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GeneratePress Theme vs Astra Theme WordPress Theme Comparison: The Grand Slam Battle in Web Design Arena! (February 2026)

Alan Brock

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Are you trying to decide between GeneratePress and Astra as a theme for your WordPress website?

Judging by the numbers, these are two of the most popular WordPress themes. They also have the same basic approach, which makes it difficult to choose between them.

Both offer lightweight multipurpose foundations with extensive WordPress Customizer controls to help you customize. You can use both for everything from a blog to a business website, an e-commerce store, a membership site, and more.

By and large, you won’t go wrong with either option, but each theme has some unique strengths that may push you in one direction or the other. To help you find those differences, we’ll compare GeneratePress vs Astra in a number of key areas, including:

GeneratePress Theme vs Astra Theme: Let’s get started!

Note – we would like to disclose that GeneratePress is a Kinsta hosting customer. However, we did not give GeneratePress any special treatment in this comparison – we looked at things completely unbiased.

GeneratePress Theme vs Astra Theme— Quick Introductions

Before we get to the comparison, let’s briefly introduce these two topics.

GeneratePress

GeneratePress is a lightweight, versatile theme by Tom Usborne. Out of the box, it is less than 10 KB and has a good reputation for clean code.

As of December (2026), GeneratePress is active on over 300,000 websites, according to WordPress.org. It has a perfect 5-star rating on over 1,150 reviews.

Astra

Astra is also a lightweight multipurpose theme that weighs less than 50 KB. It comes from Brainstorm Force, the same team behind a number of other popular plugins like Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg/Elementor/Beaver Builder.

Astra is the only non-standard WordPress theme to ever surpass the one million active installs mark on WordPress.org. It also has a perfect 5-star rating with over 4,800 reviews.

GeneratePress vs Astra — User Interface

Both GeneratePress and Astra use the WordPress Customizer to make most changes. This provides a convenient visual, code-free interface to make changes. Another advantage of using the Customizer is that you can preview your changes in real time, without having to save and update. Because GeneratePress and Astra are so customizable, it’s sometimes difficult (or impossible) to identify them when looking at the front-end design of a website. If you ever come across a website and want to find out if it uses GeneratePress or Astra under the hood, take a look at our handy WordPress theme detector tool.

In this section, we will compare the onboarding and user interface of the two themes. We’ll focus specifically on the free themes on WordPress.org in this section, but we’ll touch on many premium features as the comparison progresses.

GeneratePress

GeneratePress doesn’t offer home pages in its free version (but it does in the premium version). Also, it doesn’t offer backend dashboard settings in the free version. So when you install the free theme, your first step is to jump straight into the native WordPress Customizer:

Within the individual Customizer settings, GeneratePress keeps things a little more light than Astra. Because of this, Astra feels a bit more user-friendly within the individual customizer settings.

For example, when you choose one of the preset header layouts, you simply choose from a simple text dropdown:

This is a different approach than Astra, as you’ll see in a moment.

You also get some additional options when editing individual pieces of content, which we’ll discuss when we get to page builder compatibility.

Overall, GeneratePress remains detailed use of the WordPress Customizer with its lightweight, bloat-free approach.

Astra

Since Astra already offers start pages in the free version, the introduction process is a bit more structured. Nevertheless, even with Astra you will spend most of your time in the WordPress Customizer.

When you activate Astra for the first time, you’ll be prompted to install its Starter Templates plugin, which allows you to access the importable demo pages:

Clicking “Get Started” will install the plugin for the demo site, which we’ll cover next.

Beyond that, you’ll do everything else from the native WordPress Customizer, just like you do with GeneratePress:

The settings areas of the Astra Customizer feel a bit more user-friendly and intuitive. For example, when you select a pre-made header layout, you get a visual representation of the layout rather than just a text list:

Is that a big difference? Definitely not. But most people will probably prefer the way Astra has things set up in terms of beginner-friendliness.

You also get page-level controls, which we’ll cover in the Page Builder compatibility section.

GeneratePress vs Astra — Starter Sites

As for the pre-built, importable demo pages, Astra has a much wider selection. Also, Astra still includes starter pages in its free version, while you only get starter pages if you pay for GeneratePress Premium.

For these reasons, Astra is a bit stronger when it comes to importable start pages.

GeneratePress

Again, GeneratePress only provides starter sites if you purchase GeneratePress Premium. You don’t get starter sites with the free version, which is important to consider if you don’t want to start from scratch.

