I hope you find a theme that’s perfect for your website! 😎
Free Themes are great, however if you’re building a site that’s going to get a lot of traffic you might want to consider a Premium WordPress Theme.
With a premium theme you get support, regular updates, more features and generally a high quality theme all around.
Best Free WordPress Themes for Content Sites
When choosing a theme for a content focussed site, say a blog or affiliate website you’ll want to look for themes that offer:
Minimalist Design: Often, less is more. A minimalist design can focus attention on your content rather than on design elements.
Readability and Typography: The theme should offer legible fonts, comfortable font sizes, and good contrast between text and background. Readability is crucial for keeping visitors engaged with your content.
Make sure it looks good on your phone: Most people consume content on their phones now. Ensure the theme is responsive, meaning it adjusts smoothly to different screen sizes and devices.
Content layout elements: Choose a theme with built-in patterns and blocks that you can use within your content. Things like tables, boxes, and styled lists will make your content look great.
Here are 5 of my favorite Free WordPress Themes for Content Sites;
Base WP is a great content-focused theme. It’s the theme I used to build a website that I sold for $70,000 so I know first-hand you can build a successful site with it!
Base WP
What I love about Base WP 👍
Simple, clean, clear layout – great for showing of content
Flexible homepage – you can add a hero image if you like
Superfast
You don’t need the premium version
What I don’t like about Base WP 👎
Limited customization options
You have to pay to remove the author link in footer
Vilva is an easy-to-use theme that would suit most content-focused websites. Easy to use and compatible with most plugins it’s a good choice. If you need more a premium version is also available.
Vilva
What I love about Vilva 👍
Ideal for blogging with a range of customization options like unlimited colors and Google fonts.
Zakra is a great choice as it’s got a selection of five content-focussed blog templates available with the free version. You can quickly get up and running by simply importing them into your website.
Zakra
What I love about Zakra 👍
Comes with 5 free content-focussed blog templates
SEO-friendly layout and codes, aiding in better search visibility.
Compatible with major page builders and Gutenberg-ready.
What I don’t like about Zakra 👎
Some advanced features available only in the premium version.
It comes with loads of options that might be confusing for users new to WordPress.
It’s easy to setup an E-commerce site with WordPress by using Woocommerce, a free plugin. Below are my favourite free Woocommerce compatible themes.
When you’re choosing an E-commerce theme you want to check that the theme is:
Fully Woocommerce Compatible: The theme needs to be compatible to work properly with Woocommerce. Most themes will work with Woocommerce but you really want a theme with tight integration and built-in options so you have complete control over the look and feel of your store and it’s functionality.
Styled Woocommerce Pages: Check how the cart, checkout, my account and other Wooocommerce pages look. Make sure they look great and that you have options within the theme to customize and style them.
Regular Updates and Support: When you start making some serious money 🤑 with your store you’re going to want to know that if something goes wrong you can get help quickly. You’ll also want the peace of mind that the theme is kept securely up-to-date.
Here are my favorite Free WordPress Themes for E-commerce websites;
Storefront is a great theme to get your site started with. As it’s developed by Automatic, the people behind Woocommerce it’s got watertight integration with the plugin.
It’s not packed with features but it’s clear and clean design will make your site look slick.
Storefront
What I love about StoreFront 👍
Tight integration with Woocommerce: never worry about a plugin update again!
Minimalistic Design: The design is simple and focused so your visitors can easily buy your products! 🤑
High-level Support and Documents: As this theme is from Woocommerce team it comes with in-depth documentation and great support
Good for SEO: Storefront runs on super clean code making it great for SEO. It’s also superfast which is a search engine ranking factor too
What I don’t like about Storefront 👎
Restrictive design: The design is clean and crisp but could be a little restrictive for some projects
You’ll probably need some plugins: To add extra features and functionality, you’re probably going to need to buy some plugins
Neve’s not only good for content-focused sites. It’s also got seamless integration with Woocomerce.
Neve offers loads of layout options that are highly customizable. With this power you can easily create the look and feel you want for your store.
With Neve your site is going to look great and be easy to navigate.
