Are you Stuck between GeneratePress and Astra theme? Don’t worry; you’re not the only one. I’ve been there and had to make decisions with my blog too. This guide will help you choose the suitable WordPress theme for your website today.
I’ve been using both Astra and GeneratePress WordPress themes on my sites over the years. Based on my personal experience of using both themes, you get all the facts you need to know before using them on your website.
And to be clear, there are plenty of other multi-purpose WordPress themes out there beyond just these two. But when it comes to choosing the best WordPress theme for bloggers specifically, only a select few of them rise to the top of the line, and I’ve tested many alternatives myself, like NewsPaper, Divi, Avada, etc.
We’re left with a decision between my favorite WordPress themes: GeneratePress vs. Astra. The best part? Both themes offer free plans to get started.
Table of Contents
- How to Choose the Right WordPress Theme?
- GeneratePress vs Astra Theme 2025
- GeneratePress Theme Analysis
- GeneratePress Theme Features
- What are the Drawbacks of GeneratePress?
- How Much Does GeneratePress Cost in 2025?
- WP Astra Theme Analysis
- Astra Theme Features
- What are the Drawbacks of Astra?
- How Much Does Astra Cost in 2025?
- Which Astra plans to choose? What’s the difference?
- Which Astra Plan to Choose?
- GeneratePress vs Astra: Performance Comparison
- GeneratePress theme performance:
- Astra theme performance:
- Astra vs GeneratePress: Overall Summary
How to Choose the Right WordPress Theme?
Selecting a WordPress theme is always hard for new website owners. You need to consider many things before choosing your WordPress theme. WordPress theme design affects your user’s experience and impacts your revenue.
Below are a few aspects I looked at to find the best WordPress themes:
1:) Speed: Speed is one of the critical aspects you must consider first. No one likes slow-loading websites; even Google announced website speed is essential for ranking a website. Your website theme must be optimized for speed; it improves users’ experience and enhances on-page SEO.
2:) Simplicity or Complexity: Theme functionality is essential to consider. Not everyone is a techy nerd; your theme should be easily customizable, like changing a few settings, colors, fonts, etc.
3:) Site Responsiveness: Your site looks good on a 16″ laptop, which doesn’t mean your site also looks good on a small smartphone. Smartphone traffic increases every year; a responsive theme is essential for everyone. Before buying any theme, ensure it’s 100% responsive for any screen size. And remember, Google has made it mandatory for every website to be mobile responsive & the latest Browser supported.
4:) Page Builders Support: With a drag-and-drop page builder, you can easily create beautiful website designs without coding knowledge. Most WordPress themes support page builders, but not all of them do. If you want to create a beautiful-looking website, the theme must be comfortable with leading page builders like Thrive Architect, Elementor, & Beaver Builder, etc.
5:) Pricing: The last aspect to consider is whether you should use a free or premium WordPress theme. The difference isn’t just in the pricing; the premium version theme comes with a lot of theme functionality, customization options, support, etc.
How much does the WordPress theme cost for your blog?
When you’re just starting a blog, your costs for a WordPress theme should be meager (or even free). Don’t worry. Both themes are freely available in the WordPress repository with an overall 5.0 rating by users. And they also have premium versions for more functionality & flexibility.
Now, let’s break down all the costs for both WordPress themes to unlock their full potential.
GeneratePress vs Astra Theme 2025
I want to start this guide off by making it ultra-clear that I use GeneratePress as my main WordPress theme of choice as a blogger.
I firmly believe both are hands down the best fastest-loading WordPress themes for bloggers today. If you want to try them out risk-free, you can start with their free version today to give it a real test run for yourself.
I’ll be also the first to tell you that no single WordPress theme will be the absolute best fit for everyone. And it might make more sense for you to select other WordPress themes depending on your blogging needs. The Newspaper is probably the best choice if you are looking for a theme for AdSense-based websites.
Here’s a chart that breaks down the simple pricing comparison between GeneratePress and Astra themes.
| Features | GeneratePress | Astra Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $59/year | $47/year |
| Site Installation | 500 | Unlimited |
| Free Version | Available | Available |
| Site Libary | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | Yes | Yes |
| Overall Rating | 5.0/5.0 | 5.0/5.0 |
| Total Downloads | 3,953,379+ | 1,653,898+ |
| Page Builder | Supported | Supported |
| Discount | Claim Now | Claim Now |
Now, let’s dive into a complete detailed analysis of our WordPress themes to compare GeneratePress vs. Astra.
GeneratePress Theme Analysis
GeneratePress is one of the most popular fast-loading multi-purpose themes out there. Its rating in the WordPress repository is one of the highest, with 1227 out of 1247 reviews giving it a 5-star rating, and it has 400,000+ active installs.
GeneratePress theme is known for having clean code, being super lightweight out of the box, and having flexibility with all page builders. The entire GeneratePress theme size is only 30kb when installed, while the average WordPress theme size is over 1MB.
