The story goes like this: Themeco team has analyzed their customer’s profiles and learned that some of them have higher standards of customization. So, they’ve launched X Pro for people who create websites for others, ‘people who want a more advanced control to their websites.’ I’ve tested both X v. 5.0 and X Pro to find out the differences and help you choose the right one for you. After two days of intense testing, I came to a conclusion: the release of the X Pro is a marketing strategy aiming to give Themeco a backup plan, free from Envato while targeting the customers from the Australian market. X Pro is an evolved twin sister of the X theme.
Let’s start with the beginning
Three days ago, on April 10, 2017, the long expected major update of X theme finally happened. The big surprise for everyone was not feature related, it was about the new Themeco product strategy: the X Pro.
If you want to test the Themeco new product, and have a previously bought X license from Envato, you can convert it for free (directly from your Themeco account). For the moment, things are a bit unsure, and you don’t have a clear path where things are going with the pricing.
You are not an Envato client and want to purchase the X Pro theme? You don’t have to make an account on Themeco website to get it. On the X Pro landing page, you have to hit the Purchase button, and you’ll be redirected to a checkout page. Just fill your personal info and the preferred payment option, and you’re done. The price is $69.
Quick X Pro thoughts
X Pro introduces three interconnected builders with new tools. The theme detects the Cornerstone builder and automatically deactivates it because in the X Pro this “plugin” is integrated into the theme files as part of the content builder. With the X Pro you’ll have a Header, Content and Footer builder, all in one theme.
Header and Footer Builders are a creative and new way to built the above the fold and bottom sections. If you have converted the X theme to X Pro, the new interface of the template lets you choose what area do you want to customize: Theme Options, Templates, Headers, Content or Footers. You can explore and modify the Bars, Containers, and Elements. The Header and Footer Builders come with a CSS library – Flex Box, that gives you control over how the content is displayed. From borders, box shadow, dimensions, margins, paddings, these two builders are quite flexible, and you can include 15 elements to make these areas more attractive. You can assign each footer or header to a specific page or globally on the entire website.
Main differences between X and X Pro:
| X | X Pro |
|---|---|
| Premium | Premium |
| $39 on Envato Market (special offer for now) | $69 on Themeco website |
| Free converter for X users | |
| Cornerstone and Visual Composer page builders | Visual Composer, Header Builder, Footer Builder, Content Builder (Cornerstone) |
| 27 extensions (plugins) | 27 extensions (plugins) |
| No custom widgets | No custom widgets |
| Admin Panel with 15 submenus | Admin Panel with 14 submenus |
| Launch button (customize): Theme Options, Templates, Content | Launch button (customize): Theme Options, Templates, Headers, Content, Footers |
| 43 Demos | No demos |
| – | Color Manager |
| – | Font Manager |
| – | Flexbox controls |
| 22 blocks | 22 blocks |
| 5 premade pages | 5 premade pages |
Conclusion
So, at first sight I’ll say that is much easy to use the X theme if you are a WordPress beginner, or you don’t have the time and you don’t want to build your site from scratch. But, if you are searching precisely for details and you want to design each pixel of your website with your own hands, then, X Pro is what you are looking for. All in all, these two seem to share a common framework and both come from an experienced theme author :).
What do you mean when you say Content builder (Cornerstone) instead of saying just “Cornerstone”? Is it a different Cornerstone?
Hi, Rodrigo! If you choose to get X from Themeforest you will get the Cornerstone page builder, just as you probably know it. But if you choose to purchase X Pro from their main website you will get the Cornerstone reinterpreted: https://www.screencast.com/t/yC2lr4MT5qj. Read more about if on the author’s page: https://theme.co/blog/say-hello-to-x-five-and-pro-one/.
x theme pro by themeco sucks. they completely built something that is missing so much core functionality, but broke the system so you can’t even write your own css anymore. you can’t customize it easily, basically, at this point, you are probably better off writing your own code because x theme pro will make your life harder and more frustrating.
things don’t work, they didn’t optimize for mobile (who does that in 2017?!?!?!?!?!) and they created an interface that doesn’t work.
in short they completely messed up all of their previous software. buyer beware. after you buy it and find you can’t do anything with it, enjoy your useless software.
Hi, Jack! Thank you for taking the time and share your thoughts about the X and X Pro WordPress themes, with us and our visitors.
Hi Jack,
Which product are you referring to? X, PRO, both?
I’ve just realized that by the time you wrote your comment the new product was called “X Theme Pro”. The product was recently renamed to “Pro”.
Now I know what you were talking about.
yep, referring to pro. however in the upgrade path to pro they also took a lot of abilities AWAY from X, and added a bunch of useless javascript, so X is looking less and less good to buy.
I agree, have invested in five licenses and upgrades to interface make for a more confusing environment. The previous version was easier to use, too complicated.
I’m continually frustrated with the cornerstone editor update. It feels like the update was targeted towards custom development, yet I can’t get any of the new features to work that they added in and have lost all of my pre-populated page templates and presets.
I also have a hard time finding others who have experienced trouble with the new update. I’m beginning to wonder if this is an isolated problem. I’m no developer but I can maneuver my way around most WordPress sites with a little bit of elbow grease but I just can’t figure out the thought process behind this update.
I’m at a small nonprofit and a developer a few years ago (before I was working here) built the site on cornerstone as an option for easier page building and editing as a way to make it easier for non-tech savvy team members to easily add and update rather than having to go through a developer each time.
X theme is great. It has always been great. Support and knowledge base is amazing, and once you get used to cornerstone, you can literally create anything. Pro is almost the same in every way, except it is much better when it comes to header and Footer design. If you don’t need that feature I would save 30$ and go with X. You can always upgrade to pro with one click in case you need that feature along the way.
Hi Adam! Thank you for sharing the experience you had while building a website with these themes. We really appreciate your honest feedback :).