When it comes to building a website with WordPress there are so many options. You can go for a page builder like Elementor or choose a super customizable theme like Astra.
In this post I’ll explain the difference between these 2 and how to choose the best one for your needs.
First of all, just for you to know the main difference – Elementor is a WordPress page builder while Astra is a WordPress theme.
Both of them are free to use and are available on WordPress.org. Elementor can be found in Plugins section and Astra can be found in Themes section.
They also have Pro versions, if you need more customization options and advanced features.
Here comes the question: should I use Astra Pro or Elementor Pro or should I even use both of them?
Let’s dive into details and see the difference between these two.
1. Editing experience
Astra Pro
Astra Pro is a highly customizable WordPress theme. It works in the native WordPress Customizer, which allows you to adjust your website in the front end.
Once you launch the Customizer (WP admin – Appearance – Customize), you’ll be able to adjust your website as you wish. You can customize your header, footer, typography, colors, sidebar, background and plenty of other elements.
Elementor Pro
Elementor Pro works in the front end as well. You only need to click on “Edit with Elementor” on any page or blog post to be able to adjust it. Once you’re in the edit mode, you can see all the changes in real time.
It offers you a set of predefined widgets which you can easily drag and drop on your page and edit them right away.
2. Features
Astra Pro
If you buy Astra Pro, you’ll get access to powerful features and integrations. Some of these are:
- Sticky Header
- Mobile Headers
- Page Headers
- Mega Menu
- Colors & Typography
- Boxed Layout
- Full Width Layout
- Fluid Layout
- Spacing Control
- Grid Blog Layout
- List Blog Layout
- Masonry Blog Layout
- Infinite Loading
- Mobile Header Designs
- Above & Below Header Content
- Custom Header & Footer
- WooCommerce options
- Display conditions
- Hooks & filters
- Custom layouts
Update: in January 2021, the team launched Astra 3.0 which has a header/footer builder. Now you can adjust your header or footer directly in WordPress Customizer. This is a free option.
Header/footer builder
This new option allows you to drag & drop different elements or widgets in your header, make it transparent or sticky, add your menu or phone number and even add multiple headers on your site.
In the Pro version you can add even more elements to your header like: 4 widgets, 3 HTML widgets, 3 dividers, language switcher, buttons and more.
The same options are available in your footer builder, including the ability to add multiple columns and choose different sizes for those columns.
Custom Layouts
The recent version of Astra Pro includes a new feature – call to actions (custom layouts). You can design and add them anywhere on your pages or posts. These sections can be displayed sitewide and multiple display conditions are available.
Custom layouts is one of my favourite features as it gives you plenty of new possibilities in terms of design.
You can add various elements on different areas of your website:
- Entire website
- Archive pages
- Single posts/pages
- All posts/pages
- Before or after header/footer
- Before or after sidebar
- Before, after or inside content area
- Custom placements
With the help of Hooks, you can create and place custom elements on on your website and even add custom code. This powerful option extends the functionality of Astra theme and is a must have for advanced users.
Learn more about the new custom layouts premium add on. Check out the full list of features here.
Update: in July 2022, the team released a huge update for Astra theme (version 3.9). They have worked on this major release for the last 6 months.
Astra 3.9 is the most powerful version yet. It focuses on 2 main areas:
- Improved Customizer
- Advanced WooCommerce Features
Customizer
The new customizer has been enhanced and provides a better user experience, a smoother interface and more default options. It will be further improved in the upcoming releases.
WooCommerce
This one is pretty impressive. We all know that by default, WooCommerce has certain limitations and requires lots of tweaks via 3rd party plugins or custom development.
The team behind Astra theme did a great job by creating and delivering those exact ecommerce features that shop owners need to improve the default shopping experience.
Here are some new WooCommerce options available with Astra Pro:
Shop page
- New Modern design skin
- New design for filter panel
- Sticky filter sidebar
Product page
- Sticky add to cart bar
- 3 new gallery layouts for single product – large image, horizontal/vertical slider
- Payment methods icons and custom shipping text
- New layouts for product description
Cart page
- New modern design
- Sticky totals sidebar
- Custom text for checkout button
- Slideout cart
Checkout page
- New modern design
- Skeleton loader
- Sticky order review panel
You can access all these preferences by going to Appearance – Customize – WooCommerce.
Update: in January 2023, Astra team has started the new year with a major release. Astra 4.0 comes with a set of new features.
Some of the most important options in the new version are:
- New/improved admin dashboard
- New mega menu settings
- Narrow width layout
- Better compatibility with custom post types
- Default colors and typography
Elementor Pro
Elementor Pro is packed with an impressive set of advanced options. Here are some examples:
- 300+ Pro Templates & Blocks
- Custom Fonts & Adobe TypeKit
- Motion Effects
- Slides & Carousels
- Custom CSS
- Scrolling Effects
- Popup Builder
- Sticky Elements
- Social Buttons & Integrations
- Social Proof Widgets
- Action Links
- Form Widget
- Call to Action Widget
- Evergreen Countdown
- Theme Builder (header/footer builder)
- Dynamic Content
- WooCommerce options
- Forms
The theme builder option allows you to create your custom header or footer and display it on the entire website or on specific pages (display conditions option). Learn how to add and edit headers and footers in Elementor.
