Your Guide to Kadence Starter Templates (AI + Pre-Designed)

When it comes to building a website, starting from scratch can feel totally overwhelming. This is where Kadence Templates step in. With both Pre-Designed and AI-powered options, they make launching your website easy.

They provide a massive head start, saving you time, effort, money and of course overwhelm.

Here’s what you need to know about Kadence Starter Templates – what they are, why they’re useful and how to choose between our Pre-Designed templates and AI-powered template options.

Whether you’re building your very first site or just want a faster way to launch your next one, this guide will help you understand the basics and pick the best fit for your project.

Before we get into all the details, let’s first look at what a Starter template is and why they are so beneficial.

What are Starter Templates?

A Starter Template is a ready-made website layout that gives you a solid foundation to build on, no design or coding skills needed. It includes pre-designed pages, sections, and styling (like fonts, colors, and layout structure), so instead of starting with a blank canvas, you’re starting with a beautifully crafted design you can quickly customize with your own content.

Why would you use Starter Templates?

Because starting from a blank page is the worst.

Starter Templates take out all the guesswork. Instead of trying to figure out layout, design, and structure on your own, you get a professionally designed website you can tweak to match your brand and content. It’s like skipping the hardest part and jumping straight to the fun stuff.

Here’s why they’re a game-changer:

• Save hours – skip the headaches of trying to DIY your site from scratch.
• Everything just looks better – no more worrying about wonky margins or mismatched fonts.
• They help you stay focused – because the layout is already done, you can concentrate on writing content and getting your site live.
• They’re fully customizable – swap out the colors, change the fonts, adjust the layout… or just keep what works and launch fast.
• They remove the tech overwhelm – no design or coding skills needed.

Whether you want a simple site up today or a polished brand presence by the weekend, Starter Templates give you the boost you need to make it happen without the stress.

What is the difference between a Pre-Designed Template and an AI-Powered Template?

Pre-Designed Templates

Our Kadence Pre-Designed Templates are professionally crafted website layouts you can import into WordPress in just a few clicks. With 88 templates to choose from, including a mix of free and Pro options, you’ll find designs for a wide range of industries, from wellness and coaching to e-commerce, blogs, and service-based businesses. You can import an entire site or just a single page, giving you the flexibility to build exactly what you need.

Each one is built with the Kadence Theme and Kadence Blocks, giving you a fast, flexible foundation that’s easy to customize without any coding or design experience.

Think of Kadence Pre-Designed Templates like choosing a beautifully pre-built house plan. The foundation is solid, the walls are up, the rooms are laid out perfectly, and all the essential plumbing and electrical are already installed by expert builders. It’s a complete, well-structured home, ready for living.

Now all you need to do is the interior design. You pick the paint colors (your global color palette), choose the flooring (your font styles), bring in your own furniture (your images and content), and arrange the decor (customize the sections and blocks). You’re not worrying about the structural integrity or the complex blueprints, you’re just focusing on making it uniquely yours.

And it’s not just about looks.

Kadence templates are built with performance in mind. They use Kadence Blocks the way they’re meant to be used, structured correctly, lightweight, and optimized for fast loading and a great user experience. That gives your site a solid, SEO-friendly foundation and helps everything run smoothly right from the start.

Here’s what sets Pre-Designed Templates apart:

• Built for beauty and performance: Every layout is crafted with user experience and conversions in mind. Whether you want people to sign up, buy, or book a service, the design supports that.
• Rapid website launch: Skip the blank page. Import a full website or just the pages you need, complete with layout, demo content, styling, and suggested plugins.
• Cost-effective: You get a professionally designed site without paying custom designer rates.

Whether you’re launching your first site or need a polished upgrade, Pre-Designed Templates give you a massive head start and total creative control.

AI-Powered Templates

If Kadence Pre-Designed Templates are like choosing a beautiful, pre-built house plan where you handle all the interior design, Kadence AI Templates are like working with your own architect and interior designer from day one.

You simply tell the AI Wizard about your business, your industry, services, style, and goals. It gets to work customizing a ready-made layout to suit you. But it doesn’t stop at just filling in the blanks. You get ready-to-edit content and curated imagery that reflects your brand. It’s personalized from the start, so you’re never starting from scratch.

It’s like walking into a fully furnished show home that already feels like yours. You’re not starting from scratch. You’re stepping into a site that looks, sounds, and feels aligned with your business and now it’s just about adding your personal touches.

Here’s what makes AI-Powered Templates a step above:

• Tailored Content Created for You: Based on the information you provide, the AI generates page content that actually fits your business. No more filler text or writing from scratch, the messaging is relevant, personalized, and ready to refine.
• Smart Imagery Suggestions: The AI also pulls in royalty-free images that match your industry and vibe, giving your site a professional feel right from the start without the overwhelm of sourcing visuals yourself.
• Faster Website Creation: With both content and images done for you, you can skip the blank page and jump straight into launching. It’s a serious shortcut for getting online faster.
• Helpful Messaging Prompts: Even if you plan to tweak everything, the AI gives you a solid framework to build from. It guides your messaging so you don’t miss anything important.

Kadence AI is free to try with 250 credits, but most AI layouts and over 400+ design patterns are exclusive to Kadence Pro.

If content has been the thing holding you back, Kadence AI Templates help you launch with clarity and confidence without spending hours trying to figure it all out yourself.

Common Confusions & FAQs

We know getting started with templates can bring up some questions and worries, especially if you’re new to WordPress or Kadence. 

Let’s clear up the most common concerns:

Will importing a full Pre-Designed Template delete my current pages or content?

In the import settings, you’ll see an option to override your current website. If you select “Yes” to override, your Customizer settings will be replaced with the ones from the template. However, your existing pages and content will remain, they’ll just appear in the new style.

That said, full site imports do add demo content, pages, and plugin settings, which can cause confusion or conflict with your existing setup. That’s why we strongly recommend using a staging environment before making any major changes to a live site.

If you’re working on an existing site, it’s safest to import individual pages or sections instead of a full site. This gives you more control and helps you avoid unexpected changes to your current content or design.

What exactly gets imported in a Pre-Designed Template?

When you import a pre-designed template, it brings in layouts, demo content (like placeholder text and images), styles (colors, fonts), and recommended plugins to make everything work smoothly. You can choose to import a full site or just individual pages to fit your needs. 

Why did my template import fail or time out?

Sometimes imports don’t complete because of server limits, connectivity hiccups, or missing PHP features on your hosting. Common issues include timeouts, 500 or 502 errors, or incomplete imports due to missing PHP extensions like cURL or XMLReader. If your import fails, check your hosting environment’s PHP settings or ask your host to increase server resources. Using a staging site with better limits often helps too.

Do I need the Starter Templates plugin after import?

Once your template is imported and set up, the Starter Templates plugin isn’t needed to keep your site running. You can safely deactivate or delete it if you want, but it won’t harm anything if you leave it active. It mainly serves to help you find and import templates.

Premium Template and Plugin Requirements

Some premium templates rely on Kadence Pro add-ons or third-party plugins. If a template doesn’t import fully or is missing features, it’s usually because those required plugins aren’t installed or activated. 

Ready to Get Started? Let Kadence Templates Make It Easy

Whether you prefer the solid, beautifully designed foundation of a Pre-Designed Template or the smart, content-generating power of an AI-Powered Template, Kadence gives you the tools to build a professional website quickly and with confidence.

Both options take the stress out of getting started so you can focus on what matters most: sharing your message and growing your business.

With Kadence Starter Templates, building a beautiful, functional website becomes easier, faster, and actually enjoyable.

Explore the Pre-Designed template library or get started with Kadence AI today!