10 Fastest WordPress Themes (Tested On Real Data in 2025)

Some WordPress themes feel fast. Others don’t. But how to test that in a dependable way, actually?

Themeisle wanted real answers! So they asked me to set up a test site with some nice design, and then measure how long it takes to load that site with different themes running underneath each time.

So… same content, same site, same hosting, same testing environment. The only difference in each test is the theme running on the site.

This isn’t a lab, of course, and it’s not perfect. But it’s close enough to show which popular themes actually load quicker, and which ones slow things down.

The fastest WordPress themes (tested and compared for 2025)

Here’s this entire comparison in video form in case you’d prefer that:

1. Neve

Full disclosure, Neve is a theme that we developed ourselves. But this result proves that our efforts to make it the fastest theme possible really paid off!

It’s the fastest loading theme here and also quite easy on your server resources (minimal requests). Neve is optimized for mobile devices, too, giving you an extra SEO boost. Best of all, you can start customizing it almost immediately without digging into the code by installing one of its pre-built designs.

Neve is compatible with all popular page builders. You can easily customize various elements of your website, like your homepage, and see real-time changes as you edit. Overall, this theme is super flexible and user-friendly, which makes it a perfect solution for beginners or advanced users who want to work more efficiently.

2. Kadence

Kadence isn’t shy about what it wants to be: fast, flexible, and full of features. From the start, it’s built for performance. Not just with clean code, but with things like CSS pre-loading baked in.

Design-wise, Kadence tries to do a lot. You get a drag-and-drop header and footer builder. You pick your fonts, colors, layout width, and button styles all in the WordPress customizer.

It plays well with others, too. Gutenberg, Elementor, Beaver Builder – Kadence adds extra tools for each. There’s also support for WooCommerce, and other popular solutions.

Out of the box, Kadence is trying to be your all-in-one. Not lightweight in features, but still trying to stay lightweight in load time.

3. GeneratePress

I don’t know about you, but for me, GeneratePress looks to be stripped down on purpose. No sliders or specific effects. Just clean, minimal code built to load fast and stay stable.

You can start with a blank page or use one of their starter sites. The theme sticks close to WordPress defaults, which makes it feel light and familiar. It doesn’t fight you.

There’s also a block plugin called GenerateBlocks that pairs with it. It lets you build layouts without needing a page builder. Still, the theme doesn’t assume you want to design every pixel so it gives you options to get started with.

Support, stability, and clean code are the big promises here. They test updates in public before shipping them. That says a lot. No extras unless you ask for them. Want more? Read our comprehensive GeneratePress review here.

4. Hello Biz

Hello Biz is built for people who want to launch their site fast, want to use Elementor, and don’t want to deal with building the thing from the ground up.

Important; the theme is meant to work with Elementor, so that is its main use case – business sites on Elementor.

Instead of giving you a blank theme, it hands you full website kits. These come pre-loaded with business-style layouts and widgets like forms, callouts, and hero sections. You pick a kit and swap in your content.

There are a few custom widgets made just for Hello Biz, but they’re simple: headlines, layouts, calls to action. Nothing wild. The whole thing is focused on making a small business site that looks clean, loads fast, and doesn’t break when you edit it.

5. Astra

Astra theme is one of the most popular WordPress themes available overall. It is made to stay out of your way. It loads fast, skips the fluff, and works with just about every major page builder. Elementor, Beaver Builder, Spectra, etc.

The theme comes with a huge set of prebuilt templates. Want a coffee shop site? A coaching page? An online store? Pick one, swap the content, and you’re online. There’s no shortage of options.

Astra also leans hard into speed. The base install is small, and it avoids heavy scripts. Just a lean design with enough controls to style headers, footers, buttons, and colors. It tries to feel invisible. That’s kind of the point. Then it comes with a Pro add-on if you want to expand your site and add more features.

6. Extendable

Extendable is a block theme that looks like it was built for people who don’t want their site to look like every other site. It comes with multiple style presets – taking advantage of one of WordPress’ newer functionalities – and you can switch between them with one click.

