Maximizing website potential: Why Astra is our preferred WordPress theme

Perfect for any site - from professional businesses to personal blogs - Astra offers unmatched customization, speed, and SEO.

In the vibrant world of website creation, one choice shines brighter than the rest: picking the perfect WordPress theme. Whether you’re dreaming up a professional business site, an online shop, or a cozy corner for your thoughts in the shape of a blog, the theme you choose holds immense power over your website’s success and usability. At Webdesh, we understand the importance of this decision, that’s why we’ve tested numerous options and confidently selected Astra as our preferred WordPress theme.

In this article we’re going to talk about:

What is a WordPress Theme and Why it Matters
Paid vs Free Themes
Exploring Astra
Key Features of Astra
Real-life Examples

What is a WordPress Theme and Why it Matters

When it comes to building a website on WordPress, one of the first decisions you’ll make is choosing a WordPress theme. But what exactly is a theme, and why does it matter? A WordPress theme is essentially the foundation of your website’s design and layout. It dictates the overall look and feel of your site, including the color scheme, typography, layout options, and various other design elements. Think of it as a framework that provides the building blocks for creating your unique online presence. ur theme is more than just a visual choice—it’s a powerful tool that shapes your site’s user experience and functionality. A well-chosen theme can enhance your brand’s message, create a cohesive aesthetic, and ensure a seamless experience for your visitors. However, the right theme doesn’t restrict your creativity, instead, it provides a versatile platform to bring any vision to life.

Read more: How to Choose the Right WordPress Theme

Paid vs Free Themes

When it comes to choosing a WordPress theme, you’ll encounter both free and paid options. Free themes can be tempting, especially for those on a tight budget. However, they often come with limitations in terms of customization and support. Paid themes, on the other hand, typically offer more features, better support, and regular updates. Investing in a premium theme like Astra can provide peace of mind and ensure your website’s long-term success. Plus, as a bonus, our customers at Webdesh get the Astra paid version as part of their Website Creation package. This initial investment would definitely yield high returns in the long run. Having a sturdy base for your website will save you time and money when you decide to further improve and grow your website in the future, without having to redo everything from scratch.

Themes with flexible and functional features not only assist in building beautifully designed modern websites but also reduce development time and expenses. Depending on your business specifics and functional requirements, you can find themes tailored to those needs, many of which are paid. For instance, if you own a travel agency and want users to book trips online, or if you’re a fitness trainer looking to sell online courses, a good paid theme with integrated functionality can save you from searching for additional plugins (often paid as well) or hiring developers for custom coding, which is both time and resource-intensive.

Fortunately, while we primarily discuss the benefits of Astra’s paid version—providing full customization with code, additional plugins included in the package, and premium starter templates—the theme also offers a free version suitable for creating decent-looking and functional websites.

Exploring Astra

Astra is like the superhero of WordPress themes! It’s super lightweight and crazy customizable, giving you the power to create your dream website just the way you want it. Developed by Brainstorm Force, Astra has quickly become one of the most popular themes in the WordPress community.

Astra’s built-in functionalities, layout builder, hooks, and various add-ons empower designers and developers with the freedom to create tailor-made solutions that perfectly fit your needs, with many available even in the free version of the theme. This freedom to easily customize, maintain, and grow a website paves the way for innovative solutions without compromising performance or requiring extensive development time.

Moreover, this theme offers over 250 well-crafted pre-built templates that can be installed with just one click. Astra’s templates cater to various needs, whether you’re building online shops, personal blogs, portfolios, or standard informational websites, and they are fully customizable. Designed to meet modern website design and structure standards while prioritizing good user experience and catering to the website’s target audience, these templates provide an excellent starting point for personalizing your website.

By providing the right structure, pages, and elements, these quality templates offer a visual representation of what you can achieve. They are ready to use out of the box, requiring only content and image updates. Alternatively, you can customize colors, fonts, and structure, or mix and match multiple templates to create a unique website. At Webdesh, we’ve often combined multiple templates with originally designed sections to create compelling websites for our clients.

Read more: Transforming Dreams into Reality: Your Online Shop Ready in Just Two Weeks!

