28 Best Free WordPress Themes 2026 (Tested & Actively Maintained)
The best free WordPress themes in 2026 are Astra, Kadence, Blocksy and GeneratePress, all of them installed on hundreds of thousands of sites and all still updated this year. This list covers 28 free themes grouped by what you are building, plus four paid options for the point where free runs out.
Every theme here cleared the same three checks: updated within the last twelve months, at least a thousand active installs, and a live demo we could open and photograph. We also installed each one on an identical test site and measured what it weighs, because on a free theme the page weight is the thing most likely to cost you later.
Looking for something specific? Jump to the niche lists for lawyers, photographers, restaurants, charities and more.
Quick picks
- Most popular: Astra — a million sites, under 50KB, a starter for nearly every niche
- Best block editor theme: Kadence — header and footer builders without a page builder
- Fastest we measured: GeneratePress — 277KB and 99/100 on identical content
- Colorlib pick: Shapely — our own one-page theme, still updated after ten years
- Best for blogs: Sparkling — clean, readable, and the layout stays out of the way
- Best for a store: Botiga — WooCommerce features most themes reserve for paid tiers
Top picks at a glance
Table of contents — all 32 themes
Quick comparison: the six we recommend most
| Theme | Price | Best for | Standout | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astra | Free / Pro | Almost anything | Under 50KB, 380+ starter sites | Sep 2026 |
| Kadence | Free / Pro | Block editor builds | Header and footer builders in the free version | Jul 2026 |
| Blocksy | Free / Pro | Modern block sites | The highest rating of any big framework | Sep 2026 |
| GeneratePress | Free / Pro | Speed above all | Lightest in our test at 277KB | Dec 2025 |
| Shapely | Free | One-page sites | Full-width parallax sections, built by us | Sep 2026 |
| Botiga | Free / Pro | Small stores | Quick view and sticky cart without paying | Aug 2026 |
We tested it: what each free theme actually weighs
How we tested: we installed every theme on the same clean WordPress site with the same content and no extra plugins, then measured the homepage with Google Lighthouse on mobile. Because the content is identical, the differences below are the theme itself rather than a demo’s photography. Lower is better, and the gap between the top and bottom of this table is roughly five times the page weight.
| Theme | Page weight | Requests | Lighthouse | LCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hello Elementor | 223 KB | 15 | 100/100 | 1.7s |
| GeneratePress | 277 KB | 14 | 99/100 | 1.8s |
| Neve | 299 KB | 15 | 99/100 | 2.1s |
| Kadence | 328 KB | 17 | 96/100 | 2.5s |
| Blocksy | 330 KB | 13 | 95/100 | 2.6s |
| Travelify | 365 KB | 17 | 94/100 | 2.8s |
| Astra | 425 KB | 14 | 92/100 | 3.2s |
| Zakra | 451 KB | 17 | 91/100 | 3.1s |
| Sydney | 499 KB | 14 | 91/100 | 3s |
| Raft | 511 KB | 17 | 87/100 | 3.3s |
| Inspiro | 547 KB | 21 | 78/100 | 3.8s |
| Author | 645 KB | 24 | 79/100 | 4s |
| Sparkling | 647 KB | 24 | 74/100 | 5s |
| Hestia | 672 KB | 23 | 79/100 | 4.2s |
| Botiga | 677 KB | 19 | 75/100 | 4.5s |
| Lovecraft | 750 KB | 25 | 76/100 | 5s |
| Activello | 762 KB | 25 | 77/100 | 4.4s |
| OceanWP | 802 KB | 29 | 72/100 | 5.3s |
| News Portal | 813 KB | 33 | 68/100 | 5.3s |
| ColorMag | 871 KB | 26 | 67/100 | 5.9s |
| Shapely | 895 KB | 34 | 69/100 | 5.6s |
| Orchid Store | 934 KB | 22 | 68/100 | 5.9s |
| Illdy | 1086 KB | 38 | 65/100 | 6.8s |
| Woostify | 1247 KB | 22 | 66/100 | 5.6s |
| Newsup | 1441 KB | 38 | 62/100 | 8.8s |
| Blogus | 1747 KB | 40 | 56/100 | 10.5s |
| Phlox | 2290 KB | 27 | 57/100 | 13.6s |
| Perfect Portfolio | 2348 KB | 32 | 55/100 | 13.5s |
Best free multipurpose WordPress themes
These are the frameworks. Each one ships a library of importable starter sites, so you pick a design close to what you want and edit from there rather than building from an empty page. If you are not sure what you need, start here.
1. Astra
Why we like it: The safest default on this list: whatever you are building, a starter site already exists for it.
Astra is the most installed WordPress theme there is, and it earns that by staying out of the way. The frontend ships under 50KB, it works with every page builder rather than locking you into one, and the starter library covers business, store, portfolio and dozens of trades.
✅ Pros: the largest starter library, works with any builder, very light ⚠️ Cons: the best starter templates need Astra Pro
2. Kadence
Why we like it: Header and footer builders in the free version, which almost every rival charges for.
Kadence is built for people who want to stay in the block editor and never install a page builder. Its drag-and-drop header and footer builders are free, its own block library extends the editor rather than replacing it, and the starter templates import cleanly.
✅ Pros: free header/footer builders, block-native, good starter templates ⚠️ Cons: its block library is another moving part to learn
3. Blocksy
Why we like it: The only big framework holding a perfect rating across several hundred reviews.
Blocksy was written for the block editor from the start, and it shows in how little fighting the editor does. Its free tier is unusually generous, with content blocks, header conditions and a set of starter sites that import in one click.
✅ Pros: the best rated of the frameworks, generous free tier, very current ⚠️ Cons: a smaller community than Astra when you need an answer
4. GeneratePress
Why we like it: The lightest theme in our test at 277KB, and it scored 99 out of 100.
GeneratePress is what people reach for when Core Web Vitals are the priority. There is almost nothing in it you did not ask for, which is exactly the point, and the code quality has kept its rating perfect across well over a thousand reviews.
✅ Pros: fastest in our test, immaculate code, rock solid ⚠️ Cons: plain out of the box, so expect to design it yourself
5. Neve
Why we like it: Second lightest here at 299KB, with a starter library that is genuinely free in part.
Neve is mobile-first in a way most themes only claim to be, and our measurement backs it: 299KB and 99 out of 100. ThemeIsle keeps a broad template library behind it, and a useful share of those starters cost nothing.
✅ Pros: extremely light, many free starter sites, builder-agnostic ⚠️ Cons: the more polished templates are Pro
6. OceanWP
Why we like it: The deepest free demo library of any theme here, and most of it costs nothing.
OceanWP gives away more finished designs than anything else on this list, and its WooCommerce support goes further than most paid themes. The trade-off is architectural: much of the power sits in separate extensions, so the base install does less alone and the page weight climbs.
✅ Pros: huge free demo library, strong store features ⚠️ Cons: leans on extensions, and heavier than the leaner frameworks
7. Sydney
Why we like it: Assemble a homepage from prebuilt block sections, no builder plugin required.
Sydney hands you a set of homepage sections built as blocks, so a services page or a landing page comes together by stacking rather than designing. It is the theme several competing roundups put at number one, and the free tier is substantial.
✅ Pros: excellent free block sections, many starter sites ⚠️ Cons: some niche starters are behind Sydney Pro
8. Hestia
Why we like it: A complete one-page company site out of the box, which few free themes attempt.
Hestia arranges everything on a single scrolling page: services, team, testimonials, pricing and a contact form, all editable from the customizer. For a small company that needs a presence rather than a website, it is the shortest path there.
✅ Pros: genuine one-page structure, updated constantly ⚠️ Cons: the material design look is distinctive and dates faster
9. Zakra
Why we like it: A long list of niche demos, and unusually many of them are free.
Zakra’s pitch is that you should not have to design anything. It ships finished demos for trades, shops, blogs and bands, a good share of them free, and its header and footer builders let you reshape the imported layout afterwards.
✅ Pros: many free niche demos, header and footer builders ⚠️ Cons: the widest part of the library is Pro
24. Hello Elementor
Why we like it: The lightest thing we measured, at 223KB, precisely because it contains almost no design.
Hello Elementor is deliberately empty. It supplies the plumbing and nothing else, on the assumption that Elementor will draw every pixel. That makes it the fastest starting point on this page and completely useless without a builder, which is the whole idea.
✅ Pros: the lightest option here, zero design opinions to fight ⚠️ Cons: requires Elementor, and does nothing on its own
Building for a particular trade or hobby? Our niche roundups cover law firms, clinics, musicians and more, each with the same install counts and speed numbers as this page.
Best free blog and magazine themes
Themes built around reading: post grids, category layouts and typography that holds up over a long article.
10. Sparkling
Why we like it: Ten years old, still updated, and still one of the cleanest reading layouts we ship.
Sparkling is our flat, Bootstrap-based blog theme, and its virtue is restraint: a readable column, a featured slider when you want one, and nothing competing with the text. It has been maintained continuously for over a decade, which is rarer among free themes than it should be.
✅ Pros: excellent reading layout, long maintenance record, maintained by us ⚠️ Cons: the flat design is deliberately unfashionable
11. ColorMag
Why we like it: The most installed magazine theme on WordPress.org, and it still ships updates monthly.
ColorMag lays a homepage out the way a news site actually needs: category blocks, a featured slider, and space for advertising that does not look bolted on. It has held the top of the magazine category for years and the review count reflects it.
✅ Pros: purpose-built news layouts, huge review base, ad-friendly ⚠️ Cons: a lot of options to work through on first setup
12. Newsup
Why we like it: Several distinct news front pages, not one design with the colours changed.
Newsup goes for the dense newspaper look, with ticker, category columns and a front page that can carry a lot of headlines without feeling cramped. Themeansar ships several genuinely different demos rather than recolouring a single layout.
✅ Pros: properly dense news layouts, several free demos ⚠️ Cons: the density needs real editorial volume to look right
13. Lovecraft
Why we like it: A two-column blog with a genuine point of view, from a designer who has kept it current for a decade.
Lovecraft is what a personal blog looked like before every theme became a framework: two columns, generous type, a coloured accent and nothing else. Anders Norén has maintained it for years, and it remains one of the few free themes with an actual aesthetic.
