Free Wordpress themes are a dime a dozen these days, but every so often, you’ll run across a theme so great, you just can’t believe it’s free. I’ve seen other Wordpress Theme lists, and most of them duplicate themes, so I’ve decided to compile a list of what I think are the 35 best free wordpress themes that you might not have seen yet.
All of the themes below have demos, and can be downloaded for free. You’re also welcome to customize the themes as you like, and as good as these themes already are, with a little customization, you can have a stellar site with very little work – just make sure you read the licensing disclaimers before you go too crazy.
This theme is very similar to PopUrls, which is, as described by its founder, the ultimate source for the latest web buzz and news. I’m a HUGE fan of PopUrls, making this theme one of my new favorites.
A WordPress theme with a unique “grunge” design. I really like the colors of this theme, and the grunge look is pretty popular right now.
Ayumi Hamasaki is one of the most popular and influential Japanese pop singers, and I guess this theme is a tribute, but aside from the colors, this is a great theme. Trust me when I say it’s easy to customize this one, and the layout is what earned it a spot on this list.
The theme displays a friendly holding page to let visitors know that you’re busy getting dressed up. It also gives them the chance to subscribe to your feed before you’ve launched. Wave goodbye to “coming soon” text on a boring white background.
This is a dark-colored theme suitable for anyone who wants to create a quick portfolio or wants to showcase his work through WordPress. The theme is fully CSS/XHTML validated, WordPress 2.6+ ready and comes with easy to modify code. The comments are nicely designed with Gravatar functionality.
Refreshed is a one column, white-spaced, and clean design with a lifestream feature outside the regular post stream.
Oh how we LOVE Smashing Magazine and their amazing freebies. Trust me, you’ll see more from them on this list. The theme has 2 columns, a quite vibrant design including “personal” design elements such as handwritten headings, stick-it-notes, clips and pins. The theme was designed by Evan Eckard especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
Talk about getting themes right. DailyWP is hands-down my favorite source for unique WP Themes. Words can’t describe how happy I am with their designs. “Porftolio Wordpress Theme” is a wordpress theme designed for web portfolios and (for now) just for web portfolios. It is coming with an Administrative Panel from where you can edit the head quote text, you can edit all theme colors, font families, font sizes and you can fill a curriculum vitae and display it into a special page. Pretty Cool, eh?
Are you kidding me??? I fell in love with Panic’s Coda the day it came out, and their site is what sold me on it. I remember telling myself how much I’d love to have a site like that, but just figured that day would never come – but now it’s here. This theme is a great example of the functionality of Wordpress as more than a blogging platform.
Okay…back to Smashing Magazine for more fun – literally. The theme has 2 columns, thumbnails integration, a “featured” post section as well as a nice grungy design. The theme was designed by Maleika Attawel from Germany, purchased by Smashing Magazine and is now released as a gift for their readers.
Not really sure how Smashing Magazine feels about this, but I like it. It’s a small redesign to the last theme. It has more of a traditional blog feel, and is a two-column theme.
Ocular Professor (OP) is a WordPress theme designed expressly for photobloggers. OP is the evolution of Professor, a theme designed to showcase written content that wound up being used predominantly for photoblogs. Because of its focus on text, Professor had a number of shortcomings when it came to displaying photos. With the release of embedded galleries in WordPress 2.5, Ocular Professor was born.
This theme isn’t really my cup of tea, but I do see the detail to design in it, and I’m sure many people will like it.
Brightnews Wordpress Theme comes up with 3 big features: 1. It’s magazine style, 2. It’s Free and 3. It’s noob ready. This is another great free theme from DailyWP.
Urban Life is 2 columns green-gray, widget ready wordpress theme. For advanced and stylish people. Entirely compatible with wordpress version 2.6 and is cut out under GPL license .
An earthy Wordpress Theme perfect for outdoors and adventure blogs. I really like the header design, as well as the wood background.
The theme has 3 fixed columns, thumbnails integration, Flickr, Delicious and Twitter integration as well as an attractive visual design. The theme was designed by Zhang Yichi, the creative mind behind Vikiworks Studio from Shanghai, China especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
Blue sky, white clouds, brown earth, red flowers. Those are the images the designer had in mind when designing this unique theme. I personally love the colors, and it’s very easy to customize. Has an optional 3 columns bottom bar, and is widget-ready.
