Kadence vs Astra (2026): Hands-On Comparison of Free, Pro, Ecosystem and Updates

Disclosure: I earn a commission if you buy Kadence or Astra through the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. Both vendors are compared on the same terms, and nothing here was paid for or reviewed by either company.

Kadence and Astra are still the two themes most WordPress builders shortlist. Both are classic Customizer themes with a drag-and-drop header and footer builder, both have a large free version, and both sell a Pro add-on plus a bundle of companion plugins. But a lot changed in 2025 and 2026: Kadence moved under Liquid Web and Nexcess and changed every plan, Astra shipped an AI site builder and split its Spectra block plugin in two, and the two themes now update at very different speeds.

For this update I installed both themes side by side on fresh WordPress 7.1.4 sites (PHP 8.3, WooCommerce active on both), with Kadence 1.5.2 + Kadence Theme Kit Pro 1.2.7 and Astra 4.14.2 + Astra Pro 4.13.12, the current versions on 4 November 2026. Every screenshot below comes from those test sites, and every number has its source next to it.

Quick verdict

• Pick Kadence if you build with the block editor, care about accessibility out of the box (it is the only one of the two with the wordpress.org accessibility-ready tag), want more free header, WooCommerce and LMS options, and like a modular theme that only loads the CSS a page needs.
• Pick Astra if you build with Elementor or Beaver Builder, want the biggest starter-template library and an AI site builder, want the cheapest Pro entry ($69/year or a lifetime licence), or want a theme that ships updates every one to three weeks.
• Either is fine for a normal blog, affiliate site or small business site. The bigger difference now is the company and the ecosystem behind each theme, which I cover below.

Kadence vs Astra at a glance (November 2026)

	Kadence	Astra
Developer	Kadence WP, owned by Liquid Web / Nexcess (formerly StellarWP)	Brainstorm Force (independent)
Free theme version	1.5.2 (24 Jul 2026)	4.14.2 (29 Oct 2026)
Pro add-on version	Kadence Theme Kit Pro 1.2.7 (26 Oct 2026)	Astra Pro 4.13.12 (29 Oct 2026)
Free theme releases in last 12 months	9	28
Active installs (wordpress.org)	500,000+	1 million+ (the maximum wordpress.org shows)
Rating (wordpress.org)	4.87 / 5 from 456 ratings	4.91 / 5 from 6,554 ratings
Accessibility-ready tag	Yes (WCAG 2.2 AA claim)	No
Header and footer builder	Free, Pro adds 19 elements + conditional headers	Free, Pro adds sticky options and extra elements
Custom layouts / hooks	Pro: Hooked Elements	Pro: Site Builder
Starter templates	200+, block editor only	300+, block editor, Elementor and Beaver Builder
Cheapest paid option	$299/year (Pro plan)	$69/year or $249 lifetime (Astra Pro)
Refund window	30 days	14 days

Dashboard and Pro add-ons

Both themes put their settings in the WordPress Customizer and add their own dashboard page. On Kadence, the Pro add-ons are 11 simple on/off toggles on the theme dashboard: Header Addons, Conditional Headers, Ultimate Menu (mega menu), Header/Footer Scripts, Hooked Elements, WooCommerce Addons, Infinite Scroll, Color Palette Switch (dark mode), Local Gravatars, Archive Custom Settings and Maintenance Mode. Astra lists its Pro modules the same way: Colors & Background, Typography, Spacing, Blog Pro, Sticky Header, Site Layouts, Nav Menu, Site Builder, Page Headers, WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LearnDash, LifterLMS and White Label.

The difference is in what surrounds them. Astra's dashboard pushes its upgrade path more (a “Business Toolkit” upsell, starter templates, AI builder), and since Astra 4.13 it also has an MCP and Abilities API page so AI agents can manage theme settings. Kadence's dashboard is plainer; since the Liquid Web move, licences are managed in the Liquid Web Software Manager instead of a Kadence account.

Header builder

This is where most people spend their time, and both builders now work the same way: three rows (top, main, bottom), each with left, centre and right zones, separate desktop and mobile layouts, and drag-and-drop items.

• Kadence (free): logo, primary and secondary navigation, search, button, social, HTML, cart, transparent header, sticky header for desktop and mobile, and an off-canvas mobile menu. Kadence also offers an “Enable Block Header” switch to build the header with Kadence Blocks instead.
• Kadence Pro: adds 19 more items (account/login, AJAX search, contact, widget area, extra HTML, buttons, navigations and dividers) and Conditional Headers, so you can show a different header on specific pages, post types or for logged-in users.
• Astra (free): logo, menus, button, HTML, social, search, account, cart, off-canvas menu and transparent header, with header presets to start from.
• Astra Pro: adds sticky header options (shrink effect, hide when scrolling down, a different logo when sticky, slide or fade animation), more buttons, HTML, widget and divider elements, and full-screen or off-canvas menu styles.

