Your website’s traffic isn’t worth anything – if most people have to wait 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 ⇣

Here’s what you’ll learn in this post:

What is the fastest WordPress theme right now?

GeneratePress (free & premium), Astra (free & premium), Schema (premium) and OceanWP (free & premium) are all fast loading WordPress themes.

(free & premium), (free & premium), (premium) and (free & premium) are all fast loading WordPress themes. Based on the speed tests that we’ve done the fastest WordPress theme is GeneratePress .

. It definitely isn’t the Avada theme . Avada loads slow, in my tests Avada took 8.6 seconds to load.

. Avada loads slow, in my tests Avada took 8.6 seconds to load. The web hosting you use has a massive impact on the speed performance of your WordPress theme.

GeneratePress Astra Neve Schema OceanWP StudioPress Speed performance score: A (95%) B (85%) B (93%) A (93%) A (91%) A (95%) Fully loaded time: 1.3 seconds 1 second 1.9 seconds 1.8 seconds 1.5 seconds 0.7 seconds Total page size: 696 KB 833 KB 410 KB 529 KB 1.06 MB 1.26 MB Number of HTTP requests: 24 52 50 39 15 48 Price: $49.95 (Free themes available) $59 (Free themes available) $49 (Paid theme only) $59 (Paid theme only) $39 (Free themes available) $99.95 (Paid themes only) Read more: Jump to ⇣

GeneratePress Jump to ⇣

Astra Jump to ⇣

Neve Jump to ⇣

Schema Jump to ⇣

OceanWP Jump to ⇣

StudioPress

You will only make money from your site if your traffic converts. Otherwise, all the time and money you spend generating traffic is a waste.

Converting doesn’t always have to mean a sale. It might mean subscribing to your email list or clicking on an advertisement. Everyone wants a high conversion rate. But here’s the shocker:

If your website’s page speed is slow well then most of your visitors will hit the back button and never come back.

And if people don’t stay on your website, there’s no way they will ever convert. Simple as that.

As you will learn in the later section, your WordPress site’s theme makes a huge impact on your site’s speed. Choose a slow WordPress theme and your website will be slow as a snail.

So, if you want more people to stay on your website and convert (make a sale or subscribe), you will need a faster website

Let’s start off by explaining why having a fast loading WordPress theme is so important.

Why Site Speed Matters

According to KissMetrics, if your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of your visitors will leave.

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 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 which will result in a loss in search engine rankings. Moreover, if you want to convert more visitors into customers or subscribers, your website needs to load up fast.

According to WebsiteOptimization.com, a slow website is not only perceived low-quality, it also sees a decrease in traffic by up to 20%.

The bottom line?

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 have a massive impact on 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.

Top 10 Fastest WordPress Themes

I know how difficult it can be to go through the thousands of free and premium WordPress themes available online and find the perfect one for your site.

What is the fastest theme?

So, below I have compiled a list of the fastest loading WordPress themes in 2020. All of these are lightweight WordPress themes that come with quality code to speed up your WordPress site.

1. GeneratePress WordPress theme

Website : https://generatepress.com

: https://generatepress.com Price : $49.95 with 30 days money back guarantee

: $49.95 with 30 days money back guarantee Free version available : Yes

: Yes Google Speed Score : A (95%)

: A (95%) Load Time : 1.3 s

: 1.3 s Size : 696 Kb

: 696 Kb HTTP Requests: 24

GeneratePress is a beautiful, light-weight theme for WordPress. It comes as both a free and premium version, but the paid version has lots more useful features.

GeneratePress is a multipurpose theme and is fully customizable, so you can use it to create any kind of a website. This theme has over 500 5-star ratings in the WordPress Theme Directory.

The premium version of GeneratePress ($49.95) comes with a light-weight and modular framework and allows you to disable features you don’t want to use.

There are 15 modules that let you leverage the functionality of the theme and you can activate/deactivate the modules you aren’t using to make sure they don’t add extra load on your site. This modular approach allows you to improve your site speed all by yourself.

While the free version of the theme comes with dozens of awesome features, the premium version of the theme comes with pretty much everything you could ask for in a WordPress theme.

For example, the premium version comes with support for WooCommerce, let’s you to make changes to the typography, styles, and color options, and allows you to create custom sections in your pages. It also comes with custom hooks and function disable specific elements on certain pages and posts. The premium version comes with lifetime usage, 1 year of updates and support, plus a generous 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not happy.

