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Today, we will be looking at our fast premium theme and a page builder, the Astra Pro & Elementor Pro. We will discuss how the creators of Astra decided to go beyond just a theme. The Elementor is perfect for everyone who values a straightforward and intuitive interface.
There will be no need to dig into code when you want to make changes. Elementor will give you everything at your fingertips without affecting anything previously done. So, let’s dive into Astra Pro and Elementor Pro Review.
Astra Theme Ease of Use
The free version of Astra does not allow for many customizations, but there are enough to get the job done. Astra has a good selection of widgets that you can use in different site areas. The theme is mobile-friendly, and the slider is responsive. So, it will adjust to whatever device you’re using to view the site. Astra is easy to use and has many handy features built into it.
Price / Value
The free Astra Theme is a basic WordPress theme. But with the Starter Templates at no cost, you can’t beat that.
Support
While Astra has received some criticism for slow customer service, I’ve found my interactions with them timely and helpful.
Pros
Flexible, Fast, Powerful, and Lightweight. Elegant Design, WordPress Demos, Custom Layout
Cons
The free version of this theme does not allow for a great deal of customization.
Astra Theme Review
Astra is a WordPress theme that gives site owners of all kinds a chance. They can build a professional, quality-looking site at an affordable price. If you want to keep things clean and minimal or display your art in rich colors and textures, Astra has what you need to create the site of your dreams.
Astra is proliferating and has recently crossed 1+ Million active installs with over 4,800 five-star ratings on WordPress.org.
Visually Stunning
The Astra theme is a visually stunning theme from Themeforest that is perfect for any WordPress web design project. Whether you buy a theme, use a page builder, or opt for a customized design, Astra Theme has something to offer.
The best reason to buy a theme is to pay the developer for their outstanding work and support. Especially if you’re a beginner, you don’t need the extra burden or expense of buying pro themes.
Astra Is Developing New Features
This theme doesn’t act as quickly as Apple when implementing new features. Astra continues to evolve, adding new features while improving previous ones. It’s good to be cautious with over 1 million websites on the line, but Astra could earn massive money if it were more adventurous.
The Pro version of Astra offers a variety of customizations not found on the free theme, so if you plan to customize your theme extensively, this is the better choice.
Some Greate Features of Astra Pro
Super-fast performance
Astra is a next-generation WordPress theme for magazine, news, and review sites. Astra’s focus is on performance, speed, and stability. It uses the best cutting-edge technologies and techniques to ensure top-notch results in all key metrics that matter: page load time, first-byte time, start to render time, page speed score, etc.
Page builder integration
Optimized for all page builders, Astra is a powerful theme that allows you to create a beautiful site without code.
Easy customization
Without coding knowledge, anyone can change the design quickly through a WordPress customizer. It’s the best theme for popular page builder plugins like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Thrive Suite, Gutenberg & others. Astra Pro comes with a white-label option, and it is conducive for agencies to do their custom branding. This is an option that’s rare to see in the pro version of the themes.
Layout
Astra Pro comes equipped with a site layout module, so you can present your content in just about any shape or fashion you can imagine.
Free Starter Templates
Astra Free comes with over 20 free starter templates and is WooCommerce-ready so that you can launch your online store in minutes. Additionally, the Astra Starter Sites plugin allows you to import many pre-built website design templates and tweak them for your purposes.
SEO Optimized
You could say this theme is perfectly responsive, and it also rocks the SEO game since it’s been optimized for search engines.
Astra Free
Astra Free is a free version of the Astra theme, but it does not include all premium features. This theme contains all the components you need to build a unique, responsive, fast website.
Cost-effective
Astra Pro is available for only $47/year or $249 for a lifetime license—an excellent price for such a popular theme.
Astra Provides the Essentials of Blogging
WordPress exists because its founder wanted to create a simple and user-friendly platform for publishing online. That’s where WordPress themes come in. They make blogging and website-building easier than ever before. You can choose from several blog styles and layouts in the Astra Pro theme, including post content and post grid control tools. Flexible Page templates and stylish design options ensure that you can put your stamp on your blog.
Headers and Footers
WordPress headers and footers can be a pain to work with. They’re often inflexible, requiring coding knowledge to manipulate, and don’t always consider customization you might want to do. Astra Pro provides the customization option for headers and footers and allows both areas to be used as additional modules.
Headers are hot right now. You can add a mega menu, sticky header animations, and a full-width menu drop-down. There are options for Gutenberg and elementor and the other page builders like Beaver Builder and Brizy.
Astra Pro Theme Plugins Integrations
Astra allows you to create top-notch content and engage your audience with various WordPress plugins, including elementor, Gutenberg, Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, Site Origin, Thrive Suite, and Divi.
Elementor Addons
It is an exciting WordPress plugin packed with innovative themes and widgets that help you create a better user experience on your site and increase conversions. There are endless ways to customize your website; you can build it faster, be compatible with WooCommerce, and easily translate.
Gutenberg Blocks
Enhance your site with Gutenberg blocks. Incorporate elements like a sleek info box, customizable buttons to lead users to other parts of your site, and even a team section complete with testimonials.
Beaver Builder
The possibilities are endless when you use Beaver Builder. The template cloud gives you access to 60+ modules, 200+ row sections, and 100+ page templates so you can create something truly one-of-a-kind. Using the white label feature is a great way to build a reputable agency.
Flexibility
Astra, Astra, Astra! We’ll be on your case until you give it a try. You get so much control over your site when you use this theme at the foundation of your design. A settings box on every page gives you the flexibility of changing things up on a page-by-page basis if you want to.