There’s no drag-and-drop builder bolted on here. Everything runs inside WordPress’ native block editor. That means full-site editing, no custom panels, and no shortcuts around the system.

Under the hood, if you want to tweak the code, it’s all open and standards-based. You’ll need at least WordPress 6.6 to use it, and maybe some patience if you plan to customize deeply.

It’s not trying to be flashy but flexible, without locking you into anyone’s idea of how your site should look.

7. Hello Elementor

Hello Elementor is the original theme built by team Elementor, and I think it wasn’t really made to be “a theme” in the usual sense. It’s more like a blank sheet that’s ready to receive any Elementor-based design you might want to build. No built-in styles, no layout choices, no widgets.

The whole point is to stay out of your way. All of the design happens inside the Elementor page builder. That includes headers, footers, and anything else you’d normally expect a theme to handle.

This setup only works if you’re building everything with Elementor. If not, it’s going to feel empty. But for Elementor users who want full control and zero clutter, it’s a solid option.

8. Blocksy

I like Blocksy because it’s built to feel fast but not look plain. It runs on modern code, leans into the block editor, and still offers full control over things like headers, sidebars, and color palettes. Unlike some themes that give you just enough to get by, Blocksy gives you a lot – I’m talking pre-made layouts, effects, WooCommerce options, and custom widgets, and even in the free version.

You can build everything inside the WordPress customizer without needing extra plugins. It supports live previews, so most changes show up instantly. Headers and footers use a drag-and-drop builder with device-specific options.

Blocksy works with Gutenberg, Elementor, Brizy, and Beaver Builder. It’s styled to look sharp but coded to stay lean. If some themes are blank canvases, Blocksy is more like a flexible toolkit with guardrails you can remove if you want. Read full Blocksy theme review here.

9. OceanWP

OceanWP tries to be a theme for everyone. And it mostly pulls it off. You can tweak just about anything, both site-wide or page by page. Headers, footers, sidebars, product loops, typography, layouts are all adjustable through the customizer. No code needed.

If you’re deep into Elementor, OceanWP offers full site templates and extra widgets. Prefer Gutenberg? That works too. WooCommerce? There are settings for filters, quick views, sticky bars, and mini carts. Lots of knobs to turn, even in the free version.

OceanWP doesn’t force a design on you, but the flipside is, it won’t do much unless you set things up yourself. You’ll find controls in every corner. It’s not hard, but it’s not “install and done” either. OceanWP gives you the parts and you decide what kind of site to build from them.

About my testing methodology

It’s all pretty simple, actually. Here’s what I did:

First, I created an example WordPress website – a guitar blog.

I designed one page on that blog to feature a nice selection of graphics, some custom layouts, and lots of content.

See the design:

Then, I tested that page using WebPageTest.org. I’ve done so multiple times.

For each test, I changed the WordPress theme working underneath.

I picked the themes for the test based on the most popular themes in the official WordPress repository as of June 2025. These themes are (in order of popularity):

• Hello Elementor
• Astra
• Kadence
• OceanWP
• Extendable
• Hello Biz
• GeneratePress
• Neve
• Blocksy

The network conditions, hosting environment and testing location were all the same for each test done.

I tried to remove all the factors so that the theme can be the only significant difference between the tests.

Then, I put all the results into a Google spreadsheet. The aggregated numbers from that sheet are what you can see in the table at the top and in the individual sections for the themes above.

Which is the fastest WordPress theme?

In this article, I gathered some of the fastest WordPress themes and took them for test drives. Neve, Kadence and GeneratePress are three of the top picks, but as you can see from the performance testing results above, any of these themes should serve you well.

With that being said, there’s also one thing that remains kind of hidden from plain view, yet it has significant impact on how your website – and theme – perform. I’m talking about your web hosting. Fast themes need fast hosting to shine. We have a different comparison on the blog that goes through that topic. 👉 Check it out.

Do you have any questions about choosing a fast theme? Ask us in the comments!