Which WP Theme is Best? Fun With Theme Download Stats – WP Tavern
As we speak I launched into a mission to determine which WP.org themes are used probably the most and why.
As you doubtless know, “High 5” lists, as a rule, are usually very opinionated and based mostly on fuzzy assumptions and non-standard use instances. I wish to guarantee you – this text is not any exception to that rule.
I needed to make some very subjective leaps of logic with knowledge to come back to my conclusions. I hope you’ll take pleasure in being a part of this enjoyable dialog.
Astra Is the Most Downloaded Theme however Doesn’t Have the Highest Utilization Charge
The highest themes in wp.org with a minimal of 5 million downloads ordered by WP Knowledge Dashboard’s “utilization price” are Good day Elementor, GeneratePress, Astra, Storefront, and OceanWP (the next “utilization price” is healthier):
- Good day Elementor: 6+ million downloads, 15% utilization price.
- GeneratePress: 5+ million downloads, 11% utilization price.
- Astra: 11+ million downloads, 9% utilization price.
- Storefront: 7+ million downloads, 1% utilization price.
- OceanWP: 7+ million downloads, 1% utilization price.
(How WP Data Dashboard’s “usage rate” metric is calculated.)
For added context, “utilization price” is the holy grail for industrial theme builders. In advert communicate, “utilization price” is much like “conversion price.”
The next “utilization price” means the theme proprietor’s advertising group will get extra mileage from every annoying banner advert they power to the highest of your WP dashboard. It means, probably, extra money within the theme house owners’ financial institution accounts with much less effort.
And, extra necessary to us within the better WP neighborhood, the next “utilization price” on the theme means extra folks would possibly really like it! (Think about that!) So, based mostly on that “utilization price” quantity, Good day Elementor is the most-popular theme within the wp.org repo.
Oh wait…
OceanWP and GeneratePress Crush Good day Elementor in Consumer Enthusiasm
Beneath is an arbitrary metric I created known as the “enthusiasm hole”. That is the variety of 1-star critiques divided by the variety of 5-star critiques (decrease “enthusiasm hole” is healthier):
- GeneratePress: 1378 5-star critiques, <1% enthusiasm hole.
- OceanWP: 5412 5-star critiques, <1% enthusiasm hole.
- Astra: 5297 5-star critiques, 2% enthusiasm hole.
- Storefront: 122 5-star critiques, 11% enthusiasm hole.
- Good day Elementor: 90 5-star critiques, 14% enthusiasm hole.
GeneratePress and OceanWP appear to have rabid followings based mostly on this enthusiasm hole metric. Astra additionally has an excellent enthusiasm hole at 2%. However Good day Elementor…14% – that’s…excessive in comparison with the competitors.
Theme critiques are, in fact, completely subjective and will be manipulated by advertising pushes.
Nevertheless, it’s additionally attainable {that a} excessive quantity of 5-star critiques is really an indicator of enthusiasm for the theme. For instance, OceanWP has 5,412 critiques, whereas Good day Elementor has solely 90 critiques.
What’s that say about these explicit themes? Who is aware of?! It’s not clear why OceanWP has 60x the 5-star critiques of Good day Elementor, however certainly one thing good is going on over at OceanWP, proper?
And possibly Good day Elementor is superior regardless of its low enthusiasm hole numbers. It’s, in spite of everything, dominating the “utilization price” metric, which is the metric WP Knowledge Dashboard endorses.
Maybe my “enthusiasm hole” metric is pointless dribble that I made up on the spot as I wrote this text and didn’t run it by means of a deeper evaluation to study if my assumptions had been sound. In case you consider this actuality (and, admittedly, I received’t deny it), then communicate to me as if I had been a golden retriever and let me know what’s unsuitable with my amazingly mathy “enthusiasm hole” metric.*
Let the “Greatest Theme” Arguments Start!
To my nice shock, some members of my native Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress Consumer Group neighborhood disagree with my considerably arbitrary and really mathy alternative for the perfect theme obtainable. What offers?!
Arguing about why one theme is healthier than one other is a part of the enjoyable of being a member of the WP neighborhood.
Metrics like “utilization price” and “enthusiasm hole” add context in a lot the identical approach that “Free Throw %” does in basketball or “Pictures Per Sport” does in soccer. That’s, these numbers don’t inform the entire story, however they certain can result in some enjoyable conversations!
