Astra vs Themeforest [2023] 💥

June 1, 2023 | by: Martijn Sebastian | NL DE

ASTRA THEME (Astra vs Themeforest)

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

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.

THEMEFOREST (Astra vs Themeforest)

Themeforest is a marketplace for Wordpress Themes...

THEMEFOREST RATINGS

First of all, I want to say that very good themes are sold on Themeforest. Despite that, the marketplace itself is a big minus and it's rated so low it's hard to believe. See below how the marketplace only scores 1.58 out of 5 on Sitejabber. Again, the themes themselves are not to blame for this, in fact I think that the theme builders who sell via Themeforest are also dissatisfied. You can read how Themeforest built this reputation in my Themeforest Cheats article.

THEMEFOREST THEMES

I already mentioned it above, great themes are sold on Themeforest. I myself have been a customer for more than 10 years and have certainly bought more than 100 themes in my career as a web designer. The Themeforest marketplace is so powerful that many theme builders are completely squeezed and earn very little from the sale of their theme, which is a shame. A much better way for them would be to market their themes through their own site and work with affiliates who promote their site and send people there who want to buy themes. If they pay affiliates 60% they are still better off. In the affiliate world, 50% or more is great.

THE BEST THEMES ON THEMEFOREST

AVADA

These are the 6 best-selling themes of the moment with the highlight being the Avada Theme. Follow the link to read the full review. Avada is often mistakenly (just like here lol) compared to Divi. Listen, Avada is a great theme but comparing it to Divi goes a long way. For starters, Divi is a membership with 86+ premium themes in it, premium plugins, image library and of course the awesome Divibuilder. Avada is only a theme with its own page builder that has no fame.

As a top-selling theme, Avada from Themeforest will receive a special deal, I assume, and it will not be as heavy as other themes. Still, I think they could do better on their own. Much of the hatred that Themeforest causes also ends up on Avada, which is bad for the reputation of the theme. For example, they are obliged to charge extortionate prices for support. They also cannot offer their theme in combination with other products, they have to sell a separate license for each website that someone has. That can all be done much better.

FLATSOME

The Flatsome Theme has come to 2nd place in the numbers for best-selling themes via Themeforest last year. The builders have worked hard on it and the theme is really perfect for building web shops, especially on Themeforest there is no competitor in that regard. Other laws apply outside Themeforest and there are certainly themes such as Divi discussed above and, for example, WP-Astra that take it one step further.

It's impossible for me to review all their themes here so if you're interested, I recommend this page with their best-selling themes.

ENVATO & THEMEFOREST

Themeforest is part of the umbrella Envato and is for Themes only. If you follow the link you will read in my article why it is a bit of a nasty business for everyone involved, for authors, buyers and affiliates. For plugins, videos and more they have other platforms that I will not go into here since we are talking about Themeforest here.

THEMEFOREST REVIEW: PRICING

Theme prices on Themeforest start as low as $19 for themes that want to make a name quickly, the most expensive theme I know is Kallyas with $69. Most are between $49-60. With this marketplace, always remember that each website of yours must have its own license. If you buy such a theme, it can only be used on 1 site.

THEMEFOREST REVIEW: CONCLUSION

A lot of very good themes are sold on Themeforest. I also buy this myself. Don't expect refunds or great support. The support for the themes themselves is in the hands of the theme builders and can simply be called fine. I want to warn affiliate marketers right off the bat that no matter how many articles you write related to this marketplace, you're never going to make much money from it.

ASTRA VS THEMEFOREST CONCLUSION

You have come to the end of my Astra vs Themeforest comparison. There are a number of major differences between Astra and the themes that are sold on Themeforest. The best themes on Themforest are of a high class, but so is Astra. Nothing is free on Themforest and each theme you buy may only be used on 1 website. Astra on the other hand is free, and the Astra Pro version can be used on as many sites as you want. I strongly prefer Astra.