Finding the most lightweight WordPress theme may seem like a lost cause. Are you supposed to test every WordPress theme you’re interested in and compare the differences in millisecond load times to find the fastest WordPress theme?
That’s why we did the work for you.
Using four different speed tests, a new installation for each WordPress theme, and the same server for each WordPress theme’s speed testing, we were able to narrow down the fastest WordPress themes to a shortlist.
In addition, we compared the best of the best WordPress themes to show which of them have the highest performance scores and fastest speeds.
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Let’s get started!
How We Tested the Fastest WordPress Themes
Our search began with WordPress themes we’ve encountered in the past, along with the best WordPress themes based on popularity, high numbers of downloads, and quality customer reviews.
We added to our list of WordPress themes from the WordPress Repository to identify newer WordPress themes, and highly-rated options that we may have missed from the previous collection.
The speed testing process went like this:
- Install and activate the theme on a blank WordPress sandbox installation. This allows for standardization in WordPress hosting and no complications with other WordPress plugins or website files.
- Leave the WordPress theme as-is, with no added media, menus, pages, or blog posts.
- Run the website with the WordPress theme through the GTmetrix Speed Test.
- Run the WordPress theme through the Pingdom Speed Test.
- Run the WordPress theme through the PageSpeed Insights Test to evaluate mobile and desktop speed.
Here’s a summary of the testing tools we used.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix takes a website and breaks down its speed and optimization. It’s an excellent tool for checking on performance issues and if a WordPress theme is way too cluttered with unnecessary files.
Since November 2020, GTmetrix is powered by Lighthouse and has a new report design. The new report design includes an updated GTmetrix Grade based on the new Performance and Structure scores.
- Structure Score: It’s based on both Lighthouse audits and GTmetrix’s own custom audits. In ideal situations, it’s almost the same as the Performance Score.
- GTmetrix Grade: It’s a weighted grade of both the Performance and Structure scores. The grade considers both the website’s raw performance and actual performance experienced by users.
- Web Vitals: They’re metrics established by Google as key to users’ perception of performance. These key metrics include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Total Blocking Time (TBT), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
- Performance Score: The Lighthouse Performance score captured by GTmetrix during their tests. Higher is better.
Pingdom
Pingdom is similar to GTmetrix, but we like to run both side-by-sides since they offer slightly different metrics.
- Performance Grade: This is a cumulative grade out of 80. The goal is to get as high of a score as possible. Some elements that contribute to the score include content size, errors, redirects, requests, and more.
- Page Size: The size of your total website files. The theme affects this drastically. Lower is better.
- Load Time: The amount of time it takes Pingdom to load the entire website with a theme installed. Lower is better.
- Requests: The number of server requests to deliver your theme and website content to the user. Fewer is ideal.
PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights excels with displaying how user experience is the most critical part of having a fast WordPress theme. It focuses on how quickly content is shown to the user, while also revealing the aspects of the WordPress theme that make for slow delivery times.
We use both mobile and desktop tests for our measurements as it gives a better overall picture.
Here are the primary data points to know about:
- Performance Score: This score is out of 80. Some elements that contribute to the performance score include speed index, time to deliver content and idle timing.
- Total Blocking Time: The time spent waiting for a download to start, typically because other assets such as stylesheets and scripts have a higher priority.
- Largest Contentful Paint: The amount of time taken for your WordPress theme and website to show the largest content item. Lower is better.
- Speed Index: How much time elapses for every content item to appear to the user. Lower is better.
- First Contentful Paint: The amount of time taken for your theme and website to show the first content item. Again, lower is ideal.
- Time to Interactive: Interactivity is different than visibility. Essentially, it means that a button might be visible, but the user may not be able to click it yet. So, this timing should be longer than the Speed Index, but we still want a lower number.
- Cumulative Layout Shift: Measures the page’s visual stability. Does the page content move or jump unexpectedly, especially during the initial load? A CLS score of <0.1 is considered good, while >0.25 is deemed poor.
Now that the testing method and tools are clear, it’s time to look at our results and find the fastest WordPress theme for your website.
Note: The WordPress themes are listed in no particular order. Read their individual test results and conclusions to pick your fastest WordPress theme.
- Hello Elementor
If you’re familiar with the Elementor Page Builder, you know how fast and easy it can be to build a website without using any code. Elementor is a top pick in the world of drag-and-drop page builders, so it’s no surprise that the same developers have produced a WordPress theme that’s fast and versatile, called Hello Elementor.
