After posting about my favorite WordPress plugins I finally got around to presenting my favorite WordPress themes and templates. As you will soon realize, I use Premium Themes, which are templates with costs. They cost a few dollars, but they bring a lot of additional functionality that I don’t want to miss.
Often you have special requirements or functionalities in mind, then you don’t even need to start with free themes. Because many free themes are just slimmed down versions of the respective premium version or only basic features without special templates and content elements are supported anyway.
All themes are now – at least technically “Gutenberg ready” – but some have made special efforts to integrate on a deeper level with the new editor or one of the many other visual editors for WordPress. If this is the case, you can find this information in the description of the respective theme.
But now without further ado: This is the list of the absolute best WordPress themes from my point of view! My Top WordPress Themes:
1. Divi Theme – More than just a WordPress theme!
The Divi-Theme is a very very cool, chic, modern and flexible WordPress theme, with which you can realize almost any page. It has its own integrated Page Builder and with the brand new version Divi 4 it even comes with a Theme Builder! For the first time you have full control over your entire website with the really great Theme Builder.
The Theme Builder takes the power of Divi Builder and extends it to all areas of the Divi Theme, so you can now create custom headers and footers, category pages, product templates, blog posts, 404 pages and so on.
I think the pricing model of Elegant Themes, the creators of the Divi Theme, is very fair. If you pay 249 USD once, you can use all themes and plugins including widgets for life and for an unlimited number of websites and even for customer projects. Alternatively you can pay 89 USD per year for updates and support. A proposal! The support is really good and Divi offers ready-made templates for virtually any type of page and content that will allow you to get started and go live right away. I think Divi is especially suitable for users who don’t want to program themselves, but still want to fully control the design of their WordPress page.
The price also includes the two excellent plugins Bloom and Monarch. Bloom is an email opt-in plugin, so it’s meant to integrate very conversion-strong newsletter forms into the website. Monarch is a very comprehensive and powerful social media sharing plugin.
Together with Divi and the Divi Template Builder this is a great package to create stylish, fast and successful websites! So to say an all around happy solution in WordPress.
2. Neve – The WordPress Theme of the future!
Many WordPress themes are insanely overloaded and have become complex and complicated to use with more and more features. This makes many WordPress pages slow and cumbersome. But that’s over now: The brand new Neve-Theme was developed for maximum speed in the new WordPress era. Thanks to Gutenberg Blocks and the possibilities of the integrated WordPress Customizer, Neve is as powerful as classic multipurpose themes with PageBuilder. But Neve comes without jQuery and without bloated code. The pages created with it load completely in less than 1 second! With a standard installation Neve needed just 0.6 seconds to load.
Of course you don’t have to do without a stylish website and even WooCommerce is fully supported by Neve. Of course you can easily create headers and footers, customize them with drag & drop and choose from a variety of layout options. If you want to work with a PageBuilder, or change your existing website to the Neve theme, you can easily use Neve with Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin, Gutenberg and Divi Builder. There are over 80 pre-built pages that you can import with one click. More are added every month. The Neve Starter Theme library allows you to import a finished website in a snap and then easily customize it with your images and content.
So from now on Neve is my new insider tip for PageSpeed. In short: From my point of view the fastest WordPress theme!
3. GeneratePress – Super slim theme with very clean code
GeneratePress is a very fast and extremely lightweight (< 1 MB size, packed), mobile adapted, responsive WordPress theme. It is completely designed and optimized for speed, SEO and usability. It is also perfect for beginners and can be tried out for free with the freemium model!
In the Premium version it contains further functions and customization options. The nice thing is that GeneratePress works with every page builder. For SEO, all schema.org micro data are already integrated and available in over 20 languages. Especially great: GeneratePress is already integrated on a deeper level with the new Gutenberg editor. So don’t worry about the Gutenberg update! You can even install the free GenerateBlocks plugin and create very cool and complex layouts without PageBuilder directly in Gutenberg!
