If you want to build and run a successful website, few things are more important than speed. That’s because slow load times can negatively impact your Core Web Data and reject visitors. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why your website is running slowly.
The good news is that the appearance of your site doesn’t need to be one of those factors. When you implement a lightweight WordPress theme with a superior speed score, you can keep users on your page longer and reach your end goal more easily.
In this post, we’ll cover how your theme affects the speed and overall performance of your site. Then we’ll cover five of the fastest WordPress themes on the market today. Let’s start!
How your WordPress theme affects the performance of your site
Designing your website can be challenging, because it has to be beautiful and functional to be successful. In addition, your site must be fast.
Data shows that 25 percent of visitors will leave a website that doesn’t load within four seconds, and a delay of just one second is likely to disappoint 16 percent of users. What’s more, a slow site can negatively impact your search engine rankings.
Fortunately, there are many ways to increase your website speed and reduce your bounce rate, from cache management to image optimization. One of the easiest ways to ensure your site runs smoothly is to choose a fast WordPress theme.
Your theme files usually include elements such as graphics, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and more. These structural elements occupy space on your site’s web server. So large designs that require a lot of bandwidth tend to make your pages load slower. Therefore, a lightweight WordPress theme is usually ideal.
To test your current site speed, you can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom. If you suspect that your theme is bogging down your site, remember that there are some risks associated with large-scale design modifications. Therefore, you should do some research on how to change themes safely before choosing a new one.
5 Most Fastest and Lightweight WordPress Theme in 2022
Now that you know why it’s important to have a super-fast website, let’s explore the five fastest WordPress themes available today. Keep in mind that your site speed score may differ from our tests, as many other factors affect performance as well.
1. Twenty Twenty-Two
Twenty Twenty-Two debuted this year along with the latest version of WordPress. It is one of the first block themes, and supports Full Site Editing (FSE).
The theme’s color scheme makes heavy use of earth tones, as it is inspired by the diversity and adaptability of nature. It’s lightweight yet powerful, and features a subtle font style. Because Twenty Twenty Two is a block theme, so customization is easier than ever with FSE. However, this theme might not be the best choice if you prefer an alternative solution like a page builder.
2. Astra
There’s no doubt that Astra is one of the most popular WordPress themes out there. So that uses More than 1.5 million websites using this design.
Astra is lightweight and highly customizable. because the Code has been optimized for today’s WordPress best practices. Moreover, it uses self-hosted vanilla JavaScript and Google Fonts to improve its performance.
3. Zakra
Zakra is a multipurpose theme which also offers great security and impressive load times. This very sleek design can be a great choice for beginners, as it provides a variety of great demo sites.
This beginner-friendly template caters to a wide variety of small business and entrepreneurial needs, and can help you design your website easily and in minutes. You can easily organize into categories such as “Non Profit”, “Single Page”, “Portfolio” and many more. Additionally, Zakra integrates seamlessly with many common WordPress plugins, such as WooCommerce.
4. MedianUI WP
You usually can’t go wrong with the default WordPress theme that comes with every new release. In that sense, last year’s – Theme MedianUI WP – is still a fantastic choice.
However, it’s still very customizable and very fast. It features a minimalist design that acts as a blank canvas for you to build on. This timeless design is great for everything from small ecommerce sites to simple personal blogs, especially if you’re on a tight budget.
5. GeneratePress
If you’re a hobbyist, development agent, or anything in between, GeneratePress might be the perfect theme for you. because the theme boasts over 90,000 satisfied customers, and a thousand five-star reviews on WordPress.org.
This theme is a really good option if you’re a fan of block-based editing, as it uses its own GenerateBlocks plugin to offer a block-based theme generator. GeneratePress is also very accessible, hosting more than 20 languages. Apart from that, it offers an impressive collection of starter sites for beginners.
A fast WordPress theme can greatly increase the chances of your website’s overall success. A beautiful and fast design can increase your Click Through Rates (CTRs) and encourage visitors to keep coming back to your site. However, it can be difficult to sift through so many options.
To summarize, here are the five fastest WordPress themes in 2022:
Twenty Twenty Two: A free block based theme with a classic twist and FSE functionality.
Astra: A popular and lightweight option that optimizes its code using vanilla Javascript.
Zakra: Multipurpose theme with impressive speed scores and lots of starter templates.
MedianUI WP: Last year’s minimalist design, which is still fast and highly customizable.
GeneratePress: An impressive fast theme with over a thousand five-star reviews on WordPress.org.
Do you have any questions about the fastest WordPress themes of the year? Ask us in the comments section below!
Thanks to EXTHEMES DEVS