12 Fastest WooCommerce Themes 2023

Searching for the fastest WooCommerce themes?

For WooCommerce stores, speed is key as page load times directly impact conversion rates (which determines your revenue). While your WooCommerce theme isn’t the only thing that affects your store’s load times, it will play a big role.

For that reason, you want to choose a WooCommerce theme that will set your store up for success in the speed department.

To help you do that, we ran our own hands-on performance tests with some of the most popular options to give you an evidence-backed look at the fastest WooCommerce themes.

We’ll kick things off with a detailed explanation of how we tested the themes so that you know where the data comes from. Then, we’ll share the results for each theme, as well as information on the theme’s key features and pricing.

How We Tested the Fastest WooCommerce Themes

Here are the full nitty-gritty details of our test environment:

Test Site

First off, our test site is hosted on a cheap DigitalOcean server, which actually offers pretty solid performance despite its price. It’s running on an all-Nginx stack (powered by RunCloud).

To create a realistic test site, we set up our site with the following:

1. WooCommerce
2. The standard WooCommerce dummy data, which imports a number of products, including images and all relevant product details

We did not make any performance optimizations such as caching or code optimization. In the real world, you could achieve better load times by using caching plugins and other speed optimization plugins.

We also didn’t change any theme customization options — we just used the default settings. This is the “fairest” way to compare themes, though your site might be slightly heavier if you import a demo site or make use of some WooCommerce features.

To make sure we’re collecting meaningful performance data, we tested the same single product page with each theme (rather than the homepage).

The single product page looks something like this (the example theme is Storefront):

Testing Tool

To collect the test data itself, we used WebPageTest. There are a few reasons that we like WebPageTest:

1. It shows a variety of metrics, including time to first byte (TTFB), Core Web Vitals (including largest contentful paint), load time, HTTP requests, and page size.
2. We can configure it to run nine separate tests and take the median value, which eliminates single-test variability and gets us more accurate results.
3. We can configure it to run both desktop and mobile tests and choose various connection speeds.

We want this data to be as useful as possible, so we set up the tests to mimic real-world scenarios and ran two different tests:

1. Desktop: testing from a desktop device and using a throttled FIOS connection – 20/5 Mbps 4ms RTT.
2. Mobile: testing from an iPhone 7+ phone and using a throttled “3G Fast” connection – 1.6 Mbps/768 Kbps 150 ms RTT. WebPageTest lets us use a real iPhone 7+ device, rather than simulating a mobile phone like some other tools.

Because we’re throttling the connection speed, you’ll see “slower” results than you would with a tool such as Pingdom (which uses a super-fast unthrottled connection). However, these speeds will be more accurate to what your real human visitors will experience because most of them will not be browsing on ultra-fast Internet connections.

The desktop times will also be faster than the mobile times. This will happen for a few reasons:

• The mobile connection is slower because we’re throttling to 3G. In the real world, your mobile visitors might experience better load times if they’re using 4G or connecting their phone to WIFI.
• The mobile device isn’t as powerful as the desktop device, which means it will take longer to process JavaScript. Remember — we’re using an older iPhone 7+, not the latest top-of-the-line model.

We’ll present the test results in a table, but we’ll also link to images of the full test results if you want to see every single metric. Here are the metrics that we’ll feature:

• Time to first byte (TTFB) – how long it takes the site to respond with the first byte of data.
• Largest contentful paint (LCP) – the time it takes for the main content to become visible. It aims to capture the user experience part of performance, which is what most humans care about. It’s also part of Google’s new Core Web Vitals initiative and Google will use it as a ranking factor in its May 2021 Page Experience update.
• Fully loaded time – WebPageTest defines this as “the point after onLoad where network activity has stopped for 2 seconds”.
• HTTP requests – how many HTTP requests the site makes – fewer is better.
• Page size – the file size of the complete page — smaller is better.

Note that WebPageTest didn’t provide LCP values for the mobile tests that we ran.

With all that introduction out of the way, let’s get to the fastest WooCommerce themes! They are ordered by mobile fully loaded time, as we think mobile performance is super important for eCommerce stores.

At the end of this post, we’ll also put all the data together, so keep reading to the end for the conclusions.

1. Botiga

Botiga is our new free WooCommerce theme that we built from the ground up to be optimized for performance. 

