Creating a professional website or blog using WordPress as a platform is easier. Or you can hire a professional developer, select a preferred theme, and design your website. In this article, we will discover what is WordPress and what are different types of websites you can create using a WordPress theme. We have provided different types of Themes in WordPress you can use and create a website.
A theme is a collection of Code files, templates, and stylesheets that determine how your website looks and how it functions. The theme that is designed for WordPress users is the WordPress theme. The theme’s major function is to control the design of your website and provide a range of customization to change its appearance how you prefer. The theme helps a user avoid hiring a developer, saving your time and money. Using a theme, you can create a website with a few clicks and customization.
Here are some features of WordPress themes you should know before we move into the types of WordPress themes.
- Custom Headers and Footers
- Custom Backgrounds
- Sidebars
- Post Format
- Navigation Menus
The market is full of free and premium themes on the internet. Also with the growth of internet users and connections to social media, individual and business owners found the opportunity to grow their businesses by creating their own websites and blogs. However, creating a website for business requires a professional developer and personnel to handle a website. To overcome these issues, WordPress provides an easy and friendly user interface, which you can easily handle without the required technical knowledge or hiring a professional developer.
Types of Themes in WordPress based on their Characteristics
We have categorized various types of WordPress themes based on characteristics. For more understanding about different types of WordPress themes you can visit our previous article explaining- what is WordPress Themes and How to Choose Right WordPress Themes
Free WordPress Themes vs. Premium Themes
Free WordPress Themes are those types of themes that are provided for free for users with a limited budget and charges their premium packages for user who want their advanced customization functions. The free themes are provided by independent developers and high-end vendors. These themes can be downloaded through their independent developers or through wordpress.com. You can easily access the theme installed on your WordPress and activate it directly from the admin dashboard.
As the free theme is free to use, the theme does have limitations as well. The major limitation of free themes is providing limited customization options and limited customer support. The theme also lacks advanced layout options and a few starter templates you can use and create a website. As your blog grows, or website grows, the company might get their premium plan and this is how it makes money from development.
Some of the Popular Free themes are–
- Astra theme
- OceanWP
- NEVE Theme
- Hestia
- Hello Elementor
- Zakra
When you choose a free theme for your website, there are various things you need to consider that help make it easier to use and create a website.
- Simple and Responsiveness
- SEO Friendly and Browser Compatibility
- Lightweight and Performance
- Customization Options and Layout Options
- Plugins and Page Builder Compatibility
- Support and Updates
- Best Review and Ratings
Premium WordPress themes are themes that charge you for using their theme for your blog and website. Premium WordPress themes have generally a wide range of advanced customization options and grow their website. They also provide the best customer support and regular updates for their users to solve the issues that arise in the theme and updates that support WordPres
Multipurpose Theme vs. Niche Theme
Multipurpose themes are those types of themes that can be used for various niches from a personal blog to a professional website or e-commerce store. They provide a high level of customization options including several extensions, widgets, and pages to offer. The best examples of multipurpose themes that fall into this category are Neve, Astra, Divi, and Oceanwp.
Similarly, the Niche themes are designed for certain markets whether for a blog, e-commerce, or a business website. The theme is used for specific industries. The features the website provides are all based on their niche. Some of the best examples of niche themes are Sydney, Zakra, Newspaper, Open Shop, and So on.
Parent Themes vs. Child Themes
Parent themes are those themes that include an overall requirement of WordPress template files. The main character of the parent theme is it will usually erase the customization you made when they are updated. Child themes are those themes that inherit the overall features and design of the parent theme and enable modification of them without altering the parent theme. The child theme helps to keep the customization separate from the main theme and can easily reversed by disabling it.
Types of Themes in WordPress Based on Their Purpose (Niche)
In out previous article we explained what is WordPress Themes and what are different WordPress themes? Previous article was based on the characteristics. Here we have categorized various WordPress themes based on the Niches.
Professional or Personal Blog Theme
Blogs are like windows of your mind where you as a creator provide information, your thoughts, passions, and expertise to your readers. For such blogs, you can use a blog theme and share your ideas, knowledge, and experience with your users. Bloggers can use a wide range of free and premium themes with wide customization options and all necessary blogging features to grow their business. Some best available blog themes are- Astra, Neve, Hello Elementor, Blocksy, OceanWP, and so on. And premium themes – Writing, CheerUp, Wanderland, Katen, and many more.your readers information, thoughts, passions, and expertise
Professional Portfolio Theme
Portfolio websites are those types of websites created and designed to show your best work online. You can share your success, your work, and your potential through a website when applying for jobs and internships. The theme for the portfolio website is called portfolio theme. Some of the free portfolio themes are multi-purpose themes, RT Portfolio, Sydney theme, Customify and so on. If you are looking for the best premium portfolio theme you can use Serano, Geekfolio, Blackdsn, Unicode and many more.
Business and Corporate Theme
Business and Corporate requires a website to provide information about their business and the service they provide. Having a website by a business and corporation presents their business online and easily grows their business. WordPress consist of a wide range of business and corporate theme to create and manage a website. The most popular business and corporate themes for free are – Astra, Neve, OceanWP, and Sydney theme and available premium themes are Ampster, Griminati, Avada, Enfold, Impreza, and more.
