WordPress free theme hunt can be frustrating right. I know a lot of articles out there they just list random themes that are featured on the WordPress repository. Most of which are not actually free, I mean you can call a theme where you can’t change the footer written “WordPress theme by – “.
When we talk about free theme we mean full customization a theme where can do whatever you feel like and those type of themes they usually have the option to white label them on their pro versions.
In this article am going to share with you the most popular and best free WordPress themes that I found to be intriguing. You won’t go wrong with any of these especially if you are just starting out and you want to minimize your start-up costs as much as possible. Not every has a fat wallet to start with premium themes like Divi.
The best free WordPress themes by category
These are the website I found fit to enter into our list of the 10 best free WordPress themes available right now, whether you want a website for ecommerce, a blog, you’re an agency, a start-up, this list will cover all those categories.
OceanWP
You want to build any kind of website, a WordPress version of Forbes, the next SMI blog, the WordPress amazon, well, welcome to Zootopia where any theme can be anything. Not just any, OceanWP. This is the most customizable theme on this list, it comes with too many customization options for the free version. It is way too good to be called a free version, its a freemium(a free premium theme). If you want to start any kind of website, but you have a tight budget, well not to worry this theme will give you all the customization options you need.
It also comes with demo pre-made templates you can import. There are not so many but I assure you that for your needs you will find a perfect demo theme to build on top of. This is indeed the best free WordPress theme, I’ve used it I liked it. I wish I knew about it way before I started making WordPress websites.
OceanWp is a multipurpose theme, you can basically do whatever you want with it. When I first used it, for a moment I thought they accidentally gave me a free theme. It comes with many features such a social sharing, sticky widgets, custom sidebars, header builder and many more. Like I said it is a freemium.
Neve Theme
The Neve theme is not just super fast. It is well optimized for eCommerce stores. It is the best choice for an ecommerce website. It comes with a lot of customization options for free and you can customize the ecommerce store to look the way you want it to.
This theme is so responsive, a feature you would really like when most of your shoppers use cellphones, your store will look good on all devices, tablets, phones, big as- monitors. The Neve theme also comes with a modern design, I really like the base UI (user interface). You know what just choose the Neve theme if you want an ecommerce store.
Sydney
I don’t know about you, but I think it sounds like it was made in Australia, not to mention the minimalistic design language. This theme is just so clean so simple, its made to make the purpose of the website clear and visible to the visitor. I can even call it a “call to action theme” and that is the reason why I listed it as the best free WordPress theme for Agencies/ startups and other small businesses.
This theme is also highly customizable and it is really fast. I like the carousel hero section it provides in default. Are you a business owner? This will be the best choice for your business. Trust me.
The theme integrates well with all page builders especially Elementor. Not just that it is SEO friendly and loads fast. Ideal for default ranking.
ColorMag
You want to create a micro Forbes for a tiny niche or a news website, you want to build the WordPress version of New York Times well, this is the theme for you. I think the highest rated publishing website theme. It is the best theme for a news website. I like the design, am a UI person here, so hey every detail matters right. Did you know a well made website can significantly increase your readers’ trust. Take Craig’s list for example. That UI just pops my eyeballs out. It gets front end developers wondering how the heck was that element made.
Back to ColorMag, now this theme has built in features to optimize your Ads. It has Ad unit spots created for you by default, its like they telling you hey man! go make money from Google AdSense or Ezoic or Media Vine. It is the best theme for a news website, even OceanWP doesn’t pull this one off quite well enough.
Hestia
Ever visited a site with a full navigation menu like Home, Services, About, Contact, but then when you click the links, the website doesn’t go anywhere instead it scroll down to a certain section on the website, those are called one-page websites, at least according to bloggers. We programmers think of a single page website to be a website having all other pages in there, it is done using some front end framework like React to make it load fast, okay story for a another day.
This theme here is the best free WordPress theme for one-page purposes. You can make your website have that smooth scroll when someone clicks on the links on the navigation bar menu. I like this feature you can use it when your business doesn’t really give a shi- about online interactivity and it just wants to be out there, this would really be a perfect them for that purpose.
Phlox
Getting this theme sure is the first step to profitable blogging. I highly recommend this theme to use for your blog. If you ever used WordPress before by now you would have noticed a lot of free themes don’t allow you to customize your posts page the way you want and even pro ones in some cases.
Customizing the blog/articles page is really important for bloggers and the way this theme allows you to take control in the customization of the blog page, has earned it the Pro bloggers badge. The best free WordPress theme for blogging. The theme also integrates well with other plugins and page builders WordPress offers.
You can watch a tutorial about this theme from bloggdude where he makes a really professional website using Phlox theme and Elementor.
Astra
I am putting the Astra theme here just in case you have a couple bucks lying around to get the pro version and that Astra has undoubtedly the best library of free demos as well as premium ones. Astra, free version of Astra is so limited guys I won’t lie to you. The fun comes in when you have the pro version. The pro version is excellent. It beats OceanWP due to speed but yeah Astra is the best WordPress theme in the history of WordPress themes, the paid version though.
I’d recommend you to get Astra if you’re sure that you will upgrade to the pro version. Its not that expensive, when you purchase the lifetime bundle you can use it as many times as you want.
Blocksy
The Blocksy theme was built with the Gutenberg editor in mind and has a lot of options that makes it extendable and customizable. Good for creating restaurant type of websites and it can be suitable for anything as well. It is a baby multipurpose theme. I love how the UI is built, it is very modern and go along with the latest design trends. It works like a charm with popular WordPress page builders, including Elementor, Beaver Builder and many more.
Poseidon
This theme is suitable for a blog type of website, it is lightweight and simple. Few JavaScript files make it a fast website another plus factor, you don’t want your readers waiting long to get your content. This is a good alternative if you didn’t like the phlox theme, but I highly doubt that.
OnePress
This is another theme suitable for agencies and small business websites. It is simple and has a nice UI. The theme also has many customization and a good blog design in case you want to feature articles and news about your business as a content marketing strategy.
Conclusion
This is the list. Keep in mid that there are awesome premium themes like Divi which I didn’t mention here since this article was about the freebies. Nothing beats free stuff…If this list helped you choose your theme for your website let me know in the comments. Learn how to drive traffic to your website once your theme is set up and learn to make money with your website.
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