Your website’s traffic isn’t worth anything – if most people have to wait for ages for it to load and then click the back button out of frustration. That’s why you should must get a lightweight and fast WordPress theme. Here is my collection of the fastest WordPress themes ⇣ right now.
There are over 9,000 free WordPress themes located in the official WordPress Theme Repository and over 31,000 WordPress themes in total.
That’s a LOT of WordPress themes.
I don’t know about you, but when faced with such a massive choice, I get easily overwhelmed and can’t see the woods for the trees, so to speak.
However, I know what I do want, and that’s a fast-loading WordPress site that doesn’t frustrate its users by taking ages to appear.
You’ve got precious few seconds to make an impact on the user, and if those seconds are spent loading images and other page elements, your potential customers will have moved on before you have time to say, “it’s a bit laggy.”
So to get a super-fast theme, we want one that’s lightweight and not bogged down with heavy page elements. And I’ve curated the perfect list for you.
Ready to find out which WordPress themes are the fastest loading?
Let’s take a look at the fastest WordPress themes.
TL:DR: We have twelve different WordPress themes with fast-loading speeds on this list that are worth considering. However, for the speediest speeds, here are the top three fastest WordPress themes:
What Are the Fastest-Loading WordPress Themes in 2024?
First, let’s cover the top fastest-loading WordPress themes for 2024. I’ve hand-picked nine to choose from.
| Theme | Score | Price | Free version? | Number of templates | Best for… |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twenty Twenty-Four | 92/100 A+ | Free | Yes | 10 | Best 100% free and fastest theme |
| GeneratePress | 91/100 A+ | $59/year or $249/lifetime | Yes | 97 | Best lightweight theme and lifetime plan |
| Astra | 90/100 A+ | From $47/year or $227/lifetime | No | 240+ | For stunning template options |
| Kadence | 90/100 A+ | From $129/year or $699/lifetime | Yes | 82 | For speed and typography options |
| Breakdance | 91/100 A+ | $149/year | Yes | 120+ | Oxygen page builder alternative |
| Neve | 90/100 A+ | From $69/year | Yes | 110+ | For freelancers or hobbyists |
| Blocksy | 91/100 A+ | From $49/year or $149/lifetime | Yes | 28 | For minimalist designs |
| Avada | 87/100 A+ | $69/year | No | 92 | For beginners |
| Kava | 89/100 A+ | Free | Yes | 50 | For bloggers |
| Oxygen Builder | 91/100 A+ | From $129/lifetime | No | 0 | For experienced users |
| Hello Elementor | 90/100 A+ | From $119/year | No | 100+ | For theme and page builder integration |
| ElegantThemes Divi | 86/100 A+ | From $89/year or $249/lifetime | No | 2,000+ | For design, landing pages, interactive elements |
1. Twenty Twenty-Four: Best 100% Free Fast WordPress Theme
Twenty Twenty-Four is the new default theme for WordPress. It’s a minimal theme and is designed to be light and clean. It contains no images or any extra functionality and is best used as a starter theme for template creation or to test out different features and plugins.
However, besides using the theme for background tasks, it also makes a nice custom layout for blogs and basic websites.
You can be assured of this theme’s functionality since it was designed and introduced by the WordPress community. No one knows what WordPress users want more than WordPress users themselves.
Twenty Twenty-Three Features
What does Twenty Twenty-Three offer? Here’s the rundown of its features:
- Free to download and use
- The most lightweight wordpress theme in 2024
- Uses the Gutenberg patterns and page builder in the WordPress customizer settings
- Clean, minimalistic custom layouts without images
- Ten diverse style variations
- Creates a blank slate on which to build upon or use for testing
- Six readable fonts included along with a number of color palettes
- Create the custom website of your dreams with no limitations
- Response design pixel perfect display on desktop and mobile devices
Theme Examples
Super minimalistic and ultra-clean. This template not only offers lightning-fast loading speeds but also provides a blank page upon which to build your masterpiece.