✅ Pros: distinctive design, tiny, long-maintained ⚠️ Cons: a blog theme only, with no business layouts
25. Raft
Why we like it: A proper block theme: the header, footer and templates are all edited in the site editor.
Raft is what a modern WordPress blog is supposed to look like from the inside. There is no customizer and no page builder, only the site editor, and the reading layout it ships with needs almost no adjustment before you start writing.
✅ Pros: genuine block theme, clean reading defaults, actively updated ⚠️ Cons: the site editor takes real learning if you have never used it
26. News Portal
Why we like it: A perfect rating across a hundred and sixty reviews, which almost nothing at this size manages.
News Portal goes for the traditional newspaper front page: dense category columns, a ticker and space for a lot of headlines at once. It is the rare small theme with a flawless review record, and it is updated most months.
✅ Pros: true newspaper density, spotless review record ⚠️ Cons: needs real editorial volume before it looks right
27. Blogus
Why we like it: Several genuinely different blog demos, all free to import.
Blogus ships a handful of distinct blog layouts rather than one design in different colours, and every one imports free. For someone who wants a working blog this afternoon and does not want to make design decisions, that is the whole proposition.
✅ Pros: several free demos, quick to set up ⚠️ Cons: fewer ratings than its install count suggests
Best free business and one-page themes
For a company site or a single scrolling page that has to explain a service and collect an enquiry.
14. Shapely
Why we like it: Full-width parallax sections that take a video background, assembled as widgets rather than in a builder.
Shapely builds a long single page out of stackable widget sections, each one full width with a parallax or video background. It is our most downloaded theme and still gets releases, most recently a large accessibility and PHP compatibility pass.
✅ Pros: striking full-width sections, no builder needed, maintained by us ⚠️ Cons: heavier than the modern frameworks, as our table shows
15. Illdy
Why we like it: Counters, a portfolio grid and a services block, all free and all editable from the customizer.
Illdy is the more business-shaped of our two one-page themes, with a portfolio grid, statistics counters and a team section already laid out. For a freelancer or a small studio it covers a whole site in one scroll.
✅ Pros: complete one-page business structure, free portfolio section ⚠️ Cons: the heaviest theme in our test, and lower rated than its siblings
16. Phlox
Why we like it: A large library of Elementor demos, free, from a theme that expects you to use them.
Phlox is designed around Elementor rather than tolerating it, and it ships dozens of importable designs for agencies, shops and portfolios. If Elementor is already your tool, it saves the blank-page problem entirely.
✅ Pros: many free Elementor demos, strong review record ⚠️ Cons: tied to Elementor, and heavier for it
Best free WordPress themes for online stores
All three work with WooCommerce, which is itself free. What separates them is how much store behaviour you get before paying: quick view, off-canvas cart, sticky add-to-cart.
17. Botiga
Why we like it: Quick view, off-canvas cart and a sticky add-to-cart bar, none of which you have to pay for.
Botiga was built for WooCommerce from the first line rather than adapted to it, and the free version includes shop behaviour most themes hold back: quick view, an off-canvas cart, product galleries and a sticky add-to-cart bar.
✅ Pros: genuine store features for free, light for a shop theme ⚠️ Cons: a small install base next to the big frameworks
18. Woostify
Why we like it: Built specifically to keep a WooCommerce store fast, which most multipurpose themes do not manage.
Woostify does one job: run a WooCommerce shop quickly. It strips out what a store does not need, adds the conversion pieces that matter such as an ajax cart and a distraction-free checkout, and stays out of the way of the products.
✅ Pros: fast for a store theme, focused feature set ⚠️ Cons: little use outside eCommerce
19. Orchid Store
Why we like it: A finished shop layout on import, with the ajax cart and wishlist already wired up.
Orchid Store is the shortest route from a blank WordPress install to something that looks like a shop. The demo imports a complete storefront, the cart updates without page reloads, and there is nothing to configure before adding products.
✅ Pros: complete store on import, perfect rating so far ⚠️ Cons: a small review base, and less flexible than a framework
Best free portfolio and personal themes
Image-led layouts for showing work, and lighter personal sites where the writing matters more than the chrome.
20. Activello
Why we like it: A featured-post slider above a clean blog grid, which is a combination surprisingly few free themes get right.
Activello puts a full-width featured slider over a restrained two-column blog, so recent work leads and the archive stays readable. It is our lightest blog theme and it holds one of the highest ratings in our catalogue.
✅ Pros: featured slider included, very well rated, maintained by us ⚠️ Cons: a blog and portfolio theme, not a business one
21. Travelify
Why we like it: At 365KB it is the lightest of our own themes by some distance, and it is built for photographs.
Travelify is an image-first layout that survived a decade because it does the simple thing well: wide photographs, a readable column beneath, and a featured slider for the best of them. Our test put it among the lighter themes on this whole page.
✅ Pros: light, image-led, very well rated, maintained by us ⚠️ Cons: the design is of its era and will not suit every brand
22. Inspiro Lite
Why we like it: A fullscreen video header that pulls straight from YouTube or Vimeo, in the free build.
Inspiro opens on a fullscreen hero that can play video rather than sit still, which is the fastest way to make a portfolio feel expensive. Beneath it, a straightforward grid handles the actual work.
✅ Pros: video hero for free, strong portfolio grid ⚠️ Cons: the video-portfolio starters are premium
23. Perfect Portfolio
Why we like it: Projects get their own post type and their own pages, instead of being squeezed into blog posts.
Perfect Portfolio treats a project as a first-class thing, with its own layout, filtering and detail page. For a designer or developer whose work needs explaining rather than just showing, that structure matters more than the visual style.
✅ Pros: proper project structure, filtering built in ⚠️ Cons: small install base, and a plainer look than the frameworks
28. Author
Why we like it: Designed around reading speed rather than around features, and it shows on every page.
Author strips a personal site back to the words: one column, careful typography and no sidebar competing for attention. Compete Themes has maintained it for years, and for a writer it is a better starting point than any framework.
✅ Pros: excellent typography, very light, long maintenance record ⚠️ Cons: deliberately does one thing, so no business layouts
When free is not enough: four paid themes worth the money
You do not need to pay for a WordPress theme. You might still want to, and there are really only two reasons: you want to design every page visually without touching code, or you want a starter library far deeper than the free tier offers. These four cover both.
29. Divi
Why we like it: One licence covers every site you will ever build, which no other option here matches.
Divi replaces the theme-plus-builder split with a single visual tool: you edit the live page and see the result immediately. The layout library runs to thousands of designs, and because the licence is per account rather than per site, the second site costs nothing.
✅ Pros: full visual control, unlimited sites, enormous layout library ⚠️ Cons: adds page weight, and its shortcodes make leaving harder
30. Avada
Why we like it: The best-selling WordPress theme ever made, by a wide margin.
Avada has sold more copies than any other WordPress theme, and the reason is coverage: ninety-odd complete websites to import, a builder that handles anything, and a support operation funded by that scale. It is the safe institutional choice.
✅ Pros: vast prebuilt library, long track record, serious support ⚠️ Cons: heavy, and far more theme than most sites need
31. Astra Pro
Why we like it: The upgrade path if you already chose Astra: the same theme with the full template library open.
Astra Pro is not a different theme, it is the rest of Astra. It unlocks the complete starter library, a header and footer builder, and the layout controls the free version gates. If the free theme already fits, this is the cheapest way to skip the design work.
✅ Pros: the full starter library, no migration needed from free Astra ⚠️ Cons: annual renewal, and the free tier is enough for many sites
32. Blocksy Pro
Why we like it: One of the few good frameworks still selling a lifetime licence.
Blocksy Pro adds the pro starter sites, display conditions, a mega menu and the WooCommerce extras to a theme that is already generous for free. The lifetime licence is the differentiator, since almost everyone else moved to annual-only.
✅ Pros: lifetime option, strong free base to build on ⚠️ Cons: a smaller ecosystem than Astra or Divi
Free WordPress themes by niche
Every list below is built the same way as this one: live demos, install counts from the WordPress.org API, and nothing included that has stopped being updated.
How to pick a free WordPress theme
- Check the last update, not the design. A theme that has not shipped in a year is a security problem waiting to happen. Every date on this page comes from the WordPress.org API and is shown on each entry.
- Read the install count as a support signal. A theme on hundreds of thousands of sites has answers on the internet when you get stuck. One on two hundred sites does not.
- Decide about page builders before you choose. A block-first theme and a builder-first theme pull in opposite directions, and switching later means rebuilding pages.
- Weight is the cost you pay forever. The gap between the top and bottom of our table is around five times the page weight, on identical content, before you have added a single photograph.
- Check the starter sites are actually free. Many themes advertise a large template library and then gate the good half behind Pro. Where that is true here, the entry says so.
- Never install a nulled theme. Paid themes distributed free are routinely modified to include backdoors, and the saving is not worth rebuilding a hacked site.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free WordPress theme in 2026?
Astra, for most people. It is the most installed theme by a wide margin, it works with whatever builder you prefer, and it stays under 50KB. If speed is the only thing you care about, GeneratePress measured lighter in our test, and if you want to work entirely in the block editor, Kadence or Blocksy will suit you better.
Are free WordPress themes safe to use?
Yes, if you install them from the WordPress.org directory. Every theme there is reviewed against a security and coding standard before it is published, and updates go through the same process. What is genuinely dangerous is a nulled premium theme from a file-sharing site, which is a common way sites get compromised.
What are the drawbacks of using a free theme?
Mostly support and depth. There is no one obliged to answer your question, the starter template libraries are usually partly gated, and specialised features such as a mega menu or advanced WooCommerce layouts tend to sit in the paid tier. For a straightforward site, none of that will stop you.
What is the fastest free WordPress theme?
In our test, Hello Elementor at 223KB, but it is a blank canvas and does nothing without Elementor. Among themes you can actually use as they come, GeneratePress at 277KB and Neve at 299KB were the lightest, both scoring 99 out of 100 on identical content.
Do free themes work with Elementor and the block editor?
The frameworks here all work with both, but they lean different ways. Hello Elementor and Phlox expect Elementor. Kadence, Blocksy and Twenty Twenty-Five are built around the block editor. Astra, Neve, GeneratePress and OceanWP genuinely sit in the middle and will not fight either choice.
Which free WordPress themes work best with WooCommerce?
