Reviews

Astra Theme Review 2023 – Is It the Best WordPress Theme?

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Astra Theme Review Full Guide

Are you looking for an honest review of the Astra WordPress theme? Are you unsure whether to use Astra on your site? Then, this article will make everything clear for you.

As you might already know, Astra is one of the most popular WordPress themes available on the market. It’s 1+ million active installations and a 4.9/5 average user rating. That’s pretty cool, right?

Well then, does that make it the best theme for WordPress? Is it really a good theme to use?

Here, we’ll answer that! It’s our detailed review of the Astra WordPress theme. We’ll discuss its ease of use, installation, customization, performance, pricing, and lots of other features.

So, let’s start!


Overall Rating

Astra theme is widely renowned for its adaptability, speed, and user-friendly layout. It’s appropriate for a range of websites from personal blogs to massive eCommerce sites. All thanks to its versatile and lightweight structure.

As per Trustpilot TrustScore, the Astra theme scores 4.9 out of 5 stars based on 1800+ user ratings. This is absolutely amazing! 

Astra TrustPilot TrustScore Report
Astra TrustPilot TrustScore Report

Meanwhile, if we had to rate, then we’d also give a solid rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. We deducted the 0.2 rating for its few drawbacks. Like, newbies can feel slightly lost at the beginning phase. Nevertheless, 4.8/5 is still an outstanding score!

With that, let’s get to know the pros and cons of the Astra theme in the next portion of this review.


Pros and Cons of the Astra Theme

It’s more than clear that Astra is a superb theme and some even claim it to be the best WordPress theme. Along with many advantages, it has some limitations.

So, here’re some of the pros and cons of the Astra WordPress theme in this section of the review.

Pros of Astra Theme

  • It’s a super-fast WordPress theme.
  • It’s compatible with major page builders.
  • More than 180 demo sites are available in its gallery.
  • A large number of customization options are available.
  • The pricing is very affordable.
  • It’s updated regularly with bug fixes and new enhancements.

Cons of Astra Theme

  • Beginners might feel lost at the start.
  • Support is quite slow at weekends.

With that, let’s officially begin the journey of this Astra theme review.


A. Astra Theme Overview

Astra is one of the best and most popular WordPress themes available on the market. It’s a powerful and highly customizable multipurpose theme that you can use to create various types of websites.

Astra WordPress Theme Template
Astra Theme

The theme offers tons of customizable features that make it possible to design a slick website. Moreover, the modern and elegant look of the theme is guaranteed to attract your visitors.

For a quick and easy set-up, you can find 180+ ready-to-import demo templates. You can choose one of them and apply on your site immediately. Just change some images, texts, and a few minor elements, and your site will be ready to be published in no time.

Moreover, it supports page builder tools brilliantly making it much easier to edit your site with your intuition.

As mentioned before, Astra has a whooping 1 million+ active installations with a 4.9/5-star rating from its users. This popularity and trust from the users show how excellent Astra is in providing its features and services.

This brings us to our next topic of this review i.e. the features of the Astra theme that makes it better than the others.


B. Key Features of Astra Theme

Astra is a very feature-rich theme. If you just look at its features in the free version, then you’ll find the capabilities that even some premium themes can’t provide. Further, if you have the premium version installed, then you get more of them.

So, here’re some of the remarkable features of Astra.

1. Good Performance

The first thing to know is that Astra is a very lightweight theme that’s proven to improve your website speed and performance. With a faster website, you’ll attract more visitors and enhance the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your site.

Astra WordPress Theme Performance
Performance of Astra

The main reason behind the performance of the Astra theme is its clean and minimal code structure. The developers of Astra don’t use any heavy codes like JQuery. Also, the codes are written and structured in a very optimum way.

For better results in your performance, you can combine the Astra theme with one of the best web hosting services available.

If you want other tips, then you can check out our article on how to speed up your website.


2. Customization Capabilities

Customization capability is something that makes one theme better than the others. And, Astra has lots of customization options that enable you to personalize your site as you want.

In the free version too, the customization features are very generous. Additionally, the premium version has more extended editable options.

After you install the theme, you can see a lot of options in the WordPress customizer. There, you can find all the elements that your theme has editable.

