Kadence Classic Premium available
4.9★ (451 ratings) · Current rank #5
Highlights · computed from our daily tracking data
- Kadence currently ranks #5 and has stayed inside the top 10 in every daily snapshot since Sep 17, 2024 (682 snapshots).
- Active installs grew from 300K+ when we started tracking it in September 2024 to 500K+ today — it crossed the 500K+ mark around April 2026.
- It accounts for roughly 4.6% of all active installs across the themes we track.
- It is averaging 5,288 downloads/day over the last 30 days, up 6% versus the month before (4,988/day).
- The latest release, v1.5.2, shipped on Jul 24, 2026 (14 days ago) — release #129 since the theme joined the directory in 2020.
- Beyond WordPress.org, BuiltWith detects 509,670 live sites running Kadence across the web, including 5,176 of the one million most-visited sites.
Premium version: Kadence Pro
Performance · Google Lighthouse, official wordpress.org demo
| Mobile | Desktop | |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.1 s | 0.3 s |
| First Contentful Paint | 0.9 s | 0.3 s |
| Total Blocking Time | 0 ms | 0 ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Page weight | 36.4 KB | 36.4 KB |
Lab (Lighthouse) data measured on the official demo at wp-themes.com, where every theme serves identical content — so scores isolate the theme's own CSS/JS payload. Tested Jul 4, 2026. Scores vary ±5 between runs. Run a live test ↗
Real-world usage · live sites, via BuiltWith
Ranking history
Active installs
Downloads per day
Details
| Author | Nexcess |
|---|---|
| Current version | 1.5.2 |
| Versions released | 129 |
| Last updated | 2026-07-24 |
| Added to directory | 2020-11-02 |
| Requires WordPress | 6.3+ |
| Requires PHP | 7.4+ |
| Type | Classic theme |
| First tracked here | 2024-09-17 |
Description
Kadence Theme is a lightweight yet full featured WordPress theme for creating beautiful fast loading and accessible websites, easier than ever. It features an easy to use drag and drop header and footer builder to build any type of header in minutes. It features a full library of gorgeous starter templates that are easy to modify with our intelligent global font and color controls. With extensive integration with the most popular 3rd party plugins, you can quickly build impressive ecommerce websites, course websites, business websites, and more.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kadence a free theme?
Yes — Kadence is a free, open-source (GPL) theme distributed through the official WordPress.org directory. The author also offers a paid upgrade with additional features.
Is Kadence a block theme or a classic theme?
Kadence is a classic theme: it uses the traditional Customizer/widgets workflow rather than WordPress Full Site Editing.
How many websites use Kadence?
WordPress.org reports 500K+ active installs. BuiltWith independently detects 509,670 live websites running Kadence.
How popular is Kadence?
As of August 6, 2026, Kadence ranks #5 in the WordPress.org popular themes list.
When was Kadence last updated?
Kadence was last updated on July 24, 2026 (version 1.5.2). It has shipped 129 releases in total.
Who makes Kadence?
Kadence is developed by Nexcess. It joined the WordPress.org theme directory in November 2020.
How fast is Kadence?
On the official WordPress.org demo, Kadence scores 100/100 for mobile performance in Google Lighthouse and 100/100 for desktop (tested July 2026).
