XStore and Porto are both sold through the same marketplace and are therefore direct competitors. That is certainly the case since both themes were built for the construction of webshops. XStore vs Porto, which is the better theme? We start with Porto which does not mean it would be better.
The Porto Theme
Porto ThemeThe WordPress version of the Porto theme was released in 2015. This is in response to the more than popular HTML5 theme of the same name, which has been around since 2013. It didn’t do them any harm because the WP version now ranks in the top 5 on the infamous Themeforest marketplace. In this Porto Review I quickly show you the most important features and gadgets of Porto.
Porto Theme: Ratings
The Porto Theme itself states that it has a 4.92 out of 5 rating, but as you can see below, it is even a little higher. This rating is good, but it must be said that Porto’s direct competitors (sold through the same marketplace) also score these kinds of figures. Those are all fantastic themes by the way. This rating has been built up over the period of 8 years, so they have constantly been doing well.
Porto Theme Review Demos
A total of 123 demo websites is a large number. It’s always nice to have a wide choice of different designs so that’s great. As you can see below, a large part of it is for web shops (42). There are demo dedicated to Gutenberg, Elementor and WP-Bakery page builder. That means you can immediately continue working on it or adjust things with those page builders.
Porto Theme Review: Woocommerce
Of course I can’t show 123 demos here, but you can see some of them in the image below. You can of course view the rest on their own site. The layout in the image below are all demos for shops, of which there are currently 42 in total. The designs are of high quality. This, in combination with the many features that Porto has for shops, makes it a breeze to build a beautiful professional webshop.
Porto Theme's Page Builders
I mentioned it before, Porto works with 3 different page builders and demos are also available for that. We are talking about the Elementor, the WP-Bakery and the Gutenberg editors.
Porto Theme's Elements
There are many more elements, but I don’t want to show them all here, below you can see a good selection from the range. The number of elements can easily be expanded even further with addon plugins that both Elementor and WP-Bakery have available from third parties in abundance.
Porto Theme Review: Speed
Of course, the Porto Theme can be loaded quickly in all browsers. Very important nowadays since without a fast website you will not be found well in Google, and visitors would leave your website early. Therefore make sure that you always have one of the best cache plugins installed.
Porto Theme Review: Library
Porto Studio is the name of the template library, filled with section, calls-to-actions and more. You can build pages at lightning speed by loading individual sections into your design. It is also possible to grab sections of the complete demo websites that you like.
Porto's Page HeaderBuilder
In the video below you can see how quickly you can work with the page header builder. It offers unlimited possibilities to style your header exactly as you had in mind. Of course, also use the section from the librarian that I just showed you. Click op de Play Button!
Porto Theme Review Conclusion
Cool that you read my Porto theme review to the end. As a web designer I have both the HTML and the WordPress version of Porto in my arsenal. The Porto theme is simply one of the best themes for building shops, although there are quite a lot of them these days. The theme has no real shortcomings and you can also build other types of websites with it, although I would certainly prefer Divi or Astra for that, which offer much more value for money with the unlimited site usage policy.
Let’s continue this XStore vs Porto comparison with the XStore Theme.
The XStore 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.
XStore vs Porto Conclusion
Porto and XStore are all great themes. Porto has slightly better sales, and XStore has a slightly better rating. Both are specialized in building web shops. I like XStore’s demo designs better. So my choice falls on XStore, but only if we are building a shop, otherwise I prefer to work with Astra or Divi.