You can also create diverse page designs and assign them to single posts, archive posts, search pages, and many more.
The latest version 3.2 of Elementor Pro includes a set of new premium features. Here are a few of them:
- Form submissions
- Paypal button widget
- Sticky layouts
Have a look at the full list of features here.
Update: in June 2022, Elementor launched their Cloud solution, with integrated hosting, Elementor Pro plugin and all its features on a pre-installed WordPress website.
This means that you now have 2 options to set up your site with Elementor:
- Self host – use a hosting provider at your choice and install WordPress and Elementor plugin on it
- Host with Elementor Cloud – get everything from Elementor (except the domain name). This includes hosting, Elementor Pro plugin, Hello theme, WordPress CMS – all pre-installed on your website.
Learn more about Elementor Cloud here.
Update: in April 2022 and November 2022, the Elementor team released 2 major features: containers and loop builder.
Containers – is the new way Elementor arranges the design elements. It’s a good addition which gives you more design flexibility. Now, you don’t have to use nested sections and creating more complex layouts should be easier.
Loop builder – is basically the same as Query Loop block provided by the default editor in WordPress. It allows you to display your posts/products in different ways. The only exception is that in Elementor you have more customizations.
3. Compatibility
Astra Pro
Astra Pro is compatible with most popular page builders like: Elementor, Beaver, Brizy and Gutenberg.
Elementor Pro
On the other hand, Elementor Pro works with most of WordPress themes, but is not fully compatible with all of them. It depends on the theme provider and whether they made their themes compatible with Elementor.
4. Built-in templates and widgets
Astra Pro
Depending on the plan you choose, Astra Pro offers you more than 100 starter templates, which are ready made page templates that you can import on your site and customize.
If you go for one of their Agency plans, you will also get access to Ultimate Addons for Elementor or/and Beaver (a set of predefined widgets to further enhance your website).
Astra theme provides plenty of starter templates for the native editor Gutenberg, so you can easily import a theme of your choice and adjust it directly in WordPress editor. You can import a complete template or just a page.
To benefit from these pre-made designs you need to install their Starter Templates plugin.
You can also use Gutenberg block patterns, which are pre-made sections that can be added to any page of your site. Once added, these sections will inherit the style of your current design (colors, typography, layout settings, etc.).
Additionally, to speed up the process of building new layouts, Astra providers more than 56 wireframe blocks. These are available within the Starter Templates option as shown below.
Elementor Pro
With Elementor Pro you’ll get more than 50 premium widgets on top of around 30 widgets (available in the free version). Also, you’ll get access to their Template Library which includes more than 100 pre-designed pages.
Update: Website kits are now available in Elementor Pro 3.3. This means that you can import a full website kit and launch a functional website much faster. Learn more about Elementor site kits.
5. Price
Astra Pro
There are 3 plans offered by Astra Pro:
| Astra Pro | Essential Bundle | Growth Bundle |
|---|---|---|
| $59 / year | $169 / year | $249 / year |
| All Astra Pro Features | All Astra Pro Features | All Astra Pro Features |
| 100+ Free Starter Templates | 150+ Premium Starter Templates | 150+ Premium Starter Templates |
| One-to-One Support | One-to-One Support | One-to-One Support |
| Extensive Training | Extensive Training | Extensive Training |
| Unlimited Website Usage | Unlimited Website Usage | Unlimited Website Usage |
| WP Portfolio Plugin | WP Portfolio Plugin | |
| One of the Following Addons: | Ultimate Addons for Elementor | |
| Ultimate Addons for Elementor | Ultimate Addons for Beaver | |
| Ultimate Addons for Beaver | Convert Pro Plugin | |
| Schema Pro Plugin | ||
| SkillJet Academy | ||
| All Future Plugins |
Elementor Pro
Currently, Elementor Pro provides 4 plans. This new plan structure was designer to cover a broader range of users: from website owners to agencies.
In December 2022, Elementor changed the pricing as follows:
- Essential plan got more expensive, from $49 to $59
- Studio plan has beed removed
- Agency plan got cheaper, from $999 to $399
| Essential | Advanced | Expert | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| $59 / year | $99 / year | $199 / year | $399 / year |
| For 1 Site | For 3 Sites | For 25 Sites | For 1,000 Sites |
| 90+ Widgets | 90+ Widgets | 90+ Widgets | 90+ Widgets |
| 300+ Pro Templates | 300+ Pro Templates | 300+ Pro Templates | 300+ Pro Templates |
| Theme Builder | Theme Builder | Theme Builder | Theme Builder |
| WooCommerce Builder | WooCommerce Builder | WooCommerce Builder | WooCommerce Builder |
| Popup Builder | Popup Builder | Popup Builder | Popup Builder |
| Support for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year |
| Updates for 1 Year | Updates for 1 Year | Updates for 1 Year | Support for 1 Year |
| 100+ Website Kits | 100+ Website Kits | ||
| VIP Support | |||
| Experts Network |
6. Performance and SEO
Astra Pro
Astra Pro is an extremely fast theme built with performance and SEO in mind. It requires less than 50KB of resources, has optimized code and uses Vanilla JavaScript for a better performance.
