If you’re wanting to generate quality leads and land sales via your business’ website in 2023, it’s important that you’re aware of the imperative role that your website loading speed plays in achieving these goals.
In fact, just a mere 2-second page loading delay could result in a 35% increase in your bounce rate (the number of people who leave your website within a short time after landing on it). That’s 35 out of 100 people you could have had the chance to get a sale from but missed out on.
As WordPress web designers in Sydney, we at Spin Design see this issue costing business owners tens of thousands of dollars a year. But don’t worry: just like we help them get on track, we’re here to help you too!
In this blog, we’ll be sharing the top 5 fastest WordPress themes in 2023 so that you can prioritise speed when developing your new business website.
1) Hello by Elementor
The Hello theme is a no-frills, basic theme crafted by Elementor specifically to complement their page builder. Its memory footprint is remarkably light, consuming only 6kb of memory, which, as a consequence, restricts the flexibility of customization if the theme is used standalone.
The performance metrics for the Hello theme are as follows:
- Mobile PageSpeed score: 90 out of 100
- First Paint of Content: 3.1 seconds
- Largest Display of Content: 1.8 seconds
- Overall Layout Shift: 2.9 seconds
- Speed Index Value: 1.4 seconds
- Interaction Readiness Time: 1.4 seconds
- Duration of Blocking Time: 0 milliseconds
- Complete Load Time: 2.2 seconds
- Total Page Dimension: 990 KB
- Count of HTTP requests: 13
2) Astra by WordPress
Astra stands as a highly favoured free WordPress theme owing to its lean coding, user-centric capabilities, and extensive library of pre-designed templates.
Here are the performance metrics for the Astra theme:
- Mobile PageSpeed rating: 91 out of 100
- Initial Content Display: 2.1 seconds
- Major Content Display: 1.9 seconds
- Total Layout Shift Time: 2.8 seconds
- Speed Index Measurement: 1.3 seconds
- Time Until Fully Interactive: 1.4 seconds
- Period of Blocking Time: 0 milliseconds
- Complete Page Load Duration: 2.1 seconds
- Overall Page Size: 890 KB
- Number of HTTP requests: 12
3) Neve by ThemeIsle
Neve by ThemeIsle is a standout due to its compatibility with WooCommerce, the premier eCommerce plugin for WordPress. It’s comforting to witness an eCommerce-oriented theme maintaining lean file sizes and exemplary performance. As a lightweight, mobile-optimised WordPress theme, it also offers reliable updates and support – staples of the ThemeIsle reputation.
Performance indicators:
- Performance Rating: 100%
- Structure Rating: 99%
- Largest Contentful Paint: 487ms
- Total Blocking Duration: 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0
- Fully Loaded Duration: 1s
- Pingdom Metrics:
- Performance Grade: 98
- Page Dimension: 43.20 KB
- Load Duration: 586ms
- Requests: 6
- PageSpeed Insights (Mobile):
- Performance Rating: 100
- First Contentful Paint: 1.0s
- Speed Index: 1.2s
- Large Contentful Paint: 1.0s
- Time to Interact: 1.0s
- Total Blocking Duration: 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0
- PageSpeed Insights (Desktop):
- Performance Rating: 100
- First Contentful Paint: 0.3s
- Speed Index: 0.6s
- Large Contentful Paint: 0.4s
- Time to Interact: 0.3s
- Total Blocking Duration: 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift: 0
- Byte Check TTFB Test:
- Time To First Byte: 51ms
- Total Duration: 52ms
- Header Dimension: 450b
- Request Dimension: 201b
4) OceanWP by WordPress
OceanWP theme is an impressively light and highly customisable solution that empowers you to create nearly any kind of website. It boasts full responsiveness, ensuring a seamless experience on mobile devices, and comes equipped with built-in translation tools. Additionally, it supports a wide array of templates that work well with Gutenberg (the WordPress editor) and popular page builders like Elementor or Beaver Builder.
Here are the performance figures for the OceanWP theme:
- Mobile PageSpeed rating: 88 out of 100
- Initial Display of Content: 1.1 seconds
- Major Display of Content: 2.9 seconds
- Total Layout Shift Time: 1.8 seconds
- Speed Index Measurement: 2.3 seconds
- Time Until Fully Interactive: 1.4 seconds
- Duration of Blocking Time: 0 milliseconds
- Complete Page Load Duration: 3.2 seconds
- Total Page Size: 996 KB
- Number of HTTP requests: 13
5) Avada by Envato
Avada holds the distinction of being the top-selling theme on Envato for several consecutive years. Its massive library is home to thousands of templates, each readily customisable to your liking. The standout feature of Avada is its integrated website builder, Fusion Builder, which lets you craft your website from header to footer. An added bonus is that Avada is entirely maintained by an in-house team, ensuring independence from third-party utilities.
Here’s the performance analysis for the Avada theme:
- Mobile PageSpeed score: 87/100
- First Content Display: 3.1 seconds
- Major Content Display: 1.5 seconds
- Overall Layout Shift: 1.7 seconds
- Speed Index: 1.5 seconds
- Time until Fully Interactive: 2.4 seconds
- Total Blocking Duration: 0 milliseconds
- Complete Load Time: 2.4 seconds
- Entire Page Size: 998 KB
- HTTP Requests: 12
If you’re looking for a WordPress web designer in Sydney or a WordPress web development company in Sydney to set up your business’ website to be fast and effective, then reach out to us at Spin Design. We have over 22+ years of experience and many happy customers. See our portfolio and request a quote.