What about speed? GeneratePress is one of the fastest WordPress themes alright, the demo site loads in just over 1 second! Wow!

GeneratePress is hands-down the fastest loading speed I have ever tried. I have seriously considered moving over all my sites to GeneratePress (including this one).

If you want your WordPress website to load lightning fast, GeneratePress is the theme you are looking for.

Features:

Built-in support for Schema Markup to help you achieve better rankings and a higher CTR in search engines.

to help you achieve better rankings and a higher CTR in search engines. Site library of importable ready-to-use demo sites to kickstart your WordPress site

of importable ready-to-use demo sites to kickstart your WordPress site Fully responsive design that looks great on all devices

that looks great on all devices The theme is translation ready , so you can easily translate it into multiple languages.

, so you can easily translate it into multiple languages. Its lightweight framework makes your website load super fast.

makes your website load super fast. Comes with full support for WordPress Theme Customizer , so you can easily make live changes to the design of your website without writing a single line of code.

, so you can easily make live changes to the design of your website without writing a single line of code. Advanced customization options that lets you disable specific elements on certain pages and posts, build unique layouts using sections inside your pages, and hooks allowing you to add in your own custom content throughout various areas in the them.

that lets you disable specific elements on certain pages and posts, build unique layouts using sections inside your pages, and hooks allowing you to add in your own custom content throughout various areas in the them. Comes with support for page builders such as Elementor and Beaver Builder to help you achieve higher levels of customization.

to help you achieve higher levels of customization. Allows you to easily customize every individual page on your website. You can choose whether or not you want to display a sidebar and on which side. You can also customize the footer widgets for every individual post and page.

Speed:

5/5

Live demo:

GeneratePress Live Demo

New and exciting updates to GeneratePress Premium GeneratePress Premium 1.6 biggest update is without doubt the release of GeneratePress Sites. These are ready-made, and stunning and fast loading, sites you can import to give you a head start when building a new website. Once you have installed Premium 1.6, you can find the GeneratePress Sites in Appearance > GeneratePress > Sites. GeneratePress Sites come with all of the GeneratePress premium options and demo content. Right now there over 20 GeneratePress Sites to choose from, but more will come and they’ll be delivered to your Dashboard automatically. One cool feature is that you can build and sell your own GeneratePress Sites because they’re super easy to export and package up. Read more on generatepress.com/gp-premium-1-6

2. Astra WordPress theme

Website : https://wpastra.com

: https://wpastra.com Price : $59.00 with 14 days money back guarantee

: $59.00 with 14 days money back guarantee Free theme version available : Yes

: Yes Google Speed Score : B (85%)

: B (85%) Load Time : 1 s

: 1 s Size : 833 Kb

: 833 Kb HTTP Requests: 52

Astra is a lightweight, fast, page builder friendly WordPress theme that is designed by Brainstorm Force. Astra is a serious contender to GeneratePress.

Astra is a customizable theme that is very simple to use and master which will make your life so much easier when creating your website.

Not only that – Astra is also one of the fastest loading themes out there.

Oh and I should also mention that Astra is 100% free to download! It’s free for anyone to get started with and there’s no upfront cost. But you can extend Astra with affordable add-ons that extend the customization possibilities.

This is a theme that is built for page speed. Astra loads in less than half a second. It’s also performance optimized and feather light, because it needs less than 50 KB of resources to load. It uses no jQuery, it uses Vanilla JavaScript instead.

If you are looking for a WordPress theme that’s fast, elegant, and customizable, then you can’t and shouldn’t look past Astra.

Astra WordPress theme is free but as I mentioned you can extend it with addons that give you loads more advanced features.

The Astra Pro Addon ($59) is a plugin that extends the free Astra theme and adds more features in it. The Astra Agency package ($249) offers readymade websites and includes all plugins that are used to build those websites.

Update: Astra 2.0 has been launched helping you build WordPress websites faster than ever before. The Astra 2.0 upgrade has reinvented the structure, and speed, of the WordPress customizer and comes with new theme options that make Astra one of the easiest to use AND fastest WordPress themes available today.

