Nowadays, ensuring your website loads quickly is more important than ever. Not only does a slow-loading site frustrate visitors and lose business, but Google also takes PageSpeed (which is a part of Core Web Vitals) into account when ranking websites for search results. In this article, we’ll look at some of the fastest WordPress themes out there with PageSpeed scores and why these WordPress themes might be faster than others.
Things to remember before you choose a theme
Make sure you test your Theme before use
Some themes may be faster than others, but trying a theme on your own site is always good practice before going live. Many people just don’t bother testing their sites and then discover later that their new theme is slowing down their site or making it hard to navigate. Do yourself a favor and ensure that the theme you choose works well with the plugins you have installed and doesn’t cause any issues before putting it live!
Know what the Theme is built on
This might sound obvious, but not everyone knows this information right away! Knowing what programming language was used when creating your free WordPress theme can be very useful because some languages are faster (or slower) than others. If you know what programming language was used when building a particular free WordPress template, then at least there won’t be any surprises after installation. This could cause delays down the road during development time due to debugging code issues caused by incompatibility between different programming languages used within the same project file structure.”
10 Fastest WordPress Themes in 2023
1. Astra
Astra is a lightweight, fast, and fully responsive WordPress theme that’ll help your website load fast and rank on search engines. The theme comes with a good support forum and an active community that can help you with any issue.
This theme is also fully compatible with WooCommerce and has many customization options. You can use Astra for e-commerce websites and blogs because it has all the essential elements to create both types of sites. Its clean design ensures that your content gets all the attention it deserves without being lost in flashy animations or bloated features.
Pricing: The basic version is free, whereas the premium version costs $49.
PageSpeed Score: 95
2. Sydney
Sydney is a modern, responsive, and retina-ready WordPress theme. It has a clean and minimal design that will let you focus on your content. The theme has a responsive design that looks great on all devices. You can customize the blog and front page with quick setting changes in the Theme Customizer.
Pricing: It comes in two versions: free and Pro. Pro Version costs you $69.
PageSpeed Score: It scored a perfect 100 on Google’s PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix tests.
3. OceanWP
OceanWP is an all-inclusive free WordPress theme for online retailers and eCommerce websites. It has an excellent responsive layout that can adapt to any screen size, a clean design, and a powerful front-end page builder. This allows you to create any page layout you want. A mobile-first approach has been taken while designing the theme, which helps in loading faster on mobile devices than other themes in this list do!
Pricing: It offers a free version to download. The premium version starts at $43, which basically includes a bundle of extensions with additional sites and ongoing support.
PageSpeed Score: It scores 98 on Google’s PageSpeed test.
4. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a child theme of the famous parent theme GeneratePress. It’s a fast, SEO-optimized, and fully responsive WordPress blog theme that lets you generate multiple types of content on your site with just one click.
GeneratePress offers features like a drag & drop page builder, unlimited layouts, and integrated social media sharing buttons that help you build a high-quality website in no time.
Pricing: You can download it for free. The premium theme sells at $59.
PageSpeed Score: Its PageSpeed Insights performance score is 99.
5. Neve
If you like the look of the Neve theme, then it’s possible that you may also like this next WordPress theme.
A fast-loading site is a great way to show search engines and visitors that your website is trustworthy and professional. We use Moz for our SEO service because it’s one of the most trusted names in online marketing and has been around since 2004.
This free WordPress theme from Elegant Themes comes with a clean design, plenty of customization options, and an easy-to-use administrative panel where you can add content or edit existing pages without coding knowledge!
Pricing: It has a free version to download, whereas the premium version starts at $49.
PageSpeed Score: A super performance-optimized theme can deliver a 100 score in the PageSpeed Insights test.
6. Zakra
Zakra is one of the fastest WordPress themes, with a page speed score of 98. This theme is perfect for businesses and bloggers who want a quick, responsive, modern website. Zakra includes several features that help improve your site’s speed, such as lazy loading images, minifying CSS and JavaScript and using a content delivery network (CDN).
Pricing: The free version is, of course, free, but the premium theme sells for $69 per year.
PageSpeed Score: 98
7. Customify
Customify is one of the fastest WordPress themes available in 2023. It is designed to load quickly and efficiently without sacrificing features or functionality. Customify is also one of the most customizable themes available, allowing you to promptly change your site’s look and feel.
Pricing: The core version is free to use. The Pro Upgrade starts at $59 per year.
PageSpeed Score: 98
8. Hestia
Hestia is one of the fastest WordPress themes, and it’s also one of the most popular. This multipurpose theme can be used for any website, from a personal blog to a corporate site. The theme is fully responsive, so it looks great on any device. Hestia is easy to use, even for beginners. The theme has a powerful page builder, so you can easily create complex layouts. And, if you need any help, the theme comes with excellent documentation and outstanding support.
Pricing: Hestia is a premium theme, and its starting price is $80 per year.
PageSpeed Score: 97
9. Blocksy
If you’re looking for a fast WordPress theme, Blocksy is an excellent option. This theme is designed to be lightweight and fast so that it won’t slow down your website. Plus, it has several features that can speed up your site’s load time, such as lazy loading images and async JavaScript.
Pricing: Free version is available. The premium version starts from $49 per year.
PageSpeed Score: 98
10. X Theme
X Theme by Themeco is one of the fastest themes available for WordPress. It is designed to be lightweight and fast without sacrificing any of the features or functionality you need. The X Theme is built on a robust framework that includes a responsive grid system, flexible layouts, and dynamic templates. This allows you to create beautiful websites that look great on any device without coding or designing from scratch. The X Theme also includes a built-in drag-and-drop page builder, so you can easily create custom pages and posts without touching a line of code.
Pricing: Available from Themeforest for a single site license of $59.
PageSpeed Score: 97
We’re excited to see more of these themes, and we hope this list has helped you find the best theme for your site.
Want to improve your website’s speed? Check out Seahawk’s WordPress PageSpeed Optimization Service.