One of two Chrome-inspired themes featured in this list. Widget-ready, 2 column theme that’s easy to customize.
The second of our Chrome-inspired themes. It’s 2 columns fixed width, and widget-ready.
There’s no shortage of magazine themes for Wordpress, but this is a very professional looking theme – and it’s free. People have commented saying they had problems with getting the thumbnails to work, but I’d bet they didn’t read the instructions well. I tried out the theme and had no problems with it.
Another great looking magazine theme. I’m not a huge fan of the default navigation in this theme, but it’s easy to customize, and worth a try if you’re looking for a nice, free magazine theme.
A nice photo gallery themed site. I don’t like the colors, but luckily, they’re easy to change.
Are you a fan of 37Signals’ Highrise? If so, this might be the perfect theme for you. As good as this theme is for creating a CRM, I still think Highrise is the better bet (I’m a proud, long-time user), but I’m using this theme in a different way than described. I’m using it as a place for people to add clients that have not paid for services rendered, and for me, it’s a perfect fit. It takes a bit of work to get everything properly, but it’s worth it.
A free professional Wordpress-theme created by Darren Hoyt and Matt Dawson of Category4. The theme features a built-in lifestream module and contact form with custom control panel options. It is commissioned by Smashing Magazine and designed especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
Not the fanciest of the designs here, but that’s why I like it. Very simple colors, and a focus on content. Would make a great start for a real estate, or interior design blog.
Arthemia is combining a magazine and a weblog into one; it is not too magazine-ish nor too blog-ish. The front page of Arthemia shows the headline and featured post of yours along with the pictorial representation, that’s the magazine style, while the rest of your post will be shows sequentially just like a usual weblog. In the middle of the front page, Arthemia has a nice blue-and-black category bar which will help your readers exploring you site. At the bottom, Arthemia is outfitted with a blog must-have section, a three-list of favorite posts.
Nice transparent theme. Has a few issues with cross-browser compatibility, namely, you lose the rounded corners outside of Firefox. Still a very nice looking theme.
I’m a HUGE fan of Facebook – and though it’s not the popular opinion, I love the new design. This theme is heavily based on the new Facebook look, and pulls it off very well. CryBook is a 3 Column simple theme and contains 2 widget-ready sidebars, live theme switcher and Custom Admin Panel. It’s compatible with up to WordPress 2.6.2 and has been tested in Firefox3, Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Opera, and Safari. This is a very simple theme, with only a few files included. There is not a single image used in the layout, but it’s beautiful!
Magazine themes are more popular than ever, and this is one of the simplest I’ve seen. It has a wood background, and earth-tones color scheme. Some magazine blogs pile tons of information on the homepage, but Valencia Magazine has a nice balance.
This theme is a mix on grunge, and a notepad. Very interesting theme that has somehow slipped under most people’s radar. It’s widget-ready, and you can download the .PSD file.
The last of the magazine themes – I promise. Great colors, interesting navigation, and a simplistic style landed this theme in this list.
Retromania is 2 columns green-yellow-red, widget ready wordpress theme. For modern and stylish people. Retromania Theme entirely compatible with wordpress version 2.6 and it cut out under GPL license. It has a download link for the header .PSD file. Great theme!
SuperFresh is a 3 Column fresh theme base with natural green. It contain 2 widget-ready sidebar, custom templates, with a featured post section in the main page. It’s compatible with up to WordPress 2.6 and has been tested with in Firefox, Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Opera, and Safari.
A clean, simple, and refreshing theme. Nothing too special here, but makes for a very nice blog.
In case you didn’t find what you’re looking for in these 35 themes, here are a few other places to check out.
- WP Themes News – Similar to alltops, it’s a huge list/resource of Worpress themes. Updates daily.
- 30 Free High Quality Wordpress Themes (Smashing Magazine) – We told you we love Smashing Magazine. They have showcased many of the top Wordpress themes in the past, and this is one of their best.
- 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes (Smashing Magazine) – The name says it all. Tons of great themes can be found here.
- 21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant Wordpress Themes (Smashing Magazine) – I know…enough with the SM lists, but hey – they know their stuff when it comes to great themes.
- WordPress Developer’s Toolbox – This also comes from Smashing Magazine, but it’s not a list of themes (though, there is a list in it), but it serves as an organized collection of resources to educate, inspire and equip developers to improve the quality and efficiency of their work. Bravo SM!