The WordPress theme is marketed as fast and flexible. As you may assume, it combines nicely with Elementor and many other WordPress plugins like WooCommerce, Yoast, and more.
The mobile design performs well in testing and provides a smooth interface, so your audience isn’t confused with a glitchy menu or text. The theme starts you off with a relatively blank slate, but the power of Elementor comes into play for designing what you need for any industry.
Pricing
The Hello Elementor theme is available as a free download.
The Elementor Page Builder is free, with paid plans starting at $49 per year.The paid theme provides additional templates, widgets, and element builders.
Hello Elementor Features
- The Hello Elementor theme integrates with Elementor, one of the most popular page builders out there.
- Create multilingual and translated websites with help from RTL support.
- The base design and theme files are minimalistic and straightforward, allowing breakneck speeds and an overall clean interface.
- The theme integrates with popular plugins like WooCommerce, Yoast, and WPML.
- Hello Elementor has built-in tools for rapidly designing landing pages.
- Some of the page builder elements that come with Hello Elementor include video, headings, posts, spacers, Google Maps, portfolios, and many more.
- With the Elementor integration, you can make any website with the theme and page builder.
- You receive a beautiful responsive design for all devices.
- Hello Elementor has a strong following and solid support resources, making it easy for you to reach out for help and find articles online.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
When it comes to page speeds and lightweight files, Hello Elementor is a WordPress theme to look at. The scores reflect that.
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 80%
- Structure Score: 96%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 727ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
- Fully Loaded Time: 897ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 92
- Page Size: 127.40 KB
- Load Time: 771ms
- Requests: 14
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 93
- First Contentful Paint: 2.5s
- Speed Index: 2.7s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.6s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 2.5s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 50ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 99
- First Contentful Paint: 0.7s
- Speed Index: 0.7s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 0.8s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.7s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
Test Conclusions
Hello Elementor’s GTmetrix Performance Score is phenomenal. Its Pingdom grade is a bit less than ideal. It used to score highly in Google’s PageSpeed Insights before, but those lightning-fast loading times have become a tad slower now.
- Neve
The ThemeIsle Company is known for creating speedy WordPress themes and plugins, many of which are free with premium upgrades. During our tests, the Neve theme stood out as the fastest WordPress theme from ThemeIsle, with its multipurpose design and easily customizable layout.
We also like Neve since it’s made to work well with WooCommerce, the most popular online store plugin for WordPress.
Neve works with Elementor and many other top page builders. It’s a lightweight and mobile-first WordPress theme. Reliable updates and support are also mainstays from the ThemeIsle brand.
You’ll also find reliable coding and a flexible structure to ensure that you can build any website you want.
Pricing
The Neve theme is a free download, with premium versions starting at $49.
The paid theme provides extra features like a header and blog boost, custom layouts, and unlimited support and updates for the websites with the theme.
Neve Features
- The Neve theme focuses on mobile interfaces for faster loading and more robust experiences on phones and tablets.
- The premium version of the theme provides Elementor Page Builder upgrades, blog boosters, and “scroll to top” features, among many other upgrades.
- The Blog Booster feature expands your blogging options with thumbnails, layouts, and metadata elements.
- The theme is compatible with AMP for generating a user-first interface.
- Custom designing is provided in the header and footer areas.
- Testing and file size show a fast, lightweight WordPress theme.
- Integrate with popular page builders.
- Some of the demos are made just for certain page builders.
- Neve has a library of custom-made demos to launch a beautiful website within minutes. The categories include ecommerce, blog, entertainment, travel, and more.
- You can adjust your website layout with settings for full-width and contained versions.
- The WooCommerce Booster tool implements additional ecommerce elements like advanced galleries, checkout modules, and billing details.
- The Header Booster is great for adding social buttons, contact information, and breadcrumbs.
- You can generate custom layouts and incorporate white labeling if running an agency.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
Neve is another premium theme to keep your eye on if you’re trying to improve your mobile speeds. The requests are low, and its file sizes look desirable as well.
