Kadence vs Avada, we are dealing here with 2 very popular WordPress themes that are sold in very different ways. For starters, Kadence also has a really good free version that Avada doesn’t have. As for the pro versions, Kadence sells through their own site where Avada leaves the sale to an intermediary marketplace. This is where important differences arise, which I will come back to later.
The Kadence Theme
This Kadence Theme Review will quickly show you what to expect from this increasingly popular theme. There are people who think that this is the best current free WordPress theme and I have to say it is certainly up there together with Astra and a few other themes.
Kadence's Rating 5/5
The Kadence theme can be downloaded for free via their own site or via WordPress.org where it is one of the most popular themes with a very high rating. The theme is already above 100,000 active installs. In other words, it is currently installed on more than 100,000 websites. You can see all this data in the images below.
Kadence's Demo Websites
This video shows you exactly how to import a demo website into your WordPress which is a bit different then most themes operate. The video on the right starts exactly where the demos are mentioned. To learn how to import the plugin for this, watch the video from the beginning.
Kadence Theme Review Performance
We are running a Kadence Theme Test on loading speed at GT-Metrix. We use a website with the Kadence Theme with optimized images and the best cache plugin out there, WP-Rocket. This cache plugin already works fine once installed, but in this case we also set it up perfectly to achieve the best possible results. You can see these results below, the theme is amazingly fast.
Kadence's Page Builders
Kadence is a special theme that works very well with the Gutenberg Editor, which is an exception because it is actually not possible to work with it on its own since Gutenberg is still in the testing phase. Kadence does this by using a plug-in they developed themselves called Kadence Blocks. Of course, the theme also works perfectly with the Elementor page builder or any other elite page builder.
Kadence Theme Review Colors
The Kadence theme offers 12 pre-programmed color combinations, which also include feminine websites and Light & Dark Colors. The programming of the colors was carried out by a professional team. Incidentally, it is certainly possible to make personal adjustments to such a color combination.
Kadence Header Editor
The Kadence theme uses a special header editor with which the header can be styled very freely, even by people who do not have technical knowledge such as HTML or PHP knowledge. Many top themes today have this, and the feature is often referred to as Header Builder.
Kadence Compatibility
Apart from compatibility with all top page builders, the Kadence theme is also compatible with plugins that are important to many people. These include The Events Calendar, Learndash, Woocommerce, LifterLMS, and a few more. It allows you to sell products, conduct courses, solicit donations, or lead a forum through your website.
Kadence conclusion
My take on Kadence is that it’s no surprise that its free version has become so popular. Even the free version is already very good, and the pro version takes it even further. Kadence can really be used for all types of website and I can definitely recommend the theme for both beginners and pros. However, there are themes that are even better, such as Astra or Ocean-WP, but more about that in another article.
Let’s continue this Kadence versus Avada Review with the Avada Theme.
The Avada Theme
One thing is for sure, Avada is the best selling theme on the infamous Themeforest marketplace. Unfortunately I have some doubts about the enormous sales figures since I have been advertising it for years but earn practically nothing from it. I have had the theme in my collection for about 8 years now and have very good experiences with it. It will certainly sell well, but the marketplace where they sell their theme is just very dodgy, which can be clearly seen on the reviews on Sitejabber, for example.
Avada Theme Review Ratings
Avada is a popular theme and has a very good rating, on average 4.77 out of 5. However, there are themes such as Divi that score practically 5 out of 5, and there are also themes on the same marketplace that come above 4.9.
Avada's Page Builder
There are several lesser-known but good page builders that have been developed by the builders of themes themselves. For example, the Flatsome Theme has its UX-Builder and Avada in turn has the FusionBuilder. Below you can see the page builder working on a testimonial. Below that a screenshot of the live visual page builder in action.
Avada's Elements
The Avada Theme gives you more than 120 elements (also called widgets). That is a large number, quite a bit more than most themes offer, and then we are talking about other top themes.
Avada Review: Demo Websites
The number of pre-prepared demo websites or starter templates is also quite high. Choose one of the 86 1-click demos to save a lot of time by not having to start your project from scratch. Below in the image you can see how this works, just select a demo and install it. A mebership license is of course required.
Avada Theme Review: Speed
As can be seen below, Avada shows astonishingly good results in a speed test at GtMetrix. Avada offers you a section in the backend where you can set many factors that influence the loading time of your website, the so-called “Performance Wizard”. For optimal speed it is always important to install one of the best cache plugins.
Avada's Form Builder
Avada actually has everything in it so that you don’t have to buy an extra plugin as seen here is a Form Builder with which you can quickly build exactly the forms you need for information requests or call-to-action purposes. The feature already has a large number of prepared forms that you can get up and running very quickly.
Avada Theme Review Conclusion
As mentioned, Avada is packed with features and it is not for nothing that it is one of the best-selling WordPress Themes, and has been for years. I can certainly recommend the theme as long as it is for only 1 website. The theme has a major weakness and that is the platform on which it is sold. This marketplace has a very bad reputation and takes a very high commission. This means that Avada cannot offer special deals, but requires a separate license for each website you have. This, of course, quickly becomes very expensive. Much cheaper alternatives are, for example, Divi and Astra. These are almost even better and you can use them on as many sites as you want.
Kadence vs Avada Conclusion
Kadence and Avada are both very good themes, but they are not really my favorites. Both themes are simply too expensive. Avada requires a $60 license for each separate website, which quickly becomes very expensive. And while Kadence can be used on as many sites as you want, it costs $149 a year. For that price one has the Divi Theme for the rest of his life. A much better theme than Kadence and it comes with many extras.