Phlox and Newspaper 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. Phlox vs Newspaper, which is the better theme? We start with Phlox which does not mean it would be better.
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.
Let’s continue this Newspaper vs Phlox comparison with the Newspaper Theme.
The Newspaper Theme
The Newspaper theme has been around since 2013 and therefore belongs to the established order. Over time, all the bugs disappear from themes and a very good product remains. This theme specializes in building news sites, blogs and is ultimately a bit multipurpose. A lot can be done with this theme.
Newspaper Theme Rating
The average rating of 4.82 out of 5 is particularly high. Since Newspaper is a niche theme, this indicates that the theme is almost perfect for building blogs and news websites. Newspaper is also very suitable for web shops.
Newspaper's Demo Websites
I count a total of 160 starter sites, also called demo websites. The quality of the demos is so good and spread over all kinds of different niches that this number is more than enough. There are themes that offer much more, but the quality is very important.
Demos for Webshops
Newspaper offers a total of 8 demo websites for webshops that can be installed with 1 click. These are not the first best designs but very neat looking layouts.
Newspaper Theme Review: Shop Builder
Newspaper now also has its own Shop Builder, just like Divi has had its WooBuilder for years. All copied from Divi, but it works well. This shopbuilder is equipped with 27 special elements for shops. With this you can set up your cart and other shop pages exactly as you had in mind.
TagDiv PageBuilder
Here we come to a feature that can certainly be improved, but I wonder if they will do it because they are a bit proud of their own page builder. Of course, it cannot be compared with a DiviBuilder or Elementor. This is practically the only thing I don’t like about Newspaper, the page builder is a weakness. I must honestly say that it is not a bad page builder but it can just be better.
Performance Optimizer
You can see here link what exactly the optimizer does for you, which is impressive. This used to be impossible to achieve in a WordPress website without being an expert in this field. Now several themes have this type of optimizers and they make very fast loading websites with them. The fastest theme always remains Astra, regardless of what other themes say about themselves.
Header- and Footerbuilder
For a good theme it is nowadays a requirement to have a header builder and a footer builder, since all top themes have this. Newspaper certainly belongs to the top and of course has this too. I will not go into this further.
Newspaper's Pop-up's
Not all themes have this much anymore. Newspaper lets you use an unlimited number of popups on your pages. Purchasing pop-up plugins is no longer necessary. It is true that a service like PopTin is much more flexible and better, I prefer these kinds of services as popups bring in money they are very important.
Newspaper Theme Review: Conclusion
Let’s wrap up this Newspaper Review. The theme has much more to offer, but I will not list the complete package here. If your interest has been piqued, you can read more on their own site. My opinion about this theme is very positive, it can and has everything one needs to build a good site. I would like to see that the demos can also be edited with Elementor in the future, that would improve the theme considerably. Highly recommended.
Newspaper vs Phlox Conclusion
I like Phlox better, it is just a bit better overall. But also, 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.