Kalles and Astra are both highly popular Webshop themes. Both themes can be used for the construction of very nicely looking webshops. Kalles (Shopify) vs Astra (WordPress), which is the better theme? We start with Kalles which does not mean it would be better.
The Kalles Theme
The Kalles theme is still a fairly new theme, it came on the market in April, 2020. Kalles is a typical modern Shopify theme that has had huge successes from the start. The theme is firmly in the top for best Shopify themes on the Themeforest marketplace.
Kalles Theme's Rating
Of the more than 1000 people who rated the theme, it seems that no one gave less than 5 stars. This means that Kalles has the highest rating for themes on Themeforest, regardless of Shopify or WordPress.
Loading Speed of Kalles
Which theme is not fast loading these days? There are few left. Kalles has also had his speed upgrade and is achieving lightning fast results as can be seen in the GtMetrix speed test below.
Kalles Theme Review: Demos
More than 50+ homepage layouts for you to choose from. Just not as much as the Minimog theme which has 70+, but that is not necessary. The demos are extremely neat and come across as very professional. With Kalles you will have no problem providing a nice layout for your webshop.
Shop Features
Video + 3D support
Just a few pictures with the products is no longer enough these days. The fashion is small videos and 3D presentations. Kalles offers you the latest in web shops.
Bought together
Let your buyers know what other buyers bought along with the purchase they want to make. This way you sell extra products and you make more profit.
Different product swatches
Products often have many variations and it is important to present this in a good way so that buyers can immediately select their preference. Kalles displays swatches exactly the way you want them.
Pick your lay-out style
Products can be displayed in multiple ways and everyone has a personal preference. The Kalles Theme offers you 15+ different product layouts to choose from. Apart form that Kalles also offers 10+ category view layouts to choose from. Shopify themes do not have real layout builders such as WordPress themes, but that is hardly necessary with so much variation.
Countdown, Trust Badges, and Upsell
Kalles Review: Mega Menus
Megamenus are very popular at the moment, so all themes offer them. The problem is that one must have enough content to present a well-extended impressive mega menu. Actually, this feature is mainly for larger webshops.
Kalles Theme Review Conclusion
Let’s end this review for Kalles. If you want to know more about the theme, read more on their own site. My opinion is that the Kalles theme is a real winner. It has the potential to become the best selling Shopify theme on Themeforest soon. There is simply nothing to criticize about the theme, which was immediately visible from the flawless rating it has.
Let’s continue this Astra vs Kalles comparison with the Astra Theme.
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.
Astra vs Kalles Conclusion
These themes are both great for E-commerce. As good as Kalles is, the Astra theme is simply one of the very best themes available for building webshops. It is really hard to make a decision, I give Astra a slight edge. For any type of website other than web shops, I obviously prefer Astra. Of course WordPress is a different CMS system, so if you have a preference for WordPress or Shopify that will also have to be taken into account when deciding which theme is more suitable for you.