Astra Theme Review 2024: Is It The Best WordPress Theme?

I have always wanted to review the Astra theme for WordPress formally, and I finally had the chance to do so. Astra offers a free theme for all users that packs some of the most amazing features.

Did you know? A human eye takes 0.1 to 0.4 seconds to blink, and an Astra theme takes under 0.5 seconds to load! (this was just a fun fact I wanted to share!)

I have been associated with the Astra theme for three years and have my own experience to share on this amazing WordPress theme. Our team has many websites in our portfolio, and the team actively prefers to use the Astra theme on DemandSage. 

I took insightful inputs from my web development and designing team, who are always working with Astra, to understand what they like and don’t like about the Astra theme. 

To eliminate the bias, I further gathered real user inputs from a couple of public discussion platforms and formed this concise review. 

Read more to understand what this Astra theme can and cannot do in this elaborate guide, where I have explained how each unique feature works and the core difference between the free and the paid plan.

Quick Verdict: Astra Theme Review

The gist of it all is Astra Theme is totally worth it to take your website loading speeds to the lowest time possible. I have tried to channel all my learnings about the Astra theme in the table below; check it out.

Rating	4.8/5
Ease of use	4.9/5
Pricing	Astra – Free Astra Pro – starts at  $44/year
Best For	Beginners to Experts
Integrations	Elementor, Beaver Builder, Yoast, WooCommerce
Customer Support	24 x 7 – Pro users

Astra WordPress is a great choice for your website. Here’s why:

1. One of the fastest and lightweight themes
2. It offers a good enough free forever plan.
3. Offers code-free customization options
4. Vast integration potential.
5. Trusted by 2M+ websites.
6. Critically acclaimed customer support.

Astra really takes the cake when compared to most of its competition. Have a look!

What I Liked About Astra:

Astra is one of the most popular WordPress themes available. It is useful for a number of purposes and has some truly valuable features.

 Here’s what I really liked about the Astra theme:

• Lightning-fast loading speed
• Free templates available 
• WooCommerce ready 
• Google Fonts support 
• Unlimited color schemes to choose from
• Offers Google AMP support
• Multiple customization options – for headers, footers, 404 pages, etc.
• Easy to use
• Multiple page-builders support
• Strong customer support

What I Didn’t Like About Astra:

Here’s what I didn’t like:

• Limited access to the free version
• Basic styling options
• No customer support for Astra Free users

I have elaborated on the above summary and delved deeper into the Astra theme, its features, and pricing below. Read on!

What is Astra? and What is it famous for?

Astra is a popular and one of the easiest WordPress themes to work on and can easily be implemented for blogs and personal portfolios. It is also very lightweight and takes only about 50 KB of your front end.

Besides the website’s aesthetics and speed, Astra also considers SEO to come with Schme.org code integrated as default and is native AMP ready will boost the way search engines see your site – in other words, search engines will love it! 

Have a look at the download graph of Astra from WordPress. It reached an all-time high on 15th August 2023 when the downloads reached – 11,874

Astra comes with many useful integrations with popular page builders, and some of them include:

1. Elementor
2. Beaver builder
3. Visual Composer
4. Sie Origin 
5. Divi 

And many others (more on this further below)

Oh yes, did I mention that it is fast? Like, SUPERFAST? Have a look at the loading speed before and after I used the Astra theme for a website. (Further in the article)

The Unique Features of the Astra Theme

The new Astra comes with a revamped dashboard and quick settings options that have just made life easier. Changing the buttons, colors, headers, etc, is just a click away.

Here are the top features of the Astra theme that sets it apart:

1. Speed

One of the prime features and the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of the Astra WordPress theme is the speed at which it loads. 

Astra claims that the theme is optimized for faster loading speeds and as a result of its lightweight, Astra loads in less than 0.5 seconds! Here’s the claim from their official website.

Let’s check if the claims are true:

Here’s a test that I ran on Pingdom for one of the upcoming projects that I have been working on. I am using the Astra theme on it, and here are the speed results (load time) that it fetched me: 

The page size ran had a 6.5 MB size and offered a good 82 C performance grade and a well under 0.5 seconds loading speed!

A contributor to this amazing loading speed is that Astra uses Vanilla JavaScript, which prevents render-blocking caused by jQuery. This significantly contributes to the improvement of website loading speeds.

2. Website Templates

Another distinguishing feature that Astra has is the plethora (read: thousands) of available ready-made templates. These are easy to customize and are intended to deliver high performance. They are mobile responsive too!

