The Best WooCommerce Theme: A Comprehensive Test of the Top 18 in Real-Life Simulations

December 6, 2023

It’s the year 2023 going on 2024. The keyword is ‘speed’. Nothing compares to an online store that loads like the wind. Except for Christmas. And that’s about it.

Customers have grown accustomed to instant access and rapid browsing, which makes a slow website a significant deterrent. That’s where the right WooCommerce theme can be a game-changer. The right WooCommerce theme is lightweight, responsive, and has great design elements to showcase your brand – in short, all the ingredients to provide an exceptional shopping experience.

So we went through the internet to find 18 WooCommerce themes reviewed by thousands of merchants with the following qualities:

Fast
Free
Top-ranking

And then we decided to put these WooCommerce through thorough tests to find out how they perform in a near-real-life scenario. We simulated this scenario by creating an e-commerce shop on WordPress with twenty products, complete with product descriptions, images, etc. In addition to the WooCommerce plugin, we installed the following:

1. WooCommerce Shipping & Tax
2. WooPayments
3. Customer Reviews for WooCommerce
4. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist
5. Select Mailchimp for WooCommerce
6. Mailchimp for WooCommerce

Tools Used to test the woocommerce themes

Three different test tools were used:

GTmetrix
Google PageSpeed Insights
Pingdom

Metrics Used to score the woocommerce themes

1. PERFORMANCE SCORE

This is the overall measure of your website’s performance, evaluated through the Lighthouse Performance Score by GTmetrix. It considers custom audits, Analysis Options, and browser and hardware specifications.

2. STRUCTURE SCORE

Your Structure Score is an exclusive evaluation by GTmetrix, assessing how well your webpage is constructed for optimal performance. It combines insights from Lighthouse and Custom GTmetrix audits.

3. LARGEST CONTENTFUL PAINT (LCP)

LCP measures the time it takes for the largest content element on your page to become visible within your visitors’ viewport. The target is for this to occur in less than 1.2 seconds.

4. TOTAL BLOCKING TIME (TBT)

TBT indicates the duration during which scripts are blocking the page loading process. It is recommended for TBT to be less than 150 milliseconds.

5. CUMULATIVE LAYOUT SHIFT (CLS)

CLS quantifies the amount of layout shift experienced by visitors as your page loads. The optimal CLS value is less than 0.1.

6. FIRST CONTENTFUL PAINT (FCP)

FCP measures the time it takes for the first piece of content to appear on your webpage.

7. SPEED INDEX

The Speed Index is a metric that gauges how quickly content is visually displayed during the page load. A lower Speed Index indicates a faster-loading page.

8. PAGE SIZE

Page Size refers to the total size of your webpage, including all its resources like images, scripts, and stylesheets. Smaller page sizes generally lead to faster load times.

9. LOAD TIME

Load Time is the duration it takes for your webpage to fully load and become interactive. A shorter load time is crucial for retaining user engagement.

10. REQUESTS

The Requests metric counts the number of server requests made by your webpage to load all necessary resources. Reducing the number of requests can contribute to a faster page load.

18 WooCommerce Themes Tested

1. HELLO ELEMENTOR

Hello Elementor is a lightweight and minimalist WooCommerce theme. As a great starter theme, it does not have a lot of styling elements out of the box. However, it is designed to seamlessly integrate with the powerful Elementor page builder that provides a drag-and-drop editor and numerous templates to create captivating e-commerce experiences.

KEY Features:

Hello Elementor is specifically built to work seamlessly with the Elementor page builder, providing a user-friendly and highly customizable interface
Comes with 300+ templates, 80+ basic and advanced widgets, 15+ e-commerce-specific widgets
Supports dynamic content and custom fields
Responsive and SEO-friendly
Supports translation into multiple languages and provides Right-to-Left (RTL) language support

Speed Test Results of Hello Elementor WooCommerce Theme:

GTmetrix and Pingdom scores are off the charts. Both the LCP of GTmetrix and Load Time on Pingdom are below 1 second. Even though it scored poorly in the PageSpeed Insights mobile test, the Speed Index of this WooCommerce theme is still the lowest compared to other themes on our list.

