Astra 2.0 Theme – Free Version! Tutorial & Review

Astra 2.0 Theme – Free Version! Tutorial – Review 2020

In this post we are happy to bring you a full Astra 2.0 theme (Free Version) tutorial and review!

We’ve been big fans of the Astra theme since it was first released. From its fast loading times, to its wide range of pre-designed starter sites – its perfect for so many projects. It also works really well with our favourite page builder; Elementor.

Astra 2.0 makes your website building process faster. The theme customizer has been streamlined so things are more simple to find. For example – typography and colours are now in the same menu area. This makes getting your type and colour scheme designed easier. You can go without having to jump between menus.

We notice a few things that used to take 3-4 clicks, now only takes 1 or 2. This might not seem like a big deal. But, when you are learning WordPress, if things are easier to find it can really speed up your learning curve.

In our YouTube video above, we review the new version of Astra and review it. We cover all the steps you would need to build a small website with a blog and a contact page form. Check out the video below:

If you are really new to WordPress, let’s just get the basics out of the way.

1. How To Download Astra Theme

Once you have WordPress installed, go to your dashboard. Go to ‘appearance’ then ‘themes’ then add new. From here you can search for Astra. This is covered in our YouTube video above if you want to watch it done step by step.

2. How to Install the Astra theme

As above, once you have added the Astra theme to WordPress, its just a matter of clicking install. After it has been installed, click Activate. That’s all there is to it!

3. How to Update Astra Theme

Updating Astra is very simple. From your WordPress dashboard click ‘Updates’ – you can find this on the header menu. If you are running an older version of Astra you will be able to update it here.

If you’d like to handle the updates automatically – you can try a plugin like ‘easy updates manager’. This will update your themes and plugins automatically.

4. Astra Theme Live Preview

The Astra Theme Live Preview is awesome! This was one of our favourite updates in Astra 2.0. In previous versions of Astra, remember when you made changes in the theme customizer? They wouldn’t show up instantly. You would have to reload the page. Now, you can make customizer changes and see the results on the fly. This is awesome for designers and makes your Workflow that much smoother.

5. Using Astra with Elementor Page Builder

This is probably one of the main reasons we love Astra. Astra works perfectly with the Elementor page builder. Try the combination of the free version of Astra and the free version of Elementor. They compliment each other perfectly. The key features missing from the free version of Elementor are in the free version of Astra! Astra will give you the headers, footers, blog page and contact form. Elementor will do the rest of the work. Elementor is perfect for the actual page building, layout and images of your pages.

If you try these two together, you might find there is no need to use a pro version of either!