Astra vs Blocksy WordPress Theme (An Honest Comparison)

What is the Astra WordPress theme?

Astra is a wildly popular WordPress theme known for its versatility, performance, AI capability, and extensive availability of support. It’s mostly trusted by freelancers, e-commerce owners, and agencies.

Brainstorm Force, the company behind Astra, began operations in 2009 as a website developer. Later, they developed the Astra theme when they couldn’t find reliable themes to work upon. Rest, as they say, is history. Today, they offer various products in the website development sphere.

Astra web design toolkit alone powers 4.8+ million businesses and 1,894,082+ websites, as of 15th May, 2026. The main reason behind Astra’s success is the suite of tools that enhance its use cases – be it a simple blog, a freelancer’s portfolio, a fully-fledged e-commerce store, a local business website, or an e-learning platform.

Astra Free vs Pro

Astra has an extensive product catalogue, and most of the products are available as both free and paid versions. Here, I’ll show you free and paid product versions strictly related to the Astra theme.

The free Astra theme comes with a limited set of Starter Templates, a basic Spectra page builder, and a few add-ons, such as widgets, templates, and blocks for Elementor and Weaver Builder.

The premium Astra theme has three options: Pro, Essential Toolkit, and Business Toolkit.

In the Pro version, you get a fully-functional Astra theme but no premium plugins like Starter Templates, Spectra Pro, Ultimate Addons, AI Builder, and Astra Template Exporter. However, you get the premium support here.

In the Essential Toolkit, you get the Astra Pro theme along with the premium plugins.

In the Business Toolkit, you get the Astra Pro, premium plugins, subscriptions to OttoKit Pro, ZipWP Pro, SureFeedback Starter, SkillJet Membership, and VIP support.

What is the Blocksy WordPress theme?

Blocksy is a no-nonsense, lightweight, feature-packed, e-commerce-ready, and blazing-fast WordPress theme loved by developers, agencies, marketers, and bloggers across the globe.

The Blocksy journey began in 2010 when Sergiu Radu and Andrei Glingeanu, the duo behind the Blocksy theme, met at a local IT event. Initially, they worked together building custom WordPress websites.

Eventually, after feeling unsatisfied with the themes available at that moment, they went ahead and built a performance-oriented theme called Blocksy and launched the first version on 20th February, 2019.

Fast forward to 14th May, 2026, Blocksy theme has been downloaded 300,000+ times and reviewed by 800+ loyal customers.

The extensive customization options, seamless compatibility with major page builders, pre-built starter templates, WooCommerce readiness, and amazing support – this is what makes Blocksy a favorite of many.

Blocksy Free vs Premium

Blocksy takes a lean approach to everything, whether it’s the product or the pricing.

The free products in the Blocksy catalogue comprise the Blocksy theme and the Blocksy Companion. The former, as the name suggests, is a free WordPress theme. The latter is a plugin that extends the theme’s functionality by enabling extensions, starter sites, and other features.

The paid products comprise the Blocksy Premium theme, pro starter sites, pro extensions, and white labeling. These products are bundled in three plans – Personal, Business, and Agency.

To install Astra, you need to follow a simple process.

Go to Dashboard> Appearance> Themes> Add Theme. Search for Astra, click on Install>Activate.

Next, install the Spectra Gutenberg Blocks plugin to enable blocks for the WordPress editor.

Go to Plugins> Add Plugin. Search for Spectra Gutenberg Blocks. Click on Install Now> Activate.

Next, install the Starter Templates plugin to access and install pre-built design templates.

Go to Plugins> Add Plugin. Search for Starter Templates. Click on Install Now> Activate.

That’s all you need to do to get going with Astra.

Blocksy theme installation follows the same approach.

You log in to your blog, go to Dashboard> Appearance> Themes> Add Theme.

Search for Blocksy, click on Install>Activate. That’s all. You’ve successfully installed and activated the Blocksy theme.