By the way: In the GeneratePress Site Library there are countless templates that can be imported with one click and the visual customization is done completely native via the built-in WordPress Customizer, as you can see very nicely in the following video:
4. Astra – Super stylish and fast theme
The Astra Theme has shown a tremendous growth in the last weeks. In the meantime, more than 1,000,000 users have already installed the theme! It has reached the league of the three most used themes in the world, in which only the WordPress default themes Twenty Twenty and Twenty Seventeen are ranked. Even Twenty Nineteen does not have so many installations! I also used it to build a website for students for testing purposes and I’m really positively surprised. Astra is very fast, the pages are not overloaded and everything looks super stylish!
There are countless ready-made websites that you can easily import after installation and then make changes to fit your needs. No matter if you want to work with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy or the Gutenberg Editor, you will definitely find what you are looking for in the website gallery. By the way: As one of the few themes Astra does completely without jQuery, which makes the pages really fast. Loading times of half a second are really possible with FAST HOSTING!
You can try Astra for free, but the pro version starts at 59 USD a year, or 249 once! With it you can build as many websites as you want and choose from 20 free templates. For service providers and agencies I recommend to spend at least 169 USD per year or 499 USD once, because you get more than 50 pre-built websites for customization with Elementor and Beaver Builder. The large agency bundle for 249 USD per year or 699 one time costs even includes the WP Portfolio plugin, the Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder, Ultimate Addons for Elementor, the Convert Pro plugin and the Schema Pro plugin. In addition, there is of course excellent support and even a 1:1 training with an Astra employee for familiarization.
5. Jupiter X – Multi-Purpose Responsive Theme
Jupiter X is the latest addition to the top list of the best themes. Jupiter X is the latest version and a kind of all-in-one platform for creating pixel accurate websites. With the Elementor Page Builder, the world’s leading WordPress Page Builder, you can quickly and easily create any desired layout. Of course Jupiter X can be completely customized with the WordPress Customizer. The integrated Shop Customizer helps to customize every aspect of an online store based on WooCommerce, including the checkout process and shopping cart. You can also easily create your own headers and footers with visual editors. Jupiter X also offers extensive options for customizing your blog and portfolio pages.
If you like it simple, simply choose from the gigantic selection of more than 150 ready-made website templates. The whole thing comes with very competent technical support, live chat and hundreds of detailed tutorials and videos. So no wish really remains unfulfilled.
6. Flatsome – Super responsive WooCommerce Theme
The Flatsome Theme was also suggested here in the comments. It is the best selling WooCommerce & Business theme and is slowly scratching the 100,000 sales mark!
Flatsome is very stylish and comes with a lot of features. A lot of attention was paid to the user experience when designing the theme, so it is very fast, easy to use and looks very modern and contemporary. Especially for stores Flatsome is perfectly suited. I will soon set up a project to test it, because I like the look very much and the theme will be continuously developed.
The new UX Builder based on Angular is really really good and the ideal tool for creating great, responsive websites without programming experience. AND: All future updates are included 🙂
7. Bridge – Creative Multipurpose WordPress Theme
The Bridge Theme is advertised as the best-selling creative theme at Themeforest. With more than 376 different demo websites, the Bridge Theme is also very well suited to quickly and easily create customer websites based on existing examples.
Great update: The developers of Bridge have now also removed the only catch! The theme now uses Elementor in addition to the really bad WP Bakery PageBuilder! Now you can add and reposition all elements in the frontend via drag & drop. The handling of Elementor is much better and I can fully recommend this fancy theme!
8. BeTheme – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme
The very well known and popular BeTheme is now already available in version 21! Meanwhile, the theme comes with more than 450 finished websites as templates to get started right away. On user request, the team even creates new demos, so that for almost every use case a finished website can already be imported and adapted.
The options panel is very intuitive and offers every imaginable setting option. With the integrated drag & drop builder (Muffin Builder 3), individual layouts can be implemented quickly and easily. Of course the theme is responsive, SEO-suitable and also compatible with Gutenberg. All in all, for 59 USD a one-time bargain!
9. Shapeshift – The new Thrive Theme with integrated Front-End Editor!
The Shapeshift Theme is the brand new theme of Thrive Themes created with and for the brand new Thrive Theme Builder. It allows you to create your own layouts quickly and easily and with the integrated Thrive Architectyou can create and customize your WordPress page in one of the most advanced visual front-end editors.
