I've always used the Astra theme but then I have the lifetime Mini Agency pack from Astra/Brainstormforce and so, of course, going to use it now. Astra theme is very good especially if have the Pro version. My design is not the best haha but the theme has a lot of custom options available.
Astra theme is very good I agree. But they then spoil it by lumping in a number of plugins which slow it right down. If you use the theme without any plugins then it’s a winner. But then again, many of the free Wordpress themes are just as good.
When creating our WordPress site we used DiviBuilder by Elegant themes. Whilst it is not free we are delighted with the outcome of our sites. Hope this helps!
I used Kadence when I redid our website at the tail end of last year and can certainly recommend it. I had originally landed on Astra Pro to start with but it seemed slower and lacking in features compared to Kadence. Kadence have a very active Facebook group and the free theme contains all the core features and many that would be behind a paywall with other themes. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for from your theme, but I still see many people launching new websites with too many bells and whistles, too much bloat and that aren’t properly responsive. Around 85% of our visitors are using a mobile device - we do receive a lot of traffic from Social Media which I imagine pushes this higher than the norm - but even then most websites will still be viewed by the majority on a mobile device so it’s strange that so many websites are still being built as ‘desktop first’ rather than ‘mobile first’. Anyway, I’ve wandered off topic, so should probably leave it there!
It's always the way. Nobody ever checks their site on a phone while they are building the thing. Just because you can add an animation or whatever doesn't mean you should.
The me for all the help, I went with the Wordpress 2020 theme in the end and I’m really pleased with the result. I even had a play with the blocks feature which is actually pretty straightforward once you get your head around it.
.jpg)