A wise web page developer understands the importance of speed when it comes to the selected theme performance you are planning to use. There has been an underground battle of speed over performance, Astra vs GeneratePress, these two themes are the most popular in WordPress and they have the perfect features why they ring a bell whenever we hear the word ‘theme’ associated with web developing and everything in between.
Let’s settle this once and for all, this in-depth review will help you weigh all the important factors you need to know, answering the question, ‘who should own the crown among the fastest and excellent themes, Astra vs GeneratePress.
Every concept has its unique peculiarities that let them stand out among the rest. We’ll help you settle down by intensively checking all the important details and breaking them down one by one. That way, you’ll have a good view of which WordPress theme should you be using. Compatibility, performance, speed, ease of use, pros, and cons, pricing, their similarities and many more.
Read along as we feed your curiosity. Then decide with keen knowledge for Astra vs GeneratePress and why you need one over the other. Indulge in this intensive review and we’ll let you know our thoughts afterward.
Astra Theme Facts, Performance, And More
Brainstorm Force is the developer of this amazingly lightweight and ultra-fast WordPress theme that enables you to load the concept content less than a second. Astra Pro enables you to customize your website with its super convenient ease of use. This actively installed base has great feedback from its users and web page developers.
Brainstorm Force is a reputable web page builder company that provides a myriad of plugins that help simplify your web development. Known to these popular plugins are Elementor web page builder and Beaver Builder to name a few.
What makes Astra stand out among the rest are its user-friendly features, premium-quality professional-grade modules, affordability, and reliable high-end performance. With extended compatibility through customized elements, widgets, templates, and blocks.
You can also read this Astra review for a full intensive end to end features, benefits, and everything you need to know about the fastest theme WordPress has to offer.
Performance
Performance, speed, and size are some of the features that you have to check when it comes to WordPress themes. Astra offers a 50KB or even less when it comes to filing size. A great size for its robust performance. The concept can be loaded within 0.5 seconds, under WordPress default data.
Impressively, Astra offers outstanding overall performance whether you are using the default settings for Astra Pro with no active modules running in the background.
Astra offers superior performance even when your website is fully loaded. Regardless of whether you have active modules or not, you can rely on Astra’s overall speed, convenience, and extreme performance. Whether with services from cheaper hostings or not, expect excellence. It surely is worth giving a try.
In summary, Astra Pro offers
- Fast page speed
- Whitelabel features
- Excellent features mega menu
- 100+ accessibility to a variety of starter sites
- It keeps page builders a priority with its active development and updates
- No comment options for styling
- LearnDash And WooCommerce integrations
Benefits
- Robust Starter Sites
Once you have installed Astra and activated it, you open doors to massive options of pre-built free templates for websites. It comes with a plugin companion that is known as Astra’s robust starter site.
Most of these functional site templates are free and come in bundles of features and plugins making your life easier than you can imagine. Every page template corresponds and works perfectly with the page builder that you are using like Elementor. You also have options for Gutenberg.
- Compatibility With Page Builders
What sets Astra apart from other WordPress themes is the convenience, compatibility, and ease of implementation when it comes to using the best page builder. Since Astra Pro is known for its universal compatibility to these popular website builders, it embraces its core while providing integrated features for optimum compatibility.
- Options And Features For Extensive customizations
One of the things that more and more users are loving about Astra Pro is its options and features that enable extensive customization. These options and features are both accessible to the free version and its premium pro version.
With the ease of use, you can easily alter anything around your website. Astra offers its intensive user-friendly features for changing the website’s layout, setting customized typography, and changing the color of your background to name a few.
To summarize its benefits, Astra offers complete customization even to their free trial. That’s how generously amazing and fast this concept is.
Features
- 16 Modules For Premium Version
The premium version offers a massive 16 free content modules for you to customize with. You can use the ready-made page templates to easily set-up your website layouts and designs. Either activating the pre-installed modules or not, Astra offers superior performance among any other WordPress themes.
- Enables And Disables Modules
You can use the default settings of your Astra Pro or use as much as you want without affecting the speed of your website. It remains ultralight even if you increase its load time, page size or page request.
Though you need to take into consideration the active modules that may affect your server’s performance, Astra is a reliable concept when it comes to velocity and outstanding performance.