Multi-purpose Theme
A multi-purpose Theme is a popular theme on WordPress for creating any type of website for individuals and organizations. These themes can be used to create a wide range of websites from personal blogs to fully functional e-commerce stores. You are provided a wide range of free and paid Multi-purpose themes for your customers to create a website and benefits those customers who are not sure what types of website they want to create and add more than one function on a single website. Some popular multi-purpose free themes are – Astra, Neve, OceanWP, Hello Elementor, and others. Some Popular multi-purpose premium themes are Avada, Betheme, Enfold, and other available popular themes.
E-commerce Theme
E-commerce Themes are those types of themes that are used for creating an e-commerce store to sell their products (Physical and Digital) and services through a website. With the growth of online businesses, e-commerce become a popular platform to sell their product and gain extensive customers all over the world. WordPress has a variety of e-commerce themes and plugins to sell its products. Some of the variety of themes related to E-commerce are e-commerce physical products, E-commerce themes for digital products, Multi-vendor e-commerce themes, membership themes, Price comparison themes, and so on. WordPress provides a wide range of free and paid themes for creating an e-commerce theme.
News/Magazine Theme
WordPress platform is suitable for creating a News and magazine portal website to share news and information with your audience. WordPress provides a variety of free and premium themes for your News website. Some of the popular News/Magazine websites created using the WordPress platform are The New York Times, BBC America, TechCrunch, MTV News, and many more. You can create one with the WordPress platform. Some of the Free News/magazine themes are NewspaperX, Grace News, Grace Mag, WP Magazine, Cream Magazine, VMagazine Lite, and many more. Some popular premium News/magazine themes you can buy and use and create a website such as Newspaper, Zox News, Neeon, Papr, Foxiz, Neoton, and many others themes.
Community and Membership Theme
Online Community websites are the platforms that enable audiences to connect with each other and share information, and ideas, and collaborate on certain projects. The main objective for creating a community website is to build a relationship with other people with similar interests. Similarly, a membership website is a platform where members can access a set of exclusive resources or opportunities in exchange for a payment fee. One of the popular community websites is Quora website where you can provide and receive informative answers on certain topics.
There are various WordPress themes available in the market to create a professional community and membership website. Some popular Free Community themes are Buddy Boss, Aardvark, Olympus, Socialize, Cera and many more. Some popular premium community themes are Cera, UnityPress, Anesta, Socify, Ureg, Armadon, and other community websites. Similarly, there are free membership themes available for WordPress users such as OceanWP, Minimal Lite, The Thinker, Neve, and many other WordPress themes. For creating advanced and professional membership themes, you can also use other premium themes such as OneCommunity, Vayvo, Cinematix, UnitedCommunity, Seeko, Omago News, and other best-rated themes.
Video Content Themes
Do you want to share video-related content with your audiences? Or are you looking for a fully functional and customizable theme for creating video-related websites? WordPress provides the best and most fully functional free and premium themes to create video-related websites. Some examples of video themes examples can be Vlog, Movies and Drama sites, Live Stream videos, learning and Tutorial sites, and video-sharing platforms like YouTube.
Some free WordPress themes for Video-Content Websites.
- Zakra, Rockstar, OceanWP, Astra Theme.
Some Premium WordPress themes for Video-Content websites.
- Vlog, Vividly, Tuber, Netube, Deccal, VideoMeg, ETube and Many more.
Travel Themes
A travel website is a type of website that provides various information about travel places, travel reviews, trip fares and recommendations. The travel themes mainly help in promoting the tourism industry of a particular place and make it easier to plan and book their trips.
Every day more people are engaged in planning and booking their next journey. Creating a website related to tours and travel helps your client learn about travel and makes it easier to plan before travel. To create a professional travel website, WordPress provides a wide range of free and premium themes and creates a blog, travel website other travel websites.
Some free WordPress Travel Themes, Blocksy, Travel Master, Travel Agency, Zakra, and many more
Some Premium WordPress Travel Themes- MyVoyage, Travelogue, Rodgerg, Tripp, Piemont, Destination, Vihan and many more.
Religious Theme
Original Buddhas, Nepal-Tibet-Buddhas, bible.com, and churchofjesuschrist.org are some examples of religious websites. And you can easily create a similar website using the WordPress platform. Religious websites are those types of websites that provide information related to religion, spiritual divine, and being spiritual. There are various WordPress religious themes available for free and premium, using these themes you can create your own religious website and start creating spiritual knowledge for your audiences and provide spiritual and motivational articles. Some of the popular free religious themes are Faith Blog, Social Care Lite, Milton Lite, Player Lite, TS Charity, NGO Charity Fundraising, and many more. You can also get a premium theme with advanced customization and featured themes such as Creedy, Grace, My Religion, Temple of God, Fidem, and many other available WordPress themes.
Directory Theme
A directory website is a directory that organizes and manages the lists of products and services you can browse through. To create a Directory website, the WordPress platform is the best choice to create a similar site. You are provided with various free and premium themes to create a directory theme. The directory theme lets you create categories to organize your listings and helps you integrate with various third-party websites, including Google Maps.
