With Cwicly announcing they’re closing down in 2024, more than 1,000 websites need to migrate to a Cwicly alternative before security updates and bug fixes stop.
If you’re one of those users and wondering where to go from here, I’ve got your back.
In this article, I’ll explain why Kadence is the best alternative to Cwicly and show you the exact steps you can follow to move your website from Cwicly to Kadence with almost no downtime.
First, let’s understand why you should move from Cwicly to Kadence.
Why Kadence is the best alternative to Cwicly
Here are 10 reasons why Kadence Pro is an excellent alternative to Cwicly:
- Works with Gutenberg: Kadence, like Cwicly, works effortlessly with the WordPress Gutenberg editor. You’ll have a familiar design UI that’ll make the switch from Cwicly much smoother.
- Bloat-free code: If performance was something you loved about Cwicly, you’ll love Kadence Theme and Blocks because they use lightweight code and smart script loading to improve performance.
- Global styling: Like Cwicly, Kadence allows you to set up global colors and fonts for a consistent look across your website.
- Components alternative: Cwicly Components is a unique feature you won’t find in most page builders. However, you can achieve similar results with Kadence using patterns and block default settings.
- Dynamic content: Kadence allows you to create conditional design elements. You can even create dynamic pages using custom fields, just like you could with Cwicly. Kadence also has an Advanced Query Block that can be an alternative to Cwicly’s Query Builder.
- Massive design library: Kadence has a massive library of design patterns and templates. It integrates with the Gutenberg editor and allows you to import templates with a few clicks.
- AI-powered content: Kadence recently added a Kadence AI integration to their products, allowing you to generate entire sites with AI and even use AI to speed up content edits.
- Supports mega menus: Kadence allows you to create mega menus for your website. If that’s something you loved about Cwicly, I’m sure you’ll enjoy using Kadence’s Ultimate Menu.
- Unlimited lifetime plan: Kadence offers a lifetime subscription that supports unlimited websites. So, if you’re an agency or freelance developer, you’ll love the value-for-money Kadence provides.
- Friendly support: Kadence offers the best customer support of any software I’ve ever used. They’re friendly, eager to help, and always go above and beyond to make sure your queries are answered as quickly as possible.
Switching to a new WordPress page builder comes with a minor learning curve and some compromises to your workflows. Fortunately, Kadence Blocks Pro keeps those to a minimum.
Kadence integrates into the Gutenberg editor, so you can still work within the same interface, just without the Cwicly UI add-ons.
While the changes to your workflow will be noticeable, they won’t be as drastic as moving to Elementor, Breakdance, or Bricks.
And that matters because it will allow you to focus on relearning how to use Kadence to do what you could with Cwicly.
Ready to move from Cwicly to Kadence?
Get $20 off on the Essential and Full Bundle 👇🏼
How to move your website from Cwicly to Kadence
The exact steps to move your website from Cwicly to Kadence will vary depending on how you set up your site, custom code, and WordPress theme.
To keep things simple for this Cwicly migration guide, I’ll assume you were using Cwicly’s inbuilt theme without any custom code.
With that out of the way, let’s go over the step-by-step process to switch your Cwicly website to Kadence.
1. Plan everything down to the last detail
Switching WordPress themes is a big change. A lot can go wrong, but planning your approach will help you minimize significant issues, if not avoid them entirely.
As you plan your move, reevaluate your hosting setup, plugins, and website design. If you’re investing time in moving from Cwicly to Kadence, you could future-proof your website at the same time.
Depending on the size of your site, you might need anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month or more to recreate it with Kadence. Other factors like custom code and integrations will also increase your migration time.
On average, redesigning a small website can take 2 or 3 weeks, whereas larger websites will need at least 4 to 6 weeks.
And that’s without factoring in any custom code or integrations.
The SEO impact of your theme change is also worth considering when moving from Cwicly to Kadence.
Even if you maintain your existing website architecture and content, changing themes will cause a minor fluctuation in your organic traffic.
Changing WordPress themes will change the code generated by your website.
When Google and other search engines crawl your website, they’ll notice that change and start recrawling it.
