I collected some of the best WordPress blog themes to help both novice and advanced bloggers to quickly set up a stunning blog website using WordPress!
WordPress started as a core blogging platform and using WordPress blog themes are still among the best available options for stating a blog. WordPress, however, covers nearly any type of website today and the layout of a WordPress website and features available depends primarily on its purpose. As an example, if you intend to start a photography oriented blog, then you should consider to look for a photography oriented theme designed exactly to display the images in your blog posts perfectly, or a news theme for WordPress if you want to start an online news focused blog for that matter. WordPress is even popular for business and ecommerce websites. Therefore, if you need a company website with a cool blog, I think WordPress is still the optimal solution. You just need to find the perfect business theme with a cool blog design build in. In this case you get the best from two very different website styles.
For those who are planning to start a traditional blog, it is advisable to have a theme that can display blog content effectively. Whatever your preferences, you can always find a good WordPress blog theme to use on your site. There is no particular standard or appearance actually required as long as it is beautiful, organized and user friendly. After all every blogger has his own preferences, concepts and a desire to be unique. It is however, a good idea to look for a design that you expect your audience to like. As an example, if you write specifically for an older audience, you need to select a theme with large and easy to read typography.
Typical layout of a blog is to have recent posts made available as a list on the front page. In addition, posts are categorized and tagged and made available on archive pages in the same or a similar format as the front page. More and more modern blog themes have multiple post listing templates and allow you to make a great and varied presentation of you posts. Finally, it is common for a blog design to have a sidebar to the right. The sidebar system in WordPress is great for making your blog unique and easy to use. As an example, you can add widgets with drag and drop and this way customize what your readers see. With the right blogging theme and widgets in place there are many variations available to set up the blog layout as you want it to be.
Here in this article, we are sharing with you some of the greatest WordPress blog themes for getting started as a blogger. Please note that these themes are all for the self-hosted WordPress version, that you can download free at WordPress.org. I have shown the themes using their blog designs, however, some of the WordPress themes for bloggers are also great when used on a corporate website or a portfolio with a blog integrated. Time to get started setting up your blog!
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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Article Overview
Cool Responsive WordPress Blog Themes
Consideration before you choose the right blog theme for your WordPress blog
Collection of cool Responsive WordPress themes for bloggers
NewsMAG – MORE INFO / DEMO
NewsMag is a cool and minimalistic blog theme for WordPress with a clean resposnive layout. The theme have many great features such as shortcodes, custom widgets, unlimited color schemes and all you need for creating a unique blog website.
Clipboard – Tumblog Style WordPress Theme - MORE INFO | DEMO
With the Clipboard theme you get a tumblog style WordPress blog theme with a unique design. It includes a lot of style and customisation options to personalize your website. If you’re looking to get started with microblogging then Clipboard is the way to go!
Good Space – Responsive Blog WordPress Theme - MORE INFO | DEMO
With Good Space one get a cool minimalistic and responsive blog theme for WordPress with a 3 column layout. It is a great theme for a business website that need a blog build in. The theme comes with tons of features. Including a collection of useful page items that can be managed very easily via the Page Builder tool. The themes have a meaty admin panel and it is possible to create unlimited sidebar, choosing from over 450 fonts / including your own fonts.
OldCar – Responsive Blog & Grid WordPress Theme - MORE INFO | DEMO
OldCar theme is a creative and different WordPress blog theme with a cool grid style layout and a fixed left sidebar. It is perfect for personal blog or show your portfolio online. OldCar includes two layouts one for blog, normal layout and another for fluid grid view. You can easy to change the main color style with custom options, and it also provides 5 styling for the wordpress custom post formats like tumblr style. The most important is there are many useful shortcodes ready, so the home page not only can show the recent posts, but also you can make a different home page with shortcodes that include a slider, service, team and more.
Weblog | A Creative’s Portfolio & Blog Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Weblog is a simple and easy WordPress Theme. Coding is not a problem as this theme has timeless options that in no time your website will be set up perfectly.
Raiden — A Minimal WordPress Theme with Style – MORE INFO / DEMO
Raiden is an elegant personal blogging WordPress theme with refined typography and aesthetics. Offering support for all 10 WordPress Post Formats, this theme is ideal for your personal Blog. Raiden also has an optional View Mode Switcher that optimizes the reading experience according to the lighting conditions.
Meeta – MORE INFO / DEMO
With Meeta blogging theme your will be able to set up a simple blog website in a snsap. It is packed with many premium grade features, such as: unique widgets, custom templates. The theme is absolutely free!
