The Astra theme by Brainstorm Force has become one of the most popular free WordPress themes in recent years. With its lightweight design, abundant customization options, and multipurpose versatility, it‘s easy to see why Astra has attracted such an avid following.
In this up-to-date review for 2024, I‘ll provide an in-depth look at what makes the Astra theme such an appealing choice for all types of websites.
Blazing Fast Speed Right Out of the Box
As a lightweight theme built for speed, Astra really delivers on fast load times. Without any optimizations, Astra sites can achieve page load speeds under one second.
This is crucial for site visitors, as 53% of mobile site visitors will leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. With Astra, you get a performance-focused foundation right from the start.
To demonstrate Astra‘s speed advantage, I tested the theme against some other popular multipurpose options by importing the same starter site. Here were the results:
| Theme | Page Load Time |
|---|---|
| Astra | 0.91s |
| OceanWP | 1.42s |
| GeneratePress | 1.34s |
| Blocksy | 1.63s |
As you can see, Astra was considerably faster loading than the alternatives, even when using the same exact content.
The latest version of Astra weighs in at under 50KB. For comparison, these other themes range from 400KB up to 1MB. All those extra kilobytes add up, slowing down site speed. Astra eliminates that bloat.
As long as you implement other speed optimizations like compressing images and using lightweight plugins, Astra gives you an incredibly fast head start.
Unmatched Customization in the WordPress Customizer
One of Astra‘s standout features is its deep integration with the native WordPress Customizer. This allows you to customize all aspects of your site through a user-friendly visual interface.
While the Customizer is commonplace these days, Astra stands out for just how many options it gives you. We‘re talking hundreds of settings allowing precise fine-tuning of colors, fonts, layouts, and more.
For example, granular controls over typography let you customize:
- Font families
- Font sizes
- Line heights
- Font weights
- Letter spacing
…for headings, body text, buttons, widgets, footers, and just about everything else.
You can also fine-tune colors for backgrounds, text, links, buttons, and every element in between with advanced controls like hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast tuning.
These customizations require no coding knowledge thanks to the intuitive Customizer interface updating changes on the fly.
As far as free WordPress themes go, nothing can match Astra‘s extreme flexibility in adaptability and personalization without needing to write code.
Built to Handle Any Website Type
With its abundance of layout and design options, Astra can readily adapt to any website niche or purpose you can imagine.
Need an online store? Astra integrates smoothly with WooCommerce out of the box, with advanced controls for shop pages, products, carts, checkout pages, and more. Astra Pro takes it even further with conversion-focused features like two-step checkouts, AJAX cart updating, and notification bars.
How about a portfolio site to showcase creative work? Astra gives you multiple layout options like masonry-style tiling or full-width galleries to highlight projects just the way you want. Display controls per project basis give great flexibility.
Or say you need to build an online course. Astra works seamlessly with LMS plugins like LearnDash. The Pro version even offers dedicated customization settings for course pages, materials, forums, and lessons.
Blogs, business sites, directories, magazines…Astra can handle them all. No other free multipurpose theme can match its versatility.
In the past 2 years, Astra has powered over 450,000+ active installs spanning niches like:
- News & blogging sites
- Small business websites
- Portfolios
- Online stores
- Membership & LMS sites
It has become especially popular among web designers seeking an adaptable framework for client projects across industries.
I‘ve personally used Astra for over a dozen client sites I‘ve built over the past year and have yet to encounter a use case it can‘t fulfill.
Launch Quickly With Pre-Built Starter Sites
Creating an entire website from a blank canvas can prove daunting. Fortunately, Astra makes it possible to shortcut the process with its library of pre-built starter sites.
The current Astra theme boasts over 100 free starter site templates spanning niches like:
- Blog & magazine sites
- Service business sites
- App & software sites
- Events & wedding sites
- Agency & portfolio sites
Upgrading to Astra Pro provides the full collection of over 200+ starter sites covering even more ground like:
- Online stores
- Finance & consulting sites
- Educational sites
- Health & wellness sites
- Churches & non-profits
These aren‘t just basic templates either. The sites come fully designed with actual written content you can modify using a visual page builder like Elementor.
If you want to hit the ground running, importing and customizing one of Astra‘s beautifully crafted starter sites lets you launch in days instead of weeks.
For non-designers or anyone short on time, leveraging these ready-to-use websites is an easy lift.
Level Up Your Capabilities With Astra Pro
The core Astra theme available from WordPress.org provides an abundance of features on its own. However, upgrading to the paid Astra Pro plugin opens up more advanced design functionality.
Some of the most beneficial Astra Pro modules include:
- Advanced Footer Builder: Create multi-row footer layouts with widget areas and menus.
- WooCommerce Enhancements: Two-step checkouts, custom product layouts, notification bars, and more.
- Sticky Header: Pin the header to the top as users scroll for persistent navigation access.
- White Label: Remove Astra branding across the dashboard for client sites.
- Layouts: Choose from expanded blog feed designs.
- Scroll To Top: Add a customizable button guiding users back to the top.
- Colors & Background: Unlock more granular controls over colors and background images.
One major advantage of Astra Pro is that it comes in the form of a plugin, not an entirely separate theme. This allows you to keep all your existing Astra customizations intact.
You can also select only the Pro modules you actually need, allowing a customized experience while avoiding unnecessary bloat.
For developers, Astra makes an appealing framework to build robust custom themes around. By creating a child theme, you can tap into Astra‘s solid foundation while writing custom code to extend its functionality.
The modular nature of Pro plugins means you can craft creative solutions using only what‘s needed for the project at hand.
Why Astra Belongs In Every WordPress Toolkit
With its winning combination of speed, customizability, versatility, and usability, Astra has cemented itself as my #1 recommendation for a do-anything WordPress theme.
For designers, the abundance of custom controls and flexible layout options provide endless creative possibilities.
For developers, Astra delivers a streamlined foundation to build robust custom sites.
For beginners, the pre-built starter sites and intuitive administration options make getting started a breeze.
Very few themes can match Astra’s unique balance of a lightweight platform and rich feature set. All packaged in an easy-to-use way for users of all skill levels.
The Astra team heads down an innovative path of building features as modular plugins instead of code bloat. This lean approach puts Astra ahead of other themes claiming multipurpose use but collapsing under their own weight.
So download Astra today and see how this blockbuster theme can transform your next WordPress project!
