The Astra WordPress theme was developed in 2017 and even though it is a relatively new entrant on the themes market, Brainstorm Force, the company behind it has been working on WordPress projects for years.
In this article, we will look at the pros and cons of this theme in order to help you make a more informed purchase decision.
If you’re looking for an extensive review, the article: Astra theme – a full review – is it worth all the hype? by BeeWits is a perfect analysis of this product.
The advantages of the Astra WordPress theme
60+ Premade websites
One of the biggest advantages of Astra theme is that it has over 60 custom-made demo websites that are ready for importing.
The developers do a decent job of adding premade websites every now and then. In fact, they add at least one new demo site every month. Whatever type of website you want to make, you will most likely find a demo that fits your needs.
Making the website is therefore as easy as installing the premade site and editing the data to fit your needs.
Multiple domains
When you purchase the Astra theme, you can install it on as many websites as you want. This theme would, therefore, save you a lot of money if you are an agency that develops websites or even if you are just an individual/company that has lots of websites.
Regular updates
The developers of Astra are always quick to release updates to keep the theme secure and fresh. These updates can be conveniently installed in a single click from the WordPress dashboard. Updates typically include feature additions, new improvements, and bug fixes.
100% money back guarantee
Brainstorm Force believes in their products so much that they offer a 100% money back guarantee. You can test the theme to see if you like it and if you do not, you will get a full refund. However, the refund must be requested within 14 days of purchase.
Bundled plugins
The Astra theme comes with awesome bundled plugins that are required for the website to work.
When you purchase the theme, you will also get a link that you can use to download these plugins.
This means that you can actually reuse these plugins on other websites that you might have running on a different theme. In fact, you will be given a separate key for each of the bundled plugins because the developers of Astra realize their clients may want to reuse the plugins on other websites.
Intuitive page builders
The theme uses two of the best page builders i.e. beaver and elementor plugins. With these plugins, even a novice user can easily design eye-catching designs.
For instance, the Elementor plugin makes creating mega menus just a breeze.
One-click demo imports
Once you have bought the theme, you will get access to the Astra Premium plugin which you can use to import the demo sites. The demos cut the website design time by almost half because you will not have to design the website from scratch.
Responsive design
Astra WordPress theme works seamlessly across devices. Responsive design is one of the most important features for any theme because your site’s visitors will visit your website from all manner of devices. With Astra, the mobile, tablet and desktop users will get the same experience.
Load time
Most premium themes are very heavy due to the features used and this ultimately makes them very slow. However, the Astra WordPress theme is actually built with speed in mind. With a chrome lead-time of 330ms, Astra is indeed one of the fastest WordPress themes on the market.
In fact, such a fast load-time makes for better SEO (which we will se below) and even helps in eCommerce, by improving the customer user experience and even helps towards reducing cart abandonment rates.
SEO friendly markup
Most established business get over 70% of their new clients from search engine traffic. It is therefore in your best interests to build a website using a theme that is SEO friendly.
The Astra WordPress theme will help you by adding proper schema markup to the posts and content. This communicates some extra SEO information and it reduces or even eliminates your need for sophisticated SEO plugins.
Visit BeautifulPress to see some stunning websites created with Astra.
Disadvantages of Astra WordPress theme
The only disadvantage of the Astra theme is the annual subscription fees that are recommended in order to get support and updates. However, you will get a 20% discount from the annual subscription price if you chose to renew.
If you want to get all the benefits of the theme without having to continue subscribing every year, you can buy the lifetime license. However, this is quite pricey for individuals and may only make sense for agencies that build multiple websites.
The Astra theme is indeed one of the most powerful WordPress themes out there. Even if you are not sure if it will work for your website, you can still purchase it and give it a try.
If you realize that it is not what you were looking for, you can request for a refund and you will be given 100% of the money you spent on it. Just remember to request for the refund within 14 days.
