23 Fastest WordPress Themes (With Test Data) 2023
Are you looking for the fastest loading WordPress themes?
Nobody likes snail-paced websites.
A website that loads and performs slowly leads to a poor user experience.(NO-NO!)
We tested 300+ WordPress themes to find the fastest loading without compromising features, using 2 online tools.
A) Google PageSpeed Insights
Page Speed Insights measures the performance of a page for mobile devices and desktop devices.It fetches the URL twice, once with a mobile user-agent and once with a desktop-user agent.
The PageSpeed Score ranges from 0 to 100 points.A score of 85+ indicates a well-performing page.
B) Pingdom Tools Full Page Test
Pingdom Tools Full Page Test is an easy-to-use web-based tool that examines all web page parts, including file sizes, load times, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and other files linked to the web page.
Scoring is done on a scale of 0 to 100 points (the higher, the better).
Table of contents:
[Best Fast Loading WordPress Themes](#fastest-loading-wordpress-themes-ranked) [What Makes A WordPress Theme Fast Loading?](#what-makes-a-wordpress-theme-fast-loading) [How To Check WordPress Theme’s Loading speed](#how-to-check-wordpress-theme-s-loading-speed) [How Fast Should A WordPress Website Load](#how-fast-should-a-wordpress-website-load) [Build A Fast Loading Website Now](#build-a-fast-loading-website-now)
Note: We also have an
exclusive article to learn more about how plugins and themes affect WordPress and website performance.
Update (1): While these themes are great and will help you to achieve a high Google’s PageSpeed score, they aren’t enough to make our website fast.If your hosting sucks, other optimizations are worthless.
You can
read our detailed guide for more information on which WordPress hosting is the best.
Update (2): We added additional performance results from PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest for comprehensiveness.
Finally, let’s check the fastest and lightest WordPress themes!
Fastest Loading WordPress Themes (Ranked)
23 Lightest & Fast Loading WordPress Themes
Jevelin
PageSpeed Insights: 3.0s | Pingdom Tools: 3.48s | GTmetrix: 2.9s | WebPageTest: 2.919s
Jevelin is an amazing and responsive WordPress premium
multipurpose website theme.
Gorgeous and visually stunning
video background sections make your website lively and appealing.
Seamless and
smooth parallax sections make your content dazzling and captivating while being completely hardware-powered and lightweight.
You can finally build the websites you have been dreaming of with Jevelin.Try Jevelin now and make a difference!
You can also learn more about it by ready our extensive
Jevelin review.
Gillion (Trending Item)
PageSpeed Insights: 2.5s | Pingdom Tools: 3.1s | GTmetrix: 2.6s | WebPageTest: 2.598s
Gillion is a classy magazine and
blog WordPress theme.It comes with many awesome built-in customizations and 15 pre-built demos.
It also uses
WPBakery page builder and it is based on Bootstrap.
Moreover, you will find 4 sets of headers, 12 custom widgets and a beautiful top bar.
Also, Gillion has a flexible layout that allows 6 post formats and pre-built blog designs.
Get this well-documented theme in your hands and enjoy the smooth and quick website creation.
Check our
Gillion review, where you’ll find all the ins and out of this fantastic theme.https://colorlib.com/out/gillion https://colorlib.com/out/gillion-demo
Astra
PageSpeed Insights: 1.4s | Pingdom Tools: 1.06s | GTmetrix: 1.7s | WebPageTest: 2.227s
Astra is one of the most powerful WordPress themes optimized to offer outstanding performance.
It features everything you need in one pack to build any website you want fast.You do all the configurations you want without touching a single code, which is best for beginners.But pros enjoy working with Astra, too!
Astra easily cooperates with all the popular website builders and plugins for effortless integration.
Astra uses vanilla JavaScript, is very small in size and promises an excellent mobile experience.
This is exactly what we experienced after testing it on different devices.
Enjoy the endless options and make it big with Astra.
https://wpastra.com/ https://wpastra.com/starter-templates/
GeneratePress
PageSpeed Insights: 1.1s | Pingdom Tools: 1.39s | GTmetrix: 1.2s | WebPageTest: 1.219s
GeneratePress proved to be an excellent performing WordPress foundation when we used it for a few projects to test its capabilities.
Remember, GeneratePress is more of a base for your WordPress theme than the actual theme.BUT!
You also get all kinds of ready-to-use starter templates that will help you speed up the website launching process.
Everyone is welcome to design great things with GeneratePress.The block-based website builder is a dream come true because of how quick and simple it is to work with.
GeneratePress offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose.
https://generatepress.com/ https://generatepress.com/site-library/
Neve
PageSpeed Insights: 0.8s | Pingdom Tools: 965ms | GTmetrix: 604ms | WebPageTest: 1.233
Another one of our favorites is the Neve theme.This fast-loading tool is perfect for starting and building an online business with a well-developed website.
Neve promises a top-notch mobile experience, thanks to its optimized core,
AMP compatibility and awesomeness.
Neve has many starter websites (100+) for business, portfolio, blog, personal and eCommerce projects.
But you can also use it for something else because of its flexibility.
We really like Neve’s clean and modern design that stays high-quality across all devices, handheld and desktop.
If you need one package covering everything, Neve can become your go-to website solution.
https://themeisle.com/themes/neve/ https://themeisle.com/themes/neve/starter-sites/
Zakra
PageSpeed Insights: 1.6s | Pingdom Tools: 2.25s | GTmetrix: 2.6s | WebPageTest: 3.124s
Zakra is one of those multi-purpose WordPress themes that doesn’t just fit multiple industries and niches but it does it with style.
Your website won’t be boring with Zakra, and that’s our guarantee!
You can benefit from any ready-to-use demos that are easily installable and quick to customize.But they also work incredibly well out-of-the-box.
