Best WordPress Themes Of 2020 : Paid, Free, And For Business

Best WordPress Themes Of 2020 : Paid, Free, And For Business

The WordPress platform is one of the simplest ways to create colorful and well laid out webpages. Setup is usually performed with a few mouse clicks, so no coding knowledge is required.

The platform supports thousands of various designs known as themes, some of which are suited to specific users such as small businesses, whilst others have a more general appeal.

Many Wordpress themes are designed for blogs, but there are more specialist ones, such as for art and photography portfolios. There are also premium Wordpress themes available for those who want to invest extra in their website, and there are also ecommerce themes for business users.

When starting out you may feel overwhelmed by the choices available, especially if you’re not sure if a theme is worth buying. Also, do check that any theme you do consider will work properly with any Wordpress plugins you have also installed.

In this guide, you’ll discover five of our very favorite free and paid WordPress themes. Whether you’re a freelancer on a tight budget or an established business, rest assured there’s a theme for you.
Hestia
X
Allegiant
Sydney
Uncode
Foodie Pro
Shopkeeper



Hestia (Image credit: Hestia) 1. Hestia

The simplest of the best Wordpress themes

Free and Premium tier

One-click install

Integrations

Hestia is the perfect theme for those with small businesses, startups, online agencies and firms due to its multi-purpose functionality. Users do not have to pay to download this theme. Installation and setup is designed to be user friendly.

This theme is best suited to users who want to setup an ecommerce platform. Hestia integrates with WooCommerce, allowing users access to beautifully designed product listings. There is an easy to use drag and drop feature suitable.

This theme comes with custom background settings which aid in adding photos to your site and making it your own. It has a multi-purpose one page design, a widget designed footer and a blog or news section.

It integrates with Travel Map, Photo Gallery, Flat Parallax Slider and Elementor Page Builder. Hestia is responsive and uses Material Kit for design.

As with most WordPress themes, there is a demo for users to sample before downloading.



X (Image credit: Themeforest) 2. X

The best Wordpress themes for features

Highly customizable

Integrates well with WordPress

Variety of designs

X is a paid WordPress theme suitable for all types of websites.

The theme comes with four categories of built-in demos. Each of these themes cover a wide variety of potential projects. This means that no matter what you have in mind, X more than likely has a design suited to your needs.

Cornerstone is included with X. This is one of the most popular WordPress web page builders. The drag and drop feature is easy to use. Users are able to see exactly what their page will look like live as they are building. This enables users to change and edit while building their site.

There are a huge number of customization options, with which users can build a unique webpage. It's also constantly updated and you get features like the custom font or inline editing. In the early 2019, X introduced Dynamic Content which helps a lot when building out content throughout your site.

X comes with a feature called ‘the customizer’. This is a handy tool as many premium themes come with their own theme options page that is not entirely compatible with WordPress. ‘The Customizer’ is highly intuitive. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress. It will help you to customize the look and feel of your website.

The regular license for X is $29 which includes future updates and 6 months customer support. Users can opt to extend support to 12-months for an additional $6.38.



Allegiant (Image credit: Wordpress) 3. Allegiant

The most customizable Wordpress theme

Free

Highly customizable

Slight learning curve

Allegiant is a highly customizable WordPress theme that is most suited for small businesses that are just starting out.

The theme itself is simple and well laid out. Across the top there is a large header to highlight your most popular services or products. The slides on the homepage can be displayed in any order.

The theme offers several feature blocks which can be easily inserted onto your page with details about your business team or your past endeavours amongst others. These blocks come with the theme’s plugin ‘CPO Content Types’. The plugin is free and installs very quickly.

These pre-built blocks also come with testimonial section. It is very easy to copy and paste information into the blocks.

Allegiant integrates with other free popular WordPress themes such as WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, WPML and Contact Form 7.

It’s also free to download from the WordPress website.

Some online commentators mention that while the theme is customizable it is not easy to figure out how to do so. They don’t recommend Allegiant for newer users.



Sydney (Image credit: Athemes) 4. Sydney

The best Wordpress theme for freelancers

Free

Huge variety of fonts

Feature rich

Sydney works well for freelancers and companies who want to create a strong online presence.

It is highly customizable with many options to choose from such as Google Fonts and logo uploads. The theme has more than 600 Google fonts to choose from.

For users who want to show off, there is a full screen promotional banner that can be edited to suit your needs.

The custom elementor blocks can be designed as you see fit and to suit your promotional needs. Sydney can also display social media icons at the bottom of your page.