Use the blocks and block patterns to customize to your heart’s content.
Twenty Twenty-Four: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 92/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 1.8s
- Total page size: 855Kb
- HTTP requests: 10
Twenty Twenty-Four Pricing
No prices to see here. The Twenty Twenty-Three theme is a completely free theme.
Like the sound of Twenty Twenty-Four? To get started, download it here.
2. GeneratePress: Best Lightweight & Customizable WordPress Theme
After we did GeneratePress review, it became clear that speed, stability, and accessibility are the top focus of GeneratePress. Designed for hobbyists, freelancers, and agencies, the theme has racked up an impressive 4.5 million+ downloads in the past six years.
The theme is customized using the block-building tool and the free GenerateBlocks plugin. This allows users to create beautiful websites without ever needing to understand or use code.
Additionally, a great range of 90+ templates provides the perfect starting block for this attractive theme.
GeneratePress Features
What does GeneratePress offer to make it stand out? Here are its features:
- Forever-free plan available
- Very fast WordPress theme
- Uses Gutenberg page builder
- Integrates perfectly with the GenerateBlocks page builder
- Over 90 ready-to-import templates to choose from
- 100% PageSpeed scores
- Same-day help request resolution
- Compatible with all top-rated plugins
- Follows WCAG 2.0 standards
- 7.5kb page size, 2 HTTP requests, and zero dependencies
GeneratePress Template Examples
GeneratePress Info: An image-driven template perfect for visual websites such as travel, food, and fashion blogs
GeneratePress Avery: Stylish and clean, great for the lifestyle, beauty, and fashion niches.
Generate Botanist: A fresh, modern, nature-inspired template, ideal for any outdoors-based subjects.
GeneratePress: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 91/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 2.7s
- Total page size: 889Kb
- HTTP requests: 13
GeneratePress Pricing
GeneratePress is available for:
- Free: with limited design elements
- $59 per year
- $249 for lifetime access
Both paid plans provide a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you do purchase the theme and decide it’s not for you, you can have peace of mind you won’t be out of pocket.
Keen to try out GeneratePress for yourself?
Get started for free here. (and check out more demos)
Choose from 90+ templates and customize your website with ease using GeneratePress.
3. Astra: Best Theme for Designs & Template Options
If you like templates, then you will like Astra. This theme boasts over 240 pixel-perfect websites that are ready to use “out of the box.”
This ultra-fast theme claims a 0.5-second page load time and provides the ability to fully customize your site without requiring the use of any code. And it has extensive design tools to help you get everything looking exactly right.
Astra integrates seamlessly with all your favorite WordPress plugins and tools, including WooCommerce, and uses Gutenberg blocks for quick website creation.
Astra Theme Features
Astra has an excellent range of features including:
- Free version available
- Uses Gutenberg page builder
- Utilizes Vanilla JavaScript to prevent render blocking jQuery
- Requires less than 50KB of resources to run
- 0.5-second load speeds
- Follows best coding practices for full optimization
- Self-hosts Google Fonts
- WooCommerce themes ready
- Over 240 templates available
Astra Template Examples
Astra Outdoor Adventure: Perfect for outdoorsy and adventure-themed websites.
Astra Game Dev Studio: Designed specifically for game designers and developers
Astra Blockchain Technology: The ideal template for anyone working in the cryptocurrency industry.
- Page speed score: 90/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 2.1s
- Total page size: 892Kb
- HTTP requests: 12
Astra Pricing
Astra offers up three different pricing tiers:
- Astra Pro: $47/year or $227 for lifetime access
- Essential Bundle: $137/year or $677 for lifetime access
- Growth Bundle: $187/year or $937 for lifetime access
To understand the key differences between these plans, check out the full rundown here.
Unfortunately, Astra does not offer a free plan or a free trial, but it does provide a 14-day money-back guarantee on all its plans.
Like the look of Astra’s stunning templates?
Get yours today by signing up here (and check out more demos).
Choose from over 240 stunning templates and create a fully customized website without any code.
