The Genesis framework is a popular theme framework for WordPress that has been built using clean and efficient code for a fast loading website. When using the Genesis framework, the appearance of your WordPress website can be enhanced and transformed by installing a Genesis child theme alongside the framework.
While Genesis provides the core functionality, its child themes build upon this with custom designs, unique features, and additional customization options. If you’d like to know more about the Genesis framework, then our recent in-depth review is a great resource.
By choosing one of the child themes on this list, you can apply a whole new design to your website, while still making use of the best of what the Genesis framework has to offer.
1. Essence Pro
Essence Pro is a stylish Genesis child theme for websites in the health, wellness, and lifestyles niches.
Thanks to the visually attractive and clutter-free design of this theme, your website should be able to appeal to your target audience without any problems. The default homepage design features a large full-width background display that can be replaced with your choice of photograph or another type of image. The banner text that overlays the image can be used to welcome your visitors to your site, with the option of asking them to join your email list via the optional optin form.
The rest of the homepage layout is set up to display the latest posts from your blog, using the featured image from the article, the title, and a short excerpt. You can also easily display links on the homepage to the key content on your site, again, with each link using the featured image from that page. Publishing inspirational quotes or testimonials from your clients or readers is possible too.
When setting up your site, you’re not limited to just using the default layouts, although, doing so will probably save you time and effort compared to trying to build your own. However, even if you do use the default layout, there are a good range of customization settings and options that allow you to personalize your site so that it matches your branding and stands out from the competition. Through the customizer, you can adjust the colors, change the fonts, and tweak the other display properties of your website. Adding your logo or just using some text in the header area instead of an image is an option too. For more control over the design of your site, Essence Pro includes six widgets areas that can be used to display the core WordPress widgets or any widgets are provided by the active plugins on your site.
Essence Pro looks great in its default mode while also giving you lots of opportunities to personalize your WordPress website.
2. Fearless
Fearless is a high-quality WordPress photography theme that’s powered by the Genesis Framework.
To help captivate your visitors as soon as they arrive at your site, Fearless gives you the opportunity to display your best work on your homepage. By using the full-screen slideshow tool on your homepage, you can automatically display a selection of your most stunning photographs with very little else to distract your visitors.
When your visitors do use the discrete menu to explore the rest of your website, they can then view your photography galleries, read your blog, and visit the other pages that make up your site.
Thanks to the multiple gallery modes available with the Fearless photography theme, you have plenty of options for deciding how your work should be displayed. Whether you choose the masonry grid, filmstrip, mosaic, slideshow, lightbox, or blog-style gallery mode, your photos will look great and your visitors will find it easy to browse your content.
If you want to sell your photos online, Fearless includes an attractive e-commerce mode. By enabling this feature, your visitors can scroll through your work, add items to their cart, and then checkout and make a payment via PayPal.
Fearless also includes a good selection of blog post layouts. These templates should appeal to anyone who wants to blog about their photographs and the other aspects of their work while also attempting to get more traffic to their website through content marketing.
As your visitors browse your online photography galleries, you have the option of displaying a range of widgets at the end of each collection. These widgets can then contain links to your other photo collections, the important pages on your site, and even mini photographic galleries that display more of your work.
The Fearless Genesis child theme from Imagely gives your photographs plenty of room to breathe while also offering multiple options for how your galleries are presented.
3. Magazine
Magazine and its homepage layout does a great job of making it as easy as possible for your visitors to find your best content and see what your site has to offer them.
The selection of colour styles and layout options allow you to customize the appearance of your website when using this Genesis child theme and by using the recommended plugins you can add essential items to your website with ease. These features include social media icons, email newsletter signup forms, and a lot more, all matching the design of the theme for seamless integration.
If you will be publishing great content on a regular basis, the Magazine theme gives you the design you need to help your readers find your best content with ease.
4. Foodie
Foodie is another culinary-focused WordPress theme for the Genesis framework that would work equally well on any website with a strong need for a clean and subtle design.
