As the foundation of a website, WordPress themes have an important impact on website loading speed. A WordPress theme with poor design and messy code will seriously affect the website loading speed, thereby affecting the website ranking. On the contrary, a well-designed WP theme with concise code will load quickly and help improve page rankings.
In this article, we have collected some of the fastest free WordPress themes for you. The basic versions of these themes are free, but you can also pay to upgrade if you want to use advanced features.
Further reading :
24 Easy-to-Use Multi-Purpose WordPress Themes
How to build a website and blog
Here are the ten fastest free WordPress themes for 2022…
1.GeneratePress _
- Loading time: 1.967 s
- Size: 32 KB
- HTTP requests: 10
GeneratePress is one of the fastest WordPress themes focused on speed.
Developer Tom Usborne places an emphasis on clean, lightweight code. It is only 30kb in size and is mainly created to improve loading speed. The page is simple and elegant.
Multiple areas are customizable, including 9 widgets, 5 navigation positions, 5 sidebar layouts, dropdown menus (click or hover), navigation color presets, and more.
It is fully compatible with all major page builders including Beaver Builder and Elementor . Supports WooCommerce store functionality.
In addition to its excellent performance, it is also super versatile and has a large number of users. And if you’re willing to pay for the premium version, you also get access to a number of beautiful presentation templates that can be easily imported.
2.Astra _
- Loading time: 1.599 s
- Size: 46 KB
- HTTP request: 9
Like GeneratePress, Astra is another extremely popular WordPress theme. Astra does not support jQuery and is only 50 KB in size. Suitable for blogs, personal portfolios, business websites and WooCommerce storefronts.
In addition, the Astra theme is also super flexible and adaptable. If needed, you can import many free presentation templates.
Alternatively, you can flexibly adjust the page layout yourself with its flexible page setup options.
With SEO in mind, Astra integrates Schema.org code and supports built-in AMP , so mobile loading speeds will be fast.
It provides special features and templates so that it works perfectly with all page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, Divi, etc.
3.OceanWP _
- Loading time: 1.886 s
- Size: 198 KB
- HTTP requests: 18
OceanWP is another lightweight theme. You can customize it to any theme you want, such as blogging, investing, business website and WooCommerce storefront.
Like Astra, OceanWP offers a free template site, and you can import ready-made template themes if you don’t want to start from scratch.
It works with the most popular page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brazy, Visual Composer, Divi, SiteOrigin and more.
4. Neve
- Loading time: 2.134 s
- Size: 80 KB
- HTTP requests: 11
Neve is an easy-to-customize, multipurpose, lightweight WordPress theme from ThemeIsle, built specifically for launch with the new WordPress block editor (AKA Gutenberg).
It comes with built-in menu support, many WordPress customization options, and importable templates.
It is perfect for blogs, small businesses, startups, agencies, corporations, e-commerce stores (WooCommerce storefronts) as well as personal portfolio websites and most types of projects.
Neve is compatible with Gutenberg and the most popular page builders (Elementor, Brzy, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, Divi). Neve also supports WooCommerce.
5. Zakra
- Loading time: 1.181 s
- Size: 39 KB
- HTTP requests: 11
Zakra is a super lightweight WP theme from ThemeGrill with 12 different templates that can be imported. These templates include different areas such as cafe, spa, charity, yoga, wedding, dentist, education, etc.
In addition to this, you can switch the colors and layout of your website with tons of customization options. It is suitable for personal blogs, product portfolios, WooCommerce stores, business websites and other niche websites. Works with Elementor as well as other major page builders so you can create any layout you want.
The theme is responsive, Gutenberg-compatible, SEO-friendly, translation-ready and compatible with major WordPress plugins.
6.Write _
- Loading time: 1.536 seconds
- Size: 205 KB
- HTTP requests: 17
Writee is a lightweight WordPress theme created for writers or other creatives. It just gives you a simple, clean design so you can focus on writing.
This theme is perfect for personal, food, travel, fashion, business or any of their blogs and websites. Writee is fully responsive and mobile-friendly.
7.Arke _
- Loading time: 0.957 s
- Size: 20 KB
- HTTP requests: 6
Arke is a super minimalist WP theme and one of the fastest free WordPress themes.
It’s pretty much just white space and text. No sidebar, no widgets, no settings.
If you’re after a minimalist page, like a writer, this is a good choice.
8. Bloggo
- Loading time: 1.500 s
- Size: 132 KB
- HTTP requests: 15
Bloggo is another lightweight blog theme, but it doesn’t look minimalist. If you don’t like the super minimalism of Arke theme, you can consider this theme.
If you want to make something yourself, there are also many customization options available to customize the look of this theme.
9. Primer
- Loading time: 1.576 s
- Size: 143 KB
- HTTP requests: 15
Primer is a free WordPress theme from GoDaddy.
It has a beautiful appearance and can be adapted to a variety of uses.
10.Twenty Nineteen
- Loading time: 1.376 s
- Size: 69 KB
- HTTP request: 9
Finally, what we recommend is the WordPress default WordPress theme. In addition to actually looking good, this theme also boasts some great performance metrics.
Twenty Nineteen also provides full Gutenberg compatibility.
in conclusion
All of these free WordPress themes load quickly, so you should have no issues with the performance of each one. Let’s discuss which one is best from a page design and usability perspective.
If you want a versatile theme that can be used for just about anything, GeneratePress, Astra, and OceanWP are three of the most popular options, and you’ll probably be happy with any of them. Of the three, GeneratePress and Astra are definitely the fastest, although OceanWP is still very optimized.
Apart from this, Zakra and Neve also give you a lot of flexibility and provide ready-made demo site templates.
If blogging is more your style, you should check out Arke (ultra-minimalist), Writee (regular minimalist), or Bloggo (neat, but not so spartan). Alternatively, the default “Twenty Nineteen” theme is always a good blogging option too.
Finally, GoDaddy’s Primer theme is also a good choice for a simple business website, but of course you can use it for other purposes as well.
Of course, if you want to improve website loading speed, a good WordPress web hosting server is also essential. You can check out our best WordPress web hosting recommendations .