Are you searching for a fast-loading WordPress theme? Do you want to increase your WordPress website’s speed? We have the list of the fastest WordPress themes in 2023.
Why need a Fast Loading WordPress Theme?
No one wants a slow website. People don’t want to wait for websites to load for more than a few seconds and quickly exit your site. Search engines use site speed to rank your site. If your website is slow you could lose your SEO and thereby lose your site’s traffic.
How we tested the Themes
We created a sample page with contents and tested all the themes on the same page.
We used free tools on the internet such as Pingdom, GTmetrix, and Google PageSpeed Insights.
The themes have been tested on a staging website with moderate hosting speed. Loading time very much depends on hosting and if you test these themes with faster hosting service, you could get better loading times.
We have not only tested the fast loading free, lightweight versions of the themes but we have tested the Pro versions with all of their heavy modules.
Theme + Elementor Page builder
Using a Page Builder increases the page size and the page loading time. So we have also tested these themes with Elementor Page Builder to know which theme loads the fastest when used with Elementor. Now you can even say Fastest Elementor Themes.
We created a test page with Elementor Pro using many of Elementor’s widgets and tested the page loading times.
Also See Elementor Pro Page Builder Review
Fastest WordPress Themes – 2023 (Free & Paid)
Themes in this list have a free, lightweight version and powerful, fast-loading Pro themes. All of the themes mentioned in this list have free versions and you can also say this list has the Fastest Free WordPress themes. Both the Free and Pro are fully responsive in desktop and mobile versions.
GeneratePress
When the GeneratePress theme was used on the same page, the page size increased, but it was still very fast.
Google PageSpeed score: 86 GTmetrix Performance score: 96%
GeneratePress Free Theme
The free version of GeneratePress is a fast-loading multipurpose theme, which is very much performance-focused.
It has a minimalist look with a full-width header, a widgetized footer, and various post formats. It also has a blog-style layout and a shop section.
GeneratePress Premium Theme
GeneratePress premium version is very powerful with many modules. When all of the premium modules are activated, it made the theme bulky and had increased loading time.
But not all modules are necessary, and it is best to enable only modules required to maintain the speed. The premium version gives you lots of customization options and additional features to make your site more flexible.
GeneratePress with Elementor
GeneratePress with Elementor page builder is fast even with the increased page size. So it is one of the fastest Elementor themes. GeneratePress theme is good with many other popular page builders.
Neve
Neve theme despite having more number of requests had a quick loading time. Using Neve theme with Gutenberg editor is a pleasure.
Google PageSpeed score: 86 GTmetrix Performance score: 97%
Neve Free Theme
Neve is a free and flexible business WordPress theme. It is suitable for all kinds of business websites and has pre-made Elementor layouts.
Neve Pro Theme
Neve Pro though it adds weight, it still maintains the speed like the free version. It comes with 10+ premium Gutenberg blocks. The Pro version gives you extended WooCommerce options and it is one of the fastest WooCommerce themes.
It has more pre-made layouts and enables you to quickly create an awesome-looking website for yourself or your business.
Neve with Elementor
Neve has special integrations with Elementor page builder, and the theme is quite fast as other themes mentioned here. It has an Elementor Booster module and comes with 7+ Elementor widgets.
Astra
We found Astra to be the fastest WordPress theme, and it has recorded the quickest loading time in our tests. The Pro version was also, and it was the fasted theme with Elementor page builder.
Google PageSpeed score: 88 GTmetrix Performance score: 95%
Astra Free theme
Astra free version is a lightweight and responsive WordPress theme. It was really fast because the page size was really low and the loading time was the fastest.
It is not just a fast theme but its customizability and flexibility along with its integrations make it one of the best multipurpose themes.
Astra Pro Theme
In the Astra Pro theme, we activated all the Pro modules which increased the page size, but it still had a very fast loading time.
The Pro version is loaded with many powerful features like Many Header options, WooCommerce widgets, Many Site layout options, integrations with many popular plugins, etc.,
Astra with Elementor
Using Elementor page builder with Astra theme made the page loading a little bit slower. It normally works with many page builders. But it was still the fastest theme to be used with Elementor Pro and it is one of the fastest Elementor themes.
OceanWP
OceanWP theme on the same page had a fast loading time but more than that it had a very low page size which was impressive.
Google PageSpeed score: 85 GTmetrix Performance score: 96%
OceanWP Free Theme
OceanWP is a lightweight and highly extendible WordPress theme. It is the most feature-packed free theme available and has several options to personalize your website, multiple widget regions, and responsive design.
It is one of the fastest WooCommerce themes that comes with seamless WooCommerce integration and there are so many elements that you can customize
OceanWP Pro Bundle
There was a concise loading time, and page size remained small with OceanWP theme Pro extensions.
There is no single Pro version, but in the Pro bundle, you get a list of extensions that extended the features of the theme. You can activate only the feature needed. We tested the theme with all the Pro extensions.
OceanWP with Elementor
OceanWP theme is also very page builder friendly. It has a special Elementor widget extension in the Pro bundle. With Elementor page builder OceanWP was faster than GeneratePress theme. You can build websites with creative designs with OceanWP and Elementor.
Total
Total is a fast and flexible premium theme that you can use to build an SEO-friendly site with WordPress.
