We reveal the best free WordPress themes for creating blogs, porfolios sites and more.
In this article we've selected some of the very best
free WordPress themes for you to use in your projects. Each is not only
free to use and open to the public but also offers something special and
unique.
The WordPress community is big. Really big. We're talking
thousands of designers and developers, tens of thousands of writers, and
millions of users, all contributing to pushing WordPress forward. And
one very popular way to do this is designing and developing free
WordPress themes.
Free themes are a great way to get a blog or website off the
ground. You might want to start writing about a topic but don't want to
invest the money in a custom site design on top of hosting and a
domain. And once your site is up and running, there's nothing to stop
you dissecting them, building on top of them and learning from them. For all our WordPress articles, click here
01. vFlex
vFlex was designed specifically with designers and bloggers in mind
Designed specially with bloggers and designers in mind,
vFlex is a stylish, free, responsive WordPress theme. Its main features
include an inbuilt FlexSlider so you can simply select featured images
and an integrated VibeOptions panel, which supports logo upload, import
and export settings and many other features. vFlex's responsive layout
also means the theme looks great on iPad, iPhones, and other devices.
Appliance is a super-clean and minimalist theme that
presents posts in a series of panels across the page instead of as a
simple list. It's very code-light, making it quick to load, and has a
pleasingly clean look that's ideal for magazine-style content where each
post will feature a strong image.
Sensitive is a fully responsive theme built using Twitter’s
Bootstrap framework with Metro Styled Accent. It ships with three
different page templates, support for custom backgrounds and menus. It’s
a great option if you’re looking for clean and modern, without a lot of
fussy code.
Slider Lite is a clean, modern and responsive theme that
showcases a large, full-width sliding panel at the top of the page. Each
post featured within the slider supports an image and caption, as well
as the content itself. As with some of the other themes featured here,
Twitter’s Bootstrap is used to provide the functionality within the
theme, making it easily extensible.
Zenith is a responsive theme with a rich, magazine-style
layout that features space for large images. The theme has built-in
support for Gravity Forms, and ships with multiple layout options, as
well as support for custom templates and menus.
Noteworthy is a bold theme that, according to its author, is
modelled on the USA Today website. The colour scheme is modern and
clean, while bordering on brash, but the stand-out feature of this theme
is the showcase area for the most recent post.
Splendio has done a great job of balancing the featured
content of the page with additional added value content. You want to
promote the other pages and posts on your site (to increase traction and
time on site) without taking away from the reason the visitor is there
in the first place. This is a difficult task that the designers and
developers of Splendio have done well. The details and colours really
help to make this a great blog theme.
I like the content used to demo PolarMedia because it speaks
to exactly how this theme should be used. It's great for a blog
featuring news and up-to-the-minute updates.
This free WordPress theme does a great job of showcasing
content in a new format. Whether you're reporting on red carpet
happenings or political disputes, it will do you and your visitors
proud.
09. Origin
Origin's minimal yet stylish design allows users to focus on content
Origin is a premium, fully responsive WordPress blog theme
with a minimal, clean design that allows visitors to focus on content.
Origin lite is the only free version of this theme, which features a
fixed two-column layout, responsive gallery and custom widgets for
categories and social media networks.
10. Folder
Free WordPress theme Folder is perfect for showcasing projects and products
Folder is a free WordPress theme with a slight retro feel to
it. With a design dominated by images, this responsive theme is perfect
for displaying projects and products. Features include custom project
posts and admin panel, five different widgets included (video, latest
work, contact form, twitter feed, recent posts), and more.
11. YAMINTH
Yet another minimal WordPress theme available for free download
There's no shortage of modern and minimal WordPress themes
available online. But YAMINTH (Yet Another Minimal Theme) and its
unusual image layout caught our eye. The free theme comes with light
colors, dark footer, Google Web Fonts and jQuery fade in, fade out of
images. It also hasan options page for easy customisation and is free for use in both personal and commercial projects.
With an unlimited selection of colour themes this theme
would be appropriate for any blogger. Another feature, which has been
cropping up on some of the newer WordPress themes, is the
Translation-ready abilities, reaching new audiences in a foreign
languages.
Like flat design and want to use large images on your
website or blog? Want it to be responsive? Then as free WordPress themes
go, Thoughts is probably good one to investigate.
13. Flozo
Flozo has been specifically created for businesses
Free WordPress theme Flozo has been specifically created by Flyerzone
to help small businesses and startups with their goal to create a
professional-looking website. So whether you're launching a design
agency or just want to promote your freelance efforts, it's well worth
checking out.