4. KadenceWP: Best for Speed, Design & Typography Options
Kadence is a popular and flexible WordPress theme that offers plenty of decent features to help you build a professional-looking website.
It’s a lightweight and fast theme and comes with a customizable header and footer and a good range of typography options. Super responsive, Kadance is perfectly optimized for search engines, making it a great choice for businesses and bloggers who want a modern and simple-to-grasp WordPress theme.
Kadence Features
Kadance isn’t short on features and brings plenty to the table:
- Free plan available
- Uses Gutenberg page builder
- Over 80 templates available
- Lightweight theme that loads fast
- Shop kit and WooCommerce integrations add-on available (the fastest WooCommerce theme)
- Customizable header and footer
- Custom fonts available
- Built-in support for LMS platforms
- Supports reCAPTCHA v2 & v3
- Supports Cloudflare Turnstile
Kadence Template Examples
Kadance Summer Camp: A clean and fresh outdoorsy design, created around the needs of summer camps.
Kadance Pumpkin Patch: A rustic, Fall-inspired template, ideal for farms and farm-based activities.
Kadance Political: A professional-looking template designed specifically for political candidates and campaigns.
Kadence: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 90/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 2.8s
- Total page size: 890Kb
- HTTP requests: 10
Kadence Pricing
Kadence has three pricing options available to suit all budgets:
- Free plan: Use for free on a limited basis
- Essential Bundle: $129/year
- Full Bundle: $199/year
- Lifetime Full Bundle: $699 one-off payment
All Kadence paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk to you at all.
If Kadence appeals to you, then click here to try it out for free today (and check out more live demos).
Enjoy lightning-fast speeds and a customizable design with Kadence's range of features and templates.
5. Breakdance: Best User-Friendlier Alternative to Oxygen Page Builder
Breakdance is a new yet powerful WordPress site creator that focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it a great choice for beginners. It utilizes the “drag-and-drop” method to enable you to quickly build and customize pages.
The theme comes with full WooCommerce capabilities, dedicated page-building elements, and a generous number of templates and design elements to help your website truly stand out.
If you’re nervous about trying a new theme developer, you will be reassured to understand that Breakdance was developed by Oxygen – a well-established WordPress page-building tool.
Breakdance Features
- Free plan available
- Generous 60-day money-back policy
- Uses Gutenberg page builder
- Drag-and-drop editing tool
- 120+ website templates
- 100+ design elements
- Compatible with all CDNs
- Built-in bloat eliminator
- Built-in caching and image optimization
Breakdance Template Examples
Breakdance Beauty Salon: This is a comprehensive template built specifically for beauty salons. It has a stunning layout and color palette, perfect for the beauty industry.
Breakdance Fitness Zone: This template has a powerful look with a striking color palette. Its use of black-and-white imagery adds to its impact.
Breakdance Cleaning: A template specifically for cleaning agencies. It features a simple but effective layout, including local business information such as Google Maps.
Breakdance: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 91/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 2s
- Total page size: 882Kb
- HTTP requests: 11
Breakdance Pricing
Breakdance offers two plans to choose from:
- Free plan: Lets you use the theme for free on a limited basis
- Pro plan: $149/year – unlocks all the features and design elements
If you upgrade to the paid plan you get access to a 60-day money-back guarantee where you can get your money back in full.
To see if Breakdance is suitable for your requirements. Sign up for free today (or check out more live demos).
Enjoy user-friendly drag-and-drop editing and a range of templates and design elements with Breakdance. Try it risk-free today!
6. Neve: Best Multipurpose Theme for Freelancers or Hobbyists
Neve is part of a group of themes offered by ThemeIsle. Neve has been built for speed while providing a multi-purpose theme with easily-customizable design elements and templates.
To help with speed, Neve features a lightweight design, is mobile-optimized, and comes with optimized code that is already perfectly optimized for SEO.
The theme features a simple block builder and lets you customize your website’s header and footer. Additionally, the theme provides specialized blog templates for those avid writers out there.
