9 Best Free WordPress Themes for Your Website Projects

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I’ve been blogging for over a decade; one thing that remains true over that period is finding quality free WordPress themes is an arduous task. 

Even as WordPress evolves and grows in many theme developers and repositories, finding reliable and suitable themes for your unique projects is still challenging. 

On many occasions, I have waded through countless theme pages, testing different free themes trying to find the perfect match for my blog. But, it has never been an easy task. 

This is why I put years of experience into use and help you with a list of WordPress-free themes you can start with and jumpstart your online presence today. 

These themes are safe to use and work great for all business types – blogs, portfolios, eCommerce, SaaS, affiliate sites, membership, etc. 

Besides, some of the free themes on this page come with free starter templates with demo content, allowing you to deploy a demo site in one click with all its content, visuals, and essential pages, like About Us, Contact, Home, Pricing, Checkout, etc. 

How to Find the Best Free WordPress Theme

As I write this line, over 6,700 free themes are in the official WordPress.org repository. However, when you consider other premium/free themes not available on the platform, it is safe to say that there are over 10,000 themes. 

How do you go through all that just to pick one or two for your project? 

The reality is that you can’t. 

No one has the time to review over 10,000 themes to find the right one for their website. It is impossible. 

So what do you do? 

Below are some of the criteria to follow and watch out for. 

• Speed and Performance – A fast-loading website is essential for a good user experience and SEO. Look for themes with optimized code and minimal bloat. If you’re unsure about this, check the theme documentation. 
• Responsiveness – A mobile-friendly theme isn’t an option today; it is one criterion you must consider. Choose a theme responsive to user devices, mobile, desktop, and tablet. 
• Determine your website’s goal – Do you want to sell products, run affiliate sites, membership, or showcase your work of art? Your business purpose also influences the type of theme you choose. 
• Consider your brand identity – Another factor is your brand identity. Consider your overall business theme, brand color, typography, image, etc.
• Customization Options – Though most free themes limit customization capabilities, find a theme that gives you more control over theme design and customization. 
• SEO Friendliness – Theme optimization is one of the areas you must not overlook. Choose a theme with built-in SEO features like Schema markup, font optimization, CSS preload, etc. 
• Theme compatibility – Verify that the theme is compatible with essential plugins like WooCommerce (for online stores), marketing automation, page builders, lead generation tools, etc.
• Customer Support and Regular Updates – Look for themes with reliable customer support to assist you with any issues. The theme is regularly updated to meet the latest industry standards and technology.

1. Astra

Astra is more than just a theme; it’s a performance-driven platform designed to empower website creators. Its lightweight core and streamlined codebase ensure lightning-fast loading times, a crucial factor in today’s digital landscape. 

Built with SEO in mind, Astra incorporates essential elements like Schema.org markup and hosting Google Fonts locally to improve search engine visibility. It is compatible with Beaver Builder, Gutenberg, Elementor, Spectra, and other page builders.

This flexibility allows users to craft unique and engaging designs without being constrained by rigid templates. Astra provides a solid foundation for building a personal blog, a robust online store, or a corporate website.

Beyond its core functionalities, Astra offers additional features like WooCommerce compatibility, RTL and translation readiness, and many customization options. This comprehensive package positions Astra as a strong contender for those seeking a high-performance, user-friendly WordPress theme.

Another thing I like about Astra is the focus on website performance. Out of the box, the Astra theme is less than 50kb, ensuring your website loads as fast as possible and no extra load on your web server. 

Astra theme is available as a free download as well as premium add-ons with advanced features and functionalities, like hook elements, mega menus, custom layouts, social media sharing buttons, blog layouts, etc.

Top Features

• Blazing Fast Performance – Enjoy lightning-fast load times for an optimal user experience.
• Unparalleled Customization – Tailor your website to perfection with extensive customization options.
• Seamless Page Builder Integration – Work seamlessly with popular WordPress page builders for effortless design.
• Free AI Website Builder – Astra now includes a free AI website builder, ZipWP AI, allowing you to create AI-generated content faster.
• SEO Optimized – Improve your website’s search engine visibility with built-in SEO features.
• Responsive Design – Ensure your website looks great on all devices.
• WooCommerce Compatibility – Create a professional online store with ease.
• Extensive Template Library – Choose from various pre-designed templates to get started quickly.

2. Neve

Neve is a free WordPress theme that perfectly balances speed and style. Its sleek design and lightweight code make it a popular choice for various websites. 

Whether you’re building a blog, a portfolio, or an online store, Neve can adapt to your needs. 

It is developed by Themeisle, one of the most popular WordPress theme developers, so you can rest assured this is a top WordPress theme. 

It integrates seamlessly with Gutenberg and other page builders, such as Elementor, Brizy, Visual Composer, Divi, Beaver Builder, Thrive Architect, and SiteOrigin.

Optimized for speed and SEO, Neve ensures your website loads quickly and ranks well in search engine results. 

With features like AMP support and a mobile-first approach, you can be confident that your site will look great and perform well on any device.