It also has some cool SEO features like: built-in schema markup, built-in AMP compatibility, built-in breadcrumbs, optimized header tags and more.
Elementor Pro
Elementor Pro doesn’t have so many built in SEO and performance features, but it’s compatible with most popular speed optimization plugins like: Autoptimize, WP Super Cache, WP Rocket, Shortpixel, Imagify, etc.
Also, it’s compatible with most popular SEO plugins like: Yoast, Rank Math, All in one SEO, etc.
7. Integrations
Astra Pro
Astra Pro has the following integrations:
- LifterLMS
- LearnDash
- WooCommerce
- Easy Digital Downloads
- Convert Pro
- Schema Pro
Elementor Pro
On the other hand, Elementor Pro has an impressive list of integrations:
- ActiveCampaign
- MailChimp
- ConvertKit
- Campaign Monitor
- Zapier
- Hubspot
- Drip
- GetResponse
- Adobe TypeKit
- reCAPTCHA
- Facebook SDK
- Slack
- MailerLite
- Discord
The bottom line
Both products are great and super powerful. So, there is no perfect setup or choice.
If you like building websites from scratch and want a granular control over every aspect of your site, then Elementor Pro might be a great option.
If you want more built in options and like customizing an existing theme in WordPress Customizer, then Astra Pro is the way to go.
Frequently Asked Questions?
Absolutely, it works just fine with both free and premium versions of Elementor builder.
There is no need to use both of them (however, this is possible). If you like building things from scratch then use Elementor Pro. If you’re more comfortable customizing an existing theme, then go for Astra Pro.
Yes, it’s worth getting it, if you need more advanced functionality like: header/footer builder, form builder, WooCommerce builder, advanced animations, popup builder and many more.
Yes, it’s worth getting it, if you care about your site’s SEO, performance and need advanced options like: page headers/footers, WooCoomerce integration, white label, better typography, etc.
The Pro version of Elementor can work with almost any WordPress theme. Even so, it’s better to choose a fully compatible theme for the best experience.
Is Astra a one site purchase?
Elementor Pro is good for 1,000 sites… I imagine Elementor gives you a key that you can use over and over and Elementor keeps track of how many sites?
How about Astra… given the example above, would you end up purchasing Astra 1,000 times?
Hey, Astra Pro can be used on unlimited number of sites, so it’s a one time purchase. Elementor Pro can be used on a specific number of sites (it depends on the plan you choose). When you install it on a new website, you have to login to your Elementor account and activate the Pro license.
Which is best for header building?
Hey Mark. Both are good, but Elementor Pro has more powerful options in terms of header/footer building.
Hi,
I was thinking of buying Elementor Pro and Astra Pro. Now I am wondering if it is really needed to have the pro version of Astra, but it is not clear to me what I will miss. What header/footer customizations, widgets, blog customization etc. would I miss with Elementor Pro/Astra Free?
Hi Federico. That’s a good question. In terms of header/footer builder, Elementor Pro has lots of options, so you won’t miss much if you choose Astra free. You’ll need to build the header and footer in Elementor Pro as described here. As a general rule, choose the product/tool you’re most familiar with. I hope this clarifies things.
Hi, I use both Elementor and Astra free for my website. I read your article, but it is not clear to me what I will miss when I choose Astra pro or Elementor pro features. Moreover, Elementor pro provides a pop-up builder, Email marketing integration. I have a question, does Elementor pro have have contact forms?
Hey, in terms of features Elementor Pro is superior to Astra Pro, as they offer plenty of integrations and advanced features. Yes, they have a dedicated contact form widget (available in the pro version), here are more details.
Are there any advanced Woocommerce options in Elementor Pro? Also, can I use Astra Pro and Elementor Pro together to create my website from zero and make it fast and SEO friendly?
Hi, yes – to both questions. Elementor Pro has some more WooCommerce related features than Astra, so you might use it if you have an online store.
Hello, Astra pro + Elementor free and Astra free + Elementor pro, which combo is better?
Hi Frank. It really depends on our needs. If performance is your main focus then Astra Pro + Elementor free. If you need more customizations then Astra free + Elementor Pro. Alternatively, Astra Pro + Elementor Pro could work as well.
Hi there,
just wanted to say ‘thank you’, your post helped me a lot. I had already bought Astra Pro plan and considered investing in Elementor Pro but you showed me, as for now, it is not necessary. (I am trying to set up my own online store).
Kind regards, Agata
Hi Agata, I’m really glad that the info helped. It’s true, the use of a page builder is optional, you can create a decent website with the premium version of Astra theme. Good luck with your new online store.