Features:

Compatibility with page builders like BeaverBuilder, SiteOrigin, Elementor and Divi + more

like BeaverBuilder, SiteOrigin, Elementor and Divi + more Easy to use with a clean admin interface

with a clean admin interface Simple, yet beautiful designs for whatever type of business you are in

for whatever type of business you are in Dozens of pre-designed and turnkey stunning looking starter sites that you can import

and turnkey stunning looking starter sites that you can import Easy to customize without having to deal with code. You can change the design through range of options in the native WordPress customizer

without having to deal with code. You can change the design through range of options in the native WordPress customizer SEO friendly foundation and all the necessary Schema.org markup

foundation and all the necessary Schema.org markup Extendible with hooks and filters that lets you customize any Astra theme

with hooks and filters that lets you customize any Astra theme Seamless WooCommerce integration for building online stores

for building online stores Generous 14 days money-back guarantee

Some of the best pre built WordPress page templates on the market!

Speed:

5/5

Price:

Free. Premium version costs $59 (recommended)

Live demo:

Astra Live Demo

3. Neve WordPress Theme

Website : https://themeisle.com/themes/neve/

: https://themeisle.com/themes/neve/ Price : Three plans; Personal at $49/year, Business at $79/year and Agency at $129 per annum. All plans offer you all Themeisle themes, plugins and 1 year of dedicated support plus updates, among other goodies. 30-day money-back guarantee

: Three plans; at $49/year, at $79/year and at $129 per annum. All plans offer you all Themeisle themes, plugins and 1 year of dedicated support plus updates, among other goodies. 30-day money-back guarantee Free version available : Yes

: Yes Google Speed Score : A (93%)

: A (93%) Load Time : 1.9 s

: 1.9 s Size : 410 Kb

: 410 Kb HTTP Requests: 50

Neve is a brilliant and fast-loading WordPress theme that’s perfect for all types of websites, large or small. It is easy to work with and comes with loads of pre-made starter sites (demos) to help you create a website easily.

The one-of-a-kind theme is brought to you by Themeisle, one of the most reputable WordPress theme shops around. If you don’t know Themeisle, they are the same great guys who brought you other great themes such as Hestia, and WordPress plugins such as Feedzy RSS Feeds.

Thanks to the starter sites I mentioned earlier, Neve is by all rights a multi-purpose WordPress theme that’s perfect for any website you have in mind. You can build everything between personal blogs and e-commerce stores just to touch on the tip of the iceberg.

Themeisle offers you three subscription plans, which come with Neve, other Themeisle themes, and plugins (including new ones). There is the Personal plan that costs $49 yearly, Business at $79 per year, and the Agency package that sets you back $129 annually. You can also go for the free version to test if Neve is a good fit for you.

Setting up a website with Neve is the stuff of fourth-graders; I created a sample site in less than 7 minutes, again, thanks to the starter sites. It comes with plenty of options to help you along the way, even if you don’t know your way around code.

While Neve is a superb WordPress theme, how does it fare in terms of speed? Is it fast or are you in for a rude shock? Well, the demo performed amazingly well in the speed tests I was impressed. Here, see for yourself:

And that’s before leveraging browser caching, which should bump up the speed 🙂

Features:

Mobile-ready and fully responsive designs that look great on all screen sizes + AMP support

Easy, flexible and fully customizable designs, so you can create the perfect website easily

Fast and lightweight

Quality code optimized for speed and superior performance

Translation and RTL ready

Custom header and footer builders

SEO-friendly code so you can shine in Google and other search engines

Safe updates and awesome support

Seamless integration with your favorite tools including Elementor, Gutenberg, WordPress Customizer, Beaver Builder, WooCommerce, WPBakery Visual Builder and so much more

80+ ready-to-import starter websites

Speed: 5/5 Price: From $49/year Live demo: Visit Neve

4. Schema WordPress theme

Website : https://mythemeshop.com/themes/schema/

: https://mythemeshop.com/themes/schema/ Price : $59.00 with 30 days money back guarantee

: $59.00 with 30 days money back guarantee Free WordPress version available : No

: No Google Speed Score : A (93%)

: A (93%) Load Time : 1.8 s

: 1.8 s Size : 529 Kb

: 529 Kb HTTP Requests: 39

Schema from MyThemeShop is another lightweight WordPress theme. It offers a responsive design and is fully customizable. It is a great theme for creating any kind of a blog.

This theme comes with built-in support for reviews to help you create beautiful looking review pages. It also comes with built-in shortcodes, voting functionality and performance settings.

This theme might not be as fast as GeneratePress, but underestimating what this theme can do for you would be a mistake. This theme comes with everything you need to run a blog.