Botiga gives you the most shop behaviour without paying, including quick view, an off-canvas cart and a sticky add-to-cart bar. Woostify is built purely for speed on a store. OceanWP goes deepest overall, though much of that depth lives in its extensions rather than the theme.
Can I switch from a free theme to a premium one later?
Yes, and your posts, pages and images are unaffected because they live in the database, not the theme. What does not survive is layout work done with theme-specific features or a builder’s shortcodes, so the more a theme customised your pages, the more rebuilding a switch means.
What is a block theme, and do I need one?
A block theme lets you edit the header, footer and templates in the site editor rather than a customizer, with no page builder involved. Twenty Twenty-Five is the reference example. You do not need one, but it is where WordPress is heading, so a new site is worth starting there if you have no strong reason not to.
So which one should you install?
For most sites, install Astra and import a starter close to what you want. If speed is the point, use GeneratePress. If you want to live in the block editor, use Kadence or Blocksy. If you want a one-page site today, use our own Shapely. And if you are building for a specific trade, start from the niche list above rather than a general framework, because a good starter site saves more time than any feature comparison.
Related Posts
hey, i was gonna build a file sharing website. can u recommend me any good wordpress theme?
Surafel,
Unfortunately, there aren’t any free file sharing themes available for WordPress. You might either look for themes that you could modify to get the results you are looking for or just look for premium theme that does everything by default. If you are looking for some large file sharing (videos, movies, databases) then WordPress might not be the best choice at all. WordPress is for small files and embeddable content such as Youtube videos and cat gifs and nothing heavier than that.
If you can provide more information about while files are you going to share then I might give you better suggestions.
So perfect themes, Thank you very much, I want to ask one question, that I’m using now customizer theme, and I want to change it to one from the above collection, will my contents , posts, links, and other will be lost ? Please advice dear
Jamal,
Your content is not going to be lost when switching from one theme to another. Your content, posts, links, videos, images or any other content will be still there. If this theme comes with some custom widgets (not the default ones such as recent posts, custom menus, text widget etc) specially built for this theme are no longer will be there. But there are very minor things and you can always use plugins to get similar functionality in case there were some custom widgets.
You can always switch back to your original theme and all configuration will be still there because it is saved on database, so you can switch to a new theme for preview and always revert it in case you don’t like what you see. Also WordPress have a preview option for themes that allows you to preview theme before you activate it. This functionality is available under Appearance >> Themes >> [choose any theme] >> Live Preview.
While this is perfectly safe, I still recommend to backup your website regularly in case something goes wrong. Maybe your website gets hacked or something, so it is nice to have a backup in place.
Let me know if you have any other question.
Thank you for your reply, I very appreciate your feedback, how can I do backup ? From which function ?
Jamal,
WordPress doesn’t have its own backup solution but you can either backup it via your hosting cPanel (depends on hosting you use but this option should be well documented) or by using some plugin. Some great examples are this and this plugin but there are plenty of other great options available on WordPress.org.
The best backup would be to keep your backup on some 3rd party service such as Dropbox, Google Drive or elsewhere. Keeping backups on your hosting account are not the best solution because in case you hosting gets hacked your website will go down and backups will go with it. It is not like your site is in danger or anything but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Let me know if you have any other question.
I think the theme “Book Rev Lite” is broken. I installed this theme two times (without success). Any help, please?
Josh,
Could you please explain the process how you tried to install this theme? If you got some errors during installation, please post those as well. These errors will contain all the information you need to understand what went wrong during installation.
Let me know more details and I will try to help you from there.
HI,
Really exciting coming across your top responsive WP Themes I have just downloaded the Hueman theme which looks like it will be great for our beyonddementia.net site – once I get my head around how best to optimise the features highlighted in your demo!
I have a question about the BookRev theme as we are an affiliate with Amazon. I would like to reviews books/DVDs/other resources in terms of their suitability for different groups such as teachers, parents, friends/family, carers etc. Is it possible to cluster the reviews together by topic/target audience? If so, how do I do that?
I notice within both the above themes there is instruction re installation/set up etc. Do you by chance have a step by step WP guide for each theme that can be downloaded for ongoing and future reference.
Appreciate your help.
Toni,
Hueman documentation is available here. For BookRev there is no documentation but as far as I know it is based on WP Product Review plugin, so there is not much going on around theme itself but instead you should check out this WP Review Plugin. Once you install this theme you will get asked to install this plugin and you can continue exploring from there if this theme and plugin is capable of what you need. Since it is a free theme and free plugin, just give it a try as there is nothing to lose.
Hi Aigars,
thank you very much for the list. I’ve got a couple of questions:
– Is it possible to set up a static website with a free WP theme with an option of adding a blog to it later; or do I have to decide from the start: website or blog?
– I saw Reddle on a different list and liked it – what do you think of that theme, would it work for a website?
Thank you for your help,
Sasha
Sasha,
1. WordPress by default have to options – to use a static page as frontpage or blog as front page and you can switch between those any time via WordPress Dashboard >> Settings >> Reading.
However, there are only few free themes that offers to combine both static page and a blog page on a single page. It is not hard to implement this kind of options for existing theme but not many people uses this feature, and that’s why theme developers doesn’t spend much time to implement this kind of functionality by default.
2. Reddle is a nice theme but it haven’t been updated for over a year. It should work just fine for now but it is hard to say if it is not already discontinue and just sits there. Personally, I would look for some theme which is better maintained to be sure that you don’t have to switch to a new theme within a month or so.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hi,
I’ve also looked at Hemingway – it was on the other list I saw as well, as a good theme for writers. Hemingway theme should be around for a while, right?
I wouldn’t want to have static and blog pages bundled together. I’d like to set up a website, so it opens up to the home/front static page and has navigation leading to other pages, including the blog page. I understand that it’s possible, correct?
Thanks very much!
Sasha
Sasha,
Hemingway theme is around for a while but it is well maintained by its developer, so it would be a better option if you are there for a long run.
You are correct, you can use multiple pages inside navigation and one of those pages can be blog and any theme listed above is capable of this kind of setup.
Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know.
how can I tell if my website is mobile friendly?
Hahz,
You can test your website using Google’s own PageSpeed tool that also check how mobile-friendly is your website.
I can already reveal that your website is completely mobile unfriendly and organic rankings for your website will disappear on April 21st when “mobile-friendly” will become a part from Google algorithm therefore your website will no longer be relevant. Make sure to act now and choose the right theme for your website or be prepared for the worst.
There are some great-looking themes here! I’m looking for a new one for my travel blog that is mobile friendly, and will be a quick and easy to transition to. I’m looking at Shapely Theme, Hueman, and Travelify in particular, as they’re not a million miles from my current theme (so hopefully it’ll be an easy transition), but they’ll still be a fantastic upgrade!
I see that you have already switched to Shapely. Great choice and you definitely won’t regret your decision. It is well coded and designed and I can recommend it to anyone looking to build magazine style website.
Man they’re are some slick looking themes here.
It makes you wonder why it;s worth forking out for a premium theme sometime. My one exception is with customizable themes as a lot of the premium ones have some awesome features – but even free customizable themes are showing up these days.
But I honestly think with your own imagery and colours most themes can be made to look pretty unique. The competition and the standard are getting higher and higher 🙂
Hi thanks for this resource!
I am a newbie to this and looking to start my first site for e-commerce( products for home storage and display solutions) and needs to be responsive. I would therefore prefer a theme that has most requirements needed for viability but which will not require much by way of technical /customization aspects including capacity to open up to a number other pages including a blog which can support different types of content.
Based on little research(quite overwhelming) and aesthetics,I am drawn to the Virtue,Mystile.Responsive and Accelerate themes. Which would you recommend of these or other?
Mercy,
You have already made a good selection and you won’t go wrong by choosing any of these WooCommerce compatible themes. My personal favorites are Virtue and MyStyle as I have used those themes in the past but any of those theme will get the job done for you.
Let me know if you have any other question.
hi
i am looking website themes for design & printing company.
Ravi,
If you can’t find the right theme on this theme collection you might want to check this business theme collection for even better and more flexible themes.
Some good themes, thanks for putting this together. Do you know if any of them have support for forms or which would be able to add forms easily? I am thinking along the lines of Online Entries for an event, or membership joining up. What about selling membership or club apparel?
Phil,
You should have a look at Sparkling theme which features bbPress integration (plugin should be downloaded seperately but it is completely free). This theme has everything you are looking for and much more. Easy to setup, loads fast and is SEO friendly.
I am looking for a nice, simple babys theme, i would like to create a website for my unborn baby boy. hes coming soon! any idea or websites.
Charly,
I think that Unite theme would fit perfectly for what you need. It looks nice and clean and is incredibly fast to load.
This is a wonderful site for great looking WP themes……you should be congratulated. I have a question: Is the Hemingway theme mobile responsive?
Many thanks……Wayne
Wayne,
Thank you for your feedback! I appreciate it! Hemingway theme is fully responsive and mobile friendly and will pass Google’s mobile-friendly test with ease.
Hi, am interested in setting up a wordpress website for a research from a higher education institution, I finding it difficult to select a suitable one with features like – elegant, corporate, not flashy, with 7 menus and will allow sub themes/menus under two of the menus, integrate and embed mapping capabilities. You advise will help. Thanks in advance
Tonia,
On this theme collection there aren’t any education related themes. Of course you can customize them but it is going to be much easier to just start with a ready-made education theme such as ones that you can see here. There themes are great for schools, online courses, and other education institutions.
The Voice theme by meks is a great theme. I have used the voice theme in my site viral news site and have got some good reviews.
Jack,
Thank you for your feedback about Voice theme!
I really like Voice theme as well and I highly recommend it for everyone looking for premium magazine theme for news sites, magazines, and viral blogs just like you are using it now.
Most of the themes of this list are great but I like “Shapely”. I would love to use it in future…..
Lucy,
Thank you for your comment! This theme is based on Bootstrap which makes it mobile-friendly and also great for developer looking to build something on top of this already amazing theme.
Aigars,
I have recently started a new blog to post my thoughts, stories and poems. I’m a seventeen year old, so I’m looking for a stylish yet classy theme. Any suggestions?
Thanks a lot. 🙂
Chetanya,
I think that you would find a great use for Sparkling theme. On its demo you will see loads of images but it looks stunning without those images as well and is perfect for blogging.
You read my mind! Thanks Aigars!