Zakra is ready for RTL languages, SEO friendly and lightweight to ensure fast loading.
We also really enjoyed Zakra’s support team, which quickly answered all our questions.
It’s always great to know there’s someone you can rely on.
https://zakratheme.com/ https://zakratheme.com/demos/
Customify
PageSpeed Insights: 2.6s | Pingdom Tools: 2.93s | GTmetrix: 2.9s | WebPageTest: 2.572
Yup, Customify is very customizable, great to enter the online space with a website unlike any out there.
And being one of the best and fastest loading WordPress themes, you know everyone will have a blast browsing your website’s content.
The page, header and footer builder allows you to make as many edits as you want until the design meets your expectation.Note: Everything happens fast with Customify!
Moreover, Customify may not have the largest demo library, but the ones you get are easily adjustable to your needs.
However, we encourage you to “start from scratch” with Customify! It’s easy to build a custom website unique to your business.
https://pressmaximum.com/customify/ https://pressmaximum.com/customify/site-library/
Schema
PageSpeed Insights: 1.7s | Pingdom Tools: 1.34s | GTmetrix: 1.5s | WebPageTest: 2.156s
Schema creates a perfect foundation for your website with a strong focus on delivering fast loading speed and SEO optimization.
The overall design is somewhat basic and simple but that’s how things should be when you go after the speed.
Schema comes with all the must-have plugins you can use to configure your site’s look and functionality.
It’ll be effortless!
Schema works with Elementor, includes an ad management solution and a built-in review system, to name a few.
But this is just the beginning.You have endless features and possibilities that will take your online presence to the next level.
https://mythemeshop.com/themes/schema/ https://demo.mythemeshop.com/s/?theme=Schema
Blocksy
PageSpeed Insights: 2.1s | Pingdom Tools: 1.31s | GTmetrix: 1.4s | WebPageTest: 1.439s
What’s special about Blocksy is not that it’s a fast loading WordPress theme, but it’s also a free one!
Thus, you’re welcome to start free of charge but you can expand to the pro version anytime you want.This will unlock A TON more features for the growth you’re after.
Another great function of Blocksy is compatibility with all the popular page builders, like Gutenberg, Elementor, Beaver Builder, etc.
All the sections are editable with your creative twist.WooCommerce integration also lets you start selling online fast with all the required elements to guarantee smooth transactions.
Go Blocksy, pick a starter theme and have a website up and running quickly.
https://creativethemes.com/blocksy/ https://creativethemes.com/blocksy/starter-sites/
OceanWP
PageSpeed Insights: 1.5s | Pingdom Tools: 1.12s | GTmetrix: 2.8s | WebPageTest: 2.250s
OceanWP is like an ocean of demos, extensions and elements for your next online project.You have everything you need at your fingertips, easily accessible and instantly integratable.
Restaurant, portfolio, eCommerce, coffee shop, salon and MANY other business owners enjoy using the benefits of OceanWP.
Fun fact: OceanWP has 5+ million downloads!
OceanWP gives you complete control over your website to create your exact version.
Skills don’t matter because OceanWP is so simple to use that even a total beginner masters it within minutes.
You also have the right to translate it, build an online store, enjoy best SEO practices, and more.Yup, OceanWP rocks!
https://oceanwp.org/ https://oceanwp.org/demos/
Soledad
PageSpeed Insights: 0.4s | Pingdom Tools: 1.49s | GTmetrix: 328ms | WebPageTest: 0.927s
Soledad is a super lightweight responsive WordPress multi-concept blog and magazine theme.
It has the powerful WordPress Live Customizer and 250+ unique homepage demo websites and 1,000s combinations.Every aspect of Soledad has been completely optimized for speed.
Soledad makes sure no one is left out in the rain of slow-loading websites.Don’t waste time and get your Soledad website going today!
But our
Soledad theme review even more goodies and why it’s an absolute must.https://colorlib.com/out/soledad https://colorlib.com/out/soledad-demo
CheerUp
PageSpeed Insights: 1.4s | Pingdom Tools: 2.12s | GTmetrix: 2.4s | WebPageTest: 1.975s
CheerUp is a clean and responsive WordPress blog and magazine website theme.14 demo websites combined with 1,000s layout variations unlock complete design flexibility.
(You deserve the best!)
Also, you can put together ready-to-use magazines with effective, modern tools in minutes.Handy widgets, trending posts and latest news are all a couple of clicks away.
Cheer up with CheerUp!
https://colorlib.com/out/cheerup https://colorlib.com/out/cheerup-demo
Divi
PageSpeed Insights: 1.2s | Pingdom Tools: 1.47s | GTmetrix: 1.4s | WebPageTest: 2.167s
Divi is the most powerful theme ever built by Elegant Themes.
The developers added 100+ pre-made and completely customizable layouts for you to start with.
This theme comes with Divi Builder, with many pre-made modules like
call-to-actions, sliders, pricing tables, blurbs, contact forms, sidebars, and more.
Divi also includes different header styles, unlimited colors and blog/ portfolio options.Endless possibilities!
If you are not convinced yet, read our
full Divi theme review.https://colorlib.com/out/divi https://colorlib.com/out/divi-demo
Newspaper
PageSpeed Insights: 1.4s | Pingdom Tools: 2.42s | GTmetrix: 1.9s | WebPageTest: 2.822s
Newspaper is the most popular WordPress theme for blogs, news, and professional magazine
websites of all types with delightful and modern lines.
This template has a range of PRO demos, which are faster and lighter to use for your website.
Newspaper is an AMP and
mobile-friendly theme that uses best SEO practices.
Powered by a front-end, custom-tailored page builder, 100s of pre-made designs for articles and pages, a header builder, flexible blocks, and advanced settings for shortcodes – Newspaper is an excellent WordPress theme.
