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Top 10 Fastest WordPress Themes [Compared] for 2021

In this collection, we have tested and analyzed the fastest WordPress themes for the ultimate website performance and flexibility.
Top 10 Fastest WordPress Themes
In this collection, we have tested and analyzed the fastest WordPress themes for the ultimate website performance and flexibility.

Top 10 Fastest WordPress Themes [Compared] for 2021

When on the verge of creating your website with WordPress that accounts for 40% of the web you might be overwhelmed by the decision of which WordPress theme is best suited for you. One determining factor is speed, finding the fastest WordPress theme will have you wandering through the infinite repository of both premium and free WordPress themes.

But fret no more, since we have compiled a list with the fastest WordPress themes that excel in performance and loading time. Fast websites have become a necessity for success, as it is not just a matter of preference, it also has a huge impact on how well your website is performing on search engines.

The longer it takes for a website to load the higher the bounce rate will be because visitors expect to take information as quickly as possible, and if you do not offer such quality they will leave your website, and the chances of them coming back are really low.

A high bounce rate tells search engines that the content on your website did not serve as valuable information. And if this trend happens occasionally, you will experience a slip in rankings.

To summarize, website speed is important, and that is why we have put together this collection with the fastest WordPress themes, where we ran tests and analysis to be able to shorten the list and only provide you with the best possible themes available. Read on.

Why does speed matters?

The faster your website runs the more visitors you will get, it’s simple as that. People will visit your website, and if your website takes too long to load and provide information, they will leave. A second is a lot, in today’s web standards. That is why the fastest WordPress theme will be the greatest asset to your website. 

Various studies have shown that website speed is linked closely with the conversion rate. According to skilled.co 47% of customers expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds or less, and that pages that loaded in 2.4 seconds had a 1.9% conversion rate whereas pages the loaded at 5.7+ seconds, the conversion rate was 0.6%. This comes to shows that users spend more time on fast-loading sites and they are more likely to convert or complete the desired action. 

These studies show that besides conversion rate, website speed accounts for bounce rate as well. This proves how detrimental speed can be to the success of a website. If you take into account the downfalls of a slow website, you can conclude that having a poor-performing website will result in a bad experience. 

If your website takes a long time to load and provides impaired response time, this will contribute to a bad user experience, and becomes irritating for the user, which will be the main reason they leave your website. 

In terms of rankings, site speed is also an important factor that contributes to how your website is perceived by search engines and Google crawlers. 

You can not afford to have a slow website due to the fact that since the mobile-first indexing approach, speed has become a more crucial component of every website to provide only the best experience to their users and offer them the information they need fast and efficiently. 

Speed, in both desktop and mobiles, is decisive. It will affect search rankings which then impacts traffic, conversion rate, and lead generation. No matter the intended existence of a website, speed is one thing you should always look out for. That is why we have compiled this list of the most beautiful and the fastest WordPress themes at your disposal.

How we ranked the fastest WordPress themes?

We included the most popular WordPress themes, both free and premium, and out the through various tests using the help of robust tools like GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights to get a better understanding of the desktop and mobile performance of each theme. 

The main criteria which all of the themes included had to fulfill were that the theme has to be fast-loading, clean code, AMP ready, page-builder support, lightweight, and a low number of requests. 

Each theme was installed on a fresh WordPress installation and using the latest WP version. We’ve installed each theme through the WordPress directory and did not install any demo website. 

We kept only the core foundation of the theme to test its flexibility and how lightweight the theme is. We conducted the tests on the main page of the website. Once we had the results we ranked the themes based on their performance and the results are what you can see below.

Top Fastest WordPress Themes

We’ve narrowed down our list to the 10 fastest WordPress themes and hand-picked the themes that offer the best performance out-of-the-box and give you full flexibility to build any niche website. 