Neve Features
- Uses the visual drag-and-drop Gutenberg page builder
- Over 100+ website templates
- AMP compatible
- Blog-specific templates
- Customizable header and footer builder
- The Pro plan comes with Elementor Booster giving access to premium widgets
- WooCommerce support for smooth integration
- Integrates with all the top-rated page builders (like Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, and Divi Builder)
- Global color palettes available
- 100+ starter templates to choose from
Neve Template Examples
Neve NFT Illustrator: Keeping up with the times, Neve has provided this template specifically for NFT creators. The minimalistic design keeps the focus on the artist’s portfolio.
Neve Photography: Another template for creative individuals. This one focuses on photography and provides a clean space to provide examples of work.
Neve Music Band: A modern, eye-catching template for promoting bands and singers. The template provides space for a blog as well as showcasing discography and live tour dates.
Neve: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 90/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 2.2s
- Total page size: 998Kb
- HTTP requests: 13
Neve Pricing
To help you get started, Neve offers a limited free plan. Upgrading to one of its three paid plans will cost you:
- Personal plan: $69/year
- Business plan: $149/year
- Agency plan: $259/year
Additionally, both Neve paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try without risk.
Does Neve tick all your boxes? Get started for free right away (or check out their live demos).
Enjoy a lightweight and customizable design with Neve's range of features and templates. Get started for free today.
7. Blocksy: Best Theme for Minimalist Designs
Blocksy is a free WordPress theme that utilizes web technology, such as Babel, Webpack, and React, to bring you an ultra-fast experience.
It’s a lightweight theme built for the Gutenberg editor and has fully customizable options suitable for a wide range of business niches. Additionally, E-commerce stores will appreciate the full WooCommerce integration feature.
Blocksy is also fully compatible with other WordPress page builders such as Elementor and Beaver Builder and is fully SEO optimized for a smooth ride.
Blocksy Features
- Uses Gutenberg page builder
- 28+ starter WordPress website templates
- Ranks top with most speed testing tools
- Contains clean code that can be fully edited
- Supports translation for any language
- Has a live preview window so you can view changes without interrupting workflow
- Lets you Load JavaScript behavior when needed
- Compatible with top-rated page builders
- Full WooCommerce integration capabilities
- Built-in “lazy load” system to avoid wasting resources on unseen images
- Comes with valid schema markup and Google structured data
- Use the child theme to test without risk
Blocksy Template Examples
Blocksy Beverr: Designed specifically for design agencies. Featuring a minimalist design, the template lets you detail all your credentials and showcase your design skills.
Blocksy Restaurant: Perfect for any eaterie, the dark design lets the food imagery stand out. The hero sections let you highlight the most important information.
Blocksy Floreo: A warm layout created specifically for an eco-friendly online shop. The greenery-inspired design also makes it a good option for interior designers.
Blocksy: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 91/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 2.1s
- Total page size: 996Kb
- HTTP requests: 12
Blocksy Pricing
Blocksy has three plans available. You can either pay on a yearly basis or purchase a lifetime plan:
- Personal plan: $49/year or $149/lifetime
- Professional plan: $69/year or $199/lifetime
- Agency plan: $99/year or $299/lifetime
If you prefer not to pay, Blocksy has a free-for-life plan that despite having limited features, is still reasonably generous.
For those that do pay, you have a 14-day money-back guarantee in case you change your mind.
Like the sound of what Blocksy can do? Sign up for free here (or check out the starter themes).
8. Avada: Best Advanced Theme For WordPress Beginners
Avada is by ThemeFusion and ThemeForest and provides a beautiful theme and emphasizes its ease of use coupled with excellent support, video tutorials, and customer service. Because of this, it’s a great theme for beginners to sink their teeth into.
However, seasoned pros will also enjoy this theme thanks to its flexibility and total control over customization. Its live editing feature lets you see how your changes will look in real-time, plus you have access to over 120 design elements and 92 templates.
