Are you having trouble deciding which WordPress theme, GeneratePress vs Astra, to use for your website?
According to the statistics, these are two of the most often used themes for WordPress. The fact that they both use the same fundamental strategy makes it difficult to pick between the two options.
Both provide lightweight, versatile foundations with an abundance of features within the WordPress Customizer to assist you in personalising your site. Each one is versatile enough to serve as anything from a blog to a website for conducting business, an online store, a membership site, and even more.
In the grand scheme of things, you can’t go wrong either way; but, each of the themes contains some distinctively powerful aspects that might sway you in one of two directions. In order to assist you in locating these distinctions, we will compare GeneratePress with Astra in a number of important areas, including the following:
- User interface
- Starter sites
- Pricing
- Modules
- Free vs premium features
- Layout and style customization
- Performance
- Page builder integrations
- Developer compatibility
- Ecommerce integration
- Other integrations
- Support and documentation
Let’s get started!
Astra vs GeneratePress — Introductions
First, we’ll briefly discuss these two topics before moving on to compare and contrast them later.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a minimal, flexible, and all-purpose theme that was developed by Tom Usborne. In its default configuration, it adds a size that is less than 10 KB, and it has an excellent reputation for having clean code.
According to WordPress.org, as of the month of December 2020, GeneratePress is being utilised on over 300,000 websites. It has a perfect rating of 5 stars in over 1,150 different reviews.
Astra
Astra is not only adaptable to a variety of uses, but it is also quite lightweight, coming in at around 50 KB. It was developed by Brainstorm Force, the same company that is responsible for a number of other well-known plugins, such as Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg, Elementor, and Beaver Builder.
The fact that Astra is the first non-default WordPress theme to ever cross one million active installs at WordPress.org is an incredible milestone that Astra has earned for itself. In addition to this, it boasts a perfect rating of 5 stars across over 4,800 reviews.
Astra vs GeneratePress — User Interface
Both GeneratePress and Astra rely on the WordPress Customizer to make the majority of your modifications. This is because the WordPress Customizer provides a user-friendly, visual interface that does not need any coding knowledge. Another advantage of utilising the Customizer is that it enables you to examine the effects of your modifications in real time, eliminating the need to repeatedly save and reload the page. When looking at the frontend design of a website, it can be extremely challenging, if not impossible, to determine whether or not GeneratePress or Astra was used as the content management system (CMS). Check out our convenient WordPress theme detection tool in the event that you stumble across a website in the future and want to determine whether it is using GeneratePress or Astra behind the scenes.
In this part of the article, we will evaluate and contrast the onboarding process as well as the user interface of each theme. For the sake of this part, we are going to zero in only on the free themes that can be found on WordPress.org; but, as we get further into the comparison, we will discuss a variety of paid features.
GeneratePress
The free edition of GeneratePress does not include any pre-built “starter” sites (but does with the premium version). In addition, the free edition does not come with any backend dashboard configurations or options. When you have finished installing the free theme, the first thing you should do is go straight into the default WordPress Customizer:
When it comes to the individual settings of the Customizer, GeneratePress maintains a somewhat lighter footprint than Astra does. Because of this, the different Customizer options in Astra have a slightly friendlier and more approachable atmosphere to them.
For instance, when you pick one of the pre-set header styles, all you have to do is choose from a dropdown menu containing some simple text:
As you’ll see in a moment, this is a different strategy from the one that Astra took.
When altering individual pieces of content, you will also have access to certain extra choices, which we will go over when we talk about the compatibility with page builders.
Overall, GeneratePress maintains its lean and unbloated approach by adhering to the WordPress Customizer in as much detail as possible.
Astra
Because even the free edition of Astra includes starting sites, the process of getting started with Astra is somewhat more organised than with other platforms. However, the WordPress Customizer is where you will spend the most of your time while working with Astra.
Whenever you initially activate Astra, a popup will appear asking you to install the associated Starter Templates plugin. Once this plugin is activated, you will be able to view the importable demo sites, which are as follows:
Simply selecting the Get Started button will initiate the installation of the demo site plugin, which is the subject of the next section.