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 80%
- Structure Score: 99%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 487ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
- Fully Loaded Time: 800ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 98
- Page Size: 43.20 KB
- Load Time: 586ms
- Requests: 6
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 80
- First Contentful Paint: 1.0s
- Speed Index: 1.2s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 1.0s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 1.0s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 80
- First Contentful Paint: 0.3s
- Speed Index: 0.6s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 0.4s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.3s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
Test Conclusions
Neve is a super performance-optimized, lightweight WordPress theme that outshines almost all competitors. It delivered a 80 score in the PageSpeed Insights test on both mobile and desktop. Plus, it also produced a high 98 Pingdom grade. At just 6, its number of requests is the lowest of all the WordPress themes tested, and its page size is the second-lowest. Its loading times are also best in its class.
- Astra
The Astra theme is not only growing in popularity at a rapid rate, but the WordPress theme moves quickly when activated and performed well during our tests. The whole point of Astra is to have a premade website all ready to go once you install it on WordPress.
That’s done with demos for multiple industries, and you can customize most elements of this theme without having to touch the code.
Page builders integrate with Astra theme, and you can link the theme with third-party plugins like LearnDash, WooCommerce, and Yoast. Along with hooks and filters, translation settings, and demos, it is a must-try if you’re interested in a speedy setup.
Pricing
There’s a free theme and a premium version. Astra Pro is listed at $49. The Essential Bundle is $89 per year, and the Growth Bundle is $249 per year but we often see discounts from Astra theme.
Astra Features
- There are beautiful prebuilt demos for designs in pet care, outdoor adventure, organic stores, custom printing companies, and more.
- The premium website layouts include options for padded, full-width, and boxed pages.
- The theme integrates with high-end page builders like Gutenberg, Elementor, and Beaver Builder. In fact, some of the demos are made just for those builders.
- The theme has unique settings for WooCommerce that you wouldn’t find from regular WordPress themes.
- The layout settings include adjusting your headers, adding sidebars, and adjusting single-page layouts.
- Control the entire design of your blog through the customizer.
- You can translate the theme into various languages.
- The theme has a mega menu and mobile header features.
- The hooks and filters are ideal for extending functionality.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
Can a multipurpose theme with many demos provide top-notch speeds? You bet it can.
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 80%
- Structure Score: 98%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 649ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
- Fully Loaded Time: 857 ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 98
- Page Size: 51.8 KB
- Load Time: 531ms
- Requests: 6
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 80
- First Contentful Paint: 1.1s
- Speed Index: 1.5s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 1.2s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 1.1s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 80
- First Contentful Paint: 0.3s
- Speed Index: 0.4s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 0.3s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.3s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
Test Conclusions
In terms of scores from all three tests, Astra is a high-performer. The scores are 80, 98, and 80— close to perfect in every area!
The requests are at 6, and the page size is relatively small, meaning there’s no junk weighing the theme down right out of the box. Overall, Astra performs well even when implementing its larger demo items, which is great since they all look beautiful.
- GeneratePress
From all three tests, GeneratePress was one of the fastest WordPress themes. It’s a versatile theme in a sleek little package, boasting integrations with multiple page builders, WooCommerce support, and various sidebar and widget locations.
The ratings and reviews show that GeneratePress has an incredible following. You can download a free version or opt to upgrade your features to the premium version.
The premium theme comes with extra modules for typography, demos, colors, and more. I particularly like how small the original theme file size is, along with the demo files. This indicates that it will not weigh down your website or cause problems on a server.
Pricing
There’s a free version to download. The premium theme sells for $59. Upgrades are yearly if you want continued support and updates. There is also a one-off lifetime payment available.
Notable Features
- According to our testing, the theme has fast speeds and small file sizes.
- Import and export all theme options with the click of a button.
- It’s compatible with many WordPress plugins like WooCommerce and page builders.
- You can add backgrounds to several parts of your theme.
- It has a wide range of theme colors and typography options for customization.
- Make an advanced website menu with the help of mobile headers, sticky navigation, and more.
- Hooks and filters are available for extending the functionality of your website.
- The theme is translation-ready for over 20 languages.
- Blogging features are more advanced than other themes, as it uses infinite scrolling, column controls, and image adjustment settings.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
During our testing, GeneratePress performed well across the board. It’s awe-inspiring how fast the pages load.
