In May of 2019, the Elementor team successfully published their Hello theme to WordPress.org for official listing. If you’re not already aware with it, Hello is a minimal theme framework that was developed with the intention of working in tandem with the Elementor page builder.
A page builder may now be used to construct full themes, including headers, footers, archive pages, and so on. This capability was made possible by plugins for page builders like as Elementor. Therefore, in contrast to previous years, when you needed a massive theme for your website, you now just require a lightweight theme to serve as a framework for the content that you construct using the page builder of your choice.
Astra vs Hello Theme -- Default Designs
Let’s begin with the design of these two themes in their most basic form, as there are significant variations between the two in terms of how they seem out of the box.
As soon as you activate Astra on your website, it will immediately provide style for all of the significant features that are there. The moment you activate Astra, your website will have the appearance of a “real” website, and you will have the ability to alter any aspect of it using the Customizer.
However, the Hello theme does not include any additional styling for any of the fundamental WordPress elements, and as a result, your website will not seem like a “real” website as soon as the theme is activated. Again, this is because it is anticipated that you would utilise Elementor as your primary tool for designing all of those elements.
To help you differentiate between the two, below are some of the most important sites and pieces of content:
Header/Footer
There isn’t really a header when you use the Hello theme. You have the option of placing a site logo or title beside a navigation menu. In addition to the header, the title of the page will continue to show.
You’ll be able to view it down below:
If you want a more advanced header than this, you’ll need to construct it totally using Elementor Pro or with custom CSS. Neither of those options is available in Elementor. Additionally, Hello does not provide its own footer, which means that this is another another component that will require you to build it using Elementor Pro.
On the other hand, the Astra theme will provide you with a header that is completely functional as soon as you install it, and the native WordPress Customizer will allow you to make additional adjustments to the appearance of the header. The header of the free Astra theme may be made translucent. You even have the option of adding a custom final menu item in the form of a button, widget, text/HTML, and many other options.
It is possible to add and maintain Logo, Site Title, and Site Tagline in an attractive manner in order to add appealing design and tiny amounts of information about the website.
Additionally, Astra gives you the ability to modify your footer using the WordPress Customizer.
Blog Archive Page
The page that compiles a collection of all of your most recent blog entries is referred to as the blog archive page.
Again, you can see that Hello does not add any of its own unique stylings; rather, it just makes use of an H2 for the blog’s title and standard paragraph text for the content:
In addition, there is no metadata associated with the postings; all that is displayed is the post’s title and its text.
On the other hand, Astra offers a blog archive page that is entirely designed, in addition to post metadata for the following:
- Publish Date
- Category
- Author
You may also customise the appearance of your blog archive as well as the information using the WordPress Customizer while using Astra.
Blog Single and Comments Section
On the individual blog post page, you’ll notice a situation somewhat similar to this one: Elementor Hello utilises an H1 for the article title and standard paragraph text.
It provides some basic styling for the comments and the comment form, but in order to make things seem nice, you’ll need to perform a lot of work in Elementor Pro:
It is important to take note that, similar to the blog archive page, Hello does not include a featured picture or other article metadata for author, category, or other similar information.
Astra, on the other hand, will automatically include these metadata fields and will also incorporate a comments area that is completely styled:
WooCommerce
If you attempt to utilise Hello with WooCommerce, you will obtain something resembling a designed product page thanks to the built-in settings provided by WooCommerce. To build up all of your WooCommerce content, you will most likely need to use Elementor Pro, which is something you should keep in mind.
Astra, on the other hand, comes with its own built-in styling for WooCommerce. This means that the styling of your WooCommerce content will automatically adapt to the design of the rest of your site, including how the colours and fonts are displayed.
Take note of how the blue used for the rest of the Astra design has been included into the WooCommerce Add to Cart button. You could even include a cart button in the header, which would enable shoppers to easily navigate to the checkout page from any page on the website.
Winner
If you are going to utilise the Hello theme, you absolutely have to create significant aspects of the theme using Elementor Pro. This should be abundantly clear from the design comparisons presented here. In addition to this, you are need to make use of Elementor for everything; you will not be able to rely on your theme to perform any of the labor-intensive tasks for you.
On the other hand, Astra already designs these aspects for you; all that is required of you is to use the WordPress Customizer to make some adjustments so that they meet your requirements.
Now, this distinction is not automatically a negative thing, especially if you were already planned to build each and every page of your website using Elementor. If that’s the case, then that’s one less thing you have to worry about. It is essential to keep in mind, however, that if you choose to utilise Hello, you will be in charge of creating every page on your website, including 404 pages, archive layouts, single layouts, WooCommerce product pages, and more.
Astra vs Hello Theme -- Performance Comparison
You could anticipate the Hello theme to have a higher level of speed optimization than Astra due to the minimalistic approach it takes. However, keep in mind that the “completed” version of Hello cannot be played straight out of the box. To put this another way, in order to create a website that actually works, you will still need to construct your header, footer, and any other content using Elementor Pro.