- Enables Customization Without Codes
Astra offers compatibility with page builders and does not require you to have code settings to customize your website. It offers complete ease of use and user-friendly settings that enables you to mix or match with Astra customizer on its settings.
With new updates that enable complete accessibilities that provide faster ways to launch the website with ease and guaranteed professional style.
- Extensive Customizer Options
Astra Pro offers vast options when it comes to customizing your website and every possible element that you have in mind. With easy access and customization features, you can select more than one feature per page that you wanted to publish and be different from the next one.
This intensive customization setting includes the color of your background, header, footer, layout, and more. This gives you a dynamic result that allows you to explore and learn more. You can easily access this through your meta settings.
There are different elements that you can customize and some modules need to be activated for their performance. If not needed, you can deactivate these modules anytime.
- Easy Access And Convenience Of Use
The convenience of use and accessibility is one of the best features that you can enjoy with the Astra Pro. All the things that you need for you to customize your website can be found under the page Theme Customizer.
Astra Pro enables you to visually organize your page without touching your CSS codes. With their flexibility and simplicity, Astra offers complete convenience of use, control or navigation and customization.
- Global Layout Options And Designs
With Astra Pro, you can design your WordPress site through global tab settings. If you have deactivated the page builder, you can use these settings as default. They may be overridden once you use a page builder.
Under your ‘global’ tab, you can customize the typography, background colors, container, buttons, and then scroll to the top sections of your page.
- Blog Layout And Design Options
With Astra Pro, you can have complete access when it comes to customizing your blog’s layout and designs. This allows you to have a unique blog post experience that leaves a great impression on your visitors. With the latest version, it enables you to complete the accessibility of your blog post by changing the drag and drop settings.
- Responsive Control Options
With responsive control settings, you can change how your website looks for every device that may access your website. It offers complete flexibility and customization for every device through responsive options.
For example, setting the color of your header per device access is easier. Like setting different colors from desktop view, to tablet and even through a smartphone.
- WooCommerce Integration And Add-Ons
Astra is compatible with WooCommerce Integration. You can install these plugins and other add-ons having complete customization settings. The latest updates help improve your experiences and simplify every possible pain point and downtime during styling and formatting.
Listing everything in a nutshell, here’s what Astra offers its users and why they love it.
- Strategically created for page builder compatibility.
- SEO friendly with all the required Schema.org markups for best search engine practices.
- It follows WCAG 2.0 requirements and standards for usability and accessibility.
- It enables you to create websites with multilingual features through RTL and Translation.
- It enables you to work with extendable codes through filters and hooks.
- It is a guaranteed open source and developed transparently with GitHub.
- Seamless integration with WooCommerce.
- Lightweight and guaranteed fast 50Kb or less file size.
- Massive premade website layouts and designs.
- Astra Pro uses Vanilla Javascript to prevent render-blocking.
- Complete customization features from every element.
Pricing
Astra offers a free trial version to help you decide whether this concept is an excellent choice. You can upgrade for three options and an annual or lifetime license key. All of which enables you to have access to your license on an unlimited number of websites you’re working with.
With its flexible pricing, your options for Astra pro comes down in a nutshell.
- $59 Astra Pro
- $169 Mini-Agency Bundle
- $249 Agency Bundle
With a 20% discount for annual renewals on any plans, you’ve selected. You can upgrade your settings to the next plan but you cannot downgrade it.
If you are satisfied with Astra’s outstanding performance and convenience of its known speed, you can purchase a lifetime license instead of a yearly renewal.
You’ll be charged between an Astra Pro ($ 249-lifetime license), Mini Agency Bundle ($499), and Agency Bundle ($699). In case you’ve had a change of heart before the 14 days guarantee, you’ll then have a full refund without further questions.
GeneratePress WordPress Theme: Multipurpose And Fast
When it comes to finding a free theme for your WordPress website that is commonly used by professional web page builders, GeneratePress is a great choice. This free WordPress theme provides a multipurpose feature that can easily adapt to the website niche you are working with.
The core of the GeneratePress concept is complementary. You can upgrade your GeneratePress into a premium version which is a plugin, technically, which you’ll need to install to have complete access to all it’s functions and more.
The GeneratePress child theme offers an excellent performance-focused option that enables you to have full control and customization on your website’s visual look. What this concept/plugin offers is superior performance, like Astra, GeneratePress is known for its speed and performance to load up your website.
