JNews vs TheGem Theme comparison [2024] 💥
JNEWS THEME (TheGem vs JNews)
JNews is currently in the top 10 most sold on Themeforest...
In this JNews Theme review we take the latest version of this great news and blogger theme a closer look. The theme has really shot up in the rankings of best-selling themes on Themeforest since its version 10, so I expect a lot from it.
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JNEWS: RATING
If we check on Themeforest.net JNews's rating, we see that practically all raters are 5 stars gave up except for a few haters. The image above also shows that the theme has now been sold on more than 11,365+ times. For a relatively new theme, that is a very high number, which is expected to increase quickly. Many good themes are sold on Themeforest despite the extremely bad reputation of the Themeforest marketplace, the themes are good.
JNEWS: DEMOS
The JNews theme offers a series of beautiful demos that can be installed with 1 click. Since it concerns blog websites, the variety in homepsge is the most important. They state that they offer more than 150+ homepages. There are very nice examples and the number will be further expanded in the course of time.
The nice thing about demos is that you can make a quick start with them. The website is already but with the wrong photos and texts in principle. So place your logo in it, adjust texts and photos and you are well on your way to having your own site.
JNEWS THEME REVIEW: WEBSHOPS
The theme is of course 100% compatible with Woocommerce, but if you are going to build a webshop then choose a theme like Astra or another theme from my top 10 for webshop themes. One can certainly build a good webshop with the JNews theme, but there is simply much better than this. There is very little to be found on their own website about the webshop or Woocommerce theme, so it is certainly not the specialty of this theme.
JNEWS: SPEED
The JNews theme is one of the fastest themes out there for Wordpress and should actually be in my list for fast WP themes. The bare theme with no extra plugins with just a optimized cache plugin produced the result presented above. Of course you can optimize your website yourself for loading time. Follow this advice here.
JNEWS: PAGEBUILDERS
The JNews theme uses the Gutenberg pagebuilder by default, but is compatible with WP Bakery Pagebuilder and Elementor Pro page builder, one of the best out there in the field. I also definitely recommend installing Elementor for free, or even better the pro version.
JNEWS: PREMIUM PLUGINS INCLUDED
JNews offers an insane amount of 3rd party plugins that you can get with it. I know of no other theme where this offer is so high. Impressive in itself, but the value should not be overestimated as they would have you believe. Other themes also come with plugins that work very well and too many plugins often do not benefit a site.
JNEWS: HEADERBUILDER
JNews offers something that has so far only been seen with top themes like Divi, a real HeaderBuilder with which you have practically no limits when it comes to the construction of your header. Technical knowledge such as HTML or PHP is not necessary for this, a child can do the laundry.
JNEWS: MORE BUILDERS
Nice such a HeaderBuilder? JNews offers a whole host of other "Builders" that I won't list all of them here, check them out on their own site if you have time. They are pictured below.
Apart from the Builders Series, the theme is packed with all kinds of great features that one would want in a blog or news website such as: Scrolling Mobile Menu, Podcast System, Subscription System, Sponsored Posts, Subscribe to Download, Multiple Authors Post, Video Preview on Hover, and much more.
JNEWS THEME REVIEW: CONCLUSION
The JNews theme is very well put together. It's an impressive blogger theme, exactly what it was built for. I would also like to see Woocommerce options that are this extensive, then it will become a high-quality multipurpose theme and will sell even better than it already does.
The price is always the problem with themes that are sold via Themeforest because they require a separate license for every website that someone has. JNews certainly offers value for money, although I would rather spend that money on one of the themes in my top 10 for WP themes this year that is even better and can all be used on as many sites as you like. I would definitely buy JNews, but for only 1 website, and for a great blog of course.
THE-GEM THEME (TheGem vs JNews)
TheGem comes with Elementor and WP Bakery page builders...
The Gem Wordpress Theme it is definitely worth taking a closer look at the theme and writing a review about it. The first thing you notice are the beautiful demos that the theme offers, these are separate and well styled. In total, the theme currently has a sloppy 70-in-1-click demo versions available (they call them creative concepts themselves). There are themes like Be Theme with 600+ demos but they are fairly easy to assemble, The Gem offers a much higher quality. The Be Theme has more sales and is even number 3 on the Themeforest market place. Apparently there are many people who choose the many demos while they can only install one. Anyway, let's talk about The Gem and have a look at some of their demos below.
With a good multifunctional theme, you literally have to be able to create any type of website in order to achieve maximum scores in our reviews. And after playing with TheGem, I can absolutely say it delivers what it promises. TheGem is the latest creation from CodexThemes, well-known in the theme world. I have to say this theme is really versatile. CodexThemes put together some demos for niches ranging from creative agencies to gyms, to restaurants and more. It is definitely a beautiful and functional theme.
