WordPress theme comparison
Basic Starter Dev vs Lightning
At a glance
- Lightning has more active installs: 100K+, against 30+ for Basic Starter Dev.
- On a typical day, Lightning is downloaded about 478 times, Basic Starter Dev about 1.
- Basic Starter Dev has no reviews yet.
- Lightning was updated more recently: Sep 9, 2026, against Jan 18, 2026 for Basic Starter Dev.
- Lightning has been around longer: since 2015, against 2025 for Basic Starter Dev.
Line by line
Lightning leads on 4 of 4 comparable lines.
| Metric |  Basic Starter Dev |  Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Popular rank | #4,723 | #28 |
| Active installs | 30+ | 100K+ |
| Downloads, last 30 days | 21 | 19.4K |
| Rating | No ratings | 4.8(12) |
| Last release | 9 months ago | 2 months ago |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
From WordPress.org's public data, refreshed every night. Downloads are WordPress.org's official daily figures for the last 30 days.
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