X-Store and Bridge are both sold through the same marketplace and are therefore direct competitors. That is certainly the case since both themes can be used for the construction of very nicely looking webshops. X-Store vs Bridge, which is the better theme? We start with X-Store which does not mean it would be better.
The X-Store Theme
In this XStore review we investigate why this theme has risen so quickly in the rankings. In their own words, the XStore theme is the perfect theme for building webshops. Unfortunately, it’s sold through the infamous Themeforest marketplace, but I’m not going to count any negatives for that. That wouldn’t be fair.
XStore Theme's Rating
An average rating of 4.85 out of 5 is of course brilliant. There are therefore only a handful of themes that score a better rating than the XStore theme. Users of the theme are therefore very satisfied with it, good to know.
XStore Theme: Loading Speed
I grabbed a random page from their demo for the test. The loading times are more than good. I assume that a very good cache plugin is installed on this demo, it almost has to be.
XStore Theme Review Demos
The XStore theme gives you more than 110 demo websites. They are practically all editable with one of the two very good page builders that you get, namely Elementor and WP Bakery. That is a number that exceeds that of most themes. Also keep in mind that most of them are layouts for shops which makes it all the more beautiful.
XStore Page Builders
I mentioned it before in the chapter “Demos”, you can choose from 2 page builders. The Elementor Pagebuilder which is definitely the better one but you don’t have the full version available unless you order it with it which isn’t a bad idea. Elementor is my favorite page builder. In addition, you have the full version of WP-Bakery with the XStore theme with even a plugin that provides many more widgets in the plugin. I must say, a very neat package that is offered here.
XStore Theme Free Plugins
What immediately struck me while writing this XStore theme review was the huge number of extra plugins that you get completely free. Together they are worth over $500 if you were to buy them. What I have to say in all honesty is that themes such as Divi do not need all those plugins because all that functions are already present in the theme itself.
XStore Theme Elements
The number of design elements or widgets that you have available in the page builder is very large. You can count them yourself, and that’s not all.
The theme’s website does not indicate whether it is for Elementor or WP-Bakery.
But I assume the latter because in the previous chapter I saw the extra plugin “Massive addons for Visual Composer” which is the old name for WP-Bakery is.
XStore Theme HeaderBuilder
The Header Builder is a great thing and looks good. Many themes now come with all these gadgets that have in principle been invented piece by piece by “the king of themes”: Divi.
XStore Single Product Builder
Plugins used to have this feature, nowadays every self-respecting theme is equipped with a decent WooBuilder. Everyone has special requirements for their shopping layout, so nowadays I wouldn’t work with a theme that lacks this.
XStore Theme Review Conclusion
This is already the end of this XStore Theme review. There is much more to say about it, but I want to keep the review short and sweet. More info is of course available via the button above on their own website. I have to say, all the points discussed are beautiful and there is actually very little missing from this theme. The only flaw I see is the way it is sold. The Themeforest marketplace requires themes to require a separate license for each of your websites. This gets expensive quickly. Someone with multiple websites would do well to work with Divi or Astra where they conduct the “Unlimited Website Usage” policy.
Let’s continue this X-Store vs Bridge comparison with the Bridge Theme.
The Bridge Theme
In this Bridge theme review we look at how this theme scores on a number of important points. Which page builders are used, what are the features for webshops, how fast does it load, and what other striking features are there. Bridge was launched in 2014 by Qode, a Power Elite Author.
Bridge Theme Rating
A good theme is immediately recognized by a good rating that has been built up over the course of at least a few years. That is more than the case with the Bridge theme. With a rating of 4.78 out of 5, it ranks highest on the Themeforest marketplace.
Bridge's Pagebuilders
The demos of the Bridge theme can be edited with 2 well-known page builders, namely Elementor and WP-Bakery. I definitely prefer the former, although I also like working with the Bakery page builder. Bridge doesn’t target Gutenberg at all, which is a good thing. Gutenberg is a complete disaster and will never be a success.
Bridge Review: Demos
The Bridge theme comes with more than 610 demo websites. About 250 of these were made for Elementor, and a sloppy 350 for WP-Bakery pagebuilder. A good theme comes with many and well-styled demos and you are in the right place with Bridge. All these demos can be easily installed with 1 click, then you can continue working on them with your favorite page builder.
Bridge Review: Headers
A beautiful collection with all kinds of differently styled headers has been well thought out. I hope everything on the screenshot shows well, otherwise go to their own site and check out the layouts there.
Bridge Review: Blog
The variety in blog layouts is also striking, this has also been well thought out. The Bridge theme is also ideal for building blog websites. View the various options that Bridge offers below.
Bridge Review: Portfolio
I must honestly say that the Bridge theme is suitable for practically any type of website. For corporate websites, for shops, for blogs, and for very specific niches such as travel, education or music sites. Below is a screenshot of a 4-column portfolio layout. Bridge also offers great versatility and options when it comes to portfolios.
Bridge Webshops
With Bridge you can build very good professional shops. You have tons of beautiful shop designs and shopping widgets at your disposal to make a success of your webshop.
Special Features
Bridge is packed with special features and I’m not going to list them all here. I show three of them below, you can view the rest on the Bridge website.
Build beautiful graphs with the Bridge Line Graph feature.
For your online business the Bridge Pricing Calculator will always come in handy.
The Bridge cross-fade images gives a different view of images.
Bridge Theme Review Conclusion
This Bridge theme review is coming to an end, I’ll give you my overall opinion about it. There is no denying that Bridge is a great theme. One can really build any type of website with it, it has several good page builders in it and has a lot of good demo websites. Furthermore, it has many wonderful extra features and settings so that everything can be adjusted without technical knowledge.
Bridge vs X-Store Conclusion
Bridge or X-Store is not that big of a difference. Both themes have many and beautiful demos that can be edited with different page builders. Both themes are more than excellent for building e-commerce websites and load very quickly. If I had to have a favorite it would be Bridge I think. It has some more gadgets and demos. Both themes require a separate license for each site on which you want to install it. If you have several sites, it is probably more economically sensible to work with Astra or Divi that can be used on unlimited sites and are also more stable themes.