This gives you simultaneous access to the Thrive Themes library with Shapeshift and thus a whole range of design elements, all of which are extremely fast to import and can be customized with a single click. These elements can be placed in the layout using the Theme Builder, or directly in the Thrive Architect Light when editing articles or pages. You might want to add a testimonial section to your homepage without ruining the look of the page. The Thrive Theme Builder comes with a huge library of page blocks that automatically adjust to the overall look of the website and automatically match your chosen brand colors! Of course Shapeshift is compatible with all Thrive Themes plugins like Thrive Leads, Thrive Optimize, the Headline Optimizer.
You’ll get access to all Thrive plugins by purchasing Thrive Suite. Get everything (including Thrive Theme Builder & Shapeshift) for up to 25 websites for just 19 USD per month!
10. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme
The Uncode Theme is one of the best selling creative themes at Themeforest. The integrated wireframe plugin comes with over 410 ready-made layouts, which can be quickly and easily filled with your own content and thus quickly lead to a very stylish website. Furthermore the theme was developed with a focus on PageSpeed and usability and so you can build fast and stylish pages despite Visual Composer. The theme costs 59 USD per website. All in all a good deal.
11. Monstroid 2 – great theme for the Elementor PageBuilder
At TemplateMonster I recently found out about the Monstroid 2 theme. Especially if you want to use the Elementor PageBuilder, Monstroid 2 is the right theme for you. In addition, the theme is really good, very stylish, modern, technically very well designed and contains countless elements and widgets for creating and customizing pages. In addition, there is a huge library with ready-made elements and even whole demo websites that you can use and customize to your needs and taste.
Monstroid 2 was originally released under GPL license, but since the major update it is available under the standard license from TemplateMonster. That means you pay 69 EUR once for one website or 131 EUR for three websites.
Alternatively, you can choose ONE from TemplateMonster, a subscription service for web designers and web developers. There you pay only 14.90 USD monthly or 529 USD once for a lifetime access. This gives you access to more than 11,700 premium contents. ONE is and contains WordPress Themes, Elementor Templates and WooCommerce Themes as well as lots of WordPress Plugins, E-Commerce Themes for Magento, OpenCart, PrestaShop and many more. In addition, there are many graphics, PSD templates, video files, logo templates, etc.
12. Impreza – Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme
One theme that was recommended to me on several occasions with the words: “We use it to build all our customers’ websites” is the fantastic Impreza theme. Of all top sellers on ThemeForest, Impreza has the highest ratings, which also speaks for itself. The demos give a good impression of how flexible and customizable the theme is, of course Impreza is responsive, as well as WooCommerce and WPML compliant. The Page Builder is a further development of WPBakery and comes with the Ultimate Addons extension, also the Slider Revolution – the most popular slider plugin – is already included.
13. The7 — The flexible responsive WordPress Theme
The7 has been recommended to me by some readers and I have used it several times now to create customer websites. The theme has a very simple installation process and offers almost endless possibilities for own layouts and customizations. Of course everything is responsive and includes Page Builder. Very well done!
The7 Theme already comes with several premium plugins, such as the Visual Composer Page builder, i.e. WPbakery. But if we are honest, this is also the only disadvantage. Also included are all Ultimate Addons, Slider Revolution, Layer Slider, Go Pricing Tables and ConvertPlug. Of course it is also compatible with WooCommerce, WPML, Yoast SEO, All in One WP Migration, W3 Total Cache etc.
14. Avada – The responsive Multi-Purpose Theme
Avada is not without reason, the best selling WordPress theme ever on Themeforest! An incredible 500.000 times the theme has been sold. Nevertheless the developer does not rest on his laurels, but continues to develop the theme. Since a few weeks there is the version 6 of Avada and with it the manufacturer ThemeFusion has achieved a really big success.
The front-end is much smarter, more modern and faster and the back-end area is now more intuitive. With the integrated Fusion Builder and almost infinite variants it is probably the most flexible and extensive theme you can buy for money. I like the structure, the code, the typography and the options very much and I like working with Avada very much. For a quick start, there are 50 ready to use websites as demo via the built-in importer.
15: Tip for designers: The Page Builder Framework
If you want to design your page completely with a WordPress page builder, you should use an optimized PageBuilder theme – depending on the desired page builder. These are specially designed for the design with a WYSIWYG editor and bring even little code and styling.
