Brendan Tully0 Comments
June 13, 2022
Since 2016, we’ve optimized more than 4000 sites through our speed optimization WP Speed Fix. and get daily questions about site speed, themes and which theme is the fastest or whether changing themes will speed up a site.
In this post we share the fastest WordPress themes we’ve found, including what makes them fast, and who they’re best suited for – no BS fake speed tests here, stupid lists with 50+ themes, or other nonsense written by content writers who have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to speed. These are genuinely the fastest themes for WordPress on the web right now, so let’s get started.
If you want to skip all the detail and just want to know which themes are the fastest, it’s these:
Part of what makes this theme so fast is the fact it doesn’t rely on jQuery (or more accurately, you can build a site without needing jQuery), which means it’s light on Javascript so it renders faster AND makes Google Pagespeed Insights very happy.
Like GeneratePress, it also doesn’t rely on the jQuery javascript library – Astra is more feature-heavy, so it’s a tiny bit slower than GeneratePress but still lightning fast compared to other fast themes.
It also includes some additional specialized features for WooCommerce to help boost conversion rates.
Contents
A fast website is very important. Speed impacts Google rankings, it impacts user experience, and ultimately conversion rates. The bottom line, faster sites get more traffic and make more money.
People get pretty frustrated with slow websites, and as you yourself might also know, when a website is slow, you’re pretty quick to click away and go elsewhere.
Two words: render speed. Getting the stuff from the web-servers is one part of speed, and the second part is how quickly the site actually renders. A fast WordPress theme both renders fast and is quick to download. Its actual file size (technically called page weight) is much smaller, so the amount of stuff to download is much smaller, and its speed of rendering is much faster.
Faster themes are smaller – smaller in weight, meaning with less code. Fast themes have cleaner CSS and fewer CSS files, which means there’s less to download and process on the device, and there’s less javascript so the browser doesn’t have to work as hard to display the page.
jQuery is a javascript library, and themes that rely on it basically go slower. It’s an off the shelf library and helps cut coding time for the more fancy design elements of a theme. If you’re building a site from scratch, ideally aim to use a theme that doesn’t rely on jQuery.
At WPSpeedFix.com, with our site speed optimization service we’ve optimized well over 3000 sites, so we have a deep understanding of what makes a theme fast or slow.
Be mindful when it comes to theme speed and what you see online. You’ve probably read a few articles on theme speed. A lot of them will have tested demo sites or demo themes and will have speed test results of themes, but they’re not a good indication of theme speed. The reason why the testing of a demo site is problematic is that you don’t know where they’re being hosted and they’re not live sites.
Typically they’re on cheap hosting providers and they’re also highly unlikely to be speed optimized so they’re worthless in terms of gauging how lightweight a theme is.
The most important things to look for when theme shopping are:
If you want to do speed testing, try our free speed test tool at SiteSpeedBot.com. It’s completely free and within 60 seconds you’ll have detailed recommendations on how to improve your site speed that many other tools completely miss.
The themes listed here are hands-down the fastest themes on the market right now. If you want “as fast as possible”, these are themes you should be looking at.
Superb performance and super versatile. If you use its WordPress Customizer options (of which there are many), you can adapt GeneratePress to any kind of niche. Also, if you’re ready to pay for the premium version, lots of pre-built demo sites, which you’ll be able to easily import, will become available at your disposal. Definitely one of the fastest WordPress themes you’ll be able to find, no argument about that.
The developer of this theme, Tom Usborne, has concentrated on creating clean, lightweight code. The theme is under 30 kb, doesn’t have any dependencies (that also includes jQuery), and it’s simply designed to perform really well in general.
Click play on the video below to see a walkthrough of the theme.
Click play on the video below to see a walkthrough of the theme
Elements
GeneratePress allows you to alter specific header, hook, and layout elements. Each element has a display rule that you can configure. The rule determines how a specific element will show up, or if it should show up in specific areas of the page.
Additional options
The theme supports customization features such as full H4 & H5 options, full button options, full footer/copyright options, widget title bottom margin, and more. You also get access to a variety of different color options and combinations that you can use for your fonts.
One of the biggest draws for this theme is the well-optimized features. While this is in part due to the lack of jQuery dependency, the theme itself also has a variety of customization options that make the experience of each site visitor as smooth as possible. An added benefit is that you’re able to find out if the theme is to your liking by simply downloading the free trial version.
While the various features that GeneratePress comes with are a definite plus, the loading speeds that it can make possible are by themselves worth the price of the theme.
BEST FOR: If you want the absolute FASTEST WP theme on the web right now and/or want a serious chance at 100 score in Google Pagespeed Insights and/or SEO is a priorityBONUS POINTS:FREE version available!