PageSpeed Score : A (99%) 

YSlow Score: A (94%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.1s

Total Page Size: 39.8KB 

Requests: 10 

Generate Press is a minimal and super lightweight WordPress theme that offers functionality and excellent performance out of the box. Generate Press is a popular choice among WordPress users due to its immense flexibility and amazing performance. You can search the WordPress repository for Generate Press and install it all for free. Although Generate Press is 100% free, it also provides a premium version of the theme that included a lot more features and pre-made demo websites to complete your website in minutes. 

The theme is well known for its well-structured code and how lightweight it is, that is why we included it in our top fastest WordPress theme collection. Generate Press comes fully SEO optimized, giving you a head start before you even add your content to be visible on search engines and rank high. 

The theme comes packed with powerful customization tools and supports all the popular website builders like Elementor, Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, and more. This way you can easily build your website for both desktop and mobiles. Generate Press is one of the fastest free WordPress themes to help you establish your online presence with ease. 

MAIN FEATURES OF GENERATE PRESS

  • Search engine optimized 
  • 100% responsive design 
  • Compatible with any page builder 
  • Support the creation of WooCommerce online stores 
  • Core web vitals optimized
  • The pro version offers professional pre-made websites 
  • Block-based theme builder 
  • Lightweight and amazing performance

PageSpeed Score : A (98%) 

YSlow Score: A (94%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.3s

Total Page Size: 130KB 

Requests: 15

Kaon is a multi-purpose creative WordPress theme designed to perfection to meet the needs of every niche industry. Kaon offers excellent performance and amazing speed to all its users as well as comes bundled with tons of premium features to build and design every component on your website. 

You can create subscription forms or engaging popups as well as integrate them into your favorite marketing tools, all without having to install third-party plugins. The stunning selection of pre-made demo websites is what gives Kaon its intrinsic beauty. 

Each demo is designed down the last component and includes everything a niche business will need and more. Import them in a single click, and you’ll have your website ready before you even get to say “One Click Demo Importer”. 

Kaon is a premium WordPress theme in the ThemeForest repository that radiates beauty and grace like no other. To top it all off, the compatibility with WooCommerce allows for the creation of the most stunning and robust online stores with the Kaon WordPress theme. 

This theme recorded excellent results when we ran analysis as its developers tried to keep the theme as simple and compact as possible while also maintaining a clean and structured code. This is why Kaon made our list of the fastest WordPress themes.

MAIN FEATURES OF KAON

  • Beautiful niche demo websites to import with a single click
  • WooCommerce integration for building capable online stores
  • Form Builder to design beautiful subscription forms and more
  • Popup Builder to create engaging and lead converting popups
  • Create and design single pages, archive pages, and more
  • Comprehensive design toolset kit
  • Multi-purpose to use for any website 
  • Powerful Neuron Builder to build any kind of website you wish

PageSpeed Score : A (99%) 

YSlow Score: A (96%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.2s

Total Page Size: 24.5KB 

Requests: 8

I bet everyone is now familiar with Elementor one of the best drag & drop page builders for WordPress that completely transformed the way we build websites providing an intuitive interface where you simply drag the elements onto the page and begin designing them like a pro, all visually without touching a single line of code. Elementor provides a simple learning curve and everything is designed on a live interface, meaning you get to witness the changes happening as you are building your website. 

The same developers have put forward a simple, lightweight, and minimalistic WordPress theme that works perfectly with the page builder. Hello is a free WordPress theme designed by the team Elementor to provide its users with the ultimate design solution without bargaining your website with unnecessary features. 

The Hello theme is meant to complement the power of Elementor and serves as a canvas where you can build and design the masterpiece that is your website without any trouble. The theme starts off on a blank state, thus being so lightweight, where you build it piece by piece using the power of Elementor thus consisting of your website. 

Due to its high practicality, Hello is one of the fastest WordPress themes and offers full compatibility with all the popular plugins including WooCommece, Advanced Custom Fields, and more.

