If you’ve got an opinion to share, you’ll need a blog to reach the right audience. However, choosing the right free WordPress blog theme can be a challenge. I’ve chosen the wrong theme in the past. That decision left me frustrated, searching for support so I could create the blog of my dreams. Let’s help you avoid the same mistake. In this post, you’ll find 30 of the best free WordPress blog themes.
Characteristics of Great WordPress Themes
If you aren’t a coder like me, then you need to choose your WordPress blog theme carefully. Why? Your theme determines the appearance of your website. However, beautiful design isn’t the only characteristic of the best WordPress themes. When considering a WordPress theme, look out for these properties.
Site Security
Once you’re online, your web property is vulnerable to attack. Brands like Facebook and LinkedIn have had their fair share of data breaches. To combat ongoing threats to your WordPress website, use a theme that is as secure as possible. While no WordPress theme is 100% secure, choosing one that’s regularly updated ensures your theme code is protected from new security vulnerabilities.
Responsive Design
With 54% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, using WordPress blog themes that are mobile-friendly becomes vital. Mobile-friendly themes improve user experience. They automatically resize your website content to fit different screens.
Flexible Customization
Great WordPress blog themes offer multiple customization options. This makes it easy for non-coders to design a unique site. Some blog themes even have demo sites you can import, edit, and turn into yours.
Detailed Documentation
Choosing a WordPress blog theme that has great documentation is important. Armed with tutorials and resources, you can fix any challenge with the theme without waiting for customer or tech support.
Plugin Compatibility
WordPress plugins prevent you from writing code if you need added website functionalities. That said, some plugins may not be compatible with some themes. A qualitative way to access a theme’s plugin compatibility is by checking the number of theme downloads. If a blog theme has many downloads, it’s a good sign that it may be compatible with the plugins you aim to use.
Now that you know the characteristics of great WordPress blog themes, let’s look at some themes that fit these criteria.
The Best Free WordPress Blog Themes
- Astra
- Kadence Blog Way
- OceanWP
- Overlay Kale Avant Blossom Feminine Blossom Fashion Blossom Travel Blossom Pin Elegant Pink Writee Hemingway Ashe Neve GeneratePress Total Spacious Revive Zakra Editorial Brilliant Poseidon Author ColorMag Go SiteOrigin Unwind Sydney Maxwell
1. Astra – Astra is a fast and free WordPress blog theme that’s suitable for a variety of use cases. Its lightweight also makes Astra a quality option to consider when building a blog. The theme comes with several ready-to-use blog websites you can import, modify, and use. Many bloggers are fine with the limited customization options for backgrounds, typography, and spacing in the free version of Astra. Astra’s Pro or Agency plan lets you access features like auto-loading previous posts, adding author sections, and removing featured image padding. What we like: Astra’s compatibility with major page builders like Elementor, Beaver, and Brizy makes it one of the best WordPress themes for bloggers.
2. Kadence – Kadence is a lightweight WordPress blog theme that makes creating beautiful, fast-loading, and accessible websites a breeze. It features an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop header and footer builder to build any type of header in minutes. What we like: Kadence stands out because of its clean blog styling, including featured image placements and sticky sidebar options. Plus, Kadence has a deep integration with the core block editor, so your content will match what you see in the admin panel.
3. Blog Way – Blog Way is a simple and professional WordPress blog theme. It’s clean, well-coded, and has a modern layout. Blog Way is especially great for blogs, news sites, and travel sites. It has multiple customizable features and ensures high-quality performance to help boost your site traffic. What we like: Blog Way comes with an option to change the color of your entire site and offers social links for you to connect your site with your social accounts.
4. OceanWP – OceanWP is a popular multipurpose WordPress theme. It offers a lightweight, SEO-friendly, and responsive foundation for blog building. Unlike Astra, OceanWP offers more customization options and gives you greater control over your blog’s design. This is one reason for its popularity among users. OceanWP offers only 15 free responsive pre-made theme demos, which is fewer than what Astra offers. To get more, you’d have to upgrade to the premium version. What we like: This WordPress blog theme is compatible with popular page builders, including Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Divi. It also supports several third-party plugins to help extend your site’s functionality.
5. Mesmerize – Mesmerize is a free blog theme that lets you customize your site without hassle. Start with a pre-built homepage and use the five header designs, slideshow capabilities, gradient overlays, and more to make the look and feel your own. In addition, there are 30 ready-to-use content sections for you to build pages quickly and easily. Not to mention, there are helpful drag-and-drop features. What we like: Mesmerize is mobile-responsive, and it works well with WooCommerce should you ever need to set up a store.
6. Kale – Kale is a free WordPress blog theme for food bloggers. You can choose from several feed displays to organize your written content and images of the dishes you’re featuring. The built-in social media sidebar menus and icons make it easy for visitors to locate, view, and follow your accounts. What we like: This theme comes with a special front page that includes featured posts and a large highlight post. You can also show a banner or a post slider in the header.
7. Avant – The Avant blog theme comes with seven different header styles, three footer styles, five blog layout templates, full site color settings, and much more built into the WordPress Customizer. Avant integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce and page builders like Elementor and SiteOrigin. What we like: Avant comes with seven header layouts, five blog layouts, three footer layouts, and full-site color settings.
8. Blossom Feminine – Blossom Feminine is a free WordPress theme for creating a fashion, lifestyle, journal, travel, beauty, or food blog. The blog theme is mobile-friendly, search engine optimized, and fast. In addition, the theme is WooCommerce compatible, translation-ready, and comes with regular updates. What we like: Have a newsletter you want to promote? The well-placed Newsletter section can help you to grow your email list. Keeping in touch with your visitors is a breeze.
9. Blossom Fashion – Blossom Fashion is perfect for building a stylish blog without spending a penny. While free, the theme offers premium features like WooCommerce compatibility, font options, an advertisement widget, an Instagram section, and more. What we like: The theme is easy to use and comes with extensive documentation. There’s also support if you need help.
10. Blossom Travel – Blossom Travel is a fast-loading and mobile-friendly WordPress theme for travel blogs. The free blog theme blends accessible design with extensive features like social media integrations, theme color options, and lightbox image styling. Blossom Travel has an Instagram section, email subscription section, and social media widgets so visitors can easily connect with you. What we like: Blossom Travel’s HTML map section lets your visitors visualize where you’ve traveled.
11. Blossom Pin – The Blossom Pin theme features a Pinterest-style design, using a vibrant masonry layout with three posts/page layout options. Its infinite scroll lets visitors browse without distraction. The free WordPress blog theme is SEO-optimized and easily customizable. What we like: You can choose from its different colors and hundreds of Google fonts.
12. Elegant Pink by Rara Business – Another dynamic Pinterest-like layout, Elegant Pink is a free and beautifully designed WordPress theme that combines soft colors with a clean layout to present your blog to the world. Elegant Pink also has a slider section above the masonry-design post on the homepage. What we like: Elegant Pink is a responsive theme, so it’ll look great on every device.
13. Writee – Writee is WordPress theme for photography or image-heavy blogs — the theme has a slider hero image feature, which allows you to include…