Website: generatepress.com
WP Astra is another very popular option, similar to the GeneratePress theme. Astra also doesn’t rely on jQuery and is pretty lightweight at just 50 kb. It’s also a very customizable theme with lots of options.
If you wish, you can also tinker with things yourself, using tons of the options available in the real-time Customizer.
Astra has the edge over GeneratePress in the child themes and templates department, as they have some seriously beautiful templates ready to use out of the box.
Available designs
Astra has more than 70 available designs that you can use for your site. These layouts are great for blogs, businesses, online shops, portfolios, etc. If you don’t buy the premium version, you’ll be happy to know that even the free version has 35 great designs to choose from.
Layouts
This particular feature of the theme controls the page layout, blog post layout, archives layout, WooCommerce layout, and more. In a way, this option is the central hub for the entire site, and you can manipulate it in order to give the page the sort of look that you might like.
The key phrase that can describe this theme is – well optimized. Everything from the various customization options to the intentionally limited amount of junk data on each page makes it one of the quickest options when it comes to sheer page load times and request processing speeds.
The minimalist features that Astra has to offer make it a great choice for sites that are looking for results rather than looks. The lack of data clutter makes it a great choice for just about any company that’s looking for a responsive interface that will draw in repeat site visitors.
BEST FOR: Those who want lightning fast AND beautiful pre-built templates to choose fromBONUS POINTS: FREE & Paid versions available
Website: wpastra.com
Neve is another fantastic theme option. It’s a general-purpose theme BUT also has what they call a “WooCommerce Booster” module if you’re looking for a theme that is WooCommerce friendly.
We really like that there are multiple price points available for this theme, a free download where you can try the theme without signing up for anything, AND an agency plan option that gives you unlimited site support which is quite rare these days.
They also have a huge number of templates PLUS some examples of their site of real, live production sites using the theme.
Boosters
Aside from the aforementioned blog and WooCommerce boosters, you also have access to header and Elementor boosters, as well as the White Label feature. All of these options are meant to improve the SEO of your site, and help improve the number of monthly visitors that you get.
Header and Footer Builder
Neve allows you to use the drag-and-drop builder to make a header and footer that can help you easily design your own desktop and mobile fonts and lettering layouts. The builder comes with widgets for logo and site identity, secondary navigation, search forms and icons, and much more.
Usually, the more complicated the customization options, the more trouble the theme has on mobile devices. However, the developers have foreseen this problem and have put in extra effort to ensure that there is no difference in the page load times, regardless of which sort of device you’re on.
All of this means that Neve is an all-rounder theme that is capable of providing everything from versatile customization options to excellent loading speeds, especially for WordPress sites.
Website: themeisle.com
Another streamlined option that has the same basic approach such as GeneratePress and Astra. It has a lightweight base theme that allows for customization of any niche that you can imagine, although it’s not as lightweight as the other two mentioned.
The same as Astra, OceanWP is also offering demo sites that are pre-built and which you can import if you don’t plan on starting from scratch.
Header design options
If you want to draw the eye, then the text needs to really stand out from the background and actually pop-out when visitors look at the overall layout of the page. These simple customization options can really emphasize certain more important menus that you’d like to specifically target and allow your users to navigate your site more easily.
Individual Post Controls
Through the many different options that you get access to by using these controls, you can do things like disabling the header or footer, change the logo or the menu colors, or change the content and sidebar layout. All of these options can really make a drastic difference in the overall design of each page.
While certain other themes might have a bit more of an edge when it comes to filing size or page load times, the sheer number of features that Ocean WP offers is more than enough to offset this imbalance.
Website: oceanwp.org
Genesis is also among the most popular WordPress themes out there that’s often used by a number of professional bloggers on the internet. It’s a lightweight theme – less than 30 kb in size, with lots of SEO-friendly features and very responsive design. It’s also Gutenberg ready and contains a one-click demo import.
It’s one of the oldest themes on the market but is still lightning fast albeit at the time of writing still required jQuery.
Genesis plugins
The plugins section on the WordPress official site hosts a large number of plugins that are tailor-made for this theme and can provide you with a variety of customization options. You also get access to non-Genesis specific plugins, such as WooCommerce, and all of the necessary support and customization options that go along with it.
SEO friendly
The in-built options allow you to add titles and meta description to your posts, pages, etc, which negate the need for SEO specific plugins. That being said, the theme still allows you to add those plugins and choose if you’d prefer to use the Genesis SEO tools or more popular options such as Yoast.
The Genesis site states that it has helped power over half a million WordPress sites with the Genesis framework and that there are over 200,000 happy customers. The efficient page builder options will convince just about anyone that these numbers aren’t inflated.