What about speed? Is Schema a fast loading WordPress theme? Yes, it is.

Features:

Fully responsive design . Easily adapts to all screen sizes.

. Easily adapts to all screen sizes. Comes with an Ad Management panel to help you easily manage the ads on your website.

panel to help you easily manage the ads on your website. Translation ready , you can use this theme to create a multilingual website.

, you can use this theme to create a multilingual website. Support for Google Fonts allows you to choose from hundreds of Google fonts you would like to see on your website.

allows you to choose from hundreds of Google fonts you would like to see on your website. Comes with built-in support for related posts . No need to install any additional plugin.

. No need to install any additional plugin. Built-in support for breadcrumbs .

. Comes with support for rich snippets. Google will show a star rating in your Search Engine result snippet if your post is a review.

Speed:

5/5

Price:

Premium version costs $59

Live demo:

Schema Live Demo

5. OceanWP WordPress theme

Website : https://oceanwp.org

: https://oceanwp.org Price : $39.00 with 14 days money back guarantee

: $39.00 with 14 days money back guarantee Free version available : Yes

: Yes Google Speed Score : A (91%)

: A (91%) Load Time : 1.5 s

: 1.5 s Size : 1.06 Mb

: 1.06 Mb HTTP Requests: 15

OceanWP is a 100% FREE WordPress multi-purpose theme that lets you build beautiful looking websites with WordPress. Nicolas Lecocq is the creator and you can download the theme from WordPress.org here.

OceanWP is all about user-friendliness and you can import ready to use demo sites with a single click using the free import extension.

The free version comes with 7 free extensions but OceanWP also comes with 11 premium extensions that lets yo extend the theme further. You can either buy them individually starting at $9.99 each or you can get the premium bundle starting at $39 for a single site license.

Modal Window Posts Slider Demo Sites Import Custom Sidebar Product Sharing Social Sharing Ocean Extras The free version of OceanWP comes with these free WordPress extensions:

Popup Login Instagram Whitelabel Portfolio Woo Popup Sticky Footer Ocean Hooks Elementor Custom Widgets Side Panel Sticky Header Footer Callout The premium extensions start at $9.99 each or you can get the premium bundle starting at $39 for a single site license.

What about page speed? Is OceanWP one of the fastest WordPress themes? Yup, it sure is.

Features:

Fully mobile responsive adjusting to any screen size

Built-in SEO for better indexing and search rankings

WooCommerce ecommerce ready

Built In WordPress customizer options

Advanced Mega Menu

Support for all popular page builders like Elementor

Free 1-click ready to use themes

Speed:

5/5

Price:

Premium version costs $39

Live demo:

OceanWP Live Demo

6. StudioPress Themes

Website : https://www.studiopress.com

: https://www.studiopress.com Price : From $99.95 (includes the Genesis Framework)

: From $99.95 (includes the Genesis Framework) Free version available : No

: No Google Speed Score : A

: A Load Time : 0.7 s

: 0.7 s Size : 1.26 Mb

: 1.26 Mb HTTP Requests: 48

Using a StudioPress theme has given over 200,000 WordPress users a solid, fast loading foundation for their site (including this site). All StudioPress themes are mobile responsive and have clean, lightweight code that ensure that your site is optimized for speed.

StudioPress themes, and the Genesis Framework it’s built, deliver speed and you immediately notice this when you use it. Here is a speed test of one of the more popular themes on StudioPress, it loads in well under 1 second! Wow!

Features:

Fast website loading times and a strong emphasis on security

Retina ready and fully responsive HTML5 design for mobile users

No bloat from excessive built-in features, and clean code that will appeal to developers

Powered by the search engine optimized Genesis Framework codebase

Easy to keep updated as new updates can be automatically downloaded and installed

Unlimited, lifetime support and access to the Genesis team of experts and a large community

Speed:

5/5

Price:

From $99.95 (which includes the parent Genesis Framework)

Live demo:

StudioPress Demo

7. Divi WordPress theme

Website : https://www.elegantthemes.com/divi/

: https://www.elegantthemes.com/divi/ Price : $89 (yearly) to $249 (lifetime) with 30 days money back guarantee

: $89 (yearly) to $249 (lifetime) with 30 days money back guarantee Free version available : No

: No Google Speed Score : B (85%)

: B (85%) Load Time : 1 s

: 1 s Size : 1.13 Mb

: 1.13 Mb HTTP Requests: 51

Divi by Elegant themes is one of the most powerful, yet easy to use and customize WordPress themes out there.

