22 Fastest WooCommerce Themes in 2023 (Based on Thorough Testing)

The fastest WooCommerce theme is a hot topic of discussion, primarily because it’s challenging to make a fair evaluation. It’s not uncommon for many theme developers to claim that their theme is the fastest. However, in-depth, unbiased testing allows us to identify the go-to themes that we can rely on regularly, especially when creating websites for multiple clients with one or two themes.

There’s no perfect way to measure which WooCommerce theme is the fastest, but there are plenty of tools that we can bring together to focus on the themes that deserve real praise for their speed.

Therefore, we set off to establish a precedent for analyzing theme speeds, using multiple site performance and load time evaluators, and some help from our own experience and user reviews.

And remember, your ultimate goal is to increase your store’s revenue. So be sure to download our free ebook, 10 Ways to Boost Your WooCommerce Product Page Conversions.

How We Tested the Speed of WooCommerce Themes

Although no speed test provides absolute results, we wanted to ensure that our speed testing simulated that of a real-world environment. Testing speeds from theme developer demos pose all sorts of problems.

As each theme’s demo is hosted on a different server, one theme could be much faster than the other. Besides, they all could have diverse content. We may end up testing one demo with 1,000 products and another with only five.

Therefore, our testing incorporated the following elements to maintain as close to a real-world situation as we could create, similar to our speed test for standard WordPress themes:

• A clean WordPress sandbox installation with the same hosting infrastructure for all tests.
• The WooCommerce plugin.
• Recommended free WooCommerce plugins (like Jetpack and Google Ads).
• 12 demo products with images, descriptions, and published product pages.
• A static homepage with a product gallery and banner images.
• Demo posts, pages, and other items from the Theme Unit Test XML file.
• A complete menu.

With this configuration, we created an environment that’s as close to reality as possible. As you can see below, we have a homepage below with a dropdown menu. We retained content from the previous theme every time we tested a new theme, including the banner image.

One thing to keep in mind is that we’re not optimizing any media or connecting to a content delivery network (CDN). Although those elements fall under the realm of “real-world,” not all WordPress sites utilize the same CDNs, while others don’t use any CDN at all.

Also, the site may not have an image optimization plugin. Therefore, we filled the mock site with dummy content to test how each theme works without all the performance upgrades.

We felt having a legitimate store is also essential for testing WooCommerce themes. Therefore, we added several products with images, pricing, buttons, and descriptions to the mock site.

We also added a product gallery on the homepage, along with a wide variety of other items throughout the website, such as dozens of content-filled posts and pages.

The Speed Test Tools Used

We used four website speed and optimization testing tools to understand the advantages and downsides of each WooCommerce theme. This way, we’re not only sticking with one tool—which may result in inaccuracies—but we’re also looking at many more metrics to see which theme is the fastest.

Here’s a brief rundown of the speed tests:

• GTmetrix Speed Test (Legacy): A popular analysis tool that ranks sites with two types of speed scores. It also shows you load times, page sizes, and requests. The GTmetrix report is excellent for identifying areas to improve a site’s performance.
• Pingdom Website Speed Test: Another speed test that lets you change your server location and view site data like the page size, load time, and requests. It also assigns a performance grade for every test.
• Google PageSpeed Insights: This offers scores and suggestions on improving site performance with specific details, like the time it takes for a site to become interactive or reveal its first image or text.
• Bytecheck Website Speed Test: A TTFB (Time to First Byte) review, explaining how long it takes for the very first byte of data to appear on the screen.

Metrics Used

The metrics we use from GTmetrix (legacy) include:

• PageSpeed Score – A cumulative score out of 100, combining factors like image optimization and redirects.
• YSlow Score – A cumulative score out of 100, checking elements like DNS lookups and JavaScript.
• Fully Loaded Time – How long it takes to load the entire website. Lower is better.
• Total Page Size – The file size of the site with each installed theme. Smaller files are better.
• Requests – The number of requests needed to deliver the theme site files to the end-user. Fewer requests are ideal.

From Pingdom:

• Performance Grade – A grade out of 100, with averaged scores from elements like errors and content sizing.
• Load Time – How long it takes to load the site. Lower is better.
• Page Size – The overall size of your site files with the theme installed. Smaller is better.
• Requests – Total server requests made by the webpage. Fewer is better.

From Google PageSpeed Insights:

• Total Score – A cumulative score out of 100. Factors include time to show content and idle time.
• First Contentful Paint – We call this the “first image or text,” referring to how long it takes to see the first item. Lower is better.
• Speed Index – The time it takes for all site elements to load. Lower is better.
• Time to Interactive – The time for a site to be interactive, when a user can click a button or perform some action.

From Bytecheck:

• TTFB – This is the “time to first byte,” or how long it takes for one byte of data to load. Lower is better.
• Total Time – The overall time for all bytes to load.
• Header Size – The header size doesn’t change much with the content already in place for our demo site, so it doesn’t factor much into our analysis.

 

22 Fastest WooCommerce Themes Tested and Analyzed

The selection process involved organizing 50 of the most popular WooCommerce themes with reputations for reliability and performance. We also looked at user ratings and reviews to trim down the list. If a theme had hundreds of reviews, but they averaged out to two or three stars, we cut it from the list.

We realize that less popular (or newer) themes also deserve a chance. So we went through the WordPress Theme Library to locate more unique WooCommerce themes that are modern and packed with many beneficial features.

With both well-known and undiscovered themes in the batch, we decided to eliminate themes with GTmetrix PageSpeed or Pingdom scores below 80.

After that, a little over 20 themes met the requirements. These are the fastest WooCommerce themes. Our testing revealed that although each theme provides speedy results, not all are created equal.

Take a look below.

Orchid Store

The Orchid Store WooCommerce theme presents a flexible and stylish take on the modern online store. It’s ready to go with its WooCommerce integration and various other ecommerce plugins.

What’s great about the Orchid Store theme is that you begin with the standard online store template, but it has the settings and demos needed to modify it for other industries, such as sporting shops and furniture stores.

The WordPress customizer serves as the primary way to customize the theme, but it’s also fully widgetized and works with some well-known page builders.

The theme developer, ThemeBeez, offers several demos to try out a simple customization experience that eventually looks great on all devices when the website is published.

Elementor works well with Orchid Store, so you can take advantage of the WooCommerce elements from there. You can also utilize what comes with Orchid Store, like the mega menu builder and the wishlist tool.

Pricing

The Orchid Store theme is available as a free download.

A pro version sells for $49 as a one-site license. You can also pay extra for multiple licenses or the developer license.

Notable Features

• Full compatibility with WooCommerce and other WooCommerce plugins like WooCommerce Membership, Subscription, and YITH Wishlist.
• A built-in mega menu for adding large lists in menus and incorporating visuals and numerous dropdowns.
• A library of ecommerce widgets.
• Wishlist support helps people save items for later.
• A quick view button so that your users don’t have to go directly to the actual product page to see more information.
• Support for Elementor, one of the best page builders on the market.
• Multilingual and translation tools that make it easy to translate your websites and sell in other markets.
• Quick color change settings to match your branding.
• A special menu that goes next to your primary menu. Use this for things like product categories or other menu links.
• Three demos that change around the look and feel of the homepage.
• A banner and slider widget to make announcements or list promotions.
• A call-to-action widget to boost conversions.
• Several icons to choose from and add to your header area. For instance, you can change the appearance of the cart and wishlist icons.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

The Orchid Store offers a rather desirable design, and its mobile performance was a standout during our testing. The results were a little mixed with Orchid Store, but overall, it’s a solid theme with a decent speed advantage.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 97%
• YSlow Score: 88%
• Fully Loaded Time: 5.1s
• Total Page Size: 352KB
• Requests: 34

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 86
• Load Time: 1.02ms
• Page Size: 373.8KB
• Requests: 34

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 71
• First Image or Text: 3.8s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 4.7s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 5.2s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 599ms
• Total Time: 889ms
• Total Header Size: 517b

Test Conclusions

Orchid Store won the PageSpeed score test, beating out all other themes in the GTMetrix evaluation. It also ended up in second place when averaging out all four performance scores. It provided a PageSpeed score of 97, which was the only theme that surpassed the 94 mark. In addition to that, YSlow, Pingdom, and Google Pagespeed Mobile scores all came out as high as one could hope.