Don't want to mess about trying to find beautiful imagery?
Looking for free WordPress themes that focus on the text - and makes
that look beautiful instead? This minimal text-focused theme is all
about seamless reading - no page loads, no interruptions, just a quick
and easy way to access content.
One of our favourite sources of themes is Woothemes, and
they've got a few tasty free WordPress themes as well. MyStile is a
clean, lightweight WooCommerce theme, designed as a canvas which you can
use as-is, or easily create a unique design to match your products. The
theme is responsive as standard, and comes bundled with plenty of
options and alternate colour schemes.
The Travelify free WordPress theme is inspired by nature.
Fully customizable, with several Theme Options and page templates, this
theme is an obvious choice for travel blogs, green thinking and
adventurists.
17. Clean Retina
Clean Retina is simple, clean, responsive and retina-ready
Clean Retina delivers exactly what it says on the tin. The
theme is simple, clean, responsive and retina-ready. There is a
selection of nine homepage layout options, also a large homepage slider
with space for supporting text. This is one of those free WordPress
themes that would work nicely for bloggers or small business owners.
Simple Corp is a responsive HTML Theme by Site5. It includes
plenty of time-saver features, so no need hunting around for plug-ins.
The contact page consists of a built-in contact form furthermore and a
large Google Map. Multiple colour styles can be easily accessed via the
colour options tab. One of the best free WordPress themes we've seen for
business, this theme can update a corporate website with a fresh vibe.
Workality is a responsive WordPress theme that provides a
powerful way to showcase your work. Your images, videos, and text will
all scale down precisely for iPad, iPhone and all mobile devices, it is
also compatible with all major browsers. Workality offers 4 different
thumbnail sizes for your portfolio layout, small, medium, large and
portrait.
20. Photo
Photo is the ideal free WordPress theme for photographers
Photo is, you won't be surprised to hear, best suited for a
photographer, as it’s major feature is the responsive gallery. The theme
is clean with a bold header that emphasizes your logo. This is perfect
if you're looking for a minimal and versatile theme.
With an unlimited selection of colour themes, as well as
being SEO Optimized, this free WordPress theme would be appropriate for
any blogger. Another feature which has been cropping up on some of the
newer themes is the Translation-ready abilities, reaching new audiences
in a foreign languages.
Xenastore is one of those WordPress themes that stands out
because it is simple but bold. The use of colours and graphical elements
are subtle but add a lot of value to the site. The homepage offers
several widget areas, making it very easy to offer specials, coupons and
more. With a large featured section, showcasing a small number of
products can be done very easily.
23. Responsive
Responsive has a large and easy-to-control featured area on the homepage
I like this free WordPress theme so much I'm currently using it to power Jes.se.com.
Responsive utilises several homepage widget areas to drop in content,
making it easy to control everything. It has a very large and easy to
control featured area on the homepage, which was perfect for me to
feature my book, Web Designer's Guide to WordPress.
24. Balloons
Balloons is the theme for you if you want to play around with scrolling effects
Who doesn't like Balloons? I could probably ask the same
thing about parallax scrolling. This is the first free WordPress theme
I've seen that uses the recently widely adopted effect of multiple
scrolling speeds. Balloons utilises a minimalistic design and lets you
focus on the cool scrolling effect. While a small business or
corporation may not get what they want out of this theme it would work
beautifully for an event or personal website.
25. Grid
Grid is great for a graphically rich or photo-heavy site
Grid gives you the feeling you're on a site that's had a lot
of thought put into its design. This free WordPress theme would work
really well for a portfolio, artist or event site. It's very graphic or
photo heavy so make sure you have the content to back it up. One plus is
that this theme maintains its responsiveness quite well.
What WPCoda does well is easy navigation of pages without
moving off the homepage. All the pages in the tabbed navigation below
the tagline are served to the visitor without reloading the page,
functionality that is usually reserved for custom builds. I have to be
honest, I'm not really sold on the colour scheme of WP Coda, but that is
easily adaptable to your needs.
If you're looking for a free WordPress theme that lets the
content do the work, then Fotofolio is for you. While its design and
layout is really well done, it's also subtle and inconspicuous, allowing
your stunning photos to take control of the visitor's eyes. The
functionality and use of the theme is also quite nice.
I'm becoming more and more a fan of the left hand nav. With
the adoption of wider desktops it makes it easy for us to utilise more
space, making it easier and more pleasant for visitors to view your
content. Free WordPress theme Bonpress does a really nice job of
organising the layout while maintaining responsive functionality.
