27 Best Free WordPress Themes (Hand-Picked for 2024)

One of the best things about WordPress is the huge variety of themes available for the platform.

We’ve had the opportunity to try many different WordPress themes over the years but quite a few of these are now outdated for current standards.

In this guide, I’ll talk about my favorite free WordPress themes that look and function great in 2024.

Best Free Themes for WordPress

With the average cost of a premium theme coming in at more than $50, and thousands of free options to choose from in the WordPress theme repository, you can create an eye-catching WordPress site while saving money.

Whether you’re looking for the best free WordPress themes for business, blogs, or just a stunningly styled theme, I’ve put together a list of the free options you can get and enjoy right away.

1. OceanWP

This multipurpose theme tops my list. OceanWP belongs to that rare kind of WordPress theme that’s highly versatile and flexible while also being extremely beginner-friendly with its customizations.

The theme works beautifully with the WordPress customizer, giving you a vast and intuitive set of options for editing every aspect of your site. That means you have full control over how you want your navigation menus, top bar, page layouts, typography, and everything in between.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that it even allows you to style your headers and menus for desktops and mobiles separately. In my experience, it’s rare to see this level of depth in the free version of most themes.

And if you’re an eCommerce site, you’ll love the WooCommerce features you get with OceanWP. There’s an excellent range of options for customizing your shopping cart, checkout, and product pages along with various areas of a regular eCommerce site.

On top of that, it has a great variety of free templates/demos that you can import to tailor your site for specific niches and industries, such as membership sites, personal blogs, and corporate sites.

It’s no surprise that OceanWP is one of the fastest growing WordPress themes around, with its eCommerce readiness, and lightning-fast page load time.

2. Astra

Another powerful and fast-growing free WordPress theme is Astra. With this super-fast theme, you can cut down the time you spend designing your site by using one of the pre-built site templates.

You can customize tons of things without a single line of code, and change colors or fonts easily so you can match your brand. If you’d like to brand your website even more, check out this smart hack on how to create a WordPress custom login form.

3. Hestia

Hestia is one of ThemeIsle’s most popular products, with tons of 5-star reviews. ThemeIsle, founded in 2012, is one of the most well-known and popular theme shops. Hestia is a stylish and modern one-page theme that’s flexible for any type of website. It has a focus on speed and performance so your website will load quickly.

4. Neve

Neve by Themeisle made my list because it takes a mobile-first approach, so it’s got a beautiful responsive design. The free theme is also compatible with popular page-builders so it makes website building accessible for everyone. And since it’s from Themeisle, you know this lightweight theme will have reliable updates.

5. Sydney

Another great pick is Sydney, which also offers a mobile responsive design that looks amazing on all devices. This is an excellent theme for creatives trying to build their businesses. It includes a portfolio layout to show off all your best projects using stylish tiles that open up into quick view boxes so clients can take a closer look.

6. Simple

Simple is a free WordPress theme, built by Themify, that can easily add a Shopify store on your WordPress site. That way, you can turn your WordPress site into an eCommerce store where customers can buy products without having to redirect to Shopify. It’s also flexible enough for a regular blog website or business website.

7. SeedProd

SeedProd is a game-changer for anyone that wants to decide exactly how their website looks and functions, without needing any technical knowledge. It’s a powerful drag and drop WordPress page builder that includes landing page templates. Even though it’s a plugin, you can use the templates just like themes to give your site a custom look.

Plus, SeedProd works with all popular WordPress themes, so there’s no need to change your existing theme to use it.

8. Fremedy

Fremedy is a straightforward theme that runs on either Thesis 2 or Genesis and it’s free so you won’t overpay on building your website. It includes a customizable slider, portfolio functionality, and works across all major web browsers. It’s definitely one of the best WordPress portfolio themes for your website.

9. North Shore

North Shore‘s gorgeous design makes it a great choice for creating any website. The transparent header area lets you use bold homepage imagery by displaying either a static header image or a slider. This theme is free, but it does require a paid parent theme, unlike the others on this list.

10. Foodica Lite

Foodica Lite comes with a custom widget and it’s one of the best responsive WordPress themes around. It’s a superb theme for creating food-based blogs and recipe websites. In addition, it has a beautiful featured slider and WooCommerce integration.

11. Agama

Agama is another one of the best multipurpose themes on my list because it can be used in so many ways. The modern design makes this free theme look as sleek as a premium theme. On top of that, it integrates with WooCommerce and tons of popular page builders.

12. Albar

This highly rated free WordPress theme has a responsive design so you can use it to build a business website, portfolio website, online shop, or a simple blog. You can simply turn Albar into an eCommerce store by installing WooCommerce and using SiteOrigin’s easy drag and drop Page Builder, Or, you can start with one of the different page templates this theme offers.

13. Vlogr

If you’re a video blogger, Vlogr is definitely the best free WordPress theme for you. It supports major video hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo, plus it’s mobile-friendly and responsive. Most importantly, this theme is retina and 4K ready, so your content will look crystal clear.

14. Ascend

Ascend has lots of features you think would only be found in a premium theme, and that’s why I love it. It has a stylish vertical menu and a beautiful transparent header that changes as you scroll. You can use this multipurpose theme for any business, a blog, or even an eCommerce shop.

15. Prolific

Another fantastic option if you’re looking for the best free multipurpose themes is Prolific. This theme is great for businesses since you can use custom widgets and a built-in testimonial section. There are a ton of great features with this free theme, but I especially love the custom color options and easy social media buttons.

