Astra Theme Vs Kadence Theme: Which Theme is Best?

Are you trying to decide between the Astra theme and Kadence theme for your WordPress site?

Both themes are known for helping users build fast, performance-optimized websites. They offer free versions on WordPress.org and unlock advanced features through paid add-ons.

In this comparison, we’ll look at Astra vs. Kadence to help you choose the best theme for your needs.

Let’s dive in!

Quick Introductions to Kadence and Astra

Before we start comparing the two themes, I thought to give you a short introduction and back story about Astra and Kadence.

Let’s start with Astra theme first.

Astra Theme

Astra is a fast and easy-to-customize WordPress theme made by Brainstorm Force. It’s super lightweight – your entire site can load with less than 50KB of resources when you install it.

Released in 2017, Astra quickly became one of the most popular WordPress themes. It was the first to reach 1 million active installs.

Since then, the team behind Astra has expanded their product line to include popular plugins like Ultimate Addons for Elementor, Starter Templates, and the Spectra page builder.

Kadence Theme

Kadence is another free and popular WordPress theme, created by the team at WP Kadence. It’s known for being fast, highly customizable, and packed with settings—even in the free version.

While Kadence gives you more control out of the box than many themes, some of its best features are only available through a higher-priced pro plan.

Along with the theme, Kadence offers other powerful tools like Kadence Blocks, Theme Kit Pro, Shop Kit, Kadence Conversions, Kadence Insights, and more.

Astra Theme Vs Kadence Theme: Which Theme You Should Consider?

When it comes to choosing a fast WordPress theme, Astra and Kadence are two top options that often come up.

They’re both lightweight, flexible, and built to work smoothly with popular page builders like Elementor, Gutenberg, and Beaver Builder. Whether you’re building a blog, business website, or online store, both offer the options you need to create a professional-looking site.

Then, what makes things tricky?

Both themes offer strong performance, solid free versions, and a growing set of features in their pro versions. As a result, many WordPress beginners find it hard to pick one.

Astra and Kadence themes have earned over 500 five-star reviews on WordPress.org, showing that users really appreciate their features, speed, and overall performance.

In this comparison, we’ll take a closer look at performance, ease of use, customization options, and how well each theme integrates with third-party plugins, so you can confidently choose the one that’s right for your website.

Speed Test and Performance 🚀

Performance is a key factor when choosing a WordPress theme.

A fast-loading theme can improve your website’s speed, enhance the user experience, and even boost your SEO rankings.

Both Astra and Kadence are built with performance in mind and are known for their fast load times.

To test how well each theme performs, we created a blank WordPress site hosted on Hostinger.

Please note:

This test site had only the

1. Theme activated,
2. No plugins installed,
3. No starter templates imported, and
4. Just one default blog post

This makes it a clean and minimal setup.

I activated each theme individually to measure their performance in a fresh environment.

First, let’s see the webpage test for analyzing the performance of core web vitals.

Astra Theme WebPage Result

Kadence Theme WebPage Result

Here is the comparison table for Astra Vs Kadence.

Metric	Kadence Theme	Astra Theme
Time to First Byte (TTFB)	0.778s ✅	0.793s
Start Render	1.700s	1.700s
First Contentful Paint	1.695s	1.693s ✅
Speed Index	1.700s	1.700s
Largest Contentful Paint	1.695s	1.693s ✅
Cumulative Layout Shift	0	0
Total Blocking Time	0.000s	0.000s
Page Weight	46 KB ✅	53 KB

So which theme performed better?

Well,

🥇 Kadence theme has a slightly faster Time to First Byte and smaller page weight, making it slightly more lightweight.

🥈 Astra theme edges ahead by milliseconds in First Contentful Paint and Largest Contentful Paint, which may result in a marginally faster visual load.

The conclusion is both themes perform equally well in render speed, speed index, layout shift, and blocking time, indicating optimized performance on both ends.

Astra Vs Kadence – Which theme is fastest?

It’s a tie between Astra and Kadence 🤝

Ease of Use 🤓

Both Astra and Kadence offer a beginner-friendly experience that’s easy to navigate.