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 80%
- Structure Score: 99%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 546ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
- Fully Loaded Time: 688ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 98
- Page Size: 38.80 KB
- Load Time: 559ms
- Requests: 6
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 80
- First Contentful Paint: 1.0s
- Speed Index: 1.3s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 1.2s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 1.0s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 80
- First Contentful Paint: 0.3s
- Speed Index: 0.4s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 0.4s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.3s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
Test Conclusions
The minimal file size shows its strength in the testing for GeneratePress. The theme has close to perfect scores all across the board. Its requests are the lowest as well.
This success in speed carries over to the PageSpeed Insights test, as we can see another almost perfect score and rapid loading times.
- OceanWP
The OceanWP theme has a professional look for small businesses and agencies by default. It also includes creative demos for companies and industries like fitness clubs, shoe stores, and chocolate companies. You can browse through the dozens of themes on the website to see which ones are best for you before opting for this theme.
Though a fast theme, OceanWP didn’t hold up that well in our speed tests, as we’ll outline below. However, the theme performance remains solid when you implement the demos.
Quite a few extensions are available for OceanWP, adding to its extendability. For instance, you can add a sticky header. The Woo Popup is a nice touch, and the white labeling is also offered as a premium extension.
Pricing
OceanWP has a free version for everyone to download.
The premium version is mainly a bundle of extensions with additional websites and ongoing support. That starts at $43 per year and goes up to $127 per year for agencies.
Notable Features
- You get to pick from a long list of unique and beautiful demos to design your website. Some of them include studio, outfit, and event demos.
- The theme plays nice with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder.
- It’s a fully responsive theme that looks good on smaller devices and performs well. Many themes claim this but don’t deliver.
- A few WooCommerce features with OceanWP include a native cart popup, a floating cart bar, and a quick view.
- Translation tools are built into the theme.
- You can choose from many extensions like the popup notice, Instagram integration, and full-screen scrolling tool.
- The OceanWP theme supports WooCommerce, turning your website into an online store.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
Starting out, it appears that OceanWP is a tad slower than others, but that still doesn’t mean you should overlook it. The main area to be concerned about is mobile speed. But again, the speeds are good, but it looks a little slower when compared to the best.
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 99%
- Structure Score: 95%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 782ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
- Fully Loaded Time: 990ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 91
- Page Size: 303.60 KB
- Load Time: 749ms
- Requests: 19
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 88
- First Contentful Paint: 3.0s
- Speed Index: 3.2s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 3.0s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 3.1s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 70ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.001
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 97
- First Contentful Paint: 0.9s
- Speed Index: 1.0s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 1.0s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.9s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
Test Conclusions
OceanWP has a great GTmetrix performance score, but its Pingdom and PageSpeed Insight scores are lower than the competition. However, scores of 91, 88, 97 are still better than the vast majority of themes out there, making it one of the fastest WordPress theme options.
With OceanWP, you may see slightly slower loading times on mobile devices. Hopefully, that improves in the future to make it a top-notch theme for speed on all devices.
- Zakra
The Zakra theme is from the folks at ThemeGrill and provides a multipurpose solution with endless possibilities and a speedy interface. The theme is a fast and secure option with over 40 demos to create a unique look for your website.
Our tests confirmed that the speed claim is, in fact, true, as it produced speeds in line with the top performers in the business.
Zakra comes as a free theme with powerful features, but the true customization prowess is available in the premium version, with advanced headers, WooCommerce tools, and blogging options.
One of the things we like the most about Zakra is how well-documented and supported the theme is compared to many free themes online. There are tutorials to answer critical questions, and a customer support rep is available if you can’t find something.
Pricing
The free version is, of course, free.
The premium theme sells for $69 per year, with higher pricing to support installation on more websites. You can also opt for a monthly plan.
Notable Features
- The core theme offers a fast and reliable build to generate sleek websites for small businesses.
- Make multiple footer layouts with more columns and options for full-width footers or buttons to scroll to the top of the page.
- Choose from a library of demos focusing on dentists to wedding themes.
- The theme is packaged with hundreds of typography options.
- The theme is compatible with Gutenberg and a few other page builders.
- The header module is versatile and creative because of the multiple top header bars, transparent header options, and several buttons.
- It’s SEO-friendly and great-looking on mobile devices.
- You can edit the entire menu without sticking with the standard WordPress menu settings. This includes mobile menus, dropdown menus, and primary menu customizations.
- Adjust the style of your blog with help from masonry layouts and grid designs.
- Sidebars are highly flexible.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
We like the design and speed coming from Zakra. Especially when it comes to the mobile speeds and the lowers request counts.
