TheGem and Salient 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. TheGem vs Salient, which is the better theme? We start with TheGem which does not mean it would be better.
TheGem Theme
TheGem has been around since the end of 2016 and has been around for a while. Many of the best-selling themes on Themeforest came out around this time. In the corner of my eye I quickly saw that the theme comes with 2 page builders, which is beautiful. Let’s start quickly with this review.
TheGem's Rating
An average rating of 4.86 out of 5 is very high. On the Themeforest marketplace, the highest rating of the Impreza Theme is 4.89 if I remember correctly. So very satisfied buyers, we can expect something from this theme.
TheGem's Loading Speed
All top themes load quickly today, and no theme can be left behind without losing sales. The results shown below from a GtMetrix speedtest for TheGem, gives a 98% score. Certainly not bad, but many themes score 100 and also for “Structure” the score is better, but there are competitors with better scores. These kinds of high scores are always achieved with a good cache plugin.
Two Page Builders included
TheGem Blocks
TheGem Blocks is basically a database of ready-made blocks, sections, that you can use anywhere on your website. The number of 500+ is very large. Only the best themes offer this kind of service. In addition, TheGem also offers full site demos in all kinds of niches.
Full Website Demos
Without counting them, TheGem has at least 150 full site demos. You can put a complete website on your domain in one go and you can adjust everything to your own style with your favorite page builder.
Portfolios
TheGem is also the right place for portfolios. It’s not a special portfolio theme, but TheGem is all-round. Below is a small example of a beautiful 4-column layout. The theme has 20+ different portfolio and gallery styles.
More Styles: Blog, Widgets, Headers
As you can see below, TheGem has made a beautiful index with what they have to offer in this area. People, this is a complete theme suited for any type of website.
TheGem's Header- & Footer Builder
You can build your header yourself without any technical knowledge with everything you want on it and in it. It won’t cost you hours either, the header and footer builder in TheGem works very quickly and everything is 100% understandable.
Webshops with TheGem
The latest version of TheGem comes with 6 completely new full demo websites. This is in addition to the large number of demos that were already available for shops, of course. A good theme works perfectly with Woocommerce, has all possible professional options for shops and offers countless shopping demos. TheGem has it all.
Woocommerce Builder
The TheGem also features a Woo Builder that allows you to customize product pages and pages such as check out and cart without having to know anything about it.
Premium Sliders included
I personally think they are a bit out of fashion, but other designers are still very enthusiastic about them, Sliders. If you like a header with spectacular slideshows, it’s good to know that TheGem has 2 of the best slider plugins in it for free.
TheGem Review Conclusion
There is of course much more to tell about TheGem, read more on their own site if you are interested in more info. As far as I’m concerned, TheGem is a great theme, especially if you use Elementor, my favorite page builder. The builders of the theme have thought of everything, no important things are missing and the theme loads very quickly. Recommended.
Let’s continue this Salient vs TheGem comparison with the Salient Theme.
The Salient Theme
The Salient theme was already released in 2013 and therefore belongs to the old guard of WordPress themes. It is still in the top 5 on Themeforest today which is a very good sign. So we are dealing with a top theme here. The theme is multipurpose but with an emphasis on webshop construction. Let’s start quickly with this Salient review.
Salient's Ratings
Salient has a rating of 4.81 out of 5 as shown in the screenshot above. That is, to say the least, a great rating that few themes have. This is the average rating of votes cast over almost 10 years. This indicates that the theme is stable and will have few or no errors.
Salient + Woocommerce
Salient is very suitable and offers many great options for building webshops. Below is a good example of the new layouts for your products. Photos in the form of a gallery where the product information is always visible. Modern 2-column layouts allow product images to be seen efficiently and keep the information and buying options visible at all times.
Gallery Images
Or this new Woocommerce feature. Your users can scroll through product images without having to stop at the thumbnails and information.
Scrollable Images
As seen in the video below, there is a “show filters” button which makes searching easier. You don’t have to choose between sidebars or full-page layouts for your products. Give your customers the ability to filter when they need it and keep your products focused until then.
New Filer Lay-out
I’m not going to list all Salient’s Woocommerce features here. Take it from me that Salient is a frontrunner in Woocommerce possibilities and if you are going to build a shop, Salient is definitely worth considering. More Woocommerce info can of course be found on their own site.
Salient Review: Demos
The site for Salient talks about 400+ templates they offer. I’m assuming that’s a combination of sections and full site demos. I count a total of 33 full site demos for Salient. That is certainly not a large number, but the demos are really beautiful, time has been spent on them. The demos shown below are demos for webshops.
Salient's Pagebuilder
As a page builder, Salient uses a high-quality version of the WP-Bakery page builder, an old very reliable and good page builder. This visual front-end Builder is tuned with many extra widgets what brings the total amount of widgets to 65+. Personally, I think they would do well to make their demos available for Elementor, the most popular page builder at the moment.
Responsive Editing
As befits a real page builder, you can edit responsively if desired. You can make separate adjustments to the design for mobile phone, iPad and Desktop. Of course all popular page builders can do this, but I’ll just point it out.
Portfolios
Salient is also a very good theme for those of you who want to build a portfolio website. The theme offers countless different layouts for full width, with column and the separate portfolio pages.
Special Features
Divi is no longer the only theme that is packed with features. Most themes have copied the majority of these features and benefit from this well. I’m not going to list all the features here, that would make this article way too extensive which is not necessary. If you want to see more, check out their own site.
Mix text with Images
Scribble Text
Salient's Header Lay-Outs
With just 1 click you can install another header. You can choose from a wide variety of header menus as shown below. Salient also has a header builder that allows you to make further customizations to your header.
Salient Theme Review Conclusion
The conclusion of my review is that Salient is highly recommended and as far as I’m concerned is in line with the 3 top themes on Themeforest. It has everything a good website needs and more. The things you can do with texts in Salient are really great and the theme is perfect for building a shop. The only problem with Themeforest themes is that you would have to buy a separate license for each of your sites. This while themes such as Astra and Divi are just as good and extensive and used on unlimited sites
Salient vs TheGem Conclusion
I like Salient better, it is just way 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.