The site speed and having a fast-loading website matter, because is a positive user experience and can bring an improved rank in the search engines. To help you build the fastest website possible, we will show some of the fastest WordPress themes that complement this fact.
In the article below we measured the TTFB of each theme installed on the same hosting and the performance with 3 different tools: Gmetrix, Google Page Speed and Pingdom. Here is the file that we have register our measurements: Testing File
Let's discover together this collection of absolutely high-performance WordPress themes.
The Top 10 Best Fastest WordPress Themes
| Themes | TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Page Speed(score) | Pingdom(load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specular | 423 | 659/100% | 60 | 378/89 |
| Astra | 526 | 529/100% | 99 | 308/98 |
| Phlox | 487 | 972/97% | 72 | 733/92 |
| Uncode | 390 | 1200/96% | 81 | 720/89 |
| Divi | 783 | 1200/95% | 91 | 621/95 |
| Newspaper | 376 | 630/100% | 95 | 302/96 |
| Kalium | 404 | 1600/92% | 77 | 381/90 |
| Avada | 408 | 843/99% | 81 | 492/96 |
| Neve | 505 | 1100/99% | 98 | 329/97 |
| Remake | 445 | 478/96% | 84 | 481/90 |
1. Astra
Overall the fastest WordPress Theme
Astra is the fastest WordPress Theme we have tested until now.
Today, having a website that loads fast is critical. From Google rankings to user experience, various metrics are dependent on how fast your website loads. And considering a theme is going to play an essential role on your WordPress site, you’ve got to get this right.
Astra is a lightweight multipurpose WordPress theme that loads in less than 0.3 seconds. It requires less than 51.1KB of resources as compared to the 500kb required by other WordPress themes. The Astra theme is built for speed and fully optimized for performance.
Astra offers the functionality to fetch the Google fonts on your website and store them locally. This reduces the load time, and in turn, results in an improved Core Web Vitals score.
A library of 180+ Starter Templates lets you get started with a website for just about any niche in a matter of minutes. Using the one-click import feature, you can choose a done-for-you website template of your choice and get your website up and running quickly.
All the templates are responsive and work like a charm across all screen sizes. You can easily customize the templates using page builders such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy, and Gutenberg (block editor).
Specs
- Price: Free
- Rating: 5/5
- Last Update: 19 January 2023
- Downloads: 1M+
- Page Builder: Gutenberg, Elementor
Performance Test
Pingodm website speed test has resulted in a fast load time of 308ms for 51.1KB and only 7 files requested. Also, the performance grade is an amazing 98. Astra is simply the fastest and the most optimized WordPress theme.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | PageSpeed | Pingdom(load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 526 | 529/100% | 99 | 308/98 |
2. Specular
Fastest Theme with a lot of Customizability
Specular is incredibly intuitive and really simple to easy, expert high quality as well as quite high performance, aesthetically impressive and stunning, graphically smooth.
Based on our super-flexible Framework, Specular is by much a business and responsive theme that enables you to set up your very own website page without pain.
Its outstanding feature such as different headers with 9+ designs, effective alternatives throughout each page, article, drag & drop Page Builder, SEO optimized.
Specular has numerous post formats, and also a Revolution Slider plugin.
This theme is suitable for business, online portfolios, and also personal blogs.
Specular will function wonderfully for any sort of website photography, business, individual, portfolio, and also regardless of what kind of material your website will certainly have, the theme will take treatment of representing each and every single component of it in an elegant and expert method.
- Price: $59
- Rating: 4.41/5
- Last Update: 19 July 2023
- Downloads: 7000+
- Page Builder: WpBakery Visual Composer, Elementor
Performance Test
As you can see with a Page size of 543KB Specular load time is 378ms and there are about 34 total requests in total. Specular is very fast if you consider that its loading time is too low and the page size is too high. So even it is a big theme the performance is very good.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom (load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 423 | 659/100% | 60 | 378/89 |
3. Neve
Best for Gutenberg
Neve is there to help those who desire to create a fast-working website. It is the theme that offers a combination of features typical to its type. It adopts the mobile-first approach. Neve comes in 2 versions the free and the premium version. We have tested the free WordPress theme version.
Neve theme is compatible with the popular page-builder and AMP which makes it suitable for website building easy for all users. Even the less tech-savvy can build their website easily.
Neve is best suited for businesses that plan for long-standing. It's lightweight and fast that helps visitors engage in business activities. Moreover, it is easy to use and flexible. Thus, it gives you full control over customization and design.
Specs
- Price: Free
- Rating: 5/5
- Last Update: 30 January 2023
- Downloads: 300.000+
- Page Builder: Gutenberg, Elementor
Performance Test
Here we have Neve test which respond also with a fast loading time of only 329ms with a Page Size of 44.3KB. The theme after the installation requested only 8 files during the loading. The second fastest WordPress theme after Astra is on this list.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed | Pingdom(load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 505 | 1100/99 | 98 | 329/97 |
4. Newspaper
Best for News Websites
Newspaper is widely used for magazines and blog websites. It is one of the most downloaded themes ever because it offers a lot of templates and customizability.
Design is basic but as you can imagine it is inspired by an online blog and magazines like CNN, BBC etc.
You can also browse for other: News & Magazine WordPress themes here.
Specs:
- Price:$59
- Rating: 4.82/5
- Last Update: 21 January 2023
- Downloads: 130.000+
- Page Builder: TagDivi Composer
Performance Test
What surprises me a lot is the great performance is showed during our tests. The page size of the Newspaper theme is 118.5Kb and the loading time of 302ms. In total there are only 11 files requested, as a Themeforest theme Newspaper is very fast.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom (load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 376 | 630/100% | 95 | 302/96 |
5. Remake
Best for portfolio
Remake is the fastest portfolio WordPress theme, it is designed especially to let you create cool and fast at the same time. It is optimized to maintain its quality of design and at the same time be as lightweight as possible.
