Today we are going to review Kadence and Astra.

Astra and Kadence are very popular, lightweight, and easy to use themes for WordPress. They work well with almost all major page builders like Elementor (review), Beaver Builder, Brizy (review), and others.

Astra has over 1 million+ active installations and over 5,600+ five-star ratings on WordPress.org. On the other hand, Kadence has 100,000+ installations and is relatively very new.

Kadence is feature-rich and offers lots of customization options. It has additional plugins like Kadence Cloud, Kadence Blocks, Kadence Conversions, etc. It also has a Shop Kit plugin that takes your WooCommerce store to the next level.

Astra is fully compatible with leading page builders and includes over 180 Starter Templates and full support for WooCommerce. The theme also comes with a wide range of advanced features such as a header footer builder and full control over colors and typography.

Features	Kadence	Astra
Pricing starts at 💰	$59/year	$49/month
Website usage	Unlimited sites	Unlimited sites
White-labeling	Not white-labeled	It is a completely white-labeled solution
Starter templates	45+ templates available	180 templates available
Addons available	Kadence Conversions Kadence Cloud Kadence Blocks Kadence Shop Kit Plugin Etc.	Ultimate Addons for Elementor, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg Schema Pro Convert Pro Etc
Explore	Explore kadence	Explore Astra

Do you think these plugins are worth the money? Do you really need them?

Will answer all these questions in this article.

Let’s get started with Astra and Kadence review.

Upfront bottomline ✨: Both Astra and Kadence are feature-rich, has plenty of integrations and offers additional plugins. Kadence excels when it comes to value for money, intuitive Hooked Elements feature, and also a better header builder. It is also a relatively new plugin, that climbed up the charts in no time. On the other hand, Astra is a more established player that comes with more starter site templates, and also white-labeling support for agencies.

Overview of Kadence vs Astra

Both Kadence and Astra are easy to use and lightweight themes with fast loading times. They also integrate well with almost all popular page builders.

Kadence comes with some additional products/addons like Kadence Blocks, Kadence Cloud, and Kadence Conversions which eliminate the need for external plugins. Similar to this, Astra also has plugins like Schema Pro, Convert Pro, etc.

Astra has released Ultimate Addons for Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Gutenberg to increase the design flexibility with additional block elements. With Kadence, you have KadenceBlocks.

What do we like about Kadence over Astra 👍?

• Kadence has more design freedom. The customization options that Kadence offer are really good compared to Astra. For example, with Kadence you have an intuitive header builder, you can customize the search results page, customize the archive page, show the last updated date on posts, etc. These features are pre-built into the theme.
• Kadence has a built-in feature to add social profile buttons. The unique thing is it has over 25+ social networks to add to your site and customize the icons as you wish. With Astra, to do this you need to have its Astra Widgets plugin installed. The feature is not available within the theme. Or you need to use hooks and add some custom code.
• Kadence offers more integrations compared to Astra.
• Kadence theme has a built-in color palette switch addon (you can accomplish dark mode functionality with this) so you don’t have to install an additional plugin to accomplish the same like Astra.
• Kadence has a Shop Kit plugin that gives advanced features to design your WooCommerce store.

What do we like about Astra over Kadence 👍?

• Astra is designed for speed and ease of use.
• Astra has over 180 Starter Templates (vs. 45+ with Kadence) that you can install quickly and include all images, graphics, and everything you see on the page. For agencies to set up website in no time, this is a great feature
• Astra is a completely white-labeled solution and you can use the plugin on unlimited websites. It is a big plus for agencies. Kadence lacks white-labeling.
• Astra offers some free addons to increase the design flexibility of the theme, like Bulk Edit, Customizer Search, Custom Fonts, etc. Its Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg plugin eliminates the need for page builders.
• Astra‘s WooCommerce addon comes with features like two-step checkout, coupon fields, and order notes. These are lacking in Kadence.
• Astra is fully compatible with most WordPress plugins, everything from SEO plugins to security, and backups to WooCommerce.

Ease of Use

Both Astra and Kadence themes are very easy to use.

Their pro themes offer premium modules, and you can activate only the modules you need.

In the dashboard, Astra and Kadence provide links to the customizer settings for quick access. Also, they have links for the support, and knowledgebase articles right inside the dashboard. If you are stuck somewhere these come really handy.

To use these themes, you don’t need any coding skills.

Winner: Tie.

Speed and performance

Let’s analyze the performance results of GeneratePress and Astra with GTmetrix.

Test environment:

• WordPress site running on Closte (powered by Google Cloud and Litespeed)
• Tests are run keeping Closte’s CDN server-side cache that includes OPCache and advanced-cache.
• Litespeed cache plugin on WordPress.

Astra free theme alone

I have deactivated all the other plugins and have only Astra’s free theme installed.

Performance with Astra Pro

Kadence free theme alone

Performance with Kadence Pro

From the above results, we can conclude that both Astra and Kadence themes load faster. Both premium themes are also having fast loading times.