Google PageSpeed score: 82 GTmetrix Performance score: 93%
Total Theme and Extended Page Building
The Total theme includes a custom, extended version of the WPBakery front-end drag & drop page builder along with hundreds of live Customizer settings and developer-friendly hooks, filters, and snippets. This gives you full control over the look and feels of your website (plus for devs, it’s easy to white label the backend of the theme on client sites).
Ready to Use Total Features
At the time of writing Total has more than 50+ quick import demos, 90+ section templates, 70+ cards, and tons of pre-styled page elements.
But whether you get started with a template or create posts and pages from scratch you’ll have tons of options to customize your colors, fonts, borders, spacing, custom post types, and more which makes Total a great choice for any WordPress site.
Total Addon Plugins
While Total doesn’t offer premium add-ons, the theme is fully compatible with a number of popular plugins that you can use to add even more features to your website. Total offers additional styling options for WooCommerce storefronts, bbPress forums, Events Calendar Pro, Uber Menu, and more.
Newspaper
Newspaper is one of the fastest premium WordPress themes out there. It is designed as an intuitive interface to ensure a valuable user experience on any website.
Google PageSpeed score: 81 GTmetrix Performance score: 94%
Newspaper with tagDiv Composer
The author created the tagDiv Composer builder to perfectly complement the blog, news, and magazine Newspaper theme. It ranges thousands of elements that are easy to drag and drop, highly customizable, and usable on the frontend.
Entirely customizable with the Composer, all the Newspaper designs are flexible and have the wow factor.
Newspaper with Pre-Made Templates
Newspaper theme has a plugin called tagDiv Cloud Library with a set of 810 pre-made design templates. You can import some of them to your homepage, author, category, or other pages, and even on your articles.
Easy to work with, fast and performant at the same time, we find Newspaper to be a great theme for any WordPress site
Newspaper with Elementor
The tagDiv says that the theme is not tested with Elementor, yet in their community, some website owners are using the popular page builder with Newspaper Theme on their websites. The author custom-made a frontend page builder specifically for the Newspaper theme (tagDiv Composer is not being sold as a standalone plugin).
The tagDiv Composer builder it’s constantly improved with each update to be more intuitive, and it gives Newspaper theme a powerful core functionality.
Schema
The Schema theme was heavier on page size but had a fast loading time. It is also a popular WordPress theme.
Google PageSpeed score: 91 GTmetrix Performance score: 97%
Schema Lite Theme
Schema Lite is a free and fast-loading WordPress theme for blogs. It also had a low page size and good loading speed.
It has custom options panels, widgets, and shortcodes.
Schema Pro Theme
Schema Pro theme adds more weight but remains fast like the free theme. It is more Header options and customization options.
Schema with Elementor
In our Test, Schema Pro worked with Elementor, but it doesn’t have an official Elementor integration. So we wouldn’t recommend the Schema theme with Elementor.
Fastest WooCommerce Theme
We give you the WordPress themes which are dedicated and have the best integrations with the WooCommerce plugin and can be said as the Fastest WooCommerce theme – 2023.
WooCommerce adds a little bit to the loading time than a blog page but the product pages are still fast and their page requests are still kept low.
Shoptimizer
Shoptimizer is the fastest WooCommerce theme that we tested. Other multipurpose fast-loading WordPress themes mentioned above are fast with WooCommerce but Shoptimizer is dedicated to creating an Ecommerce store.
Google PageSpeed score: 88 GTmetrix Performance score: 97%
Shoptimizer with Elementor
When Elementor is added to the site, the page size and loading time of the WooCommerce product page increased but it was common with all the other themes mentioned here.
Shoptimizer WooCommerce theme has official integrations with Elementor page builder and there are specialized Elementor widgets with this theme.
Does your fast-loading WordPress website have a knowledge base?
If not you’re missing out! The goal of any business website is to acquire customers and satisfy customer needs. So every business website will require an FAQ page or help section. Helpie FAQ plugin and Helpie Knowledge base plugin allow you to create these FAQ and help sections for your fast-loading website. They work well with all the fast-loading themes mentioned above. Also, they can be seamlessly integrated with the Elementor page builder.
What do you think of our list? Which theme are you using? How fast is your theme? Share with us in the comments section.
MantraNews
MantraNews WordPress theme had one of the lowest page requests on our test. We need to add some complimentary WordPress plugins with the MantraNews theme for more functionality which would add page size and number of requests.
Google PageSpeed score: 84 GTmetrix Performance score: 94%
MantraNews Free Theme
MantraNews is a fast-loading and free WordPress News-Magazine theme for building sites such as a news portal, personal blog, creative blog, publishing house, and any other informative website.
MantraNews Pro Theme
MantraNews Pro Theme gives you more features like Advanced Featured Slider, Parallax Header & Footer, Additional Colour and header options, and many more. Even with all the added functionality of the Pro version, it still gives you a fast loading time.
MantraNews with Elementor
It doesn’t have official compatibility with Elementor but we tested it with Elementor, and surprisingly adding Elementor with MantraNews did not change the loading time.
Hi Justin,
Thanks for this brilliant overview of the fastest WordPress themes. Loved your write up so much. This would really help me decide which one I would use. Would love to read on WordPress Page Builders from you. Thanks, Avik
Thanks for including the information about both the free versions and pro versions of the themes. Have been using the Astra free theme now. Its quite fast.