Strangely enough, Orchid Store was on the opposite side of the spectrum for page load times. It finished in the lower five when we averaged out the load time tests, with the GTMetrix load time coming in at just over five seconds. The TTFB looks just fine, and the Pingdom Load Time isn’t bad either. Not to mention, the Orchid Store theme had the fastest Mobile Speed Index. It’s only the GTMetrix Load Time that weighed it down in the load time results. Maybe it conflicted with a plugin or just had trouble with that one test as every other test provided top-notch results.

eStore by ThemeGrill

The eStore theme provides a clean, minimalist online store design for attracting customers and bringing attention to certain areas of the site instead of cluttering it with too many boxes. However, it still supports several widgets and banner areas. It also provides a beautiful header module with an interactive shopping cart icon, favorites button, and much more.

The eStore theme comes from ThemeGrill, a reputable favorite of WordPress developers. A few other ThemeGrill ecommerce themes are available, but we found that eStore had the fastest speeds during our tests. As for customization, you can choose from four eStore demos, one of which focuses on fashion, while another has a technology design.

The eStore theme looks lovely on mobile devices and allows for an incredible number of customizations to the homepage and the shopping areas. It’s known for its speed and lightweight build, so it’s nice to see that the praise matches with our test results. In addition to all of that, any theme you get from ThemeGrill comes with stellar customer support, guiding you along the way as you develop sites for clients or yourself.

Pricing

The eStore theme is available as a free download. You can also pay for the $69 eStore Pro, which gets you premium support for a year, updates, and advanced tools for headers, WooCommerce, and typography.

Pricing goes up as you add more licenses. ThemeGrill also sells an All Themes Plan for $99, which gets you all themes made by the developer.

Notable Features

• A sleek homepage with modules for placing hero images, banners, and buttons.
• A customizable header with interactive buttons for your cart, a strong menu, and a message banner.
• Four demos to either start your design with the default eStore layout or create something niche, like a technology or clothing store.
• Customization tools for colors, widgets, and typography.
• A one-click demo import option for launching your starter site and picking from the growing library of demos from ThemeGrill.
• Full WooCommerce compatibility, with a stylish shopping cart designed for conversions.
• A cart icon menu area that you can customize and add other elements to if you’d like.
• Multiple layouts for your shopping carts.
• A store notice message at the top of the homepage.
• Quick visual settings to adjust the product catalog and build product galleries.
• Integrations with the most popular page builders such as Gutenberg, Beaver Builder, and Elementor.
• A sticky menu that functions much like a mega menu, allowing for multiple dropdowns and extensions.
• Additional WooCommerce features and drag-and-drop modules when you upgrade to the premium plan.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

As a strictly ecommerce-based theme, eStore combines both simplicity and functionality, while also showing us that it’s not impossible to have a large online store that runs fast—even without the fastest WordPress hosting in the world.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 89%
• Fully Loaded Time: 4.3s
• Total Page Size: 599KB
• Requests: 55

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 82
• Load Time: 1.05s
• Page Size: 635.8KB
• Requests: 55

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 59
• First Image or Text: 3.2s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 5.3s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.8s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 582ms
• Total Time: 892ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

The eStore theme impresses quite a bit with its high-performance scores across the board. It was in the top 10 when averaging the performance scores, making it one of the fastest WooCommerce themes out there. The PageSpeed, Google Mobile, and YSlow scores all looked good. The only area it may be lacking – but not by much – is the Pingdom score.

The loading times were a little different, yet eStore still appeared to be a practical choice, especially if you’re looking for a theme that mainly provides ecommerce functionality. The GTMetrix load time clocked in at over four seconds, but everything else, from the Pingdom Load Time to the Mobile Speed Index came out fine.

Astra

With over a million downloads, Astra is one of the most popular WordPress themes available. The theme can be customized and personalized to fit any site.

Astra comes with over 150 pre-made templates built with popular page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Gutenberg. Each template is for a specific industry or website, including fashion designers, jewelers, product companies, yoga teachers, and more. Head over to Astra’s site to view all these templates.

Most importantly, the base theme itself is only 50KB. That makes it load quickly, which is critical when it comes to selling products. After all, customers don’t want to wait for your site to load. Astra works very well with WooCommerce and is one of the most recommended eCommerce themes for WordPress.

When it comes to design, Astra is endlessly customizable. You can create headers and footers using a drag-and-drop interface, control colors and fonts, and use different layouts like grid, list, or masonry. Everything in Astra is optimized for mobile devices by default.

Pricing

The Astra theme is free to download. Premium plans start at $59 and include 100+ starter templates, one-to-one support, unlimited website usage, and other features. Advanced plans include more templates, access to other plugins like Convert Pro or Scheme Pro, and free membership to SkillJet Academy, a library of web design courses.

Notable Features

• File size of only 50KB means your site will load in half a second.
• Responsive, mobile-friendly, and optimized for mobile sales.
• SEO-optimized to maximize your product listings in Google search results.
• Over 150 pre-made templates for every type of business. The templates work with popular page builders like Beaver Builder and Elementor.
• Conversion-ready checkout that cuts down on cart abandonment.
• Clean code using high-security standards to keep your customers’ transactions 100% secure.
• Display your products via pagination or with infinite scrolling.
• Add product search filters in the off-canvas sidebar.
• Quick View lets customers preview products without opening a new page.
• Dropdown cart window to quickly view all products added to the cart.
• Highly customizable checkout process to enhance the user experience.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Astra is one of the most lightweight WordPress themes. Its modular nature ensures that it stays that way, no matter how many extra features you add. It’s no wonder then that it’s on this list. Let’s see how it performs.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 93%
• YSlow Score: 91%
• Fully Loaded Time: 1.1s
• Total Page Size: 350KB
• Requests: 37

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 90
• Load Time: 1.44s
• Page Size: 365.5KB
• Requests: 37

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 79
• First Image or Text: 2.6s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 4.4s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 3.8s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 48ms
• Total Time: 48ms
• Total Header Size: 496b

Test Conclusions

Astra performed amazingly well in all the tests. Notably, its Google Mobile performance score of 79 was the highest of all the WooCommerce themes tested. That makes it one of the fastest WooCommerce themes (and it’s free).

The Astra theme also held firm when it comes to webpage loading time. Its TTFB of 48ms was the fastest of the lot. While its GTMetrix score fell just short of other themes like Orchid and GeneratePress, it still ended up in the top 5 when averaging out all its performance scores.

Kadence

The Kadence Theme came to our attention as a recommendation while testing the fastest WordPress themes. It offers high-end performance and multiple visual builders for customizing your site’s header and almost all its other elements.

The theme gives WooCommerce support and several demos to launch your online store with minimal design work. Each of the templates allows for WooCommerce functionality, but some provide ecommerce-specific design elements like shopping carts and product galleries, like the one below.

Pricing

The core theme is available for free. The premium version has a lifetime fee of $259, which you can occasionally find discounted to around half the price. It includes support for unlimited sites and lifetime customer support.

There’s also a lifetime membership, which includes other add-ons and plugins.

Notable Features

• A WooCommerce add-on with custom blocks to build an online store.
• A widget area for toggling the shop.
• An AJAX feature for adding a single item to a shopping cart.
• A side cart that automatically opens when a product gets placed in the shopping cart.
• A drag-and-drop builder for the entire website, along with one specifically made for the header.
• Multiple columns and dropdown menus for generating mega menu-style navigation.
• Starter templates offering full online store designs, including one for all types of shopping and another for selling online courses.
• Breadcrumbs for guiding customers through the shopping process.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Kadence serves as a versatile multi-purpose theme with full WooCommerce support, boasting solid performance scores, and respectable load times.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 89%
• Fully Loaded Time: 4.1s
• Total Page Size: 465KB
• Requests: 42

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 86
• Load Time: 1.86s
• Page Size: 492.6KB
• Requests: 42

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 60
• First Image or Text: 2.9s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.2s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 5.6s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 640ms
• Total Time: 880ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

The Kadence theme is a frontrunner in the GTmetrix PageSpeed score, and its YSlow score is nothing to scoff at. The mobile results come out decent as well.

