52 Best Free WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2022 (Expert Pick)
When you’re launching a WordPress site, you’ll want to find a free WordPress theme with a responsive design.
However, there are thousands of highly customizable free themes for WordPress. Each WordPress theme in the free ecosystem is intended for a different purpose, and not all page builders have the same needs.
We’ll help you to identify a handful of theme options that you can use for free. If you’re not sure which theme to pick for your blog layouts, we’ll help you choose the best free layout for your blog so that you can focus on your content.
Launching Your WordPress Site
Before you browse the theme offers, you’ll need to launch your website, install hosting, and deploy WordPress to your server. Installing WordPress can be difficult, but many resources can help you.
Likewise, purchasing hosting for your site may be challenging, but with the help of your hosting company’s customer service, you’ll be in good shape. After your website is live and your WordPress is configured, you can start to browse for a free WordPress theme.
Sparker
If you’re looking for a minimalist and fully customizable WordPress theme that’s great for enterprise customers, look no further than the blog theme called Sparker. Sparker also has e-commerce integration, blog highlight functionality, extensible widgets, and built-in SEO tuning and analytics.
However, Sparker may not appear personable enough for some applications, so make sure that the aesthetic fits your brand.
Bold Photography
Bold Photography is a theme intended to feature its striking background images to evoke emotions in website visitors. From a technical standpoint, Bold Photography is formidable, as it allows for adjusting of the images at the centerpiece of the theme.
You will also find that Bold Photography is light on fields for text, as are most other image themes. This means that while its modern design is beautiful, the page layouts may not be the best for some post formats.
Related: 10 Best WordPress Themes for Photographers
Journal
Journal is a minimalist WordPress blog theme that’s easy to set up and simple to configure at a glance. Journal is especially effective because its front page includes a large featured posts reel as well as an image panel. Theme free wordpress in Journal also comes with a multiple color scheme set.
You will also find that the Journal themes have a handful of typography options to highlight beautiful typography and your featured image. Journal’s weakness is its social icons, which are hard to find in this free theme.
Interserver
Interserver is a theme that emphasizes responsive and straightforward design. As with many WordPress themes, you won’t have a million different widget areas or extensive theme features, but you will have a blogging theme that works out of the box for mixed e-commerce and blogging applications.
In terms of its WordPress aesthetics, Interserver’s blogging theme is clean and cute. For blogs about home goods, cooking, childcare, or even addiction recovery, Interserver is a great free theme.
Infinity
Infinity is a flat design theme for blogs, complete with a custom logo maker. The high-contrast color choices are professional but not especially aesthetically pleasing themes. With this theme, you’ll have a full-width layout, a large header area, a few typography options, and limited online store functionality.
Infinity’s minimal design doesn’t leave visually-inclined people with much to work with, however. The header image is a bit difficult to implement for the few theme options with this theme.
Balanced
Balanced is a simple yet effective WordPress blog theme that is great for personal fitness sites that need a mix of blog widgets. The header layouts are highly constrained, but the right sidebar with article suggestions is an effective way to leverage your SEO once someone is on your site.
Balanced is also easy to set up for a blog theme, fully responsive for free WordPress, and fast to load. Other themes should follow Balanced’s lead.
Queens Magazine
This theme and other similar themes are perfect for larger blogs with several different types of content. Using the drag and drop functionality, you can arrange elements on this WordPress blogging theme. The Queens Magazine theme is also perfect for fashion lifestyle blogs or food blogs.
The one issue with the Queens Magazine format is that it offers multiple page templates to work with, and some users may be confused by all the options.
Blogger Era
Blogger Era is a WordPress theme designed for personal blogs with sticky headers. With the Blogger Era theme, you’ll get a personal highlight box where you can include your photography or an image of your choice. Blogger Era is easy to use, and its blog themes are elegant for a free WordPress theme.
You’ll also get a blogroll with several sections, a high degree of control over your color selection, and a Google-friendly SEO package.
Creativ
Creativ is packed with great homepage or landing page themes for your blog thanks to its ease of navigation, excellent typography choices, and uniformity of presentation across mobile devices. Creativ themes for WordPress free also come with other WordPress themes, so you can get a lot of bang for your buck.
Creativ’s box template is challenging to populate with widgets. Still, it’s a great WordPress theme for free if you want to incorporate photography, blog posts, snazzy headers, or a large video element in the background or the header.
Blogstart
Blogstart is a free WordPress theme that is so highly customizable that it eclipses many paid themes. Blogstart’s core advantage is that it has easy-to-use featured images, image headers, and drag and drop page builder.
Blogstart’s only blog theme problem is that its social icons are lacking, so you’ll need to be more aggressive with your social links. Most free themes have a similar drawback, so it isn’t a big deal for this WordPress theme.
