There's a reason why the Astra theme is increasing to be featured on more than 800,000 websites while having a 5-star rating from nearly 4000 reviews on WordPress.org. It's possible to build any site because it's adaptable.
Choosing a suitable WordPress design for your website for business or personal use is challenging. Many themes are available that look nice, but when you use them, you discover that it's not for you.
Yet, most theme designers recommend their framework; that's a good idea because, after a few years, the framework can become outdated because of the absence of frequent updates.
This is why it is crucial to be aware of these frameworks and themes that will continue to be used for many years. Genesis used to be one of these frameworks for long years, but now, it's time to move on to Astra frameworks and themes.
I've recently employed the Astra theme for one of my niche websites (I switched to Genesis in favor of Astra). It was an excellent decision. Astra should be your option if you must pick the design for the following website.
What is the reason?
It's coming soon. It's very soon...
Today, I will share an in-depth review of the Astra WordPress theme. I'll help you determine which Astra will be the best theme you want to use for your website.
Astra's most appealing aspect is that it's a free WordPress theme operated by some of the most knowledgeable individuals in the WordPress industry. The company is based in Pune, and I studied their inspiring story.
I'll be sharing this story in the coming days. However, let's now find out the basics concerning Astra WordPress Theme.
Learn more about some of the significant reasons that Astra is so well-known. After that, I'll take you in-depth, show you how it operates, and help you choose between Astra free and Pro.
Introducing the Astra Theme
Astra is among the top well-known free WordPress themes available. If you visit the WordPress.org theme directory, Astra is the highest-ranking third-party theme. The only articles that are ahead of it include the standard WordPress themes:
Astra is a Multipurpose WordPress theme for multipurpose use. It is a WordPress plugin, meaning you can use it for almost every website. You can use it to create an informational blog, a clothing store, or a guitar class...it will do whatever you want to. My opinion is that four elements have led to the success of Astra:
Speed: Astra is among the most responsive WordPress themes on the market. A speedy loading WordPress website is crucial, which is already an enormous advantage.
Starter websites Starter sites for HTML0 Astra have hundreds of demo sites that can be imported to help you begin. This is the reason that makes Astra extremely flexible.
Options for customization Astra allows you to customize everything on your website using live-time WordPress Customizer. This allows easy and code-free modifications.
Integrations Astra is designed to work nicely to work with WordPress Page Builders. It also offers specific connections to popular WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce, Learndash, and Elementor.
Astra Theme Pricing
The Astra theme is free on WordPress.org.
If you want to add more options, you can get Astra Pro, an official plugin that expands the free theme by adding new tools, styles, and layouts.
Astra Pro costs $59, which allows you to access it on an unlimited number of websites.
In this Astra themes review, I'll review the new features available with Pro and help you decide between Astra free and Pro.
Four Reasons to Love the Astra WordPress Theme
In this section, I'll discuss the four aspects that make Astra so well-known. After that, I'll walk readers through how Astra works. Astra theme functions within the following section.
Performance
The foundation of your website, the theme, plays a vital role in how you can speed up (or slow) your WordPress website loads.
As a result, performance improvement is one of the primary things to consider when considering a design.
Regarding efficiency, Astra is one of the most responsive WordPress themes you'll come across.
Astra is less than 50KB. It follows coding and best practices for performance and doesn't use jQuery. To give you an idea, the majority of "regular" WordPress themes are in the range of 250-350 KB.
To test the performance of Astra, I created a test site and ran tests of commission for two scenarios:
The theme that comes with it after applying it to a brand new WordPress website.
One of Astra's no-cost importable demo websites.
In each test scenario, I conducted six tests using WebPageTest and calculated Page's mean load time.
With the default configurations, Astra loaded in just 0.769 seconds and was 53 KB ( for the entire website):
The load times for these pages are impressive. However, this isn't an incredibly realistic test since Astra's initial settings are rather basic. If you were to create an accurate site, you'd have many more pages. To evaluate Astra's performance in a "real-world" scenario, I transferred to test the Travel Blog demo site built using WordPress's built-in WordPress blocks editor.