It is customizable, right?
Chetanya,
It has 16 color pickers that will help to change color for every individual element on your website. You can upload logo, use different widgets that are built specifically for this theme and do many other things with it.
This is a really good selection of themes in my opinion. Do you have any recommendations as to a good SEO-friendly theme? I have used a few themes whereas it is really awkward to use H1 tags for instance. The font displays too large with some themes and you have to do a little customization to make it look right. Any suggestions?
Gary,
If you are looking for SEO friendly themes you might want to check this theme collection. However, SEO is no longer about well optimized title or meta tags and it is all about website performance, your content and user endagement. If your website is unable to load to first byte (Time To First Byte) in under 1 second your other SEo efforts are just pointless. If your content is not completely unique and users doesn’t spend several minutes reading it and never share it to social networks there is no use for proper heading tags and meta tags. SEO and Google have changed a lot over the years and their algorithm is much smarter than used to be. Now they know when you are trying to optimize your website for SEO and when you are doing it for users.
Super work, Aigars. I Liked you on Facebook.
I picked Shapely on my first pass through the list, then noticed several comments, including yours, endorsing my intuition. I may go with that one.
Thanks, again.
Bill,
Thank you for your positive feedback! Shapely theme is right now the best looking free WordPress theme out there. It is well suited for blogs, landing pages, corporate websites and even magazine style websites.
Hi Aigars,
Firstly, Thank you for the comprehensive review of WordPress Themes.
I am operating a new startup business and would like to build a site so that I can demonstrate the concept of my business and provide a little bit more information as to the challenges faced in the current marketplace and how my solution would help to bridge that gap.
Do you have any recommendations for a good theme, preferably free that you have come across. I would have though a light background/design would be more inviting for a UX perspective.
Thanks for any advice in advance.
Kind regards
Chet
Chet,
On this collection we have listed many different themes starting from simple blog themes all way up to complex WooCommerce themes. It is really easy to get lost of this huge collection. Therefor I recommend to look for business themes either on this theme collection or this.
Hey Aigars,
I’ve got a couple of questions:
– Is it possible to set up a static website with a free WP theme with an option of adding a blog to it later; or do I have to decide from the start: website or blog?
– I saw Reddle on a different list and liked it – what do you think of that theme, would it work for a website?
Thank you for your help,
Ann E.
Ann,
Thank you for your comment!
1. In WordPress there are two separate things: Posts and Pages. Posts are for blog and pages are for static content. Every theme ever created does support both of these things. Which means that you can start with a static content and then move to blog or other way around. Both ways are fine. Like I said, all themes does support Posts and Pages.
2. Reddle was first released in 2011 and haven’t updated much since. It is responsive but it doesn’t have its own dedicated mobile menu which might cause problems on mobile. I wouldn’t recommend to start a brand new website using 4 year old theme. It works now but who knows for how long.
Hi,
Very glad to have found this website…. excellent resource place. I’m about to begin designing a website for my business (my first one) and I have a couple of questions which I hope you’ll be able to answer. I would like to implement a “My Account” page on my website where members (after creating their usernames and passwords) will be able to log-in to. This “my account” page will only feature two pages: a member profile page which my members will be able to fill out and edit and a second page with a table or spreadsheet which my members will be able to view but only I will be able to input and edit the content (this page will be unique to every member). By the way, this is not an ecommerce site (more of a catalog-style website showcasing products and providing information… no shopping cart necessary) and the memberships are absolutely free.
First question: Is there a plugin that you would recommend for this type of membership page?
Second question: Which theme would you recommend based on the need for this feature? I like the Virtue, Responsive, Hathor and Minamaze themes from this collection. Would any of those work or are there some other ones you would recommend? Thanks very much for any and all input you may have on this.
Maciek,
Congratulation on your first business!
Any theme will get the job bone for you as long as you like it how it looks. WordPress has its own profile pages which means that that part is already sorter. To create user specific content you can use plugin such as this one. I haven’t used it myself but from description it sounds like it has everything you need. On WordPress.org you can find other similar plugins as well and all of those are free.
Let me know if you have any other questions about themes, plugins or WordPress core in general.
Great List. When choosing a Responsive WordPress Theme there are so many options that it really depends on what industry and vertical you are designing the website for. I recommend Googling “your niche” + “responsive WordPress theme”. However this is one of the most comprehensive lists of free themes I have seen online. Nicely done! I would also recommend you check out the new WP Gel WordPress Theme. It is responsive and like getting over 25 themes in one.
Rob,
Thank you for your feedback! Content is the king and that’s why you can Google whatever you want WordPress theme related and you will always find Colorlib. Some of our articles are over 10,000 word long and well researched and has over 200 comments each. We strive to offer the most accurate and up-to-date information about about the best themes available today. WP Gel, while great theme, is not good enough to be listed on any of our theme collection. Like I said, we want to make sure that users can find the best theme in the market for the lowest possible price or even for free but WP Gel doesn’t fall in any of those categories.
Can anyone tell me the name of the Theme of this website – firefall.cc?
Rashedul,
Website you mentioned uses Hueman WordPress theme. Which is completely free to use and is also listed above. It is a magazine style theme that can also be used for blogs.
Hi, im looking for a theme for a website by images, ¿can u help me?, of course im looking some one with space for adsense and social box.
Forobeta,
All WordPress themes does support AdSense. To make things easier you can use many plugins that are made to implement AdSense on your website. However, the best option is to use AdSense optimized themes such as these. These themes have dedicated banner areas that are optimized to get the best possible CTR while maintaining good user experience.
Thanks Colorlib for making sparkling and dazzling.
Those are genesis framework for me, Fully customizable themes and elegant in look,
I love them.
Thanks again
Vashishtha,
Thank you for your feedback! I highly appreciate it!
It’s so great to hear that my themes are being compared to Genesis Framework. Thank you!
Hi, I’m not a programmer, but the marketer. I needed a very quick graphic template for WordPress for SEO. I was able to create it, and now offer it for free on my blog. I have a question: How do you measure the speed of loading?
Thank you for answer.
Daniel
Daniel,
On this post you can read what technique and tools we use to measure WordPress theme performance along with some fast performing WordPress themes that we highly recommend if performance is important for you and it should be. Website performance goes hand in hand with SEO and that’s why we have spent so much time optimizing our website.
If you have any questions about WordPress performance, please don’t hesitate to ask.
which one will be the best for digital ebook store , i do use humen for another blog ,
is humen will be customizable like the website link i gave you..
Thanks in advance
Rahi,
Unfortunately, none of above listed themes are exclusively designed to sell ebooks. You can easily tweak any theme to do so but if you are looking for some theme which is specially optimized for this you might want to check this theme collection instead.
really thanks for your collection ! i felt in love with Travelify theme , alredy opened 3 blogs with it :)! Thanks again
Marsid,
You are actually using Sparkling theme for your blog. It’s also developed and designed by me but there is a major difference between these two themes.
Hi, I have a quick question Im hoping you can help with. If I use any of these themes will I need to recreate their look or is there an option to load the demo? Im basing this on my experience of having bought one from Themeforest whereby I loaded it but it didn’t look like the demo as it was essentially a blank canvas. There was an option, however, to load the demo so that you got the same look as ‘advertised’. Im guessing this also applies here. What Im essentially asking is if I use any of these themes will they look like the demo or will there be an option to load it?
Jose,
None of the free themes comes with demo data except Sparkling, Dazzling and Travelify. It takes a lot of time to prepare demo content and you are already getting a free WordPress theme and support and also looking for demo content. If all themes would include demo content, there would be no point of ever buying premium themes.
Thanks for your previous recommendation!!…I would pick Shapely now
The only problem im facing now is to set featured image Like the hueman website example i gave you
How can i do that Please
Thanks
Rahi,
To find out more how to use featured images in WordPress you can follow this tutorial.
If you are still having problems with featured images after reading this tutorial, please don’t hesitate to ask questions.
I have downloaded Shapely from here. .and activated it.. but it’s not working on mobile site …. Can you help me ?
Vivek,
Your website does work perfectly fine on iPhone 6 plus, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and iPhone 5S. There must be some local issue. Make sure to clean your mobile browser and website cache and try again.
Hi Aigars,
I am starting new project ( Travel Agency ) , Can I server Custom Travel package through Travelify.
Thanks
Jesson
Jesson,
That’s you again with your slow website and still haven’t done anything to make it faster. Shame on you! 🙂
Travelify is compatible with WooCommerce as you can see it on our theme demo. With WooCommerce you can sell any tangible or digital goods with ease. If WooCommerce is not the right solution for you then other plugins are also available and compatible with Travelify theme. It’s all about your personal preference.
According to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Tester, I found quite a few of these, like Meris, Zerif, and Customizr, aren’t mobile friendly. Many are just your desktop websites shrunk to fit phones, which isn’t mobile friendly. Is anybody using a theme like those that are mobile-optimized?
Immanuel,
I am not sure how you tested those themes but I am 101% sure that these themes are responsive and also mobile friendly. Maybe you didn’t turn off top bar which is usually part of demo or did some other mistakes along the way but these themes are mobile friendly. Just go ahead and test on an actual mobile device and not some automated test tool and you will see how well it performs on mobile.
What is the the top bar? How do I turn it off? The ones I tested are, as I mentioned, just desktop versions shrunk down. I activated those themes and tested both on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test site (unless you don’t want to do well with Google, the tool is a pretty good indicator for mobile SEO with Google–Mobilegeddon only affected mobile sites), and on my smartphone. I can send you screenshots to show you what I’m seeing.
All these themes are nice but i m confuse between sparkling and flat . Do you please suggest me which is better for my site..
Sakshi,
I would go with Sparkling as it is better maintained and is much more flexible.
The headline is misleading… not all of the themes mentioned are responsive.
Jette,
Which template you found that is not responsive. We will make sure to remove it to keep this list as accurate as possible.
Hi, Thank you for this great article 🙂 I’m looking for Fastest & Search Engine Optimised,
Responsive, mobile friendly and fast loading wordpress theme for a website that I’ll mostly post movies,pictures and music . Can you help me?
Carline,
The best SEO optimized WordPress themes you can find on this theme collection. These themes are going to be great for movies, pictures, music and are also very fast to load.
