Framework recommendation needed

[Michael Fraase]

I've been using WooThemes/WooCommerce/Automattic's Canvas theme/pseudo-framework since I migrated to WordPress in May 2013. I'm not a coder, but even I can tell that there's no hope for Canvas after WordPress 4.9 coming just around the corner.

Accordingly, I'm on the hunt for two things with the single gating factor being that it has to be appropriate for a website focused on multiple publications and multiple professional service offerings with minor ecommerce (for digital downloads only; no hard goods) on the further end of the roadmap:

1. An appropriate framework with child theme that I can customize easily (of course I'm thinking StudioPress Genesis because that's what seems to perennially get the most attention).
2. Pointers to resources with reliable information about migrating between themes/frameworks. I use too many Canvas-specific plugins that I'd really like to get away from. Additionally, I'm embarrassed to admit that I started using a few Canvas-specific shortcodes early on because they were so easy I was hypnotized and didn't bother to think about the ramifications. I'm thinking:
1. Clean up all the shortcode droppings using the Search Regex plugin. As I said, I'm not a coder, but thankfully Search Regex displays what it's going to do before you tell it to actually do it.
2. Export of all content from production server (open to suggestions to anything other than the WordPress built in Export/Import tool). I'm especially concerned because several of our publications rely on WPMU DEV's commercial Wiki plugin that uses a custom post type.
• My understanding is that the community is being waved away from using custom post types with WordPress 5.0/Gutenberg, so I'm open to solution suggestions for getting out from under WPMU DEV Wiki, as well.
3. Inport of all content to development/staging server (again, open to suggestions for anything other than the WordPress built-in tool).
3. Anything else I'm overlooking.
• Platform notes:
• I self-host on two headless Apple Mac Mini Servers, both running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan/OS X Server 5.2 (only the Apache module).
• The production server runs current version of Homebrew PHP 7.0.
• The development/staging server runs current version of Homebrew PHP 7.1.
• Both servers run current version of Homebrew MySQL.

I'll try to add a brief version of this to the Slack #general channel.

Thanks in advance.

[Michael Fraase]

While I'm not a coder, I'm not interested in a drag-and-drop page builder sort of framework. My priorities are security, speed, and clean code.

[elbigpa...@gmail.com]

Drag and drop tools are easy to use as well in fact this site was created with WP using Elementor

[Toby]

Michael, Below are some WP theme speed-related benchmarks I personally completed a while back - You can view my methodology here (skip to the theme section towards the bottom).  I'm sure you can find more scientific benchmarks out there as well on a theme-by-theme basis (anyone else know of some good benchmarks for WP themes?).  You mentioned Genesis, and that performed near the top of my results, so if you like what you see there, I'd say go for it!  The biggest surprise for me was that Beaver Builder performed near the top and better than many non-builder themes (I've been on the Beaver Builder bandwagon since - I'll eat crow and humbly throw Divi into the dumpster fire, Nick!).  I didn't test Elementor (Sorry, Matt!), but maybe I'll add that in the future when GEEKWAP sponsors my next tests. 

WordPress Themes Ranked by Google Pagespeed Insights’ Mobile Performance Grade:

1. Beaver Builder (60) (t)
2. Genesis (60) (t)
3. GeneratePress (52)
4. TwentyNineteen (44)
5. TwentyTwenty (40)
6. Divi (36)

WordPress Themes Ranked by Load Time:

1. TwentyNineteen (890ms)
2. Genesis (900ms)
3. Beaver Builder (1.54s)
4. TwentyTwenty (1.88s)
5. GeneratePress (2.67s)
6. Divi (3.46s)

WordPress Themes Ranked by Page Size:

1. TwentyNineteen (579k)
2. TwentyTwenty (596k)
3. GeneratePress (657k)
4. Genesis (701kb)
5. Beaver Builder (730k)
6. Divi (1.1mb)

WordPress Themes Ranked by Requests:

1. TwentyTwenty (44)
2. TwentyNineteen (45)
3. Genesis (47)
4. GeneratePress (48)
5. Beaver Builder (49)
6. Divi (76)

Toby