Below are some notable features you need to know before you use GeneratePress on your website:
GeneratePress Theme Features
- Superfast & lightweight design with no jQuery dependency.
- Fully mobile responsive and looks great across all devices.
- Built-in Schema features for better results in SERPs.
- Impressive integration with the WordPress default Customizer.
- Compatible with all popular WordPress plugins, Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, Rank Math SEO, BuddyPress, UpdraftPus, and WPML.
- Perfectly optimized for all popular page builders like Elementor, Visual Composer, and Beaver Builder.
- Translation & RTL ready.
- 100% accessible.
- Compete for theme documentation available.
- Tons of developer-friendly hooks, elements, and filters.
- Awesome customer support from an involved developer.
Along with all features, the GeneratePress premium user gets all premium modules to control everything on your website:
Note: With a combination of the GeneratePress Premium and free GenerateBlocks plugin, you can visually build every aspect of your website from search without touching a line of code. This site also uses the GeneratePress premium & GenerateBlock block editor plugin.
What are the Drawbacks of GeneratePress?
There are no significant drawbacks of the GeneratePress theme except one. The Free GeneratePress theme has lots of customization restrictions & a lack of support on the free version. You have to buy a GeneratePress premium add-on to get developer support & a complete theme customization option.
How Much Does GeneratePress Cost in 2025?
Core GeneratePress theme is 100% free for everyone and is available at WordPress.org. GeneratePress Premium is technically a WordPress plugin that you install alongside with free theme, and the GeneratePress Premium plugin extends the theme functionality & customization options.
GeneratePress Premium is available at an affordable price of $59 yearly and $249 for lifetime updates.
For $59, you get all 14 premium modules, can use it on up to 500 sites, and one year of support and regular updates. It’s worth the money, and I’ve moved all my sites to GeneratePRess. Only $59 for a premium theme is a steal!
If you plan to save more money, you can get a GeneratePress lifetime deal for $249. Like a yearly plan, this plan only includes lifetime updates and support. You can also upgrade from the annual to the lifetime plan anytime.
GeneratePress premium version will get access to All premium modules, Full access to the Site Library, 500 website usages, regular theme updates, premium support, & a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Have a look at GeneratePress Premium Plans Pricing.
WP Astra Theme Analysis
Created by Brainstorm Force, Wp Astra is a fast, fully customizable & beautiful multi-purpose WordPress theme. Astra is one of the most popular WordPress themes that can be used for portfolios, blogs, businesses, WooCommerce storefronts, and more.
The Astra theme is the 3rd most prevalent theme in the official WordPress repository. The free Astra theme version is used on over 1,500,000 websites and has maintained an excellent 5-star rating on over 4800 reviews.
Astra theme is built for Performance optimization; with default WordPress data, Astra should load in less than half a second and take resources under 50kb by disabling jQuery. Below are some Astra theme features & premium module details:
Astra Theme Features
- Perfectly compatible with all popular page builder plugins, including Elementor, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, and others.
- Developer-friendly themes. With the Astra theme, you can easily hooks and filters; it is super-easy for developers to extend the functionality.
- Astra theme includes hundreds of pre-built demo websites that you can import to your website with just one click.
- The Astra theme uses self-hosted Google fonts. It will load your font faster and improve the Core Web Vital’s performance.
- Astra uses the latest Vanilla JavaScript to prevent render-blocking jQuery. As a result, it improves your website’s overall performance.
- With the Astra theme, you can easily customize Fonts with a free plugin.
- 24/7 Support with in-depth articles & video tutorials for beginners.
- Astra comes with the basic schema markup implementation. For advanced schema integration, you can check their Schema Pro.
- Popular Third-party plugins support.
Astra is a multi-purpose WordPress theme, and it’s straightforward to customize the theme with the default WordPress customizer. This also comes with a performance optimization tab to optimize your Google fonts by preloading them.
With the help of Astra Pro Addon, you get access to over 19 different premium modules to save a ton of time designing work your website.
Note: Along with the Astra theme Brainforce team also offers different types of Page builder extensions to enhance visual page builders’ capabilities. If you use the Elemetor page builder on your website, you can check their Ultimate Addons for Elementor. For Beaver Builder, then you need Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder.
What are the Drawbacks of Astra?
Astra is perfect with only one downside, like the GeneratePress theme. It would help if you used the Astra Pro add-on to customize everything on your website and the developer support option is not available on the free Astra version.
How Much Does Astra Cost in 2025?
Like the GeneratePress theme, the Astra theme also offers a 100% free version on the WordPress repository. To use Astra theme-exclusive features & customization options, you need to install the Astra Pro plugin.
Astra has three license options to unlock the Astra theme premium version. The Astra Pro plans cost $59 per year, the Essential Bundle costs $276 per year, and the Growth Bundle costs $523 per year.