Neve Shop
What I love about Neve Shop 👍
Lightweight and Fast: Neve’s lean and efficient design ensures quick loading times, which is crucial for maintaining user engagement and SEO rankings.
High Customizability: Offers a wide range of customization options, allowing for a unique and tailored design that can fit various brand identities.
Header and Footer Builder: Offers customizable header and footer options, allowing for a more personalized look and feel of your online store.
Translation and RTL Ready: The theme supports multiple languages and is RTL (Right-to-Left) script ready, which is great for global e-commerce.
Accessibility-Ready: Neve adheres to accessibility standards, ensuring your website is usable by people with disabilities.
What I don’t like about Neve Shop 👎
Potential for Overwhelm: With so many customization options, it could be overwhelming for new WordPress users.
Cost of Premium Features: While the basic theme is free, accessing advanced features requires purchasing the premium version, which might be a consideration for budget-conscious users.
Setup Time: Due to its extensive customization options, initial setup and tweaking of the theme can be time-consuming.
The free version comes with two decent Woocommerce layouts to get you up and running with your store. If you need more you can always upgrade to the premium version.
Zakra Shop
What I love about Zakra Shop 👍
High Quality Templatesw Available: Offers a variety of pre-built demos with the free version, enabling a quick setup.
Page Builder Compatibility: It is compatible with page builders like Elementor, allowing for easy and intuitive page design without requiring coding skills.
Multi-Language Support: The theme is translation-ready, making it suitable for creating multilingual online stores.
Extensive Documentation: Zakra provides detailed documentation, which is especially helpful for setting up and customizing the theme.
Highly Customizable: Zakra offers a wide range of customization options so you can make the site your own.
Things I don’t like about Zakra Shop 👎
Potential Overload with Features: The abundance of features and options, while beneficial, can sometimes lead to a cluttered interface and confusion in finding specific settings.
Support Limitations in the Free Version: You don’t get much support with the free version, unfortunately.
Botiga
This theme is so clean! I absolutely love the free template Botiga comes with.
It puts your products first with large imagery and clean typography. It’s got all the usual features you’d expect and has lots of options to enable you to customize it your hearts content.
Botiga
What I love about Botiga Theme 👍
The Look! – So sleek 😎 – The free template looks great as soon as you install it. With a few basic customizations you can get a stunning site up quickly.
Highly Customizable – Easy to make your own with lots of options.
Super Lightweight and Fast – Great for Search Engines like Google and visitors alike.
Gorgeous Product Templates – If you upload quality images for your products, your product pages will look amazing with this theme.
Live Search – Give your visitor instant search results. So cool!
What I don’t like about Botiga Theme 👎
Support – With the free theme you only get access to the knowledge base and forums.
Everyone loves Astra. You’ll find it at the top of pretty much every list talking about the “best themes”. It claims to be the most popular WordPress theme over all time.
And that’s because it’s good. And it does Ecommerce well too.
Astra
What I love about Astra Theme 👍
Free Starter Sites: A good selection of free Woocommerce starter sites.
Works well with Elementor: With the Elementor page builder, it’s easy to put stuff together.
Regular updates: It’s such a popular theme that the development team are constantly adding new features
Good looker: Lots of great looking templates. Even more with the pro version.
Excellent Woocommerce Integration: Super tight integration with Woocommerce giving you complete control over all aspects of your customers’ journey through your website.
What I don’t like about Astra Theme 👎
Limited Features with Free version: You’ll probably want to do something, but you won’t be able to without upgrading to Pro.
Everyone uses Astra: Not very unique, but I guess that doesn’t matter. 🙂
Best Free WordPress Themes for Business Sites
Business sites need a more professional design than content-focused sites. Of course, business sites should have content, but the most important pages will be the About and Services pages.
When choosing a WordPress theme for a business website think about:
Ready to use templates: You’ll want you website to look slick. By using templates you can create professionally designed pages easily
Contact Forms and CTAs: You’re probably going to want sales leads from your website. To attract these and increase your conversion rate, make sure the theme supports major contact form plugin and has some cool CTA features.