After that, you’ll handle everything else using the native WordPress Customizer, exactly like you do when working with GeneratePress:
The Customizer’s settings regions for Astra have a somewhat more user-friendly and understandable layout. When you choose a pre-made header layout, for instance, rather than just getting a text list of the layout’s components, you receive a visual depiction of those components:
Is there a significant gap between the two? In no uncertain terms, no. However, the way that Astra has organised everything in terms of being user-friendly for newcomers is definitely going to be the choice that the vast majority of people make.
You will also obtain page-level controls, which will be discussed in the section on the compatibility of the page builder.
Astra vs GeneratePress — Starter Sites
A far greater range of pre-built, importable demo sites is available for use with Astra. In addition, Astra continues to incorporate beginner sites within its free edition, but with GeneratePress Premium, the only way to obtain starter sites is to pay for the service.
Because of these factors, Astra is somewhat more powerful than its competitors when it comes to importable beginning sites.
GeneratePress
To reiterate, the only way to obtain starter sites with GeneratePress is to purchase the GeneratePress Premium package. The free edition does not come with any starter sites, which is a crucial consideration to make if you do not wish to begin the process from the very beginning.
The premium edition of GeneratePress includes a selection of starter sites that may be constructed using one of the following three content builders:
- Native WordPress editor (blocks) – 44 different sites.
- Elementor – 14 different sites.
- Beaver Builder Pro – 6 different sites.
Overall, this provides you with more than 64 pre-built sites to select from.
You will need to enable the Site Library module inside GeneratePress Premium in order to import the starting sites that come packaged with GeneratePress. You will then be able to import the demo sites with only a few clicks after browsing through them in the dashboard of your WordPress installation.
You have the choice to do a complete import or a partial import if you are importing a beginning site. You can import:
Simply the options for the WordPress Customizer.
The settings of the Customizer as well as all of the demo material.
Astra
A huge number of Astra’s starter sites may be accessed for free, and users that upgrade to the paid Agency edition have access to even more of these sites.
Astra provides starting sites with a variety of content editors, including the following:
- Native WordPress editor (blocks) – 52 different sites – 52 free sites and 0 premium sites.
- Elementor – 133 different sites – 60 free sites and 73 premium sites.
- Beaver Builder – 106 different sites – 38 free sites and 68 premium sites.
- Brizy – 40 different sites – 17 free sites and 23 premium sites.
In contrast to GeneratePress, there is some duplication of functionality between the various content editors in starter sites. You may discover the exact same beginning site developed using the block editor or with Elementor, for instance. Both of these editors can be found here.
Because of this, it is not sufficient to simply tally up the total number of templates. However, when compared to GeneratePress, it is clear that Astra provides a far wider variety of options to choose from. Even if you solely consider the demo sites that are along with Elementor, it still has twice as many.
You will first need to download and install the associated Beginning Sites plugin from the WordPress.org website in order to install Astra’s starter sites (or the equivalent premium version to access the premium demo sites).
You will then be able to explore the starter sites from within the dashboard of your WordPress installation after reaching that point. When you import a beginning site, you will be given the choice to either make a full or a partial import of the site. You can import:
Individual pieces of content from the demo site.
Just the WordPress Customizer settings (no content)
Just the content
Astra vs GeneratePress — Pricing
There are free versions of GeneratePress and Astra that can be downloaded from WordPress.org, in addition to premium ones that cost money and enable extra functionality.
The premium editions of both have pricing that is practically equal to one another. The one and only difference is that in order to access Astra’s premium Agency templates, you must first make a more expensive purchase.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress provides customers with two different payment options:
- $59 – one year of support/updates. (Can be renewed for 40% discount after first year).
- $249 – lifetime support/updates
Both options enable access to an Unlimited number of sites.
Astra
There are three different price points available for Astra’s premium theme:
- Astra Pro: $49 for one year of support/updates.
