Introducing Our Biggest Update Yet! — Astra 3.0

Astra bigest update

2021 is here and it’s now time to take your website to the next level with Astra’s most significant update yet! ?

The new year also brings a new version of Astra. 

Introducing Astra 3.0 with all-new visual Header Footer Builder and massive performance improvements. 

This revolutionary update will truly impact your Astra experience!

What Is Astra 3.0?

Version 3.0 is another leap towards making Astra faster and better ?

Astra 3.0 has been designed to make your life easier and development faster while also providing a much more satisfying experience for your users!

Here are three ground breaking enhancements in Astra 3.0:

  • Improvements in the customizer loading time (over 70% faster!)
  • Improvements in page loading speed (over 25% faster!)
  • New visual Header Footer Builder – Build creative designs in minutes. 

Let’s take a closer look at these exciting updates. 

Faster Astra Customizer Loading Times

Previous Astra updates already brought a faster customizer. We have taken it even further with this new update.

With Astra 3.0, working with the customizer is made 70% faster! ? 

It loads in around 1 second, down from the already impressive 3.5 seconds from before.

A faster loading customizer means less waiting around for you and a more efficient design experience when using Astra.

How?

Well, with React JS! 

React JS is the future. It’s fast, it’s scalable, and it helps to build interactive platforms. 

It was introduced back in version 2.6, where Astra customizer had major code evaluation. We have taken it even further with Astra 3.0. 

Along with React JS, a lazy-loading feature is also incorporated in the customizer. 

With this, customizer loading time drops considerably to just 1 second. 

Here’s a screenshot of the back-end loading time compared to the previous versions of Astra (4011 milliseconds ≈ 4 seconds). 

Old Astra backend load time

This has been reduced by more than 70% further with Astra 3.0 (1014 milliseconds ≈ 1 second).

Astra 3.0 backend load time

Faster Page Loading Speed

We all know from our own experiences on the web that slow loading pages don’t go down well.

Faster loading websites are crucial for a positive user experience and for business growth. That’s why we implemented further page speed improvements in Astra 3.0!

Pages now load in an average of 0.7 seconds with default data. That’s down from an already impressive 0.9 seconds!

This will deliver an enhanced user experience and hopefully, many more conversions for you 🙂 

Astra has already made over a million websites faster and the number is growing every day.

Though it has shown a blazing fast performance we decided to take it even further. 

With lots of brainstorming and testing, we optimized HTML and CSS and significantly reduced the amount of code.

With this new and improved HTML and CSS – page load times are now faster than ever. Average page load times have reduced from 0.9 seconds to 0.7 seconds!

Here are the page speed results from the previous Astra version.

Astra older version speed test

And, here is the new and improved result using Astra 3.0.

Improved Astra performance

New Visual Header Footer Builder

With Astra 3.0, you can take your header and footer building experience to new levels. Now, you can benefit from a flexible Header Footer Builder right inside the customizer. 

It’s a drag-and-drop visual Header Footer Builder that provides all the benefits of page builders but specifically for your headers and footers.

You can now,

  • Build different headers and footers for different devices
  • Expand headers to include more elements
  • Use the WooCommerce cart in your header
  • And do much more…

Here are some new and additional excellent features that Header Footer offers: 

Drag-and-Drop Builder

We are making your web-designing process easier with the drag-and-drop builder. You don’t need to change any tabs in the customizer to change the position of your header or footer elements. Simply move it across using the visual builder. 

Display Mobile Header Differently

A horizontal header on mobile devices and small screens won’t display all your header elements.

You may like to display different headers on different screens. The mobile view editor will let users add additional elements for mobile viewing.

You can add a different menu for mobile and choose a toggle option among flyout, dropdown, or a full-screen option.

You can also further modify the height, colours, backgrounds and other design options – uniquely for mobile devices.

It gives you the freedom to design mobile-friendly headers based purely on the needs of your users.

Add Header/Footer Elements Easily

The Header Footer Builder offers a range of elements like buttons, social icons, menus, widgets, and so much more. Simply click on the required section and a list of the available elements will pop up.

