The parallax effect is a thing of beauty. Not only because it tends to help out with showing off your creativity, but it’s one of the more lightweight visual effects you can add to your website. It wasn’t too long ago when we saw complicated Flash animations and unnecessary movements that occurred on homepages. Those slowed down sites and confused users to the point where many of them would end up leaving. However, these types of theatrics have been also shown to grab attention and guide users to the right buttons, products or services. Therefore, they still have a place in the world of web design. Since parallax themes keep the site lightweight and creative, it’s no wonder they have taken off the way they have. The coolest part is that with many of the themes below you will be able to implement multiple parallax elements throughout your homepage and overall website.
For example, many one page themes are filled with rows that feature parallax imagery and backgrounds. They seem to pair well with overlaying text and buttons, since the call too actions require some sort of movement to get people to notice. Not only that, but parallax effects are frequently implemented by using shortcodes, which keep your hands out of the real source code and make it much easier for beginners who would otherwise have no idea how to handle such a situation. Overall, parallax themes are ideal for when you’d like a little flair with your website. All of the themes below are responsive as well, bringing about a certain amount of freedom for your users, considering the majority of these people coming to your site are going to be using devices at some point. Overall, the parallax effect is one of those items that you can live without, but it seems to add a bit of spice to your overall design. Therefore, we recommend looking into themes with parallax elements. Come to think of it, the best ones you can find are listed below.
Simple
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The Simple WordPress theme is just that, simple. It’s a mobile friendly design with lots of potential for your own creativity. The main reason we mention this is because the parallax effects are pretty and lightweight. They have a certain amount of flavor to them, and you’re bound to be satisfied after implementing the effect on your own website. We also enjoy the Simple WordPress theme because it provides some wonderful banners for telling people about your upcoming promotions or products. It doesn’t take long to setup these banners, and they work well in congruence with the parallax frames you implement on your website. As you may have assumed, this is a completely responsive WordPress theme, meaning that if someone is on the go and trying to access one of your specials or blog posts, they don’t have to worry about zooming in to see the imagery or text.
Tons of frontpage layouts are given to you when purchasing the Simple WordPress theme. This is particularly useful considering you don’t have to start from a blank slate when getting your website launched. We enjoy this for the beginners out there, but it’s also not bad for experienced developers to have preset homepages like this. After all, the whole goal is to complete a website in a reasonable amount of time, so this helps out quite a bit. The fully loaded options panel is a thing to marvel at, since it provides support for SEO and shortcodes, both of which are bound to improve the way people see your brand. The shortcodes keep your hands clean of any nasty coding, while the SEO tools combine well with the blog to show the search engines that your website is ready to get some attention. Along with tools for colors, fonts and sizes, the Simple WordPress theme has it all.
Sydney
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We recommend the Sydney WordPress theme for quite a few reasons. One, it presents several options for configuring parallax elements on your homepage. It doesn’t take that long to figure out these effects, and all of them are managed through the WordPress dashboard. This is a powerful business theme that could be used for any industry. The responsive layout is bound to improve the number of people who come to your site, while the theme options are there for customizing everything from Google Fonts to colors. One area of interest is in the translation department. Basically, anyone can come to your website and translate the text they see on the page. This boosts the number of people who can read your content, since people from all over the world could find your material interesting.
The front page blocks are similar to a drag and drop editor, allowing you to move elements all over the homepage, whether they be buttons, toggle menus or columns. Keep in mind that most of the parallax elements are backgrounds. So you have the ability to include large images to support the content that resides in the foreground. Choose between a static or slider image header, and utilize these headers to show off some of your best products or projects. The Sydney WordPress theme provides some quality branded social media buttons. These remove the need to go out and find a third party social plugin, and they assist with when you’d like to build the number of followers on places like Facebook and Twitter. The live customizer is a beautiful piece of equipment for your design toolbox, and the overall development environment is pretty unintimidating.
BeOnePage
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Consider the BeOnePage WordPress theme if you’re trying to design a website with both parallax items and one page structures. As with most one page themes, the BeOnePage WordPress theme has a few rows for you to customize for your brand. This theme is powered by a frontpage builder, which gives support for both advanced users and beginners. Since all of the content resides on the homepage it’s apparent that all of the parallax effects are going to be front and center as well. What’s more is that the parallax backgrounds play along with the responsive nature of the theme. Therefore, even the mobile users can enjoy the pleasant movements of the parallax imagery. One of the main benefits of going with the BeOnePage WordPress theme is the portfolio. This is a filterable portfolio that snaps into action when someone is searching for a particular category.
