Are you planning to create your own website based on the WordPress system and wondering what to pay special attention to? The answer is one: speed! By choosing a fast WordPress theme, you are laying a solid foundation for the loading speed of your site.
Why a fast WordPress theme is so important, what factors affect loading time, and which themes are the best for speed, you'll find it all in this article. In addition, we encourage you to read our guide "Faster WordPress: Top Tips for Better Performance," which is also available as a downloadable e-book.
Also, share your experiences with the themes on our list and share your opinion about them by adding a comment at the end of this post.
The speed of a WordPress theme has a significant impact on the user experience when using your website. These experiences, in turn, affect your site's position in search results, which is important for its visibility.
Here are some aspects to look out for:
User experience: When visitors enter your site, they expect content to be delivered to them virtually instantly. If the site loads slowly, users may become discouraged and leave, negatively affecting your goals.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) position: Google takes into account the loading speed of a page when determining its position in search results. A fast WordPress theme that reduces loading time can therefore help improve your site's position in search results, which in turn can increase organic traffic.
Conversion rate: A fast-acting website can significantly increase your conversion rate. It makes it easier for visitors to interact with your site, such as making purchases, downloading content, registering or booking services.
So it's worth ensuring that your WordPress theme is optimized for speed, which will help improve the user experience and efficiency of your site.
What's important about the fastest WordPress themes?
When we talk about fast WordPress themes, we focus on the time it takes to load the page and its content. Practice shows that this time should not exceed three seconds, as users tend to become impatient. Ideally, we should aim for a loading time of less than two seconds.
In addition to total charging time, the following measures are also relevant:
First Contentful Paint (FCP): Determines how long it takes for the first piece of content, such as text or an image, to appear on a page. This is the first thing users see on the page, so fast loading is important to encourage them to interact with the site.
Time to Interactive (TTI): Determines how long it takes a user to start interacting with a page, such as clicking on items. This measure tells users that the site is running smoothly.
In addition, Google uses Core Web Vitals as important indicators of quality and user experience that affect page rankings. These metrics include, but are not limited to:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how quickly the largest visible element of a page, usually the main content, is loaded.
First Input Delay (FID): Determines how quickly a page responds to a user's first interaction, such as clicking on a button or link.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This indicator describes how the content of a page changes during or after loading. This can mean that elements, such as images, affect the layout of text. CLS provides information about the visual stability of a page.
It's worth paying attention to these metrics and understanding how they affect the performance of your WordPress site, as well as rankings in search results. Taking care of your site's speed is a key part of ensuring a positive user experience and achieving better SEO results.
Reduce loading speed with PageSpeed Insights
How to use PageSpeed Insights?
To measure the loading speed of your website using the PageSpeed Insights tool, follow these steps:
Go to Google's PageSpeed Insights page, which you can find at: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/.
Enter the URL of the website you want to investigate in the "Enter website address" field. You can enter the full URL of the site or the domain name.
Click the "Analyze" button.
After a while, the PageSpeed Insights tool will analyze the selected page and provide results on its loading speed and suggestions for optimization.
You will see a score on a page with two values: one is for performance on mobile devices and the other is for performance on computers. Each score has a value from 0 to 100 points, where higher scores indicate better performance.
Below the results, you will find specific suggestions for improving your site's performance. Google will provide information on specific items that can be optimized, such as file size, image compression, coding and more.
You can additionally select the "Report" or "Lab" tab for more detailed information on the results and reasons for delays.
Remember, PageSpeed Insights is one tool that helps you understand what steps you can take to improve your site's performance. Optimizing your site may require technical expertise, so it's worth consulting a webmaster or SEO specialist to optimize your site effectively.
What affects the loading speed of a theme?
A WordPress theme plays a key role in the functioning of your website. When choosing a theme, pay attention to the high standard of its development and programming. The most efficient WordPress themes exhibit certain features:
Limited number of HTTP requests: Too many unnecessary HTTP requests can overload the server and delay the page loading process.
Optimal page size: Page size depends not only on the code, but also on elements such as images and content. The smaller the page size, the faster it loads.
Minimize JavaScript and CSS: You can minimize JavaScript and CSS files by using WordPress plugins such as Autoptimize or Fast Velocity Minify, which will optimize these elements.
In addition to the theme, there are many other factors that affect the speed of your site:
Page load: This is the amount of data transferred during page loading, including the number and size of images and videos. To reduce loading time, compress heavy data using WordPress plugins such as Optimus.
Caching: Caching helps reduce page load time and the number of server requests by storing page data temporarily. This allows the page to load faster. You can activate this feature with plugins such as WP Super Cache, or use a hosting that offers server-level caching, which eliminates the need for additional plugins.
