JNews and Phlox are both available through Themeforest and are therefore direct competitors. That is certainly the case since both themes can be used for the construction of very nicely looking blogs and shops. JNews vs Phlox, which is the better theme? We start with JNews which does not mean it would be better.
The JNews Theme
The JNews Theme was launched in 2017 and has been doing very well ever since on Themeforest. This theme has recently had a major upgrade and is now completely full of the so-called builders and I can already say that the theme must be one of the best for creating blogs and news websites.
JNews' Rating
JNews has since been sold 17k times and is therefore doing good business. I think this theme will rise in the rankings on Themeforest. It has a very strong rating there of 4.86 out of 5. Few themes exceed that.
Its Loading Speed
Below you can see that the values for speed in Google Page Speed are 99 for mobile and 100 for desktop. I have not tested myself, the builders of the theme indicate this themselves. I assume that at least an elite cache plugin was used for this.
JNews' Page Builders
JNews Theme Review: Header Builder
You can see in the image below how easy it is to place everything in the header in the places you want. All good themes have a header builder and so does JNews. In addition, you can also choose from a large number of standard headers that you can set.
JNews Category Builder
You see, the category builder uses Elementor. Customize your category pages with the greatest of ease. Styling requires no technical knowledge.
Mega Menu Builder
Again with Elementor as the basis, the Mega Menu Builder. You can literally fill in all the boxes with the content you want there. It just doesn’t come easy. A cool tool.
JNews' Style Editor
Right click on any item on the page and you will get many options that you can adjust, for example: margin, background, padding, position, animation and much more.
Demo Websites 67+ and Homepage 150+
The number of 67 for full website demos is more than enough. In the case of JNews, practically all of these demos are for blogs, news websites, podcast websites or video websites. The theme has beautiful layouts available that you can install with a few clicks. There are also 150+ different homepage layouts, so only homepage. You have more than enough choice with JNews.
A Video-Based Site
JNews makes it easy to create a video-based website. This theme includes a lot of features that will allow you to create a video-focused site inspired by Youtube, Dailymotion and Vimeo.
- Thumbnail Preview Video
- Frontend Uploader
- One Video Template
- Video Modules New
- Profil of the User
- Subscribe to User
- Video Playlist
- You can find many more here
Paywriter System in JNews
Let others write for your site. WordPress makes it easy to manage author payments. JNews+ Pay writer system makes it easy to track author’s payments. I would say, this is perfect for the type of website one is going to build with JNews.
Paywall now with Woo-subscriptions
JNews has added a paywall to WooCommerce Subscriptions. This was requested by everyone. JNews Paywall now accepts WooCommerce Subscriptions payments. JNews clearly pays attention to their customers.
JNews Theme Review Conclusion
The Jnews theme is packed with special features for blogs and news sites, which makes this theme simply one of the best of its kind. I can’t show all these features here, you can see the rest on their own website. It should be clear that JNews is an absolute must for people who want to build and run a blog or news website.
Let’s continue this Phlox vs JNews comparison with the Phlox Theme.
The Phlox Theme
As a matter of fact this website you are looking at right now, I built it with Phlox Premium and Elementor. I can tell you right away that this is a great theme, but we’re going through all the points of the theme so slowly. Phlox was launched back in 2013, a golden age for WP themes.
Phlox Themes' Rating
The Phlox Theme has a free version with a rating of 4.8 out of 5 as seen above. The premium theme has an average rating of 4.66 out of 5. With these figures, the Phlox theme is among the best rated themes on Themeforest.
Loading Speed
The Phlox theme has impressive loading times as can be seen below in the 4 completed tests. However, there are faster themes, such as Astra. Such fast loading times are always achieved with an elite cache plugin.
Phlox's Page Builder
Phlox is a so-called Elementor Theme, which means built to support Elementor. Building the website practically only happens with Elementor. What I needed Phlox for was a beautiful demo website from which I could start my site. The demos of Elementor Pro itself I found a bit disappointing.
160+ extra Widgets in Elementor
Purchasing Elementor Pro is made completely unnecessary by the many extra widgets offered by Phlox within the page builder, 160+ to be precise. An unprecedented number of extra widgets which offers practically unlimited possibilities.
A Second Page Builder
You also get the Bakery page builder as a tuned version with about 60 extra widgets in it by Phlox.
Building a Blog
We call the structure of this website a blog. If you click on “Blog” in the menu or on “Compare Themes” you will see the blog layout. There are dozens of settings what people do and don’t want to show in the items. My experience with the Phlox theme for blogs is very good, this site is like my baby everything works so well. So if you want to build a blog, Phlox is definitely a good choice.
Phlox offers a variety of layouts and options to help you become a professional blogger, or just to get started in the blogging world. You can do everything with blogging. Phlox uses best practices in typography design to ensure that content is easily readable on all devices. Phlox supports all types of blogging, including grid, masonry and timeline. It also covers layouts such as tile, land and classic.
Phlox Theme Review: Starter Sites
I just mentioned that I had selected Phlox on its beautiful demo websites, in total there are 190+. These come in different specializations such as blogs, shops, corporate and much more. The layouts are of extremely high quality. As far as I’m concerned, Phlox is even undervalued with its rating.
Reuse Sections
Being able to save and reuse sections at lightning speed is a great feature. It says “Exclusive” in the corner but there are many more themes that have this.
Phlox: Global Colors
The theme uses 3 basic colors that are used throughout the site. If you adjust it, it will automatically adjust across the entire site. Doesn’t seem like a real exclusive feature to me, but it’s certainly practical.
Headers and Footers
The Phlo theme offers a complete collection of options for both footers and headers. There will certainly be something to your liking for your website. You can make further adjustments to your chosen design with the Header & Footer Builder.
Phlox Theme Review Conclusion
I assume that you have received a very positive impression of Phlo by now, this is a great theme. I can’t copy all the information here, not 1 on 1. If your interest has been piqued, read on on their own website. As far as I’m concerned, Phlox is one of the better themes on Themeforest and highly recommended.
Phlox vs JNews Conclusion
I like JNews better, it is just a bit better overall specially for blogs. But there is a small problem, these themes want to see a separate expensive license for every website you want to build with it. This will quickly cost you a lot of money. You are better off with Astra or Divi that can be used on an unlimited sites and are also even better and more stable themes.