Many factors affect the loading speed of a website. However, if you’re running a WordPress site, there’s a good chance that your theme is one of the main culprits of a slow site.
Themes often have many images and scripts that need to load before they can appear on your page, which is why it’s important to use one of the fastest WordPress themes available.
Trying to optimize your current theme can be frustrating and time-consuming. Try one of these lightweight WordPress themes instead if you want to save yourself some hassle. They will help you create faster sites without much work on your part.
TIP: If you want to see how well your site performs, try using google’s very own page speed matrix for a detailed analysis of your speed performance and recommendations for improvement. You can also check out our guide to optimize your WordPress site with even more tips!
#1. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a lightweight, responsive theme that supports multiple page builders. In addition, it comes with a mobile-first design, so you can optimize your site for mobile devices and ensure that it looks good on all screen sizes.
The theme is perfect for bloggers who want to use their sites for product reviews, portfolio displays, and more. There are also multiple options for sidebar locations and widgets to personalize your site.
GeneratePress also has integrated support for WooCommerce as well as multilingual ready capabilities. So if you’re looking for a super customizable theme that doesn’t weigh down your site, GeneratePress is an excellent option.
#2. Kadence Theme
Kadence is the most customizable free WordPress theme I’ve ever used. It supports a wide variety of layout options, including right-to-left languages, which is a massive plus for anyone who speaks Arabic or Hebrew or is designing a site for someone who does.
One of Kadence’s strong points is its many options in the WordPress Customizer, even in the free version at WordPress.org. It has all the basic options you’d expect from a relatively new theme like kadence, plus more advanced options of custom headers and social icons.
Kadence also includes neat features like sticky menus and page templates to help you build your website up quickly.
#3. Astra Theme
Astra is a modern, fully responsive and minimalistic, lightweight WordPress theme.
It’s also effortless to use; you can get your project up and running in minutes!
Astra has many predefined blocks that are ready to use and flexible; it’s also compatible with the Elementor page builder.
“Starter templates” provide pre-built websites for you to use for different purposes (e-commerce, portfolio, blog, etc.), and they’re built on top of Elementor so you can create them yourself if needed.
Tons of shortcodes are included and exclusive Astra Block plugins that work with Elementor.
Also, you can use any 3rd party plugin you like! For example, Astra works great with WooCommerce, LearnDash, and many other popular plugins.
The Astra Pro version makes it easy to turn your site into an online store with WooCommerce compatibility.
#4. Schema
Schema is a lightweight and powerful theme that comes with fantastic customization options. In addition, it offers several built-in translation panels that make it easy to translate your website to different languages.
This theme also has built-in support for Google’s algorithms, making it an SEO-friendly theme. In addition, Schema offers advanced customization options that allow you to change every aspect of its appearance.
You can choose from multiple header styles, including a full-width header and a boxed header. You can also select from over 50 different color options. All of this makes this product one of the most flexible themes on the market today.
Another great feature is Schema’s review system, allowing visitors to review your posts in the comment section. This makes it easy for you to keep track of the most popular content on your site and identify areas where you may need to add more content or improve your writing style. It also lets visitors easily share their opinions of your content, which can help spread your brand or products through word-of-mouth advertising as others become aware of your business.
#5. Divi Theme
Divi is one of the most popular and powerful WordPress themes around. It’s been created by Elegant Themes, a company making premium themes since they were first introduced to the market. Divi has a lot of things going for it – it’s easy to use, looks great, has a lot of built-in features, and is updated very frequently – meaning you get access to new features whenever they become available.
The Divi theme is also very flexible; its drag-and-drop page builder allows you to create multiple layouts from the same theme. In other words, if you buy Divi today, you’ll be able to use it for years to come – maybe not for creating new websites but certainly for modifying existing ones.
Divi comes with over 40 pre-made layouts (or demos), including different kinds of websites such as business portfolios, agency websites, etc. You can choose a demo and then build upon it using the page builder with Divi.
Parting Thoughts
That said, the decision will ultimately boil down to your specific business needs. Think about how much traffic you’re likely to get based on your marketing plans, how many pages you’ll likely have on the site, and how much customization you need. If all of these questions are far from cut and dry, then it might be a great idea to get in touch with a web developer or designer before deciding the fate of your site. They’ll be able to look at your site design needs and give you more specific answers about which platform would work best for you, based on the latest website design trends.
