When building a WordPress site, should you go with a free or premium theme? What types of features do you need? You should answer these questions before spending money on a theme. Today we'll go through all of the ins and outs of selecting one and cover some of the best free and premium WordPress themes in different industries.
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When building a WordPress site should you go with a free or premium theme? What types of features do you need, and how advanced do you want your website to be? These are all great questions that require an explanation before you spend any money on a WordPress theme. That’s why we want to go through all of the ins and outs of selecting a theme and cover some of the best free and premium WordPress themes from several different industries.
Selecting your WordPress theme can be intimidating. There are so many to choose from, so what are some of the Dos and Dont’s when looking for a theme?
Many people go straight for the free themes to make money, but we’re here to say that free and premium themes have their pros and cons. Yes, it might be nice to save some money, but getting customer support could also save your business from downtime or troublesome features.
For the premium themes:
And the free ones:
Now that we’ve covered the how and why of finding the best free and premium WordPress themes, keep reading to find some of our favorite category-based themes.
GeneratePress is one of the more highly rated WordPress theme on the market. Most of this comes from its high speeds and clean designs. Full control of your content is provided, and there are plenty of integrations for things like WooCommerce.
OceanWP is an entirely free theme that’s an excellent choice for those in need of something beautiful and functional. It combines with the popular page builders, includes WooCommerce tools, and has a focus on making different types of websites while ensuring that all of them are super fast.
Astra WP works for portfolios, blogging, or a regular business site. It’s a highly versatile theme that works wonders when combined with page builders like Divi or SiteOrigin. It’s also incredibly fast, with a modern look and customizable formats.
The Zakra Theme does the trick for many designers because of its clean interface, lightweight loading, and multiple demos for getting content online quickly. You can either sell your designs or manage a regular business website to book new clients. Also, it’s a free theme.
WPVoyager is a top-notch solution for those looking to travel and log their trips on a blog. This theme is made just for the traveler, with a Google Map integration and the ability to share your adventures with large photos, topographical maps, and a full website that caters to those interested in traveling like you.
The Traveler has a good name, seeing as how all of the blog posts are organized like a diary. This is a fast theme with a stunning grid-based format. It’s a basic solution for those who don’t want to spend tons of time in development but more time traveling.
Travelista offers a beautiful blog layout for the adventurers out there. The theme has an author page and nine post formats for constantly creating content while you travel. You can also make a log of all of your travels and feature your best posts with large images and previews of your content.
Cookely is the perfect companion for running a food blog. It’s a nicely organized homepage with support for both regular blog posts and recipes. You can share everything from the amount of time a recipe takes to the amount of salt you put in the dish. Along with that, there are several modules for things like email subscriptions and social media.
Sprout and Spoon is for the more elegant food blogger. It has an incredible blog design with eye-catching featured images and a custom recipe card tool. It’s a welcoming design that is easy to customize and should go with just about any logo or coloring.
Daily Dish Pro is from the folks at StudioPress. Therefore, it runs on the powerful Genesis Framework. As for food blogging, the Daily Dish Pro theme has a clean layout with a beautiful blog to show off your images and writing. This doesn’t have any of the special recipe tools you can find in other themes, so it’s more about writing and showing pictures.
Astra should be one of the first themes you try out when building an online store. The theme is known for its speed and code-free customization options. You also get to take advantage of the drag and drop grid system that helps with making a wide variety of product pages, posts, and landing pages.
Bazar Shop is only sold as a premium theme on ThemeForest. It’s by far one of the most versatile and popular WooCommerce themes you can find. It has a strong focus on large product libraries. Therefore, the theme has more of a busy Amazon-type look as opposed to a website selling ten products.
Flatsome comes with the right settings for small and large stores. It’s one of the top-selling WooCommerce themes on ThemeForest, and it has a live page builder with specific modules for building online stores. The fast theme also offers one-click demo content to start the design and get close to the store appearance you want.
Blocksy is a fast and lightweight WordPress theme built with the latest web technologies. It was built with the Gutenberg editor in mind and has a lot of options that make it extendable and customizable. It is also fully integrated with WooCommerce and has extra customization options that will help you create your dream store in minutes.
Gutentype theme helps personal bloggers with the quaintness of an online diary. Most personal blogs aren’t meant to make money, but you can still make your site look beautiful with the help of startup skins and cool animation effects.
Noto Theme makes your blog look like a notebook for a more personalized touch. The design is customizable and some of the demos make the homepage look almost like a personal bulletin board. You can also add your own personal bio and picture.