Color Settings on Astra
Color Options

For example, it lets you change the color of the theme, text, links, buttons, etc. to your matching brand color. Also, you can set the fonts and typography with various options that may be ideal for your target audience.

Additionally, you can change the layouts of your posts/ pages, header, footer, menus, and so on. In most themes, it isn’t easy to customize your header and footers. But, Astra offers header and footer builders to edit them too completely.


3. Page Builder Compatibility

Page builders are WordPress plugins that offer to create and edit your web pages easily with dragging and dropping. Essentially, it converts your web page elements into draggable grids which you can place at your desired paces.

Astra Page Builder Compatibility
Astra Page Builder Compatibility

And, Astra has been built to be compatible with major WordPress page builder plugins that make editing your site very convenient. Some of the page builder plugins that Astra supports are Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Brizy.

Not just the simple integration, it has its own addons for these page builders. For example, you can check Ultimate Addons for Elementor and Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder. Astra works on top of these plugins and hence allows you to create anything you can imagine.

You don’t like using a page builder? No problem! It also has powerful options for the default Gutenberg WordPress editor. You can use their free plugin Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg and design your website.


4. Layout Options

With Astra, you get a handful of options on the site layout. As a result, it becomes easy for showcasing items for different types of information or products in different formats.

Layout Options
Layout Options

The available layouts are:

  • Boxed: The boxed layout makes it possible to contrast important sections by displaying them in a box.
  • Full Width: With this layout, you can display your site content in the entire screen width.
  • Padded: It lets you set margins on the content to provide it some space from others.
  • Fluid Layout: With the fluid layout, you can make your site content look good whether you stretch or contact your browser window.
  • Spacing Control: It lets you give space and margins to all the elements.
  • Default Container: This is the default layout that Astra provides.

Besides, you can choose whether you want to keep the sidebar on your site or not. If you want, you can choose the side you want it.


5. Header and Footer Builder

Header and footer builders are the latest features added in the newest version of Astra i.e. Astra 3.0.

The best thing about the header and footer builders is that they are visual builders. I.e. they let you create and edit by a drag-and-drop interface. You can create professional headers and footers with the builder’s interface and place the elements in any order you like.

In your headers and footers, you can add various elements like texts, widgets, header menu, footer menu, social icons, links, etc. Moreover, changing the look of the header and footer is easy with the available layouts.

Also, you can design a custom header and footer for mobile with different elements and designs.


6. Demo Import

Demo import is an important feature a theme can have. A demo site is simply a premade website template created to showcase the features of a theme. And, good WordPress themes like Astra allow importing such a demo site to any WordPress installation.

With the demo import option, you can easily import the demo data with one click. Then, you can edit the content, change the images, texts, etc. and your site will be ready to publish. Saves a lot of time!

And, Astra is one of the themes that have a huge option on the premade demos. To talk numbers, it has over 180 importable starter templates. Of course, some are free and some are only accessible to premium users.

Astra Importable Demo Sites
Astra Demo Sites

Since Astra is a multipurpose theme, the starter demos it offers also for various purposes and niches. Whether you’re looking to create an eCommerce, membership, portfolio, or business website, Astra has the demo templates for all.


7. Integration

WordPress plugins are the tools that you install on your WordPress site to add certain features. In some cases, WordPress themes don’t work well with those plugins leading to creating difficulties.

In the case of Astra, it has seamless integration with various WordPress plugins. Some of the plugins that it supports well are LifterLMS and LearnDash. Besides, it has deep integration with other popular page builder plugins, which we’ve already talked about.

You might check our article on how to choose the WordPress plugins for your site to make the right pick.

Moreover, Astra runs smoothly with the most major plugins for WordPress SEO, membership, speeding, and eCommerce plugins.

These are some of the features that you get after installing Astra. Now, let’s go ahead and see how to install Astra in the coming portion of this review.


C. Installing and Customizing Astra

As you might know, Astra has both free and premium versions available. Now, the process involved in installing depends on which version of the theme you want to install.

Anyway, installing both versions of Astra has some simple processes involved.

I. Installing the Astra WordPress Theme

You can quickly install the Astra free theme directly from your WordPress dashboard with a few clicks. For that, log in to your WordPress site first. Then, go to Appearance > Themes, and click on Add New on the next page.

