Choosing the best WordPress template for your website is, without a doubt, crucial.
The WordPress theme you choose is going to be the base of your website or blog for a long time (years or even permanently); so choosing a quality WordPress template is very important .
Many entrepreneurs in the online world come with the “Why pay for something I can have for free?” Mentality.
And this is where there is a great leap in quality on the websites.
Of course, there are plenty of free WordPress templates that are just fine (even better than some paid WordPress theme from websites like Themeforest), but without a doubt, a Premium WordPress template will make a quality leap to your website from the very moment you that you activate it.
However, don’t get carried away by the effects, images, or colors of a WordPress template. Rather, you have to look at other information that will make the difference and make your choice the right one.
Here are some quality patterns so you don’t make a mistake when choosing your WordPress theme:
- It is optimized for SEO.
- Easy to customize.
- Compatibility with any plugin.
- Adequate charging time.
- Let it be updated regularly.
- Responsive (look good on mobile devices).
- Good loading speed.
- Good valuation in the market (that has many web pages using it and that its score is good).
And now, let’s go to see what are the best free and premium WordPress templates or themes on the market.
It goes without saying that all the templates included here pass quality filters (although the WordPress premium templates are well above the free ones that you will see below).
Best WordPress Premium templates
Here is my top of the best WordPress templates you can buy .
However, I must tell you that this is my personal opinion based on my experience with the templates that I have used both in my projects and in clients such as web designer and SEO .
Of course, they go in descending order from top 11 (since I’ve decided to include 11 templates) to top 1 , my favorite WordPress template.
As I try out paid WordPress themes I will include them in this top if they are really worth it. To the mess!
11. Optimize – SEO
As its name suggests, if you want a Themeforest template focused on SEO, this is yours.
For a price of $ 59 I can assure you that you are going to find one of the best WordPress templates in terms of loading speed (for what Themeforest templates are usually).
It has a minimalist design and it may not appeal to you so much visually but this is an advantage in itself because having a “clean” theme and with a good code structure avoids loading unnecessary things and being better viewed facing Google.
10. Bridge
Bridge is one of the best multi-purpose WordPress themes and one of the best selling templates in the official Themeforest store. And as such, it has to be paid (although at a fairly cheap price for what it is, $ 59).
It has over 105,000 downloads and still retains a nearly 5-star rating on Themeforest ( the highest score ).
Being a multipurpose template you will be right and you do not have to worry about whether it will adapt to your type of website.
With the purchase of the template you get the popular Visual Composer plugin for free .
In case you did not know it, Visual Composer is a visual layout plugin that allows you to design your website to your liking and visually and intuitively in a drag and drop style.
It also has a free Sliders plugin, but you know I’m not a big fan of them so if you want your website to load something faster it’s better not to use it.
As it could not be otherwise, if a template is top, it can not be missed that its developers continue to improve it and make updates regularly to improve their code, optimize web load times and add new functionalities.
9. Salient
Salient is one of the most used themes in Themeforest .
As you may know, themeforest is an online store of WordPress themes among other things. They have a huge number of themes but not all of them are optimized in terms of SEO and loading speed.
However the themes of themeforest that I teach you in this article (5 of the 11 themes in this top are from Themeforest) are the most optimized and the ones that I really recommend.
Salient is a WordPress theme quite visually attractive and with many features . In fact, the strengths of this template are its visual effects, its design and its great capacity for customization.
Despite being newer than other WordPress templates discussed in this post, it has a very good score and is among the best sellers .
Of course, it is multipurpose and can be seamlessly integrated with Woocommerce to make an online store.
It seems to me a pretty good and current template with which you can make your website up to date in terms of web design. However, in terms of loading speed is the worst of this top.
8. Avada WordPress theme
What web design professional or marketer does not know this topic?
I present to you the world’s best-selling and most downloaded WordPress Premium template : Avada.
With more than 470000 sales on Themeforest, it continues with a score of almost 5 stars and breaking records.
Avada is a multipurpose theme with which you can make any type of web. It is also compatible with Woocommerce so it will not be a problem for you to make an online store with this template in your WordPress.
7. Newspaper
Newspaper is not just another theme from Themeforest.
This template, how could it be otherwise, is a WordPress theme optimized but specialized in news websites or even reviews.
In fact, it is the best-known topic on the subject of online newspapers.
To be from Themeforest it is quite fast and it even has a specific mobile theme in which it removes unnecessary things to make it even faster on mobile devices.