This theme is a great choice for any company that’s looking to quickly build a great site for their business that’s WordPress optimized.
Website: studiopress.com
The themes listed in this section are popular themes that are still fast but don’t fall in the category of the absolute fastest.
We’ve decided to include them as well because they allow for more flexible styling and child themes since they are less constrained by the super-lightweight code of the fastest themes.
Divi is without a doubt one of the most successful themes on the market – the Divi theme itself has about 500 000 users! This is a powerful and flexible theme, coming with its own drag-and-drop page builder. It’s also updated very regularly, which means new features are constantly being introduced.
Divi is a theme that’s very easy to use and is meant to serve different purposes; it’s also got customization options that allow for some very creative page designs which you can make at will (you’re able to control colors, fonts, and other design elements). Divi has very responsive layouts which make it work on practically any device.
Page Builder
Having a theme that’s specifically designed to work in tandem with your page builder has a lot of benefits. Divi provides a simple to use drag-and-drop style of page design, which makes it accessible for both beginners and experts when it comes to site creation. The code modifications, visual features, and pretty much every other single element of the theme can very easily be modified on the fly and in no time at all.
Portability
Many of the assets Divi provides can be shared between multiple sites. In essence, this allows you to more easily build a shared theme between all of your sites or more quickly import and export certain settings and features from one site onto another.
This multi-purpose theme will allow you to build any kind of website you want, regardless if you’re interested in making a business site, portfolios, blogs, online shops, and so on.
Website: elegantthemes.com
This one’s a number one seller on the ThemeForest marketplace, the most famous online selling spot for themes. This theme is very convenient for people who don’t have any coding or developing knowledge, so it can help users of any level build the website they want.
It’s a fully customizable theme (it’s got thousands of customization options), meant for different site purposes. You’re able to change all design elements via the user interface. It also contains hundreds of pre-made page designs.
Site Layout
Everything on your site can be modified and improved in a variety of different ways. This can include everything from the width of the boxes on the site to the layout of the header that you have.
Privacy
Avada provides you with your own privacy banner for your site, meaning that you won’t need to install third-party plugins as you would in other themes. This will allow you to manage the cookie, tracking, and embedded code, as well as limit the control your visitors have if you so choose.
The large variety of different customization options and multi-device compatibility make this theme a good choice for both WooCommerce and WordPress optimized sites.
Website: avada.theme-fusion.com
One of the most flexible WordPress themes, Bridge is perfect for more creative people behind WordPress websites who want full control of their site. The Bridge theme comes with a wide range of modules, as well as premium plugins that allow for an even better customization experience. It’s got lots of customization options that are built-in which can be accessed through the Customizer.
Bridge is the kind of theme that contains: Slider Revolution, Visual Composer, Timetable Responsive Schedule, and much more. There are over 350 demo options to help you start building your site; and you can even combine elements from different demos.
It also comes with multi-purposed modules – you can use them for online shops, as well as magazines, blogs, and a lot more.
Demos
The theme comes with over 500 demos for a variety of different businesses that you can choose from and import directly to your site. Additionally, you can actually preview all of these themes ahead of time on the Bridge website.
Premium plugins
Visual Composer – $34, Layer Slider – $22, Slider Revolution – $25, and Timetable responsive Schedule – $22. As you can see, all of these plugins together would usually cost you over $100 dollars. Luckily, Bridge provides you with these incredible tools for absolutely free.
Bridge is a great theme to build anything from a simple blog to a more complex portfolio. The theme provides you with all of the necessary tools that you could need in order to craft a site that’s just perfect for your business.
Website: qodeinteractive.com/bridge
This is a very powerful theme for creating sales pages, landing pages, membership portals, as well as blog pages and training areas. In fact, it’s one of the best themes that you can find out there for sales pages!
It also comes with a plugin version, which also means that, if you opt for the plugin, you won’t need to change your current theme.
With OptimizePress you can also create webinar pages and download pages; and with the Overly optimizer you can create cool-looking pop-ups for your website. It also includes integrated SEO features.
Lightning Builder
The page builder that came out with the newest version of this theme can provide you with a noticeable increase in page loading times. The 3.0 version of the theme is noticeably more mobile-friendly and has much better rendering times for images and other assets.
Membership sites
OptimizePress provides you with the Drip Content, member plans and packages, email subscribers, and membership plugins integration features. In essence, this is everything you need in order to start a membership site.
The multiple payment systems, security measures, and range of marketing funnel types make OptimizePress one of the better eCommerce oriented themes.
