Is Avada (WordPress Theme) really overloaded?

As one of the best-selling WordPress themes on the market, Avada enjoys immense popularity. However, with great popularity comes criticism. A common complaint is that Avada is overloaded and leads to poor performance.

But is that really true? I subjected the theme to extensive testing to get to the bottom of this question.

Avada – Introduction

Avada is a large, multifunctional WordPress theme developed by ThemeFusion. Since its launch, it has become one of the top sellers on platforms like ThemeForest. With a wealth of pre-built demos, layout options, and its own page builder (the Fusion Builder), Avada is aimed at users seeking an all-in-one solution for their website.

The main features include:

• versatility: Suitable for blogs, corporate websites, online stores and more.
• Adaptability: Countless setting options without programming knowledge.
• Support and updates: Regular updates and a dedicated support team.

The criticism of Avada

Despite its advantages, Avada is often criticized. The most common points are:

• Overload: Many users complain that the theme has too many features, most of which are not used. (even says WPJohnny)
• Performance problems: Due to its size and complexity, Avada is said to slow down websites.
• SEO impact: Slow loading times can negatively impact search engine rankings.

These criticisms are not unfounded. A theme with many features can increase a website's loading time, especially if not optimized. But how does Avada perform in practice?

The test – How does Avada perform?

To get to the bottom of the issue, I installed Avada in a test environment. I performed the following steps:

1. Installing WordPress: Latest version of WordPress installed on a standard web hosting package.
2. Installing Avada: Added latest version of Avada theme.
3. Importing a demo: Imported one of Avada's more extensive demos to create a realistic scenario.
4. No additional plugins: No plugins were installed other than those recommended by Avada.

After the setup, I updated the homepage of the website with GTmetrix tested, a well-known tool for analyzing website performance.

Test results before optimization

The results were as follows:

• Pagespeed Score: 72%
• YSlow Score: 68%
• Fully Loaded Time: 5.8 seconds
• Total Page Size: 3.2 MB
• Number of requests: 85

These values are not optimal for a website. In particular, the loading time of almost 6 seconds is far above the recommended 2-3 seconds. The page size and the number of HTTP requests contribute significantly to these values.

Optimizing Avada with the Performance Wizard

However, Avada offers built-in tools for performance optimization. Performance Wizard is such a tool that guides you step by step through various optimization options.

Steps for optimization:

1. Calling the Performance Wizard: In the WordPress dashboard under Avada > Performance.
2. Deactivation of unnecessary functions: Functions and features that are not required have been deactivated.
3. Minification of CSS and JS: Enables the options for merging and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.
4. Lazy loading of images: Activate lazy loading to load images only when they appear in the visible area.
5. Font optimization: Only the required fonts and weights were loaded.
6. Enabling Gzip compression and browser caching: These settings were configured at the server level.

After completing the Performance Wizard, I tested the site again with GTmetrix.

Test results after optimization

The new results showed a significant improvement:

• Pagespeed Score: 90%
• YSlow Score: 88%
• Fully Loaded Time: 2.9 seconds
• Total Page Size: 1.4 MB
• Number of requests: 45

Loading time has been cut by almost half, and page size and the number of requests have also been significantly reduced. This shows that Avada can be quite performant with the right settings.

Conclusion

The question posed at the beginning was whether Avada is really overloaded and offers poor performance. My tests show:

• Yes, Avada is a comprehensive theme with many features, not all of which are needed.
• But, with the built-in optimization tools such as the Performance Wizard, performance can be significantly improved.
• Therefore Avada is not inherently slow or poorly performing, but requires specific configuration.

For users who value versatility and customizability and are willing to invest time in optimization, Avada is an excellent choice. For those looking for a leaner solution without a lot of configuration effort, lighter themes might be a better fit.

Final tipRegardless of the theme you choose, performance optimization should always be a priority. Tools like GTmetrix help identify weak points and implement targeted improvements.

Tips for optimization

Avada offers the following tips on its website:

performance

SVG media upload – Enable SVG file uploads to improve performance by using smaller image and logo files.

WordPress image quality – Control the quality of the generated image sizes (0–100). Higher values provide better quality but larger file sizes. A notice: Install the plugin after making changes Regenerate Thumbnails and run it once.

WordPress large image size limit – Set the image height and width threshold above which WordPress will downscale images. Set to "0" to disable the limit (in pixels).

Image lazy loading – Choose your preferred lazy loading method for images: Avada, WordPress or No. Important: The WordPress method can cause problems with dynamic elements such as carousels.

Iframe lazy loading – Choose the lazy loading method for iframes: Avada, WordPress or No.

Font face rendering – Choose Replace All for faster rendering with possible FOUT (Flash of Unstyled Text) or Block for clean rendering with longer loading time.

Preload key fonts – Prioritize loading important fonts to improve page load time. Choose All, Google Fonts, Icon fonts or No.

Preload Google font variants – Select the Google Font variants you want to preload. Leave blank to preload all.

Preload Google Font Subsets – Select the Google Font subsets to preload. Leave blank to preload all.

Emoji script – Remove the WordPress emoji script if you don’t use emojis to improve performance.

jQuery Migrate script – Disable this script if you are not using outdated jQuery code.

Load jQuery in the footer – Move jQuery loading to the footer. Caution: May cause JS errors.

Load stylesheets in the footer – Move stylesheets to the footer to improve loading time. Danger: FOUC (Flash of Unstyled Content) may occur.

Enable Gzip compression – Enable Gzip compression in the .htaccess. Important: Only works on Apache servers with mod_gzip and mod_deflate.

Activate video facade – Only load the video player when playing. Only applies to YouTube and Vimeo elements.

Clear object cache – Clear the WP object cache when editing or deleting posts if you use persistent object caching.

Dynamic CSS & JS

CSS compilation method – Choose fileto compile dynamic CSS into files, database for caching in the database or Disabled.

Combine third-party CSS files – Combine CSS files from plugins like WooCommerce, Slider Revolution, etc. with the Avada stylesheet. Important: Reset the Avada caches after making changes.

Load media query files asynchronously – Load CSS media queries asynchronously for better performance.

Enable critical CSS – Enable critical CSS generation and manage it on the relevant page.

Cache server IP – Specify your cache server IP to clear the dynamic CSS cache (when using Cloudflare and cache servers).

Enable JS compiler – By default, JS files are combined. Disabling this option may impact performance.

Reset Fusion caches – Resets dynamic CSS & JS and deletes corresponding folders. A notice: Timeouts may occur with large multisites.

Progressive Web App

Enable Progressive Web App – Enable this option for PWA features. Primarily a caching app from Google.

Cache-first strategy file types – List of file types to be cached (e.g. images, fonts).

Network-first strategy file types – File types that are loaded first from the network with cache fallback.

Stale-While-Revalidating Strategy File Types – File types that are loaded from the cache and updated in the background.

App splashscreen logo – 512×512 px PNG logo for app installation.

App display mode – Determine the behavior of the app when installed by the user.

App theme color – Choose a color for the app header and mobile browser toolbar.

Advanced options

Features

Under Advanced > Features You can disable Avada features such as Mega Menus or API scripts to improve loading times. Use the Performance Wizard for recommendations.

Post types

Deactivate under Advanced > Post Types unnecessary post types like Avada Slider or Portfolio to reduce theme size.

Avada Builder elements

Under Options > Builder Options > Avada Builder Elements you can deactivate unused elements. Danger: Disabled elements will be removed from all pages. Use the Element scanto find unused elements.

Website optimization

Your website's performance depends heavily on content such as images, hosting, and plugins. Large images can significantly impact loading times. Use external tools to identify bottlenecks and improve loading speed.