Regular Updates and Support: Your website is going to be an important part of your business. Make sure it stays online by choosing a theme with good updates and support. You may need to upgrade to a premium theme to ensure you get the level you require.
Plenty of options: You’re going to want to customize your site so it fits the uniqueness of your brand. To do this you’ll need a theme with plenty of customization options.
Serious about business online? Then you probably shouldn’t run your website using a free theme. They’re ok when you’re starting but you really want to upgrade to Premium as soon as possible, mainly for the support and critical security updates..
Here’s my favorite free WordPress themes for a business website;
I only discovered it recently when Phil from Spidrweb introduced me to it.
I was blown away! 🤯
It looks like it should be a pro theme – plus it’s also packed with loads of patterns and templates that you’d expect to pay for.
And it’s the built-in templates that I think make this great for a business website. It has patterns for about us, testimonials, pricing tables and so much more!
Of course, it’s got all the usual stuff covered too, like speed and responsiveness.
If you’re looking to build a sweet-looking business site with WordPress, start with Ollie before you try any other themes.
Ollie
What I love about Ollie 👍
Looks like a Pro Theme: This theme does not look FREE at all!
Setup Wizard: Get up and running fast by following the built in Wizard
Loads of FREE Patterns: Most themes don’t give you 40 patterns when you pay. Ollie gives you over 50 for free!
Business Suitable Patterns: Among the 50 free patterns are some really professional-looking ones, like pricing and team members that are perfect for a business website.
Uses Site Editor: No page builders required. Just use WordPress to create beautiful things.
What I don’t like about Ollie 👎
Limited Post Layout Options: The posts look fine but aren’t too flexible. Probably not a big deal for business sites though.
Not written for Woocommerce: Not specifically compatible with Woocommerce but it would probably work ok if you needed it to.
GeneratePress is a very well-respected theme. A very well-put-together theme with lightweight code and lots of flexibility.
With GeneratePress you can create a fantastic business site. The one problem is that you need to know what you’re doing.
If you don’t, they do have a ton of great starter sites for business, but you’ll need to upgrade to premium to access them.
GeneratePress
What I love about GeneratePress
Extremely flexible: You can create whatever you can imagine with this theme.
Super-duper fast: Some say GP is the fastest WordPress theme you can get.
Really Responsive: GP looks stunning on all screens.
Works with Page Builders: To help you get creative you can use page builders like Elementor.
The best code: GP has some of the cleanest most efficient code available in a WordPress theme.
What I don’t like about GeneratePress
Templates (starter sites) are only with the Premium Version: GP has tons of great templates to get you started, but you have to be a premium member to get your hands on them.
Might be hard for beginners: This builds on the first reason. If you’re new to this you’ll want the starter sites to have a chance of achieving what you want.
I like it because it works well with WordPress block editor so you’d need to use a page builder like Elementor – although you can if you want us a it’s compatible with a number of popular builders.
Blocksy is ultra-customizable. You can change everything!
But don’t worry! If customizing loads of stuff isn’t your thing, blocksy comes with lots of free starter site templates that don’t need a lot of changing to create a sweet site.
Blocksy
What I love about Blocksy 👍
Good selection of Free starter sites: Blocksy has lots of templates to get you started.
Beautiful Typography: Somehow text just looks sweet with this theme
Works well with WordPress editors: Blocksy works well with the built-in editor so you don’t need to use a page builder.
Real-time customizer: Edit and see changes in real time.
Fast Page Loads: Blocksy is nice and fast. Which is good ⚡️
What I don’t like about Blocksy 👎
You might need to use a page builder: Blocksy does work well with the native WordPress editors but for more complex designs you might need to use a page builder
Limited Free version: The free version is quite limited.
There are loads and loads of free Themes available. Most are terrible but the themes featured above are all really high quality and enable you to build a business website on a budget.
However, as you develop your website and business, you’re probably going to want to invest in the Pro version or a Premium Theme to give you extra features and peace of mind.
About Our Content Creators
The content creators at WP Eagle are led by Alex Cooper who has over 18 years experience in WordPress and building websites.
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