Johannes allows you to rapidly create a personalized homepage with a description of who you are and a picture to go along with it. The premium theme works with blocks for easy dragging and dropping. You also receive lots of demos and image editing tools.
Atmosphere Pro is a beautiful and clean theme that strips out the nonessentials and gives you some wonderful ambiance to put your readers or customers at ease. The theme is from StudioPress so it runs on the Genesis Framework.
Elegant has a suitable name, since the theme has plenty of effects such as animations and stylish typography. It also can be turned into many other websites, making it a solid theme for all sorts of businesses.
Tinos is the type of theme you want when distractions need to be kept at a minimum. If you want your readers to really focus on the articles, this is the solution for you. The unique layout reads somewhat like a newspaper but without all of the ads. Oh yeah, and it’s one of the fastest themes on this list.
Gillion is a multi-purpose theme, but it mainly helps you create a magazine with a unique design. The modular theme has over 15 demos for getting started. Not only that, but it integrates with WP Bakery and some other excellent third-party tools.
The ColorMag Theme serves as a free theme with endless magazine design opportunities. You can build a story-packed homepage and feature ads, while also adjusting items like your social media buttons or sidebars.
SmartMag provides around five skins for you to launch a magazine and optimize it to show the most popular and recent articles on the homepage. You can add a multipage content slideshow, utilize the drag and drop builder, and create mega menus once you start to grow.
Mission News provides minimalism, style, and an appearance that looks just like any newspaper you may have read in the past. You get to work with multiple columns and sidebars, all while utilizing the Gutenberg designer.
The News Portal Theme boasts a stunning live customizer and multiple color schemes to ensure that your magazine looks completely unique. Multiple layouts are provided, and you’re always able to utilize the more than five widgets for organizing your content.
Newspaper is hugely popular for helping webmasters design their newspapers with ease and get articles posted in a reasonable timeframe. The design is modern, you can choose from over 50 demos, and the customer support is unparalleled. There’s a reason it’s one of the bestselling themes for newspapers.
Interactive is a blogging and magazine theme, but it has some unique elements that make it particularly useful for general entertainment blogs. For instance, the header can be made to show large images and video. There’s also a news ticker, three columns, and pretty much all you need to launch your entertainment news blog.
Vodi is all about entertainment, since it can be used as a movie or TV show website with the wide range of media tools included. Curate a channel from YouTube or upload your own content so that people come to watch your shows. You can even make a video sharing site like YouTube.
Tana also makes sense for running a multimedia empire or simply marketing for your own entertainment company. For instance, a TV show or podcast could make a website with Tana. We also like it for bands.
SteadyIncome is a blog theme that’s designed to advance your efforts with affiliate marketing. There are ad optimization tools, featured products, and an email subscription module for you to build your list.
Splash is yet another theme that formats the homepage like a magazine or newspaper. In short, you can take your blogging to the next level without having to know much about coding. You even receive a built-in review system so that you can write articles, rate products, and link to affiliate pages.
The Rhodos Theme works rather well for a portfolio website. It has prebuilt pages for sharing the portfolio and adding other information like your biography and skills. The custom post types are useful, and there are many third-party plugins that integrate such as Elementor and SiteOrigin.
Fargo is meant primarily for artists who want to make portfolios. The grid-based designs help with display, and you can upload images within seconds. The smart galleries mix your relevant content, and you can even add different views to your photos.
Werkstatt strives to make a professional portfolio for every type of artist, photographer, and other creatives. The premium theme has several demos provided to get the ball rolling. The majority of the demos are portfolio layouts, and none of them are the same. You could make a freelancer portfolio, a photography portfolio, and much more.
The Fiji II Theme is an excellent choice for sharing high-resolution photography to blog readers or clients. The theme focuses on simplicity, yet the large header images and the portfolios work wonders for creating beautiful visuals.On top of that, this theme has multilingual support and works well with most popular multilingual plugins.
Photocrati is one of our favorites in terms of photography WordPress themes. It has an endless list of design possibilities, all of the demos allow for large photos, and you can even choose from some unique design options like a sidebar menu.
Photo Perfect is a free WordPress theme with a grid-based homepage to show off all of your best photos. It also features a large header image with a logo spot and an interesting menu that floats inside the header if desired.
MedZone Lite should be one of the first themes you look at when testing health and medical WordPress themes. It’s ideal for doctors, dentists, and health organizations. You can share your opening hours, include a booking page, and list all of the services offered.
Wellness makes sense for all health organizations interested in bringing in new clients. This theme is great for people without much development experience since it has a visual builder and some great customization tools for headers, events, and sliders.