But when you start installing additional plugins on your site, the page speeds may differ depending upon the interaction of these themes with the plugins.

Page builder compatibility

Kadence and Astra are compatible with almost all the page builders. Both these themes have recommended Elementor as their top page building plugin to use.

With the theme’s customizer options, you can build websites without having to use a page builder.

Kadence has its own block plugin, called Kadence Blocks. It is a block editor for WordPress and extends its flexibility with various block elements. Kadence Blocks is more powerful and feature-rich compared to GenerateBlocks.

On the other hand, Astra also has released Ultimate Addon plugins for page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Gutenberg. With these plugins, you will have more design and customization options to build complex websites. Among these, Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg is a free plugin that comes with several advanced block elements to design the sites faster.

With both of these themes, their full bundle (growth bundle in the case of Astra) gives access to all their plugins. You don’t need to buy them individually.

Starter templates

Both Kadence and Astra’s starter templates are very beautiful and look professional. There are very limited starter templates available to use with the free version of the themes. Astra offers 180+ Starter templates whereas Kadence has just 40 in its gallery.

Astra provides starter templates (demo sites) for Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, and Gutenberg. While Kadence provides templates only for Gutenberg and Elementor.

With both themes, you can access the pro starter templates in their bundles.

Astra also gives you access to patterns (ready-made section templates) and wireframes (visual blueprint of WordPress blocks) to quickly design your sites. Kadence Cloud plugin gives you access to section and wireframe templates.

Winner: Astra, as it comes with more starter templates.

Design and customization

Header and footer builder

With Astra, you have many header design options, like you can design the primary header, above header, and below the header, and it also supports a transparent header & sticky header.

On the other hand, Kadence supports one more header called conditional headers. This is a great feature to show different headers for specific target audiences, increasing their engagement on the site.

For example – you can create different headers for category pages, 404 pages, search result pages, author pages, etc. You can do the same for your WooCommerce store as well.

Both Astra and Kadence have good customization options to create attractive headers. You can use Kadence Blocks, advanced blocks available in the UAG plugin (in the case of Astra) to create attractive headers.

Custom layouts

Astra Pro comes with a custom layouts add-on for you to create custom headers, footers, hooks, 404 pages, and custom content.

Go to Dashboard>Appearance>Astra Options>Custom layouts. Click Add New, and choose the type of custom layout you want to create.

You can access the custom layout settings in the sidebar. Choose the layout’s location settings. You can select the pages, posts to display the content or even the specific user roles to display the content for.

To create custom layouts in Kadence, you need to activate its Elements module available in the pro version.

Elements and Hooks

Kadence Pro theme comes with a “Hooked elements” addon. Using Kadence elements and hooks you can add custom content to your site.

• If you want to make the content sticky on the site, go with a fixed section.
• Choose a template, if you want to create content templates.
• If you want to create the content using HTML code, go with HTML editor.

After creating your custom content, in the settings select the placement, display position, devices, users, etc.

Both Kadence and Astra allow you to set the expiry date for the elements. If you are running time-sensitive campaigns and have added the custom notification bars, you can set the expiry for them as when the campaigns end.

Note: With both these themes, you can add a priority for the hook element. If you have created multiple contents to add in the same hook, you can add a priority level so that elements show up accordingly.

Blog (Designing blog/archive, single post pages)

Both Kadence and Astra offer options to design your blog and archive pages. With Kadence you can also design search pages and 404 pages (these options are built-in in the theme).

In Kadence customizer, under blog posts, you can design single post layouts and archive layouts.

For single posts layout you can choose the title layout, design the post meta elements, set the sidebars, and choose which post elements should be displayed; like featured images, post tags, post author box, post navigation, related posts, comments, etc. Similar to this you can also design the archive page and search page layouts.

For designing the 404 pages, you can choose the layout, sidebar, content style, and content padding.

In Astra, to design the blog/archive pages, you can choose the page layout, set the grid layout, design the post and the metadata structure, select the post pagination, and much more.

For designing the single pages, you can design the metadata and the post structure. Choose to display the author info, related posts, auto load the previous posts, etc.

WooCommerce

Astra’s WooCommerce addon gives you enough features to customize the WooCommerce store. You can design single product pages, and product catalogs, customize the checkout as a two-step and add coupon fields and order notes.

If you want more design freedom you can use page builders like Elementor Pro. With Elementor Pro’s WooCommerce widgets you can take your WooCommerce store’s design to the next level.

Things change a little with Kadence.

Kadence’s WooCommerce customizer provides very few customization options. You don’t have the options to enable the two-step checkout, add coupon fields, or order notes, unlike Astra.

But Kadence comes with a dedicated plugin for WooCommerce called Kadence Shop Kit. This plugin gives you the features like product galleries, cart notices, advanced reviews, checkout manager, and much more. With these features, you can skyrocket your conversions.

