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Are you looking for a fast WooCommerce WordPress theme? We’ve compiled a list of 8 themes you can use for your next e-commerce project! An online shop often means a lot of images, text, videos, reviews, and payment gateways which can, unfortunately, impact the performance. Your clients will not like a slow WordPress site and may be reluctant to complete any purchase if the page takes forever to load. Actually, Portent ran some studies about the impact of site speed on the conversion rate, and you can see the correlation on the graph below. The more it takes for the page to load, the lower the conversion rate is. 

Page speed and conversion rate - Source: Portent
Page speed and conversion rate – Source: Portent

In this article, you’ll find 8 WooCommerce themes you can use for your next project. As a bonus – to prevent you from losing sales and customers on the way – we’re sharing some tips on optimizing your WooCommerce site and making your online store faster than ever. 

Let’s dive in. 

The 8 Fastest WordPress Themes + Test Data

We have selected the most popular WooCommerce themes on the market, and here’s the shortlist we come up with: 

  1. Storefront
  2. Botiga
  3. Astra (+ The Pro WooCommerce add-on)
  4. Flatsome (+ The UX theme builder)
  5. Avada (Fusion WooCommerce builder)
  6. Divi (Divi WooCommerceBuilder)
  7. BeTheme (BeBuilder)
  8. The 7 (Elementor page builder)

We’ve run some fair performance tests for each theme which should help you choose. 

Let’s get to the data! 

1. Storefront

A very basic free theme developed by WooCommerce themselves. The theme is built and maintained by WooCommerce core developers, which avoids compatibility issues. The customization options are limited, but if you want to launch a simple online store, it does the job. 

Storefront theme - Source: WooCommerce
Storefront theme – Source: WooCommerce

Performance results for the Storefront theme:

  • PageSpeed mobile score: 85/100
  • First Contentful Paint: 2.1s
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 1.7s
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: 2.8s
  • Speed Index: 1.3s
  • Time To Interactive: 1.3s
  • Total Blocking Time: 0 ms
  • Total Loading time: 2.1s
  • Total page size: 990 KB
  • HTTP requests: 18

2. Botiga

Botiga is a free, lightweight WooCommerce theme from aThemes. All of the demo content is built with the native WordPress block editor which gives the theme a minimalistic look-and-feel. You also get access to many useful eCommerce design features, such as multiple layouts for product galleries, the shopping cart, and the checkout page, along with off-canvas product filters, product recommendations, user-friendly product search, and more.

Clean design for WooCommerce – Source: Botiga theme

Performance results for the Botiga theme:

  • PageSpeed mobile score: 83/100
  • First Contentful Paint: 1.5s
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 1.9s
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: 0s
  • Speed Index: 1.3s
  • Time To Interactive: 1.1s
  • Total Blocking Time: 0 ms
  • Total Loading time: 2.4s
  • Total page size: 425 KB
  • HTTP requests: 12

3. Astra

Astra is one of the best WooCommerce WordPress themes due to its lightweight code, user-friendly interface, and thousands of starter templates for your next shop. The premium add-ons for WooCommerce allow you to create a custom payment page, add an advanced product gallery, filters, and unlimited scrolling to create a site like Pinterest. 

Astra theme and templates for WooCommerce - Source: Astra
Astra theme and templates for WooCommerce – Source: Astra

Performance results for the Astra theme (and the WooCommerce add-ons):

  • PageSpeed mobile score: 83/100
  • First Contentful Paint: 2.2s
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 1.7s
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: 2.1s
  • Speed Index: 1.1s
  • Time To Interactive: 1.3s
  • Total Blocking Time: 0 ms
  • Total Loading time: 2.5s
  • Total page size: 990 KB
  • HTTP requests: 16

4. Flatsome

The #1 selling WooCommerce theme on Themeforest is multipurpose and responsive for WooCommerce. It comes with the UX builder and some interesting options for your online store, such as the live search, add to wishlist, sale bubble options, change the number of products per row, or the catalog mode options if you don’t want to display any prices. 

Megashop templates for WooCommerce - Source: Flatsome
Megashop templates for WooCommerce – Source: Flatsome

Performance results for the Flatsome theme:

  1. PageSpeed mobile score: 81/100
  2. First Contentful Paint: 2.5s
  3. Largest Contentful Paint: 1.7s
  4. Cumulative Layout Shift: 1.6s
  5. Speed Index: 1.3s
  6. Time To Interactive: 2.5s
  7. Total Blocking Time: 0 ms
  8. Total Loading time: 2.7s
  9. Total page size: 997 KB
  10. HTTP requests: 18

5. Avada (+ Fusion Woo Builder)

It’s the #1 selling theme on Envato for years, with many thousands of easy-to-customize templates in the library. Avada comes with the Fusion Builder, allowing you to build your site from the header to the footer. It also has powerful WooCommerce widgets allowing users to build customized online stores. You can also use their builder to build custom product and shop pages. 

