Ohio and X-Store 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. Ohio vs X-Store, 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 Ohio comparison with the Ohio Theme.
The Ohio Theme
The Ohio theme is still very new compared to other themes in the top sales on the Themeforest marketplace. Where most top themes came out between 2013 and 2015 is Ohio from the beginning of 2020. So the theme made advances very quickly, which is due to a number of points, we will come back to that in a moment.
Ohio Theme's Rating
A rating of 4.85 out of 5 can measure itself with the rating of the best themes on Themeforest. Ohio not only has a good rating but also good sales figures for a fairly new theme. The theme will certainly rise even further, they do a lot of good.
Ohio's Page Builders
Look, here we immediately have something that the builders of the theme do very well. They don’t come with a sloppy own page builder but use 2 very reputable page builders in Elementor and WP-Bakery. As a professional web designer I prefer to work with the best page builders out there and not always with someone else I don’t know by heart. I assume others think the same.
Fast loading Times
In addition to very cleanly written code, incredibly fast loading times are a must for themes these days. The fastest theme I know is Astra, but nowadays all top-selling themes are very fast. The Ohio theme scores very well in this area and can compete with the best.
In order to quickly display content in browsers also on mobile layouts, image sets must be prepared so as not to have to show oversized images. Ohio does all this perfectly.
Webshops with Ohio Theme
Also a must nowadays if you offer a theme, is that it works perfectly with the Woocommerce plugin to be able to build shops with it. In addition, buyers of Woo-Themes like to see beautiful extra features for shops such as Ajax Cart, Swatches, a nicely working Currency Switcher, Sticky Products and more. With Ohio you are in the right place in this regard, the theme gives very good thought to the shopping functions and has it all.
Ohio Theme and Blogging
The Ohio Theme also allows one to build great blogs. We are slowly finding out that Ohio is a fast riser because the theme is very all-round and has all the important things in it in a cool way.
Ohio theme review: Demos
By its own admission, Ohio Theme has 50+ full site demos as well as many pre-built sections that you can use anywhere on your site.
325+ Elements
The combined number of widgets or elements for Elementor and WP-Bakery are over 325. This includes standard elements and custom/new ones by Ohio/Figma.
Menu-Styles for Ohio
Ohio has ready-made menus that you can set up in your website with 1 click. Further adjustments can then be made, but this is usually not necessary. So the Ohio theme has its own header builder shines. The strange thing is that it is in Elementor, the page builder that uses the theme. At least they don’t advertise it.
Portfolios
Ohio is not very extensive for portfolios, but it has not been forgotten either. I would definitely use a different theme for a portfolio site but Ohio can be used if you are not too demanding.
Font Styles in Ohio Theme
Something that is really well arranged in this theme are the font styles. You can use virtually all Google, Adobe and other fonts in your websites without having to upload anything.
Ohio Theme Review Conclusion
The Ohio Theme is a complete theme, exactly what we thought from the start in this review based on the beautiful rating. The 2 page builders in it are very good, and the theme also offers everything to create any type of website. The theme will certainly be improved in upgrades for years to come. Ohio is definitely recommended, although there are much better themes of course.
X-Store vs Ohio Conclusion
X-Store or Ohio 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 X-Store 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.