Next, install the Blocksy Companion plugin to enable extensions, blocks, and starter sites.

Go to Plugins> Add Plugin. Search for Blocksy Companion. Click on Install Now> Activate.

Astra offers pre-built sites, called Starter Templates. You have an option to choose from 200+ templates in various categories. Astra and Astra Pro come with a set of free templates, while the premium ones come with the Essential Toolkit and Business Toolkit.

You just need to install and activate the Starter Templates plugin, go to Appearance> Starter Templates, select Build with Templates, choose a preferred page builder (Block Editor or Elementor), select a suitable template from the available options, and continue with the steps to set up your website.

The AI Website Builder option, as seen in the screenshot, is only available with the Business Toolkit or as a standalone product.

Also, if you’ve chosen Block Editor, you must install the Spectra plugin to introduce Gutenberg blocks for the page builder. The free version works fine for beginners.

Blocksy works the same way as Astra.

It also comes with a set of 45 pre-built templates called Starter Sites. Some are available with the free Blocksy theme, while others are available with the paid plans. You can access these from Dashboard>Blocksy>Starter Sites.

The starter sites are compatible with major page builders like Gutenberg, Brizy, and Elementor. If you choose Gutenberg, you need to install a blocks plugin called Stackable, recommended by Blocksy theme developers.

Other than these, you may need to install plugins to ensure a template works properly. For example, the WooCommerce plugin for e-commerce stores, WPForms for building forms, and so on.

For beginners, the free version of Blocksy is enough to build a functional website. If you require additional features, you can upgrade at any time.

Astra makes it easier for beginners by providing a theme, Spectra, and Starter Templates free of cost.

Spectra, along with the WordPress Gutenberg editor, is a powerful tool for building website pages, block by block. It provides Gutenberg blocks, patterns, and other elements and effects to make your website look stunning and function flawlessly.

Spectra is compatible with all themes, be it Astra or GeneratePress or Blocksy.

Whether it’s a simple blog, a landing page, or a service catalogue, you can build all with Spectra for free. However, for a complete solution like an e-commerce store, you need to opt for Spectra Pro and a bunch of other Astra offerings.

Further, Spectra, along with ZipWP, activates Spectra AI on your website that can help you accomplish a lot using AI. For example, writing copy, creating designs, translations, and generating CSS codes. You need to purchase credits for Spectra AI, though.

In case you wish to use another page builder, like Elementor or Beaver Builder, for building a website, you can do so as Astra provides templates for these page builders. Here, you don’t need to use Spectra but only the page builder of your choice.

Blocksy, on the other hand, is highly compatible with prominent page builders like Gutenberg, Elementor, Brizy, and Beaver Builder. In fact, if you look at their starter sites, you’ll find templates for all these page builders except Beaver Builder.

If you wish to stick with Gutenberg, you must install a blocks plugin to build the website. Blocksy recommends installing Stackable. However, you can use any other plugin, such as Spectra and Gutenberg Essential Blocks.

Again, to avail maximum benefits, you need access to the premium theme, starter sites, and extensions. Without these, you’ll be limited to basic functionalities.

Once you have the template and the block plugin in place, you need to customize your website. This mostly comprises logo, headers, footers, widgets, menus, colors, typography, layouts, and other general settings.

Astra’s customization settings are quite diverse and intuitive. You can visualize different layout settings before implementing any, for example.

To visit Customize, go to Dashboard> Appearance> Customize. This applies to both themes.

While it’s fun to play with Astra’s settings, beginners may get overwhelmed while navigating the tabs because of the excessive detailing in every section. The same’s true with Blocksy as well.

And while it’s easy to customize global settings in Astra, editing sections like Header and Footer is confusing and not so user-friendly.

But some features deserve a mention. Accessing the style guide with just a click, for example.

The customization of Blocksy is similar to that of Astra. You can customize global elements like colors, typography, header, footer, homepage, sidebar, and general settings.

