money, but I'm not sure if either Genesis or Thesis would be "user friendly" enough for me. I am definitely NOT a computer savvy person, so I'm just not sure if I can navigate either successfully?
- Hesham Zebida says:
  
  From what I see, many people are using Thesis and Genesis, and they actually a non computer savvy!
Jon Soroko says:

I use both Thesis and Genesis on different blogs. Of the two, I'd make this distinction: if I wanted to put together a site in a couple of hours, without a child theme, I'd use Thesis. Genesis has lots of functionality which starts to show up in child themes. Thesis child themes tend to be more expensive; Genesis themes all cost $24.95, whether in-house by StudioPress or third-party child themes on their store. (But you can buy an all-in-house-themes-in-perpetuity for $349). But - The Catalyst Theme, out of the box, or with their included Dynamik Skin, allows the menu-based control of many more variables. It's really quite brilliant, and I don't think there's a single color, font, or font size that can't be adjusted from the theme menu. Not as many child themes, but perhaps no more than are necessary. Disclosure: I use them all, have affiliate relationships with all (which I don't do much about, and have never collected a commission), and greatly admire Eric Hamm (Catalyst), Brian Gardner (Genesis), and Chris Pearson (Thesis Theme).
Terence says:

I don't use thesis but can't say enough good things about genesis. If you need a theme that you can easily customize, check out the prose child theme.
Barry says:

Hello Hesham Nice review, Hey man i do need some suggestion from you, I am running a blog with videos and images as you can see my link on my info. But now i want something more, and i decided to have this Genesis framework. Its is good, But still i am confused to choose a Child theme. Could you please suggest me any Best Genesis child theme for me ? Looking for your quick reply !
- Hesham Zebida says:
  
  Genesis has many good child themes, the thing is you are the only one who can choose a theme for your blog. Maybe take a look to a few blogs in your niche and get some inspiration!
Trung Nguyen says:

I choose Genesis because I can control this WP framework easier than Thesis. Both of them are great SEO WP themes
Rob says:

I can't speak more highly of Genesis Framework. If you're setting up a blog it can't be beat.
Graham says:

I use Genesis "News" child theme. I was fortunate enough to be starting a new blog, I'd used Joomla for a while but preferred Wordpress, as Joomla doesn't strictly speaking create a blog. I did have one issue with Yoast's SEO plugin with the Genesis theme, even though I really used it because of a recommendation from Yoast. Anyway, I had an issue with duplicate canonical URLs with was causing me issues. However, I moved to the all-in-one SEO plugin and all was well. Graham
Ravi Ahuja says:

I am confuse choosing theme between Thesis and Genesis. It is very difficult for me to choose between these 2 both are great themes. Genesis give good option of child theme.
Haroun Kola says:

I moved recently from Thesis to Genesis too!
Dave Clements says:

I'm a much bigger fan on Genesis. To me, Thesis is much more technically-minded, whereas Genesis is much more design-minded, more aesthetically pleasing and easier to work with.
Ewan Kennedy says:

Hi Hesham, I stumbled across famousbloggers.net for the first time today and found this post which was quite a coincidence. I purchased Genesis Enterprise exactly 7 days after you first wrote this post and it was after weighing up whether to use Thesis or Genesis. I had already bought Thesis and set up a basic standalone blog months earlier. I thought Thesis really was awesome but I'm not a designer and just couldn't find a decent skin (after an extensive search) or source anybody to provide me with one and I couldn't find anyone local to me in the UK who knew anything about Thesis. Genesis provided just what I needed and so I transferred my business site to Genesis (not from Thesis) over the christmas break. It took some work and a steep learning curve but it was problem free and has performed excellently so I could not be more pleased with it. I have no criticisms of Thesis. It's just that Genesis seemed to me to offer the path of least resistance. Cheers, Ewan PS. I tried the link in your post to Brian Gardner's post and it now returns a 404. PPS. I found your site by Google image search and borrowed one of your images (!) for my latest blog post today. I have added a note in the image caption crediting famousbloggers.net. Let me know if it's a problem and I'll remove it. :-)
- Hesham says:
  