2. ASTRA

Astra is a highly versatile and user-friendly WooCommerce theme. Just like Hello Elementor, you get endless customization options with Astra. It comes with numerous templates for specific industries like fashion, yoga, jewelry, etc. You can edit these templates using page builders like Elementor, Gutenberg, and Beaver Builder.

Key Features:

Optimized for mobile devices
150+ pre-built store layout options customizable with Elementor, Gutenberg, etc.
Conversion-optimized features like built-in quick view for products, two-step checkout option, infinite product scroll, slide-down cart option
Astra gives you control over typography and color settings, enabling you to create a visually appealing and brand-consistent online store
Clean code and high security standards

Speed Test Results for Astra WooCommerce Theme:

Astra is almost at par with Hello Elementor as a top contender of fast and lightweight WooCommerce themes. It’s a great customizable option to build your WooCommerce store just the way you want.

3. OceanWP

OceanWP is a multipurpose WooCommerce theme that seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce. You can build and manage a powerful e-commerce website even with the feature-rich free version. It is deeply compatible with Elementor, Gutenberg, WP Bakery, and more which means you get to create your site with little technical knowledge with the visual drag-and-drop builder. It comes with 100+ templates that are specialized for e-commerce stores.

Key Features:

Has features specific to e-commerce store usability like quick view, floating ‘Add to Cart’ button, multi-step checkout with progress bar, native shopping cart popup, off-canvas menu, and more
Works well with drag-and-drop page builders like Elementor, Gutenberg, etc. enabling you to add features to a website without writing code
Responsive design, offers a wide range of customization options
Pro version comes with more pre-built demos that can be imported with a few clicks, providing a head start in designing your store
Supports translation tools
Comes with mobile layouts

Speed Test Results for OceanWP WooCommerce Theme:

OceanWP is almost in the same league as Hello Elementor and Astra. However, it isn’t as lightweight as these WooCommerce themes, which makes the scores different. What it lacks in weight, it makes up for in its features and customizable options. OceanWP also offers one of the best WooCommerce integrations and support. It also has fewer bugs than other common WooCommerce themes.

4. Kadence

Kadence has a clean codebase which makes it a great theme for a fast online store without compromising on functionality. Each template is e-commerce-store-friendly, so you can build a store with ease. This WooCommerce theme is known for its performance-oriented design and user-friendly interface. You get a library of website demos as well as WooCommerce support to launch your online store.

Key Features:

Comes with pre-designed starter templates tailored for e-commerce. Importing these templates provides a quick start to designing your online store.
Kadence seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce Blocks, offering additional flexibility in designing and customizing your product pages
Conversion-friendly features like sticky header, optimized cart layout, customizable checkout page, breadcrumbs, etc.
Has a drag-and-drop filter with one specifically made for the header
Includes advanced typography options and global color palette

Speed Test Results for Kadence WooCommerce Theme:

Kadence outperformed Hello Elementor, Astra, and OceanWP on Google Pagespeed Insights. However, its GTmetrix and Pingdom scores are lower than all three. Kadence’s blend of performance, customization options, and e-commerce-specific features positions it as a compelling WooCommerce theme for businesses seeking a versatile and effective theme.

5. Orchid Store

Orchid Store combines functionality with aesthetics to offer a seamless and delightful shopping experience. You not only get a standard online store template but there are also settings (accompanied by demos) to convert it for other industries like sports, furniture, etc. You can use the WordPress customizer to customize this WooCommerce theme or you can use popular page builders like Elementor.

Key Features:

Highlight your products with style using Orchid Store’s dedicated sections for product showcases
Enhance the functionality of your online store with custom widgets that facilitate navigation, product discovery, and engagement
Conversion-friendly features like dedicated sections for product showcases, header and footer customization options, quick view feature, Instagram-feed integration, product sorting and filtering options, and so on
Banner and slider widgets for announcements
Contains translation-ready features for global stores

Speed Test Results for Orchid Store WooCommerce Theme:

Speed index score of Orchid Store is less than both Astra and OceanWP on Google PageSpeed Insights, which gives it an advantage. This makes the result a little mixed. Overall it’s a great WooCommerce theme with essential e-commerce features and a decent speed score.