With the premium version, GeneratePress offers starter sites created with three different content builders:

To import GeneratePress start pages, you need to activate the Site Library module in GeneratePress Premium. From there, you can browse the demo sites in your WordPress dashboard and import them with a few clicks.

When you import a starter site, you have the option to do a full or partial import. You can import:

Astra

Astra offers a large number of free start pages as well as many more start pages in the premium agency version.

Astra offers start pages with four different content editors:

Unlike GeneratePress, there is some overlap between the different content editors when it comes to home pages. For example, you can find the exact same home page created with both Block Editor and Elementor.

For this reason, you can’t simply add up the total number of templates. But in general, you can see that Astra definitely offers a much wider selection than GeneratePress. Even if you look only at the Elementor demo pages, there are still twice as many.

To install the Astra starter sites, you first need to install the associated starter sites plugin from WordPress.org (or the corresponding premium version to get access to the premium demo sites).

From there, you can browse the starter sites in your WordPress dashboard. When you import a starter page, you have the option to do a full or partial import. You can import:

GeneratePress vs Astra — Pricing

Both GeneratePress and Astra have free versions available on WordPress.org, as well as premium versions that unlock additional features.

In terms of the premium versions, both have basically identical prices. The only exception is that Astra requires a more expensive purchase to unlock the premium agency templates.

GeneratePress

GeneratePress offers two payment options:

Astra

There are three pricing options for the premium Astra theme:

Both plans allow use on unlimited sites. There is also a “lifetime” pricing option.

However, there are a few differences with GeneratePress. First and foremost, if you want access to the premium agency templates, you’ll need at least the mini agency package for $227(one year)/$299 (lifetime). This package also gives you access to some of the developer’s other plugins, such as Ultimate Addons for Elementor/Beaver Builder.

GeneratePress vs Astra — Modules

Both GeneratePress and Astra use a modular approach for their premium versions, allowing you to enable and disable the specific features you want to use.

In this section we will show you what modules each theme offers. In general, Astra has a longer module list, which makes sense because Astra generally offers a bit more features than GeneratePress.

GeneratePress

Astra

GeneratePress vs Astra — Free & Premium Features

As we mentioned earlier, both themes have popular free versions on WordPress.org and premium versions with more features. The premium version is technically an add-on plugin for the free core theme – so you’ll be using exactly the same theme whether you use the free version (just the theme) or the pro version (the theme plus the premium add-on plugin).

You will need the premium version to access all the modules we showed you in the previous section.

Overall, Astra is a bit more generous with its free features and is more flexible as a free theme. For this reason, Astra is probably the better choice if you want to settle for the free version.

GeneratePress vs Astra — Layout & Style Customization

We already touched on this when comparing the free and premium features, but now let’s take a closer look at the layout and style customization options of both themes.

Overall, both Astra and GeneratePress offer a wide range of customization options, which is why they are so popular.

However, it’s difficult to compare this section because there are so many options (especially if you have the premium version). To go into every single feature would require an entire ebook!

In general, Astra is a little ahead in terms of sheer number of features. But for most situations, both themes provide all the options you need. Most users will probably only notice a difference when it comes to some of the niche features.

For example, both are very flexible when it comes to “core” areas, such as:

In addition, Astra is not ahead in all areas, and GeneratePress is more flexible in some areas. For example, GeneratePress has more preset header layouts, although this will change when Astra introduces its new header/footer builder (currently in beta as we write this comparison).

GeneratePress vs Astra — Performance

Both GeneratePress and Astra are more performance optimized than your average WordPress theme and both can definitely give you a fast loading website.

Overall, though, GeneratePress is a bit ahead in terms of performance, although the difference isn’t huge. Still, if you’re a WordPress performance junkie, that’s an advantage for GeneratePress.

To test performance, we installed each theme on a fresh WordPress installation and ran tests using WebPageTest. We didn’t import a starter page because there are too many variables to compare. Of course, your real website will be heavier if you use an importable starter page.

GeneratePress

Astra

Comparison

To make it easier for you, here is the GeneratePress vs Astra comparison data on a fresh installation:

You can see that GeneratePress is a tiny bit lighter than Astra in its default state. However, both are significantly lighter than most other WordPress themes, so it’s hard to argue with seven or nine HTTP requests.

GeneratePress vs Astra — Page Builder Compatibility

Both GeneratePress and Astra combine well with popular page builder plugins. More specifically, both offer importable home pages based on page builders, as well as page-level controls to easily control the canvas for your page builder designs.

GeneratePress

If you’re working on a single piece of content, GeneratePress lets you customize the layout and also disable certain elements.

