The first beta of Starter Templates is here with version 2.0.0-beta.1

We are excited to present a revamped look of Astra Starter Sites – that will now be called ‘Starter Templates’.

This brings awesome features with more freedom, more flexibility, and overall more possibilities in website designing.

We invite you to take the first drive of the beta. We would love to hear your experience and feedback.

Here are all the new features in detail below.

1. Redesigned UI & UX

The look and feel of the starter templates panel have been enhanced. 

We went back to the drawing board and have built everything from the ground up — to make the UX faster, cleaner, and much better.

Now you can:

1.1 Switch between desired page builders easily

1.2 Sync library to fetch newly added templates

1.3 Mark templates as a favorite while browsing through the designs – so you can find them all in one place

Test Flow:

• From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Starter Templates.
• Try to switch between page builders.
• Sync library to fetch newly added templates.
• Mark templates as favorite and notice them appearing under the favorites list.

2. Powerful Template Search

Now you can effortlessly search and pick the template that suits your business best.

You can either search for templates with a particular business name (e.g. yoga, church, pet service, etc.); Or you can search for available templates based on website categories (e.g. eCommerce).

Test Flow:

• From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Starter Templates.
• A search bar will appear at the top.
• Try to search for the template. A dropdown beside the search bar gives more filters.

3. Import Single Pages 

Until today — it required minimum effort for you to import and get started with the entire starter site.

But now you can choose and import a single page from any of the starter templates.

This will allow you to mix & match the pages from different starter designs to create your unique website design.

Test Flow:

• From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Starter Templates. Select a preferred page builder.
• Choose your favorite template and click to open it. It will display all available single page templates.
• Select a single page template, preview it and click on the import button.
• After importing, visit a page and start editing it.

Here is a detailed article on importing single page template.

4. Automatically Inherit Theme Customizer Settings.

Once you import a single template or an entire site it will inherit theme customizer settings automatically. Your imported page(s) will have color, layout, typography and other settings from your current theme customizer.

Saving your time from having to modify colors, and typography to match your themes’ design.

For example, if you choose five different pages that all have a different color scheme. After importing all the pages, they will inherit the theme color set in the customizer automatically so that there is uniformity in your website’s design across all your pages.

Test Flow:

• Set colors, typography and other layout options in the customizer of your current theme.
• From Appearance > Starter Templates, select page builder.
• Choose single page templates from different categories. These will have distinct colors, typography, and styles.
• Import them and see them inheriting your current theme customizer settings.

Integrates with Elementor Theme Style

Starter Templates will work well with Elementor’s upcoming Theme Style functionality. Importing starter templates will automatically inherit these global styling by Elementor.

We’re the first-ever template library to be compatible with Elementor Theme Style.

5. Pages and Blocks Import Option for Elementor Editor

One of the most exciting features with this update is Elementor popup for pages and blocks.

When designing a page, you can choose the starter page template or blocks directly from the Elementor editor.

All starter templates are available with these popups along with stunning blocks. Various categories are available for blocks to help you design pages quickly, and easily.

A quick search and sync option for the library will be available in the popup.

While this feature is currently available for Elementor only. We plan to offer a similar feature for Beaver Builder, Gutenberg and other page builders in a future update.

Test Flow:

• Open the Elementor editor and click on the Astra icon.
• It will open a library of page templates and blocks.
• You can directly import template/block on the page or keep it as a saved page/section in the Elementor library.

6. Free and Unlimited Images Search Right Inside WordPress

In the past, whenever you were designing web pages you had to leave the current tab.

You had to open a new tab and search for perfect, professional, and free images online. 

Selecting an image, downloading it, and then using it for a web page is a time-consuming and sometimes repetitive job.

But now we’re bringing you the best free image source — Pixabay — right inside your WordPress media library. 

So when you need to add a beautiful image — Go to the media library, search for a picture under “Free Images from Pixabay” and add it from there. 

Isn’t that fabulous? 🙂

It’ll be available with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy, and Gutenberg.

Test Flow:

• Choose to add an image from your current page builder editor.
• A media library window will appear with the option “Free Images from Pixabay”.
• Browse for the required image and choose to save and insert the image.

How to Install the Beta Version of Starter Templates v2.0?

Here’s how you can install the Beta version, and get started with testing:

• Install the Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades plugin.
• Download the latest beta version of the Starter Templates from the link here.
• Install the zip files you just downloaded, just like any WordPress plugin.
• If you own Essential Toolkit or Growth package, activate the license for the plugin. You can find the license key in your store account. This will give you access to ‘Premium’ Starter Templates.

Your Suggestions and Feedback are Important!

We would love to hear your first interaction with this Beta update. 

So, go ahead and see how this update improves your web design workflow.

You can contact our customer support center directly to share your input.

Cheers!