Whether you are publishing your favourite recipes online, or building your creative portfolio, Foodie has the features and layout options to be flexible enough to present your content in the way you want. The system for filtering your content makes it very easy for your visitors to find exactly what they are looking for, whether that’s your latest kitchen creations or other creative endeavours.
If you are building a food-related website then Foodie is certainly worth taking for a test drive.
5. Mai Delight
Mai Delight is a good match for creating wellness blogs, food and recipe sites, and fitness and lifestyles websites.
Although you can use this theme to create pretty much any type of website with WordPress, if you are working in the health, wellness, and fitness industries, then Mai Delight is definitely worth a closer look. Like some of the other Genesis child themes in this collection, Mai Delight features a bright and lean design that should appeal to a certain demographic.
Despite the clutter-free style of this theme, the default homepage layout definitely isn’t lacking in useful features and element. If you want to set your website up to match the promotional theme demo, you’ll be able to welcome visitors to your site with a large full-width banner image that’s overlaid with text. You can then display the latest posts from your blog in a slider format, complete with their featured images, titles, and a short excerpt. If you want to grow your mailing list, there’s a homepage section that includes space for displaying an inspiring image alongside an email optin form.
The rest of your homepage can include a testimonials slider that shares feedback you’ve received from your audience, some links to your best content, and products from your ecommerce store. As the Mai Delight Genesis child theme is fully ecommerce-ready, if you do want to list physical and digital products for sale on your website, as well as services that your visitors can pay for, this theme is more than up to the task. Importantly, the ecommerce templates look great to ensure that your products and services are nicely presented to potential clients and customers.
With lots of built-in features as well as compatibility with many of the leading WordPress plugins, you can create the website you want with Mai Delight.
6. Business Pro
Business Pro is a WordPress theme that’s ideal for creating websites for service providers.
Whether you’re a solopreneur or you need a website for your company, Business Pro will provide you with a template for promoting your services effectively. The default layout of the Business Pro theme homepage features a large banner section above the fold that’s accompanied by a video background display. Thanks to the way this section has been designed, you can overlay the video background with a welcome message for your audience along with a call-to-action button that, when clicked, takes the visitors to a page of your choice.
If the visitor chooses to scroll down your business website, then the next section they’ll see is the set of icons that can be used to describe you the key features of your business or its unique selling points. Each icon is displayed along with a small piece of text to provide further information to your audience. With this professional Genesis child theme, you can choose from a wide range of responsive icons to ensure your website has the right look and feel.
Another useful aspect of this theme that could help you promote your services and grow your business is the set of portfolio templates. With this selection of pre-built layouts at your disposal, you’ll be able to create projects, upload your work, and display your portfolio content in other ways. There’s also a set of gallery templates in the Business Pro theme package, giving you another way to get your content online. Publishing an online FAQ, creating pricing tables, and listing products for sale on your website are some of the other features that make up this child theme for the Genesis framework.
With a good set of theme options and customization controls, you should be able to create the right website with Business Pro.
7. Academy Pro
Academy Pro is another stylish Genesis child theme with a strong focus on creating a reputable website that your visitors will trust.
Whether you need a website to promote your business and its services or you’re in the process of creating an authority blog, this child theme for the Genesis framework should be on your shortlist. Those launching membership programs and online courses should also find the design and features of this theme useful, especially when it comes to displaying your credentials and the reasons why your audience should consider your content.
To help you win over new visitors, the default homepage layout of Academy Pro features space for a large welcome message and an introductory piece of text, accompanied by a video that can help you share important information with your visitors. Below the main homepage header section is space for displaying the logos of your clients or organizations you’ve worked with, followed by a section for highlighting your key services or the benefits your visitors can enjoy from working with you.