If you are an Elementor user, you can use the Kadence WooCommerce Elementor addon to build custom product pages and product templates.

Kadence vs Astra: Free theme compared

Kadence free theme has more features and customization options compared to Astra.

Kadence free theme gives you access to these modules:

• Global colors
• Branding
• Typography
• Header layout
• Page layout
• Footer layout

On the other hand, Astra free theme has modules like:

• Colors and Backgrounds
• Global design options
• Typography
• Limited spacing options
• Layouts

But go with Astra Pro if you strongly need a white labeling feature as an agency owner.

Winner: Kadence free theme has more features built-in than Astra free theme.

Astra and Kadence Addons

Kadence addons

Kadence Blocks

Kadence Blocks is a freemium addon built for the WordPress block editor. The Kadence Blocks Pro offers powerful blocks like video popup, table of contents, infobox, page-specific scripts, premium design library, etc. Kadence Blocks opens the door for more customization options.

Kadence Conversions

This plugin eliminates the need for a lead generation plugin. It comes with only three popup types, limited templates, limited animations, and triggers. You can schedule the popups.

If you use Elementor Pro, you don’t need to buy this plugin as Elementor Pro has a built-in popup builder and is more feature-rich than this plugin.

Kadence Cloud

Do you need access to all your design assets in one place to reuse across multiple sites? Then get Kadence Cloud.

For this, you need to have Kadence Blocks installed. Kadence Cloud offers you pre-made section templates and starter packs to design your site quickly.

You can save all your favorite templates and reuse them on multiple websites just by connecting your sites.

Astra addons

Astra has Ultimate Addons and the plugin is available for Elementor (paid), Beaver Builder (paid), and Gutenberg (free).

Astra also has some free add-ons to extend its design options.

These include:

• Import / Export Customizer Settings:
• Astra Customizer Reset
• Customizer Search
• Astra Bulk Edit
• Astra Widgets
• Custom Fonts
• Sidebar Manager

Astra bulk edit and customizer search save you a lot of time in designing the sites.

Winner: Tie. Both Astra and Kadence have feature-rich add-ons.

Kadence vs Astra: Integrations

Both Kadence and Astra have good number of integrations. Kadence integrates with Elementor, Beaver Builder, LearnDash, LifterLMS, bbPress, RestrictContentPro, etc.

Astra has integrations with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi, LearnDash, LifterLMS, Easy Digital Downloads, etc.

As both Astra and Kadence integrate with WooCommerce, they work well with all WooCommerce extensions and plugins.

Pricing 💲

Astra Pro pricing starts at $49/year, it gives access to all pro features.

Its essential addon costs $169/year and gives you access to –

• 180+ Premium Starter Templates
• WP Portfolio Plugin
• One Page Builder Addon

Astra growth bundle costs $249/year and the bundle includes:

• Everything in Essential Bundle, and
• Convert Pro Plugin
• Schema Pro Plugin
• Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder
• Ultimate Addons for Elementor

Kadence Pro Theme costs $59/year. Its essential bundle costs $129/year and it includes:

• Kadence Theme Pro
• Kadence Blocks Pro
• Pro Starter Templates

Kadence full bundle costs $199/year (lifetime bundle costs $649/one-time), gives you access to:

• Kadence Blocks Pro
• Kadence Theme Pro
• Pro Starter Templates
• Kadence Cloud
• Child Theme Builder
• Kadence Shop Kit
• Kadence AMP
• Includes all our themes and plugins

Support 👋

Both Astra and Kadence have good support.

They have in-depth knowledge base articles, YouTube videos, community, and Facebook groups to assist their customers.

You can expect quick responses from both themes.

Wrap up: Winner? 🏆

Astra and Kadence both are feature-rich themes and are very easy to use.

Astra + Elementor Pro is the best combo to create stunning and fancy websites. Even the free versions of either Astra or Kadence theme is enough if you use it along with the premium page builder. If you don’t want to spend on premium page builders, you can use Astra’s Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg and KadenceBlocks in the case of Kadence.

Go with Kadence:

• If you need more design freedom with its more intuitive customization options. For example, I loved its header builder over Astra.
• You need features like a color switch addon, the ability to add social profile links (built-in with the theme), design options for search and 404 pages, etc.
• You need its Shop Kit and Kadence Cloud plugin (get with their full bundle)
• Need unlimited site usage without the need for white labeling.
• You don’t have CSS knowledge and you are dependent on the theme for the features.

Go with Astra:

• If you want to use more Starter Templates to build your websites (Hey, agency owners!).
• You have an agency and need a white labeling feature.
• You need some free addons like Bulk Edit, Customizer Search, Custom Fonts, etc. to increase the design flexibility.
• You need features like two-step checkout, coupon fields, and order notes within the theme for your WooCommerce store.
• You need integration with over 30+ industry-leading tools.

I hope you liked this post on Kadence vs Astra helpful.