We compare two of the most popular themes of the moment here. The basic theme for Elementor versus one of its biggest adversaries, Astra. Hello vs Astra, which is the better theme? We start with Astra which does not mean it would be better.
The Astra Theme
The Astra Theme has been very popular for years. In other words, the free version of Astra is firmly in place on WordPress.org. In addition, Astra also has a very well-selling pro version which is mainly known for its beautiful demo websites that are pre-prepared for various page builders. Over a million websites currently run on Astra. Let’s start this Astra Theme review with its rating as I always do.
Astra's Rating 5/5
Below you can see the fantastic rating and comments that Astra gets from users. Where it says “Astra theme and Element” Elementor is of course meant, indeed a more than great combination to use Astra and Elementor together within 1 website. Obviously anyone giving a 1 star rating to the number one theme on WordPress.org has no clue about theme or works for the competition.
Astra Theme Review Demo Websites
Let’s go straight to one of the strongest points of the Astra Theme, namely the many demo websites. These demo websites, the so-called Starter Templates, are made to further embroider with your favorite page builder. The demos were made with Elementor, Beaverbuilder, Brizy and Gutenberg. Well, I’m not that impressed with the last one, but the others are 3 top page builders. This means that if one of these 3 is your favorite page builder, the Astra theme can be your favorite theme.
As seen above one can just choose for which page builder demo website will be shown. Astra has one of the best full website demo’s that I have ever seen in themes and plenty as for just elementor there should be like 180 different designs already.
Astra's Woocommerce Possibilities
The WP-Astra Theme was built from the start on having super fast loading times and it had to excel in the possibilities and beautiful designs for webshops and that intention has been successful. The options that Astra offers for E-commerce websites are unprecedented and practically surpass any other theme, including specialized Woocommerce themes.
Below I´ll show a few of the many features Astra offers for Woocommerce that make your webshop to a professional looking online store.
Infinite scroll
Off canvas sidebar
Quick view
The Astra Theme has about 15 such features for webshops. It simply has all the gadgets one could wish for.
Astra comes with Schema Mark Up
WP-Astra comes standard with Schema Mark Up which adds rich snippets to your articles. That way your articles will be displayed in Google’s search result in a more effective way as seen in the image below, with or without Schema. I have tried it on an HTML-website, and implementing Schema by hand is just to much work and errors will be made. Astra adds the snippets automatically and if your article changes, so will the Schema Mark Up.
Do you want someting even better than Astra’s basic Mark Up, then go for the more professional version of it:
Astra Speed
WP-Astra’s basic code is only 25kb which makes Astra one of the fastest themes out there, if not the fastest. Have a look at the images below, if necessary give them a click to enlarge them. On the left we see a speedtest done at GtMetrix with stunning results. On the right you see what one of the most famous SEO companies thinks of the speed of the Astra Theme.
Astra Theme Extra Info
If you are planning to set up a website with WP-Astra for teaching courses, it is good to know that the theme is fully compatible with Learndash and LifterLMS. In addition, Astra has an excellent SEO, is 100% responsive on all devices. It’s all too much to explain here in this review so I advise you to take a look at the Astra website itself.
Astra Theme Review Conclusion
The Astra Theme excels on several fronts, including speed, countless options for webshops, beautiful designs that can be installed with 1 click and that for 4 different page builders. In addition, Astra has built-in Schema as standard and is compatible with all commonly used plugins. This makes Astra one of the best-selling themes of the moment and I can recommend it to everyone, especially in combination with Elementor Pro.
Let’s continue this Astra versus Hello Review with the Hello Theme.
The Hello Theme
I’m starting this Hello Elementor Theme review to indicate that Hello is a great theme and really delivers a fast-loading website. On the other hand, that is not so strange because there is practically nothing in it. The good thing is that Elementor itself can do a lot and certainly with the pro version. Let’s discuss point by point why you should or should not use the Hello Theme for your new website.
Hello's Rating 4.7/5
The Hello Theme now has more than a million active installations. Understandable because everything works perfectly if you use Hello as a basis to work with Elementor. Somehow, there are often people who give highly valued items only 1 star. I consider this group to be one that didn’t understand anything and probably does this with other themes as well.
Hello Theme Review Speed
Hello is as seen below even very fast without a cache plugin. We ran 2 speed tests on Hello on the GtMetrix website, the first without using the best cache plugin out there called WP-Rocket and the second with the plugin installed.
Hello Child Theme
Voor het geval u van plan bent om aanpassingen aan de code van het theme te gaan maken in de toekomst is het verstandig met een child theme te werken. Een fatsoenlijk webdesigner maakt zijn child theme in een paar minuten, maar als u geen ervaren designer bent en geen zin heeft om te puzzelen hoe dit moet dan kunt u hier op Github het standaard child theme voor Hello Elementor downloaden.
Elementor Page Builder
It makes little sense to use Hello Elementor without the Elementor page builder. Hello serves as the basis for the all-round page builder. Elementor is used on more than 2 million WordPress websites and is steadily gaining popularity. Both the free and pro versions are just really good. The differences are in the number of widgets available, the use of templates and a wider range of demo websites and some other things. Buying the pro version is definitely recommended if you can spare $50.
This website was created with Elementor Pro and I really enjoy working with it. I also work with other page builders like the DiviBuilder but Elementor is one of my favorites.
Hello is the perfect Starter Theme
As mentioned before, after installing Hello you will see that there is really nothing left in your site. For example, there is no sidebar or header, there are no settings via the “Customizer”. That’s all there after you’ve installed Elementor, so don’t worry.
Hello Templates & Demo Library
Elementor provides you with a demo library with which you can install a complete demo website with one click. Depending on the version of Elementor you are using (free-pro-expert) you will have more and better designs available in the Kit Library. You also have access to templates.
So much more can be said about Elementor but I advise you to read on on the Elementor website or read my review for Elementor itself.
Hello Theme Review Conclusion
You have probably noticed in this Hello Elementor Theme Review that I am certainly enthusiastic about the theme, although there is practically nothing in it. For experienced people it is a great theme to have a super fast loading website. For laymen it is advisable to start with a good design that can be installed via the Template Kits in Elementor. If you prefer to work with a theme that is not entirely dependent on Elementor, but still works perfectly with it, just like Hello, then the Astra Theme is an absolute must.
Hello vs Astra Conclusion
Both of these themes are in the top for popular free themes on WordPress.org but are completely different. Both are great in their own way. Hello is 100% minimalistic and there is nothing in it that is not necessary, it acts as the basis for the Elementor page builder with which practically everything is possible. Astra also works perfectly with Elementor, but adds a lot to this, such as demo designs and widgets for Elementor. I personally prefer Astra.