The Divi theme is powered by the Divi page builder which makes it one of the most advanced WordPress front-end editor and visual page builder

Divi actually refers to two separate things. The Divi theme and the Divi page builder.

The Divi theme is a multi-purpose WordPress theme, meaning you can use it to create pretty much any type of website you like.

Divi only comes as a premium theme, the yearly (ongoing) cost is $89 while the lifetime (one off) cost is $249.

Building websites with Divi is a breeze as it lets anyone build beautiful websites with ease without having to code or install 3rd party plugins.

What about speed? Is Divi a fast loading theme? Yes, it is. Because just recently (in June 2019) ElegantThemes overhauled the Divi codebase which has significantly improved page load speeds on standard Divi installs.

According to ElegantThemes “Divi’s new caching optimizations work in tandem with Divi’s static CSS file generation and the Visual Builder’s Javascript options cache to generate super-fast page loads, even when you aren’t using a caching plugin.”

Features:

All-in-one multipurpose WordPress theme that includes the Divi Page Builder.

Divi Builder: powerful drag and drop page builder that lets you build WordPress sites visually. (not to be confused with Visual Composer).

Over 800 pre-made website layouts and 100+ full website packs.

Use themes and plugins on unlimited websites without purchasing additional licenses.

WooCommerce integration, world-class support, 30-day money-back guarantee and loads more.

When you sign up for a Divi subscription ($89 yearly or $249 for lifetime) you get access to everything Elegant Themes have including Divi, Extra, Bloom, Monarch, the Divi page builder plugin, all of their other WordPress themes, premium support, and updates. With unlimited usage!

Speed:

5/5

Live demo:

Divi Demo

and finally here are a couple of 100% free fast WordPress themes for you to use:

8. Skin WordPress Theme

Website : https://wordpress.org/themes/skin

: https://wordpress.org/themes/skin Price : Free

: Free Free version available : Yes

: Yes Google Speed Score: A

Unlike the other themes in this article, Skin is a completely free (and fast loading) WordPress theme.

While it might not offer as many features as the other two themes, it does come with dozens of features. It is fully responsive, so it will look great on all devices.

It comes with 3 different content layouts and 2 featured sliders to choose from. This theme is also compatible with WooCommerce, so you can use it to start an eCommerce site.

Features:

Comes with 3 different content layout options to choose from.

to choose from. Full support for WooCommerce to help you create stunning online stores.

to help you create stunning online stores. Full support for WordPress Theme Customizer . Also, allows you choose the Google Fonts you would like to use on your website.

. Also, allows you choose the Google Fonts you would like to use on your website. Comes with 4 different header styles to choose from.

to choose from. Support for multisite .

. Built-in support for displaying related posts.

Speed:

4/5

Price:

Free WordPress theme

Live demo:

Visit Visit Skin Theme

9. Elementor Hello Theme

Website : https://wordpress.org/themes/hello-elementor/

: https://wordpress.org/themes/hello-elementor/ Price : Free

: Free Free version available : Yes

: Yes Google Speed Score: A

If you’re a fan of Elementor, the drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress, then the Elementor Hello Theme is for you if you’re after a lightweight and clean theme.

It’s a starter theme that comes with no styling at all, except for basic browser compatibility styling. However, with the power of Elementor, the magic happens and you can create a beautiful WordPress website in the easiest and quickest way possible.

This theme is designed to only be used using a page builder like Elementor. So, if you don’t have Elementor (or Elementor Pro) then you will have to get that first. If you don’t use, or don’t intend to use, Elementor page builder then this theme isn’t for you.

Elementor claims that it’s “the fastest WordPress theme ever created”, but the comparison they made didn’t include any other themes that are known for speed performance.

Features:

It’s a 100% FREE and one of the fastest WordPress themes

No bloat or excess code (don’t come with modules, elements or theme specific things you don’t need

You can extend the theme using hooks

Child theme made available in GitHub

Only to be used with Elementor and Elementor Pro

Check out some of the best free and paid Elementor alternatives

The Elementor Hello Theme is basically a lightweight starter theme that offers 100% compatibility with Elementor.

Speed:

5/5

Price:

Free WordPress theme

10. Twenty Twenty Theme

Website : https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwenty/

: https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwenty/ Price : Free

: Free Free version available : Yes

: Yes Google Speed Score: A

Finally, I have to include the latest Twenty Twenty WordPress theme on this list of fast lightweight themes. Besides being a fantastic and 100% Gutenberg ready theme, Twenty Twenty also boasts some pretty stellar performance metrics.

