Astra Dashboard: Complete Guide to Settings, Modules & Features

The Astra dashboard is your central hub for managing the Astra theme, from enabling Pro modules and configuring performance settings to rolling back versions and setting up White Label. This guide walks you through every tab and setting available in the dashboard.

To access the Astra Dashboard, go to WordPress Dashboard → Astra in your WordPress admin.

In This Article

• Welcome Tab
• Site Builder Tab
• Starter Templates Tab
• WooCommerce Tab
• Free Vs Toolkit Tab
• Learn Tab
• Settings Tab
  • General
  • Performance
  • Version Control
  • White Label
  • MCP

Dashboard Navigation

The top navigation bar shows the following tabs based on your setup:

Astra Dashboard Tabs	When it appears
Welcome	Always
Settings	Always
Site Builder	Always
Starter Templates	Always, unless White Label mode is active
WooCommerce	Only when WooCommerce is active
Free Vs Toolkit	Astra Free only, removed once Astra Pro is installed
Learn	Only when enabled in “Settings → General → Show Learn Tab”

Welcome Tab

The Welcome tab is the default landing page when you open the Astra dashboard. It gives you quick access to the most-used settings and shows the current state of your theme.

Hero Banner

Shows a personalised greeting with your username, the theme name, and a badge showing whether you are on the Free or Pro version. Click Start Customizing to open the WordPress Customizer directly. A video thumbnail is also available — click it to watch an Astra overview video.

Quick Settings

A grid of shortcut tiles that open specific sections of the WordPress Customizer with one click. Available shortcuts:

• Site Identity
• Header Builder
• Footer Builder
• Color
• Typography
• Button
• Blog Options
• Layout

Click Go to Customizer in the section header to open the Customizer without pre-focusing any section.

Astra Pro Modules (Astra Pro only)

When Astra Pro is installed, this section shows all available Pro extensions as individual cards, each with an enable/disable toggle. Use the Activate All or Deactivate All control in the section header to toggle all modules at once.

Do More with Business Toolkit (Astra Free only)

When Astra Pro is not installed, this section shows eight feature cards describing what you get with an upgrade:

• Design Without Limits
• Build Pages Visually
• Advanced Elementor Widgets
• Design Web Pages Faster
• Personalize Your Designs
• Collaborate with Clients
• Automate Your Workflows
• Get VIP Support

Click Get Full Control in the section header to go to the upgrade page.

Extend Your Website

A grid of recommended free BSF plugins with install and activate buttons. The plugins shown depend on your setup:

• Without WooCommerce: SureForms, Spectra, Ultimate Addons for Elementor, OttoKit, SureCart, Presto Player and others
• With WooCommerce active: Variation Swatches, Modern Cart, CartFlows, Cart Abandonment Recovery

Sidebar — Quick Access

Four quick links available at all times on the right sidebar:

• VIP Priority Support (Pro) — priority support channel
• Help Center — Astra documentation
• Join the Community — Astra Facebook group
• Rate Us — WordPress.org review page

Sidebar — License Key (Astra Pro only)

Shows your current license status inline on the Welcome screen. If the license is inactive or expired, this section is highlighted with a red border. See Settings → General → License Key below for full details.

Site Builder Tab

The Site Builder tab is always visible in the navigation and links to a separate page outside the dashboard.

• Without Astra Pro: Opens a free preview page showing a limited custom layouts interface with an upgrade prompt for access to the full Custom Layouts feature set.
• With Astra Pro installed: The free preview page is replaced. The tab links to all Layouts provided by Astra Pro, where you can create custom Headers, Footers, hooks, and page templates without writing any code.

Starter Templates Tab

The Starter Templates tab is always visible unless White Label mode is active.

• Plugin not installed: Shows a promotional page with a Start Building Now button that installs and activates the Starter Templates plugin directly from the Astra dashboard.
• Plugin installed: Clicking the tab immediately redirects to the Starter Templates admin page, where you can browse and import 300+ pre-built website templates for Elementor and Gutenberg

WooCommerce Tab

Only appears when WooCommerce is active. Shows plugins that can improve the WooCommerce shopping experience. An Activate all free conversion tools button at the top installs and activates all four plugins at once.

Variation Swatches

Replaces WooCommerce dropdown menus for product variations with visual swatches — colors, sizes, and styles are visible at a glance. Reduces wrong selections and helps customers decide faster.

Modern Cart

Replaces the default WooCommerce mini-cart with a slide-out cart drawer. Quantities update in real time, a shipping progress bar is visible, and the experience is optimised for mobile devices.

CartFlows — Funnels and Offers

Adds order bumps, upsells, and cross-sell offers to WooCommerce checkout. Replaces the default checkout with optimised funnel layouts designed to increase average order value.

