Which WP Theme is Best? Fun With Theme Download Stats

[unleash_it]

Which WP Theme is Best? Fun With Theme Download Stats

Today I embarked on a mission to figure out which WP.org themes are used the most and why.

a new article on WPTavern comes up with interesting facts.. https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is- ... load-stats

As you likely know, “Top 5” lists, as a rule, are generally very opinionated and based on fuzzy assumptions and non-standard use cases. I want to assure you – this article is no exception to that rule.

I had to make some very subjective leaps of logic with data to come to my conclusions. I hope you’ll enjoy being part of this fun conversation.

Astra Is the Most Downloaded Theme but Doesn’t Have the Highest Usage Rate
OceanWP and GeneratePress Crush Hello Elementor in User Enthusiasm
Let the “Best Theme” Arguments Commence!
Random “Best Theme” Opinions from the Minneapolis-St. Paul WP User Group:
About the Data
What is your favorite WP theme?
Related Links

Astra Is the Most Downloaded Theme but Doesn’t Have the Highest Usage Rate

The top themes in wp.org with a minimum of 5 million downloads ordered by WP Data Dashboard’s “usage rate” are Hello Elementor, GeneratePress, Astra, Storefront, and OceanWP (a higher “usage rate” is better):

Hello Elementor: 6+ million downloads, 15% usage rate.
GeneratePress: 5+ million downloads, 11% usage rate.
Astra: 11+ million downloads, 9% usage rate.
Storefront: 7+ million downloads, 1% usage rate.
OceanWP: 7+ million downloads, 1% usage rate.

(How WP Data Dashboard’s “usage rate” metric is calculated.)

For additional context, “usage rate” is the holy grail for commercial theme developers. In ad speak, “usage rate” is similar to “conversion rate.”

A higher “usage rate” means the theme owner’s marketing team gets more mileage from each annoying banner ad they force to the top of your WP dashboard. It means, potentially, more money in the theme owners’ bank accounts with less effort.

And, more important to us in the greater WP community, a higher “usage rate” on the theme means more people might actually like it! (Imagine that!) So, based on that “usage rate” number, Hello Elementor is the most-popular theme in the wp.org repo.

Oh wait…
Flowers arranged from short to tall so it looks like a chart.
Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash
OceanWP and GeneratePress Crush Hello Elementor in User Enthusiasm

Below is an arbitrary metric I created called the “enthusiasm gap”. This is the number of 1-star reviews divided by the number of 5-star reviews (lower “enthusiasm gap” is better):

GeneratePress: 1378 5-star reviews, <1% enthusiasm gap.
OceanWP: 5412 5-star reviews, <1% enthusiasm gap.
Astra: 5297 5-star reviews, 2% enthusiasm gap.
Storefront: 122 5-star reviews, 11% enthusiasm gap.
Hello Elementor: 90 5-star reviews, 14% enthusiasm gap.

GeneratePress and OceanWP seem to have rabid followings based on this enthusiasm gap metric. Astra also has a great enthusiasm gap at 2%. But Hello Elementor…14% – that’s…high compared to the competition.

read on : a new article on WPTavern comes up with interesting facts.. https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is- ... load-stats