The options are lined up neatly. A beginner can understand them easily; they may find it confusing when customizing in detail, though.

One positive thing to note is that Blocksy lets you edit performance parameters in the Customize section. In addition, you get more customization options in Blocksy than in Astra.

Moreover, users can toggle between day and night themes as per their liking.

You can also install the Blocksy Child theme in case you want to customize the parent theme but don’t want to risk losing these changes during the parent theme update. The child theme option is available in Astra as well.

If you want to create and manage widgets, go to Dashboard> Appearance> Widgets. These are small blocks, usually placed in headers, sidebars, and footers to enhance site functionality. This process is predictable and the same in both themes.

If you want to create and manage menus, crucial for site navigation, go to Dashboard> Appearance> Menus. Again, both themes support these.

Other than these, customization in both themes depends on the purpose of the website and which plugins you use. For example, an e-commerce website will have different customization settings than a simple blog.

Further, if you want to unlock more advanced features, you need to go premium.

Astra delivers exceptional performance, even after being so feature-rich! The theme developers claim it’s less than 50 KB in size, loads in just 0.5 seconds, and runs optimized processes to deliver a stellar performance.

To check Astra’s performance, I installed the free Astra theme on a test site and analyzed it using PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix, and Pingdom.

As you can see, Astra’s already in the green zone, meaning it’s optimized for peak performance.

Coming to the Blocksy theme, the developers say that the theme uses the latest web stack and deploys clean code to deliver exceptional performance at all times.

As mentioned earlier, they also have a Performance option in the Customize section. Here, you can enable lazy load and other parameters to boost the website’s performance.

Now, let’s conduct the same performance tests for the Blocksy theme, as we did with the Astra.

As you can see, Blocksy performs well as per the performance tests. It lags a little in the Pagespeed Insights and GTMetrix, but overpowers Astra in the Pingdom test. More or less, both themes perform equally well.

Astra is undoubtedly one of the biggest WordPress themes in the world right now, powering 1.8+ million websites as of now. It’s loved by almost everybody working on WordPress, be it an agency, freelancer, marketer, e-commerce owner, or blogger.

Apart from a theme, Brainstorm Force, the company behind Astra, has a bunch of products that support website development and business facilitation. For example, OttoKit helps you set up automated workflows, Sigmize helps you with A/B testing, and so on. Hence, you get a complete package from the same company to set up your online business, end-to-end.

Their Starter Templates cover almost every industry, be it real estate, music, healthcare, hospitality, finance, education, or events.

In the e-commerce segment, it offers 70+ Starter Templates, 110+ features, and plenty of plugins to set up a fully operational store. No doubt Astra is touted as one of the best e-commerce themes.

With Astra Pro, you can white-label the theme and addon plugins with just a few clicks. That’s a major advantage for developers and agencies.

Blocksy is in line with Astra when it comes to use cases. It’s a versatile theme used on 300,000+ websites by bloggers, marketers, e-commerce owners, agencies, developers, and others.

Although Blocksy has a limited set of 45 templates, it ensures these pre-built sites fulfill every use case. For example, it has only 15 e-commerce templates available as of 15th May 2026, but these designs are unique, optimized, and flexible. Hence, you can use and adapt them as per your industry.

To further enhance functionality, Blocksy offers Shop Extra extension, Post Types Extra extensions, and other pro extensions to facilitate seamless web designing and add complex functionality to a website.

In all, we can say that Blocksy offers a complete package to its users. And if something’s missing, you can achieve it by installing a plugin.

But, unlike Astra, it does not have an in-house suite of plugins. For example, Astra has Spectra, and both are from the same company. But Blocksy recommends Stackable, a third-party plugin for Gutenberg blocks.

For agencies, Blocksy offers a white-labeling facility with advanced granular controls. Thus, making it easier for agencies to use Blocksy products for clients without compromising the identity.

