JNews
Elementor Wpbakery Classic Theme One-time Purchase
Author: jegtheme | Last Updated: 16.02.2026

JNews

Quick Verdict

JNews is a highly customizable and feature-rich theme for news and magazine websites, but it is plagued by severe technical issues. Users report critical WooCommerce bugs, significant performance drain, plugin bloat, and a history of major security vulnerabilities, making it a risky choice for business-critical projects.

Analysis

JNews presents itself as a comprehensive, all-in-one solution for modern news, blog, and magazine websites. It boasts an impressive feature set, including over 150 pre-built demo sites, extensive customization options, and compatibility with both Elementor and WPBakery page builders. This flexibility and vast array of designs make it an attractive option for users looking to create a highly stylized, content-rich publication without starting from scratch.

However, beneath this appealing surface lie significant technical problems that can be deal-breakers for many users. The theme is notoriously resource-intensive, often leading to slow website performance and a sluggish backend experience, particularly when used with Elementor. Its architecture relies on a large number of separate plugins for core functionality, which contributes to site bloat. Furthermore, the admin panel is overwhelmingly complex, with hundreds of options and multiple dashboards that make it extremely difficult for non-technical clients to manage.

The most critical issues are related to stability and security. JNews has a documented history of severe bugs, especially with crucial integrations like WooCommerce, where users have experienced completely broken shop pages. Payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal have also been reported as unreliable. Compounding these problems is a track record of frequent, high-severity security vulnerabilities. While the developers are responsive in releasing patches, the pattern suggests potential underlying code quality issues, making JNews a high-maintenance and risky choice for any serious online business or publication.

Elementor, WPBakery
Blog & Magazine
Classic Theme
✅ Pros
• Extensive library of 150+ demo sites
• Supports both Elementor & WPBakery
• Actively maintained with frequent updates
❌ Cons
• Severe performance and resource drain
• Critical WooCommerce & payment gateway bugs
• History of frequent security vulnerabilities
Plugin Compatibility
Will my plugins work?
Research Confidence: High
Safe if
This theme is safe if you are building a standard blog or magazine website that does not require any eCommerce or payment processing functionality, as these are the areas with the most severe reported bugs [4].
Check before purchase
Use caution when pairing JNews with Elementor or WPBakery, as users report that the combination can be extremely resource-intensive, leading to a sluggish editor experience [1], and there is a history of breaking bugs with WPBakery updates [3].
Avoid if
Absolutely avoid JNews for any eCommerce project, as users have reported critical, site-breaking bugs with WooCommerce, including empty shop pages and completely unreliable payment gateway integrations for Stripe and PayPal [4].

Community Quotes

"WooCommerce shop page is empty on JNews v11.6.9"

— Odist Substack Review [4]

"Even Stripe and PayPal won't work properly. You will face issues setting up everything and most of your customers will get errors at the time of checkout."

— Odist Substack Review [4]

Client Handoff
Can the client manage it?
Research Confidence: Medium
Safe if
This theme is suitable if you are an experienced developer building a site for yourself, where you can manage the complex options panel and are prepared to handle the ongoing technical maintenance.
Check before purchase
Use caution when choosing JNews for a client project, as the overwhelming admin panel with over 700 options and multiple fragmented dashboards is extremely difficult for non-technical users to manage [4].
Avoid if
Avoid this theme if you are a beginner or if the end-user requires a simple, intuitive backend, as the steep learning curve and complexity will likely lead to user frustration and increased support requests [4].
Panel Difficulty
Overwhelming
Documentation
Good
Learning Curve
Days

Community Quotes

"JNews is really cool-looking if you are not using it... tempting for beginners. They may fall for it and make a wrong purchasing decision."

— Odist Substack Review [4]

"You will be given a list of submenus containing different dashboards which is not a good user experience."

— Odist Substack Review [4]

Freelancer Recommendation
Due to its overwhelming complexity and fragmented admin experience [4], JNews is not recommended for projects that will be handed off to clients with limited technical expertise.
Alternatives: Newspaper, Soledad, GeneratePress (with a news-focused starter site)
Performance & SEO
Will the site be fast?
Research Confidence: High
Check before purchase
Use this theme with caution if you are prepared to invest heavily in performance optimization, as it is known to be resource-intensive and may require a powerful server and a CDN to achieve acceptable loading times [1].
Avoid if
Avoid JNews if you require a fast website out-of-the-box or are using shared hosting, as users report significant speed degradation and bloat from its reliance on numerous separate plugins for core features [4].
59
Mobile
Benchmark: 90+
69
Desktop
Benchmark: 90+
2.07s
LCP Mobile
Benchmark: <2.5s
1.60s
LCP Desktop
Benchmark: <2.5s
0.120
CLS Mobile
Benchmark: <0.1
0.160
CLS Desktop
Benchmark: <0.1
Overall Performance Rating
92/100
Test Information
Test Date: 2026-02-21
Tested URL: https://jnews.io/jnews-demo/