It uses vanilla JavaScript with no dependencies on jQuery or other libraries, and it also minifies its CSS and JavaScript by default. 

Out of the box, it weighs just 82.8 KB, and it’s designed to stay lightweight because all of the demo sites are built with the native WordPress block editor instead of heavier page builders.

But at the same time, Botiga doesn’t skimp on features, and you get access to lots of style options and eCommerce features to make your store a success.

Key Features

• 100% dedicated to WooCommerce
• Optimized for performance with vanilla JavaScript, built-in minification, and more
• Pre-made demo sites built with the lightweight WordPress block editor (Gutenberg)
• Advanced WooCommerce customization options, including multiple cart layouts, product filters, sales badges, and more
• Flexible design options in the real-time WordPress Customizer

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

Botiga has a free version that can work great for simple WooCommerce stores. Then, there’s a Pro version that adds useful new features such as product swatches, more header styles, flexible sidebar positions, wish lists, a sticky cart, and more.

The Pro version costs $69 for use on a single site. You can view a full feature comparison between Botiga free vs Pro on the pricing page.

2. Sydney

Sydney is our own lightweight multipurpose theme that also comes with deep WooCommerce integration.

With Sydney 1.75, we made a number of performance improvements to help it earn its spot on this list of the fastest WooCommerce themes.

Sydney has no jQuery dependencies and it’s coded following best practices to help your store load quickly.

Beyond performance, it also comes with full WooCommerce compatibility and features, along with some importable demo sites for WooCommerce stores.

Key Features

• Three WooCommerce demo sites (along with lots of non-WooCommerce demos)
• Customizable styling for product prices, sales badges, product titles, and more
• Fly-in minicart
• Distraction-free checkout
• Video header support
• Deep Elementor integrations, including custom Elementor blocks
• No jQuery dependencies
• Built-in schema markup to improve SEO

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

Sydney has a free version, but you’ll want the premium version to access all of the WooCommerce features and demo sites. It costs $69 for use on unlimited sites.

3. Kadence

Kadence is a newer WordPress theme that’s quickly grown in popularity. It’s a flexible multipurpose theme that also offers deep integration with WooCommerce.

In general, it’s been getting a lot of buzz for the deep customization options available in the native WordPress Customizer.

Key Features

• Detailed customization options in the WordPress Customizer
• Drag-and-drop header and footer builder
• Auto open side cart when a user adds a product to cart
• Ajax add to cart
• Easily add microcopy and trust badges at key spots
• Two importable demo sites for WooCommerce stores

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

The core Kadence theme is available for free at WordPress.org. The free theme does include basic WooCommerce compatibility, but you’ll want the Pro version if you’re serious about your store.

The Pro version gives you access to all add-ons, including the WooCommerce add-on, for $79 for one year of support and updates. Or, you can buy Kadence Suite for $219, which includes other WooCommerce plugins from the developer.

4. Neve

Neve is a lightweight multipurpose theme from ThemeIsle.

The free core theme provides a lightweight foundation and general WooCommerce compatibility, while the premium version stacks on a bunch of WooCommerce-specific features with its WooCommerce Builder module.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop header and footer builder
• Detailed WooCommerce options in the Customizer with the WooCommerce Builder add-on
• Enable/disable product metadata with the check of a box
• Product image zoom
• Distraction-free checkout page, including options to hide certain fields, for example, the coupon field if you don’t offer coupons
• Product quick view
• Wishlist feature

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

The core Neve theme is available for free at WordPress.org. To access the WooCommerce Booster module and other premium features, the Pro version costs $99 (there is a cheaper plan, but it doesn’t include the WooCommerce Booster module).

5. Astra

Astra is one of the most popular themes in existence, with the distinction of being the first non-default theme to pass one million active installs at WordPress.org.

It’s a multipurpose theme that you can use for any type of site. Plus, it includes deep compatibility for WooCommerce in the premium version, along with lots of useful features.

Key Features

• Tons of importable WooCommerce demo sites
• Lots of style and layout customizations in the WordPress Customizer
• Off-canvas sidebar for product filters and widgets
• Product quick view
• Product infinite scroll
• Drop-down cart
• Flexible product gallery options
• Distraction-free checkout
• Product catalog sort options, e.g. sort by popularity (sales) or average rating

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

The core Astra theme is available for free at WordPress.org. The free theme does include basic WooCommerce compatibility, but you’ll need the premium add-on to access most of the WooCommerce-specific features and customization options.