Avada is a little different as it is entirely managed in-house rather than relying on third-party tools. Overall, this multipurpose theme is one of the most downloaded of all time.
Avada Features
- Beginner friendly
- Uses Gutenberg page builder customization options
- Fusion Builder, a front-end, visual page builder
- 83 templates
- One of the must popular and used multipurpose WordPress theme on the market
- 100% maintained in-house without the use of third-party tools and plugins
- Live design interface for easy and intuitive customization
- Header and footer building tools
- Create popups, sliders, and overlays
- Use of the comprehensive multi-use content library
- Fully WooCommerce supported for creating online stores and e-commerce sites
- Fully responsive across all device types
- Top-class customer support and comprehensive tutorials
Avada Template Examples
Avada Retro: A trendy retro-inspired template with a color scheme to match. Great for creative and marketing agencies or anyone that wants to showcase their work.
Avada Handmade: An aesthetically pleasing template created for those who handmake products. Designed for WooCommerce capabilities, the template provides plenty of space to show off products.
Avada Festival: An eye-catching, animated design to promote a festival. Perfect for any live event, it contains everything you need to excite the reader.
Avada: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 87/100 A
- Fully loaded time: 2.9s
- Total page size: 988Kb
- HTTP requests: 14
Avada Pricing
Avada is available for a single price on a regular or extended license basis:
- Regular license: $69 (use to create a single product that end users cannot be charged for)
- Extended license: $2,950 (use to create a single product that end users can be charged for)
There is no free trial available for this theme but you can take advantage of a 30-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind after purchase.
Avada is one of the top-selling themes of all time. If you want to get on board, purchase Avada here (or check out a live demo).
Experience the flexibility and ease of use that Avada offers. Take your website to the next level with the most popular multipurpose WordPress theme on the market.
9. Kava: Best Theme for Bloggers
Kava is a theme developed by Crocoblock and has been created with bloggers in mind. It offers 50 different blog page styles, including grid, masonry, vertical, and creative blog layouts.
This is a fully responsive theme and compatible with WooCommerce, so you can incorporate an E-commerce store into your blog if you wish.
Overall, it’s a stylish-looking theme with great typography that’s simple to use and compatible with all devices.
Kava Features
- Use for free on a limited basis
- Uses Elementor Pro page builder
- Integrates with Crocoblock’s JetPlugins
- 50 blog page layouts
- Flexible single post page layouts
- Live customization tool with no coding required
- RTL language support for easy translation
- 100+ hooks for adding custom code
- WooCommerce ready
Kava Template Examples
Kava Grid: The classic layout for your blog.
Kava Masonry: Add a little variety to your blog page with the masonry layout.
Kava Vertical Justify: A clean and modern layout for blog post titles.
Kava: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 89/100 A
- Fully loaded time: 2.5s
- Total page size: 1,015Kb
- HTTP requests: 15
Kava Pricing
Kava is 100% free to use. There are no options to upgrade here. Try it out today!
Create a beautiful and responsive blog with Kava, the perfect theme for bloggers. With 50 different blog page styles and WooCommerce compatibility, Kava has everything you need to start your blogging journey.
The Top 3 Best Page Builder Plugins With Fast Loading Speeds
Next up, I’ve curated the top three page-building tools that give you super-fast WordPress themes.
1. Oxygen Builder: Best WordPress Website Builder for Experienced Users
Oxygen has been around since 2005 and is a software app created by Soflyy. It was initially a WordPress plugin but has since expanded so that users can create entirely new layouts.
With Oxygen, you get access to a flexible drag-and-drop building tool that lets you completely customize your whole website from within the WordPress dashboard.
When it comes to page-building tools, Oxygen is an anomaly because you do not need a theme to use it. In fact, Oxygen Builder will disable any theme you have installed on your WordPress site.
What this means is that if you use this tool, you will be creating a website from scratch. Think of it more like a website-building tool rather than a page builder.
For this reason, Oxygen Builder is recommended for the more advanced user and those well-versed in using this type of tool. For beginners, Oxygen recommends its sister site Breakdance as this is a true WordPress theme and much simpler to use.