TheGem main functions
- More than 70 homemade design concepts for different niches
- Templates for more than 400 pages
- Focus on performance
- Useful custom message types
- Beautiful designs
- Includes Bakery Pagebuilder and Revolution Slider
- Correct code formatting for page speed
- Multi-page and one-page ready
- 2,600+ font icons
If you fancy any of the more than 70 homepage designs, you can easily import all or a certain selection through TheGem's control-board. All you need to do is go to TheGem Import in your admin panel and the wizard will walk you through everything. As for the import process, it couldn't be easier.
Install of TheGem WordPress Theme
After installing TheGem, you must first install all required and recommended plugins. Once you've done that, your admin panel will look much fuller. In addition to all the new plugins, TheGem also gives you many custom post types.
As I mentioned above in this review, you can always import one or more of the 70+ pre-designed design concepts by going to TheGem Import. But if you don't want to use any of those design concepts, you have to go to the theme's customization menu.
Customize TheGem WordPress Theme
TheGem uses its own theme customization manager, not the WordPress Customizer. I understand why themes do this, but I always find it a bit frustrating that I have to keep previewing changes instead of seeing them in real time. I wish there was an easy way to move all relevant options directly to the WordPress Customizer. The admin panel is divided into ten categories.
In general, you set up basic information such as the layout and identity of your blog. There is not much to change outside of your logo and some information about the functionality:
TheGem review headers
Under "Header" you can set every detail of your site's header. This includes layout, alignment and design:
You have a large number of header options thanks to the dropouts with multiple styles. In "Fonts" you can set which fonts your site uses and how big it is. You can go through any class to customize every aspect of your fonts. TheGem has many Google Fonts, so you have plenty of stylish options. And if you want more selection, you can always import new fonts via the included Fonts Manager:
In the "Colors" section, you can set colors for literally every single element on your site. It would take a while to go through and adjust everything, but all options are there if you want them:
TheGem review backgrounds
Just as the name says, "Backgrounds" lets you customize the backgrounds for different parts of your site. You can choose solid colors or upload images.
Under "Footer" you can turn your footer on and off and set custom text. Again, not much about this section. I feel like there may be other valuable options here - like activating / deactivating social icons or links:
TheGem review contact & social
With "Contacts & Socials" you can add address and contact information, as well as links to social icons. These social icons can be displayed in both the header and footer. I have a feeling that this section could be placed in the Header and Footer categories, but a sneak peek of that.
TheGem review back-ups
In this TheGem review it should be mentioned that "Backup" is a wonderful tool to have in it. This allows you to export a backup of all your theme settings. That way, if you ever lose any theme settings, you can easily restore them with the backup feature. Essentially, experimenting with theme settings makes a low-risk action, since you can always fall back on the backup if you need to:
TheGem Custom Post Types
TheGem includes seven custom post types by default. These are:
- News
- Portfolios
- Quickfinders
- Customers
- Galleries
- Teams
- Reviews
Custom fields for posts and pages
TheGem contains a huge amount of custom fields for creating posts or pages. When you add a new post or page, you'll see plenty of options at the bottom of the screen:
You can set everything from video footage to custom clips to custom layouts. For example, if you want to move the sidebar for one post, you can do that with custom fields. If you want to add custom widgets to one post, you can do that too. These custom fields have a lot of versatility. You have plenty of new ways to customize your individual posts and pages with TheGem.
Included is the Bakery Pagebuilder
As I mentioned in the list of features, you also get access to the Bakery Pagebuilder for creating pages. Bakery Pagebuilder is not my absolute favorite page builder, but it is definitely a solid option and includes both front-end and back-end editing. Whenever you create a new page or post, you have the option to enter your chosen Bakery Pagebuilder editor view to create drag and drop designs:
TheGem review Elementor
The Thegem Theme now comes in 2 different versions for a price. That means that you can choose between the Pagebuilder who is used, WP Bakery PageBuilder or Elementor.
TheGem loading time - Good Google PageSpeed
I did my tests on TheGem's demo-site using Google PageSpeed Insights. The score was 84 on desktop without any caching or optimized images. I guess after having fixed those issues the theme would score about 90 on PageSpeed Insights, a very good score.
THE-GEM VS JNEWS CONCLUSION
First of all, thank you for reading this TheGem vs JNews comparison to the end. Both TheGem and JNews are very good themes. Both themes are packed with features and settings. Both themes are also very suitable for building blogs and load quickly in a browser. So they are very similar, but there are some differences. For example, I would certainly not use JNews for the construction of webshops at the moment, because the theme lacks options.
Finally, I say something about the price of the themes. Both for TheGem and JNews you will have to buy a separate expensive license for each website you have. Divi or Astra for example can be used on as many sites as you want and has great offers. If you have multiple websites I recommend choosing Astra or Divi.
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