Phlox and PopularFX are both available through WordPress.org 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 PopularFX, 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 PopularFX vs Phlox comparison with the PopularFX Theme.
The PopularFX Theme
In this PopularFX theme review I will quickly show you the best features of this theme, for both the free and the premium version. This theme is highly ranked on wp.org and has over 100,000 active installs. Recently, the theme has again made a number of startling upgrades and are also discussed.
PopularFX's rating
I must honestly say there are themes with a better average rating like Astra, but with a 4.6 out of 5 rating, PopularFX is certainly in the 5% best rated themes on wordpress.org. The last time I wrote a review for PopularFX a year ago, the rating was 0.1 lower, so there is also an improvement.
PopularFX Starter Demos
On the PopularFX site they are called “Templates”. I usually call them Demos or Starter Sites, but these are about 1-click install designs. In its own words, PopularFX offers 350+ of these demos, an unprecedented number! Even the free version has hundreds of demos in every niche one can think of. There are very few themes that exceed these numbers.
PopularFX PageBuilder
PopularFX uses “Pagelayer” as basic editor, a Drag&Drop Visual Inline Pagebuilder that they developed themselves. Nowadays there are more and more themes that develop their own page builder. I must honestly say that I prefer to just work with the DiviBuilder or Elementor, but most of these page builders just work very well.
PageLayer Widgets
The Pagelayer Editor has a nice number of widgets, nothing impressive but certainly enough to build great sites with. There are a lot more widgets than the one in the image above, but I’m not going to show them all.
PopularFX Load Speed
Website visitors have little patience, so having a fast-loading site is a must. As can be seen in the image, PopularFX is very fast and thus certainly meets the requirements. These results were achieved with one of the best cache plugins out there.
PopularFX & Woocommerce
PopularFX theme is fully compatible with WooCommerce, which makes it easy to design an e-commerce website. It is easy to sell, manage and grow any product online. The theme also has a large number of demos especially for shops and together with the widgets in their page builder, you can certainly build a good shop with PopularFX.
PopularFX Review Conclusion
I am going to finish this PopularFX theme review. The theme has a good page builder, has a lot and quite good demos, loads quickly and meets all the requirements that a good theme must meet. The problem is the price. For less money you can purchase much better themes such as Divi or Astra and that is also for unlimited sites.
PopularFX vs Phlox Conclusion
I like Phlox better, it is just a bit better overall. The problem is Phlox wants 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.