Alright, ladies and gentlemen, things just got serious! We’re not here to ramble over some niche themes this time: it’s giant versus giant. Two of the best-selling ThemeForest items of all time, and also top premium WordPress themes ever to exist on the face of this planet, Avada and X Theme are competing for your web projects. Let’s do it!
A Close-up View
Never in the history of WP theme comparisons have we had such a close match: both themes are so well-built, well-designed and well-supported (and their user ratings diverge by just 0.02!) that one really needs to seek out the differences with a magnifying glass. First, let’s summarize some of the comparable parameters in a table:
| Avada | X Theme | |
|---|---|---|
| Year created | 2012 | 2013 |
| Content builder | Fusion (custom) | Cornerstone (custom) |
| Builder elements | 55 | 42 |
| Pre-built styles | 1 | 4 |
| One-click demos | 27 | 12 |
| ThemeForest sales | 300,000+ | 150,000+ |
| Average rating | 4.77 | 4.75 |
| Price | $60 | $39 |
Avada as well as X Theme strive to be the “ultimate WordPress theme” – in order words, be able to support any style and type of website one could possible wish to build. The most important components of this capability are theme options, or the customization settings which allow changing the color, size, and other properties of website elements – as well as a content builder, a visual tool enabling creating complex page layouts from pre-coded and pre-styled functional elements, such as text, images, buttons, etc.
Both themes contain a enormous number of settings in their custom-built options panels, and each uses a proprietary content builder: Fusion for Avada and Cornerstone for X Theme. The former offers a wider choice of building blocks, at 55 compared to 42 for the Cornerstone. All frequently used one are still thoroughly covered in both, though.
As if that wasn’t enough, both Avada and X Theme go further by introducing one-click demos and stacks. One-click demos are full website designs prefabricated by the theme authors, focusing on a specific niche, like corporate, agency, or nonprofit. They are easy to import and apply, giving you a fleshed-out sample to work from, instead of a black canvas: simply add your text and images, and tweak the part that need to be adjusted – and voila, you’ve got a website in under an hour! Avada is clearly more diverse when it comes to demos, providing 27 for its users.
X Theme currently has only 12, but they’re adding new ones every now and then, so the tally might shift in the future. The creators of the X Theme have another ace up their sleeves, though: the so-called stacks, or pre-made visual systems which effectively mean that you get 4 themes instead of one. Each stack has its own distinctive style, while still adhering to the theme’s overarching aim at simplicity, clarity and minimalism. While Avada is theoretically also capable of producing distinct visual styles, this requires altering multiple theme settings to achieve, while X Theme provides this functionality with a single click.
The Winner?
Looking at the capabilities reveals that Avada is still a more diverse product, while X Theme does everything to make it as simple as possible to use. One more important component that we can’t leave out is the pricing. In this area, X Theme is an undisputable winner: providing most of the same features for $39, which is a 35% difference with Avada, priced at $60.
In the end, it all boils down to your needs and preferences, of course, but here’s the gist: if you want a high-quality website fast, and at a minimum price – go for X Theme. If you like to have as many options and features as possible and appreciate a coherent design system, then Avada is what you’re after.