The rest of the Academy Pro homepage layout gives you the ability to publish testimonials and feedback from people you’ve helped, a snippet from your about page, and an email optin form as well as a few other useful elements. Although that describes the default layout of the Academy Pro homepage, if you choose this theme you’ll be free to create your own custom design for the front page of your site and its inner content. Thanks to good support for the WordPress Customizer and a powerful set of theme options, you can modify most aspects of this website without the need to edit any code. The ecommerce support should also come in handy for anyone who wants to sell products and services directly from their WordPress website using this theme.
If you’re looking for a professional Genesis child theme with strong conversion related features, Academy Pro is a good candidate.
8. Corporate Pro
Corporate Pro can be used for creating corporate business websites as well as sites for individuals who are offering their services online.
With a feature rich homepage layout, Corporate Pro certainly gives you lots of options for how the front page of your website will look. As widgets are used to construct the homepage layout, you can easily pick and choose which sections are active on your website when using the Corporate Pro Genesis child theme. You can also drag and drop those widgets into place to change the order that they’re displayed in.
Thanks to the way this theme has been created, you can choose which widgets included in the Corporate Pro package to display on your homepage, such as the full-width homepage slider, the client and company icons section, the icons and text column configuration, a pricing table for comparing your products or services, and a testimonial slider for displaying feedback from your clients and customers.
You’ll also have the ability to display a video player on your homepage, giving you a good opportunity to share a welcome message with your audience. As this theme has a full set of blog templates, you can not only publish your news on your website but also display excerpts from your blog on the homepage of your website. If a strong homepage is a key requirement for your website, Corporate Pro has one of the most well-equipped homepage layouts out of all of the options in this collection of the best Genesis child themes.
As well as the modular approach to the homepage layout that lets you easily customize how this vital part of your website looks, you can also easily personalize the header area by uploading your own logo or instead, simply display a text-based logo.
Thanks to a mobile-responsive design, you don’t have to worry about how your WordPress website will look on smartphones and tablets when using the Corporate Pro child theme.
9. Author Pro
Author Pro is another child theme from StudioPress, the team behind the Genesis framework.
As the name suggests, this premium theme has been built to help authors create a website that showcases their best literary work. Author Pro has all the features you need to display your book covers online, complete with profiles for each piece of work, as well as links for visitors to use in order to make a purchase.
The Author Pro theme also includes a landing page template which can be used to promote the latest work by the author, without any of the traditional distractions found on a WordPress powered website, such as the sidebar, header, and footer areas. Other features of this theme include a fully responsive design, a nice selection of color styles to choose from, and the fast loading times StudioPress Genesis child themes are known for.
This theme comes with all the documentation you need in order to set it up to resemble the demo version and get the most out of your purchase.
10. Authority Pro
Authority Pro has been designed to help you demonstrate your expertise and ability in your chosen field.
If you’re looking for a WordPress theme that will help you land more clients, generate new customers, and grow your profile, Authority Pro could be the best option. The homepage design has a layout that gives you plenty of opportunities to introduce yourself and the ways you can help you audience. With a large image area and a text section above the fold, your visitors can quickly get to know you as soon as they arrive at your site.
Further down the default homepage layout, you’ll find placeholders for listing your partners and previous clients, an area for sharing your most valuable content, and a slider for presenting testimonials and reviews from happy people you’ve worked with. The other homepage sections that you can choose to add to your website include a feed containing your latest blog posts, call to action areas, and newsletter sign up forms. As the Authority Pro Genesis child theme features a widgetized homepage, you can easily rearrange the elements and widgets on your website, as well as choose which ones are displayed or hidden.
Authority Pro has a number of different blog post layouts to ensure your content is published using the most appropriate template. You’ll also find a good selection of templates for the most important pages your website is likely to need, including the about page, the pricing table page, and a landing page layout. Authority Pro has full ecommerce support too, making a it a good option for anyone who wants to carry out online transactions from their website.
Authority Pro is a good business focused Genesis child theme that will help you promote your services and strengthen your personal brand.
