All the fast-loading WordPress sites use the fastest themes. Fastest themes are built to optimize a site for speed, conversions rates, & user experience.
Research suggests that a slow website loading speed can ruin your SEO, google rankings and sales further down the road. For a website, WordPress is the most used content management system around the world. So, to make your WordPress faster, you need to take advantage of the fastest themes to survive among the competitors.
No one has enough time to wait for a slow site to load completely. If loading takes more than the ideal time, the chances are, your market is disappointing the visitors and losing potential customers.
Thus, we have come up with the list of best & fastest WordPress themes in 2024 for you so as to foster WordPress speed optimization.
Why Do You Need a Fast Theme for WordPress Site?
Foremost need of the fast theme is to get fast-rendering speed of the site. Fast loading time depends on how fast a site pulls all the data from web servers and renders the page once downloaded from web hosting.
So, it is as simple as it seems. By using the fastest WordPress theme, you are making the rendering & downloading process faster.
Faster themes can benefit you in many ways. They have less page weight, files and cleaner code that promotes fast rendering of the site.
Important features of Fastest WordPress Themes
Fastest themes ensure specific features that make them fast. Here are some important features you need to consider while using fastest WordPress themes:
- Less JavaScript requirement: The more the features a theme has, the more JavaScript it will use. So, be mindful about it. Go with a theme that neither has lots of features nor very less. Choose a theme with enough standard & useful features.
- Jquery Dependency: If a theme is heavier, it relies on jQuery. Make sure to choose a Jquery-free theme. JavaScript library relying themes are slow and can’t provide features to turn off features like Vimeo, YouTube, and Google Maps integration. Select a theme that can give you the option to turn them off to get a faster and lighter site.
- Clean code & Less CSS files – Fast themes have lighter CSS. Usually, the sales page must refer to lightweight CSS.
Fastest WordPress Site Themes Optimized for Speed
As you know why the fastest themes are important and what makes them fast. Take a look at the fast-loading WordPress themes in 2024 that are lighter in weight and optimized for speed.
1. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is the fastest WordPress theme & highly recommended. This theme is lightweight and promotes super-fast and user-friendly sites.
It provides versatile customization features and fits best to a variety of business industries and niche.
The features are all designed to adapt to various business needs & help increase conversion rates.
With a premium version, it offers pre-built demo sites that can help you create a site easily. Now, let’s take a look at the key features of GeneratePress.
Key Features
- Comes with both Free & paid versions
- Less than 30kb Theme size
- No dependency on jQuery
- Lots of pre-built demo sites
- WooCommerce integration
- Customization features
- Extensive documentation
- Fast customer support
- Worthy in prices
Cons
- Doesn’t have many third-party integrations compared other themes
- Not have much good-looking in-built templates compared to other slightly heavier themes.
2. Astra
Astra is another lightweight theme quite similar to GeneratePress. It doesn’t rely on jQuery JavaScript. It offers a variety of free demo websites built with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg and Brizy.
When it comes to child themes and out of the box templates, Astra is the best to be recommended. It has many customization options provided by its real-time Customizer that allow you to be as creative as you want.
Key Features
- Theme size is about 50kb
- Available in both free and paid version
- Doesn’t rely on jQuery
- Plenty of demo sites built with powerful page builders
- Real-time Customizer – make creative custom designs.
Cons
Hard to find any flaws in Astra. But, customization options in Astra are a little bit confusing.
3. Neve Theme
Neve is another theme that comes in our list of fastest wordpress themes in 2024. Not only it works best for WordPress but it also stands on top in fastest Woocommerce themes.
If you’re confused about choosing a WooCommerce friendly theme, you can go with Neve. With WooCommerce Booster module, it can help you upgrade your online store with all kinds of new features that can be perfectly integrated with WooCommerce.
Key Features
- Super-easy to download and setup – No sign up required.
- WooCommerce Booster module includes seamless integration with conversion optimization features
- Great value for money
- Unlimited site support and white label option with paid plans
- Faster in performance
- Doesn’t rely on jQuery
- AMP support
- Lots of templates
Cons
- Themeisle plugin isn’t included in the paid plans.
4. OceanWP
OceanWP is another one of the fastest WordPress themes after GeneratePress and Astra.
You can count on OceanWp for Super-fast and lightweight theme that fits the niche of your eCommerce company. It comes with pre-built demo sites so that you don’t have to create a new site from top to bottom.
Key Features
- Fully responsive theme
- Highly customizable
- Advanced mega menu
- Free templates available
- Fast & instant customer support
- Translation and RTL ready
- Built-in SEO base
Cons
- Not as lightweight as GeneratePress and Astra.
- The options panel could’ve been organized a little better.
5. Genesis Pro
To all the Blogging enthusiasts, here comes the best choice for you. Genesis Pro is one of the fastest WordPress themes designed for bloggers with great templates to make use of. The best thing about Genesis is less than 30kb size, optimized for speed & SEO and offers mobile responsive designs.
This theme is available from the earliest of times & is actually one of the oldest themes in the market.
With its quality features, it is a great option for the developers and designers out there.
Key Features
- Fast to load and optimized for speed
- One-click demo import
- Theme customizer with real-time preview
- Gutenberg ready
- Less than 30kb theme size
- SEO friendly
- Collection of Mobile-responsive designs
- Custom page templates
- A lifetime payment with all subsequent upgrades for free.
Cons
Child themes are a little expensive.