The Astra ecosystem is built around its own suite of products and third-party app integrations.

Starter Templates provide an extensive range of ready-made templates for Gutenberg, Elementor, and Beaver Builder. Further, they provide add-ons for these:

• Spectra for Gutenberg
• Ultimate Addons for Elementor
• Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder

This ecosystem lets you build a fascinating website, complete in all aspects.

If this is not enough, you can use AI Website Builder to bring your website live within a few minutes. However, only the Essential Toolkit provides this feature. Or else you can purchase ZipWP Pro to use it.

To further enhance functionality, you can use WordPress plugins.

• WooCommerce for eCommerce
• LearnDash for LMS
• Easy Digital Downloads for digital products, and so on

Astra is compatible with all plugins, provided they adhere to the WordPress coding standards.

Besides, you can also automate workflows here using tools like Zapier and OttoKit, the tool created by Brainstorm Force, the company behind Astra. They have other tools as well – such as Sigmize, CartFlows, Presto Player, SureMembers, and others – to create a well-connected, functional ecosystem.

Blocksy, on the other hand, mostly relies on third-party apps and plugins. But that doesn’t mean it falls short on its products.

The Blocksy theme and the Blocksy Companion are a powerful combo. You can literally achieve anything related to web development with just these two products, provided you are on a paid plan, preferably Business or Agency.

Coming to third-party tools, you need to install a blocks plugin – like Stackable or Plus Addons – to unlock the complete potential of the Gutenberg editor. Similarly, you need Elementor, Brizy, or Beaver Builder if you are using starter sites built using any of these page builders. To build forms, Blocksy recommends WPForms.

To build an e-commerce store with Blocksy, you need WooCommerce and the Shop Extra extension to launch a fully-fledged e-commerce website, complete in all aspects.

Similarly, if you want to set up an e-learning portal, you can rely on LMS plugins like Tutor LMS and LearnDash.

To set up automated workflows, Zapier works well. For example, you can use WPForms to collect marketing leads on your WordPress website and forward them to the sales team on HubSpot CRM.

With Astra, you get the basic theme, starter templates, and spectra blocks for free. It helps you to launch a functional blog or a website without any premium. But still, you need to go premium to unblock all the features.

You can choose to opt for starter templates built using WordPress editor, Elementor, or Beaver Builder. That means Astra works with major page builders available for WordPress. The AI site builder further adds to convenience. But you still need to configure the website for optimal performance.

Moreover, the starter templates in diverse categories also provide a solid base to build upon. The detailed documentation and tutorial videos help users navigate obstacles systematically.

Blocksy follows the same approach. You get a free optimized theme, one-click import starter sites, and valuable extensions to launch a free website in just a few clicks. For additional features, you have the option to upgrade.

Blocksy starter sites are available for every industry, work wonderfully for e-commerce, and are made for every major page builder, be it Elementor, Brizy, Gutenberg, or Beaver Builder.

And since it’s compatible with all kinds of popular plugins, you can easily enhance website functionality at your convenience.

The live preview of the changes you make in the Customize section allows you to make edits in real time. This reduces redundancy and helps you save time.

The extensions available in Blocksy Companion simplify the task of adding features to your website. But initially, when you enable all these extensions, you may face problems locating them. For example, some extensions appear in the Customize section while others appear as blocks and patterns in the Gutenberg editor.

If you face difficulty while working with Blocksy, the structured documentation and tutorials come in handy all the time.

Astra provides free forum support to their free product users. However, it may take up to 3 days to get a response. Sometimes it can be frustrating for users to wait for so long.

Premium users get a response within 24 hours, whereas VIP support resolves issues within 2 hours. The screenshot below shows details regarding the scope of support.

They also have a vibrant Facebook group. However, it is strictly NOT for product support.

The extensive documentation alongside the WordPress Academy is immensely helpful for Astra users. The developers regularly update their suite of products and convey the information regarding the changes on their official website.

