How to Customize Astra Theme by Adding Astra Slider [2023]

Astra theme customize is the first task that you want to do is to add a slider or sometimes it is also known as the Astra slider.

Website theme is the most important part of any website as it gives proper look and shape to your website. We all want to give a different look to our website. This is possible only when we choose a great-looking theme.

There are many WordPress themes are available including free and pro (paid) versions.

Astra Theme is currently one of the most popular and downloaded WordPress themes. Hence it is a wise choice if you decide to use the Astra theme to create your WordPress website.

It gives you the stunning look of your website.

But the Astra theme does not include the slider feature. Therefore to add a slider or Astra slider in the Astra theme you have to use slider plugins or the website page builder like elementor etc.

In this way, you can easily customize Astra Theme to add Astra Slider.

How do I customize my Astra theme?

Astra is a very popular WordPress theme. It also has a free version which you can easily download online. But you have to pay for the Astra theme premium edition because you get a lot of features in it.

Its free version offers many features but if you want more customization then download the Astra Pro addon plugin.

To use its premium features, you need an Astra theme with an Astra Pro addon installed on your site.

Steps to Create a Custom Layout Using the Astra Custom Layout Module:

Step 1:  Installed and activated the Astra Pro Addon plugin
Step 2:  Activate the Custom Layouts module from the Astra theme Options in the WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Astra Options
Step 3: Finally, Visit customizer [ Appearance > Astra Options > Custom Layouts ] to edit Custom Layouts settings

How do I add a slider to the Astra theme?

The slider feature is not included in the Astra theme. So, if you need a slider, what’s the way to add it?

You can easily add a slider to the Astra theme by using one of the following two methods:

  1. By Using Slider Plugins.
  2. By Using Page Builder Plugins Like Elementor And Beaver.

Let us now understand each of these methods in detail.

Method 1: How To Add A Slider To The Astra Theme Using The Slider Plugin?

There are two main ways to add a slider to a website, the easiest of which is the WordPress plugin method.

Since the feature of adding a slider is not available in the Astra theme, so we can easily add a slider or Astra slider to the Astra theme by using the WordPress slider plugin.

For this, we have selected the best slider plugin, their names are as follows:

5 Best WordPress Responsive Slider Plugins

Slider NameDeveloperPlanActive (WP) Installations
Smart Slider 3NextendFree, Standard, Premium800,000+
MetaSliderMetaSliderFree, 2 Sites, 5 Sites,
20 Sites, Unlimited
800,000+
SoliloquySoliloquy TeamFree (Lite), Personal, Multi, Developer, Lifetime 70,000+
Slide AnythingSimon EdgeFree/Paid100,000+
Master SliderAvertaFree, jQuery Edition, WordPress Pro Edition100,000+

1. Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 is a responsive plugin for creating sliders for your website themes. It is a robust and automatic WordPress plugin to create sliders which was a difficult task earlier.

Since it is fully responsive, SEO optimized, and works with any WordPress theme, you can create and add beautiful sliders in the Astra theme without any code.

Feature

  • Get lifetime support and regular update
  • Smart Slider 3 can create anything from simple sliders to complex blocks, carousels, and even creative page designs
  • Smart Slider comes with 24 extended collections of 3 layers and each layer allows advanced customization
  • There are 180+ editable slider templates available in which you can easily add your own images, videos, etc
  • It is an SEO-friendly slider as it includes lazy load and image optimization features

Pricing

There are free and paid versions of this Smart Slider 3 which cost from $35 to $250.

2. MetaSlider

Metaslider is a powerful WordPress slider plugin, easy to use, and has amazing features to make your website look beautiful. Using Metaslider you can create an SEO-optimized slider, slideshow, carousel on your website.

You simply select images, videos, and more from your WordPress media library, drag and drop them to the desired location, and then the slider is ready to use. This plugin is also compatible with WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg).

Feature

  • It is designed to work smoothly with the new Gutenberg WordPress block editor
  • MetaSlider makes sure all slides are SEO optimized for search
  • All slideshows are fully responsive and easily fit the screen sizes of mobiles and desktops.
  • MetaSlider can show multiple images at a time using carousel slideshows
  • MetaSlider includes intelligent image cropping functionality that ensures all slides are perfectly sized
  • If you use MetaSlider with other WordPress plugins it integrates easily with other plugins

Pricing

MetaSlider has a free and four-paid version that ranges in price from $39 to $149.

3. Soliloquy

Soliloquy is also a WordPress slider plugin. It offers several impressive features that make Soliloquy a likable and user-friendly WordPress slider plugin.

It allows you to create and add a fully responsive slider for your website in a very short time. Slideshows always display wonderfully on all devices like desktop mobiles and tablets due to plugin compatibility.

In the free version, you get the lite version of the Soliloquy plugin, and you have to pay for it if you want the pro version.

Features

  • You can easily create great-looking video and image sliders with the drag and drop feature
  • It is a responsive and mobile-friendly slider plugin that works smoothly on all devices like desktop, tablet, and mobile
  • You can add a thumbnail image as navigation for your slider and it’s an awesome feature

Pricing

Soliloquy Pro Slider Plugin costs from $17 to $209.

4. Slide Anything

Using the Slide Anything WordPress plugin you can create a slider and easily add it to your website theme in the form of images, text, HTML, and even shortcodes.