The load times for Kadence put it on the slower end—compared to others on this list—but it’s still fast enough to be considered a speedy theme. You can say the same about its Mobile Speed Index.

ShopIsle

ShopIsle is a theme from the developers over at ThemeIsle and CodeInWP. The company touts a loyal membership base and a collection of themes that are known for their speed and intuitiveness.

The ShopIsle theme is one of the several online store templates from the brand, with a specifically designed interface for WooCommerce. The flexible theme includes the following in its default demo: a hero image, menu, shopping cart icon, search bar, and sidebar filter. You can also find various interactive and animated buttons that overlay on top of the product galleries.

The ShopIsle developers recommend the theme for all types of online stores and also as a way to make a one-page website. The theme offers a parallax effect and a few other animated elements that are known to add creativity to your website without slowing it down. Add the fact that it integrates with several page builders and it seems like an excellent solution for building an ecommerce store.

Pricing

ShopIsle has a free version available for download. The premium version is listed at $69, along with business and agency upgrades for $99 and $199, respectively.

Notable Features

• Support for page builders like SiteOrigin, Beaver Builder, and Elementor.
• A sidebar filter for categorizing listings by price, product categories, and more.
• A mega menu that’s responsive and comes with sub mega menus to fill in with product information and other content.
• A one-minute configuration and demo setup process.
• Custom backgrounds to add media items that match with your brand.
• A live customizer to see what your website looks like in real-time.
• Translation-ready files to expand your reach to other countries and to localize your product listings.
• Button animations and parallax elements that spice up your design but don’t slow it down.
• Full integration with WooCommerce, including interactive buttons for your shopping cart and search bar.
• Various layouts such as the one-page design that works for both regular websites and ecommerce sites.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

As mentioned before, ThemeIsle makes WordPress themes with speed in mind. The themes are usually lightweight and packed with interactive elements and animations that aren’t known to hinder performance. We tested a few ThemeIsle themes and ShopIsle was a top performer. And it’s actually a WooCommerce theme, which is what we’re looking at.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 92%
• YSlow Score: 85%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.1s
• Total Page Size: 796KB
• Requests: 62

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 83
• Load Time: 2.20s
• Page Size: 840.4KB
• Requests: 62

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 41
• First Image or Text: 3.9s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 8.4s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 8.2s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 526ms
• Total Time: 765ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

Although impressive in most performance scores, ShopIsle faltered with the Google Mobile test, sending it towards the bottom of the results list when averaging out the four performance scores. However, we should keep in mind that the other three scores aren’t bad at all.

Again, with the load time testing, ShopIsle ended up at the bottom of the pile with the average overall scoring. Don’t let that fool you, however. ShopIsle posted decent load times on GTMetrix and the TTFB test. Unfortunately, the Pingdom test could have been better, and the Mobile Speed Index was the worst out of all themes evaluated.

AccessPress Store

The AccessPress Store theme is one of the fastest WooCommerce themes on the market, and it embodies what many developers would consider a flare for functionality.

This is because of the long list of clickable buttons and interactive items on the homepage, using dozens of widgets and customizable modules for the ultimate design experience. Even looking at the slider shows how impressive the design has become over the years. You’re able to arrange widgets into the footer, sidebar, and homepage, while also constructing galleries for your products for customers to add to the built-in wishlist.

 

Even with all of these features, AccessPress Store shines in the realm of performance. The load times stack up with the best in the business and it does its best to not show many weaknesses when it comes to the performance scores.

Pricing

A free version of the AccessPress Store theme is available. The premium theme goes for $55.

Notable Features

• An optimized homepage that functions with the help of widget spaces to make a completely unique look for your company.
• A client logo section if you’re running a B2B online store.
• Testimonial and team sections to add an extra personalized element to your store and push more sales.
• Several tabs to show products and categories in a different section.
• Stunning checkout pages that are not only customizable but optimized for sales.
• Quite a few widgets that focus on the ecommerce design world, such as a widget that reveals the most recent products added to your store.
• A page banner for announcing promotions or sending out news about your company.
• Over 14 other widgets to place on your homepage and make it your own.
• A blog with four layouts.
• Several WooCommerce-specific settings, like the option to have a WooCommerce archive layout.
• A promo ticker to add a sense of urgency to your sales.
• A mega menu.
• Advanced product and content searching for your customers.
• YouTube integration that adds video to your homepage and potentially your product pages.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

The feature list is great. The reviews hold up. We know that AccessPress Themes is a respected name in the industry. But what about the speed results from the AccessPress Store theme?

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 93%
• YSlow Score: 85%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.3s
• Total Page Size: 741KB
• Requests: 61

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 82
• Load Time: 1.40s
• Page Size: 778.8KB
• Requests: 61

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 54
• First Image or Text: 4.1s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 6.2s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.9s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 676ms
• Total Time: 939ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

The performance scores from GTMetrix, YSlow, and Pingdom all show AccessPress Store as a fast and reliable theme. The Google speed test score ended up lower than expected. Averaging them all out, AccessPress Store ended up in the middle of the theme list.

AccessPress Store looks like a winner when it comes to the load time testing. It’s a top 10 contender and a highlight when looking at the load times from GTMetrix, Pingdom, and TTFB tests. Again, the mobile speed load test was the only area where AccessPress Store stumbled a little. However, when you compare it to the rest of the themes, it’s still above average.

Hello Elementor

Hello Elementor has a reputation for offering a blank canvas, as it utilizes a minimalist interface and design modules. This gem is built by the developers at Elementor, yet another incredibly popular page builder. Much like the page builder, Hello Elementor touts versatility, speed, and lightweight files.

The standard theme combines best with the Elementor builder, and it serves as an essential tool for making landing pages that focus on one or two elements. It’s a wonderful solution for converting customers, and the WooCommerce integration makes it all the more special.

Although Hello Elementor doesn’t have that many ecommerce demos, a few are provided for unique markets, like the one below for selling books.

Pricing

Hello Elementor is free. To receive pro widgets, templates, and the WooCommerce builder, you must upgrade to the personal plan for $49 per year. Additional plans are available when you add more sites.

Notable Features

• A sleek design with direct integration with the incredible Elementor page builder.
• An option to pay for the WooCommerce Builder, part of the Elementor page builder that includes modules for making your store.
• Over 15 shop widgets.
• Support for dynamic content and custom fields.
• Over 80 basic and advanced widgets that can be used for your online store or standard parts of the website.
• Over 300 templates, many of which feature tools and designs for online stores.
• Pricing tables and unique selling templates for marketplaces, bookstores, and more.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Hello Elementor consistently sees some of the best speed ratings across the internet. Even our own WordPress theme speed evaluation showed Hello Elementor as one of the go-to themes for performance. Let’s see how it holds up with WooCommerce on board.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 90%
• Fully Loaded Time: 2.9s
• Total Page Size: 435KB
• Requests: 41

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 86
• Load Time: 1s
• Page Size: 461.3KB
• Requests: 41

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 75
• First Image or Text: 2.6s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 5.0s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 5.1s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 595ms
• Total Time: 1143ms
• Request Size: 200b
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

For performance scores, Hello Elementor ended up with the highest average of all four scores. What’s great about Hello Elementor is that it provided the best Google mobile score, ending up much stronger than every other theme on this list. The YSlow, Pingdom, and GTMetrix scores are high as well.

As for load times, Hello Elementor claimed a second-place finish when averaging out the results from all four tests. Its TTFB was extremely fast and the Pingdom and GTMetrix load times verify that Hello Elementor is a speedster in the WooCommerce theme world.

Storefront

The Storefront theme is the default framework built by the WooCommerce developers themselves. The brand provides several child themes to go along with the framework, and it’s known as a great starting point when building an online store through WordPress.