Spice up your website by easily adding your quality content, displaying favorite social profiles, and embedding videos from YouTube or Vimeo.
Read our
Newspaper theme review for more.https://colorlib.com/out/newspaper https://colorlib.com/out/newspaper-demo
Webify
PageSpeed Insights: 2.2s | Pingdom Tools: 2.27s | GTmetrix: 2.1s | WebPageTest: 1.984s
Webify is a carefully optimized and fast loading WordPress theme with multiple pre-designed concepts.You will find 20 different demos for businesses, blogs, portfolios,
online shops and other creative ventures in the kit.
Not only does Webify have numerous homepage designs, but it also comes with ready-to-use internal layouts, headers and footers.
Install the demo of your choice with a single click and start turning it into a functional website, presenting your business online like a champ.
https://colorlib.com/out/webify https://colorlib.com/out/webify-demo
Sway
PageSpeed Insights: 2.0s | Pingdom Tools: 2.81s | GTmetrix: 1.9s | WebPageTest: 2.529s
Sway is one of the fastest loading WordPress themes available on the market with amazing optimization and modern technologies.
It does not matter if you would like to build a blog, an agency page, an online store, a corporate site, you name it, Sway takes care of it.
Thanks to the ready-to-use demo material, you can create 40+ different websites out of the box.However, since Sway is 100% customizable, the possibilities truly are endless.And to perform any work, you will never need to write code.
https://colorlib.com/go/sway https://colorlib.com/go/sway-demo
TheGem
PageSpeed Insights: 1.6s | Pingdom Tools: 1.85s | GTmetrix: 1.9s | WebPageTest: 2.1296s
It is no secret that TheGem is a super-fast loading WordPress theme.With that in mind, TheGem guarantees a first-class performance that will keep your users around for longer.
All you need to do is use the available layouts and components and have a page up in a small breeze.Anyone can use TheGem to its full potential without sweat, thanks to WPBakery
drag and drop builder.
TheGem also comes with the necessary documentation, video tutorials, and support.
But make sure you read our
TheGem theme review for more insights.https://colorlib.com/out/thegem https://colorlib.com/out/thegem-demo
Litho
PageSpeed Insights: 1.4s | Pingdom Tools: 1.32s | GTmetrix: 1.2s | WebPageTest: 1.567s
Litho is a fast loading WordPress theme with extreme optimization, doing everything at the highest degree.This tool ensures a performance that will blow everyone’s socks off.
Plus, it’s a multipurpose theme that works for any website creation you can think of.
If you’re looking for power, you get it in Litho.Setting up a page will be quick and effortless, thanks to the 100s of templates and 35+ home demos.
Litho is also an
Elementor WP theme, allowing you to customize everything.Plus, the theme uses WooCommerce for online store creation.Everything is possible when you go Litho.
https://colorlib.com/go/litho-wp https://colorlib.com/go/litho-wp-demo
SEO WP
PageSpeed Insights: 1.3s | Pingdom Tools: 1.19s | GTmetrix: 1.3s | WebPageTest: 1.391s
SEO WP theme is a modern and fast loading theme carefully crafted for
digital marketing agencies, SEO companies and their clients.
It is powered by Live Composer and drag and drop page builder to construct and edit custom pages with unlimited layout combinations.It comes with an amazing mega menu plugin for responsive, content-rich menus.
SEO WP theme includes other premium WordPress plugins such as Master Slider, Easy Social Share Buttons, NEX-Forms, Rankie,
Google Maps, and WordPress Menus Management.https://colorlib.com/out/seowp https://colorlib.com/out/seowp-demo
Jannah
PageSpeed Insights: 1.8s | Pingdom Tools: 1.63s | GTmetrix: 1.5s | WebPageTest: 1.762s
Jannah is an up-to-date WordPress theme.It has 25+ pre-made demos for you to choose from.Jannah has two big strengths: speed and flexibility.
Your content will always be mobile-optimized, loading fast everywhere.(Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP) project makes it possible.)
Jannah has increased its speed with several advanced techniques behind the scenes.It gives you a truly blazing page loading experience.
And, the website performance has, in general, a Page Speed score of 98%.Also, with Lazy Load, your images will load only when the user requires them to.
Fast and simple.
https://colorlib.com/out/jannah https://colorlib.com/out/jannah-demo
Hongo
PageSpeed Insights: 2.1s | Pingdom Tools: 2.45s | GTmetrix: 1.9s | WebPageTest: 2.091s
Hongo is a fast loading WordPress theme that suits numerous eCommerce businesses.Due to the multi-concept approach, you can easily use one tool for establishing various online stores.
From apparel, watch and gadget to leather, lingerie and shoe stores, you can make them all with Hongo and then some.You can even use it for
building a multi-vendor platform (with Dokan).https://colorlib.com/go/hongo https://colorlib.com/go/hongo-demo
Consultio
PageSpeed Insights: 2.1s | Pingdom Tools: 2.21s | GTmetrix: 1.9s | WebPageTest: 2.499s
Consultio is here to help you make an immediate difference for consultancies and other types of businesses.
This fast loading WordPress theme is no joke.It comes with 70+ demos and a collection of 280+ practical elements.
Consultio is optimized for the exceptional website performance you deserve on all devices and platforms.
Google Maps, smooth transitions, animations,
WPML compatibility, and Contact Form 7 all decorate Consultio.The tool also includes Elementor, so improving will be a child’s play.https://colorlib.com/go/consultio https://colorlib.com/go/consultio-demo
X – The Theme
PageSpeed Insights: 1.9s | Pingdom Tools: 1.63s | GTmetrix: 1.8s | WebPageTest: 1.782s
X WordPress theme brags multiple unique designs inside one theme with no additional setup required.