6. eStore

eStore is a clean and fully customizable WooCommerce theme from ThemeGrill. It has several custom widgets, banner areas, header module, and more. Whether you’re selling physical products, digital downloads, or a combination of both, this WooCommerce theme provides a flexible and user-friendly platform to showcase your products and engage customers effectively.

Key Features:

Tailor your homepage to meet your specific needs with customizable sections, allowing you to highlight featured products, promotions, or any other key elements you want to showcase
Enhance product visibility with a dynamic product carousel that enables customers to easily browse through a selection of items directly from the homepage
Showcase product categories prominently on your homepage
Comes with customization options for colors, fonts, and layout
Tailor the header and footer of your website to create a cohesive and branded look
Has multiple layouts for your shopping carts
Contains one-click demo import option from ThemeGrill to launch your site

Speed Test Results for eStore WooCommerce Theme:

eStore scored similar points as Kadence in the GTmetrix test. Surprisingly, it scored higher than top themes like Astra and OceanWP in the PageSpeed Insights test but took a hit in Pingdom scores. Overall, eStore is among the top contenders. Its adaptability, coupled with its extensive e-commerce features, positions it as a versatile WooCommerce theme.

7. Storefront

Storefront stands out as a reliable and purpose-built WooCommerce theme. Developed by the WooCommerce team itself, Storefront seamlessly integrates with the popular e-commerce plugin, offering a solid foundation for building a feature-rich and visually appealing online storefront. There are a lot of Storefront extensions as well as child themes if you need more customizations to your store.

Key Features:

Create a dynamic and engaging homepage by leveraging Storefront’s widgetized sections, allowing you to highlight featured products, promotions, and essential information
Comes with built-in support for blogging
Tailor your pages to specific needs with custom page templates, allowing you to create landing pages, contact forms, and other unique layouts
Contains several child themes and demos catering to multiple industries

Speed Test Results for Storefront WooCommerce Theme:

Storefront didn’t do too bad in GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights (mobile) test. This WooCommerce theme scored a better speed index than OceanWP. But its Pingdom load time is a cause of concern. Overall, it’s a good WooCommerce theme for starting out your online store with little technical knowledge.

8. GeneratePress

Like Astra, GeneratePress does not depend on jQuery, which makes it a fast theme. It is also as lightweight (only 437.9 KB) as Hello Elementor. Its clean and minimalist design, combined with a modular structure, makes it an ideal choice for creating fast-loading and customizable websites. This WooCommerce theme also enables you to add premium elements like dynamic hero images and advanced hook system. It is less rich in options than Astra or OceanWP, but it’s still a good WooCommerce theme with all the basic e-commerce functionalities you may need.

Key Features:

Has extensive customization options, including typography, color schemes, and layout settings
Modular structure of GeneratePress empowers you to activate only the features you need
Allows integration of popular page builders, such as Elementor and Beaver Builder seamlessly
Exercise full control over the layout of your online store with GeneratePress’s custom layouts and hooks
Drop-down shopping cart option

Speed Test Results for GeneratePress WooCommerce Theme:

GeneratePress did superb during our Google PageSpeed Insights test for mobile, especially the speed index, almost as well as Hello Elementor and well above all the other themes on our list. Overall, GeneratePress’s emphasis on speed, customization, and user-focused design positions it as a reliable WooCommerce theme aiming to deliver an efficient and visually appealing shopping experience to customers.

9. ShoppingCart

It is a straightforward e-commerce theme to create a feature-rich online store. It is compatible with all common e-commerce plugins like Contact Form 7, Breadcrumb NavXT, etc. It provides widgets and banners to announce sales, promotions, etc. With a clean and modern design, this theme is crafted to enhance the visual appeal of your e-commerce website.

Key Features:

Display your products in an elegant and organized manner using ShoppingCart’s product showcase layouts
Customize colors, typography, and layout settings effortlessly
Organize your homepage effectively by utilizing dedicated sections for featured products, latest arrivals, special offers, and more
Choose from multiple header and footer layouts to create a unique visual identity for your online store
Customizable product pages include product image galleries, descriptions, specifications, and user reviews
Contains advanced product filters and an efficient search functionality
Supports popular payment gateways

Speed Test Results for ShoppingCart WooCommerce Theme:

ShoppingCart features in the top 4 in Pingdom’s load time score and in the top 5 in PagesPeed Insights’s speed index for mobile. It also did reasonably well in our GTmetrix test. This leads to the conclusion that ShoppingCart offers a compelling solution for creating a fast WooCommerce store.