With the complete demo site, my test site was up and running in 1.377 seconds with the dimension at 1.720 Mb and 50 HTTP requests.
In the end, Astra is one of The fastest WordPress themes available. I've tested a few themes that are slightly quicker than Astra. But, when you mix Astra's ability to adapt with its performance, you'll be unable to find a piece that can provide an even better mix.
Starter Sites
Many people need more time or expertise to design their websites from beginning to finish.
To help you launch your website with a stunning design, Astra includes hundreds of already-designed demo websites that you can download in just a few clicks.
The thing that makes Astra's template templates is that they're created with either a page builder or the default WordPress block editor.
This means that you can easily alter the content in the demo using a visual editor and drag-and-drop with no code needed.
Astra's majority of starter sites make use of its Elementor page builders. However, there's an array of starter sites that are powered by:
It is the block editor that is the native WordPress block editor (AKA Gutenberg)
Beaver Builder
Brizy
The Astra theme provides access to over 280 demos that can be imported into websites( though some demo sites are duplicated across all the software).
Demo sites that cover all kinds of niches and examples of use examples are available. For instance: Travel Blog
Gym
Digital Agency
WooCommerce store
...many more
If you want to discover the options available, go through the demo sites on this page.
Customization Options
Astra is a multipurpose WordPress theme, meaning the article can be utilized to create anything from an online blog to an eCommerce store to an online course and much more.
Additionally, you can adapt it to various areas of interest, such as Astra works just as well for the lifestyle or fashion blog as it would be used to create a technology blog.
So how do you make Astra so adaptable?
You've already discovered one piece of the puzzle: the thousands of starter websites. Another aspect that makes Astra extremely flexible is its extensive options within WordPress's custom WordPress themes customizer.
The Customizer lets you have access to an abundance of options to manage the appearance of your website's
Colors
Typography
Header
Blog posts (and blog lists)
Footer
Sidebar
Content width
Etc.
Since all these settings are accessible in real-time on the WordPress Customizer where you can be able to see how every choice you make impacts your website by observing a live preview of your site:
Page Builder Integration
Astra is designed to work perfectly to work well WordPress page builders plugins that allow users to create content with drag-and-drop.
When you make a new page or post, Astra gives you detailed options to let you manage Page's canvas builder.
First, you have the option of choosing among different layouts. For instance, you can remove your sidebar and create an all-width canvas to create an entirely new page using your preferred page builder.
The second option is to disable certain parts of your blog post, such as the title of the post or the header for your site.
You can use a plugin like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy, Brizy, and Beaver Builder to build a website. Astra's page-level controls will help you maximize the benefits of your selected plugin. How Astra Works - Hands-On With the Theme
After you've learned about some of the most notable characteristics of the Astra theme, Let's turn the Astra theme review more practical.
This section will explain how Astra works on an accurate WordPress site. Astra theme functions on an actual WordPress website.
Importing a Starter Site
After you've installed Astra, you'll first need to import one of the many websites available as starter websites.
The interface to import demo websites is simple and offers you a variety of options to choose the content to import. For example, you can:
Select the pages you wish to import. E.g., you can load the main page or the about Page but not the contact page.
Only load customizer configurations. This will allow you to make your theme's header, footer, and design/style options look similar to the demo website. However, it would not use the demo content directly.
To access the starter sites, you must install the template starter plugin on WordPress.org.
From there, you can navigate to Appearance and Starting Templates.
The first step is to select your preferred editor for your content. If you upload the demo content on your website, the site will be created using your chosen editor.
The list of sites that are starting is Not The same is true for every tool the same for each tool Elementor is the most extensive collection of starter websites by a considerable margin. If you want to use the built-in WordPress block editor, it will offer fewer options. When you choose the editor you wish to use and click on the editor, you'll see a list of the sites that work with that tool.
You can use the search and filter box to help narrow down your search results—initial sites.
When you have found an image you like, click it to open the preview and see the options for import. As I said earlier that you have the option of:
Import the complete demo site by pressing the Import Full Site button.
Select a design from the page Templates list, then add the Elementor template.
If you decide to import the entire website, you'll also have the option of choosing which items to import: Using the WordPress Customizer.
