Both Neve and the Kadence Theme are great themes. They both load very fast, work perfectly with both Elementor and Woocommerce. We test them extensively here and see what the differences are between these 2 popular themes. We start this Neve vs Kadence comparison with the Neve theme which doesn’t mean it would be better.
The Neve Theme
In this Neve Theme Review, let’s see if this theme is really as multi- functional as its builders claim. The theme should be lightning fast, suitable for blogs, corporate websites and webshops. Like many other well-selling themes, Neve has built up a name as a popular free theme to start with.
Neve's Rating 4.8/5
The Neve theme has built up an impressive rating on WordPress.org as shown in the image below. In addition to the rating figures, you can see a few comments from users, the opinions about this theme are on average very good.
Neve Review Starter Sites
Neve is full of starter sites, also called demo websites that can be installed with 1 click. As is the case with Astra, Neve offers starter sites specially made for the various top page builders. In this way, everyone is catered for with designs for his favorite page builder from which he can start his project. These are features that we have to give full marks for, beautiful!
Neve Theme's loading Speed
Websites today need to load quickly to attract visitors and to get good results in Google’s search results. Below you can see a test where I tested Neve. The test was performed after installing WP-Rocket, the best cache plugin out there for WordPress, and with optimized images. The test was done at GtMetrix.
Neve Theme Review: Woocommerce
Neve is a multipurpose theme but is less than a little specialized in the field of webshops. There are many features that make an online store look really professional. In addition, there are many settings to adjust product pages, check out et cetera. There are also several layouts provided for these types of pages that you can choose from.
Neve Footer & Header Builder
The Neve theme has a fantastic system for styling your header and footer down to the last detail. Also very nice is the incredibly extensive documentation that Neve provides not only for the Header Builder but for all the features we covered in this Neve Theme Review. You can find the documentation by clicking on “Docs” in the main menu under “Support”.
Neve Extra Information
There is so much more to tell about Neve. For example, the theme has an Elementor Booster, a Blog Booster, Flipcards as shown below and a large number of other features. I want to keep this Neve review short and to the point, but if it piqued your interest, just continue reading on their own website.
Neve Theme Review Conclusion
The Neve Theme has several impressive features including the beautiful demo layouts that are already prepared for the different page builders. The many features for web shops also immediately catch the eye. There is also the complete series of boosters (plugins) that make it a great theme. Neve deserves its top rating and is definitely recommended for building any type of website.
Let’s continue this Neve versus Kadence Review with the Kadence Theme.
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.
Neve vs Kadence Conclusion
From the Neve vs Kadence comparison comes the following result for me. In the first place, both themes can be called very good. The Neve theme offers a wider variety of demos and also more page builders. The theme has been around longer than Kadence and is just a bit more developed. In addition, Kadence is more expensive to purchase per license, so my choice here falls on the Neve Theme.