Wentasi : Amazing Tumblog Repsonsive Theme - MORE INFO / DEMO
Wentasi is a modern & professional tumblog responsive WordPress theme with support for up to 10 post formats such as: Standard, Aside, Image, Audio, Videos, Quote, Links, Gallery, Chat and Status. The theme offers a great full with / single column design, tons of features, responsive layout and retina ready. Wentasi is a great theme for most bloggers and writers.
GREAT – MORE INFO / DEMO
Great is a traditional, magazine style WordPress theme, with clean and minimalistic design. The theme is optimized that will help your website dominate the web.
_rite : Minimal, Responsive, Blog – MORE INFO / DEMO
_rite, minimal responsive blogging at its finest, you write and allow your vistors to read without distractions.
Blogger – Responsive Blog & Folio WordPress Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Blogger – Responsive Blog & Folio WordPress Theme, is a fully configurable and easy to use WordPress theme with a lot of great features. It has been specifically designed to be easily customized and it’s created for creatives who want to make personal blog in minutes.
RIBBON – MORE INFO / DEMO
Ribbon is a wide post display WordPress magazine theme, having dual color scheme and plenty of whitespace to pad your content. It is perfect for both niche and general purpose blog that is absolutely free.
Easy Blog – MORE INFO / DEMO
Easy Blog is an elegant WordPress theme for bloggers. With its refined typography and responsive design, this theme is a perfect choice.
Place – Responsive Blogging WordPress Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Place is a clean & fresh responsive WordPress theme for blogging and picture gallery. Responsive design, unlimited sidebars. For really best experience use last version of your browser. Supported browsers are Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, IE8 + and more.
Spike – MORE INFO / DEMO
Spike is a bright and colorful WordPress blog theme. Spike is packed with a sleek post slider, all our widgets and shortcodes, plus our best optimizations. Spike is fully responsive and coded with the latest HTML5 and CSS3 techniques.
Duplex – Responsive Personal Blog WP Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Duplex is a clean personal blog theme, perfect for sharing your world. Duplex is all about posting what currently matters to you. Whether it’s graphics, videos, music, or photography, you can always find a space for it with Duplex.
EMERALD – MORE INFO / DEMO
Emerald is a bright and refreshing magazine WordPress theme that features a fully responsive design, cutting-edge HTML5 and CSS3 markup, a full complement of widgets and an integrated options panel. Built for bloggers who want to grow their blog to its full potential, Emerald includes SEO, social media and ad optimization.
Deadline – Blog WordPress Theme – MORE INFO | DEMO
Deadline is one of the most clean and simple, yet powerful and flexible blog themes for WordPress I have come across. The theme is loaded with custom options and widgets allowing you to control the look and feel.
TumblePress – MORE INFO / DEMO
Here comes TumblePress. All the stuff you do online will now be perfectly packaged with its pre-enabled Post Format feature. It’s now easier than ever to create a Tumblr-like experience in WordPress.
Magazon – Advanced, Responsive WP Blog Theme - MORE INFO / DEMO
Magazon is an Advanced – Responsive WordPress News or Magazine theme. It is ready to start working out of the box with a multitude of theme options, smart homepage builder, custom widgets, category styler to help you personalize your environment.
Bloggap – Responsive Blog WordPress Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Looking to give your visitors a fun new way to browse your latest posts, display loads of content in a beautifully simple and cool way then Bloggap is great choice for you. The theme is responsive, meaning it will look and work great on all screen resolutions and mobile devices as well.
RapidNews – Responsive Blogging Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
RapidNews is a feature-rich WordPress magazine theme. Great for magazine , review, news and blog sites, with integrated reviews, video, slideshows, galleries and ADS system in each post.
RapidNews theme is highly configurable, you can completely configure the homepage and posts using the very easy and powerful theme options. Using 21 custom widgets you can create your homepage very quickly and you can get it just as you want it.
RapidNews is responsive, so that it fits and looks great on different size of devices – desktop, mobile phones and tablets.
Backstreet – Blog & Magazine Theme - MORE INFO | DEMO
Backstreet is a modern wordPress magazine, portfolio and blog theme. With the 3 post formats (videos, audio & galleries) Backstreet can be used for almost any niche. Backstreet also built-in review system (with up to 5 rating criteria). Furthermore you can customize the look of the site easily via the custom theme options panel.
Cypher – WordPress Magazine / Portfolio Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Cypher WordPress Theme is a full featured WordPress theme to magazines, blogs, news, portfolio, personal and much more!