- Essential Bundle: $169/year
- Growth Bundle: $249/year
Both options enable access to an infinite number of sites. In addition to that, there is a “lifetime” cost option.
On the other hand, GeneratePress is characterised by a few key distinctions. Most importantly, if you want access to the premium Agency templates, you’ll need to purchase at least the Mini Agency Bundle, which costs either $169 (for one year) or $499 (for lifetime). The purchase of this package grants you access to a number of other plugins produced by the developer, such as Ultimate Addons for Elementor and Beaver Builder.
Astra vs GeneratePress — Modules
GeneratePress
Astra vs GeneratePress — Free and Premium Features
As was just noted, both of these themes are available for free at WordPress.org, in addition to the premium versions that have a greater number of features. You will utilise the exact same theme regardless of whether you are utilising the free version (simply the theme) or the Pro edition of the product. Technically speaking, the premium version is an add-on plugin for the free core theme (the theme plus the premium add-on plugin).
To gain access to all of the modules that were shown to you in the prior part, you will need to upgrade to the premium version.
In general, Astra is a free theme that offers a wider variety of customization options and is more liberal with the free features it provides. Because of this, Astra is likely to be the best choice for you if your intention is to use only the free version of the software.
Astra vs GeneratePress — Layout and Style Customization
When we were comparing the free features to the premium features, we touched on this topic a little bit, but now let’s delve deeper into the layout and style customization possibilities that are available in both themes.
Both Astra and GeneratePress provide a large number of possibilities for customization, which is one of the reasons why both of these alternatives are so often used.
The fact that there is such a wide variety of choices makes this part of the chart particularly difficult to analyse (especially if you have the premium version). To go into each and every one of the features, you would need a whole booklet all to yourself!
In most respects, Astra is somewhat ahead of the competition in terms of the sheer amount of features. However, for the majority of scenarios, any theme can provide you with all of the solutions that you want. When it comes to some of the more specialised functions, the majority of users probably won’t even notice any change at all.
For instance, both of them have a high degree of adaptability in “core” areas such as the following:
- Typography
- Colors
- Layouts
In addition, GeneratePress is more adaptable in some areas, but Astra’s lead does not extend to all aspects of the competition. For instance, GeneratePress provides a greater number of predefined header styles than Astra does with its upcoming header/footer builder, which is presently in beta at the time that we are writing this comparison. However, this will soon change.
Astra vs GeneratePress — Performance
Both GeneratePress and Astra are more performance-optimized than the typical WordPress theme, and both of them can unquestionably help you build a website that loads quickly for your visitors.
However, when it comes to performance, GeneratePress comes out on top overall, despite the fact that the gap between the two isn’t particularly large. Nevertheless, if you are addicted to WordPress’s performance, there is a benefit that GeneratePress offers you.
In order to evaluate the performance of each theme, we first installed WordPress from scratch and then used WebPageTest to conduct our tests. We decided against importing a basic site due to the fact that there are an excessive number of factors to evaluate there. When you use an importable beginning site, it stands to reason that your actual website will have a greater file size.
Astra
Comparison
You can clearly see that GeneratePress’s default configuration is a little too more lighter than Astra’s. However, both are noticeably lighter than the vast majority of other WordPress themes, which makes it difficult to fight over whether seven or nine HTTP requests should be used.
Astra vs GeneratePress — Page Builder Compatibility
GeneratePress and Astra are both compatible with a wide variety of popular page builder plugins. To be more specific, both include importable starting sites that are built on page builders, as well as page-level controls that allow you to easily customise the canvas for the page builder designs you create.
GeneratePress
When you are working on a specific piece of content, GeneratePress gives you the ability to make adjustments to the layout and also deactivate particular sections.
You have the ability to change the following elements:
Sidebar Layout – choose from any sidebar layout (disable, switch sides, add an extra sidebar, etc).
Footer Widgets – change the number of footer widgets anywhere from 0-5.