Once you've imported your demo website (or decided to create your site entirely from the ground up), you can manage Astra's other settings through the live-time WordPress Customizer.
It allows you to easily alter the look of your website without having to learn the code. When you make modifications, you'll notice the changes appearing in Live previews of your website. If, for instance, you go to the settings of the header of your computer, then you can select from a variety of layout choices:
There are many possibilities here, so you must investigate this region. This is one of the areas of Astra that may feel daunting since it is a myriad of choices.
Instead of attempting to set up everything starting from scratch, I'd suggest locating a pre-made starter website that you like the basic layout. After that, you can import only the WordPress Customizer settings for that demo site.
Once you've established the Customizer settings set as your base, you can enter and make minor adjustments as you need to.
Exploring the Premium Features
You'll get access to several new features when you update from Astra Pro. These features are modular, meaning that you can turn everything on or off every part.
This modular approach keeps the Astra theme light by letting you turn off features you don't need.
To decide which features to turn on, navigate to appearance to select the features you want to enable. Astra Options:
If you turn on Blog Pro, Pro Blog module, for instance Pro module, you'll see new designs and options to alter how your blog's archives page appears.
Three layouts and the option to allow specific metadata, manage the sizes of featured images, and much more are available.
Other Pro modules also offer the same degree of customization options:
Colors
Typography
Spacing
Headers
Menus for navigation
Footer
Astra Free vs. Pro: Which One Do You Need?
As I said, The Astra theme is available for download at WordPress.org.
Additionally, you can buy Astro Pro, an extension plugin for the theme, by adding options and features.
Which is the best option in the case of Astra Pro vs. free?
You can make use of this free software to design an attractive website. The free version is efficient and provides access to many starter sites.
If, for instance, you discover a free blogging start-up site you like, There's no reason you have to move up to Astra Pro.
There are a few motives for you to consider upgrading Astra Pro. Astra Pro, then?
Suppose you're looking to create your design from scratch or need to modify the creation of one of the sites already in use. In that case, Astra Pro generally gives you a greater degree of flexibility regarding the following:
Colors
Typography
Other styles of choices
Layouts (for blog posts, header, footer, etc.)
For instance, the Pro version has a lot of brand-new blog layouts that give you greater control over your blog's posts and your blog list.
Pro will satisfy you even more if you want to create your website more personal than what is offered on basic websites—the Pro version.
Another motive to update Astra Pro is for the integrations.
You'll want to upgrade to Astra Pro if you're building websites built on:
WooCommerce
Easy Digital Downloads
LearnDash
Although the free version grants only limited integrations with these plugins, additional features and integration capabilities included in Astra Pro are worth the cost.
In the end, if you're a programmer, Astra Pro gives you some valuable alternatives, such as the ability to insert code into the various hooks that Astra offers.
Astra Theme Review Final Thoughts
In the end, there's a good reason why Astra is a popular theme. Astra theme is proliferating to appear on more than 800,000 websites while still keeping an almost perfect 5-star rating from nearly 4,000 users on WordPress.org.
It's multipurpose, quick, flexible, and integrates with popular web builders and plugins.
Another thing to think about is that if you are still looking for a demo site you like, it may be overwhelming to set up all the options for customization in Astra all by yourself.
If you install your first Astra theme on your computer, it appears simple, which may need to be clarified for some. It's not a stunning theme straight out of the box using Astra.
If you're not planning to utilize a demo site, you'll have to explore the various options in WordPress Customizer. WordPress Customizer.
This is a significant element of the reason why Astra is so well-known:
You can use it to create any site because it's versatile.
If you are overwhelmed by the many Astra choices for customization, you can take advantage of any of Astra's hundreds of pre-built demo websites to make it easier to set up. You can create that stunning website you've always wanted in only a few clicks.
If you want complete control, you can modify every part of your theme with The real-time WordPress Customizer. It's a process to look through all the options Astra provides. However, you'll be able to customize the appearance of your site without having to write a single line in the script ( especially with Astra Pro).
Ultimately, If you're searching for the best WordPress themes, you can get it right when you choose Astra.
Have you tried your experience with the Astra theme? Write a review about the Astra theme using the comments section below.