The theme is translation ready and provides the necessary tools for a smooth translation process.

Users have access to full color control, sticky navigation, header image and a full screen slider. Sydney also offers Parallax background affects. Users can add this to any row in the theme layout.

The theme is free to download, and costs $59 for a Pro licence.



Uncode (Image credit: Themeforest) 5. Uncode

The best multi-purpose Wordpress theme

Multi-purpose theme

Fully adaptive

Variety of premium plugins

Uncode is a multi-purpose theme suitable for most users.

The theme offers users a huge variety of website demos. These include classic, portfolio, blog and ecommerce layouts.

Uncode’s images are fully adaptive so that they adjust automatically to whatever screen size they are being viewed on.

Users can edit their demos through the WPBakery Page Builder Plugin. They can also access to the handy drag and drop content editor. Uncode is compatible with most third-party plugins.

The themes large media library makes it easier for users to embed any type of media to your WordPress site.

Uncode has over 6 different menu types with advanced options. These include top right, justify, left, center, overlay, offcanvas and lateral.

The theme is WPML certified and offers RTL (Right to Left) support. The premium themes included are VC Page Builder, VC Clipboard, VC Particles, LayerSlider, Slider Revolution and iLightBox. In the recent updates, new features are available like animated headlines, highlighting effects and frontend editor, among other things.

You can purchase for $59 and includes future updates and 6 months support. If you want to extend support to 12 months, an additional $17.63 is needed.



Foodie Pro (Image credit: Studiopress) 6. Foodie Pro

The best Wordpress theme for food websites

Detailed tutorials

Uses Genesis Framework

Expensive

Foodie Pro helps users to create a beautiful blog based around all sorts of culinary delights.

It is created by the Genesis Framework. This means your website will have a solid combination of this Framework along with WordPress. The theme comes with a huge amount of typography and color options.

Users can build their site using up to 3 homepage and 5 site wide widget areas. These can be customized to fit around your brand.

The theme allows users to upload their own logo with one click. There is also full support for text-based logos.

Foodie Pro’s ‘Theme Customizer’ allows users to customize the theme’s settings, colours and backgrounds images.

The ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ can be purchased for $129.95 for one year. This includes the Genesis Framework, Foodie Pro Theme, instant access, unlimited updates, supports, sites and access to detailed tutorials.

If this is not enough, users can avail of the ‘Pro Plus Membership’ for $499.95 (£377.81). This includes all the ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ has to offer plus access to every theme the company makes including future themes.



Shopkeeper (Image credit: Themeforest) 7. Shopkeeper

The best Wordpress theme for ecommerce

Highly customizable

WooCommerce compatible

Learning curve for new users

Shopkeeper is a user-friendly WordPress e-commerce platform. The homepage consists mainly of one large slider, designed to catch the eye of any potential clients. This is part of the Slider Revolution plugin which is included. Various optional plugins like "Shopkeeper Portfolio Addon" can also be installed.

The theme integrates completely with WooCommerce, and translation is supported with the WPML plugin. Shopkeeper is Retina-ready and fully responsive, making it perfect to view on both tablets and smartphones as well as your desktop computer.

The theme is easily customizable. Users do not need knowledge of complex codes in order to use it. There are a huge array of pre-built layouts to suit your needs, but failing this, users can create their own layout from scratch.

Users can also upload their own logo, change fonts and colors. Visual Slider and Revolution Slider plugins are included with the Shopkeeper theme; these cost around $26 (£19.5) each. Shopkeeper itself sells at $59 for a regular license. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $17.63.

Some online commentators have noted that the huge amount of customizable settings contained within Shopkeeper can be overwhelming for newer users.



WordPress: A Beginner's Guide

While there's no one-size-fits-all way of getting a website these days, the options have never been more elastic. You can get a blog for free and have your first posts up in minutes, simply by visiting a site like wordpress.Com or tumblr.Com.

If you don't mind spending a little more per year, you can attach a proper domain name to your blog instead of having to use the subdomain, as well as unlock extra features such as video hosting or the ability to customize themes.

But let's assume you want a little more than that: your own full website, that you control and can mess around with at will. It could be a personal blog, or something for your gaming group. You might want the main page to be a simple list of news posts, with the meat of the site in a forum on the back-end.

Whatever you want though, WordPress makes it (relatively) easy. WordPress is one of the most powerful and popular blogging systems in the world, both out of the box and in terms of the number of plug-ins and themes you can bolt on top of it without needing any programming or web design know-how. Visit wordpress.Org (not .Com – that's the hosted version) for the full feature list, download, and a tour of the ecosystem.

