Confused between Astra and Kadence for your WordPress theme?
Kadence and Astra are two of the most amazing multipurpose WordPress themes. You can use either one of them to create everything from blogs to business websites, online courses to eCommerce stores, and more.
But while they claim to be superior, both of the themes build the WordPress site in slightly different ways. So you need to pick the one that meets your need. To help you with your decision, we’ve written this in-depth comparison of the Astra vs Kadence theme. We aim to compare the biggest features of Astra and Kadence that makes difference in your decision.
There’s a lot to cover, so let’s dig in.
Astra vs Kadence- Starter sites
Looking for options and versatility? Astra’s 66 starter templates are available for free. You are likely to get the one with content and images that match exactly with the need of your website. You have so many options to choose from that you will literally feel confused.
On another hand, Kadence has six different starter templates that you can easily import to your site. Although the options are limited, each one of them is well-built and ready to use. Meaning, if you like one of the starter sites, more than half of your work is already done. But it won’t be wrong to say that the options are limited here.
Astra vs Kadence- Customization options
Both themes give you detailed options in the WordPress Customizer to let you control how your site looks. Needless to say, both of the themes have a globally linked pallet, toggle widget areas, and unique header items. What more could one ask for?
Kadence has many unique customization options and its changes can be previewed in real-time mode- you can edit your site from the frontend. Here, you can customize headers, footers, blog posts, homepage settings; menus, you name it. It has Kadence global color pallet which is pretty revolutionary.
To customize the Astra theme itself, you can use the real-time WordPress customizer. If you have imported the demo content, you can customize the theme using the editor that you selected. You can do the customization with a WordPress block editor or with the visual drag-and-drop page building.
For an example- To add social icon in header, you will need an extra widget with Astra. To be honest, Astra header button is quite limiting. Kadence allows everything including social icon, search, logo and so on. Kadence header is pretty good.
Among the two, Kadence seems to have more customization options as multiple sections in Kadence is customizable.
Astra vs Kadence- Performance
Let’s start with the big and most important – performance.
While both of these themes are lightweight, Astra is the most focused to keep the theme light. The page size of Astra is only 36KB. Kadence has been noted to give a good performance. For starters, this theme is 42 KB. This makes Kadence quite lightweight and SEO-friendly. While the Kadence theme comes with tons of awe-inspiring features, it has a clean code, and it’s quite fast.
Since both of them has a very low page size, you won’t have the issues of slow load and performance in both. They definitely match in performance.
Astra vs Kadence- Pricing
First off, there’s a free version of both the themes as WordPress.org. But if you wish to extend the theme with more features and customization options, once can purchase the premium version of Astra and Kadence.
When it comes to pricing for Astra’s premium option, Astra is still more affordable if you’re only looking for a theme. There are some quirks to that but bear with us for a second.
Both Divi and Astra allow usage on unlimited websites. Both give you the option of choosing between a one-year license and a lifetime license.
The Price for these themes are:
| Year | Lifetime | |
| Kadence | $69 | $480 |
| Astra | $59 | $249 |
If we have to analyze the support and documentation of the two themes, both of them seems watch each other out. Astra has great documentation developed over the years. On other hand, Kadence has amazing support in comparison to Astra.
Astra vs Kadence: Page Builder
There’s one final hitch to comparing Kadence vs Astra pricing! What about a page builder plugin?
Kadence has a membership plan ( at $136/year) that includes the full Kadence Builder, whereas Astra’s price only includes the theme. Kadence block is an awesome speed booster that comes along with full membership. You might get the Astra Agency bundle at $199 to get similar features.
Since Astra’s page builder starter sites are built with the free versions of the page builder, you don’t necessarily need a page builder budget. But you are likely to need advanced widgets in Elementor, you will need to buy a page builder.
Basically, if you are thinking of getting a premium page builder, Kadence will be cheaper for you in the long run. But if you are cutting the budget for page builder, Astra will do the right job.
Astra vs Kadence- Uses
The Kadence theme offers a membership account element- it is a suitable theme for you if you have a membership site. Also, it is appropriate for an online eCommerce store due to its smooth integration with Woo-commerce. This particular theme is also a suitable option for mid-level developers as Kadence allows to insert fixed elements using some code.
On other hand, Astra can be better for advanced user/developer who likes to use hooks and filters of the theme. For professional WordPress users who can work with any kind of page builder and use codes, Astra is a good alternative. For those who use LifterLMS and LearnDash, Astra’s integrations are a big point.
Final Thoughts- the verdict
In the end, if you are looking for a simple, highly flexible theme that can be customized easily, Kadence might be a suitable option for you. Since you will get the plug-in of Kadence itself, it’s easier for customization.
If you are looking for multiple options on starter templates and want a quick start, Astra is a good option. This one is extremely lightweight, though the first one is by no means lacking. Astra’s pre-built starter templates make it easy to quickly get up and running.
The choice is yours.
