Astra vs Newspaper-X Theme comparison [2024] 💥

Updated: April 8, 2024 | by: Martijn Assie, creating websites & shops since 20 years, also Linux-, Wordpress-,
Photoshop- and SEO expert. | NL DE

ASTRA THEME (Newspaper vs Astra)

WP-Astra is the fastest Wordpress theme ever made...

In this comprehensive Astra Theme review for [2024], consider this impressive statistic: over 2,369,964 users have chosen Astra for their websites. The reason behind this widespread preference? Astra is not just developed, but meticulously crafted, akin to a custom sports car. It's engineered for creating visually stunning and highly responsive online shops, with loading speeds comparable to the swiftness of a cheetah.

The team behind Astra didn't just release a theme; they introduced a formidable force in web design, quickly rising in popularity akin to a hit record. In terms of performance, particularly speed, the only theme that approaches Astra's capabilities is Generatepress. However, when considering the overall excellence and features of themes, Astra stands out remarkably, much like a compelling, enigmatic protagonist in a blockbuster film.

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Understanding the importance of website speed is key: swifter websites tend to rank higher in Google's search results, likened to ascending a digital Mount Everest. Speed enhances user engagement, encouraging visitors to stay longer on your site, much like a magnet attracting and retaining attention. In today's digital landscape, website speed holds significant value, comparable to a coveted golden ticket in the realm of online success.

Choosing Astra means entrusting your website to experts in optimizing web speed. Picture your online store as a race car: the faster it performs, the more efficiently it guides customers through the checkout process. Astra is designed not just for aesthetic appeal, but also for exceptional speed, ensuring a swift and smooth user experience. It's akin to adding a powerful boost to your website, significantly enhancing its performance.

ASTRA 4.0 JUST GOT RELEASED

The recent release of Astra 4.0 represents a significant stride in the evolution of WordPress themes. I highly recommend starting with the overview video linked above to gain a quick understanding of its new features and enhancements. Following that, delve into the rest of this article for a more comprehensive exploration. Astra has long been a frontrunner in the WordPress theme market, continually improving and adapting to meet the dynamic needs of users.

Its latest iteration, Astra 4.0, further cements its status as an essential asset in any WordPress user's theme collection. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a novice in website design, Astra 4.0's blend of flexibility, power, and ease of use makes it an invaluable tool for crafting engaging, responsive websites.

SPECTRA 2.0 OUT NOW

The inclusion of Spectra 2.0 into the Astra Theme marks a significant enhancement to an already robust platform. Spectra 2.0, Astra's proprietary page builder, brings a new level of functionality and ease to website creation. While it is currently offered for free, the prospect of a future paid version indicates the potential for even more advanced features and capabilities.

Astra has always been recognized as a top-tier theme, but the integration of its own page builder, complete with a suite of diverse widgets, elevates it to new heights. This advancement not only enriches the user experience but also solidifies Astra's position as a comprehensive solution for website building, catering to both novices and experienced developers alike.

ASTRA FREE & PRO: RATING

Interested in Astra's standing in the realm of theme popularity? A visit to Wordpress.org illustrates Astra's remarkable acclaim – it's widely celebrated, with an abundance of 5-star ratings. The statistics are noteworthy: the free version of Astra has been adopted by over a million websites. When including the Pro version, the total reaches an impressive 1.6 million. This popularity underscores Astra's significant impact in the web design community, akin to a major event drawing a large and enthusiastic audience.

ASTRA WEBSHOPS

Consider Astra as the essential ally in enhancing your online store's sales. It goes beyond mere aesthetics to effectively convert visitors into customers. An online store utilizing Astra can be likened to a high-performance sports car in a field of bicycles – it stands out for its superior speed compared to other themes. Interested in seeing how Astra outpaces its competition? Visit this page on the Astra website for speed test comparisons with over 50 other leading themes. These tests, resembling a contest of efficiency, are meticulously conducted by SEO experts, highlighting Astra's exceptional performance.