11. Monochrome Pro
Monochrome Pro has a sleek and simple design that’s sure to impress your visitors.
Thanks to the two-tone color scheme and choice of elegant fonts, it won’t take you long to launch a visually striking website with this Genesis child theme from StudioPress. If you use Monochrome Pro in its default configuration, your website will have a stylish and feature-rich homepage that includes a large section for welcoming your visitors with some text and a background image, followed by a three-column panel for highlighting your key areas of expertise.
Other sections of the default homepage layout give you the ability to share the logos of clients and companies you’ve worked with, display a preview of the latest posts from your blog, and add a call-to-action bar to encourage your visitors to click through to another page on your site.
While the default homepage template looks great, it can easily be adjusted as well. This Genesis child theme uses widgets to handle the layout of the homepage elements, giving you the ability to drag and drop the available options into place. When adding other pieces of content to your site, you can use the full-width content blocks to display images, videos, and other items that break free of the constraints of the post area. You can also easily insert grid layouts into your posts and pages that display images in attractive new ways.
Like many of the best Genesis child themes, Monochrome Pro comes with a contact page, pricing page, and landing page templates to speed up the process of adding these essential pieces of content to your site. You also get access to a full set of ecommerce templates for adding an online store area to your website.
As Monochrome has a lightweight design, your website should load as quickly as possible if you choose this theme.
12. Wellness Pro
Wellness Pro is undoubtedly aimed at lifestyle bloggers but it should work just as well for other projects.
After checking out the demo website, it’s clear that Wellness Pro, in its default mode at least, should appeal to food, fitness, and lifestyle bloggers. But after checking out the feature list of this theme, it becomes clear that it would also work well for anyone who wants to launch a website with an eye-catching design that does a great job of communicating the values of their brand.
Upon arrival at your site, visitors will see a large full-width image that’s overlaid with a welcome message, complete with a button that can take the visitor to a destination of your choice, such as an about page. Once you’ve set the tone with the content that’s above the fold, as the visitor scrolls down the page, they can see a panel of links to content curated from elsewhere on your site, such as important pages, popular blog posts, or items from your portfolio. As well as the welcome banner that’s displayed at the top of your homepage, Wellness Pro makes it easy to insert additional full-width image displays that are overlaid with text and a call-to-action button. Therefore, if you have an offer you’d like to promote your audience or a piece of content you really want them to check out, this theme has some features you’ll find useful, including a sticky header bar that can be configured to display custom text and links.
Social media users, particularly those active on Instagram, should appreciate the included widget that makes it easy to display the latest photos from your account on your website. You can also use the pre-built contact page to let your visitors send you messages, directly through your website, while the landing page template will be useful for those with products or services to promote.
Wellness Pro has a stylish and modern design that’s combined with a good set of marketing and promotional features.
13. Café Pro
Café Pro is an ideal choice for anyone creating a website for a restaurant or other food related business. This theme has plenty of space to showcase photos of both the dishes being served up and the place of business being promoted.
The pricing table feature that comes with this theme can be put to great use by highlighting any set meal deals or just the best bits from your menu to your visitors. The long form home page layout also makes it easy to provide all the essential information for your visitors, without them having to click through to any other pages.
However, if your visitors do want extra info, they can visit the inner pages of your site. These pages can be styled by using the handful of high quality page templates that come with Café Pro. Other features on offer include a selection of color schemes which can be applied in just a few clicks, a landing page template, and of course, a mobile friendly design for visitors on the go.
If you want to promote your eatery in style, then the modern and stylish Café Pro theme certainly has the looks needed to impress any potential dinners.
14. Refined Pro
Refined Pro has a classic design and style that is ideal for bloggers, service providers, and online vendors.
With good ecommerce support, Refined Pro is suitable for anyone who wants to sell items online and present their products in a clutter-free store. Thanks to the full set of ecommerce templates, you can use this theme to create an online shop or simply add a few products to your blog or another type of site. However, even if you aren’t selling anything, Refined Pro could still be a great choice for your website.