Sticky headers are free in Kadence but a Pro feature in Astra, while Astra Pro has more sticky animation controls. Conditional headers are Kadence Pro only; in Astra you get the same result by building a header layout in the Site Builder with display rules.

Footer builder

Both footers use the same three-row builder as the header. Kadence gives you six widget areas, footer navigation, social and copyright in the free theme, and its Pro add-on adds a Dark Mode Toggle you can place in the footer or header. Astra's free footer builder has widget areas, menu, social and copyright, and Astra Pro adds more widget areas, buttons and HTML blocks.

Global colours, typography and dark mode

Both themes are built around a global palette, so changing one colour updates buttons, links and headings across the site.

• Kadence saves three complete palettes you can switch between, split into accents, contrast, base and notice colours. Version 1.4.0 added an extended palette, fluid font sizes (clamp) and a Customizer Style Guide. Dark mode is a Pro feature (Color Palette Switch) that lets visitors flip to a second palette.
• Astra ships palette presets including a ready-made Dark palette (free since 4.9), named theme colours for accent, links, headings and body text, and, since 4.14.0, named custom global colours. Astra Pro adds a Color Switcher widget so visitors can toggle dark mode.

Both host Google Fonts locally for free (better for GDPR and speed), and both can preload local fonts.

Custom layouts and hooks: Kadence Elements vs Astra Site Builder

This is the most important Pro feature for agencies and anyone building more than a simple blog: it lets you insert content anywhere in the theme or replace whole templates, with rules for where it shows.

• Kadence Pro Hooked Elements: you build an element in the block editor and choose its type: a content section placed at a theme hook, a fixed section (sticky bar or banner), a full template (single post, archive, and so on) or raw HTML/scripts. Each element has placement, display conditions (pages, post types, taxonomies) and user-role rules.
• Astra Pro Site Builder: one visual screen for headers, footers, hooks, content inside posts and pages, single templates, archive templates and the 404 page. It works with the block editor or with Elementor and Beaver Builder content, which matters if your site is built in a page builder.

Both cover the same ground. Astra's Site Builder is easier to browse because every layout type has its own card; Kadence's Elements fit more naturally if you already build everything with Kadence Blocks.

WooCommerce features

Kadence gives you more for free, Astra Pro gives you more checkout options out of the box.

• Kadence (free): product and archive layouts, product element ordering, a custom quantity selector, variation and tab styles, related products, a slide-out cart, an off-canvas shop sidebar, add-to-cart behaviour options and a My Account layout. Kadence Pro's WooCommerce Addons add more Customizer options. The paid Kadence plans also include Kadence Shop Kit, which absorbed the former IconicWP plugins: swatches, product galleries and image swap, upsells and cross-sells, order bumps, volume pricing, bundles and checkout tools.
• Astra (free): catalog, single product, cart, checkout and account panels, with container and sidebar layouts and a dropdown cart.
• Astra Pro: modern, two-step and distraction-free checkout layouts, quick view, infinite product loading, off-canvas filters, vertical or horizontal product galleries, image zoom and more upsell placements.

LMS, page builders and other integrations

Integration	Kadence	Astra
LearnDash	Free: dedicated course, lesson, topic, quiz and focus-mode layouts	Compatible free; Pro adds distraction-free learning and header options
LifterLMS / Tutor LMS	Free layouts for both	Compatible; Pro adds LifterLMS options
Elementor	Compatible (theme ships Elementor styles), no Elementor starter templates	Compatible, with Elementor starter templates and Ultimate Addons for Elementor in the bundles
Beaver Builder / Divi Builder	Works, not a focus	Officially supported, Beaver Builder templates
Full Site Editing	Classic theme with theme.json; FSE users are pointed to Kadence Blocks headers	Classic theme with theme.json; separate block theme (Spectra One) exists
Events, donations, memberships	Templates for The Events Calendar, GiveWP, bbPress, SureCart and Restrict Content Pro	General compatibility

Starter templates and AI site building

Astra wins on choice: more than 300 full-site templates for the block editor (now built with Spectra Blocks), Elementor and Beaver Builder, plus an AI Website Builder powered by ZipWP that generates a site from a short brief. Premium templates and the AI builder are part of the paid “+AI” plans.

Kadence offers 200+ templates, all built with the block editor and Kadence Blocks, with premium designs marked in the library. Kadence AI used to generate templates too, but in 2026 the AI messaging was scaled back (the theme removed its AI starter-template notice in 1.5.0), so I would not buy Kadence for AI features today.

Performance: what each theme loads

I measured the default home page of each theme, logged out, on identical fresh installs. These numbers are uncompressed bytes from the test server, so compare them with each other, not with real-world page sizes after gzip.