Key Features of Astra

Integration with popular plugins: Astra seamlessly integrates with popular WordPress plugins, allowing you to add advanced functionality to your site with ease.
Extensive customization options: With Astra, you have full control over the look and feel of your site, thanks to its extensive customization settings and compatibility with page builders like Elementor. Unlike most other themes, Astra comes with a built-in layout builder that allows you to create your own Elementor headers, footers, single page, and archive page designs without relying on Elementor Pro features. This gives developers and users the freedom to customize their website’s design to their heart’s content.
Additionally, Astra features a standard header and footer builder in its rich Customizer, which utilizes widgets and Gutenberg blocks for a more user-friendly approach. It supports settings such as enabling a fully responsive transparent or sticky header.
SEO-friendly: Astra is optimized for search engines, helping your site rank higher in search results and attract more organic traffic.
WooCommerce ready: Fully equipped for WooCommerce websites, Astra allows users to modify online shop pages using its WooCommerce module, offering options like adding an off-canvas sidebar, changing the shop grid layout, implementing quick view, adding a dropdown cart, and much more.
Accessibility features: Astra is committed to accessibility, making it easy to create websites that are usable and inclusive for all users.
Astra has a well-documented hooks and filters library, empowering advanced users to implement custom code or content on specific pages, devices, and locations within the website content with minimal effort.
It’s worth mentioning Astra’s integration with LearnDash, a powerful paid online courses and memberships platform. This integration enables users to create engaging online courses with advanced features such as organizing teams into groups for improved collaboration, awarding points and certifications based on learner performance, and more.

Real-life Examples

Astra empowers us to craft highly customizable websites, and one of our clients Reflective Celebration is a prime example. By implementing bespoke customizations, we ensured a unique and captivating design that perfectly embodies the essence of the Reflective Celebration brand. Starting with the PainterArtist template and the Astra theme, we transformed this standard foundation into a truly distinctive website. This journey illustrates how an ordinary template can evolve into a unique digital experience tailored to our client’s individuality and needs.

Before After

At Webdesh, we leverage Astra’s powerful capabilities to offer a range of solutions, each tailored to fit different needs and preferences. Whether you’re looking for a customized ready template or a fully custom-built design, our expertise ensures a perfect fit for your business objectives.

Customizing Ready-Made Templates
For clients who need a quick yet personalized solution, customizing ready-made Astra templates can be an excellent choice. We start with a high-quality template and then tailor it to reflect your brand’s unique identity. This approach balances efficiency with customization, allowing us to deliver a site that is both professional and aligned with your vision, while still being cost-effective and timely.
Implementing Client-Provided Designs
If you have a design in mind, we can bring it to life using Astra’s flexible framework. By starting with your design, we ensure that the final website remains true to your vision while benefiting from Astra’s robust functionality. This method is ideal for clients who already have a clear direction but need technical expertise to make their vision a reality on the WordPress platform.
Crafting Unique Websites with Custom Designs from Our Designers
We are working with designers who excel in creating unique, custom designs tailored specifically to your brand’s needs. Rather than using pre-made templates, we develop original design concepts from scratch, ensuring that every aspect of your site is crafted to reflect your vision and goals. When you choose this option, our designers work closely with you to create a completely original website that stands out and meets your specific requirements, providing a high-quality, personalized online presence.
Developing Fully Custom Sites Without Templates
For those seeking a completely unique online presence, we offer a fully custom approach that doesn’t rely on pre-made templates. Using Astra’s advanced customization features, we build your site from scratch, tailored specifically to your brand’s requirements. This method provides the ultimate flexibility, allowing us to create a one-of-a-kind website that stands out in every way.

In wrapping up, picking the perfect WordPress theme is key to making your website shine. Here at Webdesh, we’re big fans of Astra. It’s like the superhero of themes, offering good speed, crazy flexibility, and a big thumbs-up from SEO. With Astra, we can craft websites that not only look amazing but also perform like champs, grabbing attention and driving results.

If you’re ready to take your website to new heights or you want to build your dream website, why not give Astra a spin for your next project?

Let’s make it happen! Your website deserves nothing but the best, so contact us today, and let’s build it together.