Oxygen Builder Features
Because Oxygen Builder is a little different, its features look slightly different too:
- A complete website builder rather than just a page building tool
- Is quickly becoming one of the most popular page builders
- Uses an easy-to-use drag and drop page builder
- You get a tonne of stunning design options
- You can customize all visual elements of a WooCommerce online store
- Clean and bloat-free output for fast speeds
- CDN friendly
- Global color palette capabilities
- Coder friendly; Write PHP, CSS and JavaScript files
- Use on an unlimited number of sites
- Comes with lifetime support and updates
- Compatible with Gutenberg
Oxygen Builder Template Examples
Since Oxygen is not a theme, it does not have any templates for you to use. However, here’s a sneak peek at its user interface and drag-and-drop editing tool.
Oxygen Builder: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 91/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 1.9s
- Total page size: 875Kb
- HTTP requests: 12
Oxygen Builder Pricing
Oxygen offers three pricing solutions, and they are all one-off lifetime fees:
- Basic lifetime: $129
- WooCo lifetime: $149
- Ultimate lifetime: $179
There is no free trial or plan available but all lifetime fees have a 60-day money-back guarantee.
See for yourself how flexible Oxygen is by signing up here.
2. Hello Elementor: Best Theme and Page Builder Integration
Hello Theme Elementor Features
Here’s what you can expect from Hello Elementor:
- It uses Elementor Pro page builder
- Built by Elementor specifically for Elementor for seamless use
- Use with 100+ page widgets
- Feather-light theme with drag-and-drop building tool
- 100+ ready-made templates
- Header and footer editing tools
- Full WooCommerce building tools
- Clean, no-bloat coding
- Uses only 6kb of resources
- Loads in ¼ second
- SEO WP theme optimized for Google
Hello Elementor Template Examples
Hello Elementor fashion blog: For fashionistas and aspiring designers. This minimal, dark-themed website offers a place to write your bio and showcase your work.
Hello Elementor Digital marketing studio: A retro-themed design with matching imagery for digital studios to show off their services and skills.
Hello Elementor Winery: A fresh, minimal design created for wineries and wine tour operators.
Hello Elementor: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 90/100 A+
- Fully loaded time: 2.2s
- Total page size: 991kb
- HTTP requests: 14
Hello Elementor Pricing
Here’s the thing with Hello Elementor. It’s a free theme, but you need to purchase the Elementor Page Builder to actually use it. So it’s not really free.
Your best option is to get the Hello Theme + Page Builder + WordPress Hosting for $9.99 per month (when billed annually and it renews at $14.99/month)
You can also purchase the Elementor Pro page builder separately for the following costs:
- Essential plan: $59/year
- Advanced plan: $99/year
- Expert plan: $199/year
- Agency plan: $399/year
You don’t get a free trial for Elementor, but you do have a 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide it’s not for you.
Love the look of Hello Elementor? Get stuck in and try it out for yourself.
Experience the seamless integration of Hello Theme and Elementor Pro page builder, with over 100 ready-made templates and lightweight coding for lightning-fast loading speeds. Get started today and bring your website to life.
3. Divi: Best Theme Builder & Plugin for Design Features
Divi is brought to you by Elegant Themes and is a theme in itself as well as a powerful page-building tool. According to some, it is the most widely used theme worldwide.
Along with the theme itself, you get a website creator that entirely replaces the standard WordPress post editor.
Using an ultra-intuitive drag-and-drop interface, Divi is a highly visual editing tool suitable for beginners as well as advanced users. Every aspect can be customized without knowing a single jot of code.
Divi is great for all types of websites and all types of WordPress creators, from freelancers to enterprise-level agencies.