You can customize the following elements:

You can also disable the following elements by checking a box:

Astra

Astra also gives you detailed page-level controls, including some additional options for controlling header behavior. For example, you can enable a sticky or transparent header for each page.

You can set the following preferences:

You can also disable the following items by checking a box:

GeneratePress vs Astra — Developer-Friendliness

Both GeneratePress and Astra are very developer-friendly, and each has some useful tools to help you customize your theme.

Overall, GeneratePress might have a slight advantage because it offers a unified approach to customization, but both are pretty strong and give you plenty of options.

GeneratePress

One of GeneratePress’s most useful features for developers is the Elements module (which requires the premium version). GeneratePress Elements acts as an all-in-one place to work with hooks, add custom layout elements, and more.

Once you get the hang of it, having everything in one place is very useful. When you add a new element, you can choose from four different element types:

Let’s say you want to add a hook to one of GeneratePress’s many hook locations (visual instructions here). You would create a new hook element type. Then you can add the code you want to run and choose the hook location:

The kicker is that you can set up display rules to run this hook only on specific content (without having to use code). You can even set user roles or login status.

You can also target specific content in many different ways, including post types, categories, tags, custom taxonomies, authors, and more:

Overall, GeneratePress Elements is very well thought out and a great tool for developers.

Astra

Astra also includes numerous tools for developers.

If you want to work with Astra’s hooks (visual tutorial here), you can first install the official Astra Hooks plugin to add hooks directly from the WordPress Customizer. The advantage of this approach is that it’s free.

However, Astra’s free hook implementation doesn’t have the simple display rules feature that GeneratePress offers, so you’ll need to add those conditions directly into the code:

However, if you have Astra Pro, you get access to custom layouts and page headers (which are wrapped in elements if you use GeneratePress).

For these elements, Astra gives you detailed display rules, just like GeneratePress. You can add hooks using the custom layout feature, which essentially gives you access to the same display rules:

Astra also has a special white label feature that GeneratePress does not currently offer (although there are some workarounds).

GeneratePress vs Astra — Ecommerce Integration

Both GeneratePress and Astra offer WooCommerce compatibility and built-in features for your store. Astra also offers a dedicated Easy Digital Downloads module, while GeneratePress doesn’t offer any dedicated Easy Digital Downloads features.

In general, however, Astra has stronger WooCommerce integration with more WooCommerce-specific features. For this reason, Astra is probably a better option for WooCommerce stores, although GeneratePress would still be good in most situations.

For example, Astra has:

GeneratePress has some of these features, such as the distraction-free checkout. But in general, Astra is definitely ahead in its WooCommerce integration.

Other Notable Integrations

GeneratePress doesn’t really have many notable integrations beyond its WooCommerce integration, but Astra has a few extra tricks up its sleeve.

In addition to WooCommerce, Astra also has special modules for:

GeneratePress vs Astra — Support & Documentation

If you buy the premium versions, both GeneratePress and Astra offer premium support. Both themes also have detailed knowledge bases where you can help yourself.

In general, though, GeneratePress has a slight advantage in terms of support for a few reasons that we’ll go into below.

GeneratePress

First of all, GeneratePress provides detailed documentation for all of the theme’s features. This is always a great place to start if you run into any issues.

In addition, if you need personal support, you can use the public support forum. Anyone can visit the forum, but you must have an active license to post topics. Now, support forums can sometimes get a bad reputation, but GeneratePress does it really well and responds very quickly to new topics.

You’ll even still find Tom Usborne, the developer, still responding to requests sometimes (although GeneratePress has grown to a point where most requests are handled by dedicated customer support staff).

Since the support forum is public, you can also often find the answer to your question simply by doing a Google search to find an existing support topic.

For community support, you can also join the official GeneratePress Facebook community, which has over 6,700 members.

Astra

Like GeneratePress, Astra has a detailed knowledge base with hundreds of articles.

If you need help beyond that, you can submit a support ticket. Since Astra uses ticket support, there is no searchable index of questions like you would get with forum support.

For community support, Astra also has a very large official Facebook community with over 16,900 members.

Bottom Line

GeneratePress Vs Astra Who Is Winner?

FAQ’s

Alan Brock

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Alan Brock is an entrepreneurship-focused tech blogger with a track record of founding several startups and involvement in the tech startup scene for many years. Eric’s blog delves into startup funding, team building, and product development. He provides a critical perspective on the challenges and opportunities that come with starting a business, as well as the latest trends in the startup world. Alan’s experience as a startup founder has made him a go-to source for anyone looking to launch their own tech startup.

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