Website: optimizepress.com
Another flexible drag and drop functioning page builder, one that works on the front end of your WordPress website. Regardless of whether you’re a beginner in the IT world or an experienced professional, Beaver Builder will provide you with enough control and flexibility, as well as easy-to-use features and options for those who want to build a unique site of their own.
Page builder
The simple drag-and-drop features really help you figure out the layout of the menus and sidebar. This feature also makes a lot of the more difficult CSS coding procedures proceed more smoothly and allows you to finish making and publishing your site much more quickly.
Adaptability
The builder comes with a large number of pre-made portfolios, backgrounds, and layouts. All of these can be implemented at your discretion, meaning that you can either wholesale import already designed sites for specific businesses, or make some minor changes at your preference.
Beaver Builder is one of the easiest page builders to mold in order to create a layout that you’re satisfied with. This comes as a result of the great synchronicity between the themes and the page builder features.
Website: wpbeaverbuilder.com
Kadence offers a powerful page builder to go along with the versatile customization options that already come as part of the package for this theme. This will allow you to have the utmost freedom when it comes to the layout and design of your site.
The page builder is designed with WordPress optimized sites in mind, but the theme also provides you with WooCommerce extensions as well, which means that this particular theme is flexible enough to be a good choice for just about any business.
Global elements
This theme contains a color palette and fonts which are globally linked. This means that you can choose to change a specific colour or font on one of your pages and have the change automatically take place on any other sites that you might have linked.
Element hooks
Hooks essentially allow you to add custom code to any and all pages that you specify. You simply set a condition for the code to run, and the specific page that you set the hook to will perform the required action. This is an easy way to add features to your site without worrying about messing up the entire code.
This particular theme is a good option for a lot of blogs or minimalistic sites. It might not be the quickest theme, but it does provide a variety of features at a reasonable price.
In addition, the simple layout and the optimized features that it does include make it easy to use and navigate for both the users and their devices.
Hestia Pro has a variety of ready-made starter sites that you can choose from, as well as mega menus that will allow you to make any sorts of changes to the layout and look of your site that you might want.
The theme also offers one-click updates, video tutorials, and good customer support times. The theme is both translation and RTL ready, and is optimized for speed.
Header options
Hestia pro allows you to change the colors of your header overlay, change the font, size and letter spacing of your header text, and even add a slider that allows you to add more content to your header.
Orbit Fox
This plugin can allow you to see when your website goes offline and receive a notification telling you why, will make it possible to set manu icons for navigation, and will let you import images directly from mystock.photos. Additionally, you’ll also receive a Google Analytics feature and a privacy policy notice that informs site visitors about your website policy.
Hestia Pro is a minimalistic theme that doesn’t provide a lot of features but makes page load times quicker by having as little clutter as possible.
A stylish one-page theme perfect for any type of business. Enjoy the high-performance that comes with great user experience.
If you’re using a page builder plugin, such as Elementor, and you also want the fastest possible basis for your site, then the Elementor Hello theme could just be the right option for you.
A mega barebones theme that gives you the necessary functionality you’ll need in order to work with your page builder, although it doesn’t include some of the more detailed customization options you’d get with another theme (since you’re supposed to use Elementor to handle that).
That being said, the Elementor Hello is not a theme you’ll use all by itself. But, as was mentioned above, if you’re already using Elementor Pro for theme building or page building, this can be a superb option that will give you the biggest performance-optimized basis possible, so it can withstand that theme building functionality.
Header and Footer
The theme comes with a header and footer builder that allows you to design the layout of the text exactly how you want it to. The different fonts, the sticky feature, and even the color palette all help give your header and footer a bit more of a visual punch.
Elementor friendly
The lack of extensive design options from the theme means that the builder is going to have to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to creating the site. This is actually a good thing since the theme is specifically designed to work with Elementor, giving you an intricate tool for site creation.
While the Elementor Hello Theme isn’t the most complicated and all-encompassing page building tool that’s currently on the market, what it lacks in customization options it more than makes up for in the surprisingly fast page loading speeds.
If you want your site to run as fast as humanly possible, then, by all means, go with the fastest one
Keep in mind that some themes will support more customization than others (aka CSS that’s more workable than others’). And, if you’re working with a developer, some developers will be familiar with certain themes – Divi, for example, is a very, very popular theme, and they’ll probably have a lot of experience working with that theme. This means that they’re comfortable with it, they understand it, whereas if you throw them in front of a brand new theme, it might take more work to achieve the result you actually want because they’ll have to do more research.
If you have any questions about this article, please post them in the comment section below; we’ll be happy to come back to you and elaborate, as well as provide more info on whatever you want to know when it comes to the fastest WordPress themes. Thanks for reading!
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