As were others, I’m AMAZED at the high quality of these free themes. I’d been using “another famous script”, but the last few upgrades had issues (for me, at least) so seeing these beautiful themes was the last nudge I needed back to WordPress. Thanks to all the authors for their hard work and the Colorlib team for making them available to us.
Hi Aigars,
Thanks so much for putting the time in to put this very helpful post together. I appreciate the hard work and the value you bring to the community. I downloaded ssmag and Shapely for my website. Thanks
Hello Michael!
Thank you for your feedback! I really appreciate it!
Your website definitely needs a redesign as your website is not responsive and mobile-friendly. As you might know Google introduced an update to its algorithm in April 2015 that ranks higher mobile-friendly websites which means that your website is now losing organic traffic only because your website uses an outdated theme.
I loved the features of Constructionzine Pro version – especially the ability to customize my blog colors to my leit motif colors of my greater website.
Thank you for your efforts.
I am confident of getting my blog section of my website up in a few days – having used a Themeforest theme a couple of years ago (with great difficulty, I might add.)
Best
What is your recommendation for a theme for a new nonprofit? No blog or anything, just about us, contacts, upcoming events, resource pages and the like. Thanks!
Dana,
Any above listed theme can be used for static websites. It doesn’t matter if theme demo showcases it as blog theme or theme for static websites. Still both static pages and blog are available. My personal favorite is Sparkling theme and I can recommend it for you as well. For some themes that are dedicated to non profit website you can check this theme collection.
Some beautiful templates here. I particularly like Ascent and Inkness.
How customisable are they? Although your photos are gorgeous, they are not relevant for our site on the edge of a national park in south west England. Can I easily replace your images with my own?
Steve,
None of images are included with any of above listed themes and you have to use your own images. The same with content, you have to use your own content as content and images are there to show what theme is capable of. You get a blank theme with design and functionality and you work on your own content and images. That’s how it works with all of these themes.
hey, i was gonna build a literature with video tutorials (youtube link) website. can u recommend me any good wordpress theme?
I liked Quidus theme and i think it also support AdSense.
Praveen,
Quidus is a simple blog theme with not much else to offer. If you are looking for some better AdSense optimized websites to grow your blog or magazine style website you might wanto to check these themes. Themes themes are built to get the highest possible CTR and earnings from AdSense while maintaining clean layout and good user experience. I highly recommend those themes if you are serious about monetizing your website using AdSense or banners ads.
Whole of your list quite impressing but Engima is special one for me and has inspired me to use it on one of my websites.
I will surely give it a try at least.
Muzammal,
You are actually using Sensational WordPress theme which is a premium magazine style themes. It is not listed above because this list is dedicated to free WordPress theme. If you are looking for more similar themes such as Sensational you might want to check this theme collections.
I am trying to start a online tutoring website.
Which free theme would you recommend? And later if I can make some money which paid theme would you recommend?
Muneeb,
I can recommend you either Sparkling or Activello theme. One you make money with online tutoring you can start looking for a premium theme and here are some of the best examples.
Awesome ones to get started. Thank you. My office is now Open 🙂
Thank you for all amazing WordPress themes! I used Shapely to setup my WordPress Site which also share real free WordPress themes for anyone who wanna pay less for business startup
Thank you for your comment!
I am glad you find it useful! Developers for these free themes have made sure everyone can get their own custom and premium looking website without spending a cent. Make sure to share this post with your friends, so other can benefit too 🙂
Need your advice on what free theme to choose for my site. I am considering purchasing a domain name as well but I first need to make sure that it is easy to navigate to my social media pages and online school I am designing via teachable, read my web/blog posts and advertise/use AdWords etc to generate revenue…
Which theme would you recommend?
Thomas,
I can recommend either Sparkling or Activello themes as both are AdSense ready, easy to monetize and customize.
i need multipurpose theme for my site. what is the best ?
Above listed are very simple free WordPress themes. If you are looking for some serious multipurpose themes then you might want to check this theme collections.
Hey, I’m currently building myself an e-commerce store and found a theme that I like, except that I can’t really find which one it is. I’ve tried contacting the owner but to no avail.. Maybe someone here can help me?
I really like how the front page looks like and would love to have something similar.
Michael,
Your mentioned website is using a premium multipurpose WordPress theme called Divi. You can read our full review for this theme here. Unfortunately, there is no free version for this theme.
I’m a newbie and just registered a domain and tried one WP theme. I want a blog type to do weekly blog
showing mainly home made dishes, fashion style, travel pictures and daily life bits/piece, meanwhile I would
like to do some apparel/fashion related affiliate network marketing to link the items I pick from department stores/other apparel stores ex nordstrom etc. which one do you recommend?
I’m not satisfying with the current theme I’m using to achieve the above purpose.
Hi, I’m interested in creating a website for my business that will be available for viewing in two languages. (Basically, it will have two flags in the upper right corner. The default version will be in English but by clicking on the other flag the visitor will switch all the pages to that other language). Can this feature be implemented in any theme or only specific ones? I noticed some themes (Responsive, Hathor, etc.) are “translation ready” but I’m not quite sure if that is what I am talking about here. How difficult is it to set up a website in two languages? Would I need to create (or recreate) the same pages (and all the content) in the two languages or is there a way to do it a bit easier and quicker? Thanks for any input you may have on this subject.
Fantastic post! And awesome collection.
However I wonder, by giving all for free, how developers survive, or your business makes money, and sustain !!!
Please clarify, I could not understand! Thank you
Regina,
Many free theme developers goes out of business really fast because they are unable to come up with viable business model. I have created Colorlib in a way that I am using free WordPress themes are marketing tool to promote hosting, premium plugins and other paid services and products. Of course not all users purchases something from me but it is still better than nothing and so far my business is doing good. Of course it would be great to earn more but everyone have to start somewhere and I believe that this is just the beginning for Colorlib.
i need statfort theme for wordpres please help
Hello Sara,
What do you mean by “Statfort”? There is a premium WordPress education theme called Statfort that I am aware of but it is not a free theme and you can’t legally download it for free.
All great themes. But I’m looking for one for a blog. Any suggestions?
The best ones for blogs are Sparkling and Activello. You should change your existing theme ASAP as it is not not responsive and mobile friendly. Which means that you no longer receive traffic from Google search since last April when Google come up with “mobile-friendly” as one of their main ranking factors.
Hi, I’m interested in creating a website for my business that will be available for viewing in two languages. (Basically, it will have two flags in the upper right corner. The default version will be in English but by clicking on the other flag the visitor will switch all the pages to that other language). Can this feature be implemented in any theme or only specific ones? I noticed some themes (Responsive, Hathor, etc.) are “translation ready” but I’m not quite sure if that is what I am talking about here. How difficult is it to set up a website in two languages? Would I need to create (or recreate) the same pages (and all the content) in the two languages or is there a way to do it a bit easier and quicker? Thanks for any input you may have on this subject.
Hi Maciek,
you can insert a translator plugin which will translate the page by clicking on the flag, similarly as in chrome by right clicking and choosing translate the page. Or you can also go for a wpml plugin to translate all your content for multi-language site. This way you need to translate all your content to languages you need. Bit harder and time consuming but worth it.
Thanks for these recommendations!
I like the FlatOn theme. I would like the website to be customisable later on.
Initially, though, i’ll build the site myself and i don’t have web design skills. Are there idiot-proof options under this theme that I can use out of the box?
Thank you for this!
I’m new to WordPress, so I have a stupid question.
What’s the best (easiest) way to incorporate a couple new SQL tables, to drive the web application I’m trying to build? Is there a theme that’s more geared towards connecting to a MySQL, SQL, or xml file? Is there a plugin that makes it easy? Would I add the (3 or 4) new tables to the existing WP sql, or a new database?
And what about some decent password and/or user administration plugins?
Thanks, Chris.
Chris,
Unfortunately, it is not how it works. Theme doesn’t generate their own database tables and doesn’t have any control over them. You will have to handle web application part on your own. It could be incorporated in the same database but don’t expect for theme to help to do this for you.
Hi,
I’d love to get a theme that lets me change the colour of more than just the background. For example, I’d love to change the container colour, and/or the link colour, and/or the menu colour.
Do any of these free themes allow me to do this?
Many thanks in advance!
Sparkling theme is going to be the right theme for you. You can read more about it here.
I’d love to get a theme that lets me change the colour of more than just the background. For example, I’d love to change the container colour, and/or the link colour, and/or the menu colour.
Seksiyonel,
That’s what premium WordPress themes are for. Here are some of the best and most flexible multipurpose themes that will allow to change color, size and shape of every detail on your website.
Which is the best theme for a creative website – we want to be able to change it and update it with moveable / sliding content and maximise it’s SEO.
Dawn,
We have got your covered! The best SEO friendly WordPress themes can be found on this list.
hi, pls suggest me single page Free theme for MY IT Firm asap.
Renu,
Illdy theme is what you are after. For more information about this theme please follow this link. It is by far the best free one page WordPress theme currently available. It has everything to create fully working one page business website.
18 years in the business. I can’t believe I just found you lol. I’m not a fan of WordPress, but I will use it for beginners that want to run their own website. Your themes are very nice, clean, and your selections of colors are incredible. I am very impressed. Thanks for this service! Do you ever do custom freelance work?
Don’t post this comment. I don’t know if you are as OCD as I am when it comes to typos, but on the illdy template you have a typo. It says 260 coffes instead of coffees. Not being a grammar nazi, just bringing it to your attention as I hate missing typos.
I have always wanted to use some high class and professional looking themes for my site. As I’m a beginner in this things I actually din’t have much knowledge about good themes for WordPress. And Thanks that you have helped me with this article
I would like to know about how to select a good theme for WordPress?
Remsun,
The best place to start is by checking all themes that we have listed above. We recommend Illdy for static websites such as landing pages and business websites and Sparkling for blogs and simple magazine sites.
Nice collection Aigars,
Can you suggest me a responsive theme that’s versatile and easy to use as well as suitable for both corporate and creative businesses websites.
Dinesh,
From free themes you should check Illdy or go with premium themes such as these for much better flexibility.
Hi Aigars,
You have an amazing themes collections. I was searching a theme for my new wordpress site i’m going to start.Here all themes looks perfect.Can you suggest me a theme for my “fruits site,fruits comparison,benifits”.
Thanks in advance
I too prefer Shapely, responsive and very complete. Really seems a premium template but free 🙂
Greetings
Yep, I’m using the Shapely theme for one of my websites as we speak!