Test	Kadence	Astra
Theme only, no plugins: requests	7	4
Theme only: total page weight	196.7 KB	196.6 KB
Theme only: CSS files	4 files, 105.1 KB	1 file, 43.9 KB
Theme only: inline CSS in the HTML	31.1 KB	87.7 KB
Theme only: JavaScript	2 files, 44.1 KB	2 files, 48.5 KB
With Pro, block plugin and WooCommerce: requests	17	32
With Pro, block plugin and WooCommerce: total	531 KB	1,244 KB
With Pro, block plugin and WooCommerce: inline CSS	77.9 KB	535.5 KB

With only the theme installed, the two are a tie on page weight. Kadence splits its CSS into small files (global, header, content, footer) and loads only what the page uses; Astra loads one main stylesheet and prints more CSS inline in the HTML.

The full-stack result is the more useful one. With every Pro module on and their companion plugins active, the Astra site printed over 500 KB of CSS inline, which made its HTML five times heavier than Kadence's. If you use Astra Pro, switch on File Generation (Astra → Settings → General) so that CSS is served as cacheable files, and only enable the Pro modules you use. Kadence also lets you preload its CSS and load Google Fonts locally from Customizer → General → Performance.

Either theme can pass Core Web Vitals; your hosting, caching and plugins matter far more. My WordPress speed guide covers the rest.

Accessibility

This is Kadence's clearest lead. Kadence 1.3.2 (August 2025) earned the accessibility-ready tag on wordpress.org, which means the theme passed the directory's accessibility review, and the theme's accessibility statement claims WCAG 2.2 AA conformance after an external audit. Astra does not have the tag. It does ship a skip link, and its 2026 changelogs include fixes for target size, keyboard submenus and screen readers, but it makes no overall WCAG claim.

If your client or your country requires WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA (the European Accessibility Act, public-sector sites), Kadence gives you a better starting point. Neither theme makes a site accessible on its own: content, colours, forms and plugins still need checking.

Development, updates and the company behind each theme

A theme is a long-term dependency, so how it is maintained matters as much as its features.

	Kadence	Astra
Owner	Liquid Web / Nexcess. Kadence was acquired in 2021 and became the flagship of Liquid Web's software line in 2026	Brainstorm Force, independent since 2009
Free theme releases, last 12 months	9 (last one 24 July 2026)	28 (roughly every 1 to 3 weeks)
Pro releases, last 12 months	12	21
Recent highlights	1.3: accessibility work and accessibility-ready tag. 1.4: style guide, extended palette, fluid type. 1.5: Shop Kit compatibility	4.12: WordPress command palette. 4.13: MCP and Abilities API for AI agents, WordPress 7.0/7.1 support. 4.14: named custom colours
Minimum requirements	WordPress 6.3, PHP 7.4	WordPress 5.3 (declared), tested up to 7.1
Block theme plans	None announced; classic theme with theme.json	None for Astra; separate Spectra One block theme

Kadence: the theme is mature and stable, but development has clearly slowed. The free theme went three and a half months without a release at the time of writing, and the 2026 move from StellarWP to Liquid Web / Nexcess changed the plans, the documentation site (now docs.nexcess.com) and the licensing system. Much of the new effort goes into the plugins around the theme: Shop Kit, Kadence Security (formerly Solid Security), Kadence Backups and Kadence Memberships.

Astra: Brainstorm Force ships small updates very often, adds compatibility for new WordPress versions quickly, and has been early with AI features (ZipWP, MCP support). The other side of that pace is a busier dashboard with more upsells, and several 2026 releases were security fixes (credited to Patchstack and Wordfence), which they handled promptly.

Ecosystem: what you get beyond the theme

Neither company really sells “a theme” any more. You are buying into a suite.

Need	Kadence ecosystem (Liquid Web)	Astra ecosystem (Brainstorm Force)
Blocks / page building	Kadence Blocks (600k+ installs) + Kadence Blocks Pro	Spectra Blocks (new in July 2026) + Spectra Pro; older Spectra continues as “Spectra Legacy”
Starter sites	Kadence Starter Templates (blocks)	Starter Templates (1M+ installs) + ZipWP AI builder
Elementor add-ons	None	Ultimate Addons for Elementor
Forms	Kadence Blocks forms	SureForms
WooCommerce	Kadence Shop Kit (former IconicWP plugins)	CartFlows (sold separately)
Memberships	Kadence Memberships (formerly Restrict Content Pro)	SureMembers (sold separately)
Security / backups	Kadence Security and Kadence Backups (formerly Solid)	Not included
A/B tests, popups, analytics	Kadence Insights and Kadence Conversions (Elite plan)	Not included
SEO / automation	Not included	SureRank and OttoKit (separate products)
Courses, events, donations	LearnDash, The Events Calendar and GiveWP in Liquid Web's bundle plans	Not included

Kadence's paid plans now bundle a lot of business software (security, backups, memberships, store tools). Astra's bundles focus on design tools (Spectra Pro, Elementor add-ons, premium templates, AI). Decide which of those you would otherwise pay for separately.