Top Features

• Lightning-Fast Performance – Enjoy exceptional website speed.
• AMP Support – Neve theme provides native support for accelerated mobile pages (AMP), ensuring your website pages are as fast as possible on mobile devices.
• Customizable Header and Footer – Create a unique website look with a drag-and-drop header/footer builder.
• WooCommerce Ready – Sell products online without hassle.
• SEO-Friendly – The Neve theme is optimized with clean codes and structured to improve SEO visibility.
• Global Color Palette – Customize sitewide background color from one place and apply changes globally.
• Translation Ready – Reach a global audience with multiple language support, including RTL (Right to Left) languages.
• White Lable – Make Neve theme your own, put your brand, and customize it to fit client demand.

3. Kadence

Kadence is another excellent free WordPress theme known for its speed and flexibility. This theme prioritizes performance without sacrificing design capabilities. 

With a focus on simplicity, Kadence offers a clean canvas to build your website.

To extend its core function and features, the Kadence Block brings extra features, Gutenberg-compatible blocks, and powerful customization and control. 

For most of our blogs, we use the Kadence theme and the Kadence block to build our pages. The Kadence block is packed with features and design elements that make creating unique and stunning web pages effortlessly.

The Kadence Design Library is another of its powerful features. You can import readymade designs and patterns into your web page and customize their appearance and settings to fit your needs.

Top Features

• Lightweight and Fast – Kadence is coded to load only the required resources on the visiting page. This improves website loading and performance significantly.
• Advanced Header/Footer Builder – Create unique website layouts with the Kadence Drap and Drop Builder with live editing, design options, and powerful customizer settings.
• Built-in Customizer – Easily tweak your website’s appearance without coding with the live customer.
• Kadence AI – Create custom AI website design templates from scratch just by answering a few questions and without being a web designer.
• Responsive Design Control – Kadence isn’t only responsive; you can also control each element’s design and set it for desktops, smartphones, and table views.
• Preload CSS asset – Kadence loads critical CSS assets in the header only when needed to improve site performance.
• Global Options – Customize and control design options like color, typography, and site layouts in one click.
• WooCommerce Compatible – Sell products quickly online and extend WooCommerce features with Kadence Shopkit.
• Social Link – Built-in social media profile links let you build your follower base from your website.
• SEO Optimized – Kadence is developed with built-in SEO features to support your website’s SERP visibility.

4. GeneratePress

GeneratePress is a highly customizable and lightweight WordPress theme. Its minimalist approach provides a solid foundation for building any type of website. 

With a focus on performance and user experience, GeneratePress has gained a strong reputation in the WordPress community. 

However, the free theme might fall below expectations if you want a more aesthetic theme. GeneratePress Pro is where its true power lies, offering excellent customization and addons. 

Regarding performance, GeneratePress is unbeatable. It’s fast, built with clean codes, and helps improve Google CWV significantly.

The premium addon comes with several advanced features like hooks, conditional display, advanced header and footer customizations, mega menu, extra widgets, etc.

Top Features

• Extensive Library – Save development hours and start quickly with a vast library of premade templates and design patterns. 
• Advanced Hooks – Inject and customize anything into any part of the website, from content to codes, images, and files. 
• Advanced Layout – Change site/page layouts based on conditions like display rules. 
• Copy/paste – Save time using copy/paste design to reuse later. 
• Device Visibility – Set blocks visibility for each user’s device, such as mobile, desktop, and tablet. 
• Custom Attributes – Use the user-friendly interface to easily apply custom data or attributes to your blocks. 
• Theme Builder – GeneratePress Block theme allows you to build and design your theme elements with the block editor.

5. CyberChimps

CyberChimps is a user-friendly free WordPress theme designed for beginners. 

Its clean and straightforward layout makes it easy to create a professional-looking website. While it may offer fewer advanced features than other themes, CyberChimps excels in simplicity and ease of use.

It is the perfect choice for those just starting with WordPress and needing a simple yet feature-rich free WordPress blog theme. 

Top Features

• Social Media Integration – Easily share your content on social platforms with its built-in social media features. 
• User-Friendly Interface – Ideal for beginners.
• Responsive Design – Your site will look good on all devices, including mobile, desktop, and tablet.
• SEO Optimized – The Cyberchimps theme is optimized to improve SERP visibility. 
• Customizable Colors and Fonts – You can customize every part of the theme without being a developer. 

6. OceanWP

OceanWP is a flexible canvas for your online vision. Designed with speed and customization in mind, it empowers you to create stunning websites without the technical hassle. 

As of when writing this post, OceanWP has 7 million+ downloads, making it one of the most popular free WordPress themes. It has over 5k five-star user reviews on WordPress.org alone, a testament to high quality and top-notch performance.

Whether you’re building a personal blog, a dynamic portfolio, or a thriving online store, OceanWP has you covered.

Its lightweight core ensures lightning-fast load times, while its extensive customization options allow you to tailor your site to your unique style. 

OceanWP seamlessly integrates with third-party plugins, including page builder and lead generation plugins, and offers a plethora of features to enhance your website’s functionality and aesthetics.

With a focus on user experience and SEO, OceanWP is more than just a theme—it’s a powerful tool to help you achieve your online goals. 