Plugins: avoid excessive use of plugins, as they can slow down your site. Install only those plugins that are necessary, carefully choose quality ones, and regularly remove those you no longer need.
Hosting: choosing the right WordPress hosting is a key factor. It is recommended to use a WordPress hosting that specializes in supporting this platform, providing a fast and reliable server.
Comparison of the fastest WordPress themes
The best news is that many of the best premium WordPress themes are available for free. In our article on the best free WordPress themes, you'll find an overview of templates worth considering, especially if your website budget is limited.
1. GeneratePress
Motyw WordPress GeneratePress
In the list of the fastest WordPress themes, you can't miss GeneratePress. This theme focuses on saving money to ensure maximum performance and speed, while delivering a great user experience.
Here are the main advantages:
GeneratePress features extremely economical and clean code.
This lightweight theme is only 7.5 KB in page size.
The basic version generates only 2 HTTP requests, which means lightning fast data transfer from your website.
It is extremely flexible, allowing you to create different types of sites, blogs, stores and more.
Compatible with popular page builders and WordPress plugins.
Available in a free version, as well as a premium version for $59 a year or a one-time $249.
2. Neve
Neve theme
Neve theme deservedly takes the top spot among the best WordPress themes. Like GeneratePress, this theme emphasizes simplicity of design while maintaining versatility. It's an especially good choice if you're looking to improve your site's loading speed on mobile devices.
Here are the main benefits:
Optimized code for search engines, resulting in better visibility in Google results.
The theme is also optimized for AMP technology, making the site extremely fast on mobile devices.
Neve is generally responsive, which means your site runs smoothly and quickly on a variety of devices.
Support for popular page builders, such as Elementor, and an interface for WooCommerce, making it easy to create store pages.
Available in a free version, as well as a premium version that costs from $99 per year.
3. OceanWP
Ocean WP - Motive WordPress
OceanWP theme is an excellent choice for both beginners and experienced web developers. This versatile theme offers a lot of features, as well as numerous extensions that allow you to customize your site.
Here are the main benefits:
The OceanWP theme is generally lightweight and provides excellent page load times, except for some speed issues on mobile devices.
It is fully responsive, which means that the site runs smoothly and comfortably even on small screens.
With WooCommerce integration, OceanWP allows you to turn your site into an online store.
It supports all popular WordPress page builders, allowing you to flexibly customize your site content.
Available in a free version and a premium version that costs from $43 per year or $222 as a one-time fee.
4. Kadence WP
Motive Wordpress - Kadence
Kadence WP is a WordPress theme that is very popular among web developers who want to express their creativity and design unique sites. What's more, Kadence WP earns recognition as one of the fastest solutions in our ranking.
Here are the main benefits:
Kadence WP theme achieves excellent results in Core Web Vitals tests, which means that sites based on this theme are very powerful.
By default, it uses the WordPress Gutenberg editor, which can be further extended with the available Kadence extensions, giving you a wide range of options for customizing your site's content.
It is compatible with various page builders such as Elementor and Beaver Builder, making it easy to design websites.
With WooCommerce integration, Kadence WP allows you to create powerful online stores.
It provides tools to create lightweight pop-ups, banners and sliders, which can help increase conversion rates.
Kadence WP is available in a free version, as well as a premium version that costs from $129 per year or $699 as a one-time fee.
5. Astra
Astra- Motive WordPress
The Astra theme is considered one of the fastest WordPress solutions on many levels. This theme offers quick setup and excellent performance, allowing you to quickly create various types of websites.
The main benefits are:
The code of the Astra theme is clean and neat, which contributes to its exceptional performance.
Despite the many demos available, the Astra stands out for its excellent performance in speed tests.
The theme is multi-tasking and features a page size of about 50 KB and only 6 HTTP requests, which translates into fast loading pages.
Astra allows for the flexible use of various website builders, and some of the available demos have been specifically tailored to specific website creation programs.
In addition, the Astra theme offers unique features for WooCommerce-based online stores.
It is available in a free version, as well as a premium version, with prices starting at $59 per year or $299 as a one-time fee.
The speed of a WordPress theme plays a key role in providing an excellent user experience and improving a site's position in search results. When choosing a theme, it is important to pay attention to several key factors, such as the number of HTTP requests, page size, minimum JavaScript and CSS. Various tools, such as PageSpeed Insights from Google, are available to help measure page load speed and provide suggestions for optimization.
The article also presents five of the fastest WordPress themes, including GeneratePress, Neve, OceanWP, Kadence WP and Astra, describing their main features and advantages. By choosing one of these themes, you can ensure the speed of your site, which is important for online success.