Pricing in 2026

Plan	Price	Sites	What it adds
Kadence Pro	$299/year	Per-site pricing, check at checkout	Theme Kit Pro, Kadence Blocks Pro, premium templates, Shop Kit, memberships, security, backups
Kadence Elite	$499/year	Per-site pricing, check at checkout	Pro plus A/B testing, popups, white label, client portal, Kadence Central, email delivery
Liquid Web bundle	$350 (1 site) to $999/year (100 sites)	1 to 100	Kadence plus LearnDash, The Events Calendar and GiveWP
Astra Pro	$69/year or $249 lifetime	3	Astra Pro only
Astra Pro + AI	$99 first year, then $149/year; $279 lifetime	3	Astra Pro plus ZipWP AI builder and premium AI designs
Essential Toolkit + AI	$199 first year, then $299/year; $549 lifetime	10	Spectra Pro, premium starter templates, Ultimate Addons for Elementor Pro
Business Toolkit + AI	$279 first year, then $429/year; $799 lifetime	1,000	Everything plus SureForms agency, AI Site Planner and 24/7 VIP support

• Cheapest way in: Astra, by far. $69/year (or $249 once) gets every theme Pro feature. Kadence no longer sells the theme Pro add-on on its own; it comes inside the $299+ plans with the rest of the suite.
• Lifetime: Astra still sells lifetime plans. Kadence's official pages no longer list one for new customers.
• Refunds: Kadence 30 days, Astra 14 days. Astra counts staging and local sites toward your site limit.
• Black Friday: Astra is already advertising up to 40% off the Business Toolkit. No Kadence offer was announced at the time of writing.

Which one should you choose? Use cases

If you are…	Choose	Why
A blogger or affiliate site on the block editor	Kadence (free is enough)	Free sticky header, more free layout options, modular CSS, Kadence Blocks for comparison tables and buttons
An Elementor or Beaver Builder user	Astra	Elementor and Beaver Builder starter templates, Ultimate Addons, page-builder layouts in Site Builder
On a tight budget but need Pro features	Astra Pro	$69/year or $249 lifetime, versus $299/year for Kadence's cheapest plan
Building sites that must meet WCAG / the EAA	Kadence	Accessibility-ready tag and WCAG 2.2 AA claim
Running a WooCommerce store	Kadence for free features and Shop Kit; Astra Pro for ready-made checkout layouts	Depends whether you want a full store toolkit or just nicer checkout pages
Selling courses with LearnDash	Kadence	Free LearnDash layouts, and LearnDash is part of Liquid Web's bundle
An agency building many sites	Astra Business Toolkit (1,000 sites) or Kadence Elite (white label, Central)	Astra is cheaper per site; Kadence adds client tools, security and backups
Someone who wants an AI site builder	Astra	ZipWP is actively developed; Kadence AI is being de-emphasised

Pros and cons

Kadence

• ✅ More features in the free theme (sticky header, WooCommerce and LMS layouts)
• ✅ Accessibility-ready, with a WCAG 2.2 AA claim
• ✅ Modular CSS and a lighter full-stack page in my test
• ✅ Paid plans include security, backups, memberships and store tools
• ❌ Fewer theme updates in 2026, and plans and branding are still settling after the Liquid Web move
• ❌ No standalone Pro add-on any more; paid plans start at $299/year
• ❌ Starter templates are block editor only, AI features scaled back

Astra

• ✅ Cheapest Pro option and still offers lifetime plans
• ✅ Very frequent updates, fast support for new WordPress versions
• ✅ Largest starter-template library for Gutenberg, Elementor and Beaver Builder, plus an AI builder
• ✅ Visual Site Builder for headers, footers, hooks and templates
• ❌ Sticky header and most layout controls need Pro
• ❌ Heavy inline CSS with Pro modules unless you enable File Generation
• ❌ No accessibility-ready tag, shorter 14-day refund, more upsells in the dashboard

Final verdict

For most block-editor sites I still prefer Kadence. The free version does more, it is accessibility-ready, and its modular CSS stayed lighter in my test once Pro and companion plugins were added. It is what I use for client sites that need to meet WCAG.

But Astra is the better buy in 2026 if you use Elementor or Beaver Builder, want a lifetime licence or the lowest price for Pro, or value a theme that is updated every couple of weeks by an independent company. Kadence's slower release pace and the ongoing Liquid Web transition are worth watching; if that worries you, Astra is the safer long-term bet.

Still deciding between other themes? Read my Kadence vs Blocksy comparison, the Kadence theme tutorial and my list of Astra alternatives.

What each theme looks like out of the box

FAQ