Astra vs Hello Elementor: Which Theme for an Elementor Pro Website?

If you build a WordPress website with Elementor, the theme underneath still matters. The two most popular choices are Hello Elementor, made by the Elementor team, and Astra, made by Brainstorm Force. I build most business websites on one of these two, so this guide explains how they differ and when I use each.

What is Hello Elementor?

Hello Elementor is a minimal, lightweight theme designed to be a blank canvas for Elementor. It adds very little styling of its own, so almost everything you see, from the header and footer to page templates, is designed in Elementor and Elementor Pro’s theme builder. It is free.

What is Astra?

Astra is a lightweight multipurpose theme that works with Elementor, the block editor and other page builders. It includes its own Customizer settings for the header, footer, blog, typography and WooCommerce, plus starter templates. Astra has a free version and a paid Astra Pro add-on with more layout and WooCommerce options.

Astra vs Hello Elementor: key differences

• Design control: Hello leaves design to Elementor; Astra provides theme-level settings you can use with or without Elementor’s theme builder.
• Headers and footers: with Hello, full custom headers and footers are usually built in Elementor Pro; Astra can handle them in its own settings, which helps if you use the free version of Elementor.
• Blog and archive pages: Astra styles blog, archive and search pages well out of the box; with Hello you design those templates in Elementor Pro.
• WooCommerce: Astra includes useful store layout options, especially with Astra Pro; with Hello you build store templates in Elementor Pro.
• Weight: both are lightweight. Hello is the more minimal of the two; Astra adds a little more code in exchange for more built-in options.

Astra theme review: strengths and limits

Astra’s strengths are its flexibility, fast default output, deep Customizer options and good WooCommerce support. Its limits are that some advanced layout options need Astra Pro, and on fully custom Elementor Pro builds many of its settings go unused because the theme builder handles the layout instead.

Which theme should you choose?

• Choose Hello Elementor when the whole site, including headers, footers and templates, will be designed in Elementor Pro.
• Choose Astra when you want theme-level control of the header, footer, blog and store, when the site uses the free version of Elementor, or when part of the site is built in the block editor.

Both are a solid base for a fast, professional business website; the build quality matters more than the theme name. See the live client websites in my portfolio, which use both themes, read Elementor vs Gutenberg, or see Elementor website design.