Installing Astra Free
Installing Astra Free

There, search for Astra, install it, and then activate it.

Activating Astra WP theme
Activating Astra

Installing & Getting Started with Astra Pro

To upgrade Astra to the premium version, you’ll have to install Astra Pro Addon. It’s the premium plugin that adds the features of Astra with which you can perform more site customization.

On the Astra pricing page, you can see different premium plans for Astra Pro Addon. From there, you can purchase any one of the packages you like.

After purchase, go to My Accounts > Downloads from the menu.

Go To Downloads On Astra
My Account > Downloads

This will redirect you to your account on the Brainstorm Force site where you can see your product information and downloads.

Go To Downloads On Brainstorm Force
Brainstorm Force, Account > Downloads

From there, you can simply download the Astra Pro Addon plugin to add to your site.

Astra Products from Brainstorm Force Website
Product: Astra Pro Addons

To do that, simply go to your WordPress site’s dashboard. Then go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.

Upload Plugin for Installing Yoast SEO Premium
Upload Plugin

After that, upload the zip Astra Pro Addon file, and then click on the Install Now button. After installing, just click on the Activate button to activate the plugin.

Install Astra Pro Addons Plugin
Install Astra Pro Addons

After that, you can easily activate additional features that are available with this plugin. Some of them are Color, Typography, Spacing, Blog Pro, Nav Menu, Sticky Header, Custom Layout, etc.

Next, you’ll have to activate your product license in order to receive notifications, updates, and support. To do that, again go to the Brainstorm Force Account page, go to Licenses and copy the license key from there.

Go to Licenses
Go to Licenses

Then, head over to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Astra Options and paste the license on the right where it says ‘Astra Pro License’ and activate it.

Enter and Activate Astra Pro License Key
Activate License

That pretty much sums up installing the Astra WordPress Theme.

If you want more details and other ways of installation, then you can check out the article on how to install a WordPress theme.


II. Customizing the Astra Theme

After installing, you can start customizing Astra right away. To do so, go to Appearance > Customize.

Customize WordPress Option
Customize WordPress Option

Next, you’ll find all the editable options grouped in menus. Here, we’ll some of the main customizer options.

Global

In the Global tab, you can find settings for

WordPress Customizer Astra
Astra WordPress Customizer
  • Typography: Change font type, size, weight, line height, margin, etc.
  • Colors: Choose colors for text, theme, link, link hover, headings, backgrounds, etc.
  • Container: It’s the screen area where all your site content is present. You can set container width and choose a layout type for blogs, archives, pages, and the overall site.
  • Buttons: Set button color, text color, button width, margins, etc.

Header Builder

With header builder, you can build a beautiful header that appears on the top of your site. You can add elements like menus, widgets, plain text, buttons, social buttons, accounts, etc.

Astra Header Builder
Astra Header Builder

You can drag the elements and place them in any order you like. For each element, you can customize basic settings. For example, you can set the icon size, spacing, background, etc. for social media icons.

Blog/ Archive

It lets you set the appearance of your blogs and archives. If you own a blogging website, then managing these settings is essential.

The editable options are available for Blog/ Archive and Single Post. Some are

  • Content Width: Set custom width or work with the default width i.e. 1200 PX.
  • Post Structure: Show/ hide featured images and Title & Blog Meta. You can also drag their positions.
  • Meta: Show or hide things like comments, category, author, published date, author, etc. Also, you can place them in the order you like.

Sidebar

If you want to have a sidebar on your site, then you can configure it from here. You can configure it to appear either on the left or right.

You can also pick the position of your sidebar for pages, posts, and archives differently. Also, you can hide it completely. Additionally, you can set the width of your sidebar.

Footer Builder

Similar to header builder, you have a drag-and-drop interface to completely design your footer. You can easily add various elements like HTML text, footer menu, social icons, widgets, copyright, etc.

If you’re not happy with their positions, you can simply drag and place them somewhere else on your footer. You can edit the positions, margins, alignment, layout, etc. of every element separately. 

Astra Footer Builder
Astra Footer Builder

Menus, Widgets, Astra Options & More

Other important customization options are creating and displaying multiple menus, widgets, etc. You can carry out those from their own sections on the Appearance menu.

