Astra vs Blocksy Theme comparison [2023] 💥
ASTRA THEME (Blocksy vs Astra)
WP-Astra is the fastest Wordpress theme ever made...
In this Astra Theme review for [2023], I'll be the first to tell you that 2.369.964+ people entrust the health of their website to Astra. The Astra Theme was specially built from scratch to be able to build the most beautiful shops and more importantly, it had to load very fast. The Astra team has started a highly successful theme with this which is becoming increasingly popular. The only theme that stands up to speed against Astra is Generatepress but imposes it all other fronts against Astra.
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The faster your website, the higher it ranks in Google, the longer visitors stay on your site and there are many more benefits associated with it. Speed is very valuable today. With Astra you are in professional hands in that regard. Web shops also have to be fast, which results in more turnover. Let's start with that because Astra is built to build beautiful super fast charging shops with it.
ASTRA FREE & PRO: RATING
If we check on Wordpress.org Astra's rating, we see that practically all raters gave 5 stars on a couple of haters after that. The image above also shows that the free theme alone has already been installed on more than 1 million websites. Together with the pro version, that goes above 1.6 million.
ASTRA WEBSHOPS
Astra is optimized to achieve more conversion for your shop and generate more sales. A shop made with Astra is just much faster than with any other theme. Here on the Astra website you can see how this was tested against 50 other top themes by SEO- experts.
On the above-mentioned page you will also find all information about Astra + Woocommerce. A fast-loading webshop is not only appreciated by your visitors, but also by Google. This brings your shop higher in the SERP of Google and this attracts extra visitors. Your visitor numbers and their appreciation therefore increase exponentially.
Astra offers great possibilities to style your shop exactly the way you want without any technical knowledge being required. A few years ago this was unthinkable. Ok you can install all existing Woocommerce plugins without worrying about compatibility issues.
Furthermore, Astra offers a range of modern options for shops that will make your webshop a real success, such as: Infinite Scroll, Adaptable grid settings, Off-canvas sidebar, Quickview, Dropdown cart and more. More on this here. Check out some of the many complete shopping demo sites below that you can install in your site with 1 click.
ASTRA: STARTER DEMOS
As for starter demos (templates), Astra offers a total of 180 complete websites. So these are not individual pages or sections, but complete websites that you can take over and start adding your house style to them. These demos were prepared by the Astra programmers for the 4 different page builders you see in the screenshot below. Few themes offer better demo options than this.
I would also like to say that the theme is not only responsive, but special attention has been paid to create a perfect design and ease of use for mobile webshops. This in view of the increasing sales via mobile devices which will probably exceed 50% next year.
It is also worth noting that you can adjust the complete check-out page, shopping cart and product pages to your wishes, HTML or other technical knowledge is not required. A poorly constructed checkout page can quickly cost you a percentage of your sales. You see, when it comes to E-commerce, the Astra team has thought of everything.
ASTRA: LOADING TIME
As can be seen below, the Astra theme has incredibly fast loading times. Wherever you test, at Google, GtMetrix, Y-Slow or Pingdom, it always scores phenomenally. These are known speed tests and as I said before, the only theme that can match such results is Generatepress.
ASTRA: PAGEBUILDERS
Astra works as a whole with the Elementor page builder...
You can operate Astra through its own panel and the Wordpress customizer, but the theme is prepared to use an elite pagebuilder. My first choice, Elementor, has a free and a pro version. It's great to work with Astra Pro + Elementor Pro as the 2 go hand-in-hand as if they were made for each other. But it doesn't necessarily have to cost you money since Astra and Elementor also have a free version, although unfortunately with a lot less options.
Elementor in Astra
ASTRA SCHEMA MARK-UP
Schema are short snippets of information that the search engines would like us to add to our pages so that they have a better idea of what exactly is on that page. Doing so will be rewarded with a better display of your website in search results. Astra automatically adds Schema markup to your pages for you as they indicate here.
ASTRA + LEARNDASH
It is easy to design and create a website that offers an online course using the Astra + LearnDash integration. Astra offers many design options and features that help you provide a better learning experience. LearnDash lets you create a distraction-free, conversion-focused website for your next online class. Combine it with Astra to discover the many customizations that can be made.
ASTRA + LIFTER-LMS
You can provide students with the best online learning experience by integrating Astra + LifterLMS. Astra gives you full control over the design of your website. You can make it look great and customize it as much as you want. You can create a website that focuses on learning and driving more conversions with features such as distraction-free learning, a conversion-focused checkout page, and many others.
ASTRA HEADERS, FOOTERS, 404
Astra Transparent Headers, Astra Custom Header and Astra Custom Footers are PRO features that allow you to style your complete header and footer however you want without technical knowledge. The same goes for your 404 pages, by the way. You can offer different headers to different user groups in your system.
ASTRA: MORE FEATURES
Astra has so much more to offer, here you will find a wonderful overview with all the features that are available. sit in Astra. Sit down for it because it's a huge laundry list.
