A woman stands in front of a grey background with a look of confusion on her face as she is seemingly trying to choose between different Wordpress themes that are written to the left and right of her - Hello Elementor, Kadence, Astra and GeneratePress.

Choosing the Right Theme for Your Elementor Site

ByEmmanuel Milimo

If you are planning to build a website or are already building one with Elementor, you may be wondering which WordPress theme to choose. 

First, it is essential to note that Elementor is not a theme, but a highly popular (with 10 million active installs) and powerful page builder plugin. You will still need a theme to set as a foundation before your development. 

In this article we will cover various issues affecting your theme selection, such as speed and performance of a theme, Elementor integration, and much more, as well as what to look for in an Elementor-friendly theme, and some of the top lightweight themes you can pair with the page builder. 

Elementor vs Theme: Clearing Up Confusion 

Many beginners tend to assume Elementor is a theme. It’s not! It is a page builder that is a plugin. You cannot find it under the themes directory. 

Think of your theme as a design toolkit you have, and the theme is the canvas. Many WordPress enthusiasts refer to most visual page builders, such as Elementor, as theme builders, since they allow you to build headers, footers, and entire page layouts visually. But under all these, you need a regular WordPress theme and use Elementor to style everything else. 

Why Theme Choice Matters with Elementor

Elementor is designed to work with most WordPress themes. However, the theme you choose will affect performance and compatibility. Heavier and less optimized themes can affect your site’s performance and lead to slower loading speeds. Choosing a lightweight theme that is fully compatible with Elementor can boost speed while avoiding conflicts. 

Key reasons to think about your theme:

  • Speed and Performance: A theme with a lot of code, scripts, styles, and additional features you do not need can slow down your site. This can also affect your Google SEO, as Google Core Vitals are more rewarding to fast, minimal, and fast-loading sites. 
  • Elementor Integration: Most WordPress themes will work with Elementor. But there are themes that are built to be compatible with Elementor. These themes won’t override your Elementor layouts or cause sudden clashes with styling on your site. 
  • Design Control: If you pick a theme that has its own design elements, such as already set headers and footers, you might end up duplicating your efforts with the page builder. Pick a theme that can offer a ‘blank canvas’ so that you can build everything with Elementor. Most of these themes let page builders such as Elementor take over the design. 

What to Look for in an Elementor-Friendly Theme

When choosing the right theme for your Elementor Site, it is important to keep these qualities in mind: 

  • Lightweight and Fast: Look for themes that advertise being minimalist and lightweight. One famous lightweight theme is the Hello Elementor theme from the Elementor brand itself. It is only 1.17 MB in size. Light and fast themes will offer you better Core Web Vitals to rank higher on search engines. 
  • Minimal styling/Blank Canvas: If you are looking for full design freedom in Elementor, pick a theme that does not force styles such as colors and typography. Apart from the Hello Elementor theme which offers almost no styling, other themes like Astra and GeneratePress give a default look but let Elementor take over the look. 
  • Good Coding (With no jQuery bloat): Most of the modern themes use vanilla JavaScript for performance and better loading speeds. For example, the popular Astra theme that removes jQuery and keeps its default installed resources under 50 KB. Themes with cleaner code tend to play well with Elementor scripts. 
  • Mobile responsiveness: Elementor allows you to fine-tune your mobile responsiveness. You would not want a theme that breaks on phone layouts. 
  • Regular Updates and support: An actively maintained theme tends to be compatible with the latest versions of Elementor and WordPress. Outdated themes can break your site and even pose security risks. 

Also read: Creating Lightweight Elementor Sites: Best Practices for Developers

Checklist for picking a theme: 

When shopping around for a theme, follow these four steps:

  1. Examine theme demos. Check for their responsiveness on different devices, such as mobile phones. 
  2. Look for Elementor compatibility and lightweight keywords in theme descriptions. 
  3. Test performance. Run Page Speed Insight tests on theme demos. 
  4. Check for Elementor keywords on theme forums. I tend to search for Elementor on a theme’s forum on WordPress and check for some of the issues raised by other users of the theme regarding Elementor. 

Popular Themes to Pair with Elementor

Here are some of the popular themes known to work well with Elementor as of August, 2025. 

  • Hello Elementor (by Elementor team): This theme is the official ‘blank slate’ for Elementor. Hello theme allows you to build all the designs with no prebuilt designs, offering ultimate flexibility and speed. I would rank this theme at the top if you want total control of your design. 
  • Astra: Astra is well known for its focus on page builders, with over 1.5 million installs. It scores at 93/100 and loads in about 2.1 seconds. 
  • GeneratePress: The theme stands at over a thousand 5-star reviews with over 6M downloads. GeneratePress uses vanilla JavaScript, loading about ~10kb of resources. 
  • Kadence Theme: Kadence theme is a freemium lightweight theme that comes with its styling, but allows Elementor to take over the styling. 

Other themes would still make this list, such as Neve, Sydney, OceanWP, Hestia, and many other capable, lightweight, and fast themes. Astra and GeneratePress are a good start for WooCommerce integrations. Hello and Neve themes offer utter simplicity and speed, while Kadence and Bloscky offer a creative portfolio. 

Also read: Why Use WordPress? 7 Reasons It’s the Best Choice for Your Website

Key Takeaways for Your Elementor Project

  • Remember, Elementor is not a theme, but a page builder. You still need a theme as a foundation, then design with Elementor. 
  • Prioritize performance: Choose a lightweight theme to ensure you do not keep fighting site bloat and help your site rank better. 
  • Match your needs: Keep in mind what you want to accomplish with your site. For instance, some themes are optimized for WooCommerce and will work well if you are building an e-commerce site. 
  • Check for the Elementor keyword on the theme’s forum on WordPress.org: This is my personal trick. Some of your concerns, or reasons to pick or stay away from a theme, are always on these forums most of the time. Check for threads touching on Elementor under the theme, and make a decision if these issues are a motivator or a turnoff to shy away from the theme. 

Elementor is one of the top and best page builders to use to build your site. Remember, if you need help getting the right theme or setup, our team at Web Pro Geeks is here to assist you in building lightweight and fast-loading sites that offer better Core Vitals to improve your ranking on search engines. 

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