Avada theme and the Woo Builder – Source: Themeforest

Performance results for the Avada theme:

  • PageSpeed mobile score: 78/100
  • First Contentful Paint: 2.9s
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 1.8s
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: 1.6s
  • Speed Index: 1.3s
  • Time To Interactive: 2.6s
  • Total Blocking Time: 0 ms
  • Total Loading time: 2.8s
  • Total page size: 998 KB
  • HTTP requests: 17

6. Divi (+ Divi WooCommerce Builder)

Divi is a powerful WooCommerce theme thanks to its visual WooCommerce builder. Elegant Themes was among the first companies to bring the WYSIWYG to WordPress. The promise is that you can build everything visually using the Divi framework without touching a single line of code. The WooCommerce builder and modules allow you to create your custom product and shop page quickly. 

Divi and its WooCommerce Builder- Source: Elegantthemes.com
Divi and its WooCommerce Builder- Source: Elegantthemes.com

Performance results for the Divi theme:

  • PageSpeed mobile score: 75/100
  • First Contentful Paint: 4.1s
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 1.5s
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: 2.8s
  • Speed Index: 2.4s
  • Time To Interactive: 1.2s
  • Total Blocking Time: 0.1 ms
  • Total Loading time: 3.1s
  • Total page size: 1.2 MB
  • HTTP requests: 19

7. BeTheme (+ BeBuilder)

BeTheme is a multipurpose website builder and best-selling WordPress theme with 650+ pre-built websites (with a modern design). Their BeBuilder is also compatible with WooCommerce, and they even launched a query builder to build loops and dynamic websites. The promise is that you can build the WooCommerce site you want and design versatile shops & single-product layouts that convert. You can either use a ready-to-use template or create your own. 

BeTheme WooCommerce builder -  Source: themuffingroup.com
BeTheme WooCommerce builder –  Source: themuffingroup.com

Performance results for the BeTheme theme:

  • PageSpeed mobile score: 72/100
  • First Contentful Paint: 4.1s
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 3.9s
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: 2.8s
  • Speed Index: 1.9s
  • Time To Interactive: 1.7s
  • Total Blocking Time: 0.5 ms
  • Total Loading time: 3.6s
  • Total page size: 1.3 MB
  • HTTP requests: 21

8. The7 

It’s the #1 selling Elementor theme that offers a lot of customization for WooCommerce. The7 has 60+ prebuilt dummy websites with exclusive templates that can help launch an online store easily. You can build attractive templates for the storefront, product pages and lists, checkout, cart, and more with the advanced WooCommerce Theme Builder. The highlight is that you can easily modify any WooCommerce page and add advanced filters to improve the user experience. 

The 7 - Source: the7.io
The 7 – Source: the7.io

Performance results for The7 theme:

  • PageSpeed mobile score: 70/100
  • First Contentful Paint: 4.4s
  • Largest Contentful Paint: 4.3s
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: 2.9s
  • Speed Index: 1.2s
  • Time To Interactive: 1.5s
  • Total Blocking Time: 0 ms
  • Total Loading time: 4.1s
  • Total page size: 1.5 MB 
  • HTTP requests: 25

Summary Table of the Performance Results

Below we’ve put together the summary of the performance results for each WooCommerce theme. We used Lighthouse’s global “PageSpeed mobile score” to rank them. 

PageSpeed mobile scoreTotal Loading timeLargest Contentful Paint First Contentful Paint

Storefront
85/1002.1 s1.7 s2.1 s
Botiga83/1002.4s1.9s1.5s
Astra83/1002.5 s1.7 s2.2 s
Flatsome81/1002.7 s1.7 s2.5 s
Avada78/1002.8 s1.8 s2.9 s
Divi75/1003.1 s1.5 s4.1 s
BeTheme72/1003.6 s3.9 s4.1 s
The770/1004.1 s4.3 s4.4 s

Key Takeaways:

  • None of the themes are in the red on mobile, they all lie between the orange and the green regarding the global performance. 
  • Storefront, Botiga, and Astra seem to be the top 3 fastest. 
  • The7 seems to be the “slowest” which makes sense with all the advanced customization available. The performance is still acceptable, though, and in the last section, we will show how to put all the KPIs in green! 