You can customize the view of your site for each device – mobile and desktop, allowing you to tailor your site experience to match user expectations.

Top Features

• Performance – Option to disable WordPress and OceanWP features that are not active, or you do not use.
• WooCommerce Ready – Create a professional online store.
• Multiple Demo Layouts – Choose from various pre-designed templates.
• Header and Top Bar – In-built 7 header style, top bar, and social media features with custom template support.
• Customizable Header and Footer – Create a unique website appearance.
• Download – 7.5 million with 5-star user reviews. 
• Content Loop Builder – Reorder design elements to build shops, blogs, and product pages as you please. 
• Global Setting – Control sitewide features like color, typography, and site layout in one click. 
• SEO – Schema markup integration and adjustable H tags.  
• Translation Ready – Reach a global audience with multiple language support.

7. Hello Elementor

Hello Elementor is a free WordPress theme designed with the Elementor page builder. If you’re already familiar with Elementor, this theme offers a seamless integration for creating stunning websites. 

With a clean and minimalist foundation, Hello Elementor provides the perfect canvas for your designs. It is forever free, so you can use this theme without worrying about upgrading to premium or lacking essential features. 

However, there is a tradeoff between advanced features and basic functionalities compared to other themes on this list. The Hello Elementor WordPress theme works well if you’re willing to use the Elemntor page builder plugin. 

Top Features

• Deep Elementor Integration – Built to work seamlessly with Elementor page builder and platform.
• Lightweight and Fast – Enjoy improved website performance.
• Readymade template kits – 30+ custom-designed website kits. 
• Customization – Powerful theme customization capabilities for headers, footer, color, font, site logo, etc.  
• MMultipurpose- You can build any website – eCommerce, educational website, technology, business, entertainment, membership, etc.
• WooCommerce Compatible – Edit and customize your WooCommerce store with advanced Elementor ecommerce features like Elementor eCommerce kit and wireframes. 
• SEO and Performance – Developed with clean and no-bloat coding and vanilla styling canvas, this theme is fully optimized to deliver an optimal site experience. Note that Hello Elementor is only 6kb in size, making it one of the most lightweight themes.

8. Hestia Pro

Hestia Pro is a modern and versatile free WordPress theme suitable for various website types. With its clean design and intense focus on user experience, Hestia Pro offers a solid foundation for your online project.

It is a mmultipurposeWordPress theme that fits most industry needs, like cosmetics, spar, restaurants, weddings, events, politics, business, technology, etc. You can use this theme for any website project, and it will look good. 

Hestia is developed by ThemeIsle, one of the household names in the WordPress themes community. If you’re familiar with ThemeIsle products, you know they are synonymous with high-quality standards.

Top Features

• One-Click Demo Import – Quickly set up your website with pre-built demos sites.
• Customizer – Customize your site with the live preview WordPress templates customizer.
• Enhance WooCommerce Compatibility – Choose from two different designs to build your eCommerce store and customize it to fit your store needs. 
• Homepage Design – Customize your homepage with either a slider or a video intro to showcase important content to your user. 
• Advanced Blog Page – Customize the blog page with different layout options, like grid and masonry effect, and select a featured post or category. 
• Mega Menus – Create a powerful and custom mega menu, rearrange and reorder menus to help users find important content faster.

9. Blocksy

Blocksy distinguishes itself as a high-performance WordPress theme prioritizing speed and user experience. 

Built with a focus on core functionalities and optimization, it delivers a clean, fast, and adaptable platform for website creation. 

Though Blocksy is not as popular as Astra, Kadence, or GeneratePress, it boosts impressive features and enhances performance. Key features like lazy loading, SEO optimization, and a minimalist codebase contribute to Blocksy’s reputation as a speed-oriented solution. 

Also, it may not boast an extensive library of pre-designed templates, but its emphasis on customization and performance makes it a compelling choice for budget-friendly options.

Top Features

• GDPR Compliant – Help protect user privacy and comply with data protection regulations with built-in GDPR features.
• Schema Integration – Enhance search engine understanding of your website’s content with pre-built schema markup.
• Instant Customizations – Streamline the design process with a real-time preview of your changes, eliminating the need for constant page refreshes.
• Quick Start – Save time and effort with the one-click demo importer, which instantly populates your site with pre-designed content.
• Custom Color Palette – Create a unique brand identity by quickly adjusting the overall color scheme of your website.
• Consistent Typography – Maintain a cohesive look and feel with global typography settings applied throughout your site.
• Optimized Image Loading – Improve website speed and user experience by deferring image loading until needed.

FAQs About Best Free WordPress Themes

Conclusion

Having a great-looking website is one of the goals, but focusing on performance and user experience should be your priority. 

Choose a theme that makes SEO optimization easier, improves user experience, showcases your content in prominent places, and makes it easy to manage your blog. 

Free WordPress themes are not developed equally, so you must do your due diligence in ensuring the theme you choose meets all the boxes and allows you to achieve your business goals. 

After choosing the right theme, the next step is to review a list of essential WordPress plugins for your blog, like cache and speed optimization plugins. Here is the best place to start your research.