Table of Contents
This article is a summary of my video looking at Spectra Pro. Spectra is the Gutenberg addon from the makers of the Astra theme and they are just now releasing the pro version.
The Spectra Ecosystem
Spectra Pro is part of a large ecosystem of products that inter-operated and have support for each other.
- Spectra (free version)
- 500,000+ active installs
- 850+ 5 star reviews
- Support is active with the free version
- 35 Blocks
- Flexbox Containers
- 100+ pre-designed templates
- Spectra Pro
- Support for ACF, Meta Box, and Pods
- Loop Builder
- Popup Builder
- Animations
- Custom Registration and Login Forms
- Instagram, Countdown Timer, Slider Pro, Image Gallery
- Modal
- Pro Templates (coming)
- Astra & Astra Pro
- Way more than a million active installs
- Spectra Integration – Theme settings in Gutenberg
- Theme Builder using Spectra Pro (coming)
- Astra Starter Sites
- More than 1 million active installs
- More than 3970 five star reviews
- Spectra One
- Advanced block theme
- Works with Spectra and Spectra Pro in the Site Editor
What we see here is that Spectra Pro is part of these products, each of which is a market leader in its niche.
The Positioning of Spectra and Spectra Pro
I think that Brainstorm Force is positioning Spectra and Spectra Pro for a strong mid-level position where it is easy enough for clients, but has enough advanced features for power users who want to create more sophisticated sites. This means that it will never be the most powerful or the easiest, but it will appeal to most users.
When you consider the feature set it looks a lot like the feature set of Elementor!
- Support for ACF, Meta Box, and Pods
- Loop Builder
- Popup Builder
- Animations
- Custom Registration and Login forms
- Instragram, Countdown Timer, Slider Pro, and Image Gallery blocks
- Modal Builder
- Pro templates (coming soon)
- Theme builder (coming soon)
- Coming Soon / Maintenance Mode feature
These days a number of people are leaving first generation builders like Divi, Beaver Builder, and Elementor and moving to Gutenberg-based solutions. I think Brainstorm Force is positioning Spectra and Spectra Pro to be like the Elementor for Gutenberg.
Pricing
We don’t know the pricing yet for Spectra Pro, but Brainstorm Force is including it in the Astra Growth Bundle. That is great news for users, many who have been using Elementor or Beaver Builder.
Discussion
I expect that because Spectra Pro is part of the number 1 set of themes and plugins that it will quickly become popular and one of the leaders itself. There is a lot of like about Spectra Pro.
It is possible, and this is probably not a valid “weakness,” but the danger is that Brainstorm Force rests on their laurels instead of trying to create the best of class solution. Releasing the Spectra One block theme was a gutsy move as they have the #1 theme already. I think that showed foresight and leadership. However, Astra was the last major theme to add a header builder and they will be the last to add a theme builder. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m watching to see if they settle for “good enough,” and “as good as the others” or if they shoot for the stars and innovate. They have the talent, and I hope they shoot for the stars and innovate.