Sharing boxes

To install it, you need a web server. Most small sites use what's called 'shared hosting' – in short, many different websites being served up from the same box. This isn't ideal for popular sites, but it's cheap, and good enough for most.

You'll be looking at between £5 and £10 a month for this, compared to £50 to £100 to host your site or sites from a dedicated server. Even if you can afford that, you shouldn't jump straight into it. With shared hosting, you only have to look after the software that you install, like WordPress. Your host will usually keep backups in the case of disaster, have technical support if you have any questions, and more.

With dedicated hosting, you're not completely on your own, but it's assumed you know what you're doing, and will handle things like updating the server software, patching security holes, and taking care of yourself. For a busy forum, or a really popular site, you may have no choice, but you'll know when you need that power.

Choosing a host

Wisely choosing shared hosting is, unfortunately, the easy bit. Actually finding a good one can be a real challenge.

Simply Google something like 'best web hosts' and you'll get lots of lists and rankings that simply aren't reputable. Official reviews from honest websites are rarely much more helpful, as they won't actually have run a live site on the server and invariably base their verdicts on feature listings rather than actual performance.

As for forums, people are far more likely to complain than praise, so they don't give you a great view either. In short, you should look for reputable sites with 30-day refund policies, but at some point you do have to cross your fingers and take a leap of faith.

The key technical features you need for a WordPress installation are PHP 7.4 or later, MySQL 5.6 or MariaDB 10.1 support and at least one database. More is good because it makes for tidier backups and doesn't put all your eggs in one basket, but don't let only having one be a deal-breaker. You can just as easily run WordPress, a forum, and anything else you need from one as three.

Features like bandwidth and file storage are slightly trickier. Previously, a site offering too much was a warning sign. These days, you only need to worry if the numbers are insultingly small. "Unlimited" bandwidth always has a fair-use clause attached to it, and there isn't much practical difference between it and, say, 50GB per month anyway.

If you go over your bandwidth limit, you won't be charged megabucks. If it's a one-time thing, such as your site suddenly being linked to from the frontpage of Reddit, most hosts will turn a blind eye to you going over your paid-for limit, and only politely suggest you upgrade your package if it becomes a regular occurrence. The others will simply switch you off until you get in touch. If you see any hint that they'll bill you instead, run like hell.

While all this host-hunting can be a genuine pain, the good news is that you should only have to do it once.

As soon as your site is set up, the majority of technical problems disappear. WordPress handles almost all of the difficult stuff for you, and the most technical parts of setting it up are copy-and-pasting username and password information from the welcome letter your host will send you, before FTPing it to the address provided.

As soon as you're done, the fun bit starts – picking themes, adding cool plugins, and actually writing your first few posts.

Part 1: Dressing for success

Finding the perfect theme for your website

1. Browse themes



WordPress themes come in many forms, from simple blog designs to 'magazine' layouts that look more like regular sites. Visit the Themes panel on the Dashboard and click 'Install Themes' and you can browse through, preview and enable one of the many free ones available online. Usually, the only price for using these on your personal site is giving a linkback or credit to the original author.

2. Paying for themes



Commercial themes are available too, prices ranging from 'very little' to 'holy sweet crap'. These often have advantages, like very advanced control panels that let you do lots of customization without the need to edit the original files, and won't be as commonly used as the nicer free themes. However, for most small blogs, there's no point paying through the nose when there are so many good ones available for nothing.

3. Frameworks



Warning: Don't even think about it if you're not comfortable getting your hands dirty, but 'framework' themes like Thesis (www.Diythemes.Com) can be spectacularly powerful. Out of the box, they're usually ugly as sin, but make for an excellent starting point if you simply want to skip the tedious stuff and get to the fun 'make WordPress work like you want' bit. Thesis is commercial, but there are free alternatives.

Part 2: Installing WordPress

Getting it running, and essential plugins to install immediately

1. Download WordPress



Download and unzip the latest version [https://wordpress.Org/download/]. Open the file wp-config-sample.Php in a text editor, and fill in the database name, address, username and password from your host's welcome letter. (Depending on your host, you may need to create a database first, which will be done in some sort of Control Panel). If you don't have this information, drop tech support a quick email.

2. Upload to directory



Save this file as wp-config.Php. Using an FTP client like Filezilla, upload everything into your web directory. This will usually be something like /public_html/ or /web/, but again, it varies depending on your host. When uploading is finished, your root directory should contain the folders 'wp-admin', 'wp-content', 'wp-includes', possibly 'cgi-bin', and a stack of individual files.