Generate Press
Generate Press is one of the best free WordPress themes because it’s highly customizable and it has a handful of different theme options. The theme options include widget areas, a header image, color schemes, and several blog layouts.
Generate Press also includes unlimited color options, a page builder, and a custom logo design. Everything in Generate Press looks great, and the background image configuration in the page builder is especially easy to use.
The Writers Blog
The Writers Blog theme is a different page compared to other text-centric themes. As a WordPress blogging theme, as the name suggests, the Writers Blog is catered toward individuals who produce creative content.
Don’t let that dissuade you from using this theme or other similar themes if you are a news service. The theme’s focus is on being SEO-friendly and effective at conveying text, but its clean and modern design makes it great for mixed media as well.
Blogasm
Blogasm is a theme that works great for lifestyle fashion blogs, thanks to its image collage design. The free version of the theme is fully functional, and the layout options let you decide which pictures you want to emphasize.
The primary color of this theme is white, so if you want something more colorful, you may need to look elsewhere.
Wisteria
Wisteria unites a timeless layout with compelling flat design and SEO optimization. While its page builders are not the most customizable, the theme options for color and typography are tough to beat.
Similarly, Wisteria is one of the best free WordPress themes because it has been in development for a long time. Thousands of people have tested each widget area so that you won’t encounter any technical issues with this free theme for WordPress.
Ascend
As the name implies, Ascend is an outdoorsy and lifestyle fashion theme for WordPress. Large panoramic images are at the heart of this theme, and it’s also great for personal blogs, thanks to its small yet robust text content spaces. Free themes don’t get much better than Ascend.
Photoblogs and other photography-rich sites will benefit from using Ascend, but more technical blogs will have a harder time with their theme options.
Fury
Fury is a WordPress theme for e-commerce and online stores. Fury has Woocommerce support, and it’s one of the most popular WordPress themes as a result.
The live update function lets you easily push new products onto your store page, and Fury offers multiple color choices and page templates options.
Agama
If you have a blog with text content, image content, and e-commerce, Agama is a fantastic blog theme. Agama’s design is understated, but its translation-ready text fields, clean design, and high-quality navigation menus are winners.
Agama is ideal for business websites, as the theme makes it easy to cross-link your featured content to other starter sites.
CityLogic
CityLogic is an image-heavy theme that’s a shortcut to providing a good user experience to your website visitors. In this free WordPress theme, you’ll get a ready-to-use homepage layout, several grid layouts, and a photography section that’s great for everyone, from food bloggers to law firms.
CityLogic also supports custom CSS, so if you want to make new navigation menus, search bars, accent colors, or social media integrations, there won’t be anything in your way.
Conica
For a masonry layout with sensible accent colors, an influential block editor, and a price tag of zero, Conica is a powerful free WordPress theme.
When you use Conica for blogs, you’ll get a theme free for WordPress, several custom logo options, and a zesty front page.
Panoramic
If you want a horizontal WordPress website blog theme, Panoramic might be right up your alley. Panoramic lacks a featured images section, but it does have a handful of different post formats, color schemes, and other customization options.
When you use Panoramic, you’ll also get one of the best free WordPress customer support systems, so make sure to appreciate the help you have access to.
Magbook
Magbook is a photography-centric WordPress theme that’s one of the best free choices out there. Magbook’s best feature is its featured images selection, each of which leads to the blogging theme pages.
Magbook also has a handful of theme options, page templates, and a drag and drop customization suite.
Related: Best “Photography Website” Hosting & Photo Hosting Sites in 2022
Vogue
There are few better choices for WordPress blog themes designed for fashion lifestyle and e-commerce blogs than Vogue. Vogue’s blog layout includes Woocommerce support, page templates, clean design, and unlimited color options.
Vogue’s design is rights reserved, so you’ll need to get a license if you use it outside of normal free theme parameters.
Responsive Mobile
For post formats intended for viewing on mobile devices, Responsive Mobile is a great choice. Responsive Mobile’s header layouts are easily rendered on mobile phones, and using the live update feature makes it easy to be pushing new content to all of your site’s pages.
Responsive Mobile’s theme comes with a custom logo, so you may need to customize the header if you want your logo.
Avant
Avant’s flat and minimalistic design is perfect for e-commerce blogs that need small post formats and a large custom logo area. Avant’s WordPress theme has a stellar navigation menu, great social buttons, and an effective search bar.
You should be aware that Avant is also SEO-friendly, so you won’t need to do much to start social sharing.
Ignite
Ignite has classic WordPress aesthetics with beautiful typography and a right sidebar that offers multiple ways for users to navigate your blog.