Therefore, in order to provide an exact comparison of the performance of Astra and Hello, we will evaluate the following three scenarios:
Astra
As can be seen, the Hello theme, in its most basic form, utilises far less resources than the Astra theme. On the other hand, Hello cannot function properly without a page builder such as Elementor, thus a real-world website would never be in that predicament.
The difference shifts again in favour of Astra when a fundamental header and footer are added by using Elementor.
To summarise, both of these themes provide you with a foundation that has been optimised for performance, allowing you to build a website that loads quickly. In addition, the difference of a few hundred kilobytes is not likely to have a significant impact on how the file is used in the real world.
Because both the Astra and the Hello themes have their performance optimised, the difference between them isn’t noteworthy, therefore performance shouldn’t play a significant role in your decision between the two.
Astra vs Hello Theme -- Built-in Features
Because the Hello theme does not provide you with any additional functionality, comparing it to other themes is straightforward. To reiterate, this is one of the selling points of the product; it consists of absolutely nothing more than the fundamental essentials.
In point of fact, if you open the WordPress Customizer, you won’t find a single option from the Hello them. Instead, you’ll see the standard choices that come with every WordPress site, including the following:
Again, this is because you are expected to manage everything using Elementor, which is why this is happening.
On the other side, Astra provides you with granular control over the following aspects of the WordPress Customizer:
Headers, including an option to set up sticky headers, transparent headers, and other helpful settings
- Global – Typography, Colors, Container Layout, Button
- Header – Primary Header, Primary Menu, Transparent Header
- Blog/Archive and Single Post
Having access to these Customizer options can be useful at any time, regardless of whether or not you intend to continue using Elementor as your primary website-building tool. For instance, the ability to govern and modify the designs you create using Elementor in the future is simplified by the fact that the theme you choose may be used to define global colour and typeface settings.
Check read this post on our site to learn more about the reasons why you should still care about your theme even if you are using the Theme Builder that comes with Elementor Pro.
Astra vs Hello Theme — Plugin Integrations
As you saw in the part of the design comparison that was just before this one about WooCommerce, the Hello theme does not have any connections with the most popular plugins. Instead, you will need to utilise the settings of the plugin, custom CSS, or Elementor in order to customise how those plugins appear and perform on your site.
On the other hand, Astra is pre-integrated with a number of well-known e-learning LMS and ecommerce plugins, including the following:
- WooCommerce
- Easy Digital Downloads
- LearnDash
- LifterLMS
Therefore, after installing those plugins, Astra will already have a fantastic appearance.
In addition, you’ll have access to specialised settings within the WordPress Customizer to manage how Astra interacts with the plugins you use. For instance, Astra enables you to install a distraction-free checkout with the click of a box, rather than having to develop it yourself. This saves you the time it would take to do so.
Astra vs Hello Theme -- Importable Free Templates
If you want to construct your website using the Elementor Hello theme, you will essentially have to start from scratch.
In spite of the fact that Elementor provides a wide selection of page and block templates, it is not possible to import a whole pre-made website.
On the other hand, Astra provides a comprehensive collection of free Elementor templates, often known as beginning templates, which can be imported into your site with only a few clicks. A good number of these beginning templates were developed using Elementor, and they come with all of the essential configuration choices required for Astra’s numerous WordPress Customizer settings:
Astra vs Hello: Gutenberg Compatibility
The new WordPress block editor, often known as Gutenberg, is compatible with Astra’s unique Gutenberg compatibility features, however the Hello theme is not compatible with Gutenberg.
A few of the characteristics that make Astra compatible with Gutenberg are as follows:
A more visual editing experience is created as a result of the fact that frontend styles may be viewed while working in the block editor in Astra. This encompasses not just the hues and fonts, but also the backdrops.
Your frontend content’s width will automatically be adjusted by Astra to correspond with the width of the block editor.
You have the option of using the Full-Width alignment in the block editor.
Astra provides support for all of the native block styles directly within the framework.
You may also combine Astra with Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg to obtain an even greater degree of adaptability while working with the latest version of the block editor.
Conclusion
Even if Hello is an excellent theme, you shouldn’t assume that it will be the most suitable option for each and every website you create with Elementor.
Hello might be an excellent option for you if you have the time to design absolutely every component of your website using Elementor Pro and you don’t mind utilising custom CSS to fill in the spaces that Elementor Pro leaves behind.
On the other hand, Astra is a superior alternative to consider if what you need is a theme that is more comprehensive and does not require you to construct everything from the ground up. It has a very low footprint and was developed to work seamlessly with Elementor. In addition to this, it will provide you with:
The live WordPress Customizer provides a wide variety of alterations and adjustments that may be made.
A rock-solid base to rely on in times of need. You won’t, for instance, be required to stress over the creation of your very own 404 page from scratch!
Support integrated directly into the platform for well-known plugins like as WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LifterLMS, and LearnDash.
Numerous examples of sites that can be imported.
Detailed support for the newest block editor available in WordPress.
Begin using Astra without spending a dime!