The Touch and Drag support feature in this slider plugin is specially designed to enhance the mobile browsing experience, mouse drag works well on the desktop as well.

Features

  • It is equipped with the new lazy load images feature, so slider images are loaded only when the desired slide needs to be displayed
  • Slide Anything introduced the infinite looping feature which means that the first slide is now perfectly displayed after the last slide without any carousel rewinding.
  • You also get the slide link feature in this plugin which allows you to create a hover-over link button for any slide within your carousel

Pricing

Slide Anything has a free edition and a paid option priced at $10.

5. Master Slider

Master Slider is an incredible, responsive, touch-friendly, and super smooth plugin. It offers a lot of features that allow you to create a good-looking slider in your website theme.

It’s that simple and doesn’t require any animation coding if you want to change the order of any master slide with its intuitive drag-and-drop style editor.

Features

  • This plugin includes 90+ ready to use sliders
  • Highly optimized for all screen sizes and touch devices
  • The interface is so simple, easy to use, and exceptionally intuitive
  • It gives you simple features, but they are exceptionally easy to use
  • Meta Slider is now available in three versions namely WordPress Free, WordPress Pro, and jQuery Plugin
  • With the plugin Visual Transition Editor, easily create a new transition and save others for future use

Pricing

 Master Slider Plugin has a free version while the Pro version costs from $17 to $35.

Method 2: How To Add A Slider To The Astra Theme Using The Page Builder Plugin?

This is another way to add a slider to the Astra theme using a page builder plugin like Elementor and Beaver plugins.

With the help of these page builder plugins, you can easily add a slider or Astra slider to the Astra theme of a wordpress website.

You can create a slider in the Astra theme using one of the following page builder plugins:

  • Add a slider using the Beaver page builder plugin
  • Add a slider using the Elementor page builder plugin
  1. Using the Beaver Plugin

Beaver Builder is the leading drag and drops WordPress page builder plugin. It is fully compatible with most themes, including free ones.

Beaver Builder provides different kinds of flexible tools to build websites easily. This can greatly improve your efficiency.

Features

  • It provides responsive design preview and settings.
  • Beaver builder’s drag and drop features are very useful.
  • This makes it extremely easy to insert custom JavaScript.
  • You can also create a custom module in Beaver Builder as per your requirement.
  • You can easily use shortcodes on pages or posts created using the WordPress editor.
  • It also includes strong support for shortcodes, which allow you to function in places you wouldn’t normally be able to.

Pricing

Beaver Page Builder has a free (lite) version and three premium options costing from $99 up to $399.

  1. Using the Elementor Plugin

Elementor is an Israel-based page builder (software) company. This website builder allows users to create and edit WordPress websites with easy drag and drop technology.

Elementor is the most notable, fastest, automated editor in WordPress due to its drag and drop customization.

Features

  • Most popular drag and drop website builder
  • You have 300+ designer-made templates to choose from
  • It includes features and advanced tools that enable you to build your website quickly and easily.
  • It also offers advanced options like WooCommerce Builder and Popup Builder for enhanced targeting.
  • 90+ Widgets are available to create any type of model as per your requirement like types of button, heading, subheading, form, etc.

Pricing

Elementor Page Builder has a free (lite) version and five premium options that range in price from $49 to $999.

Why are sliders useful in WordPress website themes?

Sliders can be a very effective way to make a site look beautiful. If your site looks attractive then it easily engages with the users.

The slider is also helpful for displaying a lot of information in a comparatively small space on the website.

How Using a Slider Can Benefit Your Website

The slider is used on the website in many ways, but most of the sliders are used as headers. But they can do much more than that. They can be mainly used as product carousels, testimonials showcases, review sliders, and more.

A good WordPress slider plugin should have the following features:

  • Fast
  • Stable
  • Responsive
  • Simple to operate
  • Regular Update

Which method is suitable for creating a slider in the Astra theme?

There are two methods to add sliders which we have already discussed in the article, first is by using a slider plugin and the second is by page builder plugin.

Astra Theme Price

There are many themes available in the market but, the Astra theme is the most popular and free WordPress theme with all the essential features needed to create an attractive website. Whereas, Astra Pro addon includes additional advanced features and functionalities to create a beautiful site. Astra theme price varies depending on plans.

There are forever free plans as well as Astra Pro paid plans. So you can choose it free or paid version as per the requirement of your site.

Astra ThemePrice
AstraFree
Astra Pro$59 $49 (Annual)
Essential Bundle$276 $169 (Annual)
Growth Bundle$523 $249 (Annual)
Astra Pro$523 $239 (Lifetime)
Essential Bundle$996 $499 (Lifetime)
Growth Bundle$1893 $699 (Lifetime)
Astra Theme Updated Price September 2022

Final Thoughts

Website theme is the most important part of any website as it provides the appropriate look and structure for your website. We all want to give a different look to our website. This is possible only when we choose a good-looking theme.

Currently, the Astra theme is the most popular, lightweight, responsive, fast, and downloads a maximum number of times on a daily basis.

If we need to customize the Astra theme like we want to add a slider or Astra slider to the website.

So we can do this work in two ways, the first way with the help of plugins and the second way with the page builder plugin.

Using any one of these methods, we can easily customize the Astra theme and also create/add a slider in the Astra theme.

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