Medicare assists in creating a welcoming website for doctors and other medical professionals. The theme has appointment booking, before and after image areas, and a timetable to show when you’re available.
Dorsey is a solid choice for artists who want a minimalist design and some options for listing their portfolios. The left-aligned header and menu adds a little creativity to your website, and you still have the opportunity to sell your art with the WooCommerce integration.
Stockholm is another favorite for creatives and artists, seeing as how it offers several visual demos and ways to build your portfolio. Dozens of demos are included with this multi-purpose theme, but you can opt for one of the artist, photography, or design-based demos.
Adios is a fairly simple portfolio theme that does its best work when filled with high-resolution artwork. The header images are meant for this type of presentation. The visually stunning theme has nine demos, along with modules for building your pages and adding things like your bio.
Course Builder LMS does the trick for those trying to upload online course content and potentially sell it to students. This is an easy to use theme without much coding needed, and the demos ensure that you have a unique look compared to others who buy this theme. From selling tickets to adding multiple instructors, this is one of the best online course themes out there.
Coaching WP is an affordable, premium WordPress theme for launching your next online course. It’s one of the top learning management plugins on the market, and you can do anything from selling tickets to grading your students. Not to mention, the theme offers a one-click demo import button.
Charitize has an appropriate name, since it’s all about building a website that represents your charity and ensuring that the visitors are willing to donate money to your cause. The theme has a beautiful interface, donation tools, and an event calendar so the community knows what’s coming in the future.
Charity comes from the folks at WPLook Themes. The theme showcases everything donors would want to see from a charity website. This includes buttons for paying donations, WooCommerce support, and informational pages to keep donors in the loop.
Alone may have a depressing name, but its features give charities and non-profits something to be happy about. First of all, Alone integrates with the Give plugin and WooCommerce. You can also choose from a wide range of demos for things like NGOs, events, churches, candidates, and charities.
KnowAll has become a mainstay in the technology world because of its simple ability to make a powerful knowledgebase website. There’s no need to mess with any custom coding with KnowAll. Simply fill in all of the help topics you desire and customize the colors. Then, your tech customers can search for keywords and read articles.
Landkit is less of a knowledgebase and more for marketing your technology product or service. For instance, you may use this theme to market a virtual reality product or a new app. It’s a landing page theme for maximum effect, and you don’t have to worry about design with the dozens of demos.
Stratus also has a place in the technology world, especially for startups and app developers. The theme has a drag and drop builder for quick editing, and you can even sell your products online with WooCommerce. Using over 25 templates and 40 widgets should allow for a highly customizable website.
Play has excellent tools for gamers and bloggers who write about games. You could definitely use this to make a gaming magazine and share things like videos, images, and articles for upcoming events and happenings in the industry.
For a gaming WordPress theme, Paraxe has a solid design and a high-performance configuration to ensure that your videos and images are being served up properly. Several featured areas are there to highlight content, and the parallax effects are bound to grab attention. Not to mention, you can share articles about gaming and get people to share with social media buttons.
Blackfyre has the name of what you would expect from a gaming WordPress theme. It also has a darkened color scheme to go along with gaming, allowing you to cater to customer expectations. The theme lets the webmaster create clans and have battles. On the design end, you can create custom user profiles, have frontend forms, and utilize the visual composer.
Dixie is an excellent choice for a podcast website because of the large header image that presents the most recent episode along with an automatic play option. SecondLine Themes is known for making some of the best podcasting themes, so feel free to browse the site for other options as well. As for Dixie, expect multiple displays, a great page builder, and a fully customizable color scheme.
Tusant has more of a somber design to it, for those podcasts that may be speaking about serious issues or news in general. It’s a great solution for many types of podcasts and even music playlists. Start a blog, showcase all of your podcasts in one list, and feature some of your favorite episodes in sliders or grids.
Podcaster offers a sleek design for podcasts of all types. The colors can be adjusted to meet the needs of your brand, and the audio and video support ensures that all of your content is shown. The multimedia front page does a great job showing most recent shows, while the advanced theme options are there for changing everything from the navigation to the logo.
BuddyBoss is a responsive and somewhat playful theme that provides the tools needed for constructing an online community with BuddyPress. It allows you to build a stunning social network and take advantage of the flexible layout and various integrations like with PaidMembershipsPro.
Bellevue is an essential theme for hotels, bed and breakfasts, and many other types of booking websites. The theme has a drag and drop builder to minimize coding, and you receive over 50 templates and 48 widgets.
