A theme is the most crucial thing when you decide to create your own website and the loading speed of a theme has its own role to play. It has a great impact on the performance of your website.
A fast loading site not just pleases your visitors and hold them back but also increases your conversion rate. The faster your site loads the more traffic you get.
If you are looking for a theme with the blazing-fast loading speed, you are in the right palace. We have brought here a list of 15 fastest WordPress themes of 2020.
We have done some speed tests to give you a guarantee about the performance of the themes we have brought here. Hope, after going through the list you will find at least one appropriate theme for your site.
Why does theme speed matter for your WordPress website?
❖ Conversion rate
If your site takes a long time to load, users lose patience and switch to some other channels. This, in turn, affects your conversion rate. It has been observed that a fast-loading site has more conversions compared to slow sites.
❖ Site speed is a ranking factor
Google shows fast loading sites in the top positions of its search engine result page. It is now a known fact that the loading time of a site is an important SEO ranking factor. Google has declared it on record.
❖ User experience
A slow theme irritates users. If it takes a long time to navigate to your dashboard and wait further for the completion of a single task, it is extremely frustrating. If your theme is not fast enough, it is difficult for you to survive in a competitive environment.
12+ fastest WordPress themes to speed up your website in 2020
1. Responsive
Responsive theme by CyberChimps is a professional and multi-purpose WordPress theme. It comes with 700+ Google fonts, pre-designed pages, and testimonial slider. There are drag & drop editor, custom mobile menu, and content layouts. The theme has WooCommerce integration and many header and footer possibilities. It is cross-browser compatible and multilingual ready. The theme also comes with 40+ ready-site templates that can help you design and launch your website quickly.
Load Time – 0.9s
Size – 92.2KB
HTTP request – 13
2. Astra
Astra is a lightweight and responsive WordPress theme. It is easily customizable and WooCommerce ready. It works well with page builders like Elemntor, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, and Divi. The theme is Schema.org codes integrated and native AMP ready. It has beautiful premade templates and featured images.
Load Time – 1.5 s
Size – 46 KB
HTTP requests – 9
3. Neve
Neve is a professional multipurpose theme. It is lightweight and Gutenberg ready. It comes with inbuilt mega menu support, many advanced features for customization, and importable templates. It is compatible with WooCommerce and translation ready.
Lead Time – 2.1 s
Size – 80 KB
HTTP request – 11
4. Ocean WP
Ocean WP is a modern and elegant WordPress theme. It is lightweight and highly extendable. It comes with unique WooCommerce features and high-quality SEO practices. It is compatible with most of the popular WordPress plugins. It is easily customizable and mobile-friendly.
Load Time – 1.8 s
Size – 198 KB
HTTP request – 18
5. Zakra
Zakra is a flexible and multipurpose WordPress theme. It is lightweight and responsive. It comes with 12 different demos and lots of customizer options. The theme is SEO friendly, Gutenberg compatible and translation ready. It works well with all the latest WordPress plugins.
Load Time – 1.1 s
Size – 39 KB
HTTP request – 11
6. Primer
Primer is a powerful WordPress theme. It comes with a clean and modern design. It is flexible and cross-device compatible. It comes with many advanced features like the option of adding CTA on your websites. It is multilingual ready.
Load Time – 1.5 s
Size – 143 KB
HTTP request – 15
7. Hello Elementor
Hello Elementor is one of the rare free WordPress themes that come with Elementor. It is responsive and lightweight. It is a high-quality page builder that is compatible with most of the popular WordPress plugins. It is WooCommerce integrated and RTL supported. The theme is developer-friendly and open source.
Load Time – 1.4 s
Size – 15 KB
HTTP request – 8
8. Hestia
Hestia is a responsive and multi-purpose WordPress theme. It is easily customizable and works well with Gutenberg and all popular page builders. It comes with live customizer, mega menu and video tutorials. The theme is wooCommerce ready.
Load Time – 1.8 s
Size – 310 KB
HTTP request – 26
9. The Schema
The Schema is a feature-rich WordPress theme. It comes with a powerful theme options panel, one-click installation, and video tutorials. It is responsive and SEO friendly. The theme has a pixel perfect design and lots of widgets and shortcodes.
Load Time – 2.0 s
Size – 151 KB
HTTP request – 17
10. Skin
Skin is a modern and responsive WordPress theme. It comes with 3 blog layouts and lots of customizer options. The theme is SEO friendly and RTL supported. It is built with HTML5, CSS3 and PHP code. It is a child theme ready.
Load Time – 2.0 s
Size – 211 KB
HTTP request – 22
11. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a multipurpose stable & secure WordPress theme. It comes with custom colors, custom typography, and lots of layout controls. There are many hooks and filters. The theme is compatible with most of the latest WordPress plugins. It is SEO friendly and translation ready.
Load Time – 1.8 s
Size – 39 KB
HTTP request – 13
12. Arke
Arke is a minimalist WordPress theme. It comes with a modern and clean layout. It doesn’t support sidebar or widget settings, unlike other minimalist themes. It just supports the content part. The theme is easy to use.
Load Time – 0.9 s
Size – 20 KB
HTTP request – 6
13. Writee
Writee is a creative WordPress theme for writers. It is lightweight and has a clean and pixel perfect cohesive look. There are 3 custom widgets, many customizer options and full-width or boxed slider to showcase your content with a classy look. The theme is responsive and child theme ready.
Load Time – 1.5 s
Size – 205 KB
HTTP request – 17
14. Bloggo
Bloggo is a minimalist and lightweight WordPress theme. It comes with custom colors, custom background, and custom menu. The theme is responsive and user friendly. It is most suitable for bloggers and photographers.
Load Time – 1.5 s
Size – 132 KB
HTTP request – 15
How we tested the fastest WordPress themes
We wanted to eliminate as many third-party variables as possible. So we tested blank WordPress themes on Bluehost, a cheap shared hosting service. We disabled the Bluehost’s default caching page functionality also to make sure that there is no performance optimization.
The only thing is that we added texts from Bacon Ipsum. So that the load times don’t approximate a real WordPress site. They should give a clear idea about the differences between the themes themselves.
We used WebPageTest for test data. It runs three separate tests and after that spits back the median value. Then we pulled the required values from the fully loaded results and then decided on the themes.
Conclusion
We have tried to bring here a collection of the most user-friendly and fast loading WordPress themes. All the themes are unique in their own way. It might seem a little difficult to decide which one will be the best for you. It depends on your purpose and requirements. Know your goal first and accordingly select your theme.
