Quick summary
Using performance data from 16,312 Shopify stores collected via CommerceRank, we analysed PageSpeed scores by theme to find which ones actually deliver fast mobile experiences. The findings challenge some common assumptions: free themes outperform expensive ones, and several popular premium themes have majority failure rates on mobile.
Most Shopify merchants choose their theme based on design. That is understandable: you want a store that looks good, and theme demos are built to impress. What those demos rarely show is how the theme performs on a mid-range Android phone on a 4G connection, which is how a significant portion of your customers are actually shopping.
We pulled performance data from 16,312 Shopify stores via CommerceRank, which tracks PageSpeed scores across 59,000+ stores globally, and combined it with our own analysis of stores we have worked on and audited. The results are instructive, and in some cases uncomfortable, for premium theme developers.
What does the data actually measure?
Each store in the dataset has a mobile PageSpeed score collected via the Google PageSpeed Insights API. Scores run from 0 to 100, with Google's own thresholds being:
- 90 and above: Excellent
- 70 to 89: Good
- 50 to 69: Needs improvement
- Below 50: Poor
The market average across all 16,312 stores with speed data is 57, squarely in "needs improvement" territory. That means the average Shopify store is failing Google's mobile performance threshold. The theme you choose is one of the most significant factors in where your store lands.
The fastest Shopify themes
| Theme | Stores Analysed | Avg Score | % Scoring 70+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotlight | 60 | 72 | 65% |
| Ride | 85 | 70 | 54% |
| Simple | 140 | 68 | 37% |
| Craft | 253 | 68 | 49% |
| Sense | 113 | 68 | 46% |
| Taste | 75 | 68 | 43% |
| Studio | 153 | 67 | 41% |
| Refresh | 193 | 66 | 41% |
| Dawn | 1,665 | 65 | 40% |
| Debut | 1,618 | 64 | 34% |
Spotlight leads the dataset with an average of 72 and 65% of stores scoring 70 or above. Craft and Sense follow closely, both averaging 68. These are not necessarily household names in Shopify theme conversations, but the data makes a strong case for reconsidering them.
Dawn, Shopify's free default theme, averages 65 with 40% of stores scoring 70 or above. For a free theme with a clean, modern design, that is a strong result and notably better than many themes that cost several hundred pounds.
The slowest Shopify themes
| Theme | Stores Analysed | Avg Score | % Scoring Below 50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Testament | 65 | 42 | 63% |
| Icon | 52 | 44 | 67% |
| Empire | 126 | 45 | 70% |
| Palo Alto | 68 | 47 | 59% |
| Envy | 89 | 49 | 47% |
| Flow | 91 | 51 | 41% |
Empire is the most striking result in the dataset. It is one of the more widely-used themes, with 126 stores in our sample, and 70% of those stores score below 50 on mobile. That means seven out of ten Empire stores are in Google's "poor" category. Testament and Icon are similarly alarming, with 63% and 67% of stores respectively scoring below 50.
These are not fringe themes. They are themes merchants have paid for and built their stores on, often without any visibility into the performance cost they carry.
The premium theme problem
Several of the Shopify theme store's most popular and expensive offerings sit in the middle of this table, or worse.
| Theme | Price (approx.) | Avg Score | % Below 50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prestige | £300+ | 58 | 24% |
| Impulse | £300+ | 56 | 28% |
| Turbo | £300+ | 52 | 39% |
| Broadcast | £230+ | 53 | 38% |
Prestige averages 58 and nearly a quarter of stores on it score below 50. Impulse averages 56. Turbo (a theme marketed on its speed, with the name to match) averages 52, with 39% of stores scoring below 50.
Compare those numbers to Dawn at 65, or Craft at 68. Both are either free or significantly cheaper. The data does not support the idea that spending more on a theme buys you better performance.
Why do premium themes underperform?
This is worth understanding, because it affects how you should approach theme selection and optimisation.
Premium themes tend to underperform for three reasons:
Feature weight. Premium themes are built to sell on the theme store. That means rich sections, animations, mega menus, video backgrounds, and an extensive settings panel. Every one of those features adds JavaScript and CSS to your page, and a significant portion of it loads even on pages that do not use it.
Animation libraries. Many premium themes bundle animation libraries (scroll effects, parallax, entrance animations) that add meaningful weight to the JavaScript payload. These effects look impressive on a demo but introduce render-blocking code on real stores.
The customisation trap. Premium themes are designed to be endlessly configurable. Merchants add sections, enable every feature, and install apps that inject further scripts into the theme. The score you see in a controlled test degrades significantly once a real store's app stack and content are added.