On the aforementioned page, there's detailed information about the combination of Astra and WooCommerce. A swiftly loading webshop is not only advantageous for user experience but also highly favorable for Google's search rankings. With Astra, envision your online store rapidly ascending Google's SERP, similar to an accelerated boost. It's akin to equipping your shop with advanced optimization tools for search rankings, thereby attracting a significant influx of visitors. This leads to a notable increase in both visitor engagement and their appreciation for your site, paralleling the crescendo of excitement typically seen during a grand celebration like New Year's Eve.

Welcome to the world of Astra, where customizing your online shop is straightforward and user-friendly, requiring no advanced technical expertise. A few years ago, such ease of use might have seemed fanciful, but today, Astra ensures seamless compatibility with a wide range of WooCommerce plugins. It effectively manages these integrations, much like a skilled coordinator overseeing a diverse array of components.

That's just the beginning. Astra comes equipped with a suite of contemporary features designed to elevate your webshop to standout status. Key features include Infinite Scroll, enhancing the shopping experience by providing a continuous flow of products; adaptable grid settings, offering a tailored display for your merchandise; an off-canvas sidebar for a sleek navigation experience; Quickview for expedient shopping; a dropdown cart for a delightful shopping surprise, and much more. Intrigued? Explore these capabilities here. Additionally, there's a selection of ready-to-use shopping demo sites available for one-click integration, simplifying the design process remarkably.

ASTRA: STARTER DEMOS

Prepare to be impressed by this remarkable aspect of Astra: it doesn't just offer templates but provides an extensive collection of 180 complete website designs. This is indeed substantial – each option is a fully realized website, ready for immediate use. It's akin to entering a repository where every resource is readily available at no extra cost. You can select a design, apply your branding, and quickly launch a sophisticated website. These demos, meticulously developed by Astra's expert team for compatibility with four different page builders, offer a diverse range of design possibilities. Astra sets a high standard in providing comprehensive and varied demo content, positioning itself as a leading provider in the realm of website templates.

Astra's responsiveness goes beyond the standard. It's as if the theme underwent specialized training to excel in mobile e-commerce. The focus isn't just on aesthetics; there's a concerted effort to ensure the mobile version of your site is exceptionally user-friendly. With the increasing prevalence of mobile shopping, this feature becomes increasingly crucial. In the near future, it wouldn't be surprising to see over half of online shoppers using their mobile devices, possibly while relaxing at home.

Additionally, Astra offers extensive customization options for the checkout process, shopping cart, and product pages, all without the need for intricate coding skills. A seamless checkout experience is vital as a complicated one can deter customers quickly. Astra ensures a fluid and enjoyable shopping journey. The Astra team's approach to e-commerce solutions isn't just innovative; it's a complete reimagining of what's possible in online retail.

ASTRA: LOADING TIME

Upon examination, it becomes clear that Astra takes loading times seriously, achieving remarkably fast speeds. Its performance in Google, GTmetrix, Y-Slow, and Pingdom tests is consistently outstanding, as if the theme has been optimized with a unique speed-enhancing formula. The results speak for themselves, demonstrating Astra's superior performance. When it comes to competition, Generatepress is the closest contender. The data presented below is telling – Astra regularly secures top rankings in speed tests, distinguishing itself significantly from slower-performing themes.

ASTRA: PAGEBUILDERS

Astra works as a whole with the Elementor page builder...

Using Astra is akin to having intuitive control over your website, offering both ease of use and enjoyment. It provides a streamlined panel and integration with the WordPress customizer for a seamless experience. Adding to its versatility, Astra pairs exceptionally well with renowned page builders, particularly Elementor. The combination of Astra Pro and Elementor Pro is a harmonious and efficient pairing, akin to two perfectly matched components. For those mindful of budget, both Astra and Elementor offer free versions. While these versions may have fewer features, they still provide a substantial and enjoyable user experience.