Moreover, if you go to the Astra Options menu under Appearance, then you’ll see the features only the Astra theme provides.

You can see some more details in our article on how to create a website. There, we have demonstrated all the customization options of Astra Theme specifically.

These are some of the important customizations that you can have on Astra. However, if you don’t want to get in the mess, you can simply import a suitable Astra demo. This brings us to our next topic of this review i.e. importing the Astra demo site.


D. Importing Astra Starter Sites

As we’ve said that Astra has a huge library of premade demos. To try and test them on your site, you’ll need to install a free WordPress plugin called Starter Templates.

Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to ‘Plugins>Add New‘. Then, search ‘starter templates’. Once you see it, simply click on the ‘Install Now‘ button. After that, you should also click on the Activate‘ button.

Install Starter Templates
Install Starter Templates

After installing and activating it, you’ll see a new submenu on the Appearance menu named Starter Templates. Just click on it to see the available options.

Go To Starter Templates
Go To Starter Templates

The starter templates work well with specific page builder plugins. So, on the next page, select the page builder that you want to work with later. Then, you’ll see the available starter templates.

Astra Importable Demo Sites
Importable Demo Templates

Just click on the one you like and then click on the Import Complete Site button. You can also select and import only some specific pages. Importing the content can take some time. After that, you’ll have it activated on your site.

Import Site from Astra Template
Import Astra Template

The demo template will have images, menus, and other items that you’ll need to change. So, go to the WordPress customizer to change your site accordingly.

Having said that, let’s move to the next section of this Astra theme review.


E. Astra Theme Support

Having support from the developers of the WordPress themes is very essential especially if you’re a beginner.

As you know, Astra lets you build an entire website without having to touch any line of code. But, you’ll always have chances of getting confused and having technical difficulties. That’s when technical support is useful.

Astra offers various modes of providing help and support to its users. The simplest way to find help is to go to the Astra support page and type in your question. Moreover, the Astra knowledge base contains 300+ articles to help you. According to your query, it’ll show you relevant answers.

Astra Knowledge Base
Astra Theme Support

If you still need help, then you can submit a ticket. They offer ticket support to both free and paid users, however, more dedicated premium support is available for paid users only. After you submit your queries via a ticket, the support team will get back to you with a solution.

Contact Us Page For Support Ticket
Contact Us Page For Support Ticket

The process might be delayed during weekends but they’ll reply with your answer eventually.

In addition, you can find lots of video tutorials showing every process step-by-step. Just go to YouTube.com and search for any query, it’ll show you easy tutorials from the Astra team itself as well as from other marketers.

Next, let’s see the pricing of Astra in the upcoming portion of this review.


F. Astra Theme Pricing

Astra has both free and premium versions. Even the free version is so jam-packed with features that you can build a beautiful professional website with it.

If you want a premium version, then you’ll get more features. The best part is that it’s affordable and reasonable for its features.

Astra Pricing Page
Astra Pricing Page

As you can see in the screenshot above, it has 3 simple pricing plans which are

  • Astra Pro: Costs $47 per year. Contains a mega menu, global color palettes, sticky header, advanced blog layouts, etc.
  • Essential Bundle: Costs $137 per year. All features of the Astra Pro. Plus,  180+ premium templates, WP Portfolio Plugin, etc.
  • Growth Bundle: Costs $187 per year. All features of the Essential Bunder. Plus, includes Convert Pro, Schema plugin, etc.

All premium packages have a 14-day money-back guarantee if you wish to discontinue the service.


G. Astra Theme Alternatives

Along with Astra, you can find more brilliant themes that are popular among users. If you’re unsatisfied with Astra, you can go for other options.

So, let’s explore some of the alternatives to Astra in this section of the review.

1. Divi

Divi is a powerful multipurpose WordPress theme that can be used to build websites in various niches. It’s based on Divi builder i.e. the visual drag-and-drop builder with which customizing the site becomes very easy. In addition, it offers hundreds of demo templates to create your site in no time.

Divi WordPress Theme

In contrast to Astra, Divi is a fully premium theme. Moreover, you’ll have to purchase it as a package of the Divi theme and the Divi builder. Moreover, you’ll have over 40+ website modules like sliders, call to action, forms, testimonials, etc. that you can add according to your need.