Some pages may drop in and out of their index as they recrawl your site. So expect some volatility once you change your theme.
It’s worth mentioning that SERP volatility isn’t always a bad thing. Changing your theme might even help your search rankings.
But, to minimize any potential impact on your business, I recommend moving from Cwicly to Kadence at least 3-4 months before your peak traffic period.
That way, any impact on your SERP rankings won’t affect your business drastically.
2. Create a staging copy of your website
Now, coming to the actual migration process.
I strongly recommend that you set up a staging copy of your site. If your current hosting doesn’t include a staging feature, I’d suggest finding one that does, like Cloudways.
I use Cloudways because it offers excellent performance at an incredibly low price. It also provides free 1-click staging environments for all your applications.
You can read more about why Cloudways is one of the best WordPress hosting services on the market and even follow my step-by-step tutorial on how to set up Cloudways.
If this is your first time using Cloudways, you can create a new server instead by logging into your Cloudways account, going to Cloudways Flexible > My Servers, and clicking on the + Add Server button.
If you’re already hosting your website on Cloudways, here’s how you can set up a staging website in a few clicks.
Log in to your Cloudways account and select an application from the Applications list in the dashboard.
Open the Staging Management tab on the Application Management page and click Launch Staging Application.
Next, choose whether to create the staging environment on the same or a different server and click Continue.
That’s it. Cloudways will set up your staging site in a few minutes, and you’ll see the application listed in your Applications dashboard.
3. Install Kadence Pro plugins
Now, it’s time to add all the necessary Kadence plugins to your site.
You’ll need to purchase the paid version of Kadence, aka Kadence Pro, to recreate the advanced features of Cwicly, such as mega menus and dynamic content.
Here’s how you can do that.
Go to the Kadence website and select one of the following premium bundles:
- Essential Bundle.
- Full Bundle.
- Lifetime Full Bundle.
I’ve found that the Kadence Full Bundle offers the best value for running up to 5 websites.
If you run more websites or build websites for a living, I recommend buying the Lifetime Full Bundle instead.
Use the link below to get $20 off on the Essential and Full Bundles.
Get $20 off on the Essential and Full Bundle 👇🏼
You can also read my Kadence Theme review, where I explain all the features you get with Kadence Pro and share my unbiased opinion. I’ve also written a detailed Kadence Blocks review that explains all the features it offers and tests its performance.
Once you’ve chosen a plan, enter your email address, billing details, and payment information.
Agree to the terms, and click Place Order.
Once your payment is complete, log in to your Kadence account and click Download Files.
Download the Kadence Theme Pro and Kadence Blocks Pro plugins from that page and save them on your computer.
After that, open the admin panel of your staging site, go to Appearance > Themes, and select Add New Theme.
Search for “Kadence,” click Install on the Kadence listing, and click Activate once the installation completes.
Then, go to Plugins > Add New, search for “Kadence Blocks,” select Install Now, and click Activate.
Repeat the same process to install the Kadence AI Starter Templates plugin.
After that, click Upload Plugin, then Choose File and upload the Kadence Theme Pro zip file you downloaded.
Click Install Now.
After it installs, select Activate Plugin to complete the installation.
Now, you need to activate the licenses for both Pro plugins.
You can do that one at a time by clicking the license key activation banners at the top of your admin panel.
Enter your API License Key and API License Email on both License Activation pages, and select Activate.
Your license information is listed inside your Kadence account under License Keys.
Once you click Activate, you’ll see confirmation messages and the Status banner will change to Active.
4. Move your custom scripts to Kadence and uninstall Cwicly
At this point, you’re ready to uninstall Cwicly from your site.
But before you do, move any Header and Footer scripts from your existing site to your new site.
You can find all your custom code snippets in Cwicly by going to Cwicly > Settings > Custom Code.
Copy all code snippets from there.
Then, go to Appearance > Kadence, enable Header/Footer Scripts, and click Customize to open the Custom Scripts section in the WordPress customizer.
Paste the scripts in the appropriate locations. For example, your site’s Google Analytics tracking code will go into the Add scripts into your header section.