No matter your skill level with WordPress, you can get either theme up and running in just a few minutes.

One of the best things about these themes is their clean, intuitive user interface. Customizing your site with either theme is quick and straightforward.

Astra Theme

Astra provides a clean and user-friendly interface that helps you get started quickly. Some advanced customization features are part of the pro version, so you’ll need to upgrade to unlock those extra options.

Kadence Theme

At first glance, Kadence has a welcome screen that looks a lot like Astra’s. However, when you start using the theme customizer, you’ll notice some differences.

While Kadence has its strengths, many users may find Astra’s customizer a bit more polished and easier to use.

In short, with both themes you’ll see a welcome screen with helpful cards for getting started, reaching out to support, and accessing tutorials and documentation – all designed to guide you through the setup process.

Still, if you ask me – I will rate Astra’s UX better than Kadence.

Astra Vs Kadence – Which theme is easy to use?

Winner – 🥇 Astra

Runner up – 🥈 Kadence

Theme Customizer

Astra and Kadence are both classic WordPress themes that come with a built-in visual Customizer, allowing you to see changes in real time as you tweak your settings.

Overall, their Customizer options go head-to-head.

You’ll find global settings for typography, colors and backgrounds, layouts, and buttons.

There are also layout controls for different page types, including the blog page, single pages, single posts, and other custom post types.

In addition, the Customizer lets you design your site’s header and footer, and gives you control over sidebar visibility across various post types.

Let’s start with the Global Settings like typography and color palettes.

🔠 Font and Typography

Typography is one of the essential settings that you get in the theme customizer. Both Astra and Kadence offer good set of typography controls for enhancing the UX of your website.

Astra Theme

Astra gives you plenty of control over your website’s fonts and text styles.

You can access these settings by going to: Appearance > Customize > Global > Typography

In the Typography panel, you’ll find two main options:

1. Presets – Ready-made font combinations for your body text and headings. With just one click, you can change the overall look. Astra offers 6 font presets.
2. Base Font Settings – Lets you manually choose fonts for your body and headings. You can also adjust paragraph spacing and choose whether to underline links in your content.

If you want more advanced options, the Typography Module in the Astra Pro plugin unlocks additional settings. With it, you can customize fonts for:

• Primary menu
• Headings (H1 to H6)
• Buttons
• Blog post titles
• Post meta
• Pagination
• Sidebar
• Footer bar

These settings let you fine-tune your site’s typography to match your style.

Kadence Theme

Just like Astra, Kadence offers good set of typography settings.

In the Kadence Customizer, head to Colors & Fonts > Typography.

In the Kadence Customizer, head to Colors & Fonts > Typography.

Here, you can control your site’s fonts, colors, sizes, and styles. The panel lets you set base fonts, heading fonts (H1–H6), and title fonts.

What’s missing?

A font combination picker like Astra offers – that would’ve been handy.

Basically, the panel is divided in two parts.

1. Base Font – The Base Font applies to general text like paragraphs and navigation.
2. Heading Font – The Heading Font Family sets a consistent font for all headings.

You can also adjust font color, weight, size, and more using the built-in selectors and color pickers.

Kadence includes responsive typography controls too. Just click the tablet or mobile icon to fine-tune font size, line height, and letter spacing for different devices.

All in all, customizing typography in Kadence is straightforward and flexible.

Color Palette

Astra Theme

Kadence Theme

Performance Settings

Both Astra and Kadence offer built-in settings to optimize the performance of your website.

One of the simplest way to enhance a website’s performance is to “load Google Fonts locally”.

The good news is that both these themes offer this feature in the free version. I have attached the screenshots below.

Astra Theme

When you use Google Fonts on your website, your site has to contact Google each time a page loads to get the font. This can slow things down and hurt your Core Web Vitals score, especially the CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).

To fix this, the Astra theme has a built-in Self-Hosted Google Fonts feature.

When you turn it on, it only makes one request to Google to download the font files and then saves them on your own server. This helps your site load faster and improves performance.

Kadence Theme

Both Astra and Kadence offer good set of settings for optimizing your websites’ performance without depending on third-party plugins.