How We Tested the Themes 

The selection was based on popularity, high numbers of downloads or sales, library templates, and quality reviews. The performance tests were made using the following performance tools:  

  • PageSpeed Insights
  • GTmetrix

Both tools are powered by Lighthouse. They analyze the performance and the user experience of your website. Here are the 10 KPIs we’ve used in our tests – measured on mobile

From PageSpeed Insights:

  • PageSpeed mobile score 
  • First Contentful Paint
  • Largest Contentful Paint
  • Cumulative Layout Shift
  • Speed Index
  • Time To Interactive
  • Total Blocking Time

From GTmetrix:

  • Total Loading time
  • HTTP requests
  • Total page size 

Then, we chose 7 themes that define themselves as WooCommerce friendly because they come with add-ons or specific customization related to online stores: product page or checkout process customization, advanced galleries, personal account page, etc. 

The Test Site

We built a realistic WooCommerce site for each theme. In all cases, the homepage has a hero banner with a button, 1 call to action, 4 icons with texts, 3 customer reviews, 1 ad, and 12 products. Of course, we used the same image and products for each test, we simply swapped the themes between the round of tests. 

Example of a WooCommerce site built with Astra - Source: WP Rocket
Example of a WooCommerce site built with Astra – Source: WP Rocket

We did a fresh installation for each theme and used the same server for each theme’s speed testing (servers are in London).

⚠️ Disclaimer: Those performance tests have been run on a server based in London, and we built each e-commerce page ourselves. The results we have presented are from our own experience, and the results may differ according to your project.

Give an Extra Performance Boost with WP Rocket

WP Rocket is one of the best caching plugins to optimize any WooCommerce theme, including the ones on our list. Your online store’s performance and Core Web Vitals score will drastically improve upon its activation. 

To understand the impact of WP Rocket on speed, let’s see it in action with the7, which was one of the most complete themes we tested in terms of features and customizations. 

Below are the performance issues flagged by Lighthouse, listed under the “Opportunities” tab: 

Lighthouse’s recommendation for my WooCommerce site built with the7 - Source: PageSpeed Insights
Lighthouse’s recommendation for my WooCommerce site built with the7 – Source: PageSpeed Insights

Lighthouse suggests using caching, enabling text compression, reducing unused CSS/JS, and deferring offscreen images (image optimization with lazy loading). 

After using WP Rocket on the test site, we noticed that our issues were moved to the “passed audits” section:

The7 test site - audit passed with WP Rocket - Source: PageSpeed Insights
The7 test site – audit passed with WP Rocket – Source: PageSpeed Insights

But there is more to come. All our performance KPIs improved thanks to WP Rocket, including the mobile score on PageSpeed Insights. The performance score got a 99/100.

The7 test site scores 99/100 with WP Rocket - Source: PageSpeed Insights
The7 test site scores 99/100 with WP Rocket – Source: PageSpeed Insights

WP Rocket also boosted the Core Web Vitals scores (all in green) and decreased the total loading time (from 4.1s to 1.9s). It also reduced the page size and the number of HTTP requests, as you can see in our table below: 

Performance KPIsThe7 Score (no WP Rocket)The7  Score (with WP Rocket) 🚀
PageSpeed mobile score70/10099/100
First Contentful Paint4.4s1.7s
Largest Contentful Paint*4.3s1.7s
Cumulative Layout Shift*2.9s0s
Speed Index1,22s
Time To Interactive1.5s1s
Total Blocking Time0ms0 ms
Total Loading time4.1s1.9s
Total page size1.5 MB680 KB
HTTP requests258

*Core Web Vitals

📖 Here are more tips about testing and improving the Lighthouse performance score on WordPress.

To address all the PageSpeed Insights warnings and boost the performance, we used the following WP Rocket features:

  • Text compression and caching – both features are automatically activated right upon activation of the plugin. You don’t need to do anything. 
WP Rocket applying caching and text compression automatically - Source: WP Rocket
WP Rocket applying caching and text compression automatically – Source: WP Rocket

You can also set your own options from the advanced cache tab in the WordPress admin:

Caching and advanced optimization features - Source: WP Rocket
Caching and advanced optimization features – Source: WP Rocket
📖 Want to learn more about page caching on WooCommerce? Read our 7 tips to learn how to implement caching on a WooCommerce site
  • CSS code optimization – from the file optimization tab, we selected the optimize CSS delivery button (using the handy remove unused CSS option). We also minified and combined the CSS code to help the browser download and process these files faster.
CSS optimization - Source: WP Rocket
CSS optimization – Source: WP Rocket
  • JavaScript code optimization – from the files optimization tab, there are also some options to optimize the JavaScript of your WordPress site. In our case, we minified JS files, loaded JS deferred, and delayed the JS execution: 
JS optimization - Source: WP Rocket
JS optimization – Source: WP Rocket
  • Lazyload – to defer offscreen images (and prioritize the loading of the images located in the viewport):
The LazyLoad feature for images, iframe, and videos - Source: WP Rocket
The LazyLoad feature for images, iframe, and videos – Source: WP Rocket

What’s the Best WooCommerce Themes For You?

