Building a website today is easier than ever, thanks to platforms like WordPress and an incredible variety of themes. WordPress powers over 43% of all websites globally, and its flexible themes allow users to design stunning sites with minimal effort. If you have been researching WordPress themes, two names have probably caught your attention: Astra and Blocksy.
These two WordPress themes are among the most popular choices for WordPress users, offering lightweight designs, powerful features, and flexibility for everything from blogs to e-commerce stores. But how do you decide which one is better suited for your website?
In this blog, we’ll dive deep into Astra vs Blocksy, comparing their features, performance, and usability. We’ll also walk you through how to use InstaWP to install these themes quickly and test them in a sandbox environment.
Table of Contents
What is a WordPress Theme?
Before jumping into Astra and Blocksy, let’s clarify what a WordPress theme is. A WordPress theme controls the design and layout of your website. It determines how your content looks, how your menus are structured, and even how fast your website loads.
WordPress themes also provide pre-designed templates, so you don’t need to start your site from scratch. Instead, you pick a theme, customize it, and publish your site. And why would you want to put in unwanted efforts if you can achieve the same with less effort? That’s why we have themes to reduce your efforts and save you some time to prioritize things.
But choosing the right theme is essential. A poorly optimized theme can slow down your site, hurt your SEO rankings, or make it harder for visitors to navigate. On the other hand, a well-built theme can enhance user experience, improve performance, and help your site stand out.
Overview of Astra
Astra is a fast, lightweight, and highly customizable WordPress theme developed by Brainstorm Force. Well-known for the speed and simplicity, Astra is perfect for beginners and advanced users alike. With over 1 million active installations, Astra has earned its place as one of the most popular WordPress themes.
Key Features of Astra
- Lightning-Fast Performance: Astra’s code is highly optimized for speed, ensuring your site loads quickly.
- Customizable Without Code: Astra offers a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality. You don’t need any advanced coding knowledge to create a stunning site.
- Pre-Built Templates: Astra’s library includes hundreds of starter templates for blogs, businesses, portfolios, and e-commerce sites to cater to your design needs.
- Seamless Plugin Compatibility: Astra integrates smoothly with popular plugins like Elementor, Beaver Builder, and WooCommerce.
- SEO-Friendly: The theme is built with schema.org integration and is AMP-ready, which boosts your search engine rankings.
Who Should Use Astra?
Astra is ideal for anyone looking to create a fast, flexible, and professional-looking website. Whether you’re a blogger, an entrepreneur, or an agency owner, Astra has something to offer.
Overview of Blocksy
Blocksy is another standout WordPress theme known for its modern design and advanced features. Launched by Creative Themes, Blocksy is a relatively newer theme but has quickly gained popularity for its user-friendly features and sleek design.
Key Features of Blocksy
- Modern UI/UX: Blocksy provides a contemporary look with highly customizable header and footer options.
- Gutenberg-Optimized: Designed to work seamlessly with the Gutenberg editor, Blocksy allows for easy block-based website building.
- Dynamic Options: It comes with features like conditional headers, advanced menus, and unique page settings.
- Lightweight and Fast: Despite its advanced features, Blocksy maintains a lightweight codebase for faster load times.
- Global Color Palette: You can manage the colors and typography across your entire site with ease.
Who Should Use Blocksy?
The Blocksy WordPress theme is perfect for designers, developers, and users who want cutting-edge features for free. It’s an excellent choice for portfolio websites, agencies, and advanced bloggers.
Astra vs. Blocksy: A Quick Comparison
Here’s a quick overview of Astra vs Blocksy across various categories:
| Feature | Astra | Blocksy |
| Performance | Lightweight, fast-loading | Lightweight, equally fast |
| Ease of Use | Beginner-friendly | Slight learning curve |
| Design Options | Extensive starter templates | Modern, dynamic customizations |
| Header & Footer | Basic builder, customizable in premium | Advanced builder with conditional logic |
| Gutenberg Support | Compatible but relies on third-party builders | Fully optimized for Gutenberg |
| WooCommerce Support | Solid features in free and premium versions | Enhanced WooCommerce features |
| Plugin Compatibility | Excellent support for all major plugins | Great support, especially modern plugins |
| Global Styling | Limited to typography and colors in free | Comprehensive global palette and typography |
| Advanced Features | Custom Layouts, White Labeling | Conditional Headers, Content Blocks |
| SEO Optimization | Schema-ready, AMP support | Schema-ready, limited AMP options |
| Pricing | Free; Premium starts at $47/year | Free; Premium starts at $49/year |
| Best For | Blogs, business sites, eCommerce | Creative portfolios, agencies |
Detailed Comparison of Astra vs Blocksy
After this quick overview of what Blocksy vs Astra looks like, let’s dig deeper to learn more about which is the best theme, Astra or Blocksy.