The X theme is also fully responsive, includes Google Web Fonts, shortcodes,
bbPress, BuddyPress, Slider Revolution, Font Awesome Icons and RTL support.
With all these features and more, ThemeCo says this is the last WordPress theme you must buy! (It’s true.)
https://colorlib.com/out/x-the-theme https://colorlib.com/out/x-the-theme-demo
What Makes A WordPress Theme Fast Loading?
While the theme itself isn’t the only fast-loading factor, there are still a few features that will help contribute to epic performance.
Note: You may also be interested in our list of the best
website performance optimization tools.
1.Mobile-Friendly Layout
A responsive WordPress theme is one of the essential contributors to today’s standards of web use.Mobile is growing daily, so guaranteeing the best mobile experience is A MUST.
Google even said this is one of the top-ranking factors.
A mobile-friendly layout means it automatically adapts to mobile and tablet devices without needing a separate version of a website just for mobile.
This also means Google has less work crawling your website.
2.Optimized Images
Another crucial factor that’s not exclusively related to the theme itself but the website is optimized images.
So many website owners overlook this but it can mean a BIG difference.
Take care of the images you upload to the website.
Make them JPEG and use an
image optimizing plugin to make them smaller so they don’t slow down your website.
This is ESPECIALLY important if you have an image-heavy website or blog.
3.Light Code (small page size)
A lightweight WordPress theme that’s small in size will automatically make it much faster.
While we already mentioned images, another thing that’ll make your website heavy are animations and special effects.
Just don’t use them unless it’s absolutely necessary.
More design elements mean more bloat.More bloat means a slower loading website.
Keep it clean and minimal (at least in the beginning), which you can accomplish with easy customization tweaks.
4.GZIP Compression
GZIP is one of the more popular compressing solutions that not all WordPress themes use.
But those that do are significantly faster!
It’s a method that reduces the theme’s file size, putting less stress on your hosting.
You can reduce the file size by even more than 80% with GZIP, so it’s definitely worth considering.
5.Fewer HTTP Requests
The more material a site has, the more HTTP requests are necessary.Stuff that delays the load time are images, custom typography, scripts, etc.
This isn’t necessarily a concern when you’re starting out because you’re website won’t (very likely) have a ton of stuff going on.
But the HTTP requests can become an issue later when you start stuffing your website with heaps of elements, functions and other features.
Luckily, a simple WordPress theme will help lower the number of HTTP requests.
(But HTTP/2 aims to eliminate this issue for good.)
How To Check WordPress Theme’s Loading Speed
As our collection above shows, we used Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom Tools, GTmetrix and WebPageTest to test each theme.There are other tools available but these four are the most reliable.
If you’re doing your own research, we advise you to use at least two, if not all, tools to make the tests.
Each uses different servers and locations, drastically affecting the overall performance.
The tools normally deliver page load time, number of HTTP requests and even recommend improving your website or theme.
You don’t always need to hire a professional to make a website audit because a page speed tool’s insights can deliver fantastic suggestions for the website’s loading improvement.
For the sake of an example, we’ll use the Astra theme and Pingdom Tools:
Step 1: Enter the theme/website’s URL in Pingdom Tools
Step 2: Select the nearest location
Step 3: Click the “Start Test” button
Step 4: Wait a few seconds for the test to complete
Step 5: View performance test results
And some of the suggestions for a better performance:
How Fast Should A WordPress Website Load
While there are endless resources stating different “best” website loading times, we think anything below 3 seconds is decent.And
anything below 2 seconds is really good.
A simple rule is: The faster, the better.
And the mobile version of a website needs to load fast.
We also want to share a few of the factors that affect a WordPress website’s load time:
– Web hosting (invest in quality one)
– WordPress theme (pick a fast loading one!)
– Number of images, video and media in general (and their size)
– Animations and effects (don’t use too many)
– Code quality (needs to be lightweight – not bloated with unnecessary scripts)
– Number of plugins (also, different plugins affect load time differently)
– Use of CDN (can make a big difference)
Build A Fast Loading Website Now
You now have everything you need to build a fast loading website.While it all really starts with picking the right web hosting, the second step is to select a fast loading WordPress theme.
We gathered a ton of really quality solutions that cover creating any website you’d like to build.
While you have the solid foundation in order, you decide how many elements, animations and plugins you’ll use.
Our suggestion: Don’t overdo it.
Start with a simple website and only upgrade it with new stuff when necessary.
Make a fast loading WordPress website like a CHAMP!
This Post Has 210 Comments
–
Thank you so much, I was looking for a fast and seo friendly themes for my website.
–
All WPlook themes are extremely fast, for example the Conference theme has 97% and we don’t use any cache plugins.I didn’t saw any other theme to have a better score.
–
I can’t open your site.
Just looking for a new theme.Because now I am using Schema theme as mentoned above.But it’s not really works if we do not tweak in htaccess or W3 Total Cache.
–
Really ?
Conference has
63 – mobile
83 – web
Screenshot:
–
–
Thanks for showcasing some of the best themes.However i wanted some of the best themes for starting a tech.blog.
Anyway these themes are great.I just wanted to tell you to use a larger font for the article as it’s slightly difficult to read.Thanks.
–
Wow.
Thank you for this.I’m looking for a pink theme though
–
I personally like Newsmag theme, because this theme is equipped with numerous features.
Hopefully this finest collection will redirect my mind to right point.
Thanks for sharing this informative idea.
–
Nice templates.
Still looking for a good one for photographers.Mine is ok but always looking for improvements
–
Great article, thank you!
I am considering the Parallax Pro with Genesis Framework as I’ve heard it is fast, however I notice that it has only received a Google Page Speed Insights score above of 68?
I’m a photographer and looking for a customisable theme that offers speed and excellent SEO.