You already know that Google now takes into account the mobile version over the PC version, so it is an extra point to improve web positioning.
6. Orbital Theme
Orbital Theme is, as indicated on its website, one of the best WordPress templates for SEO in the world. Let’s find out why.
The template is the work of the Romuald Fons team, one of the bloggers I recommend in this article , so if you are looking to make money from your website , this is undoubtedly a template to keep in mind. It includes a native Adsense manager and is a theme created by and for SEOs.
It has many interesting features, but the two that I liked the most and for which I have included Orbital in the top of the best WordPress templates are its navigation by Clusters and the Orbital menu option .
Clusters allow the information to be arranged visually to create a silo architecture. And the Orbital menu is perfect for mobile websites since it adapts to the position of the big toe. They promise us 33% more clicks on the menu! Here is an image of the Orbital menu:
In addition, its price (currently € 59) has no monthly or annual subscriptions . You pay once and you already have a lifetime license for a single website.
This may sound silly to you, but most premium templates are available with a license that lasts only a year.
Best of all, it includes unlimited support and good documentation with videos where you can answer any questions.
If what you are looking for is a light template, easy to use and that will help you position yourself in the first Google results, Orbital is a very good option.
5. Schema
Schema is the WordPress template with the fastest loading speed , or at least that’s what they say on their website.
I do not know if it is the fastest but I have tried it (and I have it in a project of mine) and I must admit that its loading speed is very fast. It is faster even than my beloved Genesis Framework.
In addition, its price is quite low for the power it has (from $ 35 in MyThemeShop).
So if you are concerned about the user experience and want to scratch a few extra points in the SEO of your website, Schema is your choice.
Of course, it is a theme focused on SEO , so it is fully optimized in this regard.
Although it is true that it can be adapted to all types of websites (even online stores), its design invites more to use it for blog-like websites or niches to monetize with Google Adsense.
4. Divi
Divi is a template from the company Elegant Themes and stands out for being one of the most customizable WordPress templates without needing to know any code .
Another advantage of using this theme is that there is a great community behind it, so you can find infinite tricks, tutorials to create various effects with Divi and even demo web pages already created that you only have to load in your theme to make it look the same.
As for its speed, Divi is a fast WordPress template although not as fast as Genesis, Schema or Generatepress.
However, a well-optimized Divi template has nothing to envy the best ones, even improving in speed to other less optimized websites that use faster WordPress templates.
Its weak point was that if at any time you wanted to change the template, all the content on the web was deconfigured. But this is actually not entirely true and I explain why:
Divi uses a web designer called Divi Builder. This plugin can also be used in other templates.
What happens is that when you have a layout editor activated in a template and switch to another without this layout, the content is deconfigured. But to solve it is as easy as reactivating the layout artist you used previously in the new template. This way you will see how the content remains the same and only changes the structure and other elements of the WordPress template that you have chosen.
Another negative point when it comes to web positioning is that it does not have structured data marking .
3. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is in this top twice: it is one of the best free and premium wordpress templates .
This WordPress theme has two versions, a paid one and a free one, and both are great.
Although it is true that its free version is very good, it is obvious that the premium version is even better since it offers all the advantages of the free version but it has endless possibilities when designing your website thanks to the GP Premium plugin.
GeneratePress has made a name for itself as one of the best WordPress templates that, in combination with the Elementor plugin, makes it a 100% customizable template without having to write a single line of code.
And if that were not enough, its lightness and SEO optimization makes it also one of the most appreciated by SEOs. In fact, this template is among my top 3 best WordPress templates .
2. Astra Pro
Much attention to this theme because I am sure that it will be one of the best themes as soon as more people start using it in the Spanish market.
In fact, Astra Pro is the premium version of the free Astra WordPress template that you can find in the official WordPress repository.
Astra is one of the best free WordPress themes, but Astra Pro is without a doubt one of the best things you will find in terms of premium templates .
Fortunately I have had the opportunity to try this topic on the web of a friend and client and I can tell you that it is a true wonder. In fact, if I ever change my template, Astra Pro will be the first candidate.
For a more than affordable price ($ 59) you will have the theme to use it on all the websites you want but keep in mind that after the year you will not receive updates. The price with lifetime updates is $ 249.
In addition to all this, this theme seems so good to me for all that it entails having it both in time savings and for its great quality as a template.
