Why Use SVG Icons?
If you care about your website’s loading speed, you’ve probably noticed that icon fonts can drag things down—even when you load them from a CDN. Run a quick test with tools like GTmetrix, Pingdom, or Google PageSpeed Insights, and you’ll see exactly how much those icon font files hurt your performance.
Basically, loading icon fonts slows your site. If you want things to run faster, it just makes sense to switch over to SVG icons. These days, adding free SVG icons to your WordPress site couldn’t be easier.
There’s another plus: most SVG icon sets are free.
Take GeneratePress, for example—it’s the theme I’m using right now. It gives you the option to choose between SVG and font icons for your site. Switching to SVG icons for basics like search, back-to-top, and comment icons really helps lighten the load and keeps things running smoothly.
What Is SVG?
SVG (short for Scalable Vector Graphics) is an XML-based format that describes two-dimensional vector graphics, whether static or animated, and is commonly used on websites and web apps.
SVG is an open standard that’s maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (the same organization behind other web standards like HTML and XHTML). Files with the “.svg” extension are recognized as SVG files.
The biggest benefit of SVG is its potential for size scalability—which is why SVG is used to create maps, diagrams, icons, etc.
7 Reasons Why You Should Use SVG Icons
- SVG files are often smaller than PNG, GIF, JPEG and other image file formats.
- Because SVG is a vector format, they are easily scalable, and will not lose sharpness.
- By default, Google Search Engine can index SVG files.
- You can easily style using CSS.
- You can resize or enhance SVG files even at larger resolutions without losing quality.
List of Websites to Download Free SVG Icons
Iconmonstr
Iconmonstr is one of my favorite websites for getting free SVG icons. It was created by Alexander Kahlkopf, a designer from Germany with many years of professional experience in icon design.
You can use inline code or download SVG files directly from Iconmonstr.
Feather
Feather is a beautifully designed open-source icon set created by Cole Bemis. Each icon is designed on a 24 × 24 grid. Basically, Feather icons focus on simplicity, consistency, and flexibility.
Heroicons
Heroicons is a set of high-quality free icons that you can use in your own web projects. These free SVG icons are licensed under the MIT license.
This icon set was developed by Zaydek, Steve Schoger, and Adam Wathan. In addition, you can view the icons in grid sizes ranging from 12px to 100px, with different stroke weight options.
Tabler Icons
Tabler Icons were created by Csaba Kissi, a full-stack engineer and indie maker. It offers 550 fully customizable SVG icons under the free MIT license.
At Tabler Icons, you can customize the icon size, stroke width, and even choose the color.
Css icon
css.gg is an open-source icon library for interfaces, using SVG, CSS, and Figma. It was developed by Astrit Malsija, a Google-certified Developer and UI Designer.
You can use more than 700 ultra-lightweight icons that are accessible and quick to install.
Ionicons
Ionicons is also an open-source icon library with more than 1,200 beautifully handcrafted icons designed for web apps, iOS, Android, and desktop applications.
Ionicons provides icons in Outline, Filled, and Sharp styles, so you can use them for both personal and commercial purposes.
Remix Icon
Remix Icon is another website that offers interesting SVG icon sets, free to use for both personal and commercial projects.
Remix Icon was designed by Jimmy Cheung, developed by Wendy Gao, and maintained by Remix Design.
Friconix
Friconix provides beautiful and free vector icons. You can use more than 16,500 vector icons in your projects from Friconix.
You can use any icon by copying and pasting the SVG code or downloading the file in SVG, PNG, or JPG format. You can read the detailed instructions by visiting the official Friconix website.
CoreUI
CoreUI Icons offers more than 4,000 icons, including both free and premium versions. You can enjoy more than 1,500 free icons from CoreUI.
You can use their icons in your digital products, including websites, mobile apps, and desktop applications.
IconSVG
IconSVG is a simple website that provides various SVG icons you can use in your projects. It was developed by Gaddafi Rusli, a product designer from Malaysia.
You can easily customize the icon size, stroke width, color, and more on IconSVG. You can copy the SVG code directly or download SVG files from the website.
In addition, these icons are also available for React and JSX.
If you find any other popular websites that offer free SVG icon downloads, please share them in the comment box below.