While we can’t advise you on a specific theme as it highly relies on your design and technical specifications, here are a few pieces of advice: 

  • If you need a simple online store with the WooCommerce look and feel by default, without any advanced design or options, then go with Storefront. 
  • If you are looking for a free theme with a clean and minimalistic design and advanced WooCommerce features, you should go for Botiga. 
  • If you are a freelancer looking for a theme with many demos that you can show to your clients for different industries, then Divi, BeTheme, and the7 may be your best options. 
  • If you are an Elementor’s fervent user, then Astra and The7 may be your best bet. 
  • If you want to use the WPBakery Page Builder, the 7 theme is the way to go. 
  • If you plan to upload thousands of products, a lightweight theme like Astra or OceanWP may be wiser. They both come with advanced WooCommerce features so you can create your own store in minutes. 
  • If you need to create your own single product layouts and shop pages and add dynamic data to your website, then take a theme that works well with any other WooCommerce builders.
  • If you want to get your theme from Themeforest, then pick Avada, which has been #1 on Themeforest for years. 
  • If you are hesitating between two themes, check their demos and remember to look at them on several devices. Many sales happened on mobile!

Finally, our last recommendation would be to choose a theme that is safe with recent updates, fast support, accurate documentation, and in-depth tutorials. You can also check some popular YouTubers that review all those themes and record their screen while they build an online store from scratch. 

Wrapping Up

Now, you should be able to choose the right WooCommerce theme for your next project! 

 In any case, no matter which theme you pick, WP Rocket is the easiest way to improve your WordPress site’s speed, optimize Core Web Vitals, and fix the performance audits on PageSpeed Insights. Plus, you don’t take any risks with the 30-day money-back guarantee. 


Comments (13)

Hi Colin,

To be fair, Divi cannot be compared to the other themes since it includes a page builder. It means the builder's resources are loaded (CSS&JS) even though it is not used on the product page you tested.

How about activating Elementor on some other themes (Astra, OceanWP, GeneratePress - they're "sold" as Elementor companions) to make the comparison more accurate?

However, even if this test remains the same, I see Divi as a winner: it is as fast as the other themes (same load time as Storefront) but has way more capabilities with its builder and not Gutenberg as the only content editor.

Hey Nicolas, I'm not sure I agree with your premise. I didn't activate the Divi builder on my test page, so if Divi wants to load its resources on every page that's on Divi :) You could also still use Elementor without loading its assets on the product page if you wanted.

Thanks man for the list. i been struggling to find a fastest woo-commerce but couldn't find any better, most themes are just bloated and are very harsh on resources. your list definitely helped me. whats your thoughts on shoptimizer and wondershopp? as i dont see much honest reviews elsewhere? its tough these days, when we have tons of affilated link articles with top themes, best, fastest and so on posted by various sites without even testing them in reality. I am trusting your article as i see you dont have affliate linking and i see clarity. Thanks Colin.

Hi,
This is free themes what about pay themes any suggestion?
Thanks

I am using rocket, but also a stripped down tesla theme called Zeon (I took out the sliders to speed it up) . I want to improve to a better shop. I only have 2 products which is a problem as most themes assume big shops. Thanks for the list above I will check them out.

What's the best thing to use with elementor? I was using Themify Shoppe but plan to switch to a faster one on this list. Im sort of leaning towards shoptimizer because they advertise for e-commerce and speed. The only other option I see is Astra. Thoughts?

Hi Colin, great comparison, but there are Four Themes missing that should be included --> Neve, Suki, Page Builder Framework, and Blocksy. Of course, GeneratePress, Astra and OceanWP are still the most popular because they have been in the market for longer, but they are Not the only options anymore.

so glad to see a blog post without affiliate links. honest hard work reviews are so rare.

Thanks for this Colin. I've had developers use wp-bootstrap and other ones before. Do I just ask them to use the likes of Astra for future websites they create for me? Will they have issues using the likes of Astra, eg: lack of experience which is why they use free ones?

I have been using WP Rocket for a long time and following you. I was thinking of changing the theme too. This has been very useful. Thank you.

Please test Flatsome in a next paid theme comparison. Flatsome is just awesome!

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