Your WordPress theme of choice has a significant impact on the speed of your site, which is presumably why you’re seeking for the quickest WordPress theme. Indeed, a speedier WordPress website creates more leads and has a direct effect on your conversion rates, indicating that every second matters in the digital world.

According to Google’s research, the following table illustrates the effect of each second of load time on your bounce rate:

1–3 seconds | 32% bounce rate

Between 1 and 5 seconds | 90% bounce rate

Between 1 and 10 seconds | 123% bounce rate

According to Google’s data, if you don’t choose the correct theme or a reliable hosting provider for optimal performance, you’re losing clients with each second of load time.

There are several methods for optimizing your WordPress site’s performance, but one of the most prudent is to choose a lightweight and fast WordPress theme.

With close to 10,000 themes, it is overwhelming to pick the right WordPress theme that is beautiful, easy to customize and most importantly loads extremely fast. You don’t have to worry, we have spent months reviewing themes that meet these criteria and are sharing them with you so you don’t have to waste months in selecting the right theme for your needs.

We selected the themes based on their popularity and whether people speak highly of those themes in the WordPress Communities.

In addition, we selected themes that are the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing with a tremendous amount of demo sites.

We imported site demo content with numerous images as well as the most common plugins that users leverage in building their sites. We basically created a real-life scenario to help you analyze how a theme will perform when you go live with it.

Pingdom is another popular website testing tool that provides comprehensive performance reports and recommends speed fixes to improve your site score.

The following metrics will be considered for theme ranking.

Performance Grade: Reflects the overall performance of your site. The score is out of 100, and higher is better.

Page Size: Is the size of your page. The lighter the page weight, the faster it will load.

Load Time: The total loading time of your website.

Requests: The total number of HTTP requests. Fewer is better.

PageSpeed Insight is a Google page testing tool that lets users check website performance on Desktop and Mobile. This free tool audits your site and recommends performance issues to improve your Google page experience.

The following factors will be considered for theme benchmarks:

FCP: Known as first content paint, FCP measures the rendering time for the first content element when visitors open your page.

Speed Index: Measures the visual display time of the loading page.

LCP: Measures the loading time your largest content element takes to display.

TTI: TTI, or time to interactive, is the loading time a page takes to become fully interactive.

 TBT: Measures the total block time (long task) of your site while loading your page.

Astra is one of the all-time most popular WordPress themes. It’s one of the lightest, fastest, and most customisable WordPress themes available. The Astra theme has over  one million active installations. This theme is available in two flavors: freemium and premium. With the pro version, you gain access to extra and advanced capabilities that enable you to create any type of WordPress website, including blogs, eCommerce stores, and learning management systems. The entry-level pro plan is $47, while the growth bundle is $127.

Similarly, it’s a highly adaptable theme that adheres to optimum coding standards and optimizes every line of code. Additionally, it includes built-in schema markups, making it an SEO-friendly theme. Additionally, it uses less than 50 KB of resources to operate.

Zakra is a fast and lightweight WordPress theme that enhances the beauty and functionality of your website. It’s totally compatible with all major page builders, making site editing simple and painless. The free version includes sufficient functions, but if you require more powerful features, a premium version is available. The pro subscription begins at $69 and includes a slew of additional and premium theme features.

If you’re looking for a WordPress theme that’s quick, secure, and SEO-friendly, Zakra is a great option. With over 60,000 active installs and an average rating of 5-stars, it offers limitless possibilities for quickly creating your website.

Colibri WP is a multipurpose, SEO-optimized WordPress theme that features a clean, yet eye-catching design. It features an intuitive interface that enables users to effortlessly personalize their theme through the use of drag and drop. Additionally, it includes a hero section for video, slideshow backgrounds, and image collages.

It includes over 90 fully-functional website templates. ColibriWP is a fast and lightweight theme with excellent layouts and styles. The pricing of a pro theme license begins at $79. By default, Colibri will look excellent on any device.

THEMECO’s X Theme is a premium WordPress theme. It features a clean, responsive, and lightweight design that enables you to attain peak performance. A simple interface and pre-built samples make it easy to develop any type of website. It’s available on Themeforest for $59 USD (a regular license).

With over 700,000 active installations, OceanWP is one of the most popular and multipurpose WordPress themes available. It has professional designs and innovative layouts for all types of company websites. It is a simple-to-use and beginner-friendly lightweight and highly adaptable theme. Additionally, it is compatible with all major page builders, including Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Brizy. Apart from the free edition, the theme has a pro version that costs $39 for a single site license.

Additionally, with its one-click website demo import, you can create any type of website. Additionally, you may modify the settings for tablets and mobile devices to ensure that your website appears great on all devices. Additionally, you can utilize it to create stunning custom pages and sections.

The7 is one of ThemeForest’s most popular premium themes. It is a robust and feature-rich theme with appealing layouts and intriguing designs. The standard license costs $37, while the extended license costs $2950. This is a responsive theme with over 1000 theme options that will allow you to create any type of website.

Betheme is a premium multipurpose WordPress theme that works well for all types of websites. You may instantly construct a blog, an online store, or a portfolio website, among other things. It’s a well-optimized and popular theme that features stunning layouts and is really easy to customize. Betheme’s standard license is $59.

Neve is a multipurpose WordPress theme created with speed and aesthetics in mind. The company is committed to a mobile-first strategy. It makes extensive use of SEO-optimized code, which helps your website rank at the top of Google search results.

The theme is well-known for its distinctive layouts and versatility, which enable users to work effortlessly inside the theme’s designs and rapidly construct websites. As with previous themes, it is compatible with and works flawlessly with major page builders such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Brizy. It is available in both a free and a paid edition, with the basic license costing $86.

Hestia is a modern SEO-optimized WordPress theme that lets you build any type of website. It’s one of the most versatile, intuitive, and easy-to-use multipurpose WordPress themes. Its wide full screen, beautiful front page with amazing design gives a great user experience.

At the same time, it comes with an SEO-ready structure that helps your business have a strong online presence. Furthermore, this theme is responsive and retina-ready. Also, provide excellent support and simple 1-click updates. 

Kadence is a robust SEO-optimized WordPress theme that enables you to quickly and easily create attractive websites. It’s packed with cutting-edge technology and delivers lightning-fast performance.

Additionally, its intuitive interface and robust feature set make it incredibly versatile for developing any type of website. It includes a big library of attractive beginning templates to assist you in getting your website up and running. Additionally, you can enable breadcrumbs by utilizing the engine’s built-in breadcrumb generator.