10. Shopay

Shopay is a dynamic and versatile WooCommerce theme designed specifically for creating e-commerce websites. This theme gives your site a similar look as Amazon. It has dedicated sections for featured products, popular categories, and promotions on the homepage. The theme caters to the unique needs of online businesses, presenting visually stunning product showcase layouts to emphasize your merchandise effectively.

Key Features:

Empowers users with an array of customization options, allowing for easy personalization of the site’s appearance, including colors, fonts, layouts, and more
Provides visually stunning product showcase layouts to highlight your merchandise
Offers dedicated sections on the homepage for featured products, popular categories, and special promotions, enabling you to strategically promote key offerings
Comes with a built-in customizer
Choose from multiple header and footer layouts
Customizable elements on product page includes product images, descriptions, pricing, and customer reviews
Facilitates product discovery with advanced filters and an efficient search functionality
Supports popular payment gateways

Speed Test Results for Shopay WooCommerce Theme:

Shopay ended up in the bottom two in Google PageSpeed Insights score for mobile. But this WooCommerce theme seems to have held up for the GTmetrix test where the largest contentful paint score is the same as GeneratePress and Kadence. Surprisingly, its Pingdom load time score is better than GeneratePress, eStore, and Storefront.

11. Boutique

Boutique is a Storefront child theme and ideal for small online shops. It seamlessly blends style with functionality, offering a range of features designed to enhance the e-commerce experience. With an emphasis on aesthetics, this WooCommerce theme provides customizable layouts, elegant typography, and stunning visual elements to showcase your products in the best light. Since it is built upon Storefront, it can be integrated with Storefront extensions. This theme is ideally used for clothing stores, but can also be used for industries like jewelry and technology.

Key Features:

Aesthetic layouts, sophisticated typography, and visually appealing elements for a premium boutique feel
Tailor your boutique’s online presence with customizable layouts and visual elements
Highlight your products with style, enticing customers with an engaging display
Easy-to-use menu with dropdowns
Elegant header option and customizable footer
Comes with homepage slider containing buttons, images, and text

Speed Test Results for Boutique WooCommerce Theme:

Unfortunately, we did not have good enough scores for Boutique on either of the three tests. It ended up towards the bottom of the spectrum. But its structure score in GTmetrix was comparable to the likes of top contenders like OceanWP, Kadence, etc. Although this WooCommerce theme may not be the first choice for an online store, it can still be effectively used for a small online shop.

12. Zakra

This is another multipurpose WooCommerce theme by ThemeGrill. Zakra’s flexibility shines through its customizable layouts, allowing businesses to tailor their websites to match their unique brand identities. The theme seamlessly integrates with popular e-commerce plugins, ensuring a smooth and efficient shopping experience for customers. The theme has a mobile-first design and is optimized for speed.

Key Features:

Comes with 40+ pre-designed started demo sites
Integrates with popular page builders like Elementor, Gutenberg, Brizy, and BlockArt
Seamlessly integrates with popular e-commerce plugins for hassle-free online selling
Contains a wide array of customization features, including customizable layouts and color schemes
Has customizable headers and footers, widgets, and menus

Speed Test Results for Zakra WooCommerce Theme:

True to its claim, Zakra did shine in the Google PageSpeed Insights score for mobile with a speed index less than the top contenders like Astra, OceanWP, Kadence, and finishing in the top 3. This WooCommerce theme also finished in the top 4 for Pingdom’s load time. It did well in the GTmetrix test as well. Zakra stands out as a great choice for businesses seeking a versatile and responsive online store.

13. Neve

Neve is a WooCommerce-ready multipurpose theme. It is lightweight and feature-rich, and the code is SEO-optimized. Neve is AMP-optimized, which makes it a responsive theme. Neve stands out for its simplicity and speed. This WooCommerce theme is built to load quickly, providing an exceptional user experience. Neve seamlessly integrates with popular page builders, making it easy to create stunning, customized layouts without any coding expertise.