From their starter templates section, I can choose from a range of industries to select a template for your needs. Additionally, there is a custom search for a template by – page builder, type (free or paid), and sort by popular and latest. 

With every template, I could check the details and get a live preview of a theme that was customizable with the color schemes and font, too!

What I like the most is that Astra’s templates are very convenient to use and focus on delivering performance while also being integration-friendly and are updated regularly

3. Customizing Options

Astra offers many customization options, from changing the logo, fonts, and colors to changing the layout, headers, footers, etc. 

If you’re subscribed to Astra Pro, you further get access to some Pro features where you can adjust spacing, typography, and backgrounds.

Let me quickly show you how this works:

1. This is what the Astra theme looks like on the WordPress dashboard. Click on the highlighted box and arrow to enter the customizer menu.

2. Next, you will see a list of all the available customizing options within Astra. Let me show you an example of how to change the colors next.  Click the global option, and that will lead you to all the available typography, colors, and other misc. options

3.  Select the colors button next and choose the choice of colors you want easily

4. Here’s how the menu looks for the colors dashboard.

Note: This small demonstration was just to show you the usability and the ease with which you can use Astra. Like colors, other features are equally accessible and do not let you break your head.

4. Vast number of website layouts

These layouts provide a structure to your website and help keep everything aligned. With the free plan, you only get one default container layout (called the primary container). 

Inside, I saw an option to adjust the container width options that include — container width, narrow container width, container layout, and dedicated container layout. 

Astra offers 5 types of container layouts that include:

1. Boxed 
2. Content Boxed
3. Full width or contained
4. Full width or stretched
5. Narrow width

Note: The new narrow container width slider has recently been included with the new Astra Version 4.0.

With the layout options, I started to see the difference between a free Astra theme and a paid “Astra Pro” version. For the pro users, I found these 5 exclusive layout options that can be used for a website: 

1. Boxed
2. Full Width
3. Padded
4. Fluid Layout
5. Spacing Control

Here’s a look:

The way to use these layout features is super-easy, and I like how easy it is to change the dimensions using just a slider!

5. Integration Ability

The next unique feature of the Astra Theme is its potential to be paired up with many blogging tools and software. Astra works seamlessly with Elementor, Beaver Builder, WooCommerce, Spectra, and Yoast with the Astra free version.

Additionally, with the Astra Pro, you get LifterLMS and LearnDash integrations exclusively. 

Check out the add-on features that Spectra integration provides: 

6. Header and Footer Customization

Astra offers in-depth header and footer features. As a designer, you have to focus in much detail on the header and footer of a website as they are the start and the endpoint. Astra lets you go full custom mode with a list of header and footer options.

You can play around with:

• Changing the transparency.
• Optimizing it for mobile devices.
• Sticking it to the top.
• Changing the color or background above or below.

Inside the customizer is where the header and the footer builders are located, which lets you add/edit the headers.

7. Custom Layouts

The customization abilities for Astra are not just limited to headers and footers. Check out how I created a custom 404 error page. 

Here’s a custom 404 page that I created for the website:

Apart from this, Astra also lets you create a custom layout hook that lets you inject custom code and content where you wish to. Read this detailed guide from Astra to learn how to add a custom hooks layout. 

Astra has valuable learning resources and offers detailed guides teaching how to operate complex Astra features.

8. Astra Support

As mentioned above, Astra does not let its users get lost while building the project of their dreams. During my time working on Astra, I never faced a difficulty or thought of seeking a solution outside of the Astra platform.  

Astra offers great support to its users with written and video guides. Read more about the assistance that Astra gives to its users:

1. In-depth articles: They have over 481 articles that cover each and every corner of the Astra field. This helped me while I was stuck customizing the sidebar. 

2. Dedicated YouTube channel: I found Astra’s dedicated YouTube channel that offers video tutorials for the most common user questions related to Astra. They are detailed walkthrough videos, and some of them even run for hours. This shows the details that the instructors go into.

3. 24/7 Customer Support: Apart from common feature-related help, for Pro members, if you have any other requirements or queries, you can get 24/7 support from their dedicated team that will resolve your concerns in a flash.

Bonus: Astra often announces frequent updates, and I use this changelog from Astra to keep track. Check it out to see what’s new with Astra!

Astra Pricing

Astra Pro offers advanced website-building features that elevate the way you can shape your website. It offers this in three different options that include — Astra Pro, Essential Bundle, and Growth Bundle.

