We put the default WordPress theme into our speed tests and are pleased with the results.
WordPress offers its default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three, for every new user.
So just how fast is this theme?
We put it to the ultimate speed test in this article and show you the results.
Speed Test Environment
WordPress Theme used; Twenty Twenty-Three version 1.0
Web Hosting; We are using a fast and reliable WordPress host called WPX Hosting
Installation; We installed the theme on our dedicated test domain (https://www.testedsite.com) on top of a newly reset WordPress configuration.
Considerations; No CDN used, no additional WordPress plugins, no amendments or removal of posts, pages or media, no configuration of WordPress Settings and the WordPress database newly reset.
Speed Test – Sites used
These are the five (5) sites that we used to conduct speed tests;
- PageSpeed Insights
- GTMetrix
- Pingdom Tools
- WebPageTest
- ByteCheck
Speed Tests – Results
The table below shows all the speed test results from all five (5) sites.
| S/no | Speed Test – Sites used | Results |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PageSpeed Insights | Score 97, FCP 1.3 sec, Speed Index 4.4 sec, LCP 1.5 sec Time to Interactive 1.3 sec, TBT 0ms, CLS 0 |
| 2 | GTMetrix | Grade A, Performance 100%, Structure 98%, LCP 577ms, TBT 0ms, CLS 0 |
| 3 | Pingdom Tools | Grade A 91, Page Size 47.9 KB, Load Time 1.16 sec, Requests 8 |
| 4 | WebPageTest | First Byte 0.199 sec FCP 0.702 sec, Speed Index 0.7 sec, LCP 0.693 sec, TBT 0ms, CLS 0 |
| 5 | ByteCheck | TTFB 378ms, Total Time 532ms, Header Size 555 bytes, Request Size 188 bytes |
Conclusion
The default WordPress theme, Twenty Twenty-One, scored a very high-performance grade (A) for both PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix tests.
Provided that your domain is hosted on a fast & reliable web hosting service, this theme has proven itself from these speed tests that it is worth using.
The Time to First Byte (TTFB) is a fast 378 milliseconds which means visitors can expect a quick web page loading on your site.
Twenty Twenty-One is recommended to be used by anyone if they want a clean and speedy WordPress theme.
If you had previously uninstalled the theme, you could always get it back via the official WordPress website.
The entire speed test experiment and results can also be seen here in this video.