–
Hey!
Taskerr looking nice to me and when I clicked on demo to have a look, the link takes to other theme.It would be good to change the url.Anyways, this post is very nice.
Thanks!
–
Thanks for this helpful article.I want to buy a theme for WP download manager
Do you know if any of them are fast or how I can test them to see if they are fast enough?
–
Hello,
The article was really good.
But i am looking for website layout for fashion blogging.I am looking for a customisable theme that offers speed and excellent SEO.
Thanks
–
Awesome template, i think wordpress and seo very Amazing.
🙂
–
I agree with Aigars.WordPress is slow by default and finding a good managed host is even more important than the themes.I’ve used the same theme at GoDaddy and now at RoseHosting and the difference is enormous.
–
Really Great Collection.Wanted a very fast theme.
I chose Schema from the list.
Thanks.
–
Hi Aigars,
I see you put Avada theme on the right side in the first paragraph.
I really like the Avada theme.It will be perfect for my site, but I am afraid that with all its great functionalities, it could hurt the Seo optimization.
Is Avada a fast theme ?
Thank you
–
Thanks for sharing! What about Socially Viral??
–
🙂
–
–
Hi there.
thanks for the article & links..and support in the comments!
I’m looking into creating a new wordpress site (online presence for a print magazine) using a theme as a basis.
Themes rarely list performance as an attribute, but in our experience, many of the do-it-all themes (color pickers, drag and drop etc) sacrifice performance for admin user friendly-ness..
Do you have any recommendations as to how one could assess performance of a theme prior to purchase?
Will page speed be accurate if run on themeforest for example? …or should we be looking out for a theme built on bootstrap or something? ….any tips during this selection process will greatly assist time and efforts put into themes that may just never be able to speed up!
Thanks in advance!
Jim
–
This post is total BS.
–
I’m using Schema from MyThemeShop on most of my sites.It is really clean and fast loading with CloudFlare.Seems they are inspired from copyblogger design.Thanks for lot for letting me know more fast loading themes.
–
I see that you know a lot about WordPress themes and WordPress performance in general.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! Do you have any hosting recommendation that would go well with Divi WordPress theme by ElegantThemes?
–
Great article and great looking themes! Thanks for putting this one together for us.
–
Hello Aigars,
thanks for the sharing the useful info.
Can you tell me some Fastest loading FREE themes.
I can’t afford to buy premium themes
Thanks
–
Thanks.thank you so much!
–
I faced many problems while optimizing some of these wordpress themes for getting Google Speed Insight 100% score so I finally migrated my web-site to Drupal solution, If you would like I can post the tips how to avoid problems with Speed Insight optimization in Drupal.
–
It is always hard to choose the right theme for every blog.I have tried quite a few and google analytics metrics are similar but little downs and ups make the difference right? I think I will prove Foundly… hope die at last
–
whats the fastest genesis/studiopress theme you recommend for a site selling 1-3 products and blog? I’m thinking something that will still be fast with woocommerce
–
Hi there colorlib,
Thank you for some really great insight on the WP univers and on what to look for when going through all the web hosting services out there.A really great site with loads of info.
I´m looking into buying a WP theme and hosting in the near future, but would like to get some advise if possible.
In the above article you highlight “speedy” themes and I´ve got my sight´s on Stockholm from this article and Corpus, Kalium or Avada from some of the other articles on colorlib.But what about security ? Are all themes build equally secure (if just WP is kept up to date)?
From searching the great internet I found articles stating that one should bye Premium WP themes (maybe you can elaborate on the term premium a what makes a theme Premium).Studiopress with there Genesis framework comes up as build with SEO and security in focus.Is the “security” phrase just a marketing term or are there any truth behind it? To me the Studiopress themes is not that pleasing to my eye design wise.
But would a studio Press theme be a good investment with regards to SEO, speed and security in mind?
And what kind of backup strategy would you recommend when you have your site up and running besides the one that the hosting service provides for a newbee ? Would something like a VaultPress subscription be a good investment?
I know there is a lot of questions but I would really appreciate you answers as I´m a new to this world of WP:)
Thank you for your time/
Kind regards Jorgen
–
I’m moving a friend’s video-centric multimedia Blogger fan site to my self-hosted WP.She has over 3500 posts.I have been searching all week for the best responsive theme to support that kind of content, much of which is archival, without ending up with horribly slow load times.
I’m not a developer but know enough to get by.Can you make any recommendations for a magazine type theme that can handle Embedly (she uses many different sources), can preview videos on Homepage, and has at least one video slider (she loves sliders, bless)? Love this page and your answers to questions.So glad I stumbled upon it.Isla.
–
I am interested in the theme NEXUS.Because of its model boxes: D
–
Thanks for the list of high speed websites.
Our team uses Google Page Speed Insights for every page we build.
We like it more than the Pingdom tool
–
Hi, I run a magazine that publishes mostly literary stuff and wishes to go quarterly soon—publishing 4 issues a year.Could you suggest a fast, minimal theme with not too much clutter on the homepage and meant for longform writing?
–
Hey,
I am a bit confused between Schema by mythemeshop and newsmag by themeforest.
If you have the same choice what will you choose keeping loading speed, SEO and Ad optimization in mind?
Please suggest me the best among newsmag and schema.
Thank You,
Karan
–
You refer to host ‘speed’ as being very important.How I can assess our current website host?
Are Time To First Byte (TTFB) issues related to something in my configuration or a server-side configuration; possibly a server-side configuration that I could change? I see a lot of “waiting” in our speed-test results.
–
When is someone going to do a speed comparison of load time of the WooThemes themes? These are the only themes that get someone support from Woo.We need barebones new install load times.