For more information and an in-depth review of these themes, you can check this comprehensive GeneratePress review strategically compiled for the web developer who loves speed and performance.
Performance
One of the most important things that you have to remember when checking for a concept is its performance and speed. This means, regardless of the elements, widgets, templates, formatting or style that you will use, it will still work excellently fast.
GeneratePress, like Astra, is known for its flexibility and speed. One of the many reasons why these themes are getting popular for most web page developers. You can customize your website how you want it and it’s conveniently easy to use.
What you will be expecting with the GeneratePress, in a nutshell, are these:
- Web page developer-friendly settings
- Includes a variety of customizer options for your preference
- Have good templates for websites
- Extensive documentation
- Comes with a lower price compared to other themes
GeneratePress is known for its excellent performance. It is strategically designed and carefully engineered to provide focus on the speed and performance of the website you are working with. When activated with a page builder, things may seem a little off-edge to the settings compared to Astra themes.
Benefits
- Convenience Of Use
The convenience of operation and use is one of the main advantages that you will get with GeneratePress themes. Once you have activated these themes, you can easily access it through your page “appearance’ section for further customization.
Everything that you need will be right through your fingertips. You don’t need to be a coding-geek to set websites as this concept can be visually customized for the niche of the website you are working with.
- Customization Selections
Since GeneratePress is known for its flexibility features, you can customize the visual look of your website to make it look enticing and professional at the same time. These can be made possible due to its complete customization settings.
With variable element settings, taking all or one at a time is a breath of fresh air. From page header transparency, content, image, and even background video which you can work and set at the same time. Next is setting the footer control from a custom text, amount of widger, set padding and the page’s footer bar.
- Modular Accessibility
Module accessibility and the number of modules that every concept provides are an important factor for determining the quality and selections of templates that you can use. The GeneratePress Premium account offers 15 modules accessible to its users.
What sets apart the popularity of a certain concept in WordPress is the number of modules that it provides users with. This way, your website can be scalable, easy to promote, and offers convenience when it comes to maintaining its visual look over time.
- Affordability Comparison
Compared with other themes, Astra vs GeneratePress, the latter has a lower price over the Astra theme. It even offers a 40% off annual renewal rate which bills you $49.95 per year.
Features
GeneratePress enables you to fully customize your website but you will need to invest time for you to get things done. If you are a casual user that is not fond of customizing every little detail, GeneratePress vs Astra, it needs more effort for you to achieve stunning designs.
Take advantage of the dynamic features that these WordPress themes have to offer.
- Fast-Page Loading Time And Performance Optimization
One of the best qualities that GeneratePress stands out among other WordPress themes is its page loading speed and performance. With only 30KB file size or less, it optimizes the perfect speed suitable for loading your website faster than any other concept available in the competition today.
The GeneratePress concept does not use any coding system which is ideal for developers that are not comfortable dealing with shortcodes and the likes. With complete customization on its belt and a small size that optimizes velocity when loading multiple pages, you get the perfect theme with less hassle.
Compared with other WordPress themes, GeneratePress guarantees you have one of the most popular and fastest themes WordPress has to offer. It is one of the many reasons why more developers love to work with this theme. Though GeneratePress needs to improve more when working hand in hand with a page builder like the Elementor.
- Detailed Control For Every Content Piece Through Page Settings Level
When compared with other WordPress themes, GeneratePress enables you to have complete customization options for every content that you are publishing on your page. These details can be customized through the layout page of your meta box.
It means you have total control of the style or template formats that you want in every setting, per page, and per content. What the meta box offers you are complete customization from changing your sidebar, number of sidebars and orientations.
The meta box also enables you to disable elements, footer widgets, header, featured post image, title, and more. These GeneratePress features are an excellent help especially if you will be using a page builder that is strategically designed and made for WordPress and its themes for compatibility.
- Variety Of WordPress Customizer Options For Real-Time Editing
Customizing your website through WordPress Customizer enables you to see real-time changes conveniently. The free version of GeneratePress provides a decent option. However, the premium version enables you to customize almost everything about the website.
One of the features that you have to consider when checking for a WordPress theme is its customization and performance. GeneratePress enables you to enjoy full customization, from navigation, header, sidebar, blog post, and footer layout among the few.
Next is getting full control of your website’s typography, background color and other important elements from your website. As a beginner, the theme is developer-friendly to make sure you get the most of everything under control.
