Kadence Developer: Theme, Kadence Blocks and Theme Kit Pro, Built Properly

Kadence now answers to Liquid Web, and your license may too

Visit kadencewp.com today and you land on liquidweb.com/software/kadence. The theme's author on wordpress.org now reads Nexcess, and the documentation lives at docs.nexcess.com. In May 2026 Liquid Web folded several brands into Kadence: SolidWP became Kadence Security, Iconic became Kadence Shop Kit, and Restrict Content Pro became Kadence Memberships.

Pricing changed shape at the same time. As of October 2026 there are three yearly plans: Essentials at $99, Pro at $299 and Elite at $499, with a footnote saying plans are priced per site. Older purchases became legacy, grandfathered plans. The catch sits in Liquid Web's own wording: if a legacy subscription lapses, you must buy one of the new plans to get access back. Our Kadence pricing breakdown lists what each plan includes.

Three plugins that must agree before Kadence works

Kadence is not one product but a set that expects to be updated together. When one part gets ahead of the others, things break in places that look unrelated. Knowing which part owns which feature is most of the skill.

The theme's CSS is split by component (header, content, footer, sidebar and plugin-specific files), and Customizer styles are added inline to the kadence-global stylesheet. That is a sensible design for speed, and our Kadence speed guide explains the settings that go with it. It also means a stray override has many files to collide with.

Kadence work we take on

• Hooked Elements done with restraint. Content Sections, Fixed Sections and code elements from Theme Kit Pro, each with display conditions, so a promo bar appears on service pages and nowhere else.
• Conditional headers. A different header for landing pages, the shop or logged-in members, without duplicating the whole header build.
• A real global palette. Kadence exposes nine colors as --global-palette1 through --global-palette9. We map your brand onto them and replace hard-coded colors in blocks and CSS, so a rebrand is one edit.
• Reusable block patterns. Service sections, pricing tables and testimonial layouts built once in Kadence Blocks and saved, so editors assemble pages instead of rebuilding them.
• Store and membership builds. Shop Kit checkout and product tools on WooCommerce, or Kadence Memberships content restriction, configured and tested end to end. Background in Kadence and WooCommerce.
• A child theme that earns its keep. Custom functions, templates and CSS outside the parent theme, where updates cannot reach them.

Kadence leans on the block editor more than most themes do. If your team builds pages in Elementor instead, the theme ships Elementor-specific stylesheets and the pairing works, but we plan the project differently. The Kadence and Gutenberg page explains why the block route usually ends up lighter.

The Kadence failures we see after updates

Development and repair overlap on Kadence, because a new feature built on a shaky install inherits the shake. These are problems Kadence owners have reported publicly on wordpress.org in recent months, and the ones we check for before we build anything.

If your site is already misbehaving, the Kadence repair hub is the faster route. Fonts that will not load and stale CSS have their own guides: Kadence fonts not loading and Kadence CSS not updating.

The third option

Athena CMS, with AI agents on staff.

Not a theme and not a blank Next.js repo. The content system we put behind every custom site: plain fields, a real preview, every version kept, and AI agents that handle the chores a plugin only nags you about.

• PPicassoImages
• AApolloSite analysis
• AAresCompetitor watch
• PPrometheusContent holes
• AAtlasPage depth and structure
• DDelphiAI search visibility

ZDAOAand 12 more agents. Two come with Athena; the rest are monthly add-ons.

Meet the agentsTake the Athena tour

PPicassoWeekly · ImagesAApolloWeekly · Site analysis

A Kadence engagement, week by week

1. 1

   License and version check

   We record the theme, Kadence Blocks, Theme Kit Pro and Shop Kit versions, which plan the license sits on, and whether updates are still flowing.

2. 2

   Staging copy

   Everything is built on a private copy. Updates are applied there first, together, in the order Kadence's parts expect.

3. 3

   Foundation

   Child theme, global palette, typography and the Customizer's performance settings (local Google Fonts with preload, CSS preload) set before any feature work.

4. 4

   Build

   Hooked Elements, patterns, templates, store or membership features, each tested on desktop and on the Tablet/Mobile header.

5. 5

   Measure

   We test key pages before and after with the same tools, so you can see what the work changed without taking our word for it.

6. 6

   Hand over

   You get a list of every Hooked Element and its conditions, every pattern, and which plugin each feature depends on.

Which Kadence plan to buy, and which work costs more

We do not sell Kadence licenses, so our advice on plans has no commission attached. Here is how we think about the three tiers for a single business site, based on what Liquid Web lists in each.

Liquid Web's footnote says plans are priced per site, so an owner with three sites should count licenses before picking a tier. Our own work is quoted as a fixed price after a free audit. What raises the quote: legacy content built with old Kadence Blocks versions, a half-imported starter template, WooCommerce or membership logic, and integrations with outside systems. A clean install on current versions is the cheapest place to start. WordPress financing is available for bigger builds.

When Kadence is the wrong foundation for the job

Kadence is a good theme for a block-editor site, and we say so in our Kadence review. If you need a fast brochure site, your team likes building pages from blocks, and the store is modest, stay on Kadence and keep it current. If a setting change is all you need, we will point to it rather than quote for it.

The full row-by-row case is in Kadence vs Next.js, and moving from Kadence to Next.js explains what happens to Kadence Blocks content in a migration. We keep your URLs and redirect every old one. Sites we build come with Athena CMS, which includes password-protected membership areas and Stripe subscription billing as part of the system. Comparing themes instead? Try Kadence vs GeneratePress, or see the full theme development service.