Here are some of the strongest points of the Astra WordPress theme :
- Use for life.
- For all the websites you want.
- Compatible with Woocommerce to make online stores.
- Compatible with the most popular web layout plugins such as Elementor, Thrive Architect, Divi Builder, Beaver Builder and Visual Composer.
- Astra Pro plugin included with which you can customize even the smallest detail (fonts, colors, menus, spacing, header sections, and a long etcetera.).
- Charge at the speed of light . Of the lightest and fastest loading tracks. In fact, on their own website you can see how they boast about it.
- Library in constant growth with thousands of templates with “pre-made” websites where you only have to click and change the texts.
- “SEO optimized”. Thought by and for SEO , even with Schema.org structured data markup.
- And all without writing a single line of code!
1. Genesis Framework
And we come to the template (or rather templates) best valued.
The Genesis Framework comprises a bunch of WordPress templates that integrate with the WordPress Genesis theme.
I’m sure you’ve heard something about father and son themes . Well, Genesis themes like the ones you can find in StudioPress are child themes that adapt to the parent theme called Genesis.
So when buying a child theme, it also includes the Genesis template so that you have both activated in your WordPress and that the child theme works.
This may seem more cumbersome than it actually is. The only difference from the rest of the templates is that instead of having to install a template on your WordPress, you will have to install the Genesis theme plus the child theme and activate the latter.
In fact, this parent-child theme is not unique to the Genesis Framework. It is used in many templates (even you can create a theme child of a template with a plugin).
The advantage of using child themes is that all the modifications you make to this template are saved without affecting the basic structure of the parent theme, which allows you to update the template without losing any modifications.
My opinion with Genesis Framework is clear: it seems to me the best WordPress template and it is the one I use in Bloggeris (with the child theme “Metro pro”) and in projects of many clients.
And if I say that it is the best paid WordPress theme it is for these 3 reasons :
- Very fast loading speed . The best on the market.
- Very, very focused on SEO : it has everything you need to rank above other templates, including schema.org microform markup.
- Almost 100% customizable .
On the other hand, it has a negative point for beginners . And it is that when it comes to customizing the template there are certain things for which it is better to know about HTML and CSS (it doesn’t even hurt to know PHP for more complex things).
Anyway, with the appearance of the layout plugins this is not so much a problem because they will be very useful for you to make the Home Page or for landing pages.
However, since there are countless WordPress templates focused on being children of the Genesis theme, it is better to find the template that best suits what you want your final website to be so you do not have to make many modifications.
Best free WordPress templates
Before recommending a few free WordPress templates , I would like to emphasize that if you are serious about your project sooner or later you will have to invest in a good paid WordPress template .
That is why I have directly started the article with the top with the best premium wordpress themes .
If you still think about installing a free template, here is a list of the best ones.
However, you also have to know that making the change from a free template to a paid one can be somewhat cumbersome, so my recommendation is to directly buy a WordPress Premium template and be able to adapt it to what you want from the beginning.
Here are the best free WordPress templates that you can find in the official WordPress repository:
- Astra . The free version of the aforementioned Astra Pro template. If you later switch to Astra Pro it is recommended to try it out but as soon as you switch to Astra Pro you will notice the difference.
- Generatepress . The free version of the paid theme with the same name. The paid theme is actually a plugin that makes this template much more customizable. So without a doubt this should be your option if you want to move on to the payment Generatepress topic that you have seen in my top.
- Flash . With a score of 4.9 out of 5 it is one of the best free WordPress themes. It also has a paid version but it is not good enough.
- OceanWP . One of the most used and best valued themes. It has a fairly minimalist design but very customizable with plugins and through code if you control.
- Storefront . The quintessential free WordPress theme for creating online stores.
- Customizr . This is one of the free themes most used for its simplicity and speed. It is rated by many as the best WordPress theme for online stores with Woocommerce. In my opinion, at the height of Storefront and ahead of Flash.
- Sydney . This famous theme cannot be missing among the best free WordPress templates. It also has a paid version but from my point of view, it falls far behind with respect to the topics discussed so far.
- Optimizer . It also has a pro version. It is SEO-friendly and specially developed to reduce loading times with its clean code. Multipurpose theme that adapts to all kinds of plugins and with a good acceptance by the community to be relatively new.
- Schema lite . This is the free WordPress template of the already discussed Schema theme. Minimalist, SEO optimized and quite fast. Ideal if you then move on to the Schema premium theme.