- Ready-Made Starter Sites For Superior Website Layout And Design Convenience
Ready-made starter sites are some of the features that make GeneratePress popular for most developers and WordPress users. The ‘site-library’ provides users a new and better experience by importing one of the pre-built site demos from its premium version.
These site demos can be used straight to your dashboard for superior convenience. On the other hand, you can later customize these designs for your preference or guide.
- Premium Modular Approach With Helpful Extensions
For your theme to maintain its lightweight size, the GeneratePress theme provides a modular front-end interface that enables you to select which features you want to keep activated and which one should not.
Features like elements, sections, and page headers are among the few that affect the speed and performance of your theme and website. With complete customization, you can prevent your website from slowing down due to features that are not compatible or seldom used.
The GeneratePress theme is performance focus as it takes usability, security, and speed seriously.
- Clean-code and small footprint for top-tier velocity.
- The default settings of GeneratePress are 30kb less.
- It uses the most excellent standard stable coding.
- It provides SEO even before you post your content.
- None render blocking problems.
- It follows WCAG 2.0 website standards for complete and accessibility-ready.
- Complete control and customization.
- Web page builder friendly.
- Compatible to any WordPress plugins.
- RTL and other languages support it.
- Extensive hooks and filter options.
Pricing
GeneratePress has a free version which you can access through WordPress.org but has limited accessibility to a lot of features. You can access the ‘site-library’ and WordPress Customizer via a premium account at only $49.95 with one-year unlimited websites. You have 30 days of guaranteed money back if you were not satisfied with the theme’s speed and performance.
The premium version provides modules and full access to the theme’s Site Library. Plus, GeneratePress has a 40% off discount for renewal.
Is Astra A Good Theme
Astra’s theme is known for its simplicity with superior performance and speed. It comes with a free version that enables you to try for yourself. With the premium version, it enables the developer to instantly import ready-made content modules for the website niche that you are working with.
There are plenty of professional-looking content modules for your website. All of which are easy to use and provide convenience to work on web development and styling even if you are a beginner. The Astra theme is known for its fast-website loading performance. Astra Pro also offers a wide range of available plugins that boost the functionalities of your WordPress theme.
When compared with other themes, Astra vs GeneratePress, more and more users are loving the benefits and simplicity of the theme and how you can have full customization of the theme to how stunning your website can look.
When it comes to responsiveness and accessibility, Astra vs GeneratePress, the first one is a top-notch among other themes available. Astra is also great to use with page builders, like Elementor Beaver Builder and Gutenberg.
Is Astra The Best WordPress Theme
Astra is the most excellent WordPress theme that is free. It has a small file that enables you to have a fast-performance page regardless of what modules or elements you put in. What’s best about this theme is that you can have full customization features when working.
You can also upgrade your theme into the premium version that unlocks a lot of accessibility and features to simplify your life. Transforming your web development into a stunningly professional feels easy.
What’s great about this theme, aside from its free version, is the convenience of use, installation, and activation. Both beginners and professional web developers should work on with. No need for codes that take hours for you to work with. Embrace the beauty and convenience that every user loves about Astra Pro.
Conclusion
There has always been a comparison between Astra and GeneratePress, from their speed and performance to convenience and customization. Whether you are looking for a concept suitable for the niche that meets published required settings for your website, Astra and GeneratePress are two excellent WordPress concepts.
However, at the end of the day, we want something that offers the simplicity of use, convenience and complete customization that allows us to venture to a wide variety of options. That is where Astra Pro stands out compared to GeneratePress.
Astra Pro is lightweight and fast, with less than 50kb file size. It’s search engine optimization friendly and follows all required standard and responsive access and usability. With multilingual peculiarities, translations, and RTL. With seamless integration to WooCommerce and enables you to have extendable hooks and filters.
The reason why more and more web developers and WordPress page builders are using Astra Pro is its user-friendly features with outstanding performance with complete usability and customization in one. So to answer which WordPress concept is better, Astra vs GeneratePress, from every detail about each concept’s peculiarities, GeneratePress and Astra have built a solid foundation.
While writing this review, we declared Astra as the winner when it comes to the best WordPress concept, convenience, customization, and professional-grade industry-standard websites that attract more and more users and stuns more visitors per website due to its fast-loading performance.