Some popular available free WordPress themes for creating a Directory Themes are- Astra Theme, OceanWP, Neve, Robolist Lite, Listing Hive, Car Listing, and other themes
Some popular available Premium WordPress themes for creating a Directory Themes are- Ziro, Listing Pro, JusDial, Bikroy, Houzy, Dirly, Search and Go, UrbanGo, BizSearch, Hubhood, Classima, and many other premium WordPress themes.
Review Theme
Review websites are basically simple sites where you can receive various reviews related to individuals, businesses, products, or services. In a review website, products and services are reviewed and customers can understand whether the product can benefit you or it is just a waste of your money and time. Review acts as fuel for business growth and provides the right option to buy the best one.
There are various review themes available for WordPress users. Some review themes are provided for free whereas, other themes are premium. Check out some free and premium review themes for WordPress.
Free Review Themes- aReview, Tr Affreview Lite, Glamour Magazine, Viral, ColorMag, Hey Review, and other free review themes.
Premium Review Themes- Gauge, Reviewed, Gazek, DizzyMag, Reviewer, Delipress, Velenti, Lily, and other Premium Review Themes.
How to Install a WordPress Theme?
There are several methods available to install a WordPress theme for creating a website a blog for your business, organization or as an individual. We will be providing the three most used options to install a WordPress theme easily to your site. Here’s are step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.
Method 1- Installing a theme from the WordPress Theme Repository
Log in to your WordPress admin panel using your username and password. The login URL is generally ‘Yourwebsite.com/wp-admin’
As you successfully log in to your WordPress, go to the “Appearance” menu on the left side on the Dashboard, and Click on “Themes”
On the Themes page, you will see a button named “Add New” and click on it to access the WordPress theme repository.
You can now browse the various available free themes in the repository or use their search bar to search for a specific theme you want to install for your website.
When you find a theme you can hover over the theme you get an option to “preview”. When you click on the preview button, you can check what the themes look like. And if you are fully satisfied with the theme you can click the “Install” button and install the theme.
As the theme is installed successfully, you will receive an activation button as “Active” Click on the Active button and make the theme active on your website.
Method 2. Uploading a Theme Manually
Sometimes you might want to install a theme from a third-party company, or you might have purchased a premium theme. These themes are not available on the WordPress repository, in such conditions, you can manually upload the theme and install the theme.
Download the theme file from the theme provider’s website to your personal computer. The themes are generally in .zip file format. Purchase and download the theme on your personal computer.
After you download the theme, log in to your WordPress dashboard admin panel
Go to the “Appearance” option on the menu located on the left side of the WordPress dashboard go to “Themes” and click on it.
Click the “Choose File” button select the theme file you downloaded earlier and then click on the “Install Now” button.
As you successfully install the theme, click on the Activate button to make your theme work on your website.
Method 3- Installing a Third Party theme through FTP
Third-party themes are not available on the WordPress repository and if the themes are too large to upload the theme through the WordPress dashboard, you cannot upload it manually as well. For that, you have the third method to follow i.e. using a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and upload it. The method is a bit more advanced and requires an FTP client like FileZilla.
Download the theme and extract the theme into your personal computer.
Use an FTP client like FileZilla to connect your web server. You will need your FTP server details such as host, username and password from your hosting provider
On your server, go to the ‘wp-content/theme/’ directory
Upload the extracted theme folder from your computer to the ‘theme’ directory of your server.
Once the theme is uploaded, go to the WordPress admin panel and go to navigate to “Appearance” then go to “Theme”. As you find the theme activate the newly uploaded theme.
Popular Sites to get WordPress themes. Free and Premium
There are some popular sites available on the internet to get WordPress themes for free and premium. There are some popular sites to get WordPress themes.
WordPress Themes Library:
WordPress themes library provides the free best themes provided by wordpress.org. Here, you can find all the latest, most downloaded, and popular themes for creating a WordPress website. Check out some of their free available themes.
Themeforest:
Themeforest is a popular marketplace that provides more than a million of responsive premium themes and plugins for creating a professional website. The marketplace also provides other themes and software for other website-creating platforms such as Shopify and Prestashop including Video, audio, photos, graphics and codes.
Elegant Themes:
Elegant Theme provides the professional design WordPress theme in the world and also provides the best WordPress page builder i.e. Divi to their customer. With Elegant themes, you can create any type of website and do not require coding skills and even a beginner can a professional design website.
Codecanyon:
Codecanyon is a similar site to ThemeForest that provides premium themes and plugins for WordPress users and also provides other platforms’ themes and software including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, Prestashop, and other platforms.
Graphicriver.net:
Graphicriver also provides the best WordPress themes and plugins to create a professional website with advanced customization options and multiples of features.
12 Best Popular WordPress Themes | Free and Paid
- OceanWP Theme
- Astra Theme
- Hello Elementor
- Neve Theme
- Generate Press
- Avada Theme
- Flatsome Theme
- Newspaper Theme
- Woodmart Theme
- Kallyas
- REHub
- Xstore