Elementor in Astra

ASTRA SCHEMA MARK-UP

Have you ever wanted to effectively communicate the contents of your page to search engines? This is where Schema markup plays a crucial role. These structured data snippets act as guides, aiding search engines in comprehending the context and content of your pages. It's akin to providing a clearer, more direct understanding of your site's content to search engines like Google. Astra simplifies this process by automatically incorporating Schema markup into your pages, as detailed here. This feature acts like an unseen assistant within Astra, working diligently to enhance your website's visibility and performance in search results, playing a pivotal role in your SEO strategy.

ASTRA + LEARNDASH

Envision yourself as a creator of online courses, with Astra and LearnDash serving as your essential tools. Developing an online course using Astra combined with LearnDash is a streamlined and enjoyable process, comparable to assembling a complex structure with ease. Astra offers a plethora of design options and features, enabling you to make your online course as captivating as a top-rated TV show.

LearnDash, on the other hand, acts as the orchestrator of your website's structure, focusing on creating an environment conducive to learning and conversion. The synergy of Astra's design flexibility and LearnDash's structured approach results in more than just a website – it's the creation of an immersive digital learning environment. Embrace this opportunity to craft an exceptional online course experience.

ASTRA + LIFTER-LMS

When combining Astra with LifterLMS, you get a formidable pair in the world of online education. In this partnership, Astra excels as the design expert, offering you full control over your website's aesthetic and functionality. Whether you aim for the sophistication of a high-end magazine or the versatility of a multifunctional tool, Astra provides the necessary support.

Integrating LifterLMS into this equation enhances your site's educational efficacy. It creates a focused learning environment, minimizing distractions and optimizing user engagement. The synergy of LifterLMS's educational framework with Astra's design capabilities not only facilitates learning but also boosts conversion efficiency. Imagine a checkout process so seamless it feels like an extension of the learning journey itself. Together, Astra and LifterLMS elevate your website to the highest echelons of online learning platforms.

ASTRA HEADERS, FOOTERS, 404

Introducing Astra Transparent Headers, Astra Custom Header, and Astra Custom Footers – the PRO features that provide a sophisticated edge to your website. These tools serve as your digital design experts, allowing you to create customized headers and footers with ease and without the need for technical expertise. Envision crafting your site's header and footer to be as elegant as a tuxedo or as casual as sneakers, achievable through simple clicks. Even the typically overlooked 404 pages can be enhanced for a cohesive look. Moreover, you have the flexibility to tailor these elements differently for various user groups, offering a bespoke experience. It's like having both creative control and strategic oversight over your website's upper and lower navigational areas.

ASTRA: MORE FEATURES

Astra encompasses a wide range of features, and you can explore a comprehensive overview here. This extensive list showcases the breadth and depth of functionalities available in Astra. We recommend taking the time to review these features, as they collectively represent a significant array of tools and options that can enhance your website's capabilities.

ASTRA THEME REVIEW: CONCLUSION

This concludes my comprehensive review of the Astra Theme. For those who have followed through to this point, I extend my appreciation. It's clear that Astra is not just another option among many in the world of web design; it stands out distinctively. The Astra PRO version, in particular, offers enhanced capabilities compared to the free version, akin to the difference between gourmet and fast-food offerings. Personally, I favor the combination of Astra and Elementor, which allows for sophisticated and seamless web design. Astra is on par with the Divi Theme, known for its versatility and readiness to tackle various challenges. As for shortcomings in Astra? They are as rare as finding a needle in a well-organized, vast haystack.

ASTRA THEME REVIEW: ITS PRICING

At an annual cost of only $59, Astra offers remarkable value. Imagine having the capability to deploy on unlimited sites for such an affordable fee. This is akin to enjoying an expansive buffet at the cost of a simple snack. In contrast, many other themes often require separate fees per site, resembling pricey cafes with per-item charges. For those with a budget to spare, consider enhancing your Astra experience with one of their bundle packages, which frequently come with significant discounts, making them ideal for businesses striving for excellence in web design. Astra's policy of unlimited use, whether for a single website or multiple projects, underscores its commitment to providing exceptional value. If Astra were personified as a superhero, it would indeed be celebrated for its 'Value for Money'. Moreover, the lifetime deals present an opportunity akin to uncovering hidden treasure, offering long-term benefits and savings.