Display the Cart Icon in the Header

The most common element you’ll see as a part of the headers for online stores is the cart icon. It gives users a shortcut to access the cart directly from the header.

We have introduced the WooCommerce cart element and the Easy Digital Download (EDD) cart elements that you can use within your online store’s headers.

Astra header cart icon

Expand the Number of Elements Easily

With the Header Footer Builder, you could add several elements straight from the provided options. You could add multiple buttons, HTML elements, widgets, menus, and more for your headers and footers.

The entire header and footer building process is made so much easier with the multiple elements option. It will help you replicate and add another element just like the one you have previously styled.

Astra 3.0 duplicate elements

Device-Based Visibility of Elements

There’s a huge difference in how your headers or footers may look on larger screens than on smaller devices. Therefore, the placement and number of elements need to be managed accordingly.

Astra 3.0 gives you complete control over what you wish to show or hide on mobile devices.

It is useful when you have many elements added to your header or footer, but you wish to manage how they show on mobile devices.

Device based visibility

Excited To Experience Astra 3.0?

We are as excited as you are to see what you think of Astra 3.0 ✨

Update the Astra theme and Astra Pro to the latest version 3.0, and enjoy the amazing Header Footer builder with the fastest customizer. 

Since Astra 3.0 is a major update, we recommend you backup your website before updating. 

Need help to get started with Header Footer Builder? Here’s a complete walkthrough. 

We have a detailed knowledge base that will help you use the Header Footer Builder to its fullest capabilities.

Get in touch with our awesome support team if you need any specific guidance. 

How We Got To Astra 3.0

Here is how we got to this awesome Astra version. 

We launched Astra 2.0 back in 2020 with the aim of reducing your website development time by half. Astra 2.0 was praised and received lots of love from the WordPress community. 

Never ones to rest on our laurels, we kept making Astra faster and better, through subsequent versions – Astra 2.1, Astra 2.2 till Astra 2.6 and now Astra 3.0. 

During that time, Astra became the first WordPress theme to hit and exceed the coveted 1 Million+ active installs. It also gained over 4700 five-star ratings!

All of us here at Brainstorm Force and Astra have been overwhelmed at how it has been received over this time.  

The tremendous positive responses only encourage us to do more and deliver more.

The beta version for Astra 3.0 that was launched only a few weeks back and went down very well with those that tried it. 

Thousands of users tried and tested this update and shared their valuable feedback with us. We implemented much of that feedback into the final release.

The Header Footer Builder created a strong buzz in the community and we’ve received a tremendous response for the beta release too.

Here is some of the fantastic feedback we received from the users who tried it:

Astra - Header Footer Builder testimonials

A big thank you to all beta testers and everyone who contributed. ❤️

Today we are excited to launch the next substantial update Astra 3.0! 

Other Updates We Are Working on in 2021

2021 is going to be a fantastic year for all of us. At Astra, we will make sure to deliver more and make the upcoming year an incredible one for you.  

Read about our growth lessons of 2020 and what’s ahead for Astra and Brainstorm Force.

Stay tuned for more similar updates throughout the year! 

We wish you all a happy and prosperous 2021! ?

Astra 3.0 will give you an amazing new experience of website building. Why not upgrade to Astra Pro and make your business roar! 

Disclosure: This blog may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, we may receive a small commission. Read disclosure. Rest assured that we only recommend products that we have personally used and believe will add value to our readers. Thanks for your support!

65 comments
  1. Tunde Sanusi Profile Pic

    This is quite a nice big update.
    Still trying to wrap my head around the new changes though 😉

    Cheers to the future

  2. Stuart Barker Profile Pic

    Love the old version and love the concept of the new version but encountered massive errors on upgrading. Support tickets raised. First issue is a conflict with caching plugins that prevents any settings being changed and throws out a web error. Once you disable caching you can access the old settings but if you activate the new settings options then all settings once again throw out critical errors and you cannot change them. To make it stable it requires no chacheing and not enabling the new features. It maybe that there is a conflict with other plug ins as well as a conflict with caching. I will await the next patch release 🙂 sorry to be negative chaps as it worked so well until today and this version. I love your vision and your journey.