Lighter themes, by contrast, start leaner and leave less room for merchants to add weight. The constraint is the performance advantage.
For stores where performance is non-negotiable, the only way to fully escape the theme weight problem is a headless build. Decoupling the frontend from Shopify's standard rendering pipeline removes the constraints entirely: your frontend loads only what it needs, and the result is consistently fast pages regardless of catalogue size or app count.
What this means for choosing a theme
If performance is a priority, and it should be given that Google's Core Web Vitals are a direct ranking signal, then theme selection deserves more rigour than a demo browse.
A few practical conclusions from the data:
Do not assume premium means fast. The evidence runs in the opposite direction. Several of the most expensive themes in the Shopify store are in the bottom half of this dataset.
Dawn is a serious option. If your store does not require advanced functionality that Dawn cannot provide, the performance case for it is strong. An average score of 65 with 40% of stores above 70 is competitive with paid themes that cost hundreds of pounds.
Test before you commit. Before migrating to or purchasing a theme, find stores already using it and run them through Google PageSpeed Insights. Look for stores similar in size and app stack to yours. The theme's demo store score is almost meaningless: it has no apps, minimal content, and has been optimised for the screenshot.
Consider headless if standard themes cannot meet your requirements. If your store genuinely needs the features that premium themes offer but cannot afford the performance trade-off, a headless Shopify build is worth evaluating. The upfront investment is higher, but you get full control over what loads and when, with none of the theme weight constraints.
The theme is not the whole story. A fast theme can still be slowed significantly by a bloated app stack. Our analysis found that stores running six or more active apps average 8 to 12 points lower than comparable stores with three or fewer apps, regardless of theme. Choosing a fast theme and then installing fifteen apps will not save your score.
How to check your current theme's performance
Run your homepage, a collection page, and a product page through Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile. The three-page check matters because themes often optimise the homepage at the expense of collection and product pages, which typically carry more commercial weight.
If your scores are below 50, the issue is likely a combination of theme weight and app script bloat. If they are between 50 and 70, optimisation is achievable without a full re-platform: image optimisation, script deferral, and app audits will often recover 10 to 20 points.
If your scores are consistently below 40, a theme change is worth serious consideration.
You can see the full benchmark data, including breakdowns by category, catalogue size, and tech stack, at CommerceRank's performance benchmarks tool, the dataset that underpins this analysis.
Key actions
- Test your store's current score on mobile via Google PageSpeed Insights across at least three page types.
- If you are choosing a new theme, cross-reference this data and test live stores on that theme before committing.
- Treat Dawn as a genuine contender, not a fallback.
- If your score is below 50, audit your app stack before blaming the theme: each app script adds to the burden.
- Avoid Empire, Testament, Icon, and Palo Alto unless you have specific requirements that only those themes meet and a development resource to mitigate the performance cost.
If your store is on a slow theme and you want to understand the full performance picture before deciding what to do next, get in touch and we can take a look. If the data points toward a headless build, we can walk you through what that involves and whether it makes commercial sense for your store — see our headless Shopify service for more detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good PageSpeed score for a Shopify store?
Google's threshold for "good" is 90 and above. In practice, most well-optimised Shopify stores land between 65 and 80 on mobile. The market average across 16,312 stores is 57, so anything above 70 puts you ahead of the majority of Shopify merchants. Below 50 is where real commercial damage occurs: slower pages mean higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates.
Does my Shopify theme affect my Google rankings?
Yes, indirectly. Core Web Vitals (LCP loading speed, CLS visual stability, and INP interactivity) are a confirmed Google ranking signal. A slow theme will produce poor Core Web Vitals scores, which disadvantages you in competitive search results. The effect is most pronounced in markets where competing pages are already well-optimised.
Is Shopify Dawn really as good as a paid theme?
For performance, yes, often better. Dawn averages 65 in our dataset, which beats several themes costing £300 or more. For features and design flexibility, paid themes offer more. The question is whether those extra features are worth the performance trade-off for your specific store and audience.
Why is my Shopify store slow even though I have a premium theme?
The most common culprits, in order: too many installed apps with active storefront scripts, unoptimised images (large file sizes, no lazy loading, missing modern formats), render-blocking JavaScript from the theme's animation or feature libraries, and unused theme sections still loading assets. A theme audit and app stack review will typically identify the main causes within an hour.
How does catalogue size affect Shopify performance scores?
Larger catalogues tend to score lower because collection and search pages carry more data. Stores with fewer than 100 products typically score 5 to 10 points higher than stores with 1,000 or more. This is worth factoring in when reading benchmark data: a theme used predominantly by large stores will naturally show lower average scores than one used mainly by smaller merchants.