ASTRA THEME REVIEW: CONCLUSION
Thank you for reading my Astra Theme review to the end. You will agree with me that Astra is a very special theme that stands head and shoulders above most other themes. I am only talking about the PRO version of course because the free version of no theme can compete with the top themes today of course. I personally work with Astra in combination with Elementor and as a professional designer it is one of my favorite themes along with the Divi Theme which can also be used anytime and anywhere . Astra has no weaknesses.
ASTRA THEME REVIEW: DE PRICING
Astra costs only 59 dollars for a year, you can build as many sites with it as you want, that is not money compared to other themes that are less good and require a separate license for each website on which you want to use it. If you have a little more to spend, supercharge your Astra with one of the many Bundle packages that usually come with big discounts. That is the best option for companies who want to have their business website at the highest level. Regardless of which package you purchase, at Astra the number of websites on which you can use the theme and extras is always unlimited. All in all, Astra is highly recommended and has very interesting deals if you purchase a lifetime package with huge discounts.
BLOCKSY THEME (Blocksy vs Astra)
Blocksy is een razendsnel ladend minimalistisch Wordpress theme...
In this Blocksy Theme review I quickly show you why this is such a fantastic theme. The theme is suitable for any kind of website, including building blogs and shops. It was created with Gutenberg in mind and works perfectly with it. The same goes for all elite pagebuilders for Wordpress.
BLOCKSY RATING
If we check on Wordpress.org Blocksy's rating, we see that all raters gave 5 stars out of 1 rater after who gave 4 stars. A better average rating than what the Blocksy Theme shows here is therefore hardly possible.
BLOCKSY THEME REVIEW: SPEED
The Blocksy theme is a fast loading theme although it is not in my list for fastest WP-themes. The theme itself without additional plugins with just a well configured cache plugin produced the result presented above. In short, the theme is astonishingly fast. Of course you can further optimize your website on loading time. Follow this tutorial here.
BLOCKSY DEMO LAY-OUTS
She calls the Blocksy theme Starter Sites herself. That is also the term used by Astra, a theme that is even better known than Blocksy and very much like it. Blocksy offers a great collection of these Starter Sites which is totally awesome.
BLOCKSY DEMOS FOR PAGEBUILDERS
The above demo layouts were created with the following page builders: Gutenberg, Elementor, Brizy and Beaverbuilder. Under each individual demo it is indicated for which page builders it is available. Again, Blocksy is similar to Astra which also offers this service on their Starter Sites.
BLOCKSY'S EDITOR
The Blocksy theme uses the Gutenberg Editor by default, which is definitely not my favorite editor. But as you have read above, the theme is just as suitable for working with elite page builders as you would like, which is certainly a good idea.
BLOCKSY BASIC FUNCTIONS
BLOCKSY: HEADER BUILDER
Even the free version comes with a real header builder (picture above). Choose one of the ready-made headers or adapt it to your wishes. Blocksy makes it very easy to quickly create the header you had in mind. The pro version offers a much better header builder and there each of your pages can have a different header.
BLOCKSY THEME REVIEW: MEGA MENU
The mega menu only comes with the pro version and offers nice options like using icons, or complete content blocks (using Hooks). This basically allows you to use any kind of content in your menu. The mega menu also offers special design styles for the menu items.
BLOCKSY: WOOCOMMERCE SHOP
Blocksy is also very suitable for building webshops with it, even the free version. The theme works perfectly with the popular Woocommerce plugin. Wonderful options such as Quick View, Ajax Cart and Gallery Styles are already included in the free version. The Pro version takes it up a notch with Wishlist, Off-Canvas filters, Floating Cart, Off-Canvas cart, Search by SKU and more. Building a pre-fashionable-looking shop thus becomes a piece of cake.
BLOCKSY: CUSTOM SIDEBARS
The same thing I just said about the headers also applies to the sidebars. In principle it is possible to present a different sidebar to your audience on every page. Important, because as can be seen in the example above, a shop page obviously needs a different sidebar than blog pages.
BLOCKSY THEME REVIEW: CONCLUSION
Blocksy is a new fresh theme, very suitable to quickly create a good shop, blog or corporate site. Strong points of Blocksy are the Starter Sites, the Header & Footer Builders and Webshop options. If you still have doubts, check WP-Astra. It is very similar to Blocksy but is a lot more advanced and offers even more options.
BLOCKSY VS ASTRA CONCLUSION
First of all, thank you for reading this Blocksy vs Astra comparison to the end. These themes are both great and you can use them for anything. Strong points of Astra are the incredibly fast loading times and the smoothness with which everything functions, the beautiful designs (also for shops) and the price. Blocksy is very similar to Astra, but is equally inferior to Astra on all fronts. Astra Pro is for sale for $59 for unlimited sites, Blocksy for $49 for 1 site. Winner: Astra.