Popular WooCommerce Themes Test Results

This is something you won't find elsewhere on the internet. We conducted rigorous tests on some of the most popular WooCommerce themes to derive some key performance metrics. Our goal is to provide users with solid, data-driven WooCommerce theme test results to help them make informed choices when selecting themes for their WooCommerce stores.

Choosing the right theme is like building a strong foundation from the start. Often, after using a theme for a while, you may notice it impacts your site's performance. At that point, switching themes might seem like the solution, but with custom functionalities or design tweaks, starting from scratch can become a costly and time-consuming process.

Therefore, it's crucial to select the right theme the first time around. We tested these WooCommerce themes exclusively on performance-related factors.

Themes We Tested

• Twenty Twenty-One
• Twenty Twenty-Three
• Hello
• Twenty Twenty
• Astra
• Blogito
• Neve
• OceanWP
• Twenty Twenty-Two
• Kadence
• Twenty Seventeen
• Storefront
• Twenty Twenty-Four

What was Our Testing Procedure?

We set up a demo WooCommerce store with essential pages: the main Shop page, Product page, Cart page, and Checkout page. To simulate a real-world scenario, we tested these pages as a logged-in user. Moreover, for accurate and reliable results, we used Chrome DevTools to assess each theme's performance.

We measured five key performance metrics during testing: DOM Content Load Time, Performance Score, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Contentful Paint (FCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These metrics give a well-rounded picture of how each theme impacts the overall speed and user experience of a WooCommerce store.

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A brief overview of the process of testing

DOM Content Load Time: We checked this using the Network tab in Chrome DevTools. This measures how quickly the main content of a webpage loads.

Other Metrics: For Performance Score, FCP (First Contentful Paint), LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), we used the Lighthouse tool in Chrome DevTools.

Cache Handling: To avoid any cached data influencing the results, we cleared the cache and performed a hard refresh of the page before each test.

Additionally, these steps were repeated for different pages of the theme, including the Shop Page, Product Page, Cart Page, and Checkout Page, to get a comprehensive view of how the theme performs across the main pages. In the test we have just put the best result.

What were the results of tests?

Blogito

Twenty Twenty-Four

Hello Theme By Elementor

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Twenty Twenty-Three

Astra

Checkout our comprehensive Astra Theme Review

Twenty Twenty-Two

Twenty Twenty-One

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OceanWP

Kadence

Twenty Twenty

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Twenty Seventeen

Neve

Storefront

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What These Metrics means

• DOM Content Load Time: How fast the basic structure of the webpage is ready for interaction. Faster load times mean customers can start browsing products more quickly, reducing the chance of them leaving the site out of frustration.
• Performance Score: A score out of 100 that shows how fast and efficient the website is overall. A higher performance score means a smoother, faster shopping experience, which can boost customer satisfaction and increase conversions.
• FCP (First Contentful Paint): How quickly the first visible element like text or an image)appears on the screen. A fast FCP means customers see something quickly after landing on your site, giving them confidence that your store is responsive and working, which can encourage them to stay and explore.
• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How long it takes for the largest element on the page like a hero image or heading to fully show up. Since visuals are crucial in e-commerce, this ensures that customers can see your products without delay, improving their shopping experience.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Measures how much the page moves around while loading; lower is better for a stable page experience. A low CLS score ensures that your store's layout remains stable while loading. If elements jump around too much, customers may accidentally click on the wrong items, leading to frustration and potential loss of sales. A stable layout keeps the shopping experience seamless.

What is The Benchmark for these Metrics?

There are no ideal benchmarks for some of the metrics, however some general guidelines to follow are as such

DOM Content Load Time

• Average: 2-4 seconds
• Poor: > 4 seconds

Performance Score

• Good: 80-100
• Average: 60-80

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

• Average: 2.5-4 seconds
• Poor: > 4 seconds

FCP (First Contentful Paint)

• Average: 1.8- 3 seconds
• Poor: > 3 seconds

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

• Average: 0.1-0.25
• Poor: > 0.25

What was the Conclusion from Test Results

All the themes performed quite well across all benchmarks, showcasing strong optimization for WooCommerce. Here's a detailed breakdown.

• DOM Content Load Time: All themes had a load time below 2 seconds for every page, indicating that each theme is well-optimized for performance.
• Performance Scores: All themes scored above 90 on performance metrics, with one exception: the Neve theme, which had a lower performance score of 78 on the Cart page.
• FCP and LCP: Both the First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) times were excellent for all themes.
• CLS: The Cumulative Layout Shift score was also strong across most themes. However, OceanWP had a slightly higher than ideal CLS score (above the recommended 0.1), and Neve had a significant CLS score of 0.553 on the Cart page, indicating noticeable layout shifts.

Disclaimer

Test scores can vary depending on the specific setup of your WooCommerce store, the amount of content, product images, plugins, and various other factors that could impact loading times. Themes were tested on a demo WooCommerce store with minimal products, no large images, and no heavy customizations, which provides a baseline performance score but does not account for real-world variables.

If someone uses one of these themes for their store, their results could be different. This could vary depending on factors such as

• Number of products and the size of the images used
• Installed plugins
• Custom CSS or JavaScript added to the theme
• Hosting environment and server resources

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What If These WooCommerce Themes Are Not What You Are Looking For

If you need a custom theme that aligns with your business needs, feel free to contact our WordPress Agency – Lime Street. We are expert theme developers and in this list we have our theme Blogito too which performed exceptionally well. We have created a few more themes which you can download for free, you can explore them here Themes developed by Lime Street.