Think it like this – you need less number of caching and performance optimization plugins because theme already provides these features.

Astra Vs Kadence – Which theme has better theme customizer?

Winner – 🥇 Astra (UI wise)

Runner up – 🥈 Kadence

Header Footer Builder ⚒️

Both Astra and Kadence come with a drag-and-drop header and footer builder, making it simple to design these areas without writing any code.

The builder works the same way in both themes – you get a set of elements that you can drag into rows and columns to visually create your header and footer. It feels similar to using drag-and-drop widgets in Elementor.

You can also switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile views in the customizer to preview how your design looks on different devices in real time.

Kadence Theme

Kadence was the first to introduce a header and footer builder. Even in the free version, it offers plenty of customization options – including sticky and transparent headers, with no need to upgrade.

Astra Theme

Astra’s header footer builder works almost the same way and feels very familiar. It’s likely inspired by Kadence’s approach.

However, if you want advanced features like sticky headers, you’ll need to upgrade to Astra Pro, as these options aren’t available in the free version.

Astra Vs Kadence – Which theme has better Header Footer Builder?

Winner – 🥇 Kadence

Runner up – 🥈 Astra

Starter Templates📰

Starter Templates or Starter sites is the quick solution for developing and putting websites online within hours. These are intended for companies that have to go live with their websites within short notice.

Firstly, both theme starter templates are lovely. Kadence and Astra templates are responsive and clean (not bloated).

Design quality is evident throughout. All the templates are extremely professional-looking and clearly have been designed by site designers.

With regard to the number of templates, Astra leads the competition since they are the first to provide readymade websites.

Kadence is also rolling out new templates and playing catch-up with the competition 💪

Let’s go through each theme in more detail.

Astra Theme

To get started, install the Astra Starter Templates plugin – it’s free.

Recently, they also launched the ZipWP plugin, which uses AI to help you build websites. Just enter a few prompts, and your site is ready in minutes.

Once the plugin is activated, you’ll be prompted to choose your preferred page builder. Previously, it supported only Beaver Builder, but now it works with both the WordPress Block Editor and Elementor.

Next, pick a template you like.

Then, upload your logo, choose your fonts, and select your color scheme.

Complete the steps, and your website will be up and running in no time.

Similary, Kadence offers their Starter Templates plugin.

Let’s check it out.

Kadence Theme

The Kadence Starter Templates plugin supports two page builders: the WordPress Block Editor and Elementor.

From the top menu bar, choose your preferred page builder and select a template.

On the import screen, you’ll be able to pick font combinations and a color palette.

One great feature is that Kadence lets you import both single-page templates and full website templates, giving you more flexibility when building your site.

Kadence leans heavily toward block-based templates, using the Kadence Blocks plugin to build pages.

The result?

Fast-loading pages that consistently earn an A grade on GTmetrix.

That’s it.

The import process are almost similar in both themes, but if you’re thinking who came up with the idea – then the answer is Kadence.

Astra Vs Kadence – Who offers best Starter Templates?

I don’t want to be biased towards anyone and the answer is both themes are winners.

It’s a tie between Astra and Kadence 🤝

Documentation & Customer Support📄

When selecting a WordPress theme, most individuals are concerned about features and speed.

But once you are actually building your site, the real challenge appears in getting support.

This is where good documentation and customer support become important. Good customer support can save you hours of aggravation.

Both Astra and Kadence have solid support offerings, no matter whether you are using the free option or paid version.

That being said, let’s compare their support based on genuine user reviews at TrustPilot and the WordPress support forums, without bias.

🥇 Kadence Theme is in the Lead.

Kadence excels based on consistently high praise for their support staff. They are not just quickly responsive but also meticulous – often times assisting users with more general WordPress problems that aren’t even related to the theme itself.

Attention to the small things and a commitment to customer success sets Kadence apart, as seem from their TrustPilot user reviews.

🥈 Astra Theme Is Still Strong

Astra also provides very good support. Most users praise quick and helpful service.

That being said, response times are sometimes a little inconsistent – particularly over weekends or for serious technical issues. Still, Astra support is always solid and reliable.