Content Container – choose from default, full-width, or contained.
You can also toggle off the following features by checking the corresponding box:
- Top bar
- Header
- Primary navigation
- Secondary navigation
- Featured image/page header
- Content title
- Footer
Astra
Additionally, Astra Astra provides you with deep controls at the page level, including some extra choices to manage the behaviour of headers. On each individual page, for instance, you have the option to activate either a sticky or transparent header.
You have the ability to change the following settings:
Sidebar – right, left, or disabled.
Content Layout – boxed, content boxed, full-width contained, full-width stretched.
Transparent Header – enabled or disabled.
Page Header – set a custom page header (more on this feature in the next section).
Sticky Header – enabled or disabled.
You can also toggle off the following features by checking the corresponding box:
- Primary header
- Title
- Breadcrumb
- Featured image
- Footer bar
Astra vs GeneratePress — Developer-Friendliness
Both GeneratePress and Astra are quite user-friendly for developers, and each one offers a selection of practical tools that may assist you in personalising the appearance of your website’s theme.
Although GeneratePress may have a little advantage due to the unified way in which it handles modifications, both of these alternatives are highly powerful and provide you with a wide variety of choices.
GeneratePress
The GeneratePress Elements module is one of the most helpful services for developers that the platform offers (which requires the premium version). GeneratePress Components serves as a centralised location for a variety of tasks, including the addition of custom layout elements, work with hooks, and more.
When you finally get the hang of it, having everything in one location will be of tremendous assistance to you. When you create a new element, you have the option of selecting one of the following four categories of elements:
- Block
- Header
- Hook
- Layout
For instance, let’s imagine you want to add a hook to one of the several hook sites that GeneratePress provides (visual guide here). You would start by creating a new sort of hook element. After that, you may specify the location of the hook and add the code that you wish to have executed:
The next very cool feature is that you can set up display rules to only execute that hook on particular content, so you can limit when and when it is used (without needing to use any code). You may also target certain user roles or the state of being logged in.
You may also target particular material in a huge variety of ways, such as post kinds, categories, tags, custom taxonomies, authors, and a lot of other things:
In general, GeneratePress Elements is a fantastic tool for developers since it has been well planned out.
Astra
Astra is packed with a wide variety of tools for programmers.
To begin, if you wish to work with Astra’s hooks (you can find a visual tutorial here), you may install the official Astra Hooks plugin so that you can add hooks straight from the WordPress Customizer. This will allow you to interact with Astra’s hooks. The fact that this method does not cost anything is one of its advantages.
However, the free hook implementation that Astra provides does not include the straightforward display rules capability that is available in GeneratePress. As a result, you will need to add the following conditions to the code manually:
On the other hand, if you purchase Astra Pro, you will have access to custom layouts as well as page headers (which, if you are utilising GeneratePress, will be contained under Elements).
Astra does, in fact, provide you with detailed display rules for these items, exactly like GeneratePress does. You may add hooks by utilising the custom layout capability, which gives you access to the exact same display rules as before:
Additionally, Astra has a specific white-label feature, which is something that GeneratePress does not yet provide (though there are some workarounds).
Astra vs GeneratePress — Ecommerce Integration
Your online shop may take use of the WooCommerce compatibility and built-in functionality provided by both GeneratePress and Astra. GeneratePress does not offer any specialised features for Easy Digital Downloads, in contrast to Astra, which provides a specialised module for Easy Digital Downloads.
In general, though, Astra offers a more robust interface with WooCommerce and includes more capabilities that are exclusive to WooCommerce. Because of this, Astra is likely to be a more suitable alternative for WooCommerce businesses, despite the fact that GeneratePress would suffice in the vast majority of instances.
For example, Astra has:
- Dropdown shopping cart
- Off-canvas WooCommerce sidebar
- Built-in product quick view
- Distraction-free checkout or two-step checkout (read our guide on WooCommerce checkout pages)
- An eye-catching indicator for sale products
- Lots of Customizer settings to control your individual products and catalog
There are several of those features that are also available in GeneratePress, such as a distraction-free checkout. On the other hand, Astra unquestionably leads the pack in terms of its WooCommerce integration.