16. Business Owner

With a bunch of fancy features normally saved for premium themes, Business Owner lands on my list of the best free WordPress themes because of the built-in live customizer. Seeing your changes as you make them is important when building a pretty looking website. It’s also got a responsive design and is SEO optimized.

17. Nothing Personal

Nothing Personal is a perfect free WordPress theme for blogs because it comes with 800+ Google Fonts to choose from. On top of that, there are a bunch of pretty styling options so you can design your blog as a direct representation of you and your brand. Also, it has different layout options, archive options, post templates, and custom colors.

18. Just Read

JustRead has a minimalist design that focuses on reading experience and speed. It’s got one of the best blog layouts out of all the free WordPress themes out there. It looks clean and simple, plus it makes a gorgeous portfolio website.

19. Biscuit Lite

If you’re looking for the best free WordPress theme for recipes, Biscuit Lite has to be mentioned. Food bloggers can start a site on this gorgeous theme template that is ultra-fast and has a responsive design, so your meals will look delicious on mobile devices, too.

20. Screenr

This bold theme features another modern fullscreen design perfect for agencies, bloggers, portfolios, freelancers, or businesses. Screenr would be an excellent pick for someone in the creative field if you’re trying to show off your taste for contemporary design.

21. Knight

One of the most visually impressive choices on this list of the best free WordPress themes is Knight. It’s one of the newer players in the game, but this block editor-supported WordPress Blog theme is becoming super popular because it’s suitable for any kind of website. Plus, it’s got all the bells and whistles of the rest of the list with its responsive design and super easy customization options.

22. Bravada

With Bravada, you get a mobile responsive, fully customizable theme that’s perfect for content-heavy sites like blogs and portfolios. It offers flashy CSS animations to impress all your site visitors. If you’re selling products online, you can easily integrate this theme with WooCommerce to create a beautiful virtual storefront.

23. Business Intuition

Business Intuition is a stylish and powerful multipurpose WordPress corporate theme that lets you make a stunning business, corporate, personal, or agency website. It’s easy to use and very fast, so you’ll have a cool looking website in just a few clicks.

24. Business Startup

This free theme has quite the visual wow factor. Just take one look at Business Startup and you’ll realize why it’s one of the best free WordPress themes out there. And it doesn’t just look great, you can also use the live customizer, page builder, and custom widgets to make your website perfect for you.

25. Ashe

The Ashe theme is ideal for bloggers who want to show off their posts in style. It includes a slider to feature your most recent content and promo boxes for your affiliate products. Of course, it’s also mobile responsive and optimized for search engines to help readers find your site.

26. Mesmerize

There are so many customizable options with the Mesmerize theme that hardly any 2 sites that use it end up looking alike. And its live customizer lets you see your changes in real-time when you edit your site. You can combine design options like spacings, background, overlay, graphic separator, header layout, and media type to obtain a truly unique and outstanding website.

27. Indiana

Because minimalist design themes are wildly popular right now, Indiana is another great free theme to be aware of. It’s got a stunning featured image on the home page, which is of course customizable. On top of that, it’s also got custom widgets and a live customizer.

And there you have it! You now know your options for the best free WordPress themes around.

Free WordPress Themes – FAQ

Still have some questions? Check out some of my most frequently asked questions about free WordPress themes below.

Are Free WordPress Themes Safe to Use?

Yes, most free WordPress themes are safe to use, especially those that come from the official WordPress theme directory. To lower your risk, use highly-rated themes from reputable developers. It’s also important to make sure the developer is providing regular updates.

Do Free WordPress Themes Offer Responsive Design?

Yes, there are many responsive themes available in the official WordPress theme directory. Before installing the theme, it’s a good idea to preview it to test it at various sizes to see how it will display on different devices. Be sure to check out the theme documentation, as well.

What Features Should I Look For in a Free Theme?

In a free theme, always look for features that improve ease of use. This includes a drag-and-drop user interface, blog templates, and the ability to customize certain aspects on-page. Remember to research support options ahead of time so you know what to expect if you need help.

Do Free Themes Limit My Design Options?

While free themes do aim to make it easier for you to make some of the most common customizations on your site, you’ll find that you have better and often more nuanced design options with a premium theme.

Are There Drawbacks to Using a Free WordPress Theme?

Each theme is different, but you could experience fewer theme updates, a lack of support, fewer customization options, fewer features, gated features, and basic designs when using a free WordPress theme. You can certainly make do with them, but a paid theme will offer more functionality, flexibility, and customization.

Next, Build Your Contact Form With WPForms

Now that you selected your free WordPress theme, you should consider building contact forms for your website.

WPForms Pro is the best way to do that because:

• It’s the most beginner-friendly WordPress contact form plugin and uses a drag and drop builder to create any form you like.
• It integrates with the most popular email marketing services and their free and paid plans, so you can keep costs low.
• It’s fully responsive and forms will look great on all devices, including mobile.
• Conditional logic helps you keep your forms clutter-free to keep visitors focused on completing the form.
• It lets you create a multi-page form to break the form into multiple pages for your users and enhance the user experience.
• Its new and updated user registration form addon has ready-made templates for password request forms and login forms that can remember recurring users.
• It allows you to create an interactive form on your theme helping you get more leads in a conversational tone, which can help you get more form conversions.
• You get access to priority support from a friendly and knowledgeable team.

Create Your WordPress Form Now

If you love free stuff, you should definitely check out our article on the best free WordPress plugins for your website. Also, check out how to connect WPForms to MailPoet, a free email marketing plugin.

What are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today.

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