MAIN FEATURES OF HELLO

  • Hello is a free WordPress theme and very lightweight
  • Seamless integration with Elementor 
  • Integrating the theme with Elementor will allow for the creation of every niche website
  • Includes powerful widgets 
  • You can create a multilingual website using the RTL support 
  • Build and design responsive website with utmost flexibility 
  • The core theme files and design are super simple, best for fast websites, and have an amazing performance
  • The Elementor Library offers countless pre-made templates to build your website in minutes 

PageSpeed Score: A (98%) 

YSlow Score: A (90%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.5s

Total Page Size: 381KB 

Requests: 19

Next up on the fastest WordPress theme list, we have Customify, a super flexible, fast, and responsive theme that builds to suit the needs of every niche website. Customify provides functionality, flexibility, and great design, all while keeping the load time to a minimum. 

You can install and activate the theme for free available on the WordPress repository and begin building the website using the powerful Customizer. Customify provides a premium version as well that included dozens of robust features to create any kind of website. 

You can build and design every area of your website, or simply choose from the stunning pre-made websites that will consolidate your website in no time. Compatible with every page builder, you can fine-tune all the details on your site to make the difference. 

Customify comes with SEO support out of the box, allowing you exposure on all search engines, and if you stumble upon any issue relating to the theme you can contact their team of support specialists for fast and reliable solutions.

MAIN FEATURES OF CUSTOMIFY

  • Simple and minimal design 
  • Multi-purpose use for every niche website 
  • Header & Footer Builder 
  • Responsive design that looks stunning on mobile devices 
  • Flexible, customizable, and excellent performance 
  • It integrates with all the popular page builders like Visual Composer, Elementor, as well as compatible with Divi builder
  • SEO Friendly to secure high rank on search engines
  • Customify provides unlimited typography options as well as unique layouts for posts and pages

PageSpeed Score: A (99%) 

YSlow Score: A (93%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 0.9s

Total Page Size: 57.6KB 

Requests: 12

Neve is a modern and super fast WordPress theme built for speed and performance. Neve presents a unique and beautiful design and offers a great deal of flexibility while creating and designing your website. 

Neve is one of the fastest WordPress themes, thus reflecting the excellent results on our test. Neve is optimized for mobile devices as well as search engines giving your website that much-needed SEO boost to be made visible. 

The pre-made demos are tur gems of this theme where you can instantly import them and start by customizing as per your desire. Neve is one of the best and fastest free WordPress themes on its repository. 

Neve is a theme well known for being lightweight, fast, and flexible that is developed around a leek and clean code for the best website performance. Neve adjusts the size of the images accordingly and it’s optimized for Google AMP to provide you with the best performance for all the mobile users. 

Neve theme is highly compatible with WooCommerce for creating and managing robust online stores and top-notch performance scores. Besides all, Neve also works perfectly fine with all the popular page builders and gives you the freedom to build any niche website without much hassle, whether you be a beginner or a WordPress professional.

MAIN FEATURES OF NEVE

  • The Neve theme is free to download from the WordPress repository, but also comes with a premium version with tons of amazing features 
  • Full integration with the most popular drag & drop page builders
  • You can custom design any area on your website including headers and footers
  • No jQuery loading 
  • Multiple demo websites to include with a single click 
  • Advanced WwooCommerce dedicated tools for the ultimate flexibility 
  • Expanded blog features including thumbnails, layouts, and metadata
  • AMP Support

PageSpeed Score: A (91%) 

YSlow Score: A (93%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.8s

Total Page Size: 467KB 

Requests: 15

Avada is an excellent performing WordPress theme that has its throne as one of the most popular themes in the ThemeForest repository. It attacks thousands of WordPress users due to its practicality and robust features to build any kind of website with utmost flexibility. 

The popularity of Avada grew thanks to the clean code and powerful feature set that facilitates the creation of every niche website. Avada comes with its built-in builder to customize and design your site. Or you can simply opt for the pre-made demo website to help you during the process. 