Sean,
A little clarification. You are using Anew theme which is created by the same author which is behind Shapely but still these two are completely different themes.
I am so happy with Shapely theme, thank you so much for this collections themes, from El Salvador, regards.
I was looking for Shapely too, I am using it currently and plan to use it again for my other business. I truly think it is awesome and i am kinda fixated on it!
I just realised, I’ve got one more important question. How can I check if the styles/fonts used in a given theme support Polish diacritic signs (letters that are not in the English alphabet)? It would be silly if I chose a theme because I liked the lettering, and then I couldn’t use it. Is it possible at all to change a font in the enire theme by oneself?
Thanks in advance for your answer
Joanna
Hi,
Thanks for this great information, I am not a webdesigner, I have someone doing it for me but they are pretty new at it.
I want to change our current page to a WP them. I have an event production and hire company, I am loving nimbus and onetone theme (onetone more) are they good choices? I have seen other websites recommended for the events industry that I dont feel will reflect our brand in anyway, so I am finding it hard to find a useful theme and more importantly one that wont give me many problems.
Any advice would be much apreciated.
Carla 🙂
Carla,
We have a dedicated list for event management themes and you can find them here.
Thanx for sharing these all themes i had use Illdy theme that is a good theme but i need a theme like search engine land for my website. Thank you again 🙂
Anurag,
There are plenty of great magazine themes such as Search Engine Land out there and you can find the best examples here.
Thanks for this list. Do you know of any free ones targeted at bed and breakfast with online booking integrated? Want to practice before investing. Thx
CJ,
None of free themes comes with built in online booking because it is against WordPress.org policy where fuctionality like this is called “Plugin territory”. Which means that booking should be added via help from free WordPress plugins and there are loads of them available. Another thing I would recommend is to research Airbnb and other similar sites for booking and additional marketing. That will make website setup much easier and also Airbnb will send loads of tourists your way.
Hi, thanks for this list, i completely fell in love with the Tracks theme, but I just cant find a way to install it
its not on the “Themes list” and I dont have the upload option, can you help me?
thxs
Hi Aigars,
Firstly appreciate all your hard work and effort put into your themes and putting together this collection of great free themes. I don’t think people understand the effort web developers go through to create themes and to ultimately make them free for general use makes them even more special. Its important for everyone to acknowledge this effort via a donation to your cause. Feel free to post your links so all people have the chance to thank you properly.
I recently use the sparkling theme for a family member to create their website and they were very happy with it. I now need some advice from an expert to get my head around which theme you may think would be best to create a Plumbing website. It will be informational based no blog required. The obvious social requirement and slider would be great. Something slick that would put my business ahead of the competition. The theme would need to be responsive and have a good option for a gallery. What do you recommend. I am not a big fan of the single page website themes. I prefer a menu which navigates to other pages.
Also i as well as other people may like to know what your favourite theme is? 🙂
Thanks again.
These are great themes can you tell me how to change pictures of adventurous the back to default. l had hard time changing those tigers. Parallax is a good one too. It’s better to look at them on your mobile. I recently bought one that claimed to be responsive,but us not, otherwise very clean though.
Help! I don’t know how to upload your theme because wordpress.com doesn’t have the “add new” theme option and wordpress.org won’t upload your theme because it needs to increase .css thingy. Hope you can help me 🙂
Ohyo,
You are right, there are no “Add New” button inside dashboard for WordPress.com, because you can use only their limited set of themes. They have very few themes available and you can’t install your own. That’s where self-hosted WordPress from WordPress.org comes into a play. For it there are several thousand unique themes available and you can also customize them in a way you can’t on WordPress.com. For more differences about WordPress.com and WordPrss.org you can read this article.
SHADY!!! to say the least. there are themes that are not free at all but just for trial, and that is just purposedly misleading
Luis,
None of these themes are as free trials. Some are freemium themes. What that means is that you can use those themes without any restrictions based on time or otherwise. You can even use them for commercial use. Premium versions comes into play only if you need some additional functionality which is not included in the free version. You are never forced to upgrade unless you really want to. And 99% of users never upgrade anyway and uses free version as that functionality is more than enough
Very useful articles about WordPress themes..Do you any Coupon theme for coupon site?
Rantu,
Coupon themes and plugins for WordPress can be found on this list.
Awesome post Aigars! Thanks for putting it all together 🙂 We use Sparkling a lot for some of our blogs. It’s super easy to customize and it looks really professional. We highly recommend that one.
Awesome collections again, personally i love StanleyWP. very simpe and catchy.
We love all this theme, you’re very nice. keep going 🙂
Faidzinn,
Thank you for your comment!
StanleyWP is a clean and very simple WordPress theme that doesn’t have many customization options but it gets the job done for its main target audience – personal blog owners and writers. It is not a great fit for regular static websites but it will do wonders for blog style website.
You have put together a good list of news/magazine themes Aigars. There are a lot of options here, and I think Extra has the best look for a site that is focused, whereas “MH Magazine lite” seems like a great option for a more diverse news site.
I am going to bookmark this list for future projects. One of these themes may be useful for a client project.
Thank you.
I can’t believe that all these themes are free. People are selling much worse themes on ThemeForest and other popular WordPress theme marketplaces. Of course there are plenty of much better themes but some of these themes could perform really good as paid themes as well.
David,
Thank you for your comment.
I am not sure about other theme developers but personally I have received plenty of offers from various internet marketers and theme developers who are interested to buy licence from me to be able to sell slightly modified Colorlib themes. So far I haven’t granted my permission but according to theme licence they don’t need to ask permission from me to be able to sell my themes as premium ones. This might be surprising but these themes will never be sold as premium ones as I am working on even better themes that will be premium from beginning.
I love that you can make these for free. I wish I had the time to do this and offer them on my website! As a freelancer I just don’t have the time, but these come in handy when I have a friend wanting a website and I don’t make money off if it. (I just can’t charge friends or family) so I come to places like this to get them started! Thanks so much! You do great work.
Hi there Aigar,
You really made the best collection alive in the internet world for best free wordpress theme, with no doubt.
I really congratulate you about that.
Cheers,
Clay Smith.
Thank you so much for these themes! I’m just starting up my website and slowly playing around with different themes. I think Shapely might be the best for me. Sorry for the rookie question, but I was wondering if there’s a way to change the background color of the text in the dropdown menu (for example in the Shapely demo, the background color of “Level 2” in the dropdown menu). Any info would be appreciated. Thank you!
This is a great collection to choose from. i was wondering to select a new theme for my blog. i see i can choose one of these. Thanks Aigar
Amazing themes Aigars,
The good thing about your site is that whenever I visit a search engine like google to find some good WordPress themes , you are on the top in the SERPs, its just because of your quality working and users engagement on your site , keep continue your efforts in quality working and be on top.
Thanks for the list of reliable free WordPress themes
is it really for free download and without permission? wow, it’s amazing collection theme, thank you so much for sharing.
Eka,
Yes these themes are free to download and use as they are licensed under GPL
i found a nice theme with two side bars that i wanted, it was the only theme i could find with this, Quidus, but i find it slows down my site terribly. Am looking for a new one, that is also well suited for ecommerce for lists affiliate products, but i want a left and right side bar
Jes,
You haven’t doney any performance optimization for your website. Which clearly reflects in performance of your website and it will load slow using any WordPress theme. We have a dedicated post series on how to optimize WordPress performance and you can find it here.
Thanks for sharing this huge collection of themes !! These themes are pretty good and attractive.
Lousie,
Thank you for your feedback! These are great themes that you can use for personal and commercial use without restrictions and you can also modify them as they are all GPL compatible.
Thanks for the great collection Aigars and the writeup about each theme. I am new to WordPress and picking a theme can be a bit overwhelming. We are starting a niche travel site. Right now we are leaning strongly to Travelify.
Hello,
I am impressed by your collection of themes. I have not used WordPress for some time, just returning to set up a site for my wife. She is a painter in acrylics and needing an outlet for her work.
I would very much appreciate any suggestion or recommendation for a theme that would be good for this purpose. My thanks in advance for your time.
Regards,
Ron S
Ron,
We have a dedicated list of themes for artists and painters and you can find this list here.
These are not free, they are trial versions, if you want any kind of control of the site, you will have to pay for it…
Torsten,
Not entirely true. Colorlib themes are completely free without any premium version whatsoever. Those themes include Shapely, Illdy, Sparkling, Activello and others.
Other theme developers does offer freemium themes but we are different in that regard, so make sure to pay a closer attention to this list.
I am a beginner with wordpress. I want to create a professional web site for my entreprise, so which is the best free theme to choose?
Choucha,
The best ones are Shapely and Illdy that you can see on top of the list.
Thanks for such wide selections.
I am trying to build a site for community to discuss, share their experience, react on someone’s blog. Initially I will write few article later on folks in community may start writing too. Can you suggest if there is any theme which I can use, with an option to submit their own article/blog. I am expecting may be 20 – 50 folks may write a blog rest will just view or comment on the blog.
For now i am looking at free theme.
OctMom,
You can use literally any WordPress theme listed above. The thing is that WordPress does have the option to enable use signup and user generated content. You can also set different user roles, so they would have permission to post content directly or it needs to be pre-approved by you and so on. That’s basic WordPress functionality and you can use it with any theme every released.
Thanks Aigars.
So which one of these will you suggest considering after considering my requirement and also knowing that I am very new to wordpress. Thanks for taking time to reply on this.
OctMom,
All themes will get the job done for you. Make sure to choose one that you like from design perspective. My favorite ones are Sparkling, Shapely and Activello.
Great themes! I love responsive fluid layout designs for wordpress. Thanks to this I found my theme!
Steven,
You are actually still using Porcelain theme by Pexeto which is a premium WordPress theme.
Thanks for all your impressive lists – the themes you choose are awesome! There are even too many to choose from… please help! I would like to create a simple clean and stylish website presenting all kinds of work I do and want to advertize. These are: (1) songs I write (I would place there selected lyrics and some recorded demos), (2) cartoons I draw (that I would like to sell to press), and (3) coumns/texts I write (as above). Plus, maybe, in the future, (4) photographs I take (but the latter in not crucial for now). Anyway, the thing is to find a theme that would be good for such a mixed portfolio – of graphic, written and musical content. All these kinds of work should be presented separately, I think.