In case you are searching for a fast, modern portfolio, agency, photography and architecture theme you have in front of you one of the best solutions.
Specs:
- Price:$59
- Rating: 4.48/5
- Last Update: 10 January 2023
- Downloads: 1031+
- Page Builder: Elementor
Performance Test
The remake is a lot optimized as the theme for speed as you can see from our test the loading time is 481ms in page size of 548kb and 26 requests. If you compare it with other themes Remake looks pretty good on speed even if the page size is big.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom (load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 445 | 478/96 | 84 | 481/90 |
6. Phlox
Best for Elementor Page Builder
Phlox is a free theme that can be downloaded for free from the WordPress library and they also offer a premium version with a lot of templates included on Themeforest. The theme is suited mostly for business.
This is the most complete free Elementor WordPress theme, and also its premium version comes with 200 premium templates ready to be used.
Support is responsive in about 24 hours after the open ticket. This measurement is made in the WordPress community forum.
Specs:
- Price: Free
- Rating: 5/5
- Last Update: 21 January 2023
- Downloads: 50.000+
- Page Builder: Elementor
Performance Test
Phlox performance grade 92 from Pingdom.com. Also, the loading time of the website tested with Phlox theme installed is 733ms with a Page Size of 381KB. If you compare it to the fastest theme Astra, it doubles the loading time and the one reason is the 18 file requests the theme requires. So Phlox is not too fast.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom(load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 487 | 972/97% | 72 | 733/92 |
7. Avada
Best for Customer Support
Avada is one of the most purchased and used WordPress themes in the world. Theme success is mostly attributed to its incredible customer support and flexibility. It was the first 100% business-oriented theme on Envato marketplace.
Design isn't the best you can find and some demos have also old designs, but people love it because of its general style that let you create any kind of website design.
Specs:
- Price:$69
- Rating: 4.78/5
- Last Update: 21 January 2023
- Downloads: 869.000+
- Page Builder: Theme Fusion
As you can see during our performance test with a Page size of 495.8KB, the load time was about 492ms. The number of requests is 15. Is a fast theme if you consider that this is a multipurpose WordPress theme
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom(load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 408 | 843/99% | 81 | 96/492 |
8. Uncode
Fastest with minimal design
Uncode is a minimal creative WordPress theme with an amazing design and great support. Easy to use for those who had before experience with WpBakery Visual Composer. They don't use the exact version of the plugin but a modified one.
Templates are minimal and can be adapted to any kind of agency, or portfolio website with ease.
Specs:
- Price:$59
- Rating: 4.89/5
- Last Update: 17 January 2023
- Downloads: 105.000+
- Page Builder: WpBakery Visual Composer
Performance Test
Performance grade from Pingdom is 89 a B class and the load time is 720ms with Page size of 624kb. TTFB is too good with 390ms which is important for SEO.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom (load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 390 | 1200/96% | 81 | 720/89 |
9. Divi
Most popular
Divi is a multipurpose WordPress theme very popular. It comes with a lot of templates for any kind of niche. The design is basic and general but offers a lot of possibilities for customization and compatibility with other plugins.
Divi has its in-house page builder called DIVI that works on drag&drop and offers a lot of options.
Specs:
- Price:$59 /year
- Rating: n/a
- Last Update: 15 January 2023
- Downloads: n/a
- Page Builder: Divi Page Builder
Performance Test
The loading time of the Divi theme is 621ms for a page size of 231.2 Kb which means isn't good if you compare to other themes in this list. As structure theme is ok but the big page size of the theme with 15 requests makes it to be slower than other themes.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom (load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 783 | 1200/95% | 91 | 621/95 |
10. Kalium
Fastest for photography websites
Kalium super minimalistic portfolio WordPress theme with an amazing clean design that can maintain its fashion also during the years. Pixel-perfect design and with a lot of theme options and easy to work with WpBakery Visual composer as page builder.
Is one of the best-rated themes on Themeforest for its amazing support and it is constantly updated.
Specs:
- Price:$59
- Rating: 4.95/5
- Last Update: 20 January 2023
- Downloads: 44.000+
- Page Builder: WpBakery Visual Composer
Performance Test
Kalium shows an amazing loading speed of 381ms in a page size of 265.8kb with 21 file requested during the loading. Like the other Themeforest themes on the Google Page Speed score it takes a low grade of 77.
| TTFB | Gmetrix(LCP/Grade) | Pagespeed(score) | Pingdom (load time ms/performance) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 404 | 1600/92% | 77 | 381/90 |
Conclusion
Among all of our tests, we have found that the fastest WordPress theme on the market is Astra which comes with amazing performance on TTFB test, Gmetrix, Google Pagespeed, and Pingdom. Neve also comes with great performance after Astra. In the premium themes, I think Newspaper is very good except for some errors that the theme generates after you have installed the whole template.
Anyway, keep in mind that there are also other factors that can make your website run fast like hosting providers.
Ludjon, who co-founded Codeless, possesses a deep passion for technology and the web. With over a decade of experience in constructing websites and developing widely-used WordPress themes, Ludjon has established himself as an accomplished expert in the field.
Comments
Your themes collection is helpful to us.
I have found one more that is Ybrant. It has very amazing features like different types of theme options, 15+ inbuilt custom widget, translation ready, blog designs, social media sharing options, fully responsive, cross browser compatibility and many more.
Hello Sir which theme are you using it’s awesome can you please tell me the name?
We use Tower WordPress theme (you can find under Themes menu item). We have made custom changes for this website, you can’t find this design on Tower theme. Thank You!