As you may assume, the Storefront theme integrates with WooCommerce rather well, and it offers various display options to make tweaks to the design and customize everything from the shopping cart to product galleries.

The ecommerce-focused homepage includes several options for on-sale items and product ratings, making the theme perfect for practicing your development skills or building a custom store from scratch.

Pricing

Free. You must pay for some of the child themes. They usually sell for around $40.

Notable Features

• A nice collection of child themes and demos for different industries. Some of the themes offer designs for delis, pro shops, home stores, and boutiques.
• Smooth integrations with WooCommerce and the various extensions you can add to WooCommerce.
• A grid-based system that helps with organizing your products and moving around design elements.
• A visual customizer for changing colors, fonts, and more.
• A homepage that only caters to online stores. You’ll find features for product galleries, on-sale items, and featured products.
• Product category displays and ratings.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

We always figured the Storefront theme provided one of the fastest frameworks for launching an online store. It’s lightweight and clean, without too many design elements that could weigh it down.

It’s still pretty fast, but not as great as expected, at least when compared to the others on this list.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 93%
• YSlow Score: 88%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.2s
• Total Page Size: 632KB
• Requests: 54

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 83
• Load Time: 1.02s
• Page Size: 670.2KB
• Requests: 54

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 23
• First Image or Text: 4.2s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.1s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 9.1s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 710ms
• Total Time: 967ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

The first score to note is the overall mobile score. The Storefront theme ended up with the worst score in that arena. The Pingdom performance score was relatively low as well, even though the YSlow and PageSpeed scores looked fine.

Storefront had a much better showing with the load times, ending up in the top five for load times on GTMetrix. Pingdom and TTFB load times look good, but the Mobile Speed Index poses cause for concern.

GeneratePress

In any conversation about lightweight, fast themes the GeneratePress theme rears its head into the picture, and for good reason. Not only does GeneratePress look attractive and modern, but it offers impressive speed tests when installed on blank WordPress sites.

However, we also wanted to see how well the theme maintained its load times when packed with other plugins, including WooCommerce and a myriad of products.

The basic GeneratePress theme serves as a framework with page builder integrations and plenty of hooks and filters for developers. The customization options seem endless, with full layout control and plugin compatibilities.

The site library caters to all types of businesses, offering blogging templates, business homepages, and ecommerce themes for clothing shops and Amazon lookalikes.

Pricing

GeneratePress is available for free. The premium version – which includes unlimited website support and full access to the template library – sells for $49.95 per year, a rather inexpensive price for a yearly premium membership.

Notable Features

• Multiple demos to install on the GeneratePress framework theme, many of which incorporate ecommerce designs and shopping cart buttons.
• Layout control for how the theme appears on devices like tablets and desktops.
• Page builder options to take control of your design modules and move around everything from product images to homepage galleries.
• Hooks and filters to expand the number of customization options available for developers.
• Additional colors and typography options for WooCommerce stores.
• An advanced menu for constructing off-canvas menu items and mobile navigation.
• Full-width backgrounds that present your products in a high-resolution fashion without slowing down your website.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

In past tests, we discovered that GeneratePress is one of the fastest themes on the internet. Therefore, it’s interesting to run the same tests but with different media types and full ecommerce functionality running in the background.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 88%
• Fully Loaded Time: 2.7s
• Total Page Size: 516KB
• Requests: 51

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 84
• Load Time: 1.01s
• Page Size: 550.5KB
• Requests: 51

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 62
• First Image or Text: 3.3s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 5.1s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 5.2s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 631ms
• Total Time: 911ms
• Request Size: 200b
• Total Header Size: 536b

Test Conclusions

GeneratePress ended up in the top 10 when averaging out all performance scores. In addition, each individual result was respectable. The mobile test was the only one that may raise some questions.

On the other hand, GeneratePress load times beat out most other themes when stocked with WooCommerce, site content, and various other plugins. The GTMetrix load time was the fastest of the bunch, Pingdom was one of the speediest, and both the TTFB and the mobile speed index came out as front runners.

ShoppingCart

Unlike many of the multi-functional themes on this list, the ShoppingCart theme has one purpose, to provide a feature-rich online store.

Its interface, both the backend and the frontend, delivers stylish designs, media items, and widgets to post your products. The theme is filled with widgets and banners, allowing the admin to share information about sales and cycle through top products in homepage galleries.

Multiple layouts are available with the ShoppingCart, and you can integrate your social media buttons for customers to follow you on Facebook and Twitter. There’s a demo import and configuration process, where you choose from a handful of similar ecommerce demos.

Pricing

The basic ShoppingCart theme is free.

The personal and business plans run at $59 and $79, respectively. There’s even a developer option for $99.

Notable Features

• A theme and plugin library to advance your design opportunities and expand upon the basic theme functionality.
• Several spots to place widgets for banner ads, promotional information, and product links.
• Multiple layouts for posts and pages.
• Social icons to place on your homepage or store.
• Unique store designs (premium offerings) such as magazine sites, Christmas stores, and supermarkets.
• Content-rich headers with items like search bars, mega menus, and shopping cart buttons.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

The ShoppingCart theme is made for ecommerce. We’re interested to see how the mobile speed tests pan out, considering media-dense themes like ShoppingCart often have trouble.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 93%
• YSlow Score: 88%
• Fully Loaded Time: 4.8s
• Total Page Size: 601KB
• Requests: 54

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 83
• Load Time: 1.03s
• Page Size: 638KB
• Requests: 54

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 56
• First Image or Text: 3.2s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 5.9s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.8s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 679ms
• Total Time: 991ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

The ShoppingCart theme showed respectable PageSpeed, YSlow, and Pingdom scores. The main thing that pulled down its average is the Google mobile test.

The load time testing showed ShoppingCart in the middle of the field when averaging out the scores, and both Pingdom and TTFB load times remained fast. Again, the theme struggled a little – when compared to other themes in this article – for the Mobile Speed Index.

OceanWP

OceanWP, by default, offers a fast and powerful multi-purpose template for a wide range of industries. In addition, OceanWP has free and premium ecommerce demos built just for WooCommerce.

Whether you incorporate your own design elements on the standard OceanWP theme, or you utilize an online store demo, the theme has the tools you need for selling online.

As of this article, three online store demos turn your OceanWP theme into a full-fledged ecommerce store, using product galleries, banners, and shopping cart icons.

Pricing

The core OceanWP theme is free to use. A few of the ecommerce demos are free as well.

Pricing for the premium version of OceanWP, and premium demos, begins at $39 for one site. Gain more features and site support at the $79 and $129 price points, all of which must be renewed on a yearly basis.

Individual extensions vary in price but usually float around $30.

Notable Features

• Several WooCommerce-supported demos that make your theme look exactly like an online store, all without much work on your end.
• Ecommerce essentials such as checkout modules and product category collections.
• A native shopping cart popup that shows up when an item is added to the cart.
• An “add to cart” button that floats along with the page as a user scrolls.
• Filters that remain off to the side so that you can utilize as much of the scene as possible, only revealing the filters when they’re needed.
• A quick view option to see details about a product without having to go to the actual product page.
• Various extensions for things like popup logins, Instagram integrations, and white labeling.
• Integrations with the most popular drag-and-drop builders, such as Visual Composer and Elementor.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

OceanWP is mentioned all over the internet as a fast WordPress theme. We’ve tested it and shown that to be true, but now it’s time to evaluate the popular theme with WooCommerce attached.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 89%
• Fully Loaded Time: 5.0s
• Total Page Size: 649KB
• Requests: 59

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 83
• Load Time: 1.09s
• Page Size: 686.9KB
• Requests: 59

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 58
• First Image or Text: 3.1s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 5.7s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.7s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 690ms
• Total Time: 872ms
• Request Size: 200b
• Total Header Size: 536b

Test Conclusions

OceanWP looks like a solid option when you check the performance scores, as the YSlow and GTMetrix scores remain towards the top when compared to other themes with WooCommerce installed. Both mobile and Pingodom scores are respectable as well.