Construct, a Responsive WordPress Blog Theme - MORE INFO | DEMO
Construct is a smart, professional and responsive theme designed to show off your (or someone else’s) work. It can be used as a personal portfolio or as great place to link to anything you think deserves it. It utilises a column based layout and some funky animation effects to keep your users entertained. Construct also takes advantage of AJAX which allows the user to load more corresponding posts on the fly without reloading the page or hindering SEO . It also degrades gracefully if JavaScript is disabled.
GREENCHILI – MORE INFO / DEMO
GreenChili is a clean, blog-style WordPress theme that combines traditional WordPress styling with MyThemeShop features, functionality and optimization. The fully customizable theme is responsive, optimized for both SEO and advertising, and maintains a clean yet sophisticated feel.
Blogster – Responsive Blog WordPress Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
The main advantage of this theme is fully customizable theme colors, with help theme options panel!
Also, the content of the main page is a custom, and is formed using theme shortcodes. You can display an unlimited number of categories, and change the color of the categories, etc. You can also display video, audio and slider in posts!
In the theme a lot of settings, with which you can easily customize the theme, as you need, also detailed documentation and quick support!
Bold Magazine Responsive WordPress Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Bold Magazine is a Responsive WordPress Magazine Theme designed specifically for the Magazines.
MONOPOLY – MORE INFO / DEMO
Monopoly is a sleek, dark, dual-sidebar WordPress theme that is responsive, fully customizable and optimized. Perfect for blogs, online magazine sites, and news portals, Monopoly is the perfect choice for your site.
Blogbold – Responsive Metro Blog Theme – MORE INFO / DEMO
Blogbold is Responsive WordPress theme suite for blog, magazine and news web. This theme allow you to create blog, magazine and news with unlimited layout.
With layout builder and module, create your own layout. This theme came with 1 default layout and 3 customize layout template for frontpage. You can easily to modify the templates, or create your own layout. Import the XML file, will make you easier to build your web. Developed base on Bootstrap with easy to use option panel and powerfull module system by shortcode, will make end user easier to develope their own web.
Big City – Blog WordPress theme - MORE INFO | DEMO
BigCity is a Personal and Blog WordPress Theme. Packed with powerful features to suit almost every needs and yet so simple to use. Works with WordPress 3.0 – latest 3.3+
Arcadia Responsive WordPress Blog - MORE INFO | DEMO
Simply the perfect place. Clean, edgy and a cinch to work with, Arcadia is just the right space to share your creativity in words, images, video, and music via soundcloud support. A blog and portfolio featuring a variety of sliders gives your muse exactly the expression it seeks on every page.
Mosaico – Unique Magazine/Blog Theme - MORE INFO | DEMO
Mosaico is unique and responsive WordPress theme with clean, sleek and customizable design. Theme includes lots of advanced features and functions and is based on solid backend framework.
Consideration before you choose the perfect blog WordPress theme
In this section, I will share my experience from working with WordPress over several years. There are some consideration you should make before choosing a theme for your blog as these are essential if you want to be able to focus on your blog content as soon as possible.
Is the theme supported and still maintained? If not, you may end up with a website that gives you a serious headache next time WordPress release a major update or security fix. WordPress is the most popular publishing system and this makes the platform a prime target for hackers that want to take over blogs. Keeping WordPress up to date all the time top priority and so is choosing a well-supported WordPress blogging theme that helps you keep your site safe.
Are you clear on your design requirements? Make sure you know what features you need long term and that you have a good idea of the, layout and design needs? In most cases today I will recommend a responsive blog theme. This is to ensure mobile reader get the best of the best. Some blog templates are minimalistic and have a lot of white space while others are well stuffed with graphics and “unnecessary” design elements. Further, some blog themes have a single sidebar to the right while others have two sidebars – either one on each side of the main blog content or two on the right side. The sidebar layout is important to get right and if you are not sure, what you need long term you may need to find a theme with flexible layouts for blog sidebars.
Another important aspect about design of a blog is the post archives, the post content and comments. For posts, consider what post meta information you want to show, such as author name, number of comments, date, category, tags, featured image etc. For comments you should decide if you for example want your own comments to stand out, if the comments need to be threaded and so on.
When it comes to post archives it is important to consider how the post lists should be designed. Most blog themes simply have lists of posts with the title, an image, the post excerpt and a bit of information about the post (author, publish date, comments etc.). Modern WordPress themes for bloggers on the other hand have post lined up grid or masonry layouts.
Author : Sonny Day
Sonny M. Day is a passionate SEO and web design enthusiast who loves photography, mountain climbing, snorkeling and dirt bike riding.