For example (with the same size header logo on each):
Theme | loadtime desktop | loadtime mobile
Canvas | 0.54 seconds | 0.43 seconds
Hustle | 1.02 seconds | 0.89 seconds
and so on.
This is important in help choosing a theme.Anytime something goes wrong, Woo support will first look at the theme and plugins.
If an alien theme that they did not create, then you are stuck.
–
Every theme I’ve tested is full of bloat! Sure, looks good, but try real-world speed testing (such as GTMetrix) and you find bloat bloat bloat! Isn’t there any theme out there that does basic bootstrap but doesn’t add all the other crap (google fonts, font awesome, sliders, 300kb images, preload video viewers, blah blah blah?
–
What are the scores for the GoodLife theme? We are running our site on the ET Divi theme and it’s super super slow so are looking for alternatives.
–
And as a follow-up, the scores for Soledad.Something tells me that the two themes i like are probably the slowest of the bunch! Thanks for this round-up!
–
apprecaite your comments re.hosting and its effect vs actual theme but if you had to choose between avada, enfold and divi and you were trying to create an seo focussed site which would you choose ?
–
I am using SEO WP – most of demo content, so no extra heavy images etc.It is very slow! I am very unhappy, just not bothered to change the website now as all my business is generated from word of mouth, but articles like these are very misleading…
–
Thanks for the list.
I am about to switch to Schema.I am on the free theme which is Sugar and Spice.It has been great so far, but I noticed that there has been an increase in the number of https requests so I would like to try other theme to see if it is taken care off.
–
Are the Google PageSpeed Insights scores that you note for the themes for scores for MOBILE or for DESKTOP?
–
I use enfold theme.The initial page load speed is very slow.Can anyone help me to identify the problem? Thanks.
–
Hi.
You were kind enough to answer a question of mine on another page, and I hope you will let me “pick your brain” again! I tried to find an answer elsewhere first, but was unable to.
I have chosen a hosting provider but haven’t yet set up my actual site.You told me not to worry about the theme, and I have it narrowed down to a few, but there is something I don’t understand: I notice that some examples show the page’s “tags” displayed right on the page, visible to users.Others do not.
What is the difference? And is the term “tags” synonymous with “keywords” in this case? I hope you can clear this up for me.Thank you in advance!
–
Thank you, I think I will use the newsmag.
Currently installed system Jono theme.
–
Based on this review, and other testing with Pingdom and Google, I went ahead and purchased the Goodlife theme.Unfortunately, it uses the WP Bakery Visual Composer plugin.I attempted to build a site on my shared hosting service (which isn’t the lowest end of offerings), and the plugin maxed out the CPU.It was so bad, I couldn’t even upload photos anymore.
In the end, I had to resort back to my old theme.This was an utter waste of $50.It might load quickly if you have dedicated hosting, but not otherwise.In short, this article ended up not being very helpful, given that the one recommendation purchased after reading this, was a total waste.
–
Hi Aigars,
May I know what’s speed test scores for Goodlife theme?
–
DROPDOWN MENU BLOCKING PAGE VIEWS ON iPHONE 4 –
Your readers may want to know that ROSA 2.1.0 malfunctions on iPhone 4’s and iPhone 3’s.
While aware they are quite old iPhone models, I know a lot of people still using iPhone 4.If they review a web site built with ROSA 2.1.0 they will be faced with about ninety percent of their browser screen filled with the menu (that doesn’t go away on page re-load and shows on all pages of the site).
SLIDESHOW HEADER CONCERN –
Another concern pro web developers may have with ROSA 2.1.0 is that the slider header doesn’t include the ability to hyperlink each slide image to a different page!
Stephen Bradley – creative director
veetoo UK
–
Thanks for posting, anyone can suggest a fastest with visual composer ?
–
What hosting can you suggest for a fast loading site? Thanks!
–
Thank you Amit for sharing fastest loading WordPress themes.I used Schema and I can say it is responsive and loads very quickly.But I didn’t know all these alternative WP themes.Thank you so much.
–
Very deceptive article disguised as FREE, nasty
–
Thanks for great themes.But as you know page speed depends on many factors and hosting as you mentioned is very important.
–
Thanks for sharing these information !
Can u suggest me a theme for a Digital Agency ? It would be something like creative,innovative & great user interface, need to work & look great on both desktop & mobile ! Currently , I’m looking at lorem theme & Stratus theme.
–
hi,
I have been using sportsmag and I am getting issues setting up my ad units on the homepage.
can you suggest how do i add a code to place ad at the desired location ?
Thanks
–
Great article and comment responses.I’d like to host for specifically UK visitors so don’t need CDN but need a good UK host.
Is it too much to ask if you can recommend any? I’m on a premium uk reseller host at the moment using Cloudflare (which I’m planning to come off).Any suggestion welcome
–
So Schema and Best are the two fastest loading themes.Thank you.
I’m probably going to go ahead and download Schema now.
–
Nice wordpress theme collection and Schema theme seems best of all.thanks
–
I used to use you guys often for finding WordPress themes.However, I have lost faith in your reviews after buying the theme “GoodLife” based on your glowing review in this article.The theme is coded absolutely terribly and the support is awful.If you look at the reviews for it on Envato, you will see that.Please reconsider your support of this theme.
Your review has led to me tearing my hair out for the past week.
–
I want to create a design blog and portfolio.What is the fastest theme that is suitable for my blog? You can check my blog
–
Very fresh, extremely wonderful, great theme, wonderful theme.
–
I am using Newspaper on my site using VPS + Maxcdn combo.Very fast! Couldn’t be happier with the results!
–
Great summary.
I’m gonna totaly use it as i plan to use SEO on my new site with extreme care.Good job.
–
What about newspaper theme Aigars
–
I am looking for another theme that I can optimize and can load a lot faster than mine.But upon checking the theme on your list, Copenhagen, Google Speed Test rated it 53/100, even slower than my site.