OceanWP sees a bit of trouble in the load time arena. It’s definitely not a slow theme, but the GTMetrix Load Time from OceanWP was in the bottom five during our testing. It also looks like the mobile speed test didn’t turn out too well for OceanWP. Both TTFB and Pingdom load times seemed fine.

To learn more you can take a look at our OceanWP review here.

Shoptimizer

Shoptimizer consistently rates as one of the fastest WooCommerce themes around. Built by CommerceGurus, its sole focus is on WooCommerce and it is designed with speed and conversions in mind.

It has implemented much of Baymard’s research on the topic of conversions with features such as trust badges, a distraction-free checkout and one-click order bumps included.

When it comes to designing your own pages, the light and lean Elementor page builder is deployed, allowing users to easily create beautiful layouts. There are also hundreds of options in the customizer which allows buyers to quickly change fonts, colors, and settings and see the results instantly.

It comes with a unique plugin called CommerceKit, built by the same developers, which adds even more additional functionality. Modules within CommerceKit include Ajax search, Countdowns, a fast Product Gallery, Order Bumps, Waitlists, and Wishlists.

Pricing

Shoptimizer typically retails for $99 but is often available at a discounted price of $49. This includes updates and support for 12 months. To renew your license for a further year will cost $49.

Notable Features

• A theme built specifically for WooCommerce and focused on speed and conversions.
• Instant search suggestions which can display both product and regular content results.
• Countdown timers for both product pages and the checkout.
• In-built waitlist which allows you to collect customer details on out-of-stock products.
• Dynamic inventory bar display encourages sales on items that nearly sold out.
• Single product AJAX add to cart for a quicker purchasing process.
• Custom product gallery which is much faster than the core WooCommerce one.
• Trust badges can be displayed beside key call-to-action buttons.
• Distraction-free checkout page for faster conversions.
• One-click order bumps for the checkout page which can increase the average order value.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Shoptimizer offers users a lot of functionality and freedom over their online stores. Let’s take a look at how the theme did during our speed tests.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 93%
• YSlow Score: 86%
• Fully Loaded Time: 1.5s
• Total Page Size: 482KB
• Requests: 54

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 84
• Load Time: 873ms
• Page Size: 775.8KB
• Requests: 62

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 60
• First Image or Text: 3.7s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.1s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 5.6s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 49ms
• Total Time: 49ms
• Total Header Size: 498b

Test Conclusions

You will be hard-pressed to find a better overall theme for speed and control than the Shoptimizer theme. It performed well over all speed tests and is on par and above in most areas. It is definitely worth an  look and makes a great case to become your theme of choice.

Shopay

Shopay features over 10 widgets for your ecommerce designs. Multiple layouts ensure you can make a unique design, while the one-click demo import makes it possible to transfer data from one site to another.

This is a theme that’s only meant for ecommerce use, and the Gutenberg and Page Builder integrations make it that much easier to design a beautiful store.

What’s more is that the theme has a visual designer for colors and fonts, and you can integrate with the YITH Wishlist plugin, extending upon your WooCommerce design with a wishlist management tool.

Pricing

Shopay is available for free. A premium version sells for $59.99 per year.

Notable Features

• Various layouts to adjust the homepage and make it more suitable for different business types.
• Full WooCommerce integration, including options for product galleries and unique shopping carts.
• Sleek responsiveness that presents your shopping cart and product catalog in a beautiful format on mobile devices.
• A built-in customizer that shows a live preview and gives you multiple settings.
• Ecommerce store demos to improve the appearance of your site or drastically change it.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Shopay has a similar look to Amazon, using a conversion-friendly homepage and powerful header fields. With all sorts of widgets and columns, it’s interesting to see how they all come together to provide speedy results.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 86%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.5s
• Total Page Size: 761KB
• Requests: 62

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 84
• Load Time: 1.19s
• Page Size: 804.5KB
• Requests: 62

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 49
• First Image or Text: 3.7s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.2s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 8.5s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 592ms
• Total Time: 933ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

The Shopay theme ended up in the bottom 10 for average performance scores, but it still seems to hold up with most scores. The PageSpeed results are top-notch, and the Pingdom scores aren’t bad either.

It’s in a similar position when we look at the page load times. The GTMetrix load time stands strong, and the Pingdom and TTFB times look great. The mobile speed index is where the theme falters a little, but not by much.

Rife

Rife is a multi-purpose WordPress theme from the Apollo13Themes team, providing various demos, import tools, and customization options, all of which merge together for an exceptional design experience, regardless of the type of website you’re attempting to build.

You can make an online store, lifestyle blog, or any type of business website without manipulating any code, as it’s all done with visual and drag-and-drop builders.

The demos allow you to instantly turn the default Rife templates into something completely different. An example is the WooR demo, a WooCommerce solution that shows featured products on the homepage, quick “add to cart” buttons, and beautiful hero banners for converting customers.

Although it’s not necessary to implement a demo to get WooCommerce working on a Rife site, it definitely makes the process much easier.

As for some of the other special features you typically don’t find elsewhere, Rife includes a responsive slider that supports YouTube videos and images. It also has a post grid for highlighting team members or products, and the writing effect adds a bit of writing animation to your typography to grab user attention.

On top of that, Rife is compatible with Elementor and WPBakery. The theme doesn’t have a drag-and-drop interface on its own, but the integrations ensure that your development process involves draggable modules.

Pricing

The core Rife theme is free to download.

An individual license costs $39 per year, but that doesn’t include any customer support besides what’s online. An individual license with support costs $69 per year. Both plans offer premium features and additional designs.

Finally, the Unlimited Plan is $249 per year, giving you access to the Rife theme on as many sites as you want. The developers often have discounts for this plan.

Notable Features

• Full WooCommerce compatibility with the core theme.
• Several demos, including one that instantly adds ecommerce elements like a shopping cart, wishlist, and product gallery.
• A vertical header and options for shields and badges, mainly to have an interesting logo introduction.
• A mega menu that works with a menu overlay, offering up an instant way to place hundreds of product categories and individual products on your menu.
• Advanced media support such as photo proofing, media management, and lightbox settings.
• Page builder support for Elementor and WPBakery.
• Over 40 designs to incorporate into your website, including page, post, and landing page outlines.
• Dozens of header variations for you to select from options like centered logos, full-width headers, and alternative menus.
• Professional photography features – like the slider and scroller elements – to effectively sell photos.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Rife has a wonderful design, a solid set of demos, and decent customer support if you’re willing to pay for it. It also seems like a rather lightweight theme, so take a look below to see if it holds up through our performance tests.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 93%
• YSlow Score: 89%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.5s
• Total Page Size: 819KB
• Requests: 58

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 83
• Load Time: 1.12s
• Page Size: 860.8KB
• Requests: 58

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 49
• First Image or Text: 3.3s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.5s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 8.1s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 614ms
• Total Time: 914ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

Rife finished towards the middle for performance test averages and the lower range for load times. But if we look closer at the results it starts to become clearer where the theme excels and where it could use some improvement.

First, Rife’s PageSpeed score of 93 is right up there with the top contenders. It also has a Pingdom score of 89. The Pingdom score of 83 is average compared to the others in this test, and the lower Google Pagespeed score makes it appear that the mobile speeds are not the greatest, at least when matched up next to this group of themes.

As for load times, the Pingdom load time is respectable, and the TTFB looks decent. The Mobile Speed Index is on the slow end, and the GTMetrix Load Time is roughly average, but not bad. Overall, the Rife theme performs well, but with some minor slowdowns on mobile devices.

Boutique

Boutique is a stylish and modern fashion ecommerce theme that provides plenty of whitespace and a powerful header for adding social media outlets, large menus, and announcements for your store.

The theme is not a multi-purpose solution, yet an ecommerce-dedicated option that plays with elegance and conversion-oriented elements to offer a smooth finish and hip format for those running online stores with clothing.

And yes, the Boutique theme has the ability to convert for other types of industries such as jewelry, technology, and lifestyle brands.

The homepage has options for simple product catalogs that use animations and neutral colors to bring attention to your products. The footer also provides a minimalist design, with widget areas to insert your privacy statement, shipping info, or email subscription form. Even the product pages themselves clean out all the clutter and only show the basics, like descriptions and photos.

