TheGem vs X-Store Theme comparison [2024] 💥
THE-GEM vs X-STORE
X-Store vs TheGem, we compare these popular themes on loading speed, the number of demo website and pages, the quality of the demos, the type of page builder they use, their suitability for building webshops and how well they can be customized. TheGem and X-Store are both selling very well at the moment.
THE-GEM THEME (X-Store vs TheGem)
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.
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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 have fixed those issues the theme would score about 90 on PageSpeed Insights, a very good score.
X-STORE THEME (X-Store vs TheGem)
X-STORE THEME REVIEW
X-Store is one of the Woocommerce themes that stand out due to its high number of shop demos and numerous special shop features. The theme comes with the most popular page builder out there, Elementor and the Bakery page builder. This theme was specially developed for the construction of web shops and that is noticeable. I can tell you in advance that this is a fantastic theme because I have created a number of shops with it.
X-STORE: RATING
Below you can see the rating that X-Store Theme gets from people who bought the theme, and an average of 4.85 is a score that is rare with themes on the Themeforest Marketplace. This usually means that except for a few haters, everyone gave 5 stars.
X-STORE: INSTALLATION AND DEMOS
Installing X-Store Theme is very easy. The theme does not have a free version so you will have to buy it first and it can simply be installed via the standard Wordpress theme installer.
It is recommended to install one of the many ready-to-go designs. X-Store offers no less than 100+ webshop demos. These are beautiful complete designs for web shops in many niches such as furniture, tools, clothing, etc. In addition, there are 350+ complete sections that you can use in your designs.
X-Store Theme comes standard with the Bakery Pagebuilder and the Elementor page builder. Elementor is one of the best page builders out there and especially when we talk about the pro version, so it certainly stands out for my choice. But all 100+ shop demos have both an Elementor and Bakery version as seen above, the choice is yours.
X-STORE: SPEEDTEST
We perform a speed test on X-Store under quite optimal conditions, so with cache plug-in and all images optimized. This theme does not indicate that it is specialized on loading times, but the results are excellent as can be seen in the image below.
with optimized images and cache plugin
X-STORE REVIEW: CSS/JS GENERATOR
One of the top features that the theme offers to achieve great loading times is the option to only be able to pack the necessary CSS and Javascript together. Thus, your pages will not load any code that is not used on the page.
X-STORE: HEADER BUILDER
Advanced styling options and multiple HTML elements in the headers, anything is possible. X-Store also has a lot of standard header styles that can be installed with 1 click.
X-STORE: WOO PRODUCT PAGEBUILDER
Okay, let's start with the countless Woocommerce features that X-Store offers. With the Woocommerce Product Pagebuilder you can really customize everything on the product pages without having any technical knowledge. You will be amazed at the ease with which you can style your page yourself.
X-STORE: WOOCOMMERCE AJAX FEATURES
Ajax more or less means that you do not have to go to another page for certain actions, but that they run via a pop-up. Search, filter, wish list and shopping cart can all be opened in a pop up. You can set all this yourself, what is and what is not.
X-STORE: WOOCOMMERCE EMAIL BUILDER
I have been a web designer for 15 years and many customers want to be able to check the emails sent by their shop. There have been plugins for this for a number of years, but this is the first time that I see that a theme has integrated it. X-Store thinks of everything you could wish for in your shop, we have a top Woocommerce theme to do here.
X-STORE: WOO OFF-CANVAS FEATURES
A number of topics have already been discussed above at "Ajax features" so I will not list everything. Below in the image you can see that products can be viewed quickly, your account information or your shopping cart.
X-STORE REVIEW: PREMIUM PLUGINS
To be honest, I don't know of any other theme that has over $ 500 worth of 3rd party plugins in its arsenal. Of course there are certainly themes that have practically all functions of these plugins and more just as standard in their theme, such as with Divi Theme is the case.
X-STORE THEME REVIEW: PRICING
In my opinion, the price of $ 39 is very okay, but only if you are looking for a good webshop theme for only 1 project. In the case of 2 or more web shops, other themes are much more attractively priced and in some cases even better than X-Store. Check here the best webshop themes for [2024]. X-Store is so specialized in the webshop that if you are looking for a theme for a different type of project such as a blog or company website, I would certainly choose another theme.
X-STORE THEME REVIEW: CONCLUSION
There is nothing bad to say about this theme. This is one of the best themes there is to build web shops and it is rising in the rankings and it is better with every upgrade. It works perfectly with the Elementor page builder and that's great too. Yet it is true that, as I indicated in the chapter for the price above, that boss is boss.
The perfect theme for shops & websites is Divi and Astra is a very close second. These themes can be installed on multiple sites and the Divi Theme for example costs only $ 89, and comes with the Divibuilder full version! X-Store comes with Elementor, but that's the free version we're talking about, not the pro version.
X-Store vs TheGem conclusion
First of all, thank you for reading this X-Store vs TheGem comparison to the end. Both themes are 100% compatible with Elementor page builder which is great. If you have the money to install Elementor Pro I definitely would , the difference between free and pro is very big. Let me keep it short and concise, if I were to create a webshop I would definitely choose X-Store. In the case of a normal website or blog, I would rather choose TheGem for that. Both themes are definitely worth their money, provided it is only for 1 single website.
In case you want to provide 2 or more websites with a theme, I do not recommend both of these themes because then it will be much too expensive, since a separate expensive license will be required for each website. In that case, you can much better use Astra or Divi as it will save you money for multiple sites. In addition, these latter themes are ranked higher in my top 10 themes for [2024] than TheGem and X-Store.
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