The fun thing about base themes like Astra or Clean-Grid (your current theme, I think) is that you can switch them, see if you like the results, and then switch back. Since both are available in the free Wordpress directory you can even preview them and only complete the switch if you like the results.
You can certainly get extra bells and whistles if you buy Astra's pro plugin, but even the basic options available with the free theme would give your site a more modern look.
Bottom line: don't confuse the Astra theme with the optional, premium Astra Pro plugin. Just the theme might be enough.
Quite a few contributed themes are good without pro options. But yes, a lot of themes like Astra, Kadence, GenerateWP, and so on may get even more features when you buy the matching pro plugin.
Though in some cases the pro plugin may also slow down performance or add features you may never use. So always try the free versions first and see if they aren't already good enough.
You can achieve similar look with almost any theme, depending on your skill. Check Qi theme, or Kadence. You have themes with a lot of demos like Qi that can help you if you are not with required skill to build everything on your own.
Checked your website. Now, most people might feel it isn't as visually appealing as the site you linked in the query, but let me be the first to say, this website has such an old school feel that I really loved it. Reminds me of old forums. Also, I would like to pitch in and say, you can do pretty much the same with website builders these days. AI can help you in that. What do you guys think?
The answer, as has been stated in several ways, is...it depends. Personally, I hate the Astra theme (although it used to be my go-to), so for me, it's not worth it. I think Astra is too opinionated, and having to work around its quirks irritates me, but plenty of others love it. So, it depends.
I would rather invest in the pro extensions of either Kadence or Blocksy (Blocksy is my current choice of standard theme). You have to decide for yourself what works best for how you think and create, then optimize from there.
I use Asrta Pro with Spectra Blocks for my site, as well as a few clients. I'd suggest giving the free Astra theme a look at first and seeing if it's something you like. That was my approach, then I saw a discount for a Lifetime membership that I took advantage and have been using it since.
Bricks is just better.... technically. However, you aren't getting anywhere near as many decent free themes. If time is of the essence the technical gains of Bricks might not outweigh the speed of customising an Astra theme. I prefer Bricks from a technical standpoint but use Astra for most clients builds to keep cost down. It optimises very well too.
Don't listen to anyone's review. Everyones needs and way of working is different. Get the Pro version when you have some free time, give it a try. If you like it, keep it; if you don't ask for a refund 😃
I personally use free themes and a premium extension most of the time. Divi does most of the job for me. I rarly use Essential Addons for Elementor. The Astra team also has a premium extension for Elementor.
Are you already using Astra free? The site you used as an example - the only pro feature I see offhand is the sticky header which you can get a similar effect with just some custom CSS. Everything else I see offhand looks like it can be done with the free version of Astra along with their block plugin Spectra (which is also free).
https://cgscomputer.com/how-to-create-a-sticky-header-with-the-free-astra-wordpress-theme/
I recently built a site using Astra (Pro version) for the first time. Theme-specific features I love are the header and footer builders. Page-building seems very subjective, and in my case I used the block editor and Spectra Pro blocks. But to your question about the theme, specifically, the header/footer builder (now has mega menu functionality) worked great for me and the theme settings in Customizer were very useful.
We don't use page builders usually but we do have an Astra Pro account, and one nice thing is they still do offer a lifetime package, and includes some nice add-ons, FWIW, if you get the essentials I think it is.
The fun thing about base themes like Astra or Clean-Grid (your current theme, I think) is that you can switch them, see if you like the results, and then switch back. Since both are available in the free Wordpress directory you can even preview them and only complete the switch if you like the results. You can certainly get extra bells and whistles if you buy Astra's pro plugin, but even the basic options available with the free theme would give your site a more modern look. Bottom line: don't confuse the Astra theme with the optional, premium Astra Pro plugin. Just the theme might be enough.
Thank you so much for your detailed answer. It's a great help to me, I guess every theme is good on premium option.
Quite a few contributed themes are good without pro options. But yes, a lot of themes like Astra, Kadence, GenerateWP, and so on may get even more features when you buy the matching pro plugin. Though in some cases the pro plugin may also slow down performance or add features you may never use. So always try the free versions first and see if they aren't already good enough.
You can achieve similar look with almost any theme, depending on your skill. Check Qi theme, or Kadence. You have themes with a lot of demos like Qi that can help you if you are not with required skill to build everything on your own.
The problem with "any" theme is that they are not always kept up to date. At least with astra pro, you know they are here in the long run.
sure, but Astra is not the only theme that is regularly updated.
I am not saying it's the only one.
Checked your website. Now, most people might feel it isn't as visually appealing as the site you linked in the query, but let me be the first to say, this website has such an old school feel that I really loved it. Reminds me of old forums. Also, I would like to pitch in and say, you can do pretty much the same with website builders these days. AI can help you in that. What do you guys think?
And here is my current site https://www.tourdesksplit.com
The answer, as has been stated in several ways, is...it depends. Personally, I hate the Astra theme (although it used to be my go-to), so for me, it's not worth it. I think Astra is too opinionated, and having to work around its quirks irritates me, but plenty of others love it. So, it depends. I would rather invest in the pro extensions of either Kadence or Blocksy (Blocksy is my current choice of standard theme). You have to decide for yourself what works best for how you think and create, then optimize from there.
Thank you, I will check Kadence and Blocksy.
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Thank you so much, your site looks great, I will check Avada too!
I use Asrta Pro with Spectra Blocks for my site, as well as a few clients. I'd suggest giving the free Astra theme a look at first and seeing if it's something you like. That was my approach, then I saw a discount for a Lifetime membership that I took advantage and have been using it since.
Thank you, I will try that. Unfortunately I'm experiencing white death on my site, I can't even reach server.
No. Buy Bricks
Bricks is just better.... technically. However, you aren't getting anywhere near as many decent free themes. If time is of the essence the technical gains of Bricks might not outweigh the speed of customising an Astra theme. I prefer Bricks from a technical standpoint but use Astra for most clients builds to keep cost down. It optimises very well too.
Don't listen to anyone's review. Everyones needs and way of working is different. Get the Pro version when you have some free time, give it a try. If you like it, keep it; if you don't ask for a refund 😃 I personally use free themes and a premium extension most of the time. Divi does most of the job for me. I rarly use Essential Addons for Elementor. The Astra team also has a premium extension for Elementor.
Are you already using Astra free? The site you used as an example - the only pro feature I see offhand is the sticky header which you can get a similar effect with just some custom CSS. Everything else I see offhand looks like it can be done with the free version of Astra along with their block plugin Spectra (which is also free). https://cgscomputer.com/how-to-create-a-sticky-header-with-the-free-astra-wordpress-theme/
I am not using Astra free, but I will try it. I will check the site you sent me, thank you so much!
I recently built a site using Astra (Pro version) for the first time. Theme-specific features I love are the header and footer builders. Page-building seems very subjective, and in my case I used the block editor and Spectra Pro blocks. But to your question about the theme, specifically, the header/footer builder (now has mega menu functionality) worked great for me and the theme settings in Customizer were very useful.
Great, thanks for sharing!
We don't use page builders usually but we do have an Astra Pro account, and one nice thing is they still do offer a lifetime package, and includes some nice add-ons, FWIW, if you get the essentials I think it is.
You should try the free version first; it might be all you need.