While Ignite is Woocommerce compatible, you should understand that it isn’t a free WordPress theme intended for e-commerce. Instead, this free blog theme is excellent for personal blogging or photography.
Otography
Otography is an artistic and popular WordPress theme optimized for SEO and highly responsive for viewing numerous images in maximum resolution. Otography is one of the best free WordPress themes for amateur photographers who care less about social sharing and more about generating business directly from viewers.
For personal blogs, Otography is best for people who like to include a lot of featured images.
Related: Best Website Builder for Artists 2023
Virtue
For visual blogging themes, Virtue is a responsive and flat design option. Virtue also has e-commerce support, several widget areas, a blog area, and several customization options.
Virtue’s page builder is somewhat limited, but its blogging themes are good enough for most purposes. Social media icons are also hard to implement, but the theme’s online magazine format makes up for it.
Responsive
As a free WordPress blogging theme, Responsive is a no-clutter and straightforward theme with a featured image panel and a one-page blogroll layout. If you’re looking for an extensive header area and a smattering of different page templates, look no further.
You can also integrate Responsive to Woocommerce. If you plan on expanding your audience to other countries, all Responsive pages are translation-ready.
Natural Lite
If you don’t need many color options, but you would like wide formats to show off your best photography or images, Natural Lite might be right up your alley. Natural Lite is partially customizable, easy to navigate, and has a fully-featured site builder that you probably won’t need, thanks to its template collection.
When you use Natural Light to make your WordPress blog, remember that it works best when you use images as hubs for other content.
iFeature
iFeature’s flat design makes it a visually pleasing blog theme for WordPress. You can easily layer a large background image behind a substantial top header, and it’s simple to add photo galleries to guide your subsequent development.
iFeature also has some e-commerce support, but its main strength is in its highly configurable social buttons and widgets.
Hueman
Hueman combines the strengths of feature-rich flat design with the customizability of multiple blog layouts and SEO optimization. Hueman blogs have two featured item panels, a central blogroll, navigation in the top bar, and an understated top header.
You will need to play with Hueman’s color customization options to match your brand; they may clash with a strong brand image by default.
Tempo
Tempo is a minimalist and text-centric free WordPress blog theme. Tempo’s main colors are black and white, but there are also several shades of grey. The header on Tempo is large, but not colorful, so you will need to rely on its typography options if you want to excel.
Tempo’s layout is light on navigation and featured widgets, but it does have a navigation menu in the top right. You can customize the position of the menu and several other widgets from inside the site builder.
Author
For reporters or literary producers, Author is a great personal blogging theme. Author’s sidebar includes an image for your profile, social buttons, a large header, and a search bar. Author also renders cleanly on mobile devices as well as desktop machines.
The area where Author could use more work is in its SEO optimization. While many people do just fine with its built-in tools, higher-traffic sites may need more analytics widget support.
Garfunkel
Named after Paul Simon’s musical partner, Garfunkel is a modern and aesthetically appealing free theme that trades technical chops for a beautiful flat design out of the box.
Garfunkel’s social buttons are understated, as are its navigation menus. However, the default color scheme and typography are absolutely beautiful, so text-heavy blogs will pull it off perfectly.
Blog Diary
Blog Diary is an interesting free theme because it combines a standard biographical sidebar insert with a blog roll mediated by the header image as the anchor. This means that Blog Diary is great for people who want to capture viewers with a stunning image, then follow up with a discursive text on a separate page.
Blog Diary’s issue is that it doesn’t have much e-commerce integration support, so you will need to use a different theme if you plan on moving a lot of goods using your website.
Primer
Primer is a postmodern WordPress theme that has a flat design and a one-page layout. Social media buttons and integrations are light with Primer, making for a highly professional website for consultancies and other service businesses.
Primer’s color schemes are tailored to make your blog look sleek and stately. If you want high customizability, you might be better off with a more complex theme.
Illdy
Illdy is one of the most popular WordPress themes for free as a result of its one-page layout, multiple template options, and drag-and-drop site builder. With Illdy, you won’t need to think about the color selection of your buttons because they are tagged automatically to the theme you use.
If you want a website that displays perfectly regardless of your hardware, Illdy is a wonderful choice. On the other hand, if you want e-commerce integration, Illdy has that too, so it’s well-rounded as a free WordPress theme.
Phlox
Phlox is a colorful and integration-friendly theme that’s great for artistic websites. If you want a personal portfolio site, Phlox might be the right theme for your needs.
The Phlox SEO optimization is robust, but you may find that it doesn’t have many options for displaying featured posts or other recurring media for your readers.
Satori
For a home-like and warm theme, Satori is a market-leading option even though it’s free. Satori isn’t about flashy navigation bars, moving elements, or sophisticated widgets. Instead, Satori focuses on providing an easy experience for your users as they navigate through your blog.
