Astra vs. Kadence: The Ultimate Head-to-Head Comparison

You’re in the market for a new WordPress theme. You’ve done your research, and you’re looking for the best of the best: something blazingly fast, incredibly flexible, and built for the modern web. Inevitably, your search has led you to a crossroads with two of the most popular and beloved themes in the world: Astra and Kadence.

On the surface, they seem remarkably similar. Both are renowned for their lightweight structure and top-tier performance.¹ Both have powerful free versions that work seamlessly with page builders and the native block editor. And both have legions of loyal fans.

This has sparked one of the biggest debates in the WordPress community: in the battle of Astra vs. Kadence, which theme is truly the best? Choosing between them can feel like a high-stakes decision that will define your website for years to come.

This is the definitive, no-fluff comparison. We’re moving beyond the marketing claims to conduct a deep, head-to-head analysis based on extensive, hands-on experience. We will dissect their performance, their features (especially the free ones), their starter templates, and their overall value to help you make a confident and informed choice.

Meet the Contenders: A Tale of Two Titans

This isn’t a battle of a good theme versus a bad one. It’s a clash between two excellent themes with slightly different philosophies.

Astra: The Reigning Champion

Astra is a juggernaut. As the most popular non-default WordPress theme of all time, it boasts millions of active installations and a proven track record of stability and reliability. Astra’s core philosophy is to be the ultimate lightweight, versatile “blank canvas.”² It’s designed to be the perfect, unobtrusive foundation that can be molded into any type of website, and it’s particularly famous for its flawless compatibility with page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder.³

Kadence: The Fan-Favorite Challenger

While newer to the scene, Kadence has seen a meteoric rise in popularity, building a fiercely loyal and passionate community. Kadence’s philosophy is to empower users by packing more “pro-level” features into its free version than its competitors. It’s known for giving users an astonishing level of design control right out of the box, most notably with its best-in-class header and footer builder.⁴

The Head-to-Head Battlegrounds

Let’s put these two themes to the test in the five areas that matter most.

1. Performance and Speed: A Photo Finish

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: both Astra and Kadence are among the fastest WordPress themes on the planet. They were both built from the ground up for performance, with clean code, a tiny footprint, and zero reliance on jQuery.

On a default WordPress installation, both themes are featherlight:

• Page Size: Both come in at well under 50KB.
• HTTP Requests: Both make fewer than 10 requests.
• Code: Both are built with clean, modern code.

You can achieve a perfect 100/100 score on Google PageSpeed Insights with either theme as your foundation.

Verdict: This is a definitive tie. Performance is not a deciding factor between Astra and Kadence. You are choosing between two of the fastest themes ever made.

2. The Customizer & Free Features: Where the Battle is Won

This is where the differences between the two themes become crystal clear, and where the most passionate debates happen.

The Header & Footer Builder

This is perhaps the single biggest point of distinction.

• Kadence: The free header and footer builder in Kadence is nothing short of revolutionary.⁵ It provides a simple drag-and-drop grid with three rows (top, main, bottom) for both desktop and mobile devices. The free version comes packed with a huge number of elements you can add, including a second navigation menu, social icons, a search bar, and a call-to-action button. The level of control is astonishing for a free theme.
• Astra: The free version of Astra also includes a good header and footer builder.⁶ It’s clean and functional, but noticeably more limited than Kadence.⁷ Many elements that are free in Kadence—like social icons or an extra button—require an upgrade to Astra Pro.

Verdict: Kadence is the decisive winner here. It offers a significantly more powerful and feature-rich header and footer builder in its free version.

Global Colors & Typography

Having a global palette to control your site’s colors and fonts is a massive time-saver.8

• Kadence: Kadence features a brilliant, professionally designed global color palette.⁹ You can set your brand’s primary, secondary, and accent colors in one place. If you ever decide to change your accent color, you change it once in the palette, and it instantly updates across every single button, link, and element on your entire website that uses that color. It’s an incredibly powerful and intuitive system.
• Astra: Astra also offers good global color and typography options that are easy to use and effective.¹⁰ However, Kadence’s system feels more cohesive and slightly more powerful, especially the way it’s presented visually in the customizer.

