Fastest free WordPress themes – Test results

I tested the speed on Google’s PageSpeed ​​InsightsMobile. For each WP theme, I run multiple tests until I get a realistic result that is repeated multiple times.

So far, I have tested 130 free WP themes.

I will continue to test free WP themes. If you have a suggestion for some free WP theme to test, write it in the comment at the bottom of the page.

Fastest WP themes – Test results

These are the results of my testing of free WP themes. Blue color = Block WP theme.

If you want to test the same page I tested, on your own hosting and with your WP theme, download the HTML code of the Test Page (Word document) and three images from that page. The images are compressed and ready to be inserted into the Media Library.

WP themes with the fewest and most active installations

Below are tables with the 15 WP themes with the fewest and most installations, as well as their test results.

I want to show that there are a lot of new block WP themes, which have very few active installations, and which are significantly faster and lighter than well-known WP themes with a lot of active installations.

Inst.WP themeSIKiB
40Nexter FSE1.088
40mcms Lite1.088
50Kalin1.086
50Welcome One1.087
50Nostos1.087
60Inkling1.087
60BlockWave1.087
60BondSpace1.087
70Nextra1.086
70LlamaPress1.086
100Slick1.085
100The Canvas1.086
100Blue Note1.087
100WabiPress1.087
200Profiler1.086
Inst.WP themeSIKiB
1 M20-241.187
1 MHello Elementor1.196
1 MAstra1.1117
600 KGeneratePress1.0101
600 KOceanWP2.4192
500 K20-251.0139
500 K20-231.186
300 K20-221.187
300 KNeve1.1108
300 KKadence1.2116
200 KBlocksy1.2126
100 KSydney1.1111
100 KPopularFX1.2132
100 KHestia2.5185
70 KGo1.1242

Complete test results

Complete test results contain the following data:

Pl. – Current ranking
WP theme – WP theme name
SISpeed ​​Index (in seconds)
KiB – Page Size (in kilobytes)
LCP – Largest Contentful Paint (in seconds)
DOM – Number of DOM elements
FCP – First Contentful Paint (in seconds)
TBT – Total Blocking Time (in milliseconds)
CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift
Ac. Inst. – Number of active installations
Theme Author – Name of the theme author
Themes – Number of WP themes by that author

Click below to see the complete test results.

The WP theme name and author name in the table are clickable. Blue color = Block WP theme.

Why did I create site – Fastest WP themes?

Because almost all the tests I found are fake.

Either the test was done by the authors of some WP theme, who would put their WP theme at the top of the list, or the results would include some WP themes that are not the fastest at all.

For example, OceanWP and Hestia are among the 10 fastest in many tests, and all my tests showed that they are very slow WP themes.

Some put premium WP themes that are very slow, like Divi, among the fastest, just to insert their affiliate links.

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