The Astra, Elementor combination looked like a great combination based on Elementor’s post about building websites with Astra and Elementor . Astra sounds like a contender for a theme to use with my Elementor pre-built sites so I decided to check it out. I built out the Astra Construction website using the Astra Sites Plugin. I was impressed with the package and the free pre-built sites. This instance was fast on GTMetrix with a page speed score of 87%.
That made me think that Astra might become my new “go to” theme for new client site builds. So I decided to migrate a site I was building for a client using Receptive which is my current “go to” theme to Astra. The GTMetrix scores were virtually identical.
Nevertheless, there is a lot to like about Astra. The Astra Customizer site layout has many options that I haven’t seen in free themes:
Another nice feature is the ability to add a bar of variable size and color under the menu.
They don’t include a sticky header but that was easily solved with the Sticky Header Plugin. But they do include several great SiteOrigins widgets that make it easy to create a neat footer area:
In general, the Astra Theme’s key features are:
- Speed
- Modern Design
- Compatible With Elementor
- Powerful Add-on Package with the $25 price for the Pro version
- Ready Made Templates
It’s definitely a great choice for new websites.