Pricing

The standard theme is free. The premium version sells for $49. This is a one-time fee that includes support and updates.

As another option, you can pay $99 for all themes from the developers.

Notable Features

• XML demo content to get your design started in the right direction.
• A simple slider for your homepage, complete with buttons, text, and imagery.
• A centered logo spot and an elegant header with spots to link your social media accounts.
• As easy-to-use, and understand, menu with dropdowns.
• Several homepage widgets to feature announcements, promotions, and products.
• Product galleries with lightweight, non-distracting animations.
• A customizable footer module.
• Product pages that keep things simple yet still include customer reviews.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

The feature-set from Boutique is as small as possible, and the design appears to be in a lightweight and clean-cut format. There’s no wonder it’s on this list as a fast WooCommerce theme, but how does it stack up to the others?

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 91%
• YSlow Score: 79%
• Fully Loaded Time: 2.8s
• Total Page Size: 586KB
• Requests: 59

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 81
• Load Time: 1.98s
• Page Size: 624KB
• Requests: 59

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 47
• First Image or Text: 4.4s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.1s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.4s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 587ms
• Total Time: 828ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

Boutique ended up towards the lower end of the spectrum in terms of performance scores. Having said that, the PageSpedd score was still above 90. However, Boutique suffered with YSlow, Pingdom, and Google Mobile performance scores, pushing it towards the back of the line.

The Boutique theme had stronger results when it came to load time testing. Ending up in the middle of the pack, Boutique displayed one of the fastest GTMetrix load times and a respectable TTFB. The higher results came from the Pingdom and Mobile Speed loading times.

Zakra Online Store

Zakra, a multi-purpose WordPress theme with tens of thousands of users, offers a well-designed infrastructure for building many types of websites, with easy customization tools and a lightweight framework that works with other demos.

The WooCommerce integration features responsive online store pages and deep design options like shopping cart modules and header customizations. The page builder capabilities include integrations with the popular builders, while the AMP-ready configuration promises faster speeds on mobile devices.

Users can convert the standard Zakra theme into an online store, but the true power comes when you install a starter template made for ecommerce. Find dozens of templates in the Zakra library, including six with ecommerce galleries, portfolios, and shopping cart tools.

Pricing

Zakra has a free core version and a pro option for $49 per year. That covers one site.

Adding more sites increases the price.

Notable Features

• Several starter demos with prebuilt homepages and blogs, including options for ecommerce websites.
• Drag-and-drop integrations, allowing for connections to Gutenberg and Elementor, just to name a few.
• Dynamic, customizable headers and footers, along with advanced customization options for widgets and menus.
• WooCommerce element styling from a visual builder.
• Product catalogs and widgets that are already optimized for the theme.
• Dedicated sidebars and layouts for WooCommerce.
• A related product module to insert on any product page.
• Menu styling and tools to expand the size, achieving something similar to a mega menu.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Zakra boasts various features for regular blogging, business websites, and ecommerce. The demos are lightweight and suitable for selling different items. As for the speeds, take a look below…

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 90%
• Fully Loaded Time: 7.9s
• Total Page Size: 536KB
• Requests: 49

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 85
• Load Time: 1.26s
• Page Size: 567.2KB
• Requests: 48

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 59
• First Image or Text: 2.8s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 8s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 4.9s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 2726ms
• Total Time: 3013ms
• Request Size: 200b
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

When averaging all four performance scores, Zakra ended up in the top five out of all themes tested. The mobile test, in particular, produced quick results and showed that Zakra is an excellent performer on smaller devices.

For some reason, something went wrong with the load time testing. Either Zakra has significantly worse loading times than the rest of the competition, or it’s possible there’s something in the theme that conflicts with the other plugins I had installed. Regardless, Zakra Online Store produced the worst GTMetrix and TTFB load times. The Pingdom load time wasn’t bad, but the Mobile Speed Index test resulted in poor scores as well.

Neve

Neve is yet another widely used WordPress theme that gets a significant amount of attention from developers. The theme combines with popular page builders and presents a lightweight and versatile design process to easily configure beautiful designs.

The ThemeIsle developers have a strong reputation for clean code and quality support.

On its own, Neve integrates with WooCommerce and allows you to place a shop and cart on your site.

However, it also provides several free and premium demos and child themes to launch a stunning store display within a matter of minutes.

Pricing

Neve has a free download option.

The premium version starts at $59 per year and includes custom layouts – like the WooCommerce demos – premium support, and several boosters.

Several other plans – with additional features and add-ons – are sold on the ThemeIsle website.

Notable Features

• A full ecommerce storefront demo.
• Child themes and other demo content to populate the online stores you build with Neve.
• Support for successful drag-and-drop builders like Beaver Builder and Elementor.
• An Elementor Booster that introduces seven new design modules, some of which are there for online stores.
• Custom layouts for both headers and footers.
• An advanced header designer with improved styling, social buttons, and more.
• A WooCommerce Booster pack to design product galleries and change around elements like the sizing and placement of those collections.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Neve led the pack in a few areas and provided a benchmark for other theme developers to strive for speedy, lightweight themes. The WooCommerce demos are sure to slow it down a bit, but that’s nothing that quality hosting and optimization can’t fix.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 90%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.3s
• Total Page Size: 460KB
• Requests: 44

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 86
• Load Time: 1.08s
• Page Size: 487.7KB
• Requests: 44

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 66
• First Image or Text: 2.7s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 5.1s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 4.9s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 606ms
• Total Time: 894ms
• Request Size: 200b
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

The WooCommerce test for Neve corroborated the data we discovered while testing regular WordPress themes. Neve had quality page load times across the board, most notably the mobile speeds.

Neve also stood strong in all performance score categories, seeing as how PageSpeed, YSlow, and Pingdom tests all resulted in high scores.

Virtue

The Virtue WooCommerce theme boasts rave reviews, a stylish homepage design, and a versatile customizer loaded with wonderful features. The theme is in fact from the Kadence Themes developers, so it’s clear that those folks know how to make a fast template.

The main difference between Virtue and the standard Kadence theme is that Virtue caters directly to ecommerce store owners. It contains an impressive mix of features for shopping carts and product galleries, and the theme is plain enough so that several types of businesses could utilize it for their website.

For instance, we could see it used for an outdoor outfitter, men’s clothing, or watch store. It does have a bit of a masculine look, but you could also change the colors to fit your own brand.

With perfectly responsive elements and access to the Kadence builder blocks, you can’t go wrong with the Virtue design environment. Some other highlights include a boxed layout and a customizable header layout, perfect for moving your logo or adding multiple menus for your products.

Pricing

Virtue has a free version.

It also offers a premium option for $75 per year. That includes one year of support and updates.

Notable Features

• Unique settings for adding infinite scrolling, shortcodes, and premium icons.
• A direct link to Google Analytics.
• A sticky header option.
• Several premium widgets, many of which work wonderfully with WooCommerce.
• A mega menu to add as many product category links as possible.
• Testimonial posts for bringing social proof to your sites.
• A one-click demo importer to transform your website into an online store with the click of a button.
• A premium slider that animates your text and includes other features for advanced items like parallax scrolling and background videos.
• A powerful options panel stocked with site layout styles and header options to bring your site to the next level.
• Multiple lists and grid styles for your blog.
• Useful WooCommerce features like custom tabs, layout styles, and button swatches.
• An entirely customizable header layout, featuring tools to modify logos and menus.
• A boxed layout if you’d rather avoid a widescreen configuration.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

Virtue has affordability and design prowess on its side. There are some pros and cons about its speed testing, which we’ll cover below.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 76%
• YSlow Score: 90%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.2s
• Total Page Size: 1210KB
• Requests: 50

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 86
• Load Time: 1.20s
• Page Size: 1300KB
• Requests: 50

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 56
• First Image or Text: 2.3s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 6.8s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 7.5s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 849ms
• Total Time: 1102ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

Starting with the performance scores, Virtue had the worst PageSpeed result from GTMetrix. However, the YSlow and Pingdom tests ended up okay. Overall, the rather low PageSpeed score, paired with a less than stellar Google Mobile result pulled down the average performance results for Virtue, putting it towards the bottom of the group.