NEWSPAPER-X THEME (Newspaper-X vs Astra)

NEWSPAPER 11 REVIEW

In our search for the best theme to build a news website, we quickly came across the best-selling theme in this category. The Newspaper theme recently released its latest version, Newspaper 11 or the 10th version already.

The Newspaper 11 theme was developed by Tag-Div, a Power Elite author on Themeforest. The Newspaper theme is made to handle large amounts of content and has a bold and elegant design combined with the power of versatility. Moreover, Newspaper is perfect to give websites a professional look. It can easily be considered the best news theme for Wordpress and is an indispensable theme in the collection of new and experienced WP-users in [2024].

NEWSPAPER 11 DESIGN

One does not have to be a professional web designer to make a fantastic news website with this theme. This theme is perfect for magazine, blog, and news websites. It offers a multitude of responsive & retina-ready options for beautiful display of your website on small screen devices. Newspaper also allows you to choose how to display your content on desktop, laptop, mobile and tablet.

The Newspaper Theme is always an excellent choice whether you want a website with a beautiful design, a lightning fast one, or one that is flexible. It comes with over 90+ great pre-made demo designs (30 new ones since the last upgrade) and a gallery of 1000+ pre-built design templates named Tag-Div Cloud Library.

IMPORT READY-MADE WEBSITE-DEMO'S

With the WordPress theme Newspaper, you no longer have to search and test to find the right design. It comes with many of ready-made sites for you to choose from. Newspaper offers you a custom import system, so you can preview a demo and install it with a simple click. You can also load the demo with content or just the design. If you decide to uninstall, the import system clears the website of all demo components, leaving your pages as they were before.

Newspaper 11 FRONT-END

Newspaper has a frontend page builder called Tag-Div Composer. This tool helps you edit pages effortlessly by way of drag & drop. Place the elements exactly how you envisioned it. To make things even easier, you can make difficult CSS customizations with just a few clicks.

Arranging and styling elements is now even easier. So you no longer need coding knowledge to make your dream come true. With this powerful tool you can build amazingly beautiful pages super fast. Newspaper comes with 22 multifunctional shortcodes that you can use to create corporate, personal and e-commerce websites. With the Tag-Div Composer you can work quickly and easily. That way, people really feel like working on their website.

So 1000+ elements, layouts, sections, headers, footers and home pages await you in the Tag-Div Cloud Library. Just click on what you want. For example, a 404 page, author design, footer or search page and import the elements you like from the Tag-Div servers to your website.

TAG-DIV COMPOSER VIDEO

As you can see the video gives to Newspaper 9, but this is the latest Tag-Div video out there at the moment.

PAGES AND CATEGORIES

The theme offers a large number of elements and shortcodes, numerous large grid style combinations, ready-made category page templates and 25 predefined blocks. There are also five Flex Block elements that provide additional flexibility and allow you to publish and customize articles in a versatile way. You can emphasize the "above the fold" section by using large grids that are displayed across the entire width. Your website will have a professional look with its custom features such as image slider gallery, lightbox effects, social media counters, news ticker, video menus, and many different widgets.

The Tag-Div Composer recently introduced a Fonts Style tab that allows you to create custom typography for any existing block or element. You can combine nice fonts, size or line height. So the process is natural, without implying code knowledge, or additional font customization plugins to slow down your website's performance. Another handy tool is the Translation Panel, which helps you load one of the dozens of available translations and automatically convert a list of strings. Practically every other theme needs extra plugins for this.