The portfolio has a grid-based structure, and it exemplifies exactly what a developer should be looking for in a portfolio. After all, the whole point is to keep eyes on the content, and that’s exactly what this one does. It’s worth mentioning that the BeOnePage WordPress theme is extremely easy to customize. The dashboard tools are all organized in a common sense fashion, with the majority of the theme options consolidated into one area. The theme provides an unlimited number of typography and color options, which is great for those who would like to experience the ultimate branding interface. You don’t have to worry about buying a theme and getting stuck with a particular color or font, because it’s all there for you to change around. Overall, the BeOnePage WordPress theme is a respectable choice for all businesses, and the parallax effects are rather impressive, especially when merged with the one page layout.
Shapely
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The Shapely WordPress theme may not blow you away at first glance, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve, with parallax imagery and a one page layout that puts the most important content in the spotlight. The theme is completely responsive for users who are viewing on mobile devices, and the flat design is perfect for those interested in a more modern look. The fullscreen Hero image is exactly what you need when trying to get your photos to stand out. It’s nice to have tools like this, since combined with the parallax setting you can’t go wrong on the image front. The plugin support is pretty impressive, since you gain integration access to options like Contact Form 7, WordPress SEO Plugin, Jetpack, W3 Total Cache, iThemes Security, Easy Bootstrap Shortcodes and many more.
Another plugin that works well with the theme is WooCommerce. Therefore, if you’d like to sell digital or physical goods, it only takes a few clicks to get it all setup. After that the payments are sent directly to an account for you to do with as you please. The Font Awesome icons are essential when placing interesting call to actions on your parallax backgrounds. You also get translation files, all of which work together to turn your site into the most welcoming place on the internet. After all, you’re bound to get plenty of people on your site who would rather not read in English. Along with a strong set of settings on the backend and a beautifully structured frontend, this is certainly a WordPress theme we can get behind. We highly recommend it to bloggers and businesses alike.
EvoLve
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Evolve is an elegant parallax theme that comes with a variety of custom layouts which can easily be adjusted to suit your needs. That means you can easily create a small business website, a portfolio website or even a personal website. You can easily promote your services or even products with 3 gorgeous sliders, one of which is a parallax slider. A parallax scroll is the best way to add animations to your website without slowing it down and it instantly grabs the attention of anyone who lands on your website.
You can showcase your past projects with ease with the portfolio page template and various shortcodes make it easy to add elements such as buttons and columns to your pages without having to touch the source code. Several blog layouts are also available, allowing you to share quality content with your audience in style and get them interested in reading more of your content. Along with the ability to add a shop, responsive design, and unlimited color and font choices, the Evolve theme should definitely be on your list when trying to find a free parallax theme.
Moesia
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Consider the Moesia theme if you need a stylish online presence for your business. The theme features 11 predefined blocks which are perfect for displaying all the important information. Include a slider with text overlays and call-to-action buttons to promote your services or send people directly to your sales pages. Display a breakdown of all the services you offer and provide testimonials from past clients to build credibility for your business. You can also display past projects in a beautiful grid-based portfolio with thumbnails and links to view more details about the project. Feature members of your team to add personality to your website, along with headshots and links to your employee’s social media profiles.
The theme also has a blog that’s easily featured on the homepage, with beautiful featured images and a brief description of each post. Provide contact information so potential clients have an easy time reaching you and include stylish tickers to display information about your skills. Customize your front page and blog layout, change the colors and fonts and more. All theme options are located in the powerful Theme Customizer and you can even translate the theme to have the chance of working with customers from all over the world. Finally, social media integration, responsive design, and constant updates make Moesia theme a worthy contender for your business website.
Onetone
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Onetone is a responsive one-page WordPress theme which is perfect for businesses that don’t want to spend hours designing their websites. The homepage includes all the necessary sections to display your services, feature your team members, including their headshot, short bio, and social media links, and provide testimonials from past clients. Several of these sections feature parallax backgrounds which bring more attention to the content so you’ll have to choose carefully what you want to appear there. The theme also includes a section for a beautifully animated portfolio which is sure to help you capture more clients. The last section on the homepage includes a contact form which makes it easy for potential clients to get in touch with you.
FontAwesome icons are included so you can easily add even more visual appeal to your website while custom shortcodes make it easy to divide the homepage sections and insert elements such as buttons, columns, lists, and more. Video backgrounds are also a possibility if you’d like to greet your visitors with a custom message and the entire theme is customizable on the backend. On top of that, you can easily translate your website and rest assured it will look good no matter which device your visitors are using.
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