Virtue made up for the inconsistent performance scores in the page loading times. It was in the top ten, with fairly rapid GTMetrix and Pingdom times. The TTFB and Mobile Speed results weren’t really leaders in our testing group.

Online Shop

The Online Shop theme doesn’t have the most original name, but it’s straight to the point, kind of like the theme’s design and interface. There’s definitely no shortage of features or customizable modules on the homepage, but it’s clear that the theme is meant for an online shop.

You can move around widgets and quickly add a header that stacks up to popular online marketplaces you know and love to use. Take the header for example. You don’t have to use any of these settings, but the theme at least gives you the option to add items like contact information, wishlist buttons, and social media buttons.

You can even add your store hours and a location link for people to get directions to any physical stores.

Online Shop includes multiple menus that either complement each other or add on to what the main menu shows. You can make any kind of online store with a broad array of homepage widgets and customization tools.

For instance, we’ve seen examples of the theme utilized for clothing stores and technology shops. A slider comes with the theme, and for some people, that’s all you need. However, you also have the option to combine with more powerful slider plugins like Slider Revolution.

Pricing

The Online Shop theme has a free download version. The pro version offers two prices, $55 for the personal license and $99 for the developer license.

Notable Features

• A one-click demo import for starting off with the design you see in the demo.
• Over nine widgets to add on sidebars and other parts of the site, many of which are meant for ecommerce.
• Page builder integrations for plugins like Page Builder and Site Origin.
• Unlimited sliders that can go on any page for the website.
• A sleek featured products section that’s meant to draw in customers and commit them to buy products.
• Header customization areas for adding your address and contact information. A social media bar is there as well, letting you link to the most popular social accounts for your brand.
• A header image and video spot that links to other pages and can be played when the user lands on your website.
• Advertisement areas if you’d also like to show ads.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

The Online Shop theme does the trick in terms of design prowess, but does it have what it takes to stack up against the fastest WooCommerce themes? Check out the speed results below.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 86%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.3s
• Total Page Size: 655KB
• Requests: 55

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 82
• Load Time: 1.07s
• Page Size: 692.9KB
• Requests: 55

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 52
• First Image or Text: 3.7s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.4s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.3s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 636ms
• Total Time: 885ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

Online Shop was one of the most perfectly average themes during the performance score testing. Stand out results included a rather high PageSpeed score and a respectable Pingdom grade. The YSlow was a little lower than the other scores, and the Google mobile score was the worst part of the Online Shop theme’s performance.

Although still towards the middle of the field, Online Shop presented some impressive competition for the big dogs in the load time test. Online Shop hovered around a three-second GTMetrix load time, making it a top contender. And both the TTFB and Pingdom load times came out fast.

However, Online Shop was one of the slowest to load when looking at the Mobile Speed Index from Google.

The Shop

The Shop is compatible with WooCommerce as a complete ecommerce solution. The theme is simple and lightweight, utilizing a basic slider and text boxes to display information for promotions and products.

You can insert multiple menus on the website and include a collection of products in several areas of the homepage. There are also plenty of options to show blog posts and product reviews if you link to the complementary extensions for that.

The Shop theme is provided as a free download from aThemes. There’s no premium version but there are a few extensions to expand on your design.

In addition to the wide variety of options for the homepage, The Shop theme has various color options for branding and tools to adjust the typography. The easy setup takes a few minutes only and the aThemes support team has a reputation for assisting in a timely fashion.

Not to mention, aThemes provides lots of tutorial videos to guide you along the design process. Finally, the theme features several page templates to utilize on your homepage and rapidly generate a layout that works for your business. Overall, The Shop theme sticks to minimalism for a sleek design and a speedy delivery to users.

Pricing

The Shop is completely free. It has one extension, a Footer Credit add-on, that costs $5.

Notable Features

• Full support for WooCommerce.
• A custom homepage with options to add banners, product galleries, and more.
• Two menus that complement each other and function as two separate entities. You can have one at the top of the header and another below the header, like one for your main pages and the other for product categories.
• A slider to create a simple and sleek header image, with support for multiple photos in the slider and text and buttons for call to actions.
• A simple configuration process to install the theme and get the right demo elements in place.
• Page templates to set your homepage like the theme demo and extend pages for full width and other formats.
• Color options to instantly change your entire color scheme or to modify individual colors. You can choose the specific colors to change, like for the title or description.
• Google Font support, with access to over 600 fonts to make your typography fit along with your branding.
• Several blog options to format the blog posts and to display the list of posts on your homepage.
• Translation-ready tools to adjust your languages for what your customers speak.
• Customization options through the WordPress Live Customizer, offering preview changes and quick settings.
• Text banners and icons.
• Support for product reviews.
• An extension for footer credits that allows you to customize a small portion of your footer.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

The Shop theme nails it when it comes to minimalism. The theme seems to move quickly, there’s lots of white space, and it’s not cluttered with frontend or backend features. This is probably part of the reason it’s such a fast theme. Let’s see how it stacks up to the other themes.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 83%
• YSlow Score: 87%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.5s
• Total Page Size: 1640KB
• Requests: 55

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 82
• Load Time: 1.60s
• Page Size: 1700KB
• Requests: 55

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 46
• First Image or Text: 3.4s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.5s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 8.9s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 644ms
• Total Time: 913ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

When averaging out all performance scores, The Shop theme ended up towards the last spots. That’s probably because the PageSpeed score was one of the few from this test that registered a sub-90 result. It’s still in the 80s, but not quite as good as the others in that regard. The YSlow test was fine, and Pingdom came out okay. The Google Mobile test, however, was also on the lower end of the spectrum.

Overall, The Shop had stronger results with the load time test. Having said that, it still ended up in the lower five. The GTMetrix load time was decent. The Pingdom load time was slower than many others on this list. The Mobile Speed Index was also rather slow. The TTFB result was respectable.

Vogue

Vogue exudes a sense of calm and simplicity with its design. The theme offers a configuration for jewelry, fashion, and lifestyle brands with its elegant fonts and neutral colors.

It even features some unique tools like a scrolling social media tab to link to all of your social pages. The header looks straightforward yet filled with areas to include your social buttons and contact information.

A slider is provided to include a slideshow of your product images. You can also place buttons and links on the slides to guide people to other places on your site.

Vogue only caters to online store owners, as it’s built to work with WooCommerce and has interactive shopping cart icons and product galleries. There are four header layouts to choose from and a fully responsive design for users to view the website on smaller devices.

The Vogue theme is marketed as a multi-purpose theme, but it mainly performs well for online stores. The color settings are great for adjusting to your brand, and the overall clean design is sure to bring eyes where they need to be. It’s a stable and speedy solution with the lightweight design that developers are looking for. You’ll even receive access to developer hooks and options to incorporate extra functionality.

Pricing

Vogue has a free version for you to download. The premium version sells for $25.

Notable Features

• A custom WooCommerce design with built-in SEO tools.
• Extendable elements like the developer hooks and the custom CSS boxes.
• Support for the most advanced page builders.
• Multiple footer layouts to add essential information.
• Several blog layouts.
• Multiple header layouts with areas to include social media buttons and contact information.
• Full-color settings to change one, or all of your colors.
• A stylish menu with the option to turn on sticky navigation.
• A dropdown basket for WooCommerce, along with settings to remove items like the WooCommerce cart.
• A top bar to make announcements or show store information.
• A shortcode to add sliders to any page on your website.
• Slider customization tools for incorporating text and buttons.
• Unique WooCommerce features for setting the number of products per row or page.
• Options to set your WooCommerce pages to full width or put them in the sidebar.
• Image zooming, lightboxes, and product borders.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

The simplicity of the Vogue theme makes it stand out in its own right. Pair that with the built-in WooCommerce tools and it becomes clear that many online store owners could benefit from a theme like Vogue. As a minimalist theme, Vogue provides fast performance times, but it’s important to compare it to the others.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 93%
• YSlow Score: 84%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.7s
• Total Page Size: 894KB
• Requests: 60

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 81
• Load Time: 1.01s
• Page Size: 942.2KB
• Requests: 60

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 51
• First Image or Text: 3.7s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 7.2s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.6s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 647ms
• Total Time: 899ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

We’d categorize Vogue as one of the mid to below-average contenders in our performance testing. The scores are solid across the board, with PageSpeed, YSlow, and Pingdom scores all coming back fine. But the Vogue theme struggles a little with the Google mobile test score, so that pushes it further down the standings.