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 80%
- Structure Score: 98%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 523ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
- Fully Loaded Time: 661ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 96
- Page Size: 58.90 KB
- Load Time: 519ms
- Requests: 8
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 99
- First Contentful Paint: 1.5s
- Speed Index: 1.8s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 1.6s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 1.5s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 80
- First Contentful Paint: 0.5s
- Speed Index: 0.7s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 0.5s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.5s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
Test Conclusions
Zakra tests revealed solid scores across the board, with the GTmetrix performance score and fully loaded time being a notable success. It takes less than 2 seconds for the first theme item to show up and become interactive. Overall, it sits in the middle of the pack in this guide.
- Responsive
The Responsive theme clocks in with blazing fast speeds. It’s also a worthy theme for building a website for any industry. The blogging functionality stands out, and its over 40 demo website files are there for you to install full website features, including travel sites, small business showcases, and portfolios.
These demos are for Gutenberg and Elementor, both of which run well on mobile devices and feature clean code and low-profile files that don’t conflict with plugins.
Pricing
The core Responsive theme is entirely free of charge, even for most demos.
There is, however, a Pro Version. They sell their Personal plan for $47 per year on one website. The Business Plan is listed at $67 per year, and the Pro version is $97 per year. A few extra features include auto-updates, interactive carousels, video tutorials, pricing tables, and portfolio widgets.
Notable Features
- The speed test produces consistently high scores, with SEO elements built into the theme to complement the speeds.
- The Pro Version grants you unlimited color options, header/footer layouts, and extended tools for WooCommerce.
- It’s a responsive theme that looks nice on all devices.
- The theme highlights custom typography opportunities, with styling options, system fonts, and Google Fonts.
- You can integrate with popular page builders. A few of the demos are made for Gutenberg and Elementor, but they also work with Visual Composer, Divi, and more.
- Create a community website with sleek integrations with BuddyPress and bbPress.
- Integrate with top plugins like WooCommerce and WPML.
- The theme is fully customizable, with buttons, colors, and layouts to match your brand.
- Quite a few WooCommerce options are built into the theme, such as custom layouts, colors, and quick views for product images.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
Responsive has surprisingly fast page load times. The mobile results are interesting, considering the name of the theme.
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 80%
- Structure Score: 96%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 560ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
- Fully Loaded Time: 865ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 95
- Page Size: 132.40 KB
- Load Time: 629ms
- Requests: 11
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 98
- First Contentful Paint: 1.9s
- Speed Index: 2.4s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.0s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 1.9s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 8ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.001
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 99
- First Contentful Paint: 0.6s
- Speed Index: 0.8s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 0.7s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.6s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0
Test Conclusions
Though not the best, it’s good to see that a theme called Responsive performs well in the PageSpeed Insights Mobile test. The loading times aren’t bad for the theme on a mobile device, and they improve further on a desktop.
There’s nothing to cringe about for any of these scores, seeing as how the requests are low, the loading time is fast, and the page size isn’t insufficient at all.
- Hestia
From the makers of Neve, Hestia is another unique theme from ThemeIsle. It’s a modern one-page theme that aims to help you set up your website for any business.
Hestia is built for performance and user experience from the get-go. It also supports WooCommerce, so you can get your online store up and running quickly and effortlessly.
Pricing
Hestia is a premium theme, but you can visit their website to take a test drive of the theme.
Its Personal license goes for $80/year, while its Business license costs $150/year (usually discounted). If you plan to use it on multiple websites, you can also opt for its Agency plan costing $347/year.
The Business plan includes Starter websites and priority support. Hestia’s Agency plan consists of all of the above and adds White Label and Live Chat support.
Notable Features
- The theme supports almost all major page builders, including Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor.
- Hestia is Translation & RTL Ready so that you can build a website in multiple languages. Every element in this theme can be translated with plugins. You can also use any RTL language.
- Being a premium theme, it comes with helpful features such as 1-Click updates and support.
- The theme is SEO friendly as it comes with an SEO-ready structure and clean, optimized code. This means that Google will love your website.
- Hestia includes video tutorials to guide you through the process of building your WordPress website.
- You can use its Live Customizer to fine-tune your website’s looks and see the changes instantly.
- Hestia includes a responsive, user-friendly mega menu. Using it, you can easily arrange and organize your submenu content. Plus, you’ll have complete control over your menu’s design and structure.