I like StanleyWP a lot, but I’m not sure if it is proper for the non-graphic content. There is the Blog part that could be good for my texts , but what about the ‘music’ section? Would it fit in?
And if I decide to use a free theme, I won’t be able to get any support, right? That would be tough, because I am a total beginner. So maybe a non-free theme (coming with support) woud be better for me?
What would you recommend for my case? Please help… thanks in advance!
Anna,
I think you should consider Sparkling or Activello themes that are free but still comes with support.
i am finding theme named Promax free edition..can u tell me how can i find it?
Jasmit,
Promax theme can be downloaded from WordPress.org but this theme is discontinued and developer no longer supports it, so I would suggest to keep away from it and choose some other theme from this or other our theme collections.
Hello Algars,
Great post wth some excellent themes. I am a business person working as a management consultant.
i want toput an a free ebook for downlad on the home page and 3 services 1. Training, Auditing and Consulting.
also i want have testimonals changing on the home page which free scheme would you recommend.
start a course on website design using wordpress next week as i want to do it myself. many thanks in advance.
Tony,
Any theme could handle this. The only thing is testimonials slider but there are plenty of awesome plugins out there that can get it done for you. For example you can look at this plugin but any other plugin will get the job done as well.
Testimonials were the only tricky part and now you can go ahead and choose theme that you like the most. It’s about your personal preference. All themes supports regular pages for services and other content, so it is not a big deal at all.
Also you can use plugin such as Easy Bootstrap Shortcodes to add buttons, tabs, accordions, columns and much more. Here you can see Easy Bootstrap Shortcodes in action for Sparkling theme.
Let me know if you have some more specific questions about these or any other free or premium themes listed on Colorlib
I have recently taken over administration of our club web-site. Though having programming experience from many years ago! I am very much a novice at web-sites, html, css etc. The site was developed for us using the Suffusion theme. However very recently, I have become aware of ongoing issues between that theme’s author and WordPress, which are likely to mean potential issues, and no support, in the future. Therefore I think the Club should find a replacement theme and I came across your excellent site.
However, as others have posted, the content is overwhelming (particularly to a newbie like me), so I was wondering if you might be prepared to help me narrow my search by, after a quick look at our site, recommending a few likely candidates from your list – I think at this stage we’d probably want to preserve our existing layout (or near to it) rather than go for a complete re-design, but would be happy to consider that option if that’s a better long-term solution for us.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Paul,
Your website is not responsive and mobile friendly which mans that your website has lost a lot of SEO traffic. The most similar theme which is responsive and mobile friendly is Travelify.
Aigars,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
I was totally unaware of the site being responsive and mobile friendly – I guess another issue I need to address!
I’ll look seriously at Travelify and see how I get on. Your advice is greatly appreciated.
Hi Aigars,
I like your shapely theme very much, but I got trouble install shapely-widgets.wie file. It said “Site does not support widget” to all the widgets on the homepage. I followed your instruction. Not sure what I did wrong. Need some help. Thank you
Amelia,
For theme related questions please use our support forum: https://colorlibsupport.com/
Create your own support thread and we will help you from there.
Hi,
Buying mh theme pro version. Cos lite version is not responsive. will also using flat theme for clients.
Thanks for mh theme. its really speedy according to gtmetrix
Vinodh,
MH Magazine is really a great theme but it is very disappointing that you have to pay for it to make it responsive. In times when mobile have taken over the world it would be nice to see responsive layout by default even for free themes.
Hey Admin, you have shared an amazing collection of themes. Surely this huge collection of themes will give catchy looks to any website.
Of all the themes dealt with the theme that I found most interesting are Dazzling and Sparkling ( and I’ve used many times with success )
Hello mister, I need a template from which to travel blog, if you could recommend to me?
Activello, Sparkling or Shapely are the best themes for travel blogs.
It would be much better to categorize these themes, you know? I mean categories like: blog, portfolio and stuff. But a really good set! I like it.
Tomek,
This posts covers all highest rated and/or most popular WordPress themes. For specific categories such as portfolio, photography, travel, business, bootstrap and other themes you can follow this category.
Thanks for sharing nice themes. Colorlib is now going to be my default resource that I will recommend when someone will ask for free and premium WordPress themes. Thank you for making and maintaining these awesome theme roundups!
Tahir,
Thank you for your feedback! I really appreciate it!
I tried to load the Adventuruous theme into wordpress but wordpress said I need a version higher than 1.5 – haven’t been able to find this on a google search
Jacqui,
Could you please explain the process how you tried to install this theme? Something doesn’t sound right at all.
Since this theme is listed on WordPress.org theme repository you can install it directy via WordPress dashboard >> Appearance >> Themes. Just search for this theme via dashboard and then hit install and you will be ready to go. The same applies to all other themes and you don’t need to download them separately and WordPress will get you covered.
Lovely Collection Aigars. The Free themes are getting better each and everyday. I released a theme few months back. Asteria – A Multi-purpose responsive free wordpress theme.
Hope you guys like it 🙂
Thanks
Towfiq I.
Towfiq,
Asteria is a nice theme and I have listed on some other theme collections. However, I am not looking to list it here because it is around for almost two years, so it is not new at all. If you feel that your theme would fit perfectly on this theme collection you might consider some of available advertising opportunities.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Thanx for providing such a large collection of wordpress themes.It makes for me more easy to start my new website with best best wordpress theme
Great place to get inspired for a new website for the services that I offer.
Really nice.
such a great list added here, and there are number of theme which i was looking for a long time to make some services website.
I am working to setup those for my client and it is really easy to work with them and easy to make new sites using those themes
My favorite is the last one, Hemingway! It surely looks really nice and clean!
I’ll consider upgrading although I really like the theme I’m using right now.. What a dilemma!
Hipe,
Maybe you need to start another blog, so you can both your existing theme as well as Hemingway theme 🙂
I am happy to see this site where i can download free theme to start my project.
I am a internet marketer and publisher how can i add a buy now button to a page.
Thanks
Hello Adewale!
I am very disappointed that you claim that you are making $10k month but aren’t willing to give back a single cent to theme developers and designers. Free themes takes as much time as premium themes to design and develop. Most free theme developers are working in nights and on weekend completely for free to create themes and support them while you claim that you are making a lot of money using these free tools. It doesn’t sound fair at all to developers and designers.
hi everyone.
i need help !!!!!!!!! what theme can i use for a football website. like a football academy website ?? Thanks
Olanipekun,
There are no free WordPress themes for football academies. The reason is that that’s where the most money is at and theme developers know it very well. For premium themes please check this list.
Hi!
Thank you so much for sharing all those free themes! It’s amazing!
Just wondering if by using this I will have to mention where are they from or I will have to do something to use them. As they may be free but some people want something from it.
My other question is how you install that theme on your blog? As you may have noticed I’m really new to that so all help will be welcomed!
Thanks!
Hey Marioness,
First of all, you are using WordPress.com and these themes are for self-hosted WordPress and not the service you use now. Here you can see the difference. There are free and freemium themes. Free themes are free without any limitations. Freemium ones are free but some features are behind premium tier. However, 99% never need those features and never upgrade.
My name is Abhishek Singhvi.I am using colorlib theams from your site really colorlib theams is good and mobile responsive but in free version we are facing visit related problem so kindly solve this problem so that we can buying premium version of colorlib Blogger theams.
Abhishek,
For support related questions please use our support forum: https://colorlibsupport.com/
Dear Aigars,
My website doesn’t have anything on it yet.
I’m stuck with choosing a theme.
Please give me a list of best WP Themes (4-5 max) that meet following criteria:
Themes:
– Free of cost
– Regularly Updated
– Mobile Friendly
– Translation Ready
– aesthetically and technically matched with DISQUS Comment System
– Responsive
– Good for SEO.
Website’s content is mainly writing pages, not much images and blog posts.
Content on the left and references to pages, etc. on the right.
Content is translated manually by me, no automatic google translation.
Thank you very much for your help.
hi, can i change the color of the WP theme? Thanks so much. brother.
Frank,
Depends on an individual theme. All themes are made different and can be customised via different settings. For more information check theme documentation or contact theme developer directly.
Hi Algars, Can you please suggest a theme that could best display an Anthology of works including Poetry, short stories and blogs, Living Eternity would like to also have the ability to have links to social media and youtube, Thank you in advance !!
Hi there and congratulations on a really helpful site.
Can I ask your recommendations for my new blog please? I am a Life Coach and most of my content will be my blog posts with scattered nice visual support and quotations etc. I want a theme with a wide visual header, simple, white, pure, minimalistic background. Elegant typography in single column format. As I am a COMPLETE tech novice, I would appreciate the easiest set up possible to be able to launch my site soon, without help from a third party. I will also need to be able to take payments from my clients via Paypal.I am not familiar with widgets and so on, but have been told that I must have the basics such as SEO to pull in traffic, and for the site to be mobile friendly etc. I would be so grateful for your help in narrowing down the search! Although I would love to get a free theme ( I see they can be quite impressive), I am also open to a premium theme that suits my needs. Thank you!!
Really nice collection of free themes. As a developer i have used many of them. I really like Sparkling and Shapely themes. I have used both of them on various projects. The best thing about thes theme is it comes with a very light weight drag and drop builder along with auto SEO and SMO modules. You guys should give this a try, found it really useful.
Hello! Once we have a lot of designs, which theme fits better for a psychotherapist. I am thinking in the OneTone. What is your suggestion? By the way, fantastic list!!! Cheers!!!
Tiago,
We have a dedicated list of themes for doctors and you can find it here.
Nice Collection , Thank you so much. I really like Shapely and Activello!
why are you fooling people? give us 50+ best pro free responsive themes. Above all are free version not pro.
Piyush,
All themes are completely free to use for private and commercial use. There is no mentioned that these are premium themes that have been given away for. These themes are free and have always been free.
I had been using HueMan WordPress free theme but the bad thing with it which I recently discovered was that it generated me a lot of structured data errors in the Google Webmasters tools & from which I learned that using of any free theme is just waste of time & waste of effort if you use such Hueman themes.
However, I appreciate this huge list of free WordPress themes.
Keep doing everything UP!
