WordPress is an extremely powerful platform that can be used to create any type of website. Currently, more than 30 percent of all the websites on the internet are being powered by WordPress. The first thing that someone notices on a website after visiting is its overall appearance and how does a website get its appearance? From the theme that the website is using. By now you must have realized how important a theme is for any website. A good WordPress theme plays an important role in setting your website apart from its competitors. Here we will discuss all the factors about one such option: Astra WordPress Theme.
What is Astra WordPress Theme?
Astra is a modern, elegant and fast WordPress theme developed by the Brainstorm Force. You can use this theme for any website be it a portfolio, a blog, online store or business website. This theme gives you the option of importing tons of website designs that are rich in terms of quality. This way, you can transform your website just with a few simple clicks.
You also get access to some free extensions. However, if you are looking for some other advanced functionalities and options then you can upgrade to the premium version. The pricing of the premium version of the theme starts from $59 onwards.
Offerings of This Theme:
You can download this theme from either WordPress.org or directly within the themes section of the WordPress admin dashboard. Like every other theme, Astra also comes with a starter pack. The starter pack includes a .zip file for the main theme, Astra Child Theme and the documentation.
Features of Astra WordPress Theme:
This WordPress theme is highly customizable and lightweight. It is optimized for speed and any website that has the Astra WordPress Theme on it, loads in less than half of a second. To achieve this, the developers of this theme have taken steps like: disabling jQuery and keeping all the resources less than 50kb.
This theme comes bundled with native support for all the popular page builders. It provides seamless integration with WordPress page builders including WPBakery Page Builder, Divi, Elementor, Beaver Builder, Thrive Architect, Gutenberg and Brizy. This is the point that makes Astra different from its competitors because most of the WordPress themes have not been designed while keeping these modern page builders in mind.
Setting Up:
After activating the Astra WordPress theme, you will see a new settings box at the time of editing pages, posts or any other custom post types. This allows you to change most of the common page settings like:the sidebar displaying position and the layout option for the content. From here, you can disable features like header, page title, featured image and footer bar completely.
This theme lets you customize the appearance of every page. With the help of the WordPress theme customizer, you can also take full control of every page’s design. Here, you will see all the customization options. It also lets you preview the changes you make in real time. You can also switch the preview mode from desktop to tablet or mobile. There are so many useful options provided by this customizer:
- In the blog posts, the user can change the structure and enable and disable meta information.
- In the footer, you can easily change the layout and also add the custom text to it..
- You can modify the colors and typography very easily.
- There are Quick links to the WordPress menus and widgets also.
Most of the themes come with a problem that the user faces many issues while trying to modify the existing design of the theme. This is not the case with Astra. You can make modifications to the design very smoothly.
Although this theme does not necessarily ask you to install any WordPress plugins in order to work efficiently. But if you feel there is a need to import a design into your website then you will have to install the Astra Starter Sites plugin. Once you activate the Astra Starter Sites plugin, you can import multiple pre built website designs. In the pro version of the theme, there are over 70 designs and in the free version, 35 designs available. In these designs there are also prebuilt options for all different types of websites be it a portfolio, a blog, online store or business website.
What Makes Astra Different?
The ultimate goal of designing this WordPress Theme was to help the beginners. It aimed to provide them a way to create professional websites without having to touch the code. But this does not mean that this theme lacks features that an advanced level developer might look for. In short, this theme is a complete package. Here we have listed a few notable features that make this theme different and better as compared to its competitors.
- The theme is custom post type ready.
- This theme also provides seamless integration with WooCommerce if someone is in the need of creating an online store.
- It follows WCAG 2.0 standards.
- Astra has been designed while keeping all the search engines in mind. It follows the best SEO practices.
- This theme is translation and RTL ready also.
- It comes bundled with different hooks and filters. It makes the content population much simpler.
And there are many more. Astra is an open source theme so being a user you can examine the code of this theme on Github.
Wrapping Up!
Astra WordPress Theme is a great pick for any type of website. It comes bundled with a lot of amazing features. This theme is:
- Easy to configure and use
- Retina Ready
- Fully Responsive
And the list does not end here. Although, the basic free version works just fine. But if you are looking for some additional advanced settings and options then you can consider the Pro version.
Still, confused about this? If you get stuck anywhere or want to know more about WordPress themes you can contact us on the toll-free no. 1-866-332-O276. We are available 24×7 as we work around the clock. Our WordPress Support Professionals will answer all the questions that you can possibly have.
