X Theme Review: A Versatile WordPress Theme for Building Custom Websites
Are you looking for a powerful and flexible WordPress theme that allows you to create completely custom websites without writing any code? The X theme, one of the bestselling themes on ThemeForest, aims to provide that functionality through its unique set of features. In this comprehensive X theme review, we‘ll take a deep dive into what this theme offers and help you determine if it‘s the right choice for your WordPress website in 2024.
What is the X WordPress Theme?
Developed by Themeco, the X theme is a multipurpose WordPress theme that has been hugely popular since its initial release in 2013. With over 223,000 sales and a nearly perfect 5-star rating from thousands of customers, X has proven itself as a top contender in the premium WordPress theme market.
The standout feature of the X theme is its integrated page builder called Cornerstone. This front-end, drag-and-drop editor gives you complete control over your site‘s design and layout without requiring you to touch any code. Whether you want to build a business website, online store, portfolio, or blog, X theme aims to provide the tools and flexibility you need.
Key Features of the X WordPress Theme
Let‘s take a closer look at some of the core features that make the X theme unique:
Cornerstone Page Builder
Cornerstone is X theme‘s proprietary front-end page builder that operates on a visual canvas. With Cornerstone, you can craft pixel-perfect designs by dragging and dropping elements like text, images, buttons, and more. The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface shows you exactly how your page will look to visitors as you build it.
Some key characteristics of the Cornerstone builder:
- Intuitive drag-and-drop functionality
- Responsive design controls to optimize your site for different screen sizes
- Precision controls for spacing, borders, shadows, and other style properties
- Ability to save and reuse elements across your site
- User-friendly inline text editing
- Custom CSS control for more advanced customization
Cornerstone goes beyond just page building by also allowing you to construct your theme‘s header, footer, and other global elements. The Theme Options panel provides further sitewide design settings that you can customize using a real-time preview.
Starter Templates
While X theme equips you to build a website from scratch, it also includes a variety of pre-designed templates to help you start on the right foot. Themeco offers a collection of "Stacks" which are complete website designs with sample content that you can import and customize.
Currently there are four Stacks to choose from: Integrity, Renew, Icon, and Ethos. Each has a distinct style – for example, Ethos has a minimal look suited for portfolios. With the Cornerstone builder, you can easily modify any of the Stack designs to fit your brand and content.
In addition to full site templates, the X theme provides a library of pre-built page elements like hero sections, forms, maps, counters, and more. These "Design Cloud" assets can be quickly inserted to build out pages.
WooCommerce Integration
X theme is fully compatible with the WooCommerce plugin for adding ecommerce functionality to your site. It includes custom features to enhance your online store, such as:
- Pre-built shop page designs
- Product quick view windows
- Distraction-free checkout pages
- Dropdown cart previews
So if you‘re looking to launch an ecommerce business, X theme is equipped to handle it in style.
Plugin Integrations
X theme offers built-in support for many popular WordPress plugins, making it easy to add key features to your site. Some examples of X theme‘s plugin integrations:
- bbPress and BuddyPress for online communities
- The Events Calendar for event management
- Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms for custom form building
- MailChimp for email marketing
- Slider Revolution and LayerSlider for dynamic sliders
Rather than finding and configuring a separate theme to work with these plugins, X theme is set up to integrate with them out of the box, saving you valuable time and effort.
Advantages of Using the X Theme
Why might you consider choosing X theme for your WordPress website? Here are some of its biggest selling points:
Complete Design Flexibility
The main draw of X theme is the creative freedom it provides. Through the Cornerstone page builder and Theme Options, you can easily customize every aspect of your site‘s appearance to match your unique vision. This is especially valuable for website owners who want a distinct, memorable design without hiring a developer.
Extensive Functionality
X theme is a true multi-purpose theme that comes with an impressive array of built-in functionality to support different types of websites. Whether you‘re running a small business site, blog, portfolio, online store, or membership site, X theme aims to provide the features you need. It also bundles in some useful third-party plugins like Slider Revolution to extend your capabilities at no extra cost.
Cohesive Site Building
Rather than piecemealing together a WordPress theme, page builder plugin, and other add-ons from different developers, the X theme provides a cohesive site building experience. All of its features are designed to work together seamlessly, which makes for an efficient workflow and consistent output. You can tell that a lot of thought has gone into creating an intuitive site building process within the X theme.
Continuous Improvements
When you purchase the X theme, you receive lifetime updates to the theme at no additional charge. Themeco is committed to refining and expanding X theme‘s capabilities over time, so you can feel confident that your site will be able to grow along with the theme. X theme has already been around for nearly a decade and looks to have a bright future ahead.