Cart Abandonment Recovery

Captures the customer’s email as soon as they reach checkout. If they leave without completing the purchase, automated follow-up emails are sent with a one-click cart restore link.

Free Vs Toolkit Tab

Only available on Astra Free — this tab is removed once Astra Pro is installed.

A three-column comparison table — Free, Essential Toolkit, and Business Toolkit — showing exactly which features are included in each plan. An Upgrade Now button appears in the top right corner.

The table is organised into categories including: High-Level Feature Stack, Essentials, Design, Site Layouts, Dynamic Content Builder, Blog, Header/Footer Builder, WooCommerce, and Integrations.

Learn Tab

Only visible when Show Learn Tab is enabled in Settings → General.

Contains guided tutorials and video resources for getting started with Astra. You can show or hide this tab at any time from the Settings panel.

Settings Tab

The Settings page has a left sidebar with five sub-tabs. Which tabs appear depends on whether Astra Pro is installed and which license type you have.

General

License Key (Astra Pro only)

Enter your Astra Pro license key to activate the plugin. An active license is required for automatic updates and premium support. Once active, the field shows your license status and expiry date. If the license has expired, a Renew Now link appears.

File Generation (Astra Pro only)

Toggle — Off by default

By default, Astra loads CSS and JS inline on the page. Enabling this option generates separate CSS and JS files for individual addons instead. This can be useful for certain caching or CDN configurations.

Asset Regeneration (Astra Pro only)

Button: Regenerate Assets

Rebuilds all CSS and JavaScript files generated by Astra Pro. Use this if you see layout, color, or styling issues after an update or settings change. This is the recommended first troubleshooting step for any visual problem with Astra Pro features.

Show Learn Tab

Toggle — On by default

Shows or hides the Learn tab in the Astra dashboard navigation.

Show AI Assistant

Toggle — On by default

Shows or hides the AI Assistant icon in the Astra dashboard. Hidden automatically when White Label mode is active.

Contribute to Astra

Toggle

Allows Astra to collect anonymous, non-sensitive usage data (such as PHP version and which features are active) to help improve the product. No personal data is collected. Hidden when White Label mode is active.

Performance

Load Google Fonts Locally

Toggle — Off by default

Downloads your selected Google Fonts and serves them from your own server instead of Google’s CDN. Recommended for:

• GDPR compliance — avoids sending visitor IP addresses to Google’s servers
• Improved page load speed — reduces external DNS lookups and connection time

Preload Local Fonts

Toggle — Off by default

Only available when Load Google Fonts Locally is enabled.

Adds a preload hint for the locally hosted font files, instructing the browser to load them earlier during page render. This can reduce font render delay and improve Core Web Vitals scores.

Flush Local Font Files

Button: Flush Local Font Files

Clears the locally cached font files. Use this if fonts are not displaying correctly after:

• Changing your Google Fonts selection in the Customizer
• Migrating your site to a new domain or server
• A caching-related font display issue

Version Control (Astra Pro only)

Requires Astra Pro purchased directly from Brainstorm Force with an active license. Controls appear locked if the license is not active.

Rollback to Previous Version

Two independent dropdowns — one for the Astra theme and one for Astra Pro — let you roll back each to a previous release separately. Useful when:

• A recent update introduced a visual or functional issue
• You need to test whether a specific version caused a problem
• You want to compare behaviour between two versions

Note for WP Engine / Flywheel users: Previous theme versions may be unavailable because WordPress restricts access to the themes API on these hosting platforms.

Enable Beta Updates

Toggle — Off by default

Opt in to receive WordPress update notifications for beta releases of Astra and Astra Pro. Only recommended on staging or development sites — not on live production sites.

Learn more: https://wpastra.com/docs/automatic-beta-updates-for-astra/

White Label (Astra Pro — Agency Licenses only)

Only visible to customers whose Astra Pro license includes agency or developer features.

White labeling removes all references to Astra and Brainstorm Force from the WordPress dashboard and replaces them with your own branding. Commonly used by agencies and developers building websites for clients.

To set up White Label:

1. Fill in the White Label form — enter a custom plugin name, author name, and description
2. Enable the Enable White Label toggle to apply your branding

Once enabled, the Astra dashboard, plugin name, and all admin references will reflect your custom identity instead of Astra.

MCP

Configures the Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration, which allows AI coding assistants to connect directly to your WordPress site and access Astra’s REST API. This is an advanced developer feature.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Articles

• Astra Pro Modules — Overview and How to Enable Them
• Site Builder Overview
• Automatic Beta Updates for Astra
• How to Use Starter Templates with Astra