So if you are looking for a really fast site, look somewhere else.
–
Aigars,
Thank you very much for your breakdown of the themes.I decided to go with Divi based on your recommendations, but I also had some speed issues.
Fortunately I tweaked it with some caching, image minimization etc.I still load at around 6 seconds which is frustrating…
Maybe it’s time to think of a better host? I’m a bit lost, I’ve heard other people say things about Divi being slow, but not sure if that’s my ultimate problem.
–
Awesome buddy, I have been looking for that list, especially you added the page score from google, well done! I have been checking many themes ago to find the right one.Actually there a lot of nice themes out there but then you check them for speed and 90% of them just fails :/ So I am on a pagespeed trip since days and found you listing.Great, really appreciate your effort!
I just checked “schema” and I guess I will give it a try.Love it! Thanks a lot!
Greetings from good old Germany,
Dimitri
–
There’s a simple trick to increase PageSpeed/Pingdom grade in a matter of minutes – get rid of useless CSS and JS files provided by theme.It’s often practice that themes are universal which is a performance problem because theme authors implement general functionalities.
A lot of them is simply useless and waste bandwidth.
–
Very helpful post, that’s exactly what I was looking for: A speed-based selection of elegant themes.
I’m so glad I found my way here.
I’ll test the Stockholm until we get bigger and switch to something like Soledad.
Can you suggest good and fast hosting sites in France? I have some interested European friends asking me for recommendations.Thanks a lot!
–
–
I was looking fot his, thank you for your efforts.I recognized that many WordPress Themes are scoring very bad in this PageSpeed issue.
–
Dear Aigars,
As much ad I like my new website creation,
it is slow as hell even with a high performance theme “ronneby” and caching enabled!
Do you think it is only my hosting that slows down the site?
Best regards,
Michel
–
Nice templates, but i prefare genesis framework
–
looking for fastest theme for my Lyrics based website ..please suggest
–
Very Nice..
How about genesis themes?
–
Hello,
First of all which theme do you use?
I need to make a site like the website i wrote to website section while posting this comment.Which theme do you offer me?
Also you know it should be a fast loading and seo friendly wp-theme.
Finally, good work :D.This is very useful article.
–
Hi,
Thank you for the great post.
Did you ever tried BeTheme from Themeforest? I used it to build a dozen sites and it’s really flexible but I find it a bit bloated.Unless you use wisely W3 Total Cache, that theme feels pretty heavy.
I’ll try the suggested themes!
–
These are some great themes.
I’m looking for a theme that would work best for many events for clubs.thank you
–
Im looking for a very fast Theme for photography.Which to choose ?
–
I can appreciate the spirit of the post, so thanks for writing it.But I ran a test against one of the first templates using pagespeed insights & it failed miserably.
24/100 and 27/100 on mobile/desktop respectively.
That said, I appreciate that Brando’s scripts load async, but it doesn’t take any steps to minimize stylesheets.It’s loading at least 5 stylesheets AND calling 3 Google Fonts.That latter is unnecessary and overkill because the fonts are loading all the weights (Roboto is loading 6 weights, most devs don’t even realize their are more than 3, let alone your average WP user).
–
Hi these! These are the best themes that loads fast with good SEO.Thank for these themes and keep sharing and keep updating us.
–
The trouble with a lot of WordPress themes is that they try and be everything to everybody and of course this means lots of bloaty plugins..
I’m currently working on a basic css framework (under 2kb in size) which helps with css bloat of css frameworks like Foundation and Bootstrap.The next stage is to start integrating into WordPress.The idea is to have a WordPress site without caching load in under half a second.My only warning about the above scores would be things like… If you add compression on the Server is can actually increase serve times and in-lining css for page speed can in fact affect SEO in the wrong way..
–
Hello.I am the owner of a small law firm, and do all website work myself (with the help of developers).We switched last year to A2 hosting, and added a CDN (Cloud Flare).
That improved the speed but then it slowed down again recently.Also, I noticed above that you recommended NOT using CloudFlare.
But when I paused CF last week for developer to do some work, website speed plummeted.It’s still not great but better with CF enabled.
I am requesting a developer give me a quote right now to improve speed.But I have some questions for you:
(1) do you think CF is helping my site?
(2) do you like A2?
Also, I am about to build a second site, which will have mostly longer posts, and video & images with many of those posts.I will need a new host.
Traffic is not enormous but I want speed optimized to best extent possible.I will need a separate host (not my existing host).I heard WP Engine didn’t allow CPanel access, which scared me.So some additional questions:
(3) best theme for law firm *considering speed is important* with longer posts and videos (simplest to set up would be ideal — nothing fancy needed on this one)?
(4) Do you recommend Site Ground or WP Engine for what I described?
Thanks very much for an awesome site with great comments too!
–
Nice list.
Basically this means that any other theme has slow page speed? Or is this just basically a list with themes you prefer or recommend?
Greets Mario
–
Thanks for sharing, i search actually for a new theme optimized for SEO so i check you recommended themes ^^
–
Hi
Great article, thanks so much.
I want to make an e-commerce site with WordPress, I’m a bit confused about site speed and performance.
I’m between Oxygen, Nitro and TheGem but I’m not sure if those themes are the best for my case.I have no coding experience.Could you please advise?
–
Thanks so much for your prompt response, they are quite pricey you are right, I think you are right, I’m with Siteground – Go Geek at the moment and they are ok, however, once my business goes well I will have to look into it.Kinsta looks great.
Again thanks so much for your help.
I love this website is so informative and helpful for someone who is just starting!
Not sure if you can help with this too: I’m looking into learning to create websites HTML and Javascript.I was advised to look into Coursera or Udacity.Any suggestions?Many thanks
Maria
–
Thank you for the list.I’ll try to change my current theme to one of your suggested theme.