Let’s compare both themes in detail:
1. Performance
Both Astra and Blocksy are incredibly lightweight and optimized for performance. Astra is often regarded as one of the fastest WordPress themes, with minimal CSS and JavaScript. Blocksy is equally fast but uses more advanced JavaScript frameworks, which can result in slightly higher resource usage for specific features.
2. Ease of Use
Astra: Very beginner-friendly. If you’re just starting out, Astra has a bunch of demo sites you can import, so you don’t have to design from scratch. If you like using page builders like SeedProd or Elementor, Astra works really well with them.
Blocksy: Also super easy to use, especially with page builders like Elementor and Gutenberg. It is designed to be intuitive, and it has some cool pre-built templates you can import. It’s a good option if you’re into customizing things without touching code.
3. Customization Options
Astra: The customization options are pretty solid. You can tweak layouts, colors, and typography easily through the WordPress Customizer. The free version does a good job, but the pro version gives you some extra juice for advanced customizations.
Blocksy: Blocksy is really customizable. You can juggle around layouts, colors, fonts, and headers. It’s all about control here. The free version gives you a lot of options, but the pro version opens up even more doors, especially for things like custom headers and footers.
4. Gutenberg Compatibility
Astra: Fully compatible with the Gutenberg editor but relies heavily on third-party page builders for advanced designs.
Blocksy: Designed specifically for Gutenberg, Blocksy allows you to build complex layouts directly within WordPress without external plugins.
5. SEO Optimization
Astra: It is built with SEO in mind, clean code, schema markup, and fast load times, which all help with your Google rankings. It plays well with SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math.
Blocksy: It is also SEO-friendly. It follows best practices for speed and clean code, which gives you a good SEO foundation. It works seamlessly with plugins like Yoast and Rank Math.
6. Mobile & Responsive Design
Astra: You do not need to worry about mobile responsiveness with Astra. The theme adjusts automatically for smaller screens, and you can tweak mobile settings for an even better experience.
Blocksy: Mobile responsiveness is also top-notch with Blocksy. You can customize mobile menus and how your site looks on different devices, which is great if you want your site to look just right on a phone or tablet.
7. Plugin Support
Both Astra and Blocksy integrate seamlessly with popular WordPress plugins. Astra is more compatible with older plugins, while Blocksy excels with modern, block-based plugins.
8. Advanced Features
Astra: Offers unique features in its premium version, like white labeling for agencies, custom layouts, and more.
Blocksy: Introduces content blocks and conditional logic, which allows for even more creative customization.
9. WooCommerce Features
Astra: If you’re setting up an online store, Astra is a solid pick. It integrates perfectly with WooCommerce, offering plenty of customization options for product pages, cart, and checkout.
Blocksy: WooCommerce integration in Blocksy? You bet. Blocksy is also optimized for eCommerce, and it’s got some extra features, like quick views for products, which is awesome if you’re running a shop.
10. Developer Features
Astra: It is ideal for developers who need flexibility, especially in terms of compatibility with page builders and custom post types. Its modularity allows for easy customization without writing too much code, and the large number of hooks and filters ensures that developers can tweak almost any part of the theme.
Blocksy: On the other hand, Blocksy offers a more modern, Gutenberg-focused approach. Its code is clean and flexible, making it easier for developers to create custom blocks and widgets. The integration with Gutenberg’s block editor allows for seamless development of custom content types, and the advanced customization options available in the pro version provide further extensibility.
11. Community and Support
Astra: With over 1 million active users, Astra holds a big community and quite good online resources, tutorials, and forums.
Blocksy: Although newer, Blocksy has a growing community and excellent documentation with responsive support.
12. User Interface
Astra: Astra has a simple and beginner-friendly interface that makes customization straightforward for new users. The WordPress Customizer provides a smooth experience for real-time edits.
Blocksy: Blocksy’s interface is modern and slightly more advanced. It offers features like live preview and advanced conditional settings, catering to power users.
13. Design Flexibility
Astra: It is known for its extensive library of starter templates, allowing users to kickstart their design process. It also includes a responsive layout and customizable typography options.
Blocksy: While it shines in design flexibility, offering a global color palette, dynamic layouts, and customizable block options. Its modern design is ideal for visually appealing websites.
14. Page Builders
Astra: It is a champion when it comes to page builder compatibility. It works seamlessly with almost all popular page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi, and Brizy, providing unmatched flexibility for custom designs.