  Hi Ewan , Thanks for sharing this and the feedback! I see you've put a nice blog there, really nice work. Maybe consider checking out my Thesis Skins site for future use as I am coming up with really awesome skins :) P.S. Personally, I don't have a problem with bloggers use images from the blog, but most of those are from shutterstock.com, and are copyrighted.
  - Ewan Kennedy says:
    
    Hi Hesham, If I'd found more Thesis skins along the lines of yours at ThesisAwesome.com, I may have taken a different route. Water and bridges as they say. I think what makes both frameworks brilliant is their built in SEO features so either one has the capability of being a winner. As you said, for most people there's no point in switching unless you have a compelling reason. Cheers.
rijans says:

I'm currently using Thesis. But after all seeing this review, I'm thinking to switch to Gensis. Even big professions are using genesis.
John Phung says:

I’ve been using the Thesis theme for a few years. I've also used Headway, but after seeing many high profile bloggers/websites making the switch, I think I’ll purchase the Genesis theme soon.
tracy ingram says:

I will have to check this out, it does seem like a bit of work but like you said nothign more than a day or so. thanks for the info It will help.
Saqib says:

The plus point of Thesis is that its a very big community, plus lots of documentation. I hope Genesis improves on this regard also and they add more documentation.
Andy Bailey says:

I have just come back to this post again and I'm still impressed with what you were able to do with a genesis child theme! I would happily swap one of my fingers to be able to design like you mate. Your creations are art.
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey Andy, I was having a lot of fun playing with Genesis the other day, and man it's really cool to work with different frameworks, each one has something interesting in it, I am thinking of mixing them together LOL!
Bican says:

I tested both Thesis and Genesis Frameworks....My opinion is to remain with Thesis. Why ? Because Thesis has more options, Great options. Genesis ha only a beautiful desing, but Thesis seems more customizable for me. I choose THESIS.
- Hesham says:
  
  mmm.. interesting Bican! Thanks for sharing your opinion!
Shariq says:

I like Swift. I think it is a strong competitor of Thesis.
- Hesham says:
  
  I haven't try Swift Theme, but trust me on this .. There is no free theme created so far that can compete with a premium theme!
chris says:

good write up I am actually still using a free wordpress theme which I like - but I am going to switch to either genesis or thesis. I was going to go with thesis - but then I read this and now im stuck - i have no idea which one to choose! I eventually want to use the same framework for my other domains but change the layout - so Im thinking about genesis - would this be the best route to follow?
- Hesham says:
  
  Hi Chris, my opinion will be.. If you don't want to involve yourself in heavy designing and coding work and still want a different look for each of your blogs, then go with Genesis and make sure to buy the full Pro Plus Package, this will save you a big time!
Rajan Balana says:

I cannot move to genesis framework, due to 2 reasons, one for time consumption(for customizing), second is Money Honey!!!(little bit costly for me). Thanks for such an awesome explanation. I have never read this type of friendly article in my life. Great Job !!! :)
- Hesham says:
  
  My recommendation would be stick with what you have unless these is some big benefit from moving! Never worry about Money Rajan, money is coming one day :) just do the required work! Oh! Thank you so much for your kind words man! awesome!
Jarret says:

Hesham, for those who already have either Thesis or Genesis, probably the only reasonable purpose of changing frameworks would be if the blogger could make more affiliate income with one framework over the other. That being said, for those who don't have either yet, Genesis appears to be a far better option in terms of cost particularly for those who have multiple websites. I've always loved your design work and it's cool to see that you can get the same layout and look with Genesis. For me, I know that Genesis is a great framework, but I don't really like the StudioPress child themes that are currently available. When are you going to launch makegenesisawesome dot com?
- Hesham says:
  
  Hi Jarret, probably this is a way to go, but actually both frameworks can make good sells, it all depends on the way of promotion! I agree on that, Genesis could be a better option if someone is just starting a blog or want to go from free to premium theme. Haha.. I am thinking about it.. but that could take a few months :)
Jan Bear says:

I don't understand the benefit of moving to a pricey premium theme at all, with all the great free and shareware ones available. Aside from being able to say "This blog is powered by Thesis" or whatever, what do you gain from it?
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey Jan, Design is expensive by it's nature, and if you look around you will find that design is a very important element, and it's involved in everything in our lives! So without design .. things will not work good and perform well! Talking about blogs and CMS platforms, in particular WordPress is getting extreme development, more features are added all the time, a lot of this development will require "Theme development" so you can benefit from new features and easily implement them to your blog or website.. Cool?! Ok, let's talk now about professional themes and take this blog FamousBloggers.net as an example, I don't think it's easy to create the same look and feel with all it's elements and features by using a free theme (of at least it will take a lot more work, note that 'work and time' = money), this because Thesis Theme has it's own special Hooks that allowed me to fully customize it to look like the way it is now, you can say that I now have a full control over the blog elements and blocks! This is why I am happy with it, I pay for it because it saves my time and effort, and I got support from Thesis community when ever I have a problem, and I also get free upgrades and updates. So, probably now you understand that using a professional theme is more than just putting a sign says "This blog is powered by Thesis", this link or sign is actually there for a reason, it's a way of marketing as it has my affiliate link, if someone purchase Thesis theme from it this gives me a commission, I am a web designer and a marketer, and Thesis is one of my tools, it help me to work and make my living by designing sites for clients. I am glad you put your thoughts and concerns here, and I hope this explains the picture.
  - Jan Bear says:
    
    It's been a couple of months since I wrote the comment above. In the interim, I learned that Atahualpa was so slow-loading that it was hurting my search engine rankings. I then tried a number of faster free themes and almost landed on Swift, but it just didn't quite make it for me. So when I had a chance to do some installations for a client, I went with Genesis (partly on the basis of your reply above). I felt I could justify the expense by including a professional theme in my blog setup package, and I then customize the theme for each client. My reading of the Thesis terms doesn't allow this -- one way that Thesis and Genesis are not competitors. Genesis is so well organized that I can go in and make fundamental design changes without knowing more than a whisper of PHP. After setting up several sites, I'm finally getting around to redesigning my own. Changing themes is a pain, probably no matter which theme you're changing from or to. Headlines fall differently; pictures need different dimensions; one theme calls for featured image, and another one doesn't. One theme needs plugins that the other includes as part of its basic makeup. All that being said, I'm glad to have gotten into Genesis. Aside from the ease of customization, I like the fact that the SEO options are built into the theme and that theme updates don't affect the design, because they happen to the framework. I just thought I'll tell you that I've come to appreciate the values you mentioned to owning a premium theme, as well as some others I'm still discovering.
    - Hesham says:
      
      " I felt I could justify the expense by including a professional theme in my blog setup package, and I then customize the theme for each client." .. Exactly! I also agree with you that changing themes is a pain, and it's not recommended it could hurt your blog ranking so badly in some cases, this is why a theme framework is the best way to go, even doing changes to child themes or skins will not hurt your blog at all as you keep using the main framework which has and runs the main code! Glad you find your way! I wish you all the good luck Jan , and thank you for this awesome revisit.
Jan Bear says:

I use Atahualpa, a very customizable free theme, and still don't understand why I need to move to one of these rather pricey professional themes when there are so many quality themes for free or donation. I don't mean that as a criticism. I just don't get the benefits.
- Hesham says:
  
  Hi Jan, There is actually a big difference between premium and free theme, the main two benefits is: 1- Support 2- Continues development These 2 important things doesn't not exists in free themes which will end sooner or later as abandoned project by it's authors or creators. I hope this help!
Kimi says:

I still vote for Thesis. I am familiar with Genesis for my client sites and i find the features of Genesis are great too, but i still vote for Thesis, i reckon, Genesis does not have custom files where i can edit them. Oh seen the demo, still like this layout, the demo drop down menus are however too tiny for me.
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey Kimi.. Genesis has Child themes, you can customize the whole theme through creating a child theme files, it has a custom.php that allows you to add hooks and every other code to tell your blog what to do! and of course a style.css file as well! So, basically, this dose the same job but with different concept!
  - Kimi says:
    
    Oh true! I forgot about the child themes. But to me, still customizing Thesis is easier, child theme isnt free for Genesis, isn't it? Thanks.
    - Hesham says:
      
      Yes, it's not free.. and this is why I prefer the Pro plus package
      - Kimi says:
        
        Ok, thanks to clear this up!
        
        Hesham says:
        
        No problem Kimi!
Pumama says:

I hear a lot of bloggers say they want to switch from thesis to genesis.But Genesis is good too.I am thinking more carefully about this
- Hesham says:
  
  I think most of bloggers who thought about the move was regarding Thesis GPL issues, however I think most of them don't know what's the benefit of moving to a fully GPL theme and what this means to their business, in some level there is no actually advantages! I think you don't have to bother your self with that, if you like what you have then stick to it!
Surender says:

I would still be going with thesis, as it is a lot more easier to customize for non-designers like me, as there are currently a lot of tutorials and guides to simplify the process. But as genesis is developing ,I think I would consider as an option as it develops.
- Hesham says:
  
  Most of bloggers says that Genesis is much easier to customize than Thesis, I think you are with Thesis because you are used to it which makes sense!
Sajib says:

This post somehow disappointed me. While I was thinking of some pros and cons of switching to Genesis (that's what we should be thinking before we make the decision, right?), I just found that you wrote if it's easy or hard to make the move. I mean, I was expecting a little in-depth. But personally I like Genesis although I use none of them on my blog. I tried Developer's edition of both frameworks and I preferred Genesis. Thanks for the post, by the way. It includes some resources to head over to. :D
- Hesham says:
  
  As you said, the post include some resources, so I actually don't need to write them again, also the depth can be found in the comments, not necessary in the post body itself :) Also, I don't remember anywhere that I said the move is easy, it's not that easy when you have a heavy customized blog, especially if you want the same exact design as a clone of your old blog design! mmm.. I am just wondering, you have developer option of both frameworks, you like Genesis more, "you use non of them on your blog"... why that?!
Michael Aulia says:

It's hard not to compare Thesis and Genesis on this post (or even when commenting!).. I don't see a reason why we move from Thesis to Genesis unless if someone has a frustration with the Thesis framework and want to try something else :)
- Hesham says:
  
  Actually working with Thesis is a lot of fun, I though I was frustrated , but naahhh :)
Dennis Edell says:

I tend to agree with others; a framework is a framework, isn't it? Unless one has extraordinary features/benefits over another, or you're having issues, I see no reason to switch. I own the Flexx-Squeeze (developer license) and plan to use it on any/all future blogs, whenever that may be, as well as offering services. I thank you though, you've given me an awesome post idea; expect a backlink once it is written. ;-)
- Hesham says:
  
  Exactly Dennis, no reason to switch! Alright , I am waiting :)
Brian L. says:

Both Thesis and Genesis are equally powerful in my opinion. If you are already familiar with either of those, stick to it. On the other hand, if you are a coder who hasn't tried Thesis or Genesis yet, I would suggest going for Genesis due to the 3 reasons below: 1) Genesis' is 100% GPL while Thesis adopts a split GPL license (CSS, JS and images are proprietary) 2) Genesis costs less than half of Thesis' developer option. 3) Genesis has lots of ready-coded child themes with various layouts and functionality.
- Hesham says:
  
  Brian, thank you for the info.. I really appreciate it! It seems that Genesis wins when talking about the GPL and ready coded child themes. I wonder if Thesis 2.0 will have child support feature :)
John Wheeler says:

I use the StudioPress Genesis theme and we LOVE it. We're .Net Programmers from the Land of Microsoft, so we were looking for something where we wouldn't have to write a lot of what I consider, "yucky PHP goo." It was a difficult decision between Genesis and Thesis and in the end Genesis won out because it integrates with BuddyPress. We have not successfully completed a Genesis Buddy installation yet, but in the future our plans are to rely very heavily upon it. I really like StudioPress. It's a very solid development platform, and it's awesome for SEO and enticing traffic from Google. If SEO is your worry, I can completely recommend the Genesis theme. The only small downside with Genesis is that the CSS file is slightly muddled and there is no WYSIWIG capability. So CSS changes can be a little challenging for the techie, and maybe impossible for the technical neophyte. John Wheeler
- Hesham says:
  
  John, alright... I see! Most of my .Net friends hate php for some reason :) Glad you've made good choice for your business! mmm.. there is actually an editor in WordPress itself allows you to edit any file of your theme E.G. CSS files, this will work unless you are talking about a code hi-lighting editor which doesn't exists! Find it under "Appearance>Editor" I hope this will help
Caleb says:

Here's how I see it: Frameworks seems to allow one to actually create their own theme design and allow it to be sold or sponsored thus giving you your own Thesis/Headway to sell yourself! So it would be the option if you plan on going into the theme selling business. But just to have it in action you can always use it to create a totally new blog..you know, kinda playing around with it til you get the full swing of it :idea: Otherwise stick with what you got or use AtomicBlogging theme as it has extreme maneuverability and is far superior to Headway..
- Hesham says:
  
  Caleb, this is exactly what I've done, I am using Thesis theme here because it has a big fan base, it creates a nice business opportunity, this happen when I started to develop Skins for Thesis over ThesisAwesome.com
Kharim says:

Well that would be up to you man :) I'm a Thesis user and I will stick to it for now :)
- Hesham says:
  
  Alright, so you are a Thesis guy then ... Awesome :)
John Soares says:

I have a Thesis developer's license and all my blogs use it. I've had several of the blogs customized by designer and I certainly wouldn't go to the hassle of switching unless there was a very good reason, like perhaps I'd get better SEO with Genesis.
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey John, I agree with you as this makes sense! There is no need to switch unless there is a big benefit, also it's highly recommended to wait for Thesis 2.0, who knows!
  - Caleb says:
    
    Any insights on what's going to be in Thesis 2.0?
    - Hesham says:
      
      Hey Caleb, I actually don't have enough information as there is nothing official about it
    - Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey says:
      
      I am also running Thesis and am pretty happy with the results so far.
      - Hesham says:
        
        I am sure that playing with Thesis Theme will add great experience!
Justin Germino says:

I have seen a lot of big time bloggers transition from Thesis to Genesis including Chris Brogan. I personally looked at using both for DragonBlogger.com and was leaning toward Genesis over its ease to manually customize the php files over Thesis. That being said, I don't know if you were using the SEO optimization in Thesis or a plugin, I don't know if the SEO optimizations transfer from thesis to genesis.
- Hesham says:
  
  Justin, in my opinion when it comes about manual customizations, they both require the same level of work! However... Genesis has more widgets which is not available at Thesis without coding or using plugins, also Genesis support child themes which again Thesis doesn't support it yet! I am using the SEO functions of Thesis, no plugins, and yes Studio Press guys created a plugin to transfer SEO data from several frameworks and plugins to Genesis, they call it The SEO Data Transporter plugin and it can be found in their list of plugins.
  - Justin Germino says:
    
    Thats cool, I know the AIO SEO plugin also has a plugin to transfer your Thesis SEO data into this plugin so you don't have to rely on a themes SEO at all.
    - Hesham says:
      
      Thank you for the info Justin, this actually solve a huge problem.
SmartAboutThings says:

Shouldn't there be a "?" at the end of the title?
- Hesham says:
  
  Shouldn't there be a "Name" in your "Name" field? I don't add the question mark because it's breaking tweets, so it's for a reason! I think it's something related to title encoding , I will fix that as soon as I have a chance! P.S. yesterday I added your name to your comment, today I haven't, next time I will not approve it!
  - RinatisDinoro says:
    
