The popular free Astra WordPress theme has just been updated to version 3.8.0, offering faster performance on both the backend and frontend, improved workflow, making designing websites easier and faster, while also making design controls more intuitive and powerful .
Free Astra WordPress Theme
Astra is a free WordPress theme with a rare 5-star rating on the official website WordPress theme website.
according to Astra Theme Hometrusted by organizations like Stanford University and NASA, and used by more than 1.6 million websites.
It’s popular because it’s easy to design, and it’s easy to code to improve performance.
It is designed for SEO out of the box and includes Schema.org structured data code integrated into the theme itself.
Astra also works with all major page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, WooCommerce, and more.
One of the main reasons for its popularity is the ability to import ready-made templates for different industries and uses.
The free version of the Astra theme has been updated to version 3.8.0.
There is also a paid pro version of the theme, which has been updated to version 3.6.8.
Simplified Design Process
The redesigned Astra theme now features an easier design process to help publishers and designers make websites faster.
Thoughtful improvements to the latest posts block automate design features to make it look just right without fussing with design details.
Titles, link colors and fonts all come with a default state based on theme style settings.
Pullquote blocks and Quote blocks have also been improved, fixing a styling issue that kept text left-aligned even if the text in the quote was centered.
The Astra announcement explained:
“Previously, when you moved a reference to center-centered or right-centered, it still appeared left-aligned. That’s changed now, and it looks a lot better.”
More control over design elements
In addition to automating certain styling elements, Astra now provides more freedom to change the look of your page design.
For example, the newly updated theme allows users to change the color of links, makes it easier to change margins and padding, and adds more control over borders so that they can be styled according to the user’s preferred width, color, and even radius.
Astra added the ability to globally/site-wide disable the header area at the top of the page.
Design controls have been updated to be more intuitive and easier to use. For example, you can now use a dropdown control with a button selection control.
There is also a new way for publishers to adjust the default content width to any desired size by adding filters to child themes.
Astra noted:
“…now you have more control over your sidebar and content layout, and choose a visual layout design in the block editor.
Page elements that have been toggled less or will appear conditionally, which in turn will load the page faster. “
performance improvements
Astra continues to focus on making their themes faster than ever. While performance improvements may seem small, even small improvements can lead to more sales, conversions, and page views. So this is a big step in the right direction.
The improvements made are for the back end of the user being designed and the front end where site visitors will have a better experience.
According to Astra:
“One study shows that the use of CSS on your website is directly proportional to the speed of your website. The more CSS you use, the slower your website will load.
Since the speed of a website is one of the main ranking factors, it is important to minimize the use of CSS.
This is what we do with the block editor. We used WordPress’ built-in CSS and reduced CSS usage in the theme. “
Backend improvements
On the backend, dynamic CSS has been reduced from 21.4 KB to 7 KB. Static CSS was reduced from 21 KB to 15 KB, and backend page size was reduced from 588 KB to 547 KB.
Front-end improvements
On the front end, the CSS was reduced from 9.77 KB to 4.44 KB, and the page size was reduced from 111 KB to 106 KB.
Other changes to the backend include moving the font customizer control to React JS to make it faster to use.
Astra theme keeps getting better
The free Astra theme is trusted by nearly 2 million websites worldwide because it makes website design easy, especially with the built-in template importer.
With improvements in site performance and design features, Astra continues to earn its place as one of the most popular WordPress themes in the world.
Citation
Read the official Astra theme changelog
Changelog for Astra Free Edition 3.8.0
Read more about theme improvements
Improved block editor experience with Astra