Due to the elegant appearance of this theme, any site created with Refined Pro will appeal to a certain type of visitor. So if you think your target audience will respond favorably to pastel tones and swirling serif fonts, Refined Pro could be the theme for you. However, you don’t have to use this Genesis child theme in its default configuration. Carrying out tasks like changing the fonts and adjusting the colors are easily achieved, thanks to the intuitive interface of the WordPress Customizer. So regardless of your level of WordPress experience, you should be able to make cosmetic changes to your website without much effort at all.
Another nice aspect of this theme is that it comes with an email newsletter signup form that integrates perfectly with the rest of your website. You also get a good amount of control over the navigation menus on your website, thanks to the control panel that lets you easily define what links the menus contain and how they are presented. The library of layouts included in the Refined Pro package should come in handy too, with stylish designs for your blog posts, about page, and a landing page template for promoting offers and opportunities to your audience.
Behind the deceptively simple look of Refined Pro, you’ll find a wealth of useful features and functionalities.
15. Altitude
Altitude Pro provides an attractive template for anyone looking to create a website with a full width background image and welcome message that takes center stage.
The theme also features eye catching parallax scrolling that gives off a faux 3D effect as your visitors work their way down the long form home page layout. Each section that makes up the home page can have its own formatting and background image, helping to break up the content into more manageable chunks of information.
Altitude Pro includes plenty of opportunities to add call to action buttons to your website. This means that if there’s a certain page you want your visitors to reach, or action you’d like them to perform, you can increase your chances of success with some well-placed buttons.
With clean code and a minimal design, using Altitude Pro is a surefire way to ensure that your Genesis powered WordPress website is not only fast loading, but easy to use.
16. Parallax
Parallax combines two of the most popular recent trends in web design and brings them together in one attractive package.
The long vertical scrolling homepage layout and the 3D-effect parallax background images give you the ability to tell the story of your brand, while creating a powerful first impression your visitors won’t forget.
When your visitors do click through to the inner pages of your website, the distraction-free page layouts give your content the space it needs to make a connection with your readers.
The whole ethos of the Parallax child theme is focused on building a relationship with your audience and then directing them to the point of contact. This makes it a great choice for those in search of an effective lead generation platform.
17. Infinity Pro
Infinity Pro is a stylish and modern Genesis child theme for creating business websites with WordPress.
Infinity Pro features an elegant design that aims to help you elevate your brand above the competition. The default homepage layout includes space for a large full-screen image above the fold, complete with a text area and a call to action button.
As your visitors scroll down the homepage of this business WordPress theme, you can display the mission statement of your brand. If your audience wants to find out more at this point, they can click the button to visit a page of your choice. Other homepage sections you can make use of include another opportunity to display a full-width image with a text slogan, a feature table that can be used to highlight your key services or best attributes, followed by a section to display team member profiles and pictures, before finishing off with the widget-ready footer area.
However, as the Infinity Pro Genesis child theme is a flexible option you can easily customize the default homepage layout to better meet your needs. Other pre-built layouts included in the Infinity Pro theme package include an author page template for your blog, blog posts and category page templates, and a contact page design. If you’re planning to generate leads from your WordPress website, the landing page and lead generation page templates are sure to come in handy.
Infinity Pro is also fully ecommerce ready with all the page templates your WooCommerce-powered online store will need.
18. Modern Studio
Modern Studio can help you create a website to promote your studio and the work you’ve produced.
The clean and minimal design gives your content plenty of room to breathe. Whether you’re sharing your thoughts on the blog or publishing new pieces in your portfolio, Modern Studio offers little in the way of distractions.
Like other Genesis child themes from StudioPress, Modern Studio doesn’t overwhelm you with features and options. Instead, you can quickly launch your website by importing the optional sample content and then personalizing your site through the WordPress Customizer. Again, options are kept to a minimum when it comes to customizing your website. You can choose from a few color and typography settings to ensure your site has the right look without straying too far from the default configuration of this theme.