Potential Downsides of the X Theme
Of course, no WordPress theme is perfect. Here are a few potential drawbacks to weigh against X theme‘s strengths:
Steeper Learning Curve
Because of X theme‘s vast feature set, it may take some time to learn your way around all of its options and settings. The Cornerstone page builder can also be a bit overwhelming at first. While X theme is beginner-friendly in the sense that it doesn‘t require coding knowledge, it‘s probably better suited for users who are already somewhat comfortable with WordPress and website building.
Potential Performance Impact
With its large collection of design assets, animations, and other features, the X theme is heavier than some other WordPress themes. This can negatively affect your page loading speed, especially if your host server is on the slower side. To get the most out of X theme‘s capabilities while maintaining a fast site, you‘ll want to follow best practices like optimizing images, reducing plugin bloat, and investing in quality hosting.
X Theme vs. Other Popular WordPress Themes
How does X theme stack up against other multipurpose WordPress themes? Let‘s compare it with a few top alternatives.
Divi
Like X theme, Divi by Elegant Themes centers around a powerful visual page builder. It offers similar customization abilities and flexiblity. One advantage of Divi is that it comes bundled with several other WordPress plugins, making it a good value if you need those tools. However, Divi has a ongoing yearly cost, whereas you pay a one-time fee for X theme.
Avada
Avada is another hugely popular theme on ThemeForest. It also includes a drag-and-drop page builder with a large library of elements. One of Avada‘s standout features is its Selection of design presets that you can apply to instantly change your site‘s look. However, some users find Avada less intuitive to use than X theme.
Astra
If you‘re looking for a lightweight theme, Astra is a great choice. It‘s one of the fastest themes available and offers multiple starter templates. Unlike X theme, though, Astra relies on the native WordPress customizer and Gutenberg editor rather than a separate page builder. So it may not be as suitable if you want that visual, drag-and-drop customization experience.
Ultimately, the best theme for you depends on your specific needs and preferences. If having granular control over your site‘s design via a page builder is a top priority, X theme is definitely worth considering. But if speed is more important, a theme like Astra may be a better fit.
X Theme Showcase
To give you a sense of the variety of websites you can create with the X theme, here are a few examples of it in action:
Kap Kap Caps
[Screenshot 1] This ecommerce site selling baseball caps makes great use of X theme‘s WooCommerce integration. Kap Kap Caps has engaging product quick views and a clean, conversion-focused design.Jonas Åström
[Screenshot 2] This online portfolio for a Swedish tattoo artist has a cool, edgy vibe that fits the style of the artist‘s work. Using the Icon Stack, the designer made great use of the hero section and gallery element to showcase an image-heavy site.Xidipity
[Screenshot 3] Xidipity is a multi-author blog for web designers and developers. It has a traditional blog layout enhanced with unique design elements like a full-screen flyout menu and subtle animations and hover effects.For more inspiration, you can browse the Themeco Showcase which features dozens of example X theme sites.
Getting Started With X Theme
If you think the X theme might be right for your website, getting started is easy. Here‘s a quick overview of the process:
- Purchase the theme license from ThemeForest and download the zip file.
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes and click the "Add New" button at the top.
- Click the "Upload Theme" button and select the X theme zip file from your computer.
- Once the theme is installed, click the "Activate" button to enable it on your site.
- Navigate to X Theme > Validation to enter your Envato purchase code and unlock the theme.
- Go to X Theme > Customizer to configure your global theme settings.
- You can then use the Cornerstone editor to start building out your pages and layouts.
Final Thoughts on X Theme
After many years on the market, the X theme has demonstrated that it has staying power as one of the most versatile and popular WordPress themes available today. It‘s especially well-suited for WordPress users who want complete creative control over their site‘s design but don‘t have the coding chops to build a custom theme from scratch.
Of course, no theme is one-size-fits-all. The X theme has a bit of a learning curve, and its feature-rich nature means it may not be as performant as other more lightweight themes out of the box. But in the hands of an eager web designer, the X theme can be an incredibly powerful tool for building websites that are both beautiful and functional.
Ultimately, the best way to know if X theme is right for you is to test it out. Try importing one of the Stacks to get a feel for how the theme looks and works. Play around with the Cornerstone builder to see how intuitive you find it. ThemeForest offers refunds within 30 days of purchase if you decide it‘s not a good fit.
But if you like the visual, drag-and-drop approach to web design and want access to a robust set of site building tools, the X theme is definitely worth checking out as you explore options for your WordPress website.