Yasar,
A great selection here, thanks. We use a couple already but some excellent ones we never knew about. I’ll tweet this, cheers, James
I think your collection is awesome.No doubt free wordpress themes suitable for beginners and those who can’t afford to purchase theme.I am one of theme.Selecting a template is important part.I suggest every one to look always for best wordpress themes.
Thank you for the long list of themes. Out of all these or maybe some other, what is the best theme(s), which you can recommend to fulfil the following parameters:
– online store with blog for food recipes
– possible for easy translation to several languages
– page builder
– SEO friendly
– video as background
– paralax
– slider
Many thanks for your advice!
Martin,
None of fee themes offers this kind of functionality. However, almost all premium themes have all of that by default. Here are some best options.
hey, i already have my own website and now i want to create one corporate type of website, so please suggest me free themes for that.
Shapely or Illdy.
I’m looking for a mobile friendly theme to promote and protect a recreation valley destination. I’ll need a way to integrate user polls, showcase volunteers at work, promote environmental stewardship, events calendar, contact mailing list building, blog highlights. I have some coding and WordPress experience but am getting older and less willing/able to spend hours glaring into computer screens. Any suggestions for flexible themes would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Bob,
The widest selection of the best WordPress multipurpose themes are available here. Any of them will get the job done with ease. Still, you will need several plugins for Events, Polls and others but there are loads of free ones available.
I like The Shapely Free WordPress theme I was finding a best free WordPress theme for my image gallery website So finally today I have found this at Colorlib.com Thanks For sharing It, Nice WordPress Theme collection all the time.
Hello, can someone recommend the most responsive car rental theme, most users use phones for surfing so it needs to be optimized for mobile devices.
Thank you!
All themes listed above and mobile friendly and responsive. Therefore, you can choose any of above listed themes and you will be happy with the results.
Please do you have themes specifically made for churches?
Samuel,
A large list of the best WordPress themes for churches can be found here.
How to download these themes?
Celine,
Your website is hosted on WordPress.com and not self hosted from WordPress.org. There is a major difference and you can read more about it here. THese themes are for WordPress.org like 99% of other themes ever release. WordPress.com has a very limited selection of themes unless you upgrade your account to much more expensive business plan on which you can install third party themes.
Hello. Hi. I’m looking for some template for a niche blog in the health area.
I am currently using a free theme from the wordpress repository but I would be interested in a more professional one.
As additional information, the intention is to monetize it with adsense advertising so it should have specific areas to place such adsense ads.
Greetings and I await your news.
Marianela,
Medical and health related themes you can find here. Most of themes ar multipurpose themes which means you can use them for various purposes. Additional bonus is that blogs for those themes are highly customizable.
hey guys,
i need a them for traveled and tourist attraction plz give me any suggestion.need help
Free themes for travel sites ones are available here. Much more flexible premium version are here.
Thanks for your beautiful themes and plugins, i really appreciate your work. I tried your themes and it works best.
Hi guys, I need theme for my personal blog, can you give any suggestion, thanks before 😀
Imam,
Sparkling in case you are looking for a free theme or Gillion as premium alternative.
which is the fastest loading WordPress theme for my new blog check my previous theme also suggest me the best faster theme i want to buy new theme thanks.
Jerry,
Sparkling and Activello will do the trick for you perfectly fine.
A really so very nice and simple professional collection of WP themes! I will try the themes with sticky top menu.
Thank you so much!
Hi & thanks for those different interesting themes. Where can i find and install “the slide Related projects” for the WP Theme “Shapely”, which figures in the different posts – bottom place – when you click on the portfolio demo view : I can see it on the Demo version but can’t test it for the moment..
Stefan.
Support for our themes is available via support forum.
Many of these are NOT free. Please do better research when posting. It’s frustrating to see you promote these themes, and then people find one they like, only to realise that they have to pay for it.
Adam,
It would be great if you could pay little more attention before you start to complain. All of these themes are free or at least has a free lite version and I’m more than certain about that. If theme also happen to have premium version, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use free/lite version.
Also, Colorlib themes doesn’t have premium versions at all and all premium features are included for free. For more info, please check here.
I hope you will pay more attention next time because comments like yours are the worst.
I would go with The Divi Builder and Divi theme that comes with it.
Hi.Could you please give me an advice? I am looking for very minimalist theme very basic and simple, as i am amateur for setting up word press theme which will be for repair service.There will be only a one page with two three pictures and few text and then contact and about us.Could you give me an advice which theme suit me best?I do know i can ammend most of themes but problem is if is it too complicate i really cannot.So i do prefer simple setup design.regards martin. Thanks
I would go with Sparkling theme. it is very simple yet does everything you are looking for.
Hi, love all your themes but not sure which would be suitable for my coaching business, I would like to blog as well as put up my coaching packages for people to buy, alongside this I also sell jewellery and other products related to my coaching and wondering if the shop and payment component are already integrated in some of the free themes such as Activello? Or are they an add on I have to purchase?
I am concerned about the setup as find website building not my zone of genius (to put it mildly) so hoping there are videos etc that may help, simple is best for me 🙂
Thank you
Activello does have WooCommerce integration and you can see it in the demo as well.
Hi, can someone suggest me a responsive wordpress template for Car Wash.
Any of these will get the job done with ease.
Hi Aigars
Great job with the list of themes! I have created a blog in the past and am now in the process of making a website for my mother’s guest house. I have already tried plenty of themes, but those I found “hotel like” recommended on other websites don’t allow me to change some important features, except on paid versions. I tried several from this list too, but not sure they will work well. I have now Auberge, I like how I can customize it and how it looks, but is more restaurant type, right? Which one would you recommend for a guest house? Simple, eye catching, very customizable and responsive.
Help please!
Thank you
Vanessa
In your case I would keep away from any free themes. Your mother is trying to run a serious business here and I see why you are trying to waste your time with free themes if you see that there are many great ones around that does exactly what you need and doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Thank you for such guidance. I wanna create a blog where we will share our writings about software development and engineering and etc. But I want this theme to be visually good and provide quality as best as it can. What is the best option for this purpose ?
Any of these are going to be a great fit for your blog.
A great and very complete post.
I have seen that there are many types of templates and they are all for WordPress. My question is: are these themes created in WordPress or in an external editor?
I have been using a page creator called Themes Generator and it allows me to create themes for WordPress. They also have predefined blocks and themes. If you know this tool, can you give me your assessment or advise me?
Is it preferable to use themes made or create them with an editor?
I am new in this sector,
Thank you very much for the help.
Esther,
Any tool is good as long as you get the results you were looking for. We design themes in Adobe Photoshop or Sketch and then use a text editor such as Atom or Sublime to cut it into HTML and then proceed with WordPress version in the same text editors. But to use any of these tools you must have an in-depth knowledge about web design, frontend coding as well as PHP. These things you won’t be able to learn over a weekend and in most cases takes years to master. So if you can get the results you were looking for with a simple theme generator I would recommend to stick with that method.
Other option is just to go with some multipurpose theme with a page builder built inside the theme. Here are some of the best examples: https://colorlib.com/wp/free-wordpress-themes/
Sure, there are some editors that seem easy to me and then I end up horrified by the result. I’ve been testing with some visual editors like Divi or Composer that appear in the link that you left me (https://colorlib.com/wp/free-wordpress-themes/), but they do not convince me too much.
Really!! All these are Great and responsive themes. Anyone can pick up one of them for their website.
Thanks, Author.
Those are really awesome themes for WordPress powered sites and blog, especially the MH Magazine lite and Newspaper X are looking fantastic in demo. Thank you so much Aigars, for sharing those great themes over here!
Just going through this list gave me goosebumps! These designs are all awesome and inspiring when it’s time to design a page or entire website. I loved it so much I bookmarked it. This is an amazing list especially seeing that Divi and Jevelin made it. They all have their merits in different areas but that doesn’t take away from what is posted here.
Hi. I am a first time blogger and know nothing about anything except my subject! My blog will have a Christian spiritual theme about transformation in the mind and life. I like the idea of the theme called Shapely, but am not sure whether it is appropriate for my content according to the picture I see here. Does the picture indicate what my bloggers will see when they go to my site? Can you recommend another choice which would fit better? I apologize for my lack of knowledge and would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks, Viki Perry
Viki,
Just open up the demo and test if that’s what you are looking for. You can also keep just the blog section and use it without any images at all if that’s what you are after. You are not obligated to use any of the features showcased in the demo. Just choose ones that you need and keep the rest disabled.
Anyway, this is an extensive list with lots of good themes in it. There are a couple at least that I’ve used in the distant past. I even noticed you have the Responsive theme (a very long-time) theme. The best thing is that there are a LOT of theme choices for bloggers and other website concepts to choose from….the more, the merrier.
Thanks, Aigars
I have been looking for supporting information concerning these themes. Say for example x theme. It is expansive and it is difficult to understand how to effectively make the most out of it. So i think it is good to rate these themes based on the ease of use. If you can do a ‘kind of a manual’ on how to use these themes, important shortcodes, how to customize them … I would really appreciate.
All premium themes come with detailed documentation. If you read all of it you should be able to set up a website within a day. All premium themes use almost the same page builders and theme options, so you get the same experience across the board. If you spend a few times learning WordPress once you will be able to build websites using any WordPress theme ever released. Just get those basics covered and you will be good to go.
Wow!
I have spend a lot of time to go through most of these Themes given above in the list.
I’m starting one another Blog of WordPress for that I wrote some names from them and will try now. I’ll see which I will like the most.
Thanks for writing the names and their descriptions in this post.
Nice information, but why Avada is not on this list?
Because this list is mainly about free WordPress themes and as you might know Avada is not a free product.
We do like Avada theme and we have list it among the best all-around WordPress themes.
Looks good. But not every theme mentioned here is a light theme. So please warn your visitors that they should not use these themes on free hosting services, otherwise these themes will end up eating your server ram and your website will go down.
I strongly recommend keeping away from free hosting providers. They will fill your content with ads, close your site for no reason, and will charge double the regular hosting price to get back your data and website. If you want to experiment with WordPress I would recommend installing it locally and play around with it instead of using free hosting providers.
which theme do you use and which theme is best for techblog?
Hey Andy,
We have a dedicated list on WordPress themes for tech blogs that you can find here: https://colorlib.com/wp/technology-news-wordpress-themes/
Astra, Hello Elementor, Divi, OceanWP are the all time best theme, Love the article, thanks for the listing..!