Blocksy: While Blocksy also integrates well with page builders, it is more optimized for Gutenberg, WordPress’s native block editor. This focus makes it slightly less versatile for those heavily reliant on external page builders.
15. Theme Updates & Future Proofing
Astra: Frequently updated with new features, bug fixes, and improvements, ensuring compatibility with WordPress core and major plugins. Astra is consistently aligned with WordPress standards, ensuring it stays relevant with each new WordPress release.
Blocksy: It releases regular updates with a roadmap focused on improving performance and adding advanced features. Built with modern technologies like React and Webpack, Blocksy is designed to stay ahead of web trends and integrate smoothly with Gutenberg.
16. Pricing
Astra: Astra offers a free version with limited features, making it suitable for basic websites. The premium version starts at $47/year, offering advanced customization options, priority support, and additional templates. Higher-tier plans include agency bundles with even more features.
Blocksy: Blocksy also provides a free version with robust features for basic use. Its premium version starts at $49/year, slightly higher than Astra, but includes advanced tools like conditional headers, content blocks, and WooCommerce enhancements. Lifetime plans are available for users who prefer a one-time payment.
Installing Astra for Your Website Using InstaWP
InstaWP is an excellent tool for testing WordPress themes without committing to a live site. It lets you create a sandbox environment in seconds so you can test Astra risk-free.
- Do you not have an InstaWP account? Don’t worry; it’s simple. You can sign up using email or social media. Now open your InstaWP dashboard. Click “Add New” to start creating your new website.
- You’ll see a pop-up here; click on “Create Site.” Within seconds, you’ll have a fully functional WordPress sandbox.
- InstaWP removes the headache of passwords with Magic Login. Click magic login and get into your fully functional WordPress site.
- Navigate to the WordPress Dashboard, go to Appearance, and then Themes.
- Search for “Astra” using the search theme feature.
- Click “Install” to install the Astra theme on your site.
- After installation, click “Activate” to activate Astra.
- Now, if you want, you can create your website from scratch or explore starter templates.
- You can search for a template that is suitable to your business or needs and start customizing.
With InstaWP, you can make changes without fear of breaking your live site. It’s perfect for experimenting with Astra’s features and testing everything before going live.
Installing Blocksy for Your Website Using InstaWP
Testing Blocksy with InstaWP is just as simple. InstaWP’s quick setup ensures you can explore Blocksy’s features without any hassle.
Here’s how to install Blocksy on your site
- If you are visiting InstaWP for the first time, start by signing up using email or social media. Now log in to your InstaWP dashboard and click “Add New” to start creating your WordPress site.
- In the next step, you’ll get a pop-up; click “Create site.” Now, your site is up and working. You can install themes and plugins to modify it however you want.
- Do not stress about managing passwords; simply click Magic Login to get into the WordPress Dashboard.
- Here, from your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance, then Themes.
- Search for “Blocksy” in the search box.
- You can see the Blocksy theme in the search results; now click Install.
- Once your installation is complete, activate Blocksy and start exploring starter sites.
- Decide one template from the starter sites, import, and start customizing.
InstaWP makes it easy to explore Blocksy’s dynamic features, ensuring you know exactly what you’re getting before committing to a live site.
Which Theme is Better?
Ultimately, your specific requirements, budget, and level of expertise decide which one you want to choose between Astra and Blocksy. Both themes excel in different areas:
Choose Astra if you’re looking for a lightweight, user-friendly theme with a vast library of pre-built templates. It’s ideal for beginners, bloggers, small business owners, and WooCommerce users who value speed and simplicity.
Choose Blocksy if you’re a designer, developer, or advanced user who wants a highly customizable theme with dynamic features. Blocksy’s modern tools make it perfect for creative agencies and tech-savvy individuals who prioritize cutting-edge design capabilities.
Whichever theme you choose for your website, do not forget to test that with InstaWP before making your site live. Why risk losing your loyal visitors because of a bad website experience? Make sure your site is live-ready with InstaWP!
Final Words
When deciding between Astra and Blocksy, it’s clear both themes bring incredible value to the table. Astra stands out for its simplicity, robust plugin compatibility, and beginner-friendly approach. On the other hand, Blocksy wins points for its modern design, advanced customization options, and seamless Gutenberg integration.
The best way to make your choice is to test both themes in a safe environment using InstaWP. This tool provides a no-risk way to experiment with features, layouts, and customizations before committing to a live website. No matter which theme you choose, both Astra and Blocksy are excellent options that can elevate your WordPress site to new heights. So, what are you waiting for? Decide your theme and start your website journey with InstaWP now!