    You mean I should write my name instead of Name field, right? I didn't know it was a rule...Is it?
    - RinatisDinoro says:
      
      And you could show a less agressive attitude. I shall understand if you will give a peaceful feedback :)
      - Hesham says:
        
        What if I retweeted your last post :)
        
        RinatisDinoro says:
        
        Is this blackmailing? :D Sorry for not writing my name, I just didn't think that it was mandatory. Thanks for redressing me p.s - you can retweet it :)
        
        RinatisDinoro says:
        
        If you are serious about retweeting, then retweet the MultiTasking post :) And I shall be your eternal fan :) p.s - i hope this is not treated as flattery
    - Hesham says:
      
      Yes, it's a rule, it's not important to know your keyword, but it's extremely important to me to know who you are! The rule is Your Name @ Your Keyword P.S. You are free to add your keyword after your name followed by "@" as we are using a Keyword Plugin on the blog, but trust me on this.. Using your name only is the best way to go, it will make a lot of difference for you. Have a great day
    - Hesham says:
      
      Haha.. no problem.. it's a nice one :)
      - RinatisDinoro says:
        
        Thanks a lot Hesham! This little chat has conquered my interest and I will be following you! Thank you again :)
  - John Garrett says:
    
    LOL that's too funny, Hesham! Also good to know about those "?" marks. If you pinpoint the specific issue you should definitely write up something about that. Others somewhere are undoubtedly having the same issue.
    - Hesham says:
      
      Yes John, you are right, the problem is I am not sure why this is happening, and usually I write about issues after solving the problem or at least if I understand why it's happening! So, I will try to locate a fix for it as this could help some other bloggers out there who face the same issue. Thanks buddy
Bilal Ahmad says:

I am really bad in CSS, but Thesis Framework help me in owing a smashing and dashing theme. I will never switch from thesis framework, because it is much more powerful then any other framework.
- Hesham says:
  
  Bilal, I will never forget my start with Thesis Theme, it's the only theme that really teaching me how to theme! I think I will keep saying that for ever as it was my first ;)
Kevin says:

I'm so used to Thesis that I'll be sticking with this theme a while longer. But headway themes looks really good! I might use it for my other blog. Looks really easy to use. Thanks for this great post!
- Hesham says:
  
  It's really nice to have Headway in your library for future use! I bought it for that reason! Thank you for stopping by Kevin!
  - Kevin says:
    
    yep I looked into headway further and I really like it. I'll end up buying it soon! I'm also looking at this theme here from thesisawesome. I also like the setup. Ok, I'm wondering how it happened but I was automatically signed up to your email list without me signing up for it. I don't mind being on your newsletter but is that some kind of plugin? I want it for my blog as well :)
    - Hesham says:
      
      If you mean this theme (skin) I am using on FamousBloggers, then actually it can not be sold! However I am developing a similar skin over at ThesisAweomse.com to sell it soon during the coming week or so if you are interested! mmm... You mean it sign up you automatically after you added a comment? I am sure I disabled the automatic signups from that plugin, it shouldn't do that if you are not ticking the check box below the comment!! Anyways, this plugin called Aweber, be careful when you use it, I really think I should remove it if it dos it without ticking the check box, it should work like that!
      - Kevin says:
        
        Right! not this exact theme but there's a similar one. Finally, I just now checked the site and you guys are selling the skins individually which was something I was waiting for. Time for a new skin! :) yeah I guess it signed me up after I left a comment but I don't remember checking any box below. I see the "Sign Up For Our Newsletter" but there's no box next to it for me to check... But that's a useful plugin! I'm definitely trying that right now.
        
        Hesham says:
        
        Yes, I've done changes so we can sell individual skins just two days back! It's weird that you can not see the check button, I actually can see it right now, I will have to check this when I got a chance!
        
