Kadence
Kadence WP · Freemium · 4.9/5
A block-first multipurpose theme with a strong header and footer builder plus matching block plugin.
As
Astra
by Brainstorm Force
A lightweight multipurpose theme with a huge library of importable starter sites for almost any niche.
4.9MultipurposeFreemium
This link may earn us a commission. It never changes our rating.
What Astra is
A lightweight multipurpose theme with a huge library of importable starter sites for almost any niche.
It sits in the multipurpose part of the theme market and is sold by Brainstorm Force on a freemium basis. A theme decides your layout, your typography and a large slice of your page weight, so it is the hardest thing on a WordPress site to change later.
Before you commit, record a speed test of your current site, then run the same test after you switch, on the same page, so you can see exactly what the new theme costs you.
What Astra looks like
The official screenshot from the WordPress.org theme directory, as published by the theme authors.
See it running on a live demo site at the WordPress.org preview.
Real user ratings
Score
4.9/5
Reviews
6,548
Active installs
1,000,000+
Downloads
27.2M
Latest version
4.14.1
Last updated
2026-10-15
Figures come straight from the public WordPress.org theme directory API for version 4.14.1. You can check them yourself on the WordPress.org listing.
Where Astra ranks elsewhere
| Publisher | List | Position |
|---|---|---|
| NitroPack | Best WordPress Themes for Core Web Vitals | #2 of 8 |
| WPExplorer | Best WordPress Themes | #3 of 13 |
| Themeisle | Fastest WordPress Themes | #5 of 9 |
| WPBeginner | Best WordPress Themes | #10 of 10 |
Positions are read from the published articles themselves, so they reflect that publisher's order rather than ours. Lists get re-ordered over time, so follow the link if you want the current version.
What changed in the latest version
v4.13.11Latest release2026-09-08
- New: Blog / Archive - Truncation Marker field under Post Elements > Excerpt, setting the text shown at the end of trimmed excerpts - "[…]" by default, any text or markup you like, or empty to hide it.
- New: Introduced the `astra_live_search_query_args` filter, allowing plugins to modify the query arguments used to fetch Live Search results.
- Improvement: Header Builder - Top level navigation dropdown arrow touch target size improved for better WCAG 2.5.8 accessibility compliance.
- Improvement: Block Editor - Much faster editing on large pages; the theme now syncs its layout and background only when those settings change, not on every keystroke.
- Fix: Blog / Archive - The default "[…]" excerpt marker is now hidden on every post, instead of showing on the first post of the loop only.
- Fix: WooCommerce - Product search results page falling back to the blog sidebar and its widgets instead of the Product Catalog sidebar, a regression introduced in 4.13.9.
- Fix: Local webfonts returning 404 on Bedrock and other WordPress subfolder installs due to root-relative base URL being resolved against site_url() instead of home_url().
- Fix: Custom color palette names set in a child theme's theme.json were overwritten by Astra's default labels in the block editor and Customizer.
v4.13.102026-08-19
- Improvement: Compatibility with WordPress 7.1.
- Fix: WooCommerce - Coupon code field, Apply coupon and Update cart buttons rendering at mismatched heights on the classic Cart page.
- Fix: Customizer - Color palette swatches in the color picker showed a wrongly sized focus outline when clicked or tabbed to.
v4.13.92026-08-11
- Improvement: Different mobile logo now loads a right-sized image variant instead of the full-size original, improving mobile page speed and LCP.
- Fix: WPML - Customizer strings like header/footer HTML and button text getting permanently saved in the wrong language when theme updates or setting saves re-wrote options through WPML translation filters.
- Fix: Search form rendering an invalid `autocomplete` attribute when Live Search is enabled, caused by escaping the whole attribute string instead of only its value.
- Fix: Shop page meta settings (sidebar, container layout, title, header, footer) no longer override the WooCommerce product search results page layout.
- Fix: Mobile menu styles briefly applied to the desktop header after resizing or rotating a tablet across the header breakpoint on slow-loading pages.
- Fix: Read More button missing on search results posts listed after a Beaver Builder page containing a Posts module.
- Fix: Header Builder - Account element rendered an empty menu instead of the assigned Account Menu when the WooCommerce account menu was enabled and WooCommerce was later deactivated.
- Fix: Admin notices could occasionally reappear after being dismissed.
Release notes are the developer's own words, published on WordPress.org. Read the full changelog
How to install Astra
Try the live demo first, then install from the official source. It takes about five minutes.
Live demo
Open previewWhere to download it
Astra is in the free WordPress.org theme directory, so you can install it straight from your dashboard, or grab the zip from the listing.
The free version is enough to launch. The paid add-on from Brainstorm Force unlocks the extra layouts and modules.
Install it
- 1In your WordPress admin, open Appearance then Themes and click Add New.
- 2Search for "Astra", then click Install on the listing by Brainstorm Force.
- 3Click Activate once the install finishes. Your live site now uses Astra.
- 4Prefer to upload it? Download the zip from the WordPress.org listing, then use Appearance, Themes, Add New, Upload Theme.
Set it up after activating
- 1Run the theme's own setup wizard or starter site import if it offers one, on a fresh site only.
- 2Set your logo, colours, fonts and menus under Appearance then Customise or the site editor.
- 3Create a child theme or use the theme's own custom CSS panel so updates never overwrite your work.
- 4Set global colours, fonts and container width before you build any pages.
- 5Import a starter layout if one fits, then strip out demo sections you do not need.
- 6Take a speed test before and after the switch on the same page so you can see the real cost.
Always try a theme switch on a staging copy first if the site is already earning.
Pros and cons
- Ships very little CSS and JavaScript out of the box, so pages stay fast even on shared hosting.
- Rated 4.9 out of 5 by 6,548 WordPress.org reviewers.
- There is a free version you can trial before paying.
- 1,000,000+ active installs, so tutorials and fixes are easy to find.
- Works with the block editor and the mainstream page builders.
- Most of the layout control sits behind the Pro add-on, so the free version can feel limited quickly.
- Switching themes later means rebuilding page layouts, so choose deliberately.
How to use it
- 1Install the theme from Appearance > Themes, then activate it on a staging copy first.
- 2Create a child theme or use the theme's own custom CSS panel so updates never overwrite your work.
- 3Set global colours, fonts and container width before you build any pages.
- 4Import a starter layout if one fits, then strip out demo sections you do not need.
- 5Replace demo images with compressed WebP versions sized for the slot they sit in.
- 6Run a before and after check on our speed test so you can see the real page cost.
How it compares
Other multipurpose themes we recommend, with their public WordPress.org score where one exists.
| Theme | Rating | Reviews | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astra | 4.9/5 | 6,548 | Freemium | Ships very little CSS and JavaScript out of the box, so pages stay fast even on shared hosting. |
| Kadence | 4.9/5 | 455 | Freemium | Header, footer and typography controls are unusually deep for a free theme. |
| Blocksy | 5/5 | 873 | Freemium | Very complete free tier, including content blocks, header builder and dark mode. |
| Neve | 4.7/5 | 1,283 | Freemium | Good balance between speed and ready-made starter layouts. |
| OceanWP | 4.9/5 | 5,717 | Freemium | Shop layouts, off-canvas filters and product quick view work without a page builder. |
| Avada | n/a | n/a | Premium | Prebuilt demos cover almost every industry, so launches are quick. |
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