Fastest WordPress Theme Analysis
Can Hestia stand up to its sibling Neve? Let’s check its stats!
GTmetrix
- Performance Score: 80%
- Structure Score: 95%
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 665ms
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.01
- Fully Loaded Time: 883ms
Pingdom
- Performance Grade: 92
- Page Size: 218.30 KB
- Load Time: 564ms
- Requests: 18
PageSpeed Insights (Mobile)
- Performance Score: 88
- First Contentful Paint: 3.0s
- Speed Index: 3.0s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 3.0s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 3.0s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.007
PageSpeed Insights (Desktop)
- Performance Score: 99
- First Contentful Paint: 0.8s
- Speed Index: 0.8s
- Large Contentful Paint (LCP): 0.9s
- Time to Interactive (TTI): 0.8s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.011
Test Conclusions
Hestia scored a perfect 80% GTmetrix performance score. However, its Pingdom grade of 92 is a tad lower than the competition. Even its requests are on the higher side. Its PageSpeed Insights Mobile test is nothing to talk much about either.
Compared to Neve, one of the fastest themes we tested, Hestia is nowhere close to it. Nevertheless, it is still a knockout when you consider most of the themes out there, earning it a spot on our list here.
The Fastest WordPress Themes Ranked
| Themes | GTmetrix Score | Pingdom Grade | PageSpeed Insights (Mobile) | PageSpeed Insights (Desktop) |
| Astra | 80% | 98 | 80 | 80 |
| GeneratePress | 80% | 98 | 80 | 80 |
| Hello Elementor | 80% | 92 | 93 | 99 |
| Hestia | 80% | 92 | 88 | 99 |
| Neve | 80% | 98 | 80 | 80 |
| OceanWP | 99% | 91 | 88 | 97 |
| Responsive | 80% | 95 | 98 | 99 |
| Zakra | 80% | 96 | 99 | 80 |
You may have noticed that the WordPress themes above are in no particular order. However, it’s essential to see how they compare in speed and performance tests.
Although it’s impossible to get a clear-cut view of which WordPress theme is fastest, you can rank them based on the information collected.
Takeaways
- The GTmetrix Performance Score varies from theme to theme, but not much. All are above 99.
- Astra, GeneratePress, and Neve are the only ones that scored 80 in the PageSpeed Insights Mobile test.
- OceanWP, and Hestia have low PageSpeed Insights Mobile scores, with Hello Elementor also slightly lower than the top performers.
- OceanWP theme has the worst cumulative scores of all the themes tested.
- Although not bad, Hestia, Hello Elementor, and OceanWP have the lowest Pingdom scores.
We tested some of the fastest WordPress themes available for their speed and compared the results we gathered. A lightweight and optimized WordPress theme is crucial to have, but you shouldn’t forget about choosing a performance-focused web hosting service to make sure your website is set up for success from the get-go. Bluehost takes speed and optimization seriously.
Now it’s your turn: when it comes to speed, what’s your preferred WordPress theme? We’d like to see your recommendations!
Fastest WordPress Themes: FAQs
What Is the Fastest WordPress Theme?
From our tests, GeneratePress, Astra, and Neve were found to be the fastest WordPress themes.
What Is the Fastest Free WordPress Theme?
Based on our thorough testing, GeneratePress and Astra were found to be the fastest free WordPress themes.
What Makes a WordPress Theme Fast?
A WordPress theme’s performance depends on many factors. Some of the critical ones include adhering to best coding practices, generating fewer HTTP requests, having an optimized page size, using as little JS as possible, and having well-structured WordPress theme directories.
How Do I Make Our WordPress Theme Faster?
A WordPress theme’s performance depends on multiple factors. For starters, you can enable caching, optimize images, add a CDN, and reduce the overall page size, HTTP requests, and external services.
How Can I Check the Speed of a WordPress Theme?
Use a website speed testing tool to check a WordPress theme’s speed. I recommend using GTmetrix, Pingdom, and PageSpeed Insights.
How Do I Optimize Our WordPress Theme?
There are many ways to optimize WordPress themes, from opting for a fast WordPress hosting provider to using speed and image optimization plugins, employing a CDN, enabling caching, and reducing the overall size of your pages by using videos efficiently and avoiding too many third party scripts.
For a quick and easy boost to your overall optimization, consider also minifying your code.