Sailing Hotel comes in handy for appointments at hotels and destination vacations. It accepts reservations and even payments directly through the website. In addition to that, you receive five demos catering to the travel and hotel industry. Pair that with the drag and drop builder for an easy design experience.
Hotel Calluna works best for a higher-end, modern hotel or resort. The WordPress theme includes a full booking engine with reservations and cancellations. Manage all of your rooms on the backend and set global pricing or price per day. Accepting and managing payments is done through Stripe or PayPal, and specials are available for you to adjust.
Airi has the flexibility and lightweight design that every digital agency needs. It offers an Elementor integration for quick building, and the customization options are there for things like colors, typography, and blog posts. You also get multiple demos so you don’t have to start from scratch.
JupiterX is yet another suitable option for an agency because of its wide range of customization options. JupiterX is one of the most versatile themes on the market, with options for creating pixel perfect designs in a short period of time. From a shop customizer to unlimited header possibilities, you can’t go wrong with this theme.
Monstroid 2 is similar to JupiterX in that both allow you to make an endless number of designs. Again, that’s why this theme looks like a winner for agencies. Simply upload your logo, adjust colors and typography, and add all of your services. Choose from over 500 predesigned sections and take advantage of the Elementor page builder.
LeadEngine helps out attorneys and financiers interested in picking up more leads and making more money. The theme has over 30 demos and 200 blocks for a highly customizable environment. Some of the demos are for other industries, but the theme has many for finance.
The Consulting theme features 34 quality demos to start the design process. Many of them are nice for consulting, attorneys, and finance. In fact, one of the new demos has forex and stock market information. Other than that, the theme provides service listing templates along with header layouts and events.
Neve is a theme for growing your website fast. That’s typically what most startups want to do, so it’s a great free theme with a few premium options. The theme is lightweight with a custom design in the header and footer. It also integrates with just about every popular page builder out there.
Exponent is a multipurpose theme that focuses mainly on professional demos that look great for small businesses and startups. It’ll make your company look modern, and you won’t have to worry about coding with the visual page builder.
Jobify comes in as one of the more impressive job board themes. It has a handful of demos for making a job board, and you receive a full homepage that asks users what type of job they’re interested in. There are also plenty of tools for managing users and the companies that post the listings.
The JobCareer theme strives to deliver a design that doesn’t require any additional plugins to make your job board fully functional. Several demos and premium add-ons are included to ensure this happens, so you should be set to start pitching companies and getting certain job listings for an industry.
Houzez is an easy-to-use real estate theme with several demos for things like a full header or a search bar for users to find housing. The theme integrates with wonderful tools like MailChimp and Visual Composer. You can also combine with Google Maps to ensure that clients know where to go.
Real Estate 7 works wonders when designing sites for real estate agents or agencies. The theme has options for people to search for housing and learn about the agents. The numerous integrations include page builders, and you can also integrate with maps for easier navigation.
Crypterio launches a cryptocurrency landing page on your website, with several demos to choose from, including a page for ICOs, listings, or even a cryptocurrency blog. Corporate crypto guidance and blockchain consulting can also take advantage of this theme because of the regular business demos.
Cryptic provides a handful of interesting demos for either writing about cryptocurrency or keeping track of it. For instance, one of the demos is for an IEO listing page, while another one has a full ICO directory. Overall, the theme has over 40 custom options for designing and making the site look perfect.
WP Car Rental is a native plugin that works as a car rental system. So, if your company sells cars from a lot you can place that inventory on your website to also sell them there. However, the most popular way to use this theme is to rent cars and post information about how much users have to pay per day.
Motors does exactly what you would expect from a car rental WordPress theme. It provides a nicely organized classifieds list and a tool for users to search those cars and potentially make an inquiry about them. You receive an inventory manager, 12 demos, and an inventory grid list for the best organization.
Quark is all about selling individual products on a single page website. This is an eCommerce theme with demo content provided. You also receive access to a visual page builder. The Revolution Slider plugin is a nice bonus as well.
Shopscape is an eCommerce theme with many demos for highlighting individual products. Various product pages and lists are provided. You also receive support for the YITH Wishlist plugin. Customer icons, WP Customer, and Google fonts round out the rest of the features.
Bettaso has the default design of a barbeque or steak restaurant, but it’s a great theme for getting started with your online menu and other offerings. Many pages are provided for you to customize. For instance, one lets you list your team of cooks, while another is for featuring a gallery of your best food and drink items. The main demo features a steak restaurant, but any type of restaurant could use the theme.