Satori isn’t very customizable from a technical standpoint, but it’s great for blogs that need a little bit of everything.
The Columnist
The Columnist is a lighthearted and cheerful free WordPress theme that features sidebar support, simple navigation, flat design, and minimalistic social media buttons. Intended for e-magazines, the Columnist is great for blogs that need frequent and deep updates with new content.
However, text content will be easier to work with than image content when you’re blogging with the Columnist.
Mesmerize
Mesmerize is a flat-design blog theme for WordPress, which has standard widgets, an acceptable navigation system, and a one-page design capability. There’s a lot going on with Mesmerize’s navigation bar, and it may be too complicated for a personal blog.
On the other hand, Mesmerize’s customizability is substantial, especially if you want to alter your website’s flow from one page to several different pages.
Tracks
Tracks is a theme for displaying large high-resolution images in the style of your brand. There’s custom logo support, one-page design customization, and several interesting photo display options with Tracks.
Where Tracks falters is its social media support and its Woocommerce integration, so plan accordingly.
Hiero
Hiero’s flat design is light on color but heavy on functionality. Between the search bar, the featured content sections, the social media badges, and a decent navigation suite, Hiero is great for magazines as well as personal blogs.
Businesses may find that Hiero lacks a central hub for newcomers to get situated, however.
Ashe
Tailored towards fashion lifestyle bloggers, Ashe is a theme for people who want to show off their content in a header bar at the top of their website. With Ashe, you’ll have e-commerce integration, SEO optimization, and a functional blogroll without needing any additional configuration.
As a bonus, Ashe is compatible with Beaver Bar, so for people who are familiar with Beaver Bar’s website builder, it’s one of the easiest to use options in the free WordPress theme ecosystem.
Shapely
When you need a landing page that captures the essence of your business or personal brand in a set of stunning images in a one-page design, look no further than Shapely. Shapely’s strength is its conversion-oriented default layout templates.
On the other hand, if you want to build awareness rather than funnel your users into conversion, you may find that Shapely doesn’t convey information in the text as effectively as other themes might.
Lovecraft
If you want to pair long-form blog content with a compelling set of panoramic headers, Lovecraft will please you. While its configuration options are limited, Lovecraft more than makes up for its shortcomings as a result of its beautiful blog post rendering, complete with a mobile-friendly design and a two-tone color selection.
Lovecraft’s templates are great for different types of blog posts that highlight different elements of prose and visual content. While the social media buttons are a bit weak, everything else in the theme makes it an easy pickup, especially because it’s free.
Admiral
While its design is quite crowded, Admiral is a remarkable theme for people who want to provide an information-dense display to a large collection of readers or viewers. Admiral is a perfect choice for online news blogs because it tags your most compelling stories to the images that people will click on.
Admiral is also great for social media integration and similar widgets, but its e-commerce integration is lacking.
Baskerville
If you run a cooking website and you want to match your pictures of food to equally luscious typography, Baskerville is a powerful theme. With Baskerville, page templates are the gateway to content production.
Everything in Baskerville is SEO optimized, and with the grid format for the blogroll, your readers can navigate exactly to where they want to go each time.
Kent
For an approachable yet elegant theme, try Kent. Kent may be one of the only themes that render the best on iPads and other similar layouts. Kent technically has two columns for content, but one of them is occupied by the author’s badge.
Kent’s best utility is to give your readers snippets to peruse before they dive into deeper content. The theme is configurable enough to add social media integration, but you’ll never get it to accept e-commerce widgets or anything similar.
Moderne
Lifestyle blogs and e-magazines will flourish when they install Moderne to their WordPress site. Unlike other themes, Moderne’s central content display window has several panels, meaning that it can showcase a handful of different pieces of content with equal force.
Beneath the top showcase, Moderne also has a standard blog sidebar and a standard blog reel on one page. Navigation at the top makes moving from subpage to subpage rather difficult, but your users will figure it out.
Writee
Writee’s iconic flat design makes it an enormously flexible WordPress theme. Especially for people with a conspicuous and wide logo, Writee draws attention directly to the places where you need it most. For everything from corporate landing pages to photography blogs, Writee has a solution ready to go.
Writee’s social media buttons are passable, but the central content display showcase is the crux of why it’s a good theme for your site.
Fascinate
Fascinate is one of the most popular WordPress blogs, thanks to its spunky yet elegant design. In Fascinate, the primary role of the landing page is to direct your users to the e-commerce or bottom-funnel marketing blog posts.
This means that Fascinate is very customizable when it comes to e-commerce integrations as well as blogging templates. If you want to display large photo albums, Fascinate can do it, but it won’t show off the beauty of your images as much as other themes might.
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