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hey Stuart,

      Sorry for the inconvenience caused!

      We are right on to the tickets and we’ll get back to you if we haven’t as yet. In the meanwhile, I’d request you to update to version 3.0.1 and check how that goes.

      You can get back to us through the ticket or share your ticket ID for me to look into it. 🙂

  3. Valentine Profile Pic

    Astra has been very intentional with improving both the speed the entire site SEO, and being a part of this great theme is amazing.

  4. Jan Carlos Profile Pic

    Desde que lo actualicé hace unos días. Al entrar a Editar y guardar los cambios, en la previsualización no me aparecen los cambios, me sale por defecto a como estaba antes de editar. Ninguna edición me aparece, solo lo puedo ver al momento de editar, más no después de guardarlo. Utilizo ELEMENTOR junto con este tema, ¿Será posible que aun no sea compatible? Espero respondan 🙁

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello David,

      If you haven’t yet done so, can you please open up a ticket and elaborate, so that we can look into this and help?

      Also, let us know whether you switched directly from the beta version of the theme or plugin or was it just a normal update.

      Looking forward to hearing from you.

  5. Tammy Slauenwhite Profile Pic
    Tammy Slauenwhite

    This is fantastic news. I can’t wait to try it all out. Thank you for your continued dedication to improving your product. I love Astra.

  6. Gursahib Singh Brar Profile Pic
    Gursahib Singh Brar

    Please add my account icon in the header. If customer is not signed in that icon should take him to login or signup form

  7. Gursahib Singh Brar Profile Pic
    Gursahib Singh Brar

    It is available with top store theme..but i like astra better..so i purchased astra. But only this feature is needed

  8. Georges Profile Pic

    You took an amazing theme and made it even better, congratulations. Can’t wait to use those features and share them within my WordPress membership.

  9. Dev Profile Pic

    Hi,
    Thanks for update especially as you mentioned it will increase speed. I generated child theme for my Astra Pro theme earlier from your site for 2.x version. I have upgraded my main theme to 3.0 and addon toolbar plugin also now, will my child theme automatically update or I need to perform any other step also in WordPress? New to WordPress, sorry for these questions.

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello Dev,

      Just to let you know, Child themes are often used when you want to customize or tweak an existing WordPress theme. A child theme in WordPress inherits all the functionality, features, and code of the parent theme without making any changes to the parent theme itself.

      You need not have to update the child theme separately. Just update Astra and Astra Pro (in case you have the addon as well) and you are done.

  10. John Profile Pic

    Small bug in mobile view, category archives – in customizer displays correctly – in developer tools mobile view displays correctly – On actual mobile device product images are shrunken to under half the size they should be. Rolled back to version 2.0 and all fine again. (using free version with Elementor Pro).

  11. Sara Maeen Profile Pic

    I am so excited to use the new feature, but what i have been looking for = is it possible to hide primary menu in mob & tab view and make the above header section sticky ( i want to add hamburger menu, social accounts, email and WhatsApp no) to show while scroll up and down.

    And in desktop view i want to have primary menu and above header section ( above header section will be sticky), but since primary menu will be already showing in desktop view so we will hide hamburger menu in above header sticky header, the social icons, email and WhatsApp no will still be visible.

    Is it possible?

  12. Quique Profile Pic

    I can’t find lazy loading in the customizer. Is it an automatic option?
    Incredible header customizer. Congratulations

  13. Hiatt Profile Pic

    On these videos and screenshots are you using Elementor?
    I use BB and my setting shows different, I can’t find any of these new updates there ?

  14. Dave Profile Pic

    Updated to 3.0 and my site does not display properly. I ultimately had to disable the Astra Pro plugin to get it to somewhat display. Not sure what to do at this point.