Whether you need a typical website, blog or portfolio site, this theme
will do nicely for you.
At first glance, I couldn't tell if I really liked this free
WordPress theme or just the stunning photos. Sometimes if your content
(especially photos) isn't as nice as what's in the demo, you can lose
the effect you wanted in the first place. However, after getting to know
Architekt a bit more I realised it was the layout and minimalistic
approach to the design that made the content stand out so well. This is a
really nicely designed and well thought-out responsive theme that will
work for you.
The crew over at WooThemes really know what they are doing.
This free WordPress theme is very well designed, with a lot of detail
put into every element. Swatch is definitely a theme that you don't have
to customise at all, it's just so nice right out of the box.
There are a lot of widget areas, columns and places for a
lot of content. Make sure you have enough content to fill it. Hopefully
in the near future they'll put in the extra work to make this theme
responsive.
31. Blue Bubble
You'll need a featured image with each of your posts with Blue Bubble
This theme uses the left-hand sidebar well; I like the
navigation alongside the blog posts. One thing to be aware of is the use
of featured images. If not every one of your posts comes with a
featured image you may lose the effect of the proportionate and balanced
layout. If you're a web designer you should be able to convert this
free WordPress theme to a responsive layout relatively easily.
I'm a fan of art museums and this free WordPress theme gives
you the feeling you're reading about a painting hanging on the wall at
your local contemporary art museum. It designates a lot of space to the
image or photograph so if you're trying to showcase your work you Big
Square will do nicely for you.
It's only a matter of time before WordPress is seen as a
viable option for ecommerce sites of all types. Free WordPress themes
like EBUY continue to push the envelope and get us ever closer to that
goal. This theme is well laid out and offers a great deal of features to
help you share and sell your products.
Busby is a really nice free theme. Its use of bold colours
and well planned fonts makes it stand out. I love the styling and
emphasis on post dates. However, if you aren't posting often, a proud
and boldly stated date may make your theme look stale and outdated.
Frequent bloggers looking to keep visitors on their site for long
periods of time will benefit from this theme greatly.
Saying that Blog-O-Folio uses bold contrasting colours would
be an understatement. The layout is really nicely put together and the
entire theme is very functional. The dedication of real estate to blog
posts and sidebar make this free WordPress theme very blogger friendly.
Skeleton has a lot going for it. Firstly, it's very minimal
so if you know what you're doing it will be very easy for you to layer
your own flavour of style and colour on it. Secondly, it's responsive,
so it's ready for any and all devices. The added bonus that it's BBPress
ready just increases its value. Lots of widget and featured areas makes
this a very versatile WordPress theme.
Shuttershot is another free WordPress theme that lets the
content speak for itself. If you have less than stellar photographs or
graphics you may want to use a different theme. Allocating the entire
homepage to a single image will pressure you to highlight your best
work. Make sure your content can support this really well made theme
before you move forward with it.
38. Spectacular
Spectacular is aptly namedDownload and demo: www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/10/free-html-4-01-html5-wordpress-theme-spectacular Category: Blog, website Responsive: No
The aptly named Spectacular theme is really well designed
and laid out. The colours are subtle but really help the visitor
navigate the site. While this free WordPress theme does appear to be
very blog-centric it would be easy enough to convert this to a small
business, event or product website. Make sure that the logo or featured
graphic at the top is designed to fit the theme. A black and lime green
race car logo will not do this theme justice.
39. Panoramica
With a full-width slideshow on the homepage, Panoramica is perfect for showcasing your photos
If you want to showcase images in all their glory, free
WordPress theme Panoramica may be just what you're after. Its design
heavily emphasizes the use of images, with its appearance fully
customiseable through an extensive options panel. Panoramica also
features a full-width slideshow on the homepage, perfect for grabbing
prospective client's and employer's attention.
Sometimes "Plain Jane" themes like Meeta get overlooked.
However themes like this are easily converted and modified to fit your
site and content. With two navigations, a featured graphic and a
responsive layout, this free WordPress theme will act as a great
foundation for your site or blog. However you will need to dedicate the
time to customise it a bit. Words: Jesse Friedman, Aaron Kitney, Sam Hampton-Smith Jesse Friedman is a veteran WordPress developer. In 2012 he wrote the Web Designer's Guide to WordPress.
Currently the director of web interface and development at premier
digital marketing Astonish, Jesse co-organises the local WordPress
meetup and is very active in the community.