Key Features:

Designed for quick loading times, enhancing user experience and SEO rankings
Works seamlessly with popular page builders, offering flexibility in design
Integrates with major e-commerce plugins for a robust online store experience
Easily customize your website with intuitive settings and pre-built demos
Includes custom layouts for header and footer

Speed Test Results for Neve WooCommerce Theme:

Weighing only 463.5 KB, it is the second lightest WooCommerce theme on our list. Quite naturally, its load time features among the top 4 in the Pingdom test. It also did well in Google PageSpeed Insights’ mobile scores finishing in the top 10 in speed index. Even GTmetrix scores for Neve are comparable to the top contenders.

14. Online Shop

With a clean and modern design, this theme offers a visually appealing storefront that engages customers from the moment they land on your website. Online Shop is optimized for popular e-commerce plugins, providing a smooth integration process for managing products, orders, and payments. There are ample customizable modules. The theme enables you to add wishlists, social media buttons, and contact information.

Key Features:

A sleek and contemporary layout that captures the essence of a professional online store
Seamless integration with major e-commerce plugins for efficient online store management
Highlight your products using customizable galleries and product pages
Integrates with popular page builders
Includes advertisement sections
Comes with unlimited sliders that can be used on any page of the website

Speed Test Results for Online Shop WooCommerce Theme:

Online Shop took a hit in Google PageSpeed Insights’ speed index score for mobile. It didn’t do too well in the Pingdom test either. However, it fared better in the GTmetrix test. Overall, it can be considered as an average WooCommerce theme.

15. Vogue

Vogue’s clean and minimalist design places the focus on your products, providing an immersive visual journey for your customers. This WooCommerce theme is ideal for jewelry, lifestyle, and fashion brands. Vogue is fully responsive and highly customizable. It has multiple header and footer layouts and full color settings built into the WordPress Customizer.

Key Features:

Vogue combines chic aesthetics with user-friendly navigation
Highlight your products with captivating galleries and customizable product pages
Comes with a slider option which can be customized to include buttons, links, etc.
Full color setting and elegant font options
Multiple blog layouts
Has a dropdown cart option

Speed Test Results for Vogue WooCommerce Theme:

Not a lot of good things can be said after the test scores are out. Vogue finished last in the performance score of GTmetrix. With a page size of 1 MB in the Pingdom test, this WooCommerce theme turned out to be the heaviest theme on the list. However, there seems to be a glimmer of hope in the Google PageSpeed Insights score for mobile where it scores higher than the top runners like Astra and OceanWP. Overall, this places Vogue among the last ones finishing.

16. Woostify

This is a lightweight, WooCommerce-focused theme. It works with all popular page builders like Elementor, Beaver, Divi, etc. Website structure is beneficial for SEO. The theme isn’t built with a large CSS framework which puts it on this list of fast themes to test. However, there isn’t much opportunity for customization as it comes with pre-built layouts for pages, header, and footer.

Key Features:

Comes with great starter websites that do not require too much customization
Integrates with top page builders
A somewhat customizable multi-step checkout
Ability to convert your site into a multi-vendor marketplace
Includes product swatch options
Video gallery for product pages
Has built-in integration with wishlist plugins like YITH Wishlist and TI Wishlist

Speed Test Results for Woostify WooCommerce Theme:

The Pingdom test shows that Woostify is in fact a lightweight WooCommerce theme, but it doesn’t do too well in load time. The structure score in GTmetrix is high enough at 95%. Woostify did average in Google PageSpeed Insights mobile score.

17. Sydney

Sydney is known for offering performance enhancements consistently. It claims to be a responsive, fast-loading, and lightweight theme. Its modern and sleek design, coupled with versatile customization options, makes it a standout choice for various industries. Sydney’s intuitive layout and compatibility with popular plugins ensure a seamless user experience, making it particularly suitable for e-commerce ventures.