Verdict: Another clear edge for Kadence. Its global color palette feels like a premium feature offered for free.

3. Starter Templates: Building Your Site in Minutes

For many users, a theme is only as good as its pre-built starter sites. This is where Astra flexes its muscles.

• Astra: With over 240 fully designed starter sites in its library, Astra has one of the largest and most diverse collections available. They offer templates built for Elementor, Beaver Builder, and the native WordPress block editor.¹¹ Whatever your niche, there is a very high chance Astra has a beautiful, professional template ready for you to import with one click.
• Kadence: Kadence offers a smaller, more curated library of starter templates.¹² While the selection isn’t as vast as Astra’s, the designs are exceptionally high-quality, modern, and often built to integrate seamlessly with their own Kadence Blocks plugin. They also make it easy to import just the color scheme and typography from a template without importing the full content.

Verdict: Astra wins on sheer quantity and variety. If you want the maximum number of options to choose from, Astra is the undisputed champion. Kadence, however, offers superb quality over quantity.

4. The Plugin Ecosystem: Blocks & Add-ons

Both themes are enhanced by a powerful ecosystem of pro add-ons and companion plugins.

• Astra: The Astra Pro add-on unlocks the full potential of the theme, adding many of the features Kadence offers for free (like more header/footer elements) plus powerful tools like mega menus, page headers, and advanced WooCommerce features.¹³ They also offer the excellent Spectra blocks plugin.
• Kadence: Kadence Pro is also a must-have for serious users, unlocking premium features like hooked elements (a developer-favorite for adding content anywhere on the site), ultimate menus, and more.¹⁴ Their companion plugin, Kadence Blocks, is widely considered one of the absolute best Gutenberg block enhancement plugins on the market.

Verdict: This is a tie. Both themes have fantastic, well-supported ecosystems with powerful pro add-ons and top-tier block plugins that are essential for building a modern website.

5. Pricing and Value

Both themes operate on a freemium model.

• Free Version: As we’ve established, Kadence offers significantly more value in its free version, particularly regarding the header/footer builder and global styling options.¹⁵ You can build a more custom-looking site with Kadence without spending any money.
• Pro Version: Both themes have competitively priced pro versions. The initial price for a single-site license is often very similar. The decision to upgrade depends on which theme’s specific pro features you need more.

The Value Proposition: With Kadence, the free version feels like a complete, professional theme. With Astra, the free version feels like a fantastic, lightweight foundation, but with a stronger encouragement to upgrade to Pro to unlock its true design potential.

The Final Verdict: Astra vs. Kadence – Who Should You Choose?

This has been a battle of titans, but a clear picture has emerged. Let’s summarize the results.

Feature	Astra	Kadence
Performance & Speed	Tie (Excellent)	Tie (Excellent)
Free Header/Footer Builder	Good	Winner
Free Global Styling	Good	Winner
Starter Templates	Winner	Excellent
Pro Version & Ecosystem	Tie (Excellent)	Tie (Excellent)
Free Version Value	Good	Winner

Choose Astra If:

• You want the largest possible selection of pre-built starter sites.
• You are a heavy page builder user (especially Elementor) and want a theme with the longest, most proven track record of flawless compatibility.
• You value stability and being part of the largest user community in the WordPress theme world.

Choose Kadence If:

• You want the most powerful and feature-rich free theme available, especially for designing custom headers, footers, and layouts.
• You love working within the native WordPress block editor and want a theme that integrates perfectly with a top-tier blocks plugin (Kadence Blocks).¹⁶
• You are a designer or business owner who appreciates powerful global styling options that save time and enforce brand consistency.

The Authoritative WPWala Verdict:

For years, Astra was the default recommendation for a fast and flexible theme, and it remains a superb, rock-solid, and excellent choice. However, for a new user starting a website today, Kadence now has a clear edge.

The sheer power and value packed into its free version provide a level of design control that was previously unheard of without paying for a premium theme. While you truly cannot go wrong with either of these incredible themes, Kadence gives you more power for free, making it our top recommendation.