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello Dave,

      As this is a major update, do ensure you update the Astra theme first and then the Astra Pro addon. Also, it is recommended to clear all the caches on your website after the update. And also clear the Astra theme cache if in case it is not cleared automatically.

      We hope that helps. 🙂 Feel free to reach out to us if you have any further queries.

  15. Simon Womersley Profile Pic

    Really nice update!
    I’ve used the new header and footer builder on 2 eCommerce websites so far. I found having all the header options in one place has sped up my workflow.
    The customizer is noticeably faster and as a result, is more enjoyable when making websites for my Focused All Day customers. I find it being faster means I’m more willing to experiment with design as I can see the changes faster.
    I guess this update means you are one step closer to ending your ‘Elementor – Header, Footer & plugin’? I still have the plugin on an eCommerce website as I find it allows for a little bit more design control. Having said that I’m sure there are more features still to come in 3.0.

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello Simon,

      Glad to hear your thoughts and experience with the new Header Footer builder!

      Regarding the concern that will this replace the Elementor – Header, Footer & Blocks Template Plugin. Not that it would be possible to replace as the plugin itself has some cool features and widgets.

      The Header Footer builder from the theme would provide better control while creating Headers and Footers from the Customizer while the mentioned plugin will provide better control from the Elementor’s page builder. I hope that helps. 🙂

  16. Osman KARS Profile Pic

    awesome awesome awesome. awesome over awesome. Just this free theme is much more better than what I used even paid ones before. So So So Thanks for your distribution. Thank you so much. Hope after corona situation finish I could bur pro version.

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello Osman,

      So glad to hear that you liked our update. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, we really appreciate it! 🙂

  17. Andre Profile Pic

    Hello, are their any breaking changes or backward compatibility issues going from v2.6 to 3.0.2?

    Any special tricks or advice for compatibility with Elementor?

    Current versions:
    Astra 2.6
    Elementor 3.0.12
    Elementor Pro 3.0.5

    Thanks,
    Andre

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello Andre,

      Please refer to the following article this might help.

      Also, feel free to reach out to us through the Support Portal if you have any further queries or need help. 🙂

  18. Adam Profile Pic

    How do I hide footer on specific pages?
    It is possible to do to Header in WP Editor but not fotter. I gave up heavy Elementor Header a Footer, but now I don`t have option where I want to display it.

  19. Tracey Profile Pic

    Hi
    If I upgrade from Astra 2.0 to 3.0 will I have to redesign my website or will it automatically adjust existing pages?

  20. kaveh Profile Pic

    Great update!
    but we need the new documentations too.
    for example: where is the new address for editing typography for the header?
    thanks

  21. Florian Berg Profile Pic

    Awesome story behind Astra 3. It was interesting to see how your client requirements made you develop Astra.
    Guys do you think it will be possible to have a feature in Astra where users can edit the template of the post in WYSIWYG way? [Link removed]
    See how the page has a table on the top of the article? (Article starts after the table.)

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello Florian,

      Glad you liked our Story. While regarding your request, I suppose you are looking for a Sticky Table of Contents, currently we do have Table of Contents block in our Spectra and other Ultimate Addons plugins, we will surely consider the same in future.

  22. naya83 Profile Pic

    🙁 break after upgrading, i cant access to custom options, doesn save my changes…. my site now is a mess

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello there,

      Is it possible to enable the debug log and share the errors you are seeing also open a ticket for the same so that our team can help you out?

  23. justus joseph Profile Pic

    Hi
    Is this “Display Mobile Header Differently” option available for the pro version only? When I tried it, the off-canvas option doesn’t show up.

  24. M K Profile Pic

    Hello Astra Team,
    I am facing one problem in Astra theme
    The video player (play-pause-volume-fullscreen button) has crashed and not showing properly.

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      Hello Mahesh, the feature of the Video player is not provided from the Astra theme. Do check the console errors that should help resolve the issue you are facing.

    1. Team Astra Profile Pic

      So glad to hear that you liked it, Steve!

      Do stay tuned for all the new features we are coming out with in the latest releases of the Astra theme.

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