Code Observation (demo):

The mobile PageSpeed score is 59/100 (needs_work tier), tested on the official demo site on 2026-02-21. While the LCP is a good 2.07s, the CLS of 0.12 needs improvement. Community feedback strongly corroborates these mediocre scores, highlighting that the theme is resource-intensive, suffers from plugin bloat, and performs poorly on standard hosting environments [1, 4].

⚠️ Based on DevTools inspection of demo, not a production audit

Community Quotes

"Jnews and Elementor are quite pretty resource-intensive. You might want to check with your host and see if they can bump up your PHP memory."

— Reddit r/WordPress [1]

"Users report 30+ plugins installed quickly... One plugin each for: likes, shares, view counts, login, etc."

— Odist Substack Review [4]

Freelancer Recommendation

The theme’s performance is a major liability. The combination of a mediocre PageSpeed score and widespread user complaints about slowness [1, 4] means it should only be considered by those with the technical expertise and budget for advanced optimization.

Alternatives: GeneratePress, Kadence, Blocksy
Update Safety
Will updates break the site?
Research Confidence: Medium
Safe if
The theme is safe to use if you maintain a strict update schedule and use a staging environment to test every patch, as the developers are responsive in fixing the frequent security vulnerabilities that arise [3].
Check before purchase
Exercise caution due to the theme's history of critical and high-severity security vulnerabilities; while patches are released, the sheer frequency suggests potential underlying code quality issues that require constant vigilance [3].
Avoid if
Avoid this theme if you cannot commit to a rigorous and timely maintenance schedule, as failing to apply the frequent security patches could leave your website exposed to significant, documented risks [3].
Freelancer Recommendation

While the developer’s responsiveness to security issues is a positive signal, the high frequency of critical vulnerabilities [3] is a major concern. This theme is only suitable for users who can commit to diligent and immediate updates.

Alternatives: Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence
Scalability
Can I use it for multiple projects?
Research Confidence: Medium
Costs
Pricing breakdown
Explicit Costs
  • Regular License $59
  • Support (6) Included
  • Regular License $59
Hidden Costs (Community)
No hidden costs reported.
Demo Gallery
0 example sites

No demos available.

Frequently Asked Questions
7 questions from community

Is JNews a good theme for an eCommerce store?

Plugin Compatibility

No. Users report critical compatibility issues, including empty shop pages after updates [4] and a general lack of front-end styling integration, making it unsuitable for eCommerce websites [4].

Sources: 4

How does JNews perform with Elementor?

Performance & Speed

While compatible, the combination is known to be very resource-intensive. Users report that it can make the editor "incredibly sluggish" and often requires increasing server PHP memory to handle the load [1].

Sources: 1

Is JNews suitable for a membership or subscription site?

Plugin Compatibility

It is not recommended. The theme has a documented history of bugs with payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal, with customers experiencing errors during checkout [4].

Sources: 4

Is this theme easy for a non-technical client to manage?

Client Handoff

No. The theme's customizer has over 700 options, which is overwhelming for non-technical users [4]. The admin area is also fragmented with multiple different dashboards, creating a confusing user experience [4].

Sources: 4

How is the customer support for JNews?

Support Quality

Support is included for the first 6 months with a standard license. However, a long-term user reported that the support team "lacks knowledge and expertise" and can be unresponsive due to frequent holidays [4].

Sources: 4

Is the JNews theme secure?

Updates & Stability

The theme has a history of critical and high-severity vulnerabilities, including issues with its gallery and paywall components [3]. While the developers patch them relatively quickly, the frequency of these issues is a significant concern [3].

Sources: 3

Does JNews require a lot of plugins?

General

Yes. Core features like social sharing, view counts, likes, and frontend submissions are handled by separate, bundled plugins, leading to what users describe as "plugin overload" and website bloat [4].

Sources: 4
Sources & Methodology
8 sources indexed

Timeframe

Last 12 months

Analysis Date

February 3, 2026

Confidence Assessment

Data confidence: MEDIUM (8 analytical sources, 8 total)

Methodology Note

This analysis is based on a combination of official documentation, marketplace data, independent performance tests, and a comprehensive review of user feedback from public forums and review sites.

Referenced Sources 8