Ascend
Ascend is a WordPress theme by Nexcess (Free). Tested on 2026-10-12 with Google Lighthouse via PageSpeed Insights on its own demo store, it scores 98 for mobile speed and 100 for desktop speed, 45/45 for SEO and 85/91 for accessibility (mobile/desktop, 0–100). On its marketplace it is rated 4.9 out of 5 from 37 reviews.
Mobile98
Desktop100
Scores
| Mobile | Desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | 98 | 100 |
| SEO | 45 | 45 |
| Accessibility | 85 | 91 |
| Best practices | 100 | 100 |
Single preset · measured 4 times since 2026-10-12 · Lighthouse via PageSpeed Insights · 0–100, 90+ is good.
Why not 100 — Ascend home page
Mobile
Speed 98 · 2 points to gain
- −2 Cumulative Layout Shift medium effort
- 150 ms Reduce unused CSS high effort
SEO 45 · 55 points to gain
- −36.6 Page is blocked from indexing low effort
- −9.1 Document does not have a meta description low effort
- −9.1 Links do not have descriptive text low effort
Accessibility 85 · 15 points to gain
- −6.1 Background and foreground colors do not have a sufficient contrast ratio. medium effort
- −6.1 Links do not have a discernible name medium effort
- −2.6 Heading elements are not in a sequentially-descending order medium effort
Desktop
SEO 45 · 55 points to gain
- −36.6 Page is blocked from indexing low effort
- −9.1 Document does not have a meta description low effort
- −9.1 Links do not have descriptive text low effort
Accessibility 91 · 9 points to gain
- −6.1 Links do not have a discernible name medium effort
- −2.6 Heading elements are not in a sequentially-descending order medium effort
Presets and pages
| Preset / page | Speed | SEO | A11y | Speed | SEO | A11y | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mobile | desktop | ||||||
| Ascend default demo ↗ | 98 | 45 | 85 | 100 | 45 | 91 | 2026-10-12 |
| home ↗ | 98 | 45 | 85 | 100 | 45 | 91 | 2026-10-12 |
Show this score on your site
A live badge: it always shows Ascend's current score and links back here. Paste this where the theme is sold or documented.
<a href="https://themestested.com/theme/wordpress/ascend"><img src="https://themestested.com/badge/wordpress/ascend.svg" alt="Ascend speed score on Themestested" height="20"></a>
Add ?device=d for the desktop score, or ?metric=seo / ?metric=a11y for SEO or accessibility.