Blocksy’s support and documentation are nothing less than a benchmark in the WordPress themes industry. They take their customers’ problems seriously.

Their standard support is available Monday to Friday with an average response time of 24 hours. You can submit a ticket on their Support page. Mostly, queries are resolved within 2-3 hours. Also, you can avail free support on Blocksy’s WordPress forum.

Premium subscribers get 1 year or lifetime support based on their purchases.

For generic queries and learning, you can always refer to their extensive documentation and tutorial videos. In most cases, you’ll find answers here, eliminating the need to raise a support ticket.

To vibe with the fellow Blocksy users, join their thriving Facebook community. Remember, the group is for discussion around Blocksy and not for customer support.

To know about changes, fixes, and new features, you can always refer to the changelog on their website.

Astra offers a free theme for its users. In addition, they provide a set of free Starter Templates and a free Spectra blocks plugin to set up a basic website. Whether you’re a blogger or a service provider, the free Astra products are enough to begin with. With time, when you expand, you gotta invest in the premium offerings.

Now, if you’re planning to launch an e-com store, a landing page, or a website with dedicated features, you have to make a purchase. And though you can develop the website yourself, thanks to extensive documentation and videos available, it’s better to hire a developer to take things forward.

The premium purchase further opens up locked features otherwise not available with the free theme. The pro updates and optimized CSS file generation being the most important ones. The same’s true for Starter Templates and Spectra Pro.

The free support is limited to resolving generic queries and not in-depth resolutions. It may take up to 2-3 days to get a response from the support staff.

Blocksy’s free version is almost similar to that of Astra’s. You get a free theme and Blocksy Companion here. The only difference is that Astra has an in-house free page builder plugin, whereas Blocksy asks you to install a third-party plugin like Stackable.

Though Blocksy has a few starter sites and extensions in the free version, they are enough to power a basic website or a blog. Obviously, for additional features, you’ll have to go premium.

Websites like an e-commerce store or an e-learning platform can be built with the Blocksy free version, but it won’t be a complete setup, unless it’s a very basic website featuring a couple of products.

Therefore, you need pro tools like Shop Extra extension, Post Types Extra extension, content blocks, and more to make powerful websites with advanced functionalities.

Lastly, the free version offers basic support on their website and WordPress forum. Though it’s very responsive and knowledgeable.

Astra Pricing

Blocksy Pricing

Astra Pros

• Feature-packed yet lean, fast, and secure
• Offers a lot in the free versions of the theme, Spectra, and Starter Sites
• One of the best options for e-commerce
• Compatible with page builders like Elementor & Beaver Builder
• White labeling is easy and structured
• Third-party app integrations for seamless workflows
• Starter templates for almost every industry
• Multiple support options
• Extensive documentation and WordPress Academy for eLearning
• Flexible pricing with annual and lifetime plans; make up to 1000 websites

Astra Cons

• Beginners may find it overwhelming to get familiar with the interface and functionalities
• No premium Starter Templates and Spectra Pro with the Astra Pro plan
• Too many plugins may hamper the theme’s performance if not optimized properly
• Support may get late, especially for the free version
• Only a 14-day refund policy

Blocksy Pros

• Well-optimized, minimal, and performance-oriented
• Uses the latest tech stack
• Free theme and starter sites available
• Easy to customize in live preview mode
• Compatible with major page builders
• Perfect for small as well as large websites, including e-commerce
• Integrates seamlessly with credible third-party apps and plugins
• Support is quick, responsive, and knowledgeable
• Detailed documentation and video library
• Reasonable pricing, yearly and lifetime plans available
• Allows building unlimited websites
• Provides regular updates and fixes
• White labeling feature available

Blocksy Cons

• Limited template library
• No in-house Gutenberg page builder plugin
• Not all pro starter sites and pro extensions in the Personal plan
• Too many extensions increase functionality, but can be confusing for beginners
• Only a 14-day refund policy