Each time you publish a new piece of content on your site, you can choose from three different layout options, including a full-width template. You’ll also find a landing page template that is ideal for promoting a product or service, an author page for displaying your profile, and a contact page template. Modern Studio includes a sticky header area that can be used to discretely display an important message to your visitors at all times.
Thanks to the custom widgets, you can easily display a newsletter subscription form in your site’s sidebar area, as well as your user profile, links to your social media profiles, photos from your Instagram feed, and a list of your most recent blog posts.
Modern Studio has the refined style that will help give your website a professional look and feel.
19. Daily Dish
Daily Dish has been created primarily for anyone who wants a clean and fresh design for their food-related website. However, if the design appeals to you then there is no reason why you can’t use this Genesis child theme from StudioPress for your non-food blog.
With many widget areas incorporated into the theme templates, including one right before the website header area, you get plenty of opportunities to insert dynamic elements in and around your content, including email sign up forms. There are also a number of different page templates to make use of, including author and landing page templates, helping you to give your website that professional look.
Daily Dish gives you plenty of white space and room to really let your content stand out on the page.
20. Metro
Metro gives you the ability to easily add an eye-catching, full screen background image to your blog, without overpowering your content. By combining this effect with the use of blocks of colour, it’s easy to create a striking design for your website.
When using Metro, the homepage of your website can be arranged in a number of different configurations. This is thanks to the use of widget areas that allow you to drag and drop different widgets into place. Whether you want to display your latest posts, content from specific categories, or other widget elements that are active on your site, it’s not a problem with this theme.
If you want to publish your content in widescreen mode, then Metro and its spacious layout could be just the theme you are looking for.
21. Lifestyle
Lifestyle is another fresh and light WordPress theme from the StudioPress team. As the name might suggest, this theme would lend itself well to a health or lifestyle blog. However, thanks to the muted and understated design, it’s a flexible design that can be used for many types of website.
The six subtle colour schemes and theme options control panel make it very easy to switch the look of your website without the need to look at any code.
As is the case with the best child themes for the Genesis framework, Lifestyle is fully responsive to cater to your mobile readers on the go.
22. Executive
Executive has been built to showcase the services and skills you have to offer potential clients and customers.
With a strong homepage layout that makes it easy to put your best work front and centre, Executive also contains lots of useful features that should help encourage your visitors to take the next step and get in touch via the stylish contact page.
For those seeking a corporate and professional identity for their website, Executive ticks all the right boxes.
23. News
News adds two main navigation menus to the top half of your website, making it easier than ever for your visitors to find more of your latest and greatest content.
The homepage slider also goes a great job of letting your readers quickly access some of your most recent posts, giving you another way to increase the chances of your visitors taking the time to get to know you and your website better.
With five colour styles to choose from and six layout options on offer, you get plenty of opportunity to build the website you need with the News child theme.
If you want to publish your content in serious and professional surroundings, then the News theme was built just for you.
24. Jessica
Jessica is an ecommerce Genesis child theme for building an online store with WordPress.
This theme is actually compatible with three of the top online store builder plugins for WordPress: WooCommerce, iThemes Exchange, and WP e-Commerce, giving you three options for adding ecommerce functionality to your website.
Jessica includes the pre-styled store templates for each of those plugins, allowing you to get the design right for your store. Other useful page templates include subscriber signup forms, sizing tables, and contact form pages.
While the homepage layout looks great right out of the box, thanks to the use of widget areas it can easily be modified and configured to meet your needs. The package also includes the Photoshop PSD files allowing you to edit the design to further personalize it.
If you are new to WordPress then you will appreciate the integrated instructional videos from WP101. These videos will walk you through all the features of this online publishing platform to help you get your website up and running in no time at all.