        Kevin says:
        
        Ok, I'm using chrome as the main browser and I can't see the box. But when I checked Firefox I could see the box. I hope that helps.
Lennart Heleander says:

Hi Hesham, The only thing I can say is that you should choose the framework you like best and is easiest for you to work with.
- Hesham says:
  
  Then probably this should be Headway for most of people :)
Jayant says:

Thesis is really a great theme and I found this as one of the best theme for SEO with many other features. Studio Press is also a good theme but I will not switch my blog to Studio Press until I get some solid reason to invest more money and my time in other theme.
- Hesham says:
  
  Jayant, this is exactly what I think about it, but I must add that using Genesis on new blogs is a nice thing to do, especially it has child themes which will make your work much more easy and save you a lot of time! I don't know about you, but I have several blogs, and I am creating more new blogs every couple of months, this is why I don't want to stick into one Theme of framework!
Dana says:

Recently, I have my eyes on Genesis since I want to try a framework that good in SEO. This article will be a good resources for my research. Thanks Hesham.
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey Dana, most of WordPress Themes these days have SEO features, so you really don't have to worry about that anymore! Good luck buddy!
John says:

Hey Hesham! I had just bought the Thesis theme for another blog I was starting up, but I did notice the Genesis theme popping up more and more around the blogosphere. I'm glad you wrote this as it gives me an idea of what the differences are and how to achieve a move, if necessary. I'm not switching my new blog but because of this post I will jump into Genesis on the next blog. It won't hurt to diversify and if I have first-hand knowledge about both of the themes I can make better decisions going forward. Thanks for linking to Brian's post, too. That answered a lot of my questions! Onward and upward, my friend!
- Hesham says:
  
  Jumping into Genesis on the next blog could be the best choice, it's where you can learn and find out by yourself the differences between both frameworks! Excellent!
Devesh says:

Hey Hesham, Thesis and genesis both are awesome themes! For now i'm not thinking to change my blog theme but i will try genesis in near future. You really did great work on the genesis demo ;).
- Hesham says:
  
  I was just trying to figure it out and check if I can make the move, now I know I can do it, but the decision is I won't do it till Thesis 2.0 is out, then I will see !
Tinh says:

You touched my heart and I have considered this for a long time and thinking about a designer who can converted my thesis child theme to genesis now. I love GEnesis as it has a big child themes marketplace for use right away and it is fully in compliance with GPL while Thesis is not totally (you remembered the long last debate among Chris and Matt?). I will go for Genesis for sure, just time and it seems loading faster than Thesis too and Darren has convinced me very much in this decision. Wait and see!
- Hesham says:
  
  I've read a Thesis VS Genesis post said no big difference in speed between both frameworks as both achieved a score of 82 out of 100 on YSlow, but probably the point here is Thesis has more CSS files to load while Genesis has only one! Of course, the test was done in a fresh basic installation (without any customization), so it will depend at the end on how heavy is your customization! Also Darren never used Thesis before, so he can not convince me with anything actually, and what I think is he got an offer from Genesis so they can join him to the club some how as he didn't care about redesigning his blog for years, however this is only what I think and I could be wrong.
  - Tinh says:
    
    You might be right Hesham but the other thing that convinced me to switch related much to GPL that Thesis did not comply with, Wordpress is GPL and Thesis must be and I am happy as Geneis is doing and rather happy when Matt Mullenweg recommended wordpress fans to use Genesis rather than Thesis :-) I do also agree with you that loading speed depends too much on how many customizations we have
Lye Kuek Hin says:

Hi Hesham, I recently switched to Headway themes and your mention justify my choice. Heard lots of good things regarding Thesis and Genesis. I didn't purchase because I have no design or coding experience, Thesis or Genesis will become a junk if I purchase it as I will not be able to get the most out of it. The visual editor in Headway just make things easier for a non-techie guy like me.
- Hesham says:
  
  Lye, here you go.. you have made the best choice!
Rick LaPoint says:

Hi Hesham, As you know, I started my site with Thesis. I then gave Headway a try with a second blog on my site, in a separate directory, with the exact same look and feel as my Thesis portion. I then converted my Thesis portion to Headway as well, pretty much in an afternoon. (Regardless of frame work, my site requires custom CSS, PHP, and Hooks. For Hooks, Thesis is much easier if used with an additional plugin, not required by Headway.) Now you have done the very same with Genesis. It just goes to show these are all powerful, flexible frameworks, providing one has the knowledge and skill to fully exploit them. Nice job, on your "clone" site, btw :-) Rick
- Hesham says:
  
  Oh yeah .. it's a nice "Clone" :) Some times working with one framework is the easy way because you don't have to learn how to customize other frameworks, for me Thesis is more easier because I know more about it, that's all! But I am sure if someone dig into Genesis they will find it more easier to deal with in some level. P.S. thank you so much for your last post about the popular blogs, really cool to see my self on the list!
Extreme John says:

I keep going back and forth on this whole Genesis theme thing, I already have Thesis and all though it's nice to customize and make changes with I doubt highly that I use it for all of it's value. I'm not sure I would see myself taking more advantage if I made the switch to Genesis.
- Hesham says:
  
  I agree with you John, this is exactly what I was trying to find out, also if you master a framework it doesn't make sense to waste time learning how to customize another framework unless there is an extreme advantage from switching! I still can not see this clear!
lawmacs says:

Thesis or Genesis good question to me Genesis is much easier to customize than thesis i have both i had a free fully funtional up to date version of Genesis which i played around with before switching to Thesis however i love Thesis but Genesis can be customise in a much shorter time than Thesis.
- Hesham says:
  
  Hey Lawmacs, I actually agree with you, Genesis seems to be more faster when customizing it, but both still need work to really have a unique look and feel blog!
Mani Viswanathan says:

Well its not a big task in moving from one theme to another. But the impact on SEO need to be checked. As far as I know, many probloggers have shifted to Genesis. So maybe it's better in some way, else they wouldn't have really moved to it.
- Hesham says:
  
  Mani, I agree with you only if the blog has a very basic layout, but when it's done for a heavy customized blog like mine, the move can cause a big pain! Almost all those who (from I knew) switched from Thesis to Genesis have are not designers or developers, they actually didn't do the move by themselves, they outsource it! The move from Thesis to Genesis was not because it's better or anything from that, but because other business decisions, I mean it doesn't make any sense to stick with the promotion of only one theme for the rest of your life! So Genesis just another way for them to make money! However, I can not deny the same purpose for me to buy Genesis was making money out of it no doubts! Talking SEO, Genesis came with The SEO Data Transporter plugin which transport all SEO data from several themes including Thesis to Genesis, so it's not a big deal! And by the way, most of probloggers don't care about SEO as it's not a big deal for them anymore! (this is what I think!) So, following probloggers is not always the right decision because what works for them may not work for others!!
  - Mani Viswanathan says:
    
    hmm..yes you are right on that point. So have u made up ur mind of moving or still waiting for more people to chip in their views ? From my side, I would suggest a move to Genesis.
    - Hesham says:
      
      I don't think I will move the blog to Genesis, I will keep using Thesis as I put a lot of development in it already, and there is a lot going, so it's not the best idea for me actually! So, I will be a side with those who are waiting for a big BIG change!
DiTesco says:

Hi Hesham. You already know my answer to that question as I have opted for Thesis theme. I have to admit though that without your help, I would have made it awesome like it is. I purchased Genesis during the "black friday" promotion and I have it there and I don't think that I will switch my current framework to Genesis. I will however play with it on another website. The only drawback that I see on both Thesis and Genesis is that you need to know some coding or you won't be able to customize it as much. Anyway, I saw your demo and there are some "small" differences, but I would say that it is very close to being your original theme. Sound advice my friend
- Hesham says:
  
  Yes DiTesco, we have discussed this earlier together, I am really glad you got Genesis during the offer, it's when I bought is as well, it was a nice chance actually! I agree with you completely, I will use Genesis on coming projects, there is actually no need to make a move for me unless something big comes into it's development! Oh! the differences is probably because I didn't continue the work :)