With all Astra Premium plans, you can access all Astra Pro Add-ons, Free Starter Templates, 24/7 support, unlimited website usage, regular updates, etc.
The best part about Astra Premium is you get 30% off all plans with our special discount coupon link. It means you get Astra Pro at $47/year, Essential Bundle at $169/year, & Growth Bundle at $249/year.
Which Astra plans to choose? What’s the difference?
Astra Pro Plan: Astra Pro is a plugin that only unlocks all features of the Astra theme with 20+ starter templates.
Essential Bundle Plan: The Astra Essential plan comes with Astra pro-Addons with Premium Wp Portfolio plugin, 180+ premium starter themes, and One Page Builder Add-on (Ultimate Add-ons for Elementor / Ultimate Add-ons for Beaver Builder).
Growth Bundle Plan: Astra Growth Bundle comes with everything the Brainstorm Force team offers. Including all premium plugins like Convert Pro Plugin, Schema Pro Plugin, Ultimate Add-ons for Beaver Builder, Ultimate Addons for Elementor, Premium starter templates, and $1199 worth of SkileJet academy membership for free.
Which Astra Plan to Choose?
In a nutshell, if you are looking for an Astra theme with complete customization options & premium add-ons, go for the Astra Pro Add-on. If you want to use a single-page builder enhance tool with premium starter templates, go for the Astra Essential Bundle plan. Choose the Astra Growth Bundle plan if you want every premium plugin, starter template, and premium support.
Note: All Astra premium plans come with a 14-day 100% money-back guarantee. If you purchase Astra PRO and are unsatisfied with the theme performance, you can get your money back within 14 days.
Have a look at Astra Premium Plans Pricing. (Discount applied automatically)
GeneratePress vs Astra: Performance Comparison
Performance is a key metric you should know before selecting your website theme. I always test WordPress themes right out of the box without customizations and cache plugins. For theme performance testing, I prefer CloudWays Hosting with PHP 8.
We installed each theme on a fresh WordPress install to test both themes’ performance and ran tests with different speed tools checkers (GtMetrix, Tools Pingdom, & Byte Check).
Here’s our result:
GeneratePress theme performance:
Astra theme performance:
Performance conclusion:
GeneratePress and Astra are more performance-optimized than average WordPress themes available in the WordPress repository, and both themes can get you a fast-loading website.
Overall, though, GeneratePress is a bit ahead in our performance test in different test tools, but the difference isn’t huge (Only a few milliseconds). Still, if you’re looking for the fastest WordPress theme, you can use GeneratePress.
After using the GeneratePress theme with Kinsta Managed WordPress hosting with the WP Rocket cache plugin, here’s my website result.
To get perfect performance results on your website, you also need a fast hosting provider (Recommend: CloudWays), a cache plugin (Recommend: Wp Rocket), and an image optimization plugin (Recommend: ShortPixel).
Astra vs GeneratePress: Overall Summary
So, What’s the Best WordPress theme for Bloggers in 2025?
The honest answer is that it depends. Both GeneratePress & Astra theme has their strengths and can be the right fit for different use cases.
I use the GeneratePress theme on this site. Still, I believe strongly that Astra is by far the best WordPress theme for at least somewhat established bloggers, and the addition of their free theme makes them a pretty unbeatable force in the WordPress theme community.
For that reason, Astra is the #1 WordPress theme I recommend today, even for brand-new bloggers to start with from day one; thanks for a free WordPress theme.
I recommend you use the premium version of this theme to get complete theme control, premium add-ons, & pre-made site layouts.
GeneratePress offers 30 days, and Astra theme provides 14 days refund policy. After using the GeneratePress or Astra theme premium version, you get your money back if you are unsatisfied with the performance. So, NO risk is involved.
Try GeneratePress Premium | Try Astra Pro
If you use the GeneratePress or Astra theme, share your thoughts in the comment sections for other users. Are there any other questions related to Astra vs. GeneratePress that would help you make your decision? Let me know in the comments!
We hope this article helped you find a suitable WordPress theme for your website needs. For more information, please look at our complete GeneratePress theme review or our Astra theme review.
Read more about:
- Best Astra theme alternatives.
- WP Rocket cache plugin review.
- Best WP Rocket settings for Core Web Vitals.
- Best WordPress theme for AdSense.
I hope you liked my GeneratePress vs. Astra Theme comparison. Thank You. Have a nice day.
Good comparison, keep it up. I decided to go with GeneratePress theme after reading your comparison. Thanks.
Welcome, Seth.
Depending of what needed, i was working with this 2 themes, by far for now i much use Astra because of simple reason, Astra have native breadcrumb and GeneratePress don’t, need another plugins to add breadcrumb in GP.
You can use GeneratePress hook function, to add breacrumbs anywhere you want. If you use Yoast/RankMath SEO plugin, you can use their breacrumbs shortcode.