After that, click Publish to save your changes.
Next, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins, find Cwicly in your installed plugins list, and click Deactivate.
Once it deactivates, click Delete to remove the plugin from your site.
5. Recreate your posts and pages with Kadence
After switching to Kadence and removing Cwicly, your site will appear broken and messy. While this may seem intimidating, don’t let it get to you.
To get your site looking back to the way it did, you need to recreate all the pages, posts, and design elements manually.
The good news is that Kadence has an AI-powered website generator feature that allows you to create a website from scratch and add images and content in a few minutes.
I’ve written a detailed guide showing you how to use Kadence AI to set up a website in minutes. Feel free to read it if you need help.
As you set up your website, you’ll notice that Kadence doesn’t have a built-in ACF Pro integration like Cwicly.
The good news is that Kadence is compatible with ACF Pro. So you can install ACF Pro on your website and create custom post types to use with Kadence.
Learning your way around Kadence Theme Pro and Kadence Blocks Pro will take some time.
If you need help, read my guides, which teach you how to use Kadence Theme and the steps to use Kadence Blocks. I go into a lot of detail in both guides, so they should help you get up to speed more quickly.
The main thing to remember during this transition is that you’ll need to relearn how to do things in the Kadence way.
Let’s say you want to recreate a mega menu you used on your site.
Even though Kadence doesn’t have a Nav block like Cwicly, it allows you to create a mega menu using blocks.
I have a super detailed mega menu tutorial that you can follow to set it up. You can also download my free mega menu templates to speed up the process.
Here’s an example of a free template from our collection:
Another cool thing about Kadence is that you can create and use post and page templates across your site. Like with Cwicly, you can also set conditions for using the templates.
Let’s say you want to create a custom post template for different categories.
You can design those templates using ACF Pro and hooked elements easily. Here’s a detailed YouTube video by Kadence that shows you how to do it:
Designing your website from scratch is probably the most time-consuming part of the process. But you can speed it up with Kadence’s AI-powered templates.
If you’re using Cwicly with WooCommerce, I recommend using Kadence Shop Kit, which is a part of the Full bundle subscription.
Kadence Shop Kit adds 15 useful modules that level up WooCommerce functionality without slowing down your store. It allows you to create custom product page layouts and add custom checkout fields without using any code.
To learn more about Shop Kit, read my review, in which I tested its features and performance.
I also have a beginner-friendly tutorial that shows how to use Kadence Shop Kit features on your website. Read to learn how.
6. Update your DNS settings and go live
Once you finish designing your site, you’re ready to go live.
But before you do, comb through every page and post to check for broken links, images, or design elements. Also, make sure everything loads correctly on mobiles and tablets.
Once you’re ready, update your DNS settings to point your website to the new server.
To minimize propagation time after you go live, set your DNS Time to Live (TTL) to a short duration, like 30 or 60 seconds.
If you’re using Cloudflare for your site, which I strongly recommend, you can keep it on Auto, which sets the TTL to 300 seconds (5 minutes).
Then, update the values for your website’s A and CNAME records to point to your new server.
In Cloudflare, you can do that by going to DNS > Records.
Select a record, click Edit, make changes, and then click Save to update it.
That’s it! You’ll start receiving visitors to your new site once all its nameservers update their records.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully changed your website theme from Cwicly to Kadence 🙂
Final thoughts: Moving Cwicly to Kadence is the intelligent choice
The Kadence Theme and Blocks combo can do almost everything Cwicly can with a few workarounds. But that’s not the only reason to use it.
Kadence Theme and Blocks are fast, secure, and maintained by a great team. With a combined user base of more than 400,000 users, Kadence is a reliable Cwicly replacement for beginners and advanced users alike.
So what are you waiting for? Use the link below to sign up for a plan with Kadence today!
Get $20 off on the Essential and Full Bundle 👇🏼
If you have questions about moving your website from Cwicly to Kadence, comment below or post it on our Reddit page. And if you need help migrating your website from Cwicly to Kadence, fill out the form on our contact page.