The new Page Builder Framework Theme is very easy to customize. So you can design all areas outside of the content, i.e. your menu, the colors, etc. with the integrated WordPress Customizer and the remaining page elements with the Page Builder.
The Page Builder Framework Theme can be downloaded for free in its simplest standard version, but for a meaningful use it must be extended with the Premium Plugin for 58 USD annually or 248 USD once. The theme then works excellently with elementor, the beaverbuilder, Brizy, divi, Visual Composer and SiteOrigin PageBuilder.
So if you are in love with one of the many page builders, I would indeed recommend the Page Builder Framework Theme. It allows you to create as many websites as you want and control every aspect of your visual design – quickly, easily and without any programming knowledge!
16. Tip for developers: The Genesis Framework
This recommendation is not a single theme, but a WordPress theme framework from StudioPress. The Genesis Framework allows you to create great websites with WordPress quickly and easily. Genesis offers a professional and above all search engine optimized basis for successful websites.
All themes have also been tested extensively with the Gutenberg Editor and are 100% compatible with the new Gutenberg Editor. The new editor uses block-based elements to create really great pages and articles even easier and more flexible.
17. WooCommerce Theme: Porto
With its clear, rather classic design, Porto looks very professional and less playful than other themes. Therefore, this Multipurpose theme is the right choice for you if you offer high-quality services and products. Porto has the best ratings out of the top 20 best-selling themes on Themeforest and comes with over thirty demos for online stores and a variety of layouts in light and dark colors, where you can even filter specifically by pagebuilder, WPBAKERY, ELEMENTOR and GUTENBERG:
With the freely placeable product lists and the individual categories you have a lot of leeway when designing your store. The theme also convinces with its high speed and can even be used on low-level servers.
Highlights:
- clear, professional looking design
- numerous demos for various online stores
- few demands on the server environment
- high speed in the execution
18. Elementor Theme: Layers
The theme manufacturer Layers was bought by Elementor, so that compatibility can always be guaranteed. Compared to the Hello Theme, Layers for Elementor offers even more possibilities.
User-friendly adaptability and individual setting options. The Theme Layers is now available in the free version. This version has former pro features which are fully tailored to work with Elementor. The great strength of Layers is its customizability. Whether it’s the size of the logo, the choice of fonts from numerous already integrated Google fonts or the possibility to change the buttons – everything is done from the theme settings and without even having to touch the code. Highlights are also the adjustable spaces in the header and between the menu items. The changeable multipurpose theme impresses with its user-friendly customization tools and the possibility to redesign headers & co. If you don’t like to use code for individual customizations, you will certainly find what you are looking for in “Layers for Elementor”, as the theme is called by now.
A clear argument in favor of the download are the numerous ready-made designs. With Layers for Elementor, you can quickly create outstanding websites that can visually compete with premium themes.
The advantages of Layers for Elementor at a glance:
- is also offered by Elementor
- therefore optimal compatibility with Elementor
- slim design & easy customization
- ideal for stores, landing pages and much more
- possibility for further development by developers
- various integrations & PlugIns possible
19. Free WordPress Themes
Free WordPress Themes are a dime a dozen. Many of them can be found in the official theme directory on WordPress.org. However, there you will often find only light versions of paid themes, where you only get a limited basic functionality for free. So if you have the choice and want to give your site an individual and professional look, I think you should rather spend some money for a very good premium theme.
But you can also use a relatively slim theme and then build your website with Gutenberg Blocks from one of the following plugins
- 1. Toolset *tip for complex layouts*
- 2. Atomic Blocks *tip for AMP pages*
- 3. Tip: Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg *free*
- 4. Stackable *design tip*
- 5. Kadence Blocks
Free WordPress Themes from ThemeForest
ThemeForest is part of Envato Market, the platform for developers and designers. There you can find beside countless premium themes also 3 free WordPress themes, which you can download from this page. Which themes are free at the moment changes monthly. Usually, however, there are themes that were created for target groups who have only a very small budget for their website, such as amateur photographers and blogging beginners. In addition, the free themes are subject to a few restrictions:
Support and updates are not provided for free files.
