WordPress theme comparison
Lightning vs The Erudite
At a glance
- Lightning has more active installs: 100K+, against 100+ for The Erudite.
- On a typical day, Lightning is downloaded about 432 times, The Erudite about 0.
- The Erudite is rated higher: 5.0 out of 5 from 1 review, against 4.8 from 12 reviews.
- Lightning was updated more recently: Sep 9, 2026, against Jun 14, 2012 for The Erudite.
- The Erudite has been around longer: since 2009, against 2015 for Lightning.
Line by line
Lightning leads on 3 of 4 comparable lines.
| Metric |  Lightning |  The Erudite |
|---|---|---|
| Popular rank | #28 | – |
| Active installs | 100K+ | 100+ |
| Downloads, last 30 days | 19.8K | 5 |
| Rating | 4.8(12) | 5.0(1) |
| Last release | 2 months ago | 14 years ago |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | – |
From WordPress.org's public data, refreshed every night. Downloads are WordPress.org's official daily figures for the last 30 days.
Tags they share
More comparisons
Is one of these yours?
Track your theme against its rivals every day: rank, installs, downloads, ratings and their releases, with alerts when anything moves.
Start free