Anyone who uses WordPress to build a website has heard of the Astra theme. According to Astra's official statistics, more than 2.4 million people worldwide are using the Astra theme, which has become one of the most popular WordPress themes. Astra is a powerful WordPress theme that both novice and veteran drivers can easily and quickly pick up. Astra is also one of the fastest, lightest, and most personalized WordPress themes available. Today, I will talk about the Astra theme in detail, hoping to help you a little!
What is Astra? Astra is one of the most popular theme templates on WordPress, developed by the company Brainstorm Force. Brainstorm Force has been around for 10 years, and it also makes plugins like Convert Pro, Schema Pro, and Ultimate Addons for Elementor. Since its release, Astra has grown to be one of the most popular WordPress themes, and it is highly recommended by big names in the WordPress ecosystem, such as WordPress and WooCommerce expert Chris Lema and WPBeginner's founder Syed Balkhi. The free version of the theme is the first and only WordPress theme to have more than 1 million active installs.
Why is Astra popular? Why is Astra so popular? I've come up with five reasons: 1. Astra is light and fast: page load time is one of the main factors to consider when choosing a theme. Astra pages can be as small as 50KB, meaning website pages load very fast. 2. Astra offers multi-purpose themes: Whether you are building a blog site or a more sophisticated online mall, Astra provides ready-made templates. 3. There are lots of customization options: Astra allows you to make as many changes to the website design as possible. 4, the free version is rich in features: The free version of many themes has very few features, while the Astra free version provides all the basic features. 5, can be used with other plug-ins: such as Elementor and Beaver Builder
7 reasons to recommend Astra 1. Astra's performance and speed meet the needs of most people. One of the key factors in determining the performance of a website is the theme used on the website. The theme of the website contains the page structure and the underlying code, which needs to strike a balance between beauty and efficiency and provide good visual effects without slowing down the page speed. In this regard, Astra claims two advantages: Astra only requires 50KB of resources to run. The default WordPress data load time is less than 5 seconds. To test Astra's claims, I'll run Astra's performance tests under two scenarios:
1) Test the default "Hello World" page after installing Astra.
2) Import one of Astra's demo websites and test the homepage of the website. In the first scenario, a simple page for "Hello World" is displayed as follows:
Next, I'll test the load speed on Pingdom, GTmetrix, and Google PageSpeed Insights. This is the result of the Pingdom test:
Astra received an A performance grade of 96 with a page size of 66.3KB (slightly higher than the promised 50KB). The file size is high, probably because I chose the e-commerce theme instead of the standard blog theme. Still, it performs well! The results of GTmetrix are as follows:
The results of Google PageSpeed Insights are as follows:
We see page load times ranging from 0.8 seconds to 1.0 seconds. Compared to Astra's claims, the actual performance is exactly the same. Now let me start the second test. Under this test, the Astra home page is more complex because it contains more images and code.
It should be noted that some plugins are required for this test, such as WooCommerce, Spectre, and WPForms Lite.
Pingdom results in the following:
GTmetrix results are as follows:
Google PageSpeed Insights results are as follows:
Despite a significant increase in page size (from 66KB to 224KB), pages still hold their own in terms of load speed, with load times ranging from 1.1 to 1.69 seconds. For most users, a page load speed of less than 2 seconds is very good. In addition, in addition to the selected theme, another important factor affecting the page loading speed is the server. For the best performance and excellent page load speed, I recommend Cloudways, a cloud-based server for WordPress that is highly optimized for WordPress performance, security, and high availability.
2. Astra is highly adaptable to mobile terminals. Having a theme that can be adapted to different devices is very important for the success of your website. Fortunately, Astra is not only great for browsing on a computer but also great for browsing on a mobile device. When using the default WordPress custom editing page, you can easily switch between 3 different screen sizes (desktop, tablet, and mobile). In each case, Astra automatically adjusts the page elements to fit the screen size. For example, you can set different margin sizes for specific sections on various devices：
You can also use the Mobile Header module. This feature is designed to set different logos, menu styles, and title colors for mobile devices. One way to test Astra's mobile adaptation is to get a Google PageSpeed Insights score for mobile devices.
I used a more dynamic starter site for this test, and the results are as follows:
Google rates the site's mobile performance at 91% - well above average, and this high level of mobile responsiveness gives Astra a lot of credit. 3. Astra is very simple to install and use. With more than 600 starter templates for the default block editor and different page builders, even if you're a novice, you can get your website design done in minutes. Download Astra, Appearance > in the background of the WordPress website; Themes > Add New Search for Astra and install it.
Once you're done, you can easily and freely use Astra's starter template, as shown below:
Next up is the automatic installation of the Starter Templates plugin, a free version that gives you access to more than 240 unique website templates.
You'll get a lot of different categories of templates:
After selecting the template, you can choose to import custom Settings, widgets, content, and all initial site content:
When you are done, click submit & build my website and Astra will complete the import in 1 minute.
4. Astra offers rich customization options.
In the Astra option, you can set the website's logo, customize the font, and adjust the footer header Settings.
Click on any of these links and you will be taken to the background custom area. If you want to access the premium options, you'll need to get an Astra Pro license, which means a fee. This theme supports the use of block editors as well as other page builders such as Elementor and Beaver Builder:
6. Astra has a free version and a paid version. Astra offers both free and paid versions to meet the needs of different users. Here are some of the features of the paid version:
- Astra Pro ($47 / year): Advanced typography, blog layout, header and footer builder, unlimited website usage, and advanced support.
- Essential Bundle ($137 per year): More than 240 premium starter templates, UltimateAddons from Elementor or Beaver Builder, and everything in Astra Pro.
- The Growth Bundle ($187 per year): Convert Pro, Schema Pro, Elementor's Ultimate Addons, and Beaver Builder's Ultimate Addons, as well as SkillJet Academy Membership.
If you opt for a lump-sum payment, you can choose Astra Pro ($47 / year, $227 lifetime), Essential Bundle ($137 / year, $677 lifetime), or Growth Bundle ($187 / year, $937 lifetime).
Astra's customer support is also good. According to G2, a professional rating site, Astra's customer support rating is 8.6 out of 10.
7. Astra is good for SEO. Known for its superior speed and lightweight design, Astra boosts website performance with an average load time of less than 2 seconds, a key factor in Google rankings.
In addition, Astra seamlessly integrates with Schema Pro Review, an SEO plugin that lets you create Rich Snippets to rank your site and get more traffic.
If you are familiar with some HTML and CSS knowledge, you can remove additional elements from the code to make the website load faster.
Share 3 websites with the Astra theme
This is an independent e-commerce site selling organic food:
Here is the personal website of Jeffrey Betts (a UI/UX designer) :
This is the website of yoga teacher Henry Winslow：
In SUMMARY:
If you're looking for a reliable WordPress theme, Astra is definitely worth considering! It is fast, easy to use, customizable, and available in a free version with many features. If you want more customization options and top-notch customer support, Astra's paid version is definitely worth it. Its paid version includes a powerful page builder and plugins that can help you get more out of your website.