As we are on the hunt for the fastest WordPress theme, Avada being a multi-purpose WordPress theme caught our interest as providing amazing performance and speed in correlation with the vast tools and features it comes packed with. 

With Avada, you have full control over the design and layout of your website. To top it all off, Aavada provides 24/7 professional support and extensive documentation to assist you whenever you stumble upon any issue.

MAIN FEATURES OF AVADA

  • WooCommerce Builder to create successful online stores 
  • Although comes packed with numerous features, you can disable unnecessary ones
  • JS & CSS Optimization
  • Build and create a unique blog, portfolio, as well as archive layouts 
  • Design responsive websites that look stunning on all devices accordingly 
  • Build and design any inner page including, archives, 404 pages, cart & checkout pages, single pages, and a lot more 
  • A comprehensive set of design elements to gain complete control over the layout of your website and design it as per your desire 
  • Build custom forms to elevate your marketing strategy

PageSpeed Score: A (99%) 

YSlow Score: A (92%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1s

Total Page Size: 107KB 

Requests: 15

Astra is one of the fastest WordPress themes and is quite popular among WordPress users for its amazing flexibility that follows the best coding standards. Astra is a fast, fully customizable, and well-performing WordPress theme that loads quickly and uses Vanilla JavaScrpt instead of jQuery. 

This allows for better performance of the theme. Astra theme supports Native AMP, offers multiple pre-made demo websites that you can integrate with a single click, and fully customized down the last detail. 

Each of the demo websites is dedicated to a particular page builder, thus ensuring compatibility with all the popular WordPress page builders. Astra WordPress theme is 100% free under the WordPress repository, but also comes with a premium version including a vast scope of tools and features. 

You can craft every area on your website with Astra, their fine selection of templates include custom-made header options, unlimited typography options, and total freedom on the design and layout of your website. 

Besides being compatible with popular page builders, Astra also offers seamless integration with Gutenberg blocks for the ultimate WordPress experience. Based on our test, Astra is part 

MAIN FEATURES OF ASTRA

  • Optimized for the best performance 
  • The theme integrates with high-end WordPress page builders and seamlessly integrates with Gutenberg blocks
  • You have full control over the design of your website using the power of the Live Customizer 
  • Inclusion of beautiful pre-made demo websites for every niche and category 
  • Custom WooCommerce settings for the ultimate eCommerce site experience 
  • Custom colors and backgrounds 
  • Design the headers, control the page layout as well as add sidebars to your site 
  • The support of mega menus and responsive design

PageSpeed Score: A (97%) 

YSlow Score: A (85%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.9s

Total Page Size: 356KB 

Requests: 29

OceanWP is another amazing free WordPress theme that’s fast, customizable, and lightweight. The large variety of tools and features makes this theme perfect for creating and designing any niche website with utmost flexibility.

 OceanWP is quite popular and widely used for being a well-performing free WordPress theme, and is considered one of the fastest WordPress themes. 

And if you need to add more features to the theme, you can opt for the premium version of OceanWP that includes professional pre-made demo websites, 19 premium theme extensions to enhance your website and design it like a pro. 

You can enjoy the power of the theme and the seamless integration with all the popular page builders. OceanWP comes with a vast library of 150 + modern Elementor-ready full-website demo templates or you can always build your website from scratch. 

OceanWP inherits the best EO practices, come translation and RTL ready, and includes unique WooCommerce features to increase conversions and create stunning online stores that also succeed.and is

MAIN FEATURES OF OCEANWP

  • Search engine friendly and fully responsive design
  • Custom WooCommerce features to create robust online stores 
  • Excellent performance and lightweight 
  • Page builder full compatibility 
  • Build and design your website using one of the pre-made demo websites to integrate with a single click and choose from the diverse categories included 
  • 19 Premium extensions to increase the functionality of the theme 
  • Fast and reliable customer support as well as extensive documentation
  • Great customization options

PageSpeed Score: A (94%) 

YSlow Score: A (88%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.3s

Total Page Size: 201KB 

Requests: 36

Newspaper is a premium niche WordPress theme that comes feature-packed with outstanding and industry-leading tools for writing articles, building a successful blog, news, newspaper, magazine, publishing, or review site. 

