Full of bugs – avoid

  • digitronic

    (@digitronic)


    1 year ago

    Back and in a day I bought Astra’s Growth bundle which granted me access to all of their existing and future products (which did not prove to be the case) and what a mistake I made. After spending about $800 on that bundle, I have not migrated almost all of my sites away from Spectra and Astra and other Brainstormforce products. I have 1 site left on Spectra + Astra combo, and I get a heart attack whenever I see there is an updated version available to be applied. And this is due to many reasons such as:

    • They never properly test their products before releasing them, so updated regularly break the site
    • Spectra’s performance of large pages is terrible. You will as a rule experience sluggishness and extremely long after-save load times if you add more than a few simple blocks to the page
    • Sliders breaking on all the time – sliders setting on one page are breaking a different slider on another page
    • Caching issues especially if you are hosting your site on Siteground, though I’ve experienced the same caching issue causing distorted layouts with other hosts such as RunCloud, xCloud, etc…
    • Forcing you to connect their garbage ai zip builder to use use wireframes – which are again garbage designed by their ai product
    • Constant upselling for their other products – no, I do not want your zipwp ai garbage nor any of your other products
    • Updates are very rare and minimal, mostly bugs fixes
    • Fonts issues – local fonts stopped loading after one of the updates. And even after removing them, clearing the cache, reloading local fonts, I still could not get them to display on the front end, while they are displayed in the back end.

    It is obvious that this team has now shifted their attention to their new cash cows – Sure products – surecart, suretriggers, etc, and they are using their legacy products as lead magnets to upsell new products. Until they come up with the new idea and screw the sure products buyers, and trust me, it will happen. Remember, this is the company that at one point got banned from wordpress dot org for using improper marketing practices.

    My honest advice to everyone is to avoid any product built by branstorm force / sure crafted teams and to look into products released by more reputable and inovative companies: GenerateBlocks , GeneratePress, Fluent ecosystem products, WS Forms, Greenshift, Blocksy, Bricks, etc.

    • This topic was modified 1 year ago by digitronic.
Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
  • Mohsin Ghouri

    (@mohsinbsf)

    1 year ago

    Hi @digitronic,

    We’re truly sorry to hear about your experience, and we genuinely appreciate the time you’ve taken to highlight these issues. Your insights help us grow, and we’re committed to improving.

    Let me address your points one by one:

    1. Update Instability
      We understand how frustrating it can be to face issues after an update. Our team has taken this feedback seriously and already implemented improvements in our QA process. The recent updates have been far more stable and reliable, and we are continuously working to maintain and improve this standard.
    2. Spectra’s Performance on Large Pages
      We’ve conducted extensive performance benchmarks, and Spectra performs on par or better than many similar plugins in its category. That said, performance can vary based on setup. If you’re still experiencing sluggishness, we’d be more than happy to look into it. Please raise a ticket here and we’ll prioritize your case:
      👉 https://support.brainstormforce.com/forum/
    3. Slider Conflicts
      I am not able to replicate the issue on my installation. This sounds like an unintended conflict, possibly due to a conflict of any third-party plugin. Please submit a support request, and we’ll work with you directly to get this sorted.
    4. Caching Issues (SiteGround, RunCloud, xCloud)
      Caching behaviors can vary depending on host configurations. We suggest disabling file generation from your dashboard via:
      WP-Admin > Spectra > Settings > File Generation.
      This should help resolve layout distortions caused by aggressive caching.
    5. ZipAI Integration for Wireframes
      We added ZipAI login as a measure to avoid misuse and spam. However, we understand your concern, and your feedback is valid. I’ll personally pass this on to our product team so we can explore a more user-friendly experience going forward.
    6. Frequent but Minor Updates
      We release smaller updates more frequently to ensure faster fixes and avoid large-scale disruption. While each update might appear minimal, they address real issues reported by users like yourself. Your feedback plays a big part in shaping our roadmap.
    7. Font Loading Issues
      I wasn’t able to reproduce the issue with local fonts in our test environments. It could be a setup-specific conflict. Please raise a ticket so our developers can investigate and help resolve it quickly.
    8. Concerns About Company Focus and Ethics
      We assure you that legacy products like Astra and Spectra continue to receive active development and support. While we have expanded our ecosystem, we’re deeply committed to maintaining and improving our core offerings.

      Again, we’re really sorry your experience didn’t meet expectations, and we’d love a chance to make things right. Please feel free to reach out directly through our support portal so we can personally assist you.

      Have a nice day!
Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

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