Genesis vs Thesis vs Self Designed Framework

Hi Joel,

Great question and one that is probably an endless discussion depending on your opinion :p

My opinion is at the early stages of learning WordPress to NOT use a framework. I say this knowing full well the power and benefits of working with a framework, but put quite simply, I think frameworks are too complicated for a beginner.

My other issue with them is that they can often change quite a lot how a theme is built and how customizing the site works. I believe it's better you get to know WordPress on it's own before adding in the framework.

While frameworks can be nice for site editors and admins, they're really meant for developers building themes. I would also recommend not moving into building a theme with a framework until you have built one or two on your own or customized a few prebuilt themes.

Those are just my two cents on the matter. Hope it helps!

All that said, I like how Genesis uses child themes as their method of customization. However, the I like the Thesis Loop API and I think they're documentation is better. Personally, I really don't like a lot of the design related options panels that frameworks add, since I would rather just customize the site directly from the CSS and template files.

I hear good things about both. You might also want to checkout Standard Theme, it's a framework too. http://standardtheme.com

A lot of my developer friends (and non-dev friends too) highly recommend the Standard theme.

As far as pros and cons, it really depends on what you value. The different frameworks all have their strengths and weaknesses. The benefit to creating one from scratch is that you can get it to behave exactly as you want. But many of the premium frameworks are configurable to do whatever you want.

My recommendation: Buy a premium framework if you want to build a site / business soon. Build you own framework if you want to learn PHP and Wordpress.

"I do that which I do not know, so that I may know it" —Albert Einstein (one of my favorite quotes)

A framework is a MASSIVE undertaking, and I personally have begun to do one for myself with my language of choice, ColdFusion. It has been daunting, as many people will not provide you with little more than the concept of what a framework is, but it has been an invaluable resource in teaching me how these integral systems function.

A custom framework handles what you want and may be faulty as you muddle through what a professional framework already has (and many times, popular frameworks are the ones people ask if you have experience in when joining teams, so going alone on your own framework might prove less of a good idea in that regard), but it has been a phenomenal tool for learning.

I know this is an old thread but it perfectly answered my question on the matter! I think I will go with building my own with Bootstrap for my current two projects, which will be my first two projects ever as a freelancer and web designer/developer! So excited to finish them and show the treehouse community how helpful you have been to bringing me closer and closer to realising my passions!