The 42 best free WordPress themes

Really big. Its design heavily emphasizes the use of images, with its appearance fully customiseable through an extensive options panel. Fotofolio
Fotofolio lets the content do the workDownload and demo: favoritewpthemes.com/fotofolio-landscape
Category: Photography
Responsive: No
If you’re looking for a free WordPress theme that lets the content do the work, then Fotofolio is for you. vFlex’s responsive layout also means the theme looks great on iPad, iPhones, and other devices. 13. Appliance
Minimalist panels allow you to showcase posts visually rather than in a listDownload and demo: http://wordpress.org/themes/appliance
Category: Blog, magazine, portfolio
Responsive: Yes
Appliance is a super-clean and minimalist theme that presents posts in a series of panels across the page instead of as a simple list. While its design and layout is really well done, it’s also subtle and inconspicuous, allowing your stunning photos to take control of the visitor’s eyes. Skeleton
Skeleton is minimal and responsiveDownload and demo: www.freethemeforwp.com/themes/skeleton
Category: Blog, website
Responsive: Yes
Skeleton has a lot going for it. 16. Each is not only free to use and open to the public but also offers something special and unique. Shuttershot
Shuttershot is a great choice for photographersDownload and Demo: www.web2feel.com/shuttershot
Category: Photography, website
Responsive: No
Shuttershot is another free WordPress theme that lets the content speak for itself. This theme is well laid out and offers a great deal of features to help you share and sell your products. Lots of widget and featured areas makes this a very versatile WordPress theme. Busby
Busby’s use of bold colours makes it stand outDownload and demo: wplift.com/busby-free-wordpress-personal-blog-theme
Category: Website, blog
Responsive: No
Busby is a really nice free theme. Glider
Who needs images? I could probably ask the same thing about parallax scrolling. Travelify
Travelify is inspired by natureDownload and demo: http://colorawesomeness.com/themes/travelify/
Category: Travel
Responsive: Yes
The Travelify free WordPress theme is inspired by nature. With a large featured section, showcasing a small number of products can be done very easily. 11. The details and colours really help to make this a great blog theme. The WordPress community is big. 20. We’re talking thousands of designers and developers, tens of thousands of writers, and millions of users, all contributing to pushing WordPress forward. Origin
Origin’s minimal yet stylish design allows users to focus on contentDownload and demo: http://inspectelement.com/wordpress-themes
Category: Blog, website
Responsive: Yes
Origin is a premium, fully responsive WordPress blog theme with a minimal, clean design that allows visitors to focus on content. 28. Zenith
Zenith features a beautiful magazine-style layout that’s responsiveDownload and demo: devpress.com/themes/zenith/
Category: Blog, Magazine
Responsive: Yes
Zenith is a responsive theme with a rich, magazine-style layout that features space for large images. Make sure you have enough content to fill it. The dedication of real estate to blog posts and sidebar make this free WordPress theme very blogger friendly. 30. Clean Retina
Clean Retina is simple, clean, responsive and retina-readyDownload and demo: http://themehorse.com/preview/clean-retina/
Category: Blog, Website
Responsive: Yes
Clean Retina delivers exactly what it says on the tin. The contact page consists of a built-in contact form furthermore and a large Google Map. In 2012 he wrote the Web Designer’s Guide to WordPress. The use of colours and graphical elements are subtle but add a lot of value to the site. One plus is that this theme maintains its responsiveness quite well. Firstly, it’s very minimal so if you know what you’re doing it will be very easy for you to layer your own flavour of style and colour on it. Another feature which has been cropping up on some of the newer themes is the Translation-ready abilities, reaching new audiences in a foreign languages.  
42. This is the first free WordPress theme I’ve seen that uses the recently widely adopted effect of multiple scrolling speeds. Free WordPress themes like EBUY continue to push the envelope and get us ever closer to that goal.  