That means, support and updates are not offered for free files! Therefore it is possible that a major change of the WordPress system may cause trouble in the long run with a free theme and might not work anymore at some point. Therefore I recommend to buy a premium theme if you want to create a professional website.
Tip: Finding the right WordPress Theme – How to do it
So I proceed like this:
- Either you have the time and the possibility to create the pages according to your ideas with a very flexible theme, i.e. build them with a visual pagebuilder or build them from existing shortcuts, then you should use a very powerful theme, like Divi -> https://kai.im/divi
- Or you can search in the demos of the premium themes or directly on ThemeForest for the theme of your future website, for example ‘health blog’, if you want to create a page about health in blog style, like I did for you here: https://kai.im/tf-health and choose a theme that is already very close to your ideas. Of course, I would still pay attention to the PageBuilder used, the ratings and number of sales and take a close look at the live demos!
After this method I found for example the fantastic Physio Theme and created the website of a physiotherapy practice. The Theme has already given the whole look, the structure and all design elements. I only had to adapt them and exchange the texts and photos.
In any case: Do not be discouraged! Sometimes I have to buy two, three, sometimes even five themes before I find the right one for my project!
If you are still looking for the right hosting for your WordPress website, have a look at my article 11 Ways Of Hosting WordPress Compared.
You still have questions?
What WordPress Theme should I use?
That depends on what you want to build a website. Have a look at my summary and think about which ones you like visually, then visit the demo pages and see if you can build your website from the provided templates or sample websites. From the recommended themes you should choose the one that best fits your future website and that you like best!
Which is the best WordPress theme?
For me the Divi Theme from Elegant themes is the best WordPress theme at the moment. With this theme it is very easy to create a professional and very chic website. There are hundreds of ready to use web pages that can be used as templates and it contains all the design elements and features you need to create a successful WordPress website.
What is a Child Theme in WordPress?
The so called child theme is either included with your main theme or you simply create a child theme via a plugin. With this you have the possibility to make changes to the respective theme without getting problems with future updates. With a child theme only the changed files are stored and then used by WordPress. Everything else is used from the parent theme. So you don’t have to make any changes in the parent theme, which might be overwritten by an update.
Is WordPress free of charge?
Yes, the CMS WordPress is basically free of charge. The inventor of WordPress decided back then to publish the software under the GNU Public Licence (also called GPL).
However, there are many themes and plugins that are not free. In addition, to run a website you also need a suitable hosting, which is not for free. But all in all you can say that you can build and run a professional website based on WordPress relatively cheap.
Are all WordPress Themes free?
No, on the contrary. Most really good themes cost a few Euros or Dollars. Many free themes are just slimmed down versions of the so-called premium themes, which you have to pay once or annually. Often free themes also contain relatively few yfunctions or are very limited in their design possibilities. If you want to create a professional website I clearly recommend to use a paid premium theme. Because there you can also get support in case of problems
Which WordPress Theme suits me best?
You have to find that out for yourself! The best thing is to have a look at the demo websites and try out different themes, so that you can see which one you can handle best and which one suits you best.
What are WordPress Themes actually?
WordPress Themes are ready-made layouts created for WordPress – one of the most popular content management systems for blogging, news websites and e-commerce projects. These templates are tailor-made skins for creating an online resource, such as a website from scratch or simply revising an existing website.
Considering the needs of my visitors I spent a lot of time to find, test and present here the best possible WordPress themes for different types of websites. Regardless of your professional background or computer skills, these themes will definitely enable you to create your website and make changes yourself. To make things even easier, each theme comes with all necessary documentation that explicitly explains every step of the installation process.
To keep up with the modern trends in the web, all templates are built cross-browser so that your website looks flawless in all modern browsers. In addition, all products presented here have a 100% responsive design, which allows you to visit and enjoy your website from any modern mobile device of your choice.
Each of these premium themes for WordPress is search engine friendly. So you can always optimize your website so that more customers can learn about your company’s goods and services on the Internet!
With your purchase you get full access to free support. Professional support is usually provided day and night by the manufacturers’ technical specialists, whenever it is needed. They guarantee that your questions about WordPress website designs will be answered correctly!
Buy one of the WordPress themes presented here if you are ready to create a website that will immediately grab your viewers’ attention and prove that your company is ahead of any competition!