Divi Theme Features
- Uses Elegant Themes page builder
- A complete design framework for total customization
- Intuitive drag-and-drop building tool
- Complete visual editor with thousands of design options
- Custom CSS control
- Over 2,000 templates and free and premium themes
- Has loads of design features such as filters, effects, and animations
- Lightweight with zero bloat
- Eliminates render-blocking CSS
- Speed boosting options such as JavaScript deferral, Google Fonts caching
- WooCommerce enabled with a tonne of marketing options including split testing
Divi Template Examples
Divi fashion landing page: A well-thought-out and ultra-simple design for fashion websites. Designed to showcase work and keep the background noise minimal.
Divi pottery studio: For any pottery studio that wants to increase its visibility and expand its services. Plenty of space for images allows for the showcasing of work.
Divi elementary school: A bright and welcoming design specifically for elementary schools to help attract students and provide vital information.
Divi: The Speed Specs
- Page speed score: 86/100 A
- Fully loaded time: 3s
- Total page size: 1,225Kb
- HTTP requests: 15
Divi Pricing
Divi keeps it simple and has two pricing options available:
- Yearly access: $89/year
- Lifetime access: $249 one-time payment (lifetime!)
No free trial available here but you do get a 30-day money-back guarantee with both pricing options.
Has Divi caught your eye? Sign up here to try it out (or browse all of the designs). Check out my Divi review here.
Create a stunning and fully customized website using Divi's powerful page builder and over 2,000 templates and themes. With no coding required, Divi is perfect for beginners and advanced users alike. Get started today and bring your website vision to life.
What Is the Difference Between a WordPress Theme and a Page Builder?
This list contains both fast loading WordPress themes and page builders, but what exactly is the difference between them?
A WordPress theme is essentially a template that you can customize for your own needs. Often, there is a predetermined layout, or the theme has been designed for a specific purpose, such as E-commerce, blogging, etc.
On the other hand, page builders are tools that give you full control over the design of your WordPress site. These are the tools you use to actually create WordPress themes.
As a side note, Gutenberg is WordPress’ default page builder.
But here’s the thing.
To use a page-building tool, you must first install a theme. This can be a very bare theme, but you need one nonetheless. Furthermore, themes are generally only compatible with a single-page builder such as Gutenberg, Elementor, etc.
So if you have a page builder that you want to use, you must select a theme that will work with it.
Of course, there are always exceptions, and Oxygen Builder is a tool that does not require a theme (but I’ll cover that later in the article).
How Do We Measure the Speed of a WordPress Theme?
Finding out the loading speed of a WordPress theme is as simple as entering the URL into a site performance testing app. For this article, I’ve chosen to use GTmetrix performance score, but there are many other apps out there, such as WebPagetest and Google PageSpeed Insights.
The metrics these tools display are:
- PageSpeed score: This is a score between 1 – 100 given by Google for how fast your WordPress pages load. 100 is the top score, and you should aim to be between 90 – 100.
- Fully loaded time: This is the time it takes for the page to fully load (all images, text, etc., present on the page). It’s not scored but measured in actual time of milliseconds, seconds, etc.
- Total page size: We’re talking downloadable page size here, not the dimensions. The larger the download size is, the slower your page will load. For the fastest loading speeds, you want a page size of 250 kilobytes or less.
- Requests: This refers to HTTP requests and how many the browser has to make for your web page to load. The fewer there are, the speedier the response will be, so always aim to keep the number under 50. For best results, get them at 25 or under.
Why Site Speed Matters
Did you know that;
- Pages that loaded in 2.4 seconds had a 1.9% conversion rate
- At 3.3 seconds, the conversion rate was 1.5%
- At 4.2 seconds, the conversion rate was less than 1%
- At 5.7+ seconds, the conversion rate was 0.6%
When people leave your website, you not only lose potential revenue but also all the money and time you spent generating traffic to your website.
And if you want to get to the first page of Google and stay there, you need a website that loads up fast.
Google’s algorithms prefer displaying websites that offer a great user experience (and site speed is a huge factor). In Google’s eyes, a website that offers a good user experience generally has a lower bounce rate and loads up fast.
If your website is slow, most of your visitors will bounce back, resulting in a loss in search engine rankings. Moreover, your website needs to load up fast if you want to convert more visitors into customers or subscribers.