A Real-Time Customizer for WordPress
To customize Astra itself, it uses the native WordPress Customizer.
You’ll get a chance to review how your blog or site will look before you publish it because your changes are previewed in real-time. And since this theme is so easy to use, you’ll want to make the most of it by customizing it.
Astra with Elementor, Astra Pro & Elementor Pro
You can integrate this theme with the plugin Elementor Page Builder which allows you to create your custom layouts in a simple drag and drop, making any design work a breeze.
Elementor
Elementor is a free WordPress page builder. It offers drag & drop building for every page or post on your WordPress site. This plugin has over 50+ powerful, pre-made page layouts. You can use it to create beautiful and unique pages with just a few clicks.
You can build unlimited with this plugin. With Elementor, you can make any page you want, including homepages, About Us, Contact, services, pricing tables, blog posts, and much more.
Elementor Popularity
The Elementor plugin holds a curious position on the WordPress page builder scene. After its release, it quickly became a benchmark for other developers, who rushed to imitate its interface.
Elementor is Better Option
Depending on the skill level, installing a theme could cause a few headaches, and plugins for creating pages can seem less necessary. However, WordPress is capable of quite a lot of things. If you know how to code, you’re close to omnipotent with WordPress’s built-in block editor. If you don’t, Elementor may be the better option for your site.
But even if you’re not a pro at web development, you can still do amazing things with Elementor. Just don’t expect to be able to build anything that matches the scope of your imagination.
Elementor Better Option For Non-Coders
If WordPress with its default functionality can serve as a low-code option, Elementor is your no-code friend who will help you build faster.
WordPress’s newfound ability to include field types for shortcodes is likely to make Elementor irrelevant. But the plugin still has its uses, especially for non-coders who want to build websites from scratch or those who use other elements that only Elementor can bring them (until they’re integrated into WordPress).
Benefits of Elementor
Tons of templates
Elementor comes preloaded with tons of professionally designed templates that you can use to create the layout you’re looking for. All of them are responsive, meaning they will automatically adapt to any device’s screen size, be it mobile or desktop.
Widgets and elements
Elementor gives you access to many devices and components that allow you to create megamenus, accordions, sliders, and more. There are also dozens of customizable shortcodes and widgets you can use to add features like pricing tables, contact forms, and more to your site pages.
Improved Usability
The interface itself is much friendlier than the original Visual Composer editor for WordPress, so if the latter gave you trouble before, try Elementor instead! Easily drag and drop elements from the sidebar menu or directly within the editor window, which avoids the hassle of looking through several tabs in your WordPress.
Elementor Saves Time
Elementor gives you a lot more control over your design than a page template would. But what sets it apart is how quick and easy it is to use. If you are looking to save time on content creation and spend more time focusing on your business, a good WordPress page builder will help you achieve that goal.
Elementor Helps You Create Better Content
With Elementor, creating standout content becomes much easier—and even fun. The tool comes with built-in features that let you quickly add text boxes, images, sliders, and more to any page or post. Plus, there are hundreds of free add-ons available for download in the plugin repository.
Non Techie for Non-Developers
Elementor makes website building easy for non-developers. Unlike other page builders, Elementor doesn’t require you to know any code to get started building pages, and you don’t need any programming experience at all. Instead, Elementor uses a simple interface to drag and drop different components into place until your page is complete.
Responsive
Elementor is fully responsive and mobile-friendly. This means that the plugin will automatically adapt to any screen size or device, so you can rest assured that the blog or website will look great on all kinds of devices.
Elementor Free vs. Pro Version
Elementor Pro introduced the world to a whole new layer of possibilities. The free version is great for personal blogs or small business websites, but if you’re looking for more control and faster page-building, you’ll need the Pro version.
Free Version
A better way to look at it is that there are two versions of Elementor, one free and one premium (paid). The free version is much like WordPress itself; it’s simple and easy to use. This will be a good option if you’re new to website design. You can create pages and posts quickly with Elementor, which doesn’t require much technical knowledge.
Pro Versin
The premium version is an all-in-one page builder that takes your website to a whole new level. It has many features like adding social media sharing buttons & video embeds, video backgrounds, unlimited sidebars, adding multiple menus on every page & post, and so much more.
Premium Version Cost: $49
It includes the following;
Many templates
Global elements editing
Custom CSS
More design capabilities.
More building capabilities. (Additional blocks to dynamic content)
Mailchimp and Woo-commerce Integrations,
And more.
Downside of Elementor
Here are a few downsides to using Elementor:
Limited Features
The free version is crippled. The free version comes with pretty limited features, which is fine if you’re only designing simple sites, but it presents problems for more advanced users. It also doesn’t support WordPress’s native shortcode for buttons and lists, meaning that you’ll have to go to the backend of your site to add them in manually.
Users Frustration
Users are frustrated by bugs. There was a time in Elementor’s history when it was plagued with bugs, especially around mobile support and SEO. Some of these have been fixed, but users can still be frustrated by bugs they run into.
Customization Problems
It can be hard to customize. While plugins allow users to customize the grid and other aspects of the layout, they can be tedious and time-consuming to use.
Problems for Newbie
It’s easy to break the back end of your site while using it. This isn’t unique to Elementor, but inexperienced users can easily screw up their site’s functionality without knowing how. If you’re not comfortable working in WordPress’s admin area, Elementor might not be for you.