In short, both have experienced teams behind them, but Kadence takes the lead in going the extra mile for their users.

Astra Vs Kadence – Which theme offers better support?

Winner – 🥇 Kadence

Runner up – 🥈 Astra

Pricing Plans

Astra and Kadence both are available for free on the WordPress theme repository. Both the free versions are almost the same regarding customizer settings.

I’m not sure who is copying whom 🤫, but at least most of the time the end user gains from this competition 🤭

With the freemium model, both the themes provide advanced features in their paid plugins – Astra Pro and Kadence Pro. The advanced features consist of header/footer elements, mega menu option, white label settings, WooCommerce and third party plugins’ integration.

Additionally, both sell packages that consist of their other plugins developed for various website requirements.

Let’s start with Astra theme’s paid plans 💰

Astra Theme

Astra offers three paid plans tailored to different needs – from individual creators to agencies. Here’s a quick overview of what each plan includes:

1️⃣ Astra Pro – This is the entry-level paid plan. It unlocks the Astra Pro plugin, giving you advanced customization features like sticky headers, custom layouts, and more.

2️⃣ Essential Toolkit – This plan includes everything in Astra Pro plus premium starter templates and access to Spectra Pro and the Elementor Addon plugin. It’s perfect for users who want a more complete design toolkit.

3️⃣ Business Toolkit – The top-tier plan, this includes everything in the Essential Toolkit, plus all of Brainstorm Force’s advanced tools such as:

• SureFeedback
• SureWriter
• SkillJet Academy
• Limited access to ZipWP Pro, CartFlows, and Ottokit Pro.

Kadence Theme

Kadence also offers a variety of plans depending on your needs and the number of sites you manage. Here’s a breakdown of each:

1️⃣ Theme Kit Pro – Best for individuals. Includes:

• Use on up to 5 sites
• Kadence Theme Pro and Custom Fonts
• Starter templates and design patterns

2️⃣ Plus Plan – Ideal for growing businesses. Includes:

• Use on up to 10 sites
• Everything in Theme Kit Pro
• 4,000 AI credits/year
• Access to Kadence Blocks Pro, Custom Fonts, and Kadence Pattern Hub

3️⃣ Ultimate Plan – Built for agencies or power users. Includes:

• Use on up to 25 sites
• Everything in the Plus plan
• 8,000 AI credits/year
• Access to all premium plugins, including: Shop Kit, Kadence Conversions, Kadence Insights, Child Theme Builder, White label features and more.

Both Astra and Kadence offer excellent value depending on your use case – Astra focuses on integration with their broader plugin suite, while Kadence packs in powerful tools and design flexibility right out of the box.

Astra Vs Kadence – Which theme is affordable from a pricing point?

Winner – 🥇 Astra

Runner up – 🥈 Kadence

Astra Vs Kadence: Best Theme?🤔

There you have it – a thorough Astra vs Kadence comparison.

Personally, both the themes are good to begin with and along the way, you shall realize which theme suits your needs.

You may think that choosing a WordPress theme is a daunting task. But keep in mind that it is the foundation of your entire online presence, so it is important to invest a little time to select the right theme.

Don’t worry. The best part is that both themes are free to begin with, so you can change later on if you are not satisfied with the experience.

Do you require some assistance in making a decision?

1. Do you wish to begin with starter templates? Astra has more templates.
2. What templates did you like? Astra or Kadence.
3. Which of the two builders, Elementor or the block editor, you’d like to use? Astra offers more templates for Elementor, but Kadence specializes in block-based designs.
4. What is your budget? As a reminder, Astra is relatively inexpensive sparing you some dollars.

Still having decision dilemmas? Go ahead and install any theme since both are the most speed-optimized.

Let me know which theme you opted for. Or hit with questions that are hindering you to adopt Astra or Kadence theme.

Recommended Reading:

• Kadence Theme Review: Is It Still the Best WordPress Theme?
• Kadence Theme Vs Cyberchimps Responsive Theme: Which is Better?
• Crocoblock Review – Is Jetplugins Still Worth the Investment?