If you want your website to load up fast and secure the first spot in search engine results, you will need a WordPress theme that is fully optimized for speed.
The WordPress theme you use will greatly impact how fast your website loads.
If your theme offers every feature under the sun, is bloated with scripts and resources, and comes with lots of low-quality code, your website’s speed will suffer.
If your theme isn’t lightweight and optimized for speed, whatever you do to improve your website’s speed will prove in vain.
Why most WordPress themes aren’t optimized for speed
When you search for WordPress themes on Google, you will come across dozens of themes that look professional and offer great design.
You can see how responsive the theme is or how cool the design looks, but you can’t see the code behind the theme.
The majority of Most WordPress themes are poorly coded and come bloated with dozens of resources (images CSS and javascript) that can slow down your website.
Most WordPress theme developers will shout from their rooftops that all their themes are optimized for speed.
But here’s the truth: Most WordPress themes aren’t optimized for speed.
In fact, most WordPress themes don’t even follow the WordPress Community Coding Standards. Any theme that doesn’t follow these standards can and with time will become vulnerable to hackers.
These coding standards ensure themes are coded to work efficiently and aren’t vulnerable to hackers.
How to test a WordPress theme’s load time?
If you haven’t already purchased the theme or are not the developer of the theme, then the only way to find out if a theme is optimized for speed is to test the loading speed of the WordPress theme’s demo site.
To test the speed of a WordPress theme demo site, visit GTMetrix, enter the theme demo site’s URL and click submit.
The tool will take a few seconds to test the website and then show you the number of seconds it takes to load the site.
Another good tool to check many pages at once is BatchSpeed; this free tool lets you bulk speed test multiple URLs using Google’s Page Speed checker.
One More Thing You Need For a Fast Loading Site; WordPress Web Hosting
The theme you use on your WordPress site will have a big impact on your site’s speed. But the web hosting service you use will probably have as big of an impact as your site’s theme.
This is the reason why web hosting is the #1 performance factor in WordPress’s official optimization guide.
If you host your website on a crappy web hosting service, you will get crappy results in terms of site speed. Most web hosting service providers offer cheap plans.
But these web hosts stuff too many accounts on a single low-quality server. This results in a slow experience for all the websites. And if one of your neighbor sites starts using too many server resources, the whole server might go down resulting in your site going down with it.
If you want your website to load fast and be up at all times, you should go with SiteGround. It’s my #1 choice when it comes to fastest WordPress hosting services.
SiteGround offers a free migration service and their helpful and skilled support answers your queries within seconds. Other hosting features worth mentioning are:
Check out my review to find out why I love and trust SiteGround, or if you prefer a beginner-friendly host like Bluehost’s web hosting.
Questions & Answers
Our Verdict ⭐
It’s clear you are spoilt for choice when it comes to fast-loading WordPress themes. However, some are certainly more daunting to use than others.
Ultimately, you need to choose the theme that looks best for your requirements and level of expertise. After all, you have to like the design as well as be able to actually use it.
There are themes to suit everyone’s budget, from free to premium and everything in between. Although, I would always recommend getting yourself a lifetime deal if you plan to use your chosen theme with multiple websites. It’ll save you a tonne in the long run.
I recommend GeneratePress ✨ it’s the best and fastest WordPress theme in 2024. It’s not only optimized for lightning-fast performance but also offers a user-friendly interface that caters to both beginners and professionals.
GeneratePress is a no-bloat, lightweight WordPress theme that focuses on speed, performance, SEO, and accessibility.
Secure your lifetime access to GeneratePress with a single payment. No more recurring fees!
To help you choose the right WordPress theme, these are my recommendations for building personal blogs, business websites, e-commerce websites and online stores
- For a completely free theme that you can easily customize, go for Twenty Twenty-Four
- For a premium version theme with the best lifetime deal, you should go for GeneratePress
- And for gorgeous templates across a huge range of industries and niches, choose Astra