Astra Pro costs $59 for use on unlimited sites.

6. Woostify

Woostify is a WordPress theme that’s 100% focused on WooCommerce. Personally, I think of this theme as “Astra, if Astra were only for WooCommerce stores”.

Because it’s only for WooCommerce, the developer can put all of their efforts into building WooCommerce demo sites and adding WooCommerce features.

Key Features

• Pre-built WooCommerce demo sites for different niches — the demo sites use Elementor for the demo content which allows for easy customization
• Built-in integration with popular wishlist plugins (YITH Wishlists and TI Wishlist)
• Lots of Customizer settings for WooCommerce
• Multiple cart layouts
• Video product gallery support
• Sales countdown timers to add urgency
• Sales/view notifications
• Slide-out cart

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

The core Woostify theme is available for free at WordPress.org. It includes basic features as well as a few demo sites.

To unlock all the demo sites and add more features, you can purchase Woostify Pro starting at $49 for use on a single site.

7. Storefront

Storefront is the “official” free theme from WooCommerce that has been downloaded over five million times.

As it’s developed and maintained by the core WooCommerce team, it’s coded with best practices in mind and deeply integrates with many official WooCommerce extensions.

Key Features

• Comes directly from the WooCommerce team
• Built specifically for WooCommerce
• Customize your store using the native WordPress Customizer
• Lots of Storefront child themes to let you change up the design and adapt your store to specific niches

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

The core Storefront theme is free.

The WooCommerce team then offers a number of free and paid child themes and extensions.

First off, the Storefront Extensions bundle adds a number of new features and customization options to Storefront for $69.

In terms of Storefront child themes, you’ll find both free and paid options. The premium child themes cost $39 each.

8. GeneratePress

GeneratePress is a popular lightweight multipurpose theme with a good reputation for performance and code cleanliness.

While you can use it to create any type of WordPress site, you also get a lot of WooCommerce-specific features, especially if you upgrade to GeneratePress Premium (the paid plugin add-on).

Key Features

• Clean, lightweight code
• Dedicated WooCommerce add-on in the premium version – gives you special layout and style options for WooCommerce
• Shopping cart icon in menu – display items or cart value
• Sticky panel cart – display a sticky notification bar when shoppers add an item to their carts and/or when they scroll down
• Easily enable/disable displaying product metadata with the check of a box
• Distraction-free checkout

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

The core GeneratePress theme is available for free at WordPress.org. The free theme does include basic WooCommerce compatibility, but you’ll need the premium plugin add-on to unlock most of the WooCommerce-specific features and customization options.

GeneratePress Premium costs $59 for one year of support and updates or $249 for lifetime support and updates.

9. Orchid Store

Like Woostify, Orchid Store is built specifically for WooCommerce — it’s not a multipurpose theme like a lot of the other options.

It offers demo sites that are a bit “busier” than the other themes. That’s not a criticism, just something I noticed while browsing its demo.

Key Features

• Built specifically for WooCommerce
• Three importable eCommerce demo sites
• Ajax add to cart
• Built-in wishlist support
• Currency switcher (pro)
• Product deal widget (pro)

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

Orchid Store has a free version at WordPress.org as well as a premium plugin that adds extra features to the core theme and costs $49 for use on a single site.

10. Shoptimizer

Unlike a lot of the other themes on this list that are multipurpose themes with detailed WooCommerce integrations, Shoptimizer is a WordPress theme that’s 100% dedicated to WooCommerce.

This singular focus lets it build in some more advanced WooCommerce-specific features than the other themes offer.

One of the most notable results is a suite of conversion-focused features such as sale countdown timers and stock status urgency notices, trust badges at key places, extra microcopy space to explain shipping and return policies, and more.

It also includes some built-in features to improve the shopping experience, such as built-in Ajax search with instant results.

