If you do a simple search for “WordPress Themes” you’ll quickly become overwhelmed with the vast amount of themes available.
That’s because WordPress was released in 2003, that’s almost 20 years ago!
So as you can imagine, there are too many themes to choose from on your own.
You are going to learn the following:
- The essential qualities to look for when downloading a WordPress theme
- The best free WordPress themes for bloggers
- The best overall paid themes for bloggers
- The most popular visual page builders for WordPress
What Makes One Theme Better Than Another?
It’s important to pick a WordPress theme that has all the features you need to create a successful website.
Not all website templates are created equal and that’s definitely the case when it comes to WordPress templates.
Let’s explore the most important things to look for when searching for your next WordPress theme.
Features Every WordPress Theme Should Include
- Multipurpose: Your theme should have several options to choose from no matter what industry you’ve chosen.
- Customizations: Themes should have many options to customize with templates, components, widgets, shortcodes, colors, typography and more.
- Responsive: Whether your visitors are on mobile, tablet or desktop devices they should be able to have a great overall user experience.
- Visual Editor: Having a solid page builder for your website is essential these days unless you have a simple blog. Visual editors will drastically reduce the time it takes you to make beautiful web pages.
- Performance: Slow bogged down websites will not only negatively impact your visitors but also affect your rankings from search engines. Themes should be optimized for speed.
- Design: People will judge your website in milliseconds. Make sure your theme looks appealing, trustworthy and modern.
- Navigation: It should be very easy for your visitors to find what they need and interact with your website menu. Having the option for a mega menu or fixed header will reduce bounce rates as well.
- Theme Panel: Every modern WordPress theme should come with a robust theme options panel that will allow extensive customizations.
- SEO-Ready: Your theme should be optimized for search engine optimization to improve search rankings.
- Social Media: Integrations with social platforms for sharing content.
- Support: Confirm that the theme you choose has an active team that regularly updates and supports its customers.
Free WordPress Themes
Check out the official WordPress directory for the best free themes. Most of the free templates are pretty basic with minimal effort but there are a few that stand out.
The Best Free WordPress Themes
- LoveCraft – by Anders Norén
- Blaskan – by Aigars Silkalns
- Neve – by Themeisle
- Olsen Light – by The CSSIgniter Team
- Poseidon – by ThemeZee
- Unite – by Silkalns
- Pineapple – by WPExplorer
Premium WordPress Themes
It’s no secret that paid themes have more options for customization, are highly responsive and include full support.
The Best Premium Themes for Purchase
- Soledad – by PenciDesign
- Authority Pro – by StudioPress
- Gridlove – by Meks
- Jannah – by TieLabs
- Bimber – by BringthePixel
- InHype – by MagniumThemes
- Saxon – by MagniumThemes
- Readable – by Proteus Themes
- Glamor – by QDONOW Studio
- Essence Pro – by StudioPress
- Johannes – by Meks
- Blogxer – by RadiusTheme
WordPress Page Builders
There are currently three visual page builders that dominate the WordPress market.
It’s important to note that using a visual builder will help significantly but is not essential since WordPress has the Gutenberg editor.
The Top 3 Visual Builders
- Elementor – the team behind this page builder plugin does an amazing job. Elementor is by far the best WordPress visual page builder.
- WPBakery Page Builder – also known as Visual Composer this plugin has been at the top of the market for a while.
- Thrive Architect – this page builder plugin is highly focused on conversions to improve engagement and build your list.
After evaluating many themes and plugins over the past decade of web development, I can honestly say there are some clear winners.
It’s important to find themes and templates that are easy to customize and configure.
Blogs are super easy to launch these days and adding the right theme to your toolbelt will make your life much easier.
If you have questions or simply want to share which theme is your favorite, let me know in the comments!