05. Swatch
Swatch is great right out of the boxDownload and demo: http://demo.woothemes.com/swatch/
Category: Website, Portfolio
Responsive: No
The crew over at WooThemes really know what they are doing. While a small business or corporation may not get what they want out of this theme it would work beautifully for an event or personal website. The colours are subtle but really help the visitor navigate the site. The theme is simple, clean, responsive and retina-ready. There are a lot of widget areas, columns and places for a lot of content. Responsive
Responsive has a large and easy-to-control featured area on the homepageDownload and demo: themeid.com/responsive-theme
Category: Website
Responsive: Yes
I like this free WordPress theme so much I’m currently using it to power Jes.se.com. 04. Grid
Grid is great for a graphically rich or photo-heavy siteDownload and demo: www.dessign.net/grid-theme-responsive
Category: Portfolio
Responsive: Yes
Grid gives you the feeling you’re on a site that’s had a lot of thought put into its design. And once your site is up and running, there’s nothing to stop you dissecting them, building on top of them and learning from them. Meeta
Don’t overlook this ‘plain Jane’ themeDownload and demo: demo.wpzoom.com/?theme=meeta
Category: Blog, website
Responsive: True
Sometimes «Plain Jane» themes like Meeta get overlooked. _ARCHITEKT
Architekt is a minimalist, responsive themeDownload and demo: www.dessign.net/architekt-theme
Category: Website, blog, portfolio
Responsive: Yes
At first glance, I couldn’t tell if I really liked this free WordPress theme   or just the stunning photos. It’s very graphic or photo heavy so make sure you have the content to back it up. Sometimes if your content (especially photos) isn’t as nice as what’s in the demo, you can lose the effect you wanted in the first place. Whether you’re reporting on red carpet happenings or political disputes, it will do you and your visitors proud. Workality offers 4 different thumbnail sizes for your portfolio layout, small, medium, large and portrait. 27. While this free WordPress theme does appear to be very blog-centric it would be easy enough to convert this to a small business, event or product website. I have to be honest, I’m not really sold on the colour scheme of WP Coda, but that is easily adaptable to your needs. Free WordPress theme Bonpress does a really nice job of organising the layout while maintaining responsive functionality. 36. With a design dominated by images, this responsive theme is perfect for displaying projects and products. MyStile
MyStile is clean and lightweightDownload and demo: http://www.woothemes.com/products/mystile/
Category: Ecommerce
Responsive: Yes
One of our favourite sources of themes is Woothemes, and they’ve got a few tasty free WordPress themes as well. 14. Spectacular
Spectacular is aptly namedDownload and demo: www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/10/free-html-4-01-html5-wordpress-theme-spectacularCategory: Blog, websiteResponsive: No
The aptly named Spectacular theme is really well designed and laid out. Glider brings text to the foreDownload and demo: http://tomcreighton.com/2012/10/glider-theme/
Category: Blog
Responsive: Yes
Don’t want to mess about trying to find beautiful imagery? The layout is really nicely put together and the entire theme is very functional. This minimal text-focused theme is all about seamless reading — no page loads, no interruptions, just a quick and easy way to access content. 09. Fully customizable, with several Theme Options and page templates, this theme is an obvious choice for travel blogs, green thinking and adventurists. If you have less than stellar photographs or graphics you may want to use a different theme. The colour scheme is modern and clean, while bordering on brash, but the stand-out feature of this theme is the showcase area for the most recent post. Its use of bold colours and well planned fonts makes it stand out. Another feature, which has been cropping up on some of the newer WordPress themes, is the Translation-ready abilities, reaching new audiences in a foreign languages. It has a very large and easy to control featured area on the homepage, which was perfect for me to feature my book, Web Designer’s Guide to WordPress. Noteworthy
Noteworthy features a bold palette and layout that happy showcasing contentDownload and demo: wp-themes.com/noteworthy/
Category: Magazine
Responsive: Yes
Noteworthy is a bold theme that, according to its author, is modelled on the USA Today website. Blog-o-folio
Blog-O-Folio is very blogger-friendlyDownload and demo: www.noupe.com/freebie/blog-o-folio-wordpress-theme-version-1-0.html
Category: Blog, portfolio
Responsive: No
Saying that Blog-O-Folio uses bold contrasting colours would be an understatement. I love the styling and emphasis on post dates. 18. 22. Then as free WordPress themes go, Thoughts is probably good one to investigate. Customise it to your taste by adding your own headers image, page layout, site width and more. Panoramica also features a full-width slideshow on the homepage, perfect for grabbing prospective client’s and employer’s attention. Flozo
Flozo has been specifically created for businessesDownload and demo: http://www.flyerzone.co.uk/blog/download-the-free-flozo-wordpress-theme/
Category: Business website
Responsive: Yes
Free WordPress theme Flozo has been specifically created by Flyerzone to help small businesses and startups with their goal to create a professional-looking website. Free WordPress themes are a great way to get a blog or website off the ground. Its main features include an inbuilt FlexSlider so you can simply select featured images and an integrated VibeOptions panel, which supports logo upload, import and export settings and many other features. 23. This is a difficult task that the designers and developers of Splendio have done well. WP Coda
WP Coda provides easy navigationDownload and demo: choicethemes.com/wordpress/wp-coda
Category: Single page, website
Responsive: No
What WPCoda does well is easy navigation of pages without moving off the homepage. Balloons utilises a minimalistic design and lets you focus on the cool scrolling effect. YAMINTH
Yet another minimal WordPress theme available for free downloadDownload: azmind.com/2012/03/04/free-wordpress-theme-yaminth/
Category: Portfolio, photography
Responsive: No
There’s no shortage of modern and minimal WordPress themes available online. Photo
Photo is the ideal free WordPress theme for photographersDownload and demo: http://www.wpexplorer.com/photo-wordpress-theme/
Category: Photographer
Responsive: Yes
Photo is, you won’t be surprised to hear, best suited for a photographer, as it’s major feature is the responsive gallery. 29. InterStellar
InterStellar is a clean, sophisticated designDownload and demo: http://ufothemes.com/themes/interstellar/
Category: Portfolio, blog
Responsive: Yes
Create and manage your portfolio or blog with ease with this clean and sophisticated InterStellar design. Hopefully in the near future they’ll put in the extra work to make this theme responsive. 15. It’s great for a blog featuring news and up-to-the-minute updates. There is a selection of nine homepage layout options, also a large homepage slider with space for supporting text.  