–
Hello,
What is the fastest loading wordpress theme at the moment?
–
I am very fond of changing themes very frequently and I like the list very much.Most of the themes listed I have tested already like schema and sociallyviral.Looking forward to use more on my blog and see how do they look.
–
I have regional website, suggest me a mobile-friendly theme.
–
Newspapper is my favorit but It’s still not look faster than i thought, maybe becoause my image not good compression.
–
I’m looking to change my website theme, Nice theme section and appreciate your support.Again many thanks for the share this nice post with lot of business theme collection
–
In this you did not add the Schema theme ? Why
–
Great work 🙂 You have really made things easy for me..I will not go and search for a better one in thousands of themes..
This page would be even better if you categorize these themes on this page as well.
–
Sir, I think theme is not Major reason for slow loading speed but responsive theme and lightweight can improve our speed
–
I’m using the Schema theme.
Is this very fast?
–
What are the three best themes for an outdoor adventure company, you would say
–
This is exactly what I was looking for.Current settings in my website is giving me poor speed.Looking to change.
–
sir is sahifa theme faster because am using sahifa theme and my website and it is very slow how do i fix this
–
Are performance and speed different things in google page insights? Are they related to each other?
–
Aigars, I understand what you are trying to achieve here, but this is meaningless post.
And you know that too, being a wp theme developer yourself.These theme load fast because the theme developers have used plugins to speed up not because of their themes are well built.You can take twenty seventeen and achieve the same result with the plugins used.Total BS.
–
Which theme will be best to get blazzing fast speed – schema or solded or genesis?
–
Thanks! for sharing such an informative post about the fast and SEO friendly themes for a perfect website.
–
Thank for sharing these awesome themes with us.
They are really good.
–
Having a fast loading template is a must for better ranking.I will check out all the specifications of all the themes to know which matches my intention.
–
Think you need to doublecheck these.I came across this page as I have a client who currently uses Divi and we are looking to move away as mobile pagespeed score plummeted to just 19 after the last Google update to Pagespeed.
If you input the Divi demo URL into Pagespeed Insights tool, it scores just 5 for mobile.Not great!
–
I couldn’t agree more.I’ve worked with Divi and all the websites are slow because of it.At most I got 10 from Google Page Speed on mobile, for a website that uses cache and Cloudflare as CDN for all the content.
I also tested Jevelin, the first theme in the list, for which this is the good link to test if you don’t have the theme downloaded:
https://jevelin.shufflehound.com/hello/.This got a 14 on Google Page Speed.I think the tests should be on real websites that use those themes and have real content, because most of the pages don’t have just on section.
With only one section using Visual Composer builder and their start theme I’ve got 80 from Google, but after adding all the content that client needed, I’ve ended up with 40.
–
–
Thanks for sharing such awesome WordPress themes, with such amazing speed and performance for these.
–
Thank you for such a brief list.
We are a small company that builds WordPress-based websites for clients and our clients love fast loading websites.This list is going to be very helpful.
–
Divi is terrible for speed, it will slow down every server.
This is a highly questionable list, geared more towards affiliate links than information.
–
I agree.Some of this themes shouldn’t be present in the list at all.
–
–
Is there any high performing gaming theme? I am currently using gamezone which sucks really bad in google’s page speed and pingdom’s.
I am looking to move to a new theme, gaming oriented but it has to be optimised! I am running my own vps server with nginx, mariadb and php 7.3, if that can help
–
Based on your recomendation of the Jevelin theme being fast, I went out and bought it.
However after installing perfectly, I got only a pagespeed score of 21.
Clearly it is not as good as you say it is.I am very dissapointed that I wasted money based on your advice.
I have been building websites for years and I can assure you I followed the instructions perfectly.
–
Hi Amit and Aigars,
Thank you for the time taken for research.Unfortunately, I bought the Webify premium based on your recommendations on 22 July and since then I’ve only encountered a multitude of issues and no fast-loading wordpress theme.
You can see from my speed test link here:
https://pagespeed.web.dev/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nikithehealer.com%2F&tab=mobile
After following instructions and installing their plugins for fast performance it has produced results that are not anything like what is promised in their theme.
Yes, my images do take extra timeload BUT when I used a previous theme and optimised everything else this did not affect the score so poorly.I came to your list because I was looking for a theme that was specifically optimised for fast-loading and Webify fails to deliver on that.
Further more the host, Envato and their support service is terrible.
It took three days of waiting for responses and going back and forth and being no better off than when I started.Also, requested a refund and another two days later with no results have now launched a PayPal dispute.
Upon further research:
https://au.trustpilot.com/review/www.envato.com
I am not the only one that is experiencing hardship from Envato theme and digital products failing to deliver on their item descriptions and poor customer service.
In fact, I have since realised Envato Market is from my home country of Australia and will be looking into Australia Consumer Affair Regulation as this kind of product and service quality is not tolerated.
I am just writing in because it was specifically this list that influenced my purchase decision.I understand you make money from affliate links but this particular affliate partnership is resulting in customers landing in vulnerable positions and having a hard time getting support, including their money back, when the products fail to deliver on what they promise.
If you don’t want to take down the Webify (And other Envato themes which are failing to deliver) off your web page recommendation lists, could you please ask that customers do further research such as
https://au.trustpilot.com/review/www.envato.combefore they make a purchase.At this point in time it is providing a lot of pain for customers and colours your own authority as content curators.
Thank you so much and
Best wishes,
Niki
–
Hey dude, I am looking for a good theme for my blog which I’m dedicating toward anime.
Thank you for your time.
Could you recommend me a good fast page speed WordPress theme?
Thank you once again.
–
some good options here, looking for something that loads quicker.