Twenty Twenty is designed to take full advantage of the flexibility of the Gutenberg block editor. Websites have the ability to create dynamic landing pages with endless layouts using the group and column blocks.

Speed:

5/5

Price:

Free WordPress theme

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.

What you can see is how responsive the theme is or how cool the design looks, but what you can’t see is the code behind the theme.

The majority of Most WordPress themes are poorly coded and come bloated with dozens of resources (images css and javascripts) 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 honest truth: Most WordPress themes aren’t optimized for speed at all.

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 are there to make sure themes are coded to work efficiently and aren’t vulnerable to hackers.

How to test a WordPress theme’s load time?

If haven’t already purchased the theme or you 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 then it will 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

If the demo site takes more than 5 seconds to load, then that’s the amount of time your site will take to load using that WordPress template.

Some studies show that you might only have four seconds before a web user moves on, i.e. you have very little time to make a good first impression.

How to more accurately predict a WordPress theme’s load time?

Using the 5 seconds or less is a good benchmark, but only looking at the actual load time of a theme demo isn’t the most accurate way of checking how fast the theme actually is. Why?

Because where the demo theme is hosted and the performance of the web host’s servers matter a lot, and you will most likely use different web hosts than what the WordPress theme maker is using.

A better way of determining a theme’s speed is to look at the total page size and the number of requests it takes for the page to load.

These metrics are regardless of which web hosting provider the theme owner is using. Because of the fewer requests for resources (JavaScript, CSS files, HTML, images, etc.) the smaller total page size is, and as a result, a faster page load time.

Why Avada isn’t one of the fastest WordPress themes

Here’s an example of what it would look like using the Avada theme as an example (is the #1 selling theme on Themeforest – but it’s by no means the fastest). The Avada demo site loads very slow:

Almost 9 seconds to fully load!

Size is almost 3MB!

and 116 HTTP requests are happening!

Again. If GTMetrix shows a theme demo site takes more than 5 seconds to load, the theme will probably slow down your website and probably isn’t the best choice for you.

One More Thing You Need For a Fast Loading Site

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 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:

Free daily website backups

Recommended by WordPress

1-click of the button WordPress installation

Managed WordPress hosting on all plans

Built-in SuperCacher caching solution

Innovative speed technologies like SSD, HTTP/2, PHP7, NGINX

Staging and GIT (only on GoGeek plan)

Free SSL certificate & CloudFlare CDN

30-day money-back guarantee

Prices start at just $3.95/mo

Check out my honest and bs-free SiteGround review to find out why I love and trust SiteGround, or if you prefer a beginner friendly host like Bluehost’s web hosting. If you prefer a fully a managed WordPress host then I recommend Kinsta’s WordPress hosting.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fastest WordPress theme? GeneratePress (free & premium), Astra (free & premium), Schema (premium only) and OceanWP (free & premium) are all fast loading WordPress themes.

How to test a WordPress theme's load time? If haven’t already purchased the theme or if you 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 using a tool like GTmetrix or Pingdom.

What is the most important thing for load times? Choosing a fast theme is important but the web hosting service you use has a massive impact and is the single most important factor of the speed performance of your WordPress theme.

What makes a WordPress theme load fast? Faster loading themes have less code and are smaller in size. Fewer files (images, CSS, JS) mean fewer requests the browser has to ask the server for. Fast WordPress templates also have cleaner and better-optimized CSS and JS files.

Why is site speed important? Users expect websites to load fast. Having a fast website is very important because it positively impacts user experience and ultimately conversion rates and bottom-line revenue. Google has also confirmed that site speed is an SEO ranking factor.

Final words

I hope this blog post helped you understand how big of an impact the theme you use can have on your WordPress site’s speed.

Speed Up Your WordPress Website in 30 Seconds or Less!!

Watch this video on YouTube

The fastest WordPress themes I have covered here are responsive and offer dozens of customization options to help you improve load times.

My favorite and fastest WordPress template is GeneratePress. It is hands-down one of the fastest WordPress themes with so many features I have ever tried.

If you were to ask me the question “what is the best and fastest WordPress theme?” I would say GeneratePress without a doubt.

If you have any questions or suggestions, then let me know in the comments here below.