41. 02. 01. 37. Features include custom project posts and admin panel, five different widgets included (video, latest work, contact form, twitter feed, recent posts), and more. So whether you’re launching a design agency or just want to promote your freelance efforts, it’s well worth checking out. As with some of the other themes featured here, Twitter’s Bootstrap is used to provide the functionality within the theme, making it easily extensible. 38. Multiple colour styles can be easily accessed via the colour options tab. Simple Corp
Simple Corp has plenty of time saving featuresDownload and demo: http://www.s5themes.com/theme/simplecorp/
Category: Corporate, Portfolio
Responsive: Yes
Simple Corp is a responsive HTML Theme by Site5. It includes plenty of time-saver features, so no need hunting around for plug-ins. 39. The theme is responsive as standard, and comes bundled with plenty of options and alternate colour schemes. In this article we’ve selected some of the very best free WordPress themes for you to use in your projects. With multiple portfolio page layouts, this theme’s options allow you to change the layout, colour scheme, logo and add your Google Analytics code, buttons, Google maps, columns and more. Secondly, it’s responsive, so it’s ready for any and all devices. Balloons
Balloons is the theme for you if you want to play around with scrolling effectsDownload and demo: moargh.de/portfolio/downloads/wp-theme-balloons
Category: Website
Responsive: No
Who doesn’t like Balloons? Bonpress
Bonpress benefits from its left-hand navDownload and demo: www.wpzoom.com/themes/bonpress
Category: Website, blog, portfolio
Responsive: Yes
I’m becoming more and more a fan of the left hand nav. Splendio
Splendio provides a good balance of contentDownload and demo: www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/05/30/free-wordpress-3-1-theme-splendio-with-psd-sources
Category: Blog, website
Responsive: No
Splendio has done a great job of balancing the featured content of the page with additional added value content. However you will need to dedicate the time to customise it a bit. If you’re a web designer you should be able to convert this free WordPress theme to a responsive layout relatively easily. 10. Make sure that the logo or featured graphic at the top is designed to fit the theme. But YAMINTH (Yet Another Minimal Theme) and its unusual image layout caught our eye. However themes like this are easily converted and modified to fit your site and content. EBUY
EBUY is a good choice for ecommerceDownload and demo: http://www.freewpthemes.com/free-wordpress-themes/ebuy-981424749/
Category: Ecommerce
Responsive: No
It’s only a matter of time before WordPress is seen as a viable option for ecommerce sites of all types. 31. Swatch is definitely a theme that you don’t have to customise at all, it’s just so nice right out of the box. 26. The theme has built-in support for Gravity Forms, and ships with multiple layout options, as well as support for custom templates and menus. Your images, videos, and text will all scale down precisely for iPad, iPhone and all mobile devices, it is also compatible with all major browsers. Workality
Workality is a powerful way to showcase your workDownload and demo: http://www.workality.ca/themes/workality
Category: Agencies, Portfolio
Responsive: Yes
Workality is a responsive WordPress theme that provides a powerful way to showcase your work. Blue Bubble
You’ll need a featured image with each of your posts with Blue BubbleDownload and demo: www.flexible7.com/bluebubble-wordpress-theme
Category: Blog, Portfolio
Responsive: No
This theme uses the left-hand sidebar well; I like the navigation alongside the blog posts. The functionality and use of the theme is also quite nice. Folder
Free WordPress theme Folder is perfect for showcasing projects and productsDownload: luiszuno.com/blog/downloads/folder-wordpress-theme/
Category: Portfolio, website
Responsive: Yes
Folder is a free WordPress theme with a slight retro feel to it. Looking for free WordPress themes that focus on the text — and makes that look beautiful instead? 35. This free WordPress theme would work really well for a portfolio, artist or event site. 19. Each post featured within the slider supports an image and caption, as well as the content itself. vFlex
vFlex was designed specifically with designers and bloggers in mindDownload and demo: vibethemes.com/vflex-free-responsive
Category: Blog, portfolio
Responsive: Yes
Designed specially with bloggers and designers in mind, vFlex is a stylish, free, responsive WordPress theme. 24.