Having a cool website is important today as everyone’s expectations towards look and feel, usability and quality are sky high. Recently WordPress has shown great strength when used as a publishing platform for traditional websites. There are so many high quality and simple to use WordPress themes available making it a good platform for both startups and more established companies. Also WordPress is one of the best platforms to build a responsive and mobile ready website. The availability of great responsive WordPress themes is simply overwhelming.
Even today a lot of online shop run on WordPress. Setting up an online shop using WordPress e-commerse themes makes it as easy to get started. The WordPress CMS itself constantly improve and the theme developers innovate and think out of the box when it comes to extending WordPress standard features. Many cool WordPress themes today include shortcode systems, page templates, custom widgets, typography modules, SEO capabilities, good support and much more and they don’t have to be expensive at all! For this article I have created a collection of really cool WordPress themes to help you quickly build cool websites. We recently updated this post with more cool themes and checked all links!
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra cost to you). I recommend that you do your own independent research before purchasing any product or service. This article is not a guideline, a recommendation or endorsement of specific products.
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Expression Photography Responsive WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Expression is a cool responsive WordPress photo theme, best suited for photographers and creatives who use portfolios to effectively present their work. Expression theme is powered by the advanced Pexeto Panel, which provides tons of options to manage and modify any aspect of the theme. With all the styling options provided you can easily customize the appearance of the theme and build you own custom skin.
SimplePress – Corporate Simple WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
SimplePress is a simple and clean page-based corporate WordPress theme. It is great for anyone looking to give their website professional look and feel. The theme features a business style homepage with a beautiful well integrated JavaScript slider and clear hierarchy, as well as fully functional Blog and Gallery sections.
This theme is part of the very interesting Theme Club at ElegantThemes where everyone can get access to around 70 very professional themes at around half the price of most Premium themes. This is in particular interesting for web designers as they will be able to deliver great websites to their clients. It is even possible to get the PSD files also if some changes will be needed. Check out the video showing the ElegantThemes options framework enabling high flexibility with no-coding needed.
Cleanr – Responsive, Minimal Portfolio Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Cleanr is a responsive, corporate, beautiful WordPress theme and it just fits perfectly for your upcoming corporate project. Just the right amount of features are included, no extra jib-jabbing, yadda-yadda.
It comes with a handful set of options, like: Responsive Layout, swift AJAX enhancement of Portfolio Items on the Homepage, Portfolio Items support for both Images, Slideshow & Embedded Videos, multiple Post Formats (Audio, Video, Standard, Image) and more stuff which is waiting for you to discover.
Flexible Responsive WordPress Portfolio Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Flexible is a sleek and minimal portfolio theme packed full of some awesome features. The theme puts your work first, keeping the design elements to a minimum while still maintaining a definitive modern style. With its filterable, ajax-powered multi-media gallery, Flexible is perhaps our most feature-rich gallery theme yet.
Avada | Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
The Avada theme is build to match any type of website; business, corporate, portfolio, products. etc. The layout is clean, super flexible and is fully responsive (try resizing your browser). Built with HTML5 and CSS3 . A lot of thought and care were put into Avada making it a pleasure to use. Avada is loaded with options, and has powerful customization options.
Responsive Fullscreen Studio for WordPress MORE INFO / DEMO
RSW ( Responsive Fullscreen Studio for WordPress ) is a powerful theme for photographers and creative artists and comes with Light and Dark with theme options supporting multicolor customization of theme elements using color pickers. Creative artists can easily display their products using unlimited portfolio and post formats supporting Aside, Quote, Audio, Video, Link, Image and Gallery. The fonts can be changed using 400+ Google Web fonts choices in theme options.
Chameleons – WordPress Portfolio Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Chameleons are known for their ability to change the color of their skin. The patterns and color combinations you find in chameleons are almost endless, and this WordPress portfolio theme is no different! Chameleon was created to be a simple and professional theme with loads of customization options that do not require web development experience to utilize.
SmartStart WP – Responsive HTML5 Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
SmartStart WP is a simple and clean but still professional WordPress theme suitable for any business or portfolio, and it’s created by using the latest HTML5 and CSS3 techniques. With a responsive design it is easily usable with any device (Desktop, tablet, mobile phone…), without removing any content!
Good Space – Responsive Minimal WP Theme MORE INFO | DEMO
Good Space Good Space is a WordPress theme especially for creative agency. It’s very clean, minimal with modern design. This theme is also has a responsive ability. Moreover, it comes with tons of features. Including our page items that can be managed very easily via our awesome tool, ‘Page Builder’. Admin panel in this theme is a real feature rich. You can also create unlimited sidebar, choosing over 450 fonts or if you want to use your own, we provide a cufon uploader. You can also translate each elements to your language via this admin panel.