The Newspaper theme includes tons of blog-oriented features that help you obtain the most out of your theme and thus offering excellent performance. Newspaper is one of the fastest WordPress themes as portrayed in our test results above. 

The main feature of Newspaper is the ability to import the 120+ unique demo websites that are properly categorized and designed to meet the needs of every website. 

The integration with one of the most popular eCommerce WordPress plugins allows for the creation of capable online stores to display and sell your products in the most professional manner. If you are not fond of designing your website from scratch you can use the outstanding assets from their library to compose your website in minutes.

Pick and choose different pre-made sections and customize them to get the best results. Newspaper gives you full access to build every area on your website to match your brand.

MAIN FEATURES OF NEWSPAPER

  • Sleek and modern design 
  • Made for beginners as well as developers 
  • Powerful header & footer builder to gain access to every part of your website 
  • The theme comes bundled with 9 premium plugins 
  • Beautiful pre-made online stores websites to integrate with a single click and start selling your products right away 
  • You can create subscriber’s only content using the powerful Opt-in Builder 
  • Optimized for Core Web Vitals to increase the performance on your website and ensure better visibility on search engines 
  • Excellent mobile design to look great on all devices accordingly

PageSpeed Score: A (97%) 

YSlow Score: A (88%) 

Fully Loaded Time: 1.9s

Total Page Size: 328KB 

Requests: 20

Now it’s time we introduce you to Divi, a beautiful, all-encompassing, and one of the fastest WordPress themes to facilitate the creation of beautiful websites that excel in functionality and design like no other. Divi is a feature-rich packed theme that still manages to bring speed and great performance to the table without ever compromising efficiency. 

Divi is a premium theme that comes bundled with stunning premium pre-made websites as well as the ingrained Divi Builder that will assist you in building your website, all on a live, drag & drop interface. 

Divi packs outstanding page elements and various design options to give you endless opportunities and gain full control over every aspect of your website. You can create beautiful animations, divide sections with elegant shape dividers or assign hover states for the main components to emphasize their importance. 

With Divi, you will be able to build any kind of website you wish, whether that be blogs, portfolios, online stores, and more. Take full advantage of the power Divi holds to create the most mesmerizing websites.

MAIN FEATURES OF DIVI

  • Built-in drag and drop page builder to build visually every aspect of your website
  • A complete design toolkit to create the most outstanding projects and websites, all while enjoying the flexibility and ease of the process 
  • Create and manage powerful online stores, showcase your products, sell and ship them, all from one platform
  • Elegant and modern pre-made websites to build your website with a single click
  • Increase the reach of your website by setting in place a successful marketing strategy using Divi’s ingrained email opt-in module
  • Create custom form files to collects leads and any type of information from your visitors
  • A/B testing to try out different designs and content against each other and see what brings the best results
  • Intuitive interface to build and design anything you wish

Final Thoughts

The WordPress repository is a large ecosystem of themes and plugins that offer exceptional design capabilities and extend the functionality of your website. In order to search through the entire library of themes for the fastest WordPress theme would take a lot of work and consideration, that is why we compiled this list. 

We tested and analyzed the most popular WordPress themes against our designated parameters using the most advanced tools like GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insight and came up with the list of the fastest WordPress themes that excel in functionality and design. 

We rated the themes based on the loading time and their weight because a fast-performing theme is also a lightweight theme. Most of the themes we included in our collection are free themes under the WordPress repository that you can install and activate right away. 

They provide a vast amount of features and tools to build and design any niche website using the most advanced elements. We would love to hear from you in the comments section below, which theme you consider to be the fastest WordPress theme based on your experience.

By Snowy Smith

Director of product design, Freehand

Introducing Kaon WordPress Theme