INTELLIGENT ADVERTISEMENTS

In this Newspaper 11 review, we also caught sight of Tag-Div's modern ad system that allows you to monetize ads without compromising the reader's experience. You can easily earn money with your website by placing ads in the 18 permanent advertising spaces. These are in prominent places such as the header, footer, article, and sidebar areas. Moreover, the Newspaper theme comes with an option to display ads on individual posts or pages, using Tag-Div Composer's page editor and the Single Post Content or Ad Box elements. You can use AdSense or HTML code.

NEWSPAPER 11 REVIEW: FUNCTIONALITY

All options and settings, the plugins, demo sites and website monitoring collected in one place, the Theme panel of Newspaper. Everything is neatly and clearly organized, and all options of the theme are easy to use for every layperson. The Tag-Div Composer is specially prepared for building blogs, news and magazine websites, and gives you a unique way to create pages, posts and headers. All results can be viewed in real time, which makes the editor extra powerful. The Tag-Div Composer offers you performance and reliability.

NEWSPAPER THEME HEADER BUILDER

More and more themes have a header builder. Newspaper also has a header builder that is very handy. In the past, people wanted to change their header, but only had a few options that just did not work out how they wanted it. Then no progress was made without knowledge of HTML. Those days are over with these skilled header builders who are practically capable of anything.

FREE PREMIUM PLUG-INS EN WIDGETS

The theme offers eight premium plugins: Tag-Div Composer, Tag-Div Cloud Library, Social Counter, Tag-Div Mobile Theme and Tag-Div Newsletter. The theme also features the top slider plugin Revolution Slider and the Bakery Pagebuilder. You can keep your audience informed through the newsletter plugin. It is equipped with eight beautiful standard designs, so that your newsletter is always in the style of your website. The plug-in for Tag-Div Newsletter is compatible with well-known sites such as MailChimp, Mailerlite and Feedburner.

The Newspaper 11 theme has also been tested with the WP Super Cache, Contact Form 7, bbPress, BuddyPress, WP Avatar plugins, Font Awesome 4 Menus, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and Yoast. Newspaper also comes with a custom plugin to help you show off your social networking stats - the Tag-Div Social Counter plugin. You also have two unique social media widgets (Instagram and Pinterest). In addition, the Tag-Div author has created 35 custom widgets that you can easily drag to your website.

Newspaper is ready for AMP. The functionality is already integrated in the mobile-theme plug-in for fast result, so you can take advantage of all the mobile-theme functionality on your AMP-pages. In addition, the theme raises standards for page loading and mobile optimization.

FAST CHARGING TIMES

As can be seen below, Newspaper has 10 beautiful load time notes in the main speed tests like those of Google and GT-Metrix.

NEWSPAPER DESIGN EXAMPLES

NEWSPAPER 11 REVIEW CONCLUSION

We are dealing with one of the better themes for [2024]. It is not yet in my top 10 of the best Wordpress themes, but maybe that will change for next year. Newspaper 11 has proven to be the best theme for blogs and news sites for me. Well there are other very good themes that are certainly close. Newspaper 11 is equipped with the WP Bakery Pagebuilder which is another thorn in my side. This is a good but very outdated page builder, it could be much better. Apart from that, I only see very good qualities for the rest. With this theme you can go in any direction. It is not only a news theme but just a multipurpose theme. The theme costs $ 59, a more or less standard price for good themes and the theme is definitely worth the money.

Newspaper-X vs Astra conclusion

First of all, thank you for reading this Newspaper-X vs Astra comparison to the end. Newspaper-X is indeed a very good theme for building blogs and news websites and wins over Astra, but Astra is of course a much better theme overall. Both offer beautiful layouts, but again Astra is a bit nicer than Newspaper-X. In terms of loading times, the themes cannot be compared, Astra loads much faster than Newspaper-X. Astra is probably the fastest theme out there for Wordpress along with Generatepress. Finally, I say something about the price of the themes. For Newspaper-X you will have to buy a separate expensive license for each website you have, Astra on the other hand can be used on as many sites as you want and has great offers.

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