The load time testing was pretty similar, with GTMetrix, and TTFB load times coming out strong, but a little weaker than the rest of the pack. It really excelled with the Pingdom score. However, Vogue lost ground in its average with the slower Mobile Speed Index.

Woostify

Woostify embodies the nature of WooCommerce with its highly-functional homepage offerings, several demo designs, and a header with an announcement area and various interactive buttons.

For instance, you can implement user, wishlist, and shopping cart icons in the header, while also adding a search bar for people to easily find products. The slider image is large, bold, and packed with tools for header text and buttons.

Woostify is a lightweight and user-friendly theme with speed in mind. The theme also offers integrations with popular page builders like SiteOrigin and Visual Composer, just to name a few. Along with WooCommerce, some of the major plugins it’s coded for include bbPress and Yoast.

There are several reasons the Woostify theme performs well in speed tests.

First of all, the developers don’t use any jQuery, but they stick to JavaScript. Therefore, there’s no reason to load bulky libraries first, since the theme isn’t built with a large CSS framework.

You can also expect the theme to keep up with WordPress coding standards and PHP support. From the live customizer settings to the hover styles and cart layouts, Woostify is a gem compared to the many other WooCommerce themes on the market. It’s a free theme with many premium features, and you still have the option to upgrade if needed.

Pricing

Woostify has a free version.

The premium theme package sells for $39 on one site. This includes one year of support and updates. They also have unlimited and lifetime plans that cost more.

Quite a few add-ons are provided with the premium version, and there’s no need to pay extra outside of the standard premium fee. Some of the add-ons include a header builder, mega menu, and quick view.

Notable Features

• Integrations with top-notch page builders like Beaver Builder and Elementor.
• Support for popular plugins like bbPress and BuddyPress.
• Product page and listing styles to adjust how those areas look to your customers.
• A multi-step checkout that’s customizable to some extent.
• Hover styles and cart layouts to further adjust the appearance of your website.
• Functional and simple settings in the WordPress Live Customizer.
• Support for two popular product wishlist plugins. You also get a product wishlist icon.
• A video gallery to add to all product pages.
• Product swatches that enhance your product attributes.
• Options to turn your site into multi-vendor marketplaces. You’d have to integrate with a plugin, but the functionality is there.
• Several free and prebuilt demos to find the perfect design for your online store. Multiple header styles, hooks, and filters to customize every aspect.
• Various premium add-ons for things like sticky add to cart buttons, sale notifications, and sizing guides.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Analysis

We know that Woostify has incredible WooCommerce tools. We know it’s lightweight and simple enough to make an impression as a high-performance theme. The only question is how it holds up to our tests and where it stands next to the other themes.

GTMetrix Speed Test

• PageSpeed Score: 94%
• YSlow Score: 87%
• Fully Loaded Time: 3.3s
• Total Page Size: 645KB
• Requests: 59

Pingdom

• Performance Grade: 82
• Load Time: 4.91s
• Page Size: 684KB
• Requests: 59

PageSpeed Insights Test (Mobile-only)

• Overall Score: 58
• First Image or Text: 2.8s
• Speed Index (visible population for all content): 6.2s
• Time to Become Fully Interactive: 6.8s

Byte Check TTFB Test

• Time To First Byte: 629ms
• Total Time: 917ms
• Total Header Size: 510b

Test Conclusions

Woostify had top performance results, with the averages pushing it a little towards the middle of the field. The PageSpeed score was impressive. The YSlow score wasn’t bad, and the Pingdom score looked solid as well. Although it’s not the worst of the bunch, we feel Woostify could use a little improvement for mobile performance after looking at the Google mobile speed test.

Woostify fell towards the bottom in the load time testing. This was almost entirely due to the less than average Pingdom load time. Its TTFB was wonderful, along with its GTMetrix load time. Even the Mobile Speed Index wasn’t bad. For some reason, it had problems when sent through the Pingdom tester.

The Fastest WooCommerce Theme Options Ranked

With all these numbers, it helps to present the results in a more visual format. The following chart takes the primary performance scores from GTMetrix, Pingdom, and PageSpeed Insights. We organized the charts by averaging out all four scores and listing those theme averages in order.

This way, you can see which had the highest and lowest performance scores overall.

Takeaways

• Orchid store is the only WooCommerce theme with a higher than 94% PageSpeed score from GTMetrix.
• The majority of themes on this list have similar PageSpeed scores, usually around 92-95.
• The only two themes with sub-90 PageSpeed scores include The Shop and Virtue.
• Top performers for YSlow include Virtue, Hello Elementor, Neve, and Zakra.
• Boutique had the worst YSlow score.
• The best Pingdom scores came from Orchid Store, Hello Elementor, Neve, Kadence, and Virtue.
• Boutique and Vogue registered the worst Pingdom scores.
• Hello Elementor and Orchid Store won the best Google PageSpeed Mobile test.
• Storefront received the last place – by a longshot – for the Google PageSpeed Mobile test.

Highest Average Scores

• Hello Elementor
• Orchid Store
• Neve

Lowest Average Scores

• Storefront
• The Shop
• Boutique

The following chart does the same thing with averaging out all four results from the category, except this time with load times. This way, we can understand which themes did well in specific load time tests while also bringing it all together for a final evaluation and ranking.

Takeaways

• GeneratePress reached the fastest GTMetrix Load Time with Boutique and Elementor not far behind.
• Zakra Online provided the slowest GTMetrix Load Time. Orchid Store and OceanWP were towards the bottom of the pack as well.
• Woostify had the slowest Pingdom Load Time.
• Orchid Store provided the fastest Mobile Speed Index.
• ShopIsle showed the slowest Mobile Speed Index.
• However, ShopIsle had the quickest TTFB.
• Zakra Online posted the slowest TTFB.

Fastest Average Load Times

• GeneratePress
• Hello Elementor
• Neve

Slowest Average Load Times

• Zakra Online Store
• Woostify
• ShopIsle

Hello Elementor and Neve finished as the top performers for both Scores and Load Times. Orchid Store was a mixed bag with top-notch performance scores, slower load times, and better mobile scores. ShopIsle performed well in most categories except on mobile devices.

Overall, there were some surprises (like Storefront not holding up that well) and plenty of expected results (like Hello Elementor outshining the field). Also, it’s nice to see themes made strictly for WooCommerce offering speedy scores, like Boutique and Orchid Store.

Fastest WooCommerce Theme Options – The Complete Results

Here are the final results for every WooCommerce theme listed on this evaluation. We averaged the primary load time metrics and ranked the themes from first to last. We did the same thing again—averaging performance scores—to rank the themes.

Average Load Time Rankings (Starting with the Fastest – In Seconds)

11. ShoppingCart – 3.10
12. Boutique – 3.12
13. OceanWP – 3.12
14. Shopay – 3.12
15. Vogue – 3.14
16. Rife – 3.18
17. The Shop – 3.31
18. Kadence – 3.45
19. ShopIsle – 3.56
20. Woostify – 3.76
21. Zakra Online Store – 4.97

Average Performance Score Rankings (Starting with the Highest – Out of 100)

11. Online Shop – 78.50
12. Rife – 78.50
13. AccessPress Store – 78.50
14. Shopay – 78.25
15. Vogue – 77.25
16. Virtue – 77.00
17. ShopIsle – 75.25
18. Boutique – 74.50
19. The Shop – 74.50
20. Storefront – 71.75

And that’s all, what a ride!

Now it’s your turn: which WooCommerce themes do you use? What’s missing from our list? Feel free to share other fast WooCommerce themes you like in the comments!