Other Notable Integrations
Astra has a few more aces up its sleeve than GeneratePress does, which is saying something given that WooCommerce is already one of the most famous integrations that GeneratePress offers.
Astra is equipped with specialised modules not just for WooCommerce but also for the following:
- Easy Digital Downloads
- LearnDash
- LifterLMS
Astra vs GeneratePress — Support and Documentation
Premium assistance is available for both GeneratePress and Astra if you purchase the paid versions of both products. Both of these topics also have in-depth knowledge bases where you may look up information to aid you.
In general, though, GeneratePress has a tiny advantage when it comes to support for a number of reasons, some of which will be discussed further down in this article.
GeneratePress
To begin, GeneratePress provides in-depth documentation for each of the theme’s capabilities, which can be found here. If you do run into any problems, this is always a good place to begin looking for solutions.
Use the public support forum if you require further one-on-one assistance beyond what was provided there. Anyone may see the forum, but in order to participate in the conversation, you will need an active licence. Now, support forums can occasionally acquire a terrible record, but GeneratePress manages to perform a fairly good job of it and answers quite promptly to new topics.
Even the game’s creator, Tom Usborne, can be found occasionally checking in to react to users’ questions (though GeneratePress has grown to a point where most queries are handled by dedicated customer support staff).
You may also obtain the solution to your query by just searching Google for an existing help discussion, as the support forum is open to the public and can be found by a simple Google search.
You may also join the official GeneratePress Facebook community, which now has more than 6,700 members, in order to receive community support.
Astra
A comprehensive knowledge base consisting of hundreds of articles is available in Astra, just as it is in GeneratePress.
You have the option of submitting a support ticket if you require assistance beyond that. There is no searchable index of questions available on the Astra website since customer service is handled through tickets rather than forums.
Astra also maintains a sizable official community on Facebook, which now numbers more than 16,900 users, for the purpose of providing community assistance.
Astra vs GeneratePress — Conclusion
Both GeneratePress and Astra are quite popular for a good reason: they are both fantastic WordPress themes, and you won’t make a mistake by selecting either one of them.
GeneratePress is a popular content management system (CMS), however Astra offers “more” features overall. It features a greater number of integrations, starting sites, and opportunities for customization, among other things. Does that imply that it is of higher quality? However, this is not always the case. If GeneratePress offers a beginner site that you truly like, it doesn’t really matter if Astra has more starter sites than GeneratePress does because all you need is one template to get started.
Similarly, the fact that Astra integrates with WooCommerce in a somewhat more sophisticated manner than WooCommerce does not really important if you are not using WooCommerce.
GeneratePress, on the other hand, has a very little advantage when it comes to performance, which is still another very significant factor to take into account. When it comes to performance, Astra is equally as excellent as GeneratePress; the only difference is that GeneratePress is slightly superior.
There is no distinction between the premium versions in terms of their prices since there is no difference between the two. When it comes to price, there are two aspects that should be brought to your attention:
- – When compared to the free edition of GeneratePress, the free version of Astra offers a greater number of functionalities. Therefore, if you want to continue using the free version of either theme, Astra is the one that will most likely make you more content.
- – To have access to the premium templates, you will need to purchase one of Astra’s agency packages.
You will also need to give some thought to the kind of website you will be constructing. If you’re constructing a WooCommerce store or an online course, for instance, you should definitely choose Astra rather than GeneratePress. On the other hand, GeneratePress could be the ideal choice for a blog or a brochure site.
The bottom line is that you can’t make a mistake with either of the themes, so you shouldn’t be concerned about making a pick that will end up being a disaster. Instead, it is more about selecting the alternative that highlights and bolsters what it is that you are seeking for in the greatest possible way.
Do you still have any queries concerning the differences between Astra and GeneratePress? In the comments box, you may ask us anything!