TheSource MORE INFO / DEMO
TheSource is a Magazine-style theme that combines flashiness with sophistication. The goal behind this theme was to create a design that could display loads of content in an organized and visually pleasing way. The three-column grid gives you increased control over your layout, and the full-width homepage slider creates a visual impact that is sure to piqué your visitor’s interest.
Good Minimal MORE INFO / DEMO
Good Minimal is a responsive HTML5 & CSS3 , clean and minimalist style theme that is good for portfolio, blogs and businesses. This theme is flexible and is used media queries to adapt screen sizes, whether it is iPhone, iPad and wide screens.
Choices – Responsive Business and Portfolio MORE INFO / DEMO
Choices is a responsive WordPress Theme (try resizing your browser), suited for business websites and users who want to showcase their work on a neat portfolio site. The Theme is built on top of the fabulous Avia Framework and offers support for the WPML MULTI LANGUAGE plugin.
AWARE Responsive Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Aware is a clean and simple interactive, responsive portfolio theme perfect for freelancers, web designers, photographers and videographers alike. Its user interactive interface delightfully enhances your most loved portfolio pieces. Now, you can take your portfolio with you, in your pocket.
Ajax And Responsive WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Coraline is a great theme for the creative agency, freelancer or general business. Has a lot of modules are ready for homepage, it’s simple-to-use, customize and install.
Evolution (Responsive theme) MORE INFO / DEMO
Evolution is our first fully responsive design and certainly one the more professional WordPress themes. What makes the theme so special is its ability to adapt to various screen sizes. Evolution come with 4 distinct layouts, each meant to improve your user’s experience when browsing on mobile phones and tablets. No longer will they need to zoom and scroll to view your site, as the theme’s layout will adapt to the small screen and serve your content in an intuitive way automatically. Just try reducing your browser’s window size when preview the theme to see the magic in action!
Exposure Responsive Photography WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Exposure is a beautiful Premium WordPress Theme with oodles of features. Exposure comes packed with an easy-to-use un-branded Options Panel and great documentation. Exposure is a beautiful photography theme perfect to show off your work! ’Responsive are really hot right now.
Ares Clean WordPress theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Ares is The Clean Magazine, News and Blog Template built with latest WordPress features.
Nova Elegant Cool WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Nova is a sharp, simplistic design that makes for an intuitive user experience. Nova’s biggest strength is its homepage, which allows you to organize your content into two areas. The Featured Slider is perhaps the most versatile slider we have built, and comes with multiple slider variations that breath new life into the design.
Zenko magazine MORE INFO / DEMO
Zenko WordPress magazine theme is a stylish & colorful theme intended for those who want to launch a magazine or blog! The flexible layout allows you to easily adapt your content to the theme.
Swagger Responsive WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Swagger is built on top of the all-new version 2 of the Theme Blvd framework. Use the layout builder to accomplish just about anything you could ever think of. Use the slider manager to create as many sliders as you want. Use the widget area manager to create as many widget areas and sidebars as you want. With just the right amount of theme options and flexibility, the power is all in your hands. And with a sleek, responsive HTML5 design, you’ll be sure no one will miss out on your new website built with Swagger.
Classica – Minimalistic WordPress Portfolio Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Classica is a beautifully minimalistic portfolio theme, free from gimmick and trend, making your talent the focal point of your portfolio – the way it should be. Present your work in a professional manor with a timeless design.
eList MORE INFO / DEMO
eList is a verstile clean and simple Directory WordPress Theme. Using eList, you can create an online directory of any type, and allow your visitors to submit new listings from the front end. The theme also comes with eCommerce integration, allowing you to charge your visitors for new or featured listings.
Brick + Mason MORE INFO / DEMO
Brick + Mason is ideal for photographers and/or design studios. It utilizes infinite scrolling so users don’t have to leave the page to experience all your talent. This theme also uses the jQuery masonry plugin so the content will fit any browser size.
DailyNotes MORE INFO / DEMO
The purpose of DailyNotes is to make the simplest and most elegant medium possible through which you could share your daily life. The theme is very minimal in its design, and has been trimmed down to the bare essentials. For anyone looking to create a fun and inviting personal blog, I’m confident that DailyNotes will serve you well!
Modest – Simple Cool WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
A minimal cool WordPress theme with beautiful typography and subtle gradients from Elegant Themes and it certainly belongs in this list of Minimal WordPress CMS Themes.
Striking – Premium Corporate & Portfolio WP Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Striking is number 3 on Themeforest at the moment. It is a powerful and flexible wordpress theme. The author calls it a “Super Premium” theme as it has extraordinary features and coding that are not found in the normal premium WP theme. Well you have to decide for your self on this one. Fonts, colors, backgrounds, widgets, images, videos, sliders, menus. blogs, portfolios, logos and anything else is completely adjustable with the admin. The author says: “There are so many short codes I have lost count, and they are widget friendly”. Furthermore, the Striking admin includes a custom CSS integrator so you don’t need to play around with CSS files.