The Gem is a gem for restaurants because of its highly customizable interface and the beautiful restaurant demos provided by the developers. Over 70 built-in demos are offered for you to play around with, but restaurant options are great for fancy or casual restaurants. You also get some high performance and unlimited customization tools.
Eternity puts happy couples at the forefront, and it’s a great option for designers who focus on more romantic websites. This theme is beautifully designed with a countdown timer and responsive Google Map module. The RSVP form is there to keep track of guests, and the unlimited colors make it your own website.
Wedding Day sets the mood for the big day, allowing a happy couple to post an image of themselves and then write about their biographies. This is a rather elegant theme, with beautiful colors and a countdown clock for when the wedding comes around. You can also share wedding events, social media pages, and information about the wedding party.
Law and Justice helps attorneys make a professional and reputable-looking website without having to know much about coding. The one-click demo installation makes your site look great, then you can upload items like images and maps in the visual composer area.
The Legal WordPress theme works well for individual lawyers and law groups. You’re able to list testimonials on your homepage and showcase the lawyers in your firm. You also gain access to several shortcodes and a Google Maps integration so clients can find your location.
School looks fun and creative, which is why it can be used for schools and online courses. Most of the users will likely utilize this theme for younger students, or even a daycare or other educational program. From galleries to custom sidebars, you have a lot to work with here.
Education WP is a learning management system theme that works for all sorts of online and physical schools. Some webmasters use the theme as a training center, while others have been known to offer courses online or have an informational site for a school.
Kingster is a theme for making a university or school website. The theme allows you to share certain post types and implement a course search system. You can add customizable course filters and opt for prebuilt pages that are meant for educational institutions.
Jacqueline is one of our favorites for hair salons and spas. The reason for this is because you can quickly link into the Bookly system for accepting appointments. There are also tools for managing those appointments and selling products from your store online. Along with premade pricing tables and a newsletter, you can’t go wrong with Jacqueline.
Uncode gives creatives what they need–an unhinged WordPress theme with seemingly endless possibilities. The theme is a multipurpose solution with huge layout libraries and tons of demos. Work with unique concepts or make something simple like a blog or portfolio.
Hestia comes from ThemeIsle, and it’s a perfect website companion for creatives interested in designing a wide range of websites. The modern, material design ensures that your content pops, and the various demos mean that you can build a portfolio or a standard business site.
The Total Theme delivers over 80 builder modules, 40 demos, and 500 styling options. Needless to say, a web designer would have no problem making thousands of sites for clients with this theme. The demos are plentiful, so you could choose from an agency demo or maybe one for a restaurant.
The Weston Theme is a popular option for designers, and it’s all because of the visual builder and the one click demo imports. You can also add portfolios and video backgrounds if that’s how you best attract clients.
Divi is one of the most flexible multipurpose WordPress themes you can find. It’s particularly good for freelancers since you can create just about anything on Divi using the drag and drop modules and working with the wonderful support team.
The Oshine theme does an excellent job of giving freelancers several options for building a website. Most people will use this theme for making a portfolio, and that’s typically what a freelancer needs. Over 46 demos are included, so that should get you started in the right direction.
Backer is an ideal website solution for crowdfunding. It offers a beautiful landing page format with goals and statuses of donors. You can create one large crowdfunding website or simply focus on selling your own new product. The theme helps you raise funds, distribute money, and run the campaign.
FlatBook is a popular favorite for authors that need to sell both eBooks and physical hard copies. It’s a clean theme with unique landing pages and product pages for your books. It works with WooCommerce to make sales, and you can link your social media buttons to build your following.
Off the Shelf is a go-to book selling theme with a drag and drop builder and WooCommerce integration. It also provides several demos for making your book site look its best. Finally, you can make unlimited websites and choose from unlimited colors and layouts.
Conference Pro serves as a dedicated conference WordPress theme, but it can be adjusted to work for most other events. The premium theme has a beautiful frontend editor. You can also import data from places like Eventbrite and Facebook events. Along with an event composer and several options for selling tickets, the Conference Pro theme looks like a winner.
The Event theme has both free and premium versions, but most event organizers should be able to take advantage of the theme without paying a premium. This is a multipurpose theme, but most people will find it useful for events. You can list speakers, talk about dates, and even link to a signup page.
Eventum is a wonderful choice for when you need to run any type of event and have a modern website. Some of the features include conference management, a speakers list, and event schedules. You’ll also enjoy full WooCommerce support, a visual composer, and several homepage variations.
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