Phlox and Ohio 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 Ohio, 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 Ohio vs Phlox 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.
Ohio 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.