Astra has recently dropped the prices and has made it more affordable than before! Have a glance at this table to understand more:

Astra Pro	$49/yr	$199	Customization options to build websites faster
Essential Toolkit	$79/yr	$399	Premium website templates
Business Toolkit	$149/yr	$599	Complete suite of features and tools

Astra Exclusive Coupon

Here is a small perk for making it this far with me!

Using our exclusive Astra Coupon code, you can now save up to $312 on the lifetime payment of the Astra Pro–Growth Bundle plan. Read this detailed guide and follow the steps to claim the Astra theme discount.

If you are lucky, you can get this once-a-year 70% Black Friday discount. You can keep an eye on our Astra Black Friday page to stay updated with the offers.

Astra Free vs Astra Pro

Astra offers a bunch of services with its free plan that the majority of users find sufficient. Still, Astra offers an impressive Pro plan that opens the doors to multiple possibilities and customizations that can make the website even better.

Features	Astra	Astra Pro
Vanilla JavaScript	✅	✅
24/7 Support	❌	✅
Colors and Backgrounds	Limited	Full Access
Spacing	Limited	Full Access
Site Layout Options	❌	✅
Custom Header and Footer	❌	✅
Custom 404 Page	❌	✅
Hooks support Custom code	❌	✅
Color & Typography Options	❌	✅
In-depth articles	✅	✅
Video tutorials	✅	✅
Schema Integrated	✅	✅
SEO Optimized	✅	✅
Self-hosted Google Fonts	✅	✅

Benefits of Using Astra Theme

Astra theme has been used by over 2,369,964+ websites across the globe, including popular websites like Stanford University and NASA. You’ve probably heard about the impressive speed that using the Astra theme provides. 

But what are the other benefits of using the Astra Theme?

1. The largest library of pre-built websiteQs

Astra is one of the quickest ways to launch a professional website with their vast library of over 250+ pre-built websites that can be installed with just one click. 

These are HTML website templates and are totally compliant with HTML and CSS standards.

2. Complete Design Freedom

I like how the Astra theme gives an option to turn the page title and sidebar off. This is a great asset for designers wanting to create webpages as they want and with 100% freedom.

3. Integration options

The Astra theme offers Integrations with Elementor, beaverbuilder, WooCommerce, LearnDash, Spectra, Gutenberg, and Yoast. 

As a page builder, this is good news as it cuts down your time to design components to work with your website. With the boost in performance and reduced time, the integrations also help in the cost-effectiveness of your project. 

4. SkillJet Access

The Astra Business Toolkit Subscribers have exclusive free access to the SkillJet academy, which is worth $1199. This academy includes masterclasses conducted by industry experts on building and designing quality websites.

The academy gives access to 5 courses and over 30+ videos.

Astra User Testimonials

It isn’t just me who is an admirer of the Astra theme; designers and web builders across the globe, as well as CEOs and CMOs of top organizations, use the Astra theme!

Have a look at what they have to share about the Astra Theme: 

Note: Astra ranks high on the popular choice of users on online review platforms. Astra was rated a 4.8/5 on Trustpilot with 1,891 reviews when this article was written.

Astra Theme vs Competitors

Astra, with its impressive user rating, outshines most of its competition with ease. Check this quick comparison between the Astra theme and other popular themes.

Features	Astra	OceanWP	Divi theme	Avada
Price	$49	$26	$89	$69
Best for	Speed and lightweight and Integration ability	eCommerce website	Customization freedom	Complete website building
Speed	Less than 0.5 seconds	Varies on external factors	0.32 seconds	Not specified
Popular Integrations	Elementor, Gutenberg, WooCommerce, Spectra, LearnDash	Elementor, Gutenberg, and WooCommerce	WooCommerce, Paypal, Salesforce and	Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, WPML
Support Offered	Extensive Guides + Priority Support	Basic, Private and VIP support	Premium and VIP support	Free support for 6 months

Related Reads:

My Verdict: Is Astra Theme Worth It?

I have a one-word answer to this question — Yes! Given the complexities that adding a theme can give the users, Astra makes it smoother.

Astra theme is worth applying to your website as it is fast, reliable, customizable, and, more importantly, affordable for the value and benefits it gives. The one-time payment might feel like a lot, but use the above discount, and you’re sorted. 

We love using Astra here at DemandSage and keep experimenting with its newer features to test it to the limits. I shall keep this post updated as and when we find further relevant information to contribute to the Astra theme. 

Also, I would love to see how you’re using Astra and its customizations. Let me know in the comments below!