Random “Greatest Theme” Opinions from the Minneapolis-St. Paul WP User Group:
I requested my native WP consumer group members what their favourite themes are. Beneath are a few of their opinions.
“Beaver Builder (particularly utilizing the Beaver Themer plugin) as a result of it’s virtually simply as highly effective as creating my very own theme (what I used to do earlier than Beaver Themer was launched), however with the quick, simple and highly effective options of Beaver Builder. I’m by no means going again!” – Barbara S.
“Impreza.” – Aaron H.S.
“I additionally use Beaver Builder/Themer, however not the theme. I’ve at all times used Genesis and nonetheless do. I take advantage of Mai Theme as my base, a lot to the horror of the dev who by no means meant it for use with a builder. Generally I attempt to use the block editor on a primary web page, nevertheless it nonetheless feels clumsy and unintuitive to me. I like Mai Theme due to the scalable fonts and spacing and the navigation may be very properly finished.” – Jodi S.
“My favourite theme is both “Good day Elementor” (the barebones vanilla theme when constructing a website with Elementor), or simply utilizing Bricks.” – John V.
“+1 for Impreza! Have constructed 20-30 websites with it.
- $59 one time buy.
- Comes with WP Bakery Web page Builder, which is my go to. Love the backend editor. Extraordinarily intuitive.
- Theme Choices are very built-in with WP Bakery and embody drag-n-drop Header/Footer builder, Reusable Blocks, Grid Builder, and Template Builder.
- When used with ACF, I by no means have to the touch code as a result of WP Bakery has a Customized Discipline factor that pulls in any ACF discipline I need.
- Comes bundled with Slider Revolution, ACF Professional, to call a number of.
- Theme Help is unbelievable!
My 2.7 cents!” – Matt C.
“My favourite theme is Enfold. They’ve a very nice drag-and-drop system and the theme is tremendous versatile. Good buyer help and good efficiency enhancements as browser adjustments are carried out.” – Beth B.
“I’ve been a Divi consumer since virtually the start. It additionally has a drag-and-drop system and a visible builder that enables edits from the entrance finish in addition to the dashboard.”—Lisa D.
“I’ve been utilizing Astra theme loads. Acquired a lifetime license for Astra Premium & Astra Professional which has been so price it for quick customization.” – Donna
“We’ve been utilizing Astra loads for the previous three years or so. It has nice advantages and some unlucky flaws, however on the entire it’s a win for us. Astra is a extra conventional theme than Genesis, simpler to construct youngster themes with, nevertheless it has an enormous depth of hooks, making it simply as versatile and customizable for our purchasers as we discovered with Genesis years in the past.” – Eric C.
“GeneratePress is a strong light-weight framework.” – David S.
Concerning the Knowledge
I used WP Data Dashboard as my knowledge supply.
WP Knowledge Dashboard pulls uncooked knowledge from the WP.org API after which give every theme a “utilization price”, to find out whether or not or not folks really just like the theme sufficient to make use of it. [See specific calculations.]
“Whereas the info from the knowledge has it’s limitations and needs to be taken with a grain of salt, the obtainable numbers paint a reasonably clear image of what customers really wish to use,” says WP Knowledge Dashboard founder, Hendrik Luehrsen stated.
For instance, Twenty Fifteen theme has a really excessive obtain rely however very low “energetic set up” numbers – It due to this fact has a really low “utilization price” on WP Knowledge Dashboard.
Conversely, Twenty Twenty-Three theme, being a comparatively new default theme, has each a excessive obtain rely and excessive “energetic set up” rely, giving it a excessive “utilization price”.
“A WP core replace is a obtain of a ‘Twenty’ theme,” stated a member of the WP Core group. “Despite the fact that the theme may not be in use, it’ll get quite a lot of downloads.”
Due to this fact, for the needs of this text, I ignore all of the default “Twenty” themes since their obtain counts are inflated:
Two last caveats on the info:
- Obtain counts will be inflated by releasing extra updates to the theme, advertising efforts, bought critiques, and so on.
- The obtain counts are appropriate, however the “active_installs” knowledge level is capped at 1,000,000. So we do not know if a theme has 1,000,000 or 5,000,000 installs. For instance, Astra and Good day Elementor every have no less than 1 million energetic installations.
Nonetheless, that is the perfect knowledge we’ve acquired, so let’s have some enjoyable with it.
What’s your favourite WP theme?
Hold it gentle and share what your favourite theme is and why within the feedback under.