Key Features

• 100% dedicated to WooCommerce
• Built-in code minification for improved performance
• Built-in conversion optimization features such as trust badges, microcopy, etc.
• Distraction-free checkout
• Sticky product details on scroll
• Single product FOMOs to drive urgency, e.g. sale countdown timers or “only X items left in stock”
• A “request a call back” feature, which is useful for high-value products
• Ajax product search for instant search results
• Uses Elementor for demo content for easy customization

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

Shoptimizer only comes in a premium version. Its list price is $99, but there’s an essentially permanent discount running for $39, so you should be able to purchase it for $39.

11. OceanWP

OceanWP is another multipurpose theme known for its flexibility and customization options.

It’s not quite as lightweight as some of these other themes, but it does provide a ton of WooCommerce-specific features, which might make the slight performance trade-off worth the hit.

Key Features

• Lots of importable demo sites for eCommerce stores
• Flexible shopping cart icon
• Product quick view
• Distraction-free checkout
• Multi-step checkout with progress bar
• Slide-out cart for both desktop and mobile
• Off-canvas product filters
• Floating add-to-cart bar on scroll

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

The core version of OceanWP is available for free at WordPress.org, but WooCommerce stores will want the premium version to unlock all the features and demo sites.

The premium version starts at $39 for use on a single site.

12. Divi

Divi is one of the most popular premium WordPress themes, thanks in large part to its bundled drag-and-drop builder (the Divi Builder).

If you’re purely after speed, Divi is a step behind these other themes. But if you’re after speed and flexibility and you’re planning to use a page builder anyway, Divi actually isn’t as far behind as it might look at first glance.

Remember, Divi already includes the “weight” of the visual, drag-and-drop builder, whereas other themes don’t. So if you were to, say, add Elementor or Brizy to another one of these themes, they would be a lot closer to Divi once you add the weight of those builders. Of course, if you’re not planning to use a visual builder, then Divi doesn’t really make sense.

Key Features

• Built-in drag-and-drop builder (Divi Builder)
• Divi Builder supports both page building and full theme building, including designing your WooCommerce store’s templates using the drag-and-drop builder
• Dedicated WooCommerce modules in the page builder
• Large third-party marketplace, including WooCommerce-focused add-ons from third-party developers

Performance Information

• Desktop results
• Mobile results

Pricing

Divi is only available as part of the Elegant Themes membership, which gets you access to all of Elegant Themes’ products and use on unlimited personal and client sites for one price. You can pay $89 for a one-year membership or $249 for a lifetime membership.

Which Is the Fastest WooCommerce Theme?

We’ve shown you a lot of data for individual themes. Now, let’s put everything together to let you see how these themes compare.

I’ll come at this a few different ways. First off, let’s talk about the fastest overall themes for mobile and desktop:

• Mobile: Botiga came in first for fully loaded time.
• Desktop: Neve came in first for fully loaded time and Woostify was first for Largest Contentful Paint.

(Remember that WebPageTest didn’t give LCP times on mobile.)

Of course, the differences between first and second place are quite small (or even first and seventh place). So to see how all the themes compare, I put together a few charts:

Mobile (ordered by fully loaded time):

Desktop (ordered by LCP):

HTTP requests and page size (ordered by HTTP requests):

Additionally, if you want to see a raw dump of all the data, you can check out the full sheet here.

Overall Conclusions

That’s a lot of data! If we had to boil it down to a few conclusions when factoring in both desktop and mobile performance, the top performers seem to be:

• Sydney – was second in the mobile results and second in desktop LCP.
• Neve – was first in the desktop results and third in mobile.
• Botiga – was first in mobile results and sixth in desktop LCP.
• Woostify – was first in desktop LCP but fifth in both desktop and mobile fully loaded time.
• GeneratePress – had the smallest page size on both desktop and mobile. Also was second in desktop load times.

As I’ve already mentioned, the differences between the themes aren’t that large. For example, Astra was only about a tenth of a second behind Neve in terms of desktop fully loaded times, so we’re not talking big differences between ranking #1 and ranking #7.

So if you absolutely love one of the other themes, you can still create a very quick-loading site even using a different theme.

Do you have any questions about the fastest WooCommerce themes or how we tested these themes? Ask us in the comments section!

Colin Newcomer

Colin Newcomer is a freelance writer for hire with a background in SEO and affiliate marketing. He helps clients grow their web visibility by writing primarily about digital marketing and WordPress. You can hire him to write for your website.