Pricing:

Divi is available in two premium pricing schemes. They are:

  • Yearly Access: Costs $89 for unlimited website usage. Comes with hundreds of website packs, product updates, and premium support.
  • Lifetime Access: Costs $249 for unlimited website usage. Comes with lifetime updates, support, and more.

2. Neve

Neve is another popular WordPress that focuses on website speed and performance and is built with lightweight codes. Being a multipurpose theme, it can be a fit for eCommerce stores, membership sites, blogs, news sites, and other various niches.

Neve Blog Theme for WordPress

The special feature of Neve is its compatibility with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for speeding up your site on mobile devices as well. In addition, Neve makes your site accessibility-ready, meaning your site becomes accessible for people with special challenges.

Pricing:

Neve is a freemium WordPress theme. You can quickly download the free version from the WordPress.org directory.

Likewise, you can upgrade to the premium version at the following pricing:

  • Personal: Costs $69 per year with unlimited site usage. Comes with header and footer booster, blog booster, and more.
  • Business: Costs $149 per year with everything from the personal plan. Also, you get 110+ starter site templates, etc.
  • Agency: Costs $259 per year with everything from the business plan. Along with access to Neve Cloud, white label, and many more.

Want to know more about the Neve theme? Then, check our detailed article on Neve theme review to know more about this theme.


3. OceanWP

OceanWP is a fast and feature-rich WordPress theme capable of building any type of professional website. It offers both free and premium versions that you can choose according to the features you want for your online presence.

OceanWP Multipurpose WordPress Theme

If you’re looking to create an online store, then OceanWP has tons of options. Besides, it has support for RTL (Right to Left) language. And, it has good compatibility with many page builders and has special integration with Elementor.

Pricing:

OceanWP is a freemium WordPress theme. You can quickly download it right from your WordPress dashboard. The theme is packaged with 8 free extensions in the free version.

Likewise, you can upgrade to the premium version. Along with free extensions, it includes 14 more premium extensions. You can purchase it for the following prices:

  • Personal: Costs $38/year. Includes 7 free extensions, 14 premium extensions, 17 free demos, and more.
  • Business: Costs $53/year. All from the Personal plan, exclusive Freepik discount, join support group, etc.
  • Agency: Costs $95/year. Everything from the Business plan, VIP support, dedicated Slack channel, etc.

So, these are some of the alternatives you might want to use instead of Astra.

If you want to see for yourself, you can install WordPress on your local host and test them.


H. Final Verdict – Is Astra the Best WordPress Theme?

So, ultimately this whole review boils down to one question i.e. “Is Astra the Best WordPress Theme?”

We’d say, “Absolutely! Astra is definitely one of the top contenders among the WordPress themes with a wide range of customizable options.

First and foremost, Astra boasts a sleek and modern design that is both visually appealing and user-friendly. On top of that, its appeal goes beyond just its aesthetics.

One of the most impressive features of this theme is its lightning-fast loading times. This can have a significant impact on your website’s SEO and overall user experience.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, website speed is more important than ever. And delightfully, Astra delivers in this regard.

So, what’re you waiting for? Install Astra right away and try checking the theme on your own! You’ll get your answers.


Conclusion

That’s the end of our Astra WordPress theme review. From this article, we understood that Astra is known best for its page loading speed, customization ability, demo sites, page builder compatibility, and many more.

It’s no doubt that Astra is one of the best WordPress themes that you can build your site on. For these and many other reasons like affordable pricing, help, support, ease of use, etc. Thus, we recommend Astra to our readers.

If you have any confusion related to this review of the Astra theme, then you can use the comment box below.

Next, you can read our other similar theme review articles such as the Kadence review and Blocksy review.

Lastly, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more updates. Also, share this review with your friends and family who’re planning to use the Astra theme.

Some of the links on this article/page are affiliate links. If you click on such an affiliate link and purchase the product, we’ll earn a specific percent commission from the seller. But it won’t at all affect the price you’ll pay.
Written By SiteSaga Editorial
SiteSaga Editorial is a team of highly experienced writers, marketers, and web developers led by Sunita Rai. We're here to help beginners get online with their self-made websites or blogs and succeed.

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