Key Features:

Responsive theme with several WooCommerce demo websites
Comes with options for sliding, video, and static header
Customizable options for buttons, pages, footer, etc.
Integrates with Elementor
Includes social media buttons

Speed Test Results for Sydney WooCommerce Theme:

Sydney featured among the top 10 in Google PageSpeed Insights score for mobile. It’s lightweight, weighing at only 508.4 KB. However, it finished among the bottom 4 in load time for Pingdom. Overall, it’s a good theme to build an impactful online presence with its striking design and user-friendly features.

18. Botiga

Botiga is a grid-based easy-to-use WooCommerce theme with enough customization options. It is responsive and sleek with a clean, intuitive design. It has several one-click demos to build aesthetically pleasing online stores. This WooCommerce theme is made with clean, SEO-optimized code and claims a decent loading time.

Key Features:

Botiga prioritizes your products, providing a clean and distraction-free layout that enhances the shopping experience
Performance optimization through built-in minification
Customization options include multiple layouts for product galleries, shopping cart, checkout
Includes features like product recommendation, off-canvas filters, user-centric product search, and so on

Speed Test Results for Botiga WooCommerce Theme:

Botiga was in the top 4 for Google PageSpeed Insights result for mobile. Its total blocking time is also quite low with the largest contentful paint coming up on the 9.2 second mark, which is pretty decent. Pingdom score shows that it is lightweight but the load time still takes a massive hit placing Botiga at the last position with Woostify.

How Did the WooCommerce Themes Fare?

Here’s a visual representation of the key scores from GTmetrix, Google PageSpeed Insights (Mobile), and Pingdom.

GTmetrix Performance and Page Structure Comparison

Top 3 (Performance Score):

1. HELLO ELEMENTOR

2. ASTRA

3. OCEANWP

Bottom 3 (Performance Score):

1. VOGUE

2. BOUTIQUE

3. WOOSTIFY

Google PageSpeed Insights speed index (mobile) comparison

Top 3:

1. Hello Elementor

2. GeneratePress

3. Zakra

Bottom 3:

1. Shopay

2. Boutique

3. Online Shop

Pingdom load time Comparison

Top 3:

1. Hello Elementor

2. OceanWP

3. ShoppingCart

Bottom 3:

1. Woostify

2. Botiga

3. Vogue

GTMETRIX VS. PINGDOM LOAD TIME COMPARISON

And the Winner is:

Hello Elementor

SECOND PLACE:

OceanWP

What Factors Other Than the WooCommerce Theme Can Affect Online Store Speed?

It’s important to note here that even with the right theme, there can be other factors influencing your website speed.

1. Hosting:

The speed at which your online store loads is intricately tied to several fundamental factors that shape the user experience. One of the primary contributors to this speed is the hosting of your website. The choice of hosting provider and plan directly influences the server response time, a critical aspect of loading speed. Opting for a reliable hosting service, often equipped with content delivery networks (CDNs), ensures swift loading times by distributing website content across multiple servers globally, reducing the physical distance between users and servers. This, in turn, leads to a more responsive and accessible online store.

2. Code Quality:

Equally pivotal is the quality of the code underlying your website. Efficient and well-optimized code minimizes redundancy, making it easier for browsers to interpret and render your web pages. This results in a faster execution of scripts and functionalities, contributing to an overall quicker site speed. Investing in optimized code enhances the responsiveness of your online store, cultivating a positive user experience and fostering user engagement.

3. File Size:

Furthermore, the size of files comprising your website, ranging from images to scripts, plays a significant role in determining load speed. Compressing images, minimizing unnecessary code, and employing techniques like lazy loading reduce the overall size of web pages. Smaller file sizes translate to faster loading times, especially for users with slower internet connections. This optimization not only accelerates load times but also ensures a more efficient use of bandwidth, enhancing the overall performance and speed of your online store.

Final Thoughts

The ultimate winner depends on your unique business requirements and aesthetic preferences. Whether you’re seeking a minimalist design, robust e-commerce functionality, or a balance of both, the top contenders in this analysis offer a solution for every online merchant. Choose wisely, enhance your store’s visual appeal, and provide an exceptional shopping experience for your customers. With these themes, your WooCommerce venture is poised for success.

Need help building your WooCommerce store? Let Codaemon bring your vision to life.

Get in touch with us at (888) 811-3073 or send an email to support@codaemon.com.

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