Folioway – Premium Portfolio WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Folioway is a perfect pixel WordPress theme, not only its clean and elegant, it also comes with tons of features like amazing slider, unlimited colors, etc. It’s incredibly powerful and flexible and easy to use! It is just the best wordpress theme for your or your company’s work presentation!
VideoPlus MORE INFO / DEMO
Cool new video theme Theme Junkie with a clean and modern look and feel.
Echoes – Premium WordPress MORE INFO / DEMO
Echoes Premium theme for WordPress is designed for rapid development of portfolio or business websites. 3 Featured Mainpage styles, 5 Portfolio Page Styles, 19 Shortcodes, working Contact Page Ajax Validated Template a
nd more. It features numbered , thumbnail slides , content objects/elements, carousels, full-width pages, on hover icons with light-box supported images and videos, drop-down menus, multi-column footers and others to make it easy for you to customize and get it online quickly. 11 Skins with variations of Bright, Dark, Red , Blue , Green, Yellow and Brown, and Shaded version with a textured background for easy background customization.
Newscast MORE INFO / DEMO
Newscast is a WordPress Theme, best suited for Magazines and Blogs. It comes with 3 fantastic Image and News slideshows has multiple Page templates and of course gives you the option to choose from 4 Fantastic skins
KARMA – Clean and Modern WordPress Theme MORE INFO / DEMO
Number TWO on Themeforest is Karma. It is a Premium WordPress Theme built on what the author calls “a highly intelligent framework”. It’s the only theme on Themeforest to feature the new CU3ER v1 3D slider – it’s actually cool. It comes with lots of features and whether your a wordpress pro or just a beginner you should be able to manage this theme.
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Can you include the Proton theme? it’s another free premium Wordpress theme which got a lot of great feedback: http://www.intenseblog.com/wordpress/theproton-brand-new-free-premium-wordpress-theme.html
All templates look interesting. I will definitely give try to one of the templates on my wordpress site. Thanks for collecting the best of free themes.
These are some great wordpress themes for anyone who wants to build a website and the fact that they’re free is even better! I give kudos to graphic designers because to me, it seems so complicated but I would have to attend a great graphic design school like FIDM in LA to really learn the craft right and make those connections
Thanks so much for sharing!
I am always looking for inspiration when it comes to my designs. I found this collection very interesting and there are some really good and interesting designs. I agree with your idea about peoples expectations about look and feel and it is an important part I think about when designing my own work. With the collection you have put together I think you have definitely got that cool feeling. I really like the designs for Parachute and Karma. I like the clean feel to the designs and the use of colour. There is a good mix in this collection and this will a constant resource for me in the future when I am approaching my designs, especially in WordPress.
this is a nice showcase of elegant themes… especially ‘Duotive 2WO’ is surely a great one!!! thanks for sharing this post..
Great job on the list, Trip Wire! You guys run a great blog and do some great round-up articles like this. Some of these designs are just beautiful.
Awesome collection thanks for this.
Some nice themes. Great for inspiration and to get some ideas flowing! Nice one!
Really cool themes. I’ve been using a custom theme for my business and I like it a lot. I particularly like the ARES Clean WordPress theme due to its clean layout.
Cool page. We’ve seen most of these before, but picked up one or two new ones – Webly in particular. There definitely are some gems in this collection. Dandelion is an old favorite of ours. Thanks.
great great themes! I prefer to make my own because I always need to make changes and additions to already existing themes – the method I use is to recreate a similar layout in Lubith and then I make some changes in the code and add some gallery and content-related plugins. They are not hard to copy if you use flexible enough tools.
Dustin Betonio, you rocks. This collections of theme are really cool. I am gonna try all this one by one. Many many thank’s.
Oh, great new themes! I chose some of them for me. I would recommend you to see the oQey Themes, these are stylish and colorful too. And are not too expensive too (for only $49 each theme). But the themes are created by real professionals, include a lot of features and every time you need you get the needed tech support. Try it, I am almost sure that you won’t regret.
Why do people design boring themes for Word Press?
Here’s the format
Menu bar
Gallery
Pictures
Text
All done in a clinical box frame like a prison
I found a nice little theme on Theme Generator called ‘papper’ but it came with no clear instructions – fantastic theme but unusable
Can anyone recommend a place where I can find really new themes that break out of the boxy boxy format and allow for some creative design modification?
What style are you looking for… if it is for a creative portfolio site you may want to look for portfolio themes e.g. http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2012/09/wordpress-portfolio-themes.html
Horizontal scrollbars appear in a lot of these themes. A bug found on most Elegant Themes based sites.
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