3. Open in browser



In your web browser, visit www.[your-domain-here].Com/wp-admin/install.Php. As long as you put the right database information into your wp-config.Php file, everything else is automatic. The only potential hold-up is that if you only just created the domain name, or redirected it to this host from elsewhere, it can take up to 48 hours to start pointing here. If so, keep trying every few hours.

4. Admin bar



WordPress ships with a default theme, and automatically creates a post and a comment so you can see how it looks. You'll see an Admin bar at the top of the screen when logged in, but users don't. This offers shortcuts to the admin interface, the Dashboard and creating posts and pages. Posts are blog entries, to be browsed. Pages are static chunks of information, like an About Me page.

5. Install WP Super-Cache



Before any of that though, you need two important plugins. Look in the Admin menu for the Plugins tab and click Add New. Type 'wp-supercache' and click the button, then 'Install Now' next to its name. Follow its instructions to the letter. Even a simple WordPress site can easily beat your server senseless: WP Super-Cache lets it create pages once and simply show them to everybody.

6. Install backwpup



Second, return to the Add New screen and type 'backwpup'. This is a handy plugin that takes automatic backups of your site on whatever schedule you want (weekly should be fine) and saves them in your choice of cloud storage. You can ignore most of the settings in it, but make sure it does both database and file backups. Do a test run, and leave it to its thing. You'll be emailed if it hits any errors.

How to keep track of – and increase – traffic to your website

1. Suck up to Google



Getting traffic is tricky, but far from impossible. The easiest way is to suck up to the search engines. Visit the Plugins section and add the 'All In One SEO Pack' to your site. This lets you customize things like the metadata Google displays when people find your site, and tune your links. You also want 'Google XML Sitemaps', which tells Google exactly what you've got, and when you've updated.

2. Statistics



Next stop, stats! The in-built web statistics service will show you stats on your Dashboard when you log in. If you need something meatier, you can't beat Google Analytics.

3. Social buttons



Look into adding social sharing buttons to your posts, perhaps using the Social Buttons plugin. The most effective is Facebook's 'Like' button, and there are several plugins to add it automatically. Generic 'Share This' buttons usually go ignored though, and it's better to have a couple of prominent ones than a whole line of tiny icons. With Facebook, always click 'Like' yourself. Other people are more likely to do so if someone else has first.

5. Create SEO optimised posts

In addition to using the SEO plugins we’ve mentioned earlier, it’s also important you write SEO-friendly titles and descriptions for all posts. Use the SEO plugins to make sure the meta descriptions and title tags have all the relevant keywords that best describe the content.

6. Customise Permalinks

You can ask WordPress to generate permalinks for your posts, but it’s up to you to make sure these URLs to the posts are not only readable but also contain some of the relevant keywords.



How To Calculate How Much Money You Would Need To Build A Blog Or E-commerce Website?

That is a bit complicated question, because it may vary from free in blog platforms names web2.0 to millions dollars for a website in top 100 SimilarWeb rating. However, I will try to split total cost to parts for new website you start from scratch.

Mainly it is:


Hosting


Domain


Design


CDN


Software (themes, plugins, scripts)


Other expenses

Hosting and Domain cost

About domains and hostings already written a lot, so I will not go into details here. You can check these articles to find cheapest options for good quality:

The Best Cheap WordPress Hosting For Low Traffic Sites

NameCheap hosting review 2020

With links above you would be able to pay for domain less than $10 a year and for hosting less than $5 per month. The more interesting topic, which some people still don’t know much about is CDN or Content Delivery Network.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

I am in love with CDNs. A CDN takes your websites assets (Javascript, CSS files, Images even the whole website) and serves them locally them across the globe so that your website will load faster to the user visiting your website from another country.

My account costs me a mere ten dollars a month just for this blog. This means it has an average load time of 1.6 seconds depending were in the globe you are reading this.

Website Design and Development cost

With over a decades experience in designing and developing bespoke websites for clients across the globe I have a fair and competitive pricing structure. I always try my best to keep my costs down as much as possible and to always go above and beyond the call of duty.

My fees depend on a lot of variables but essentially I base these on four different types of websites that I create around my client and their wants / needs.

Basic Website Costs.

Consider this website package as a glorified business card but with much more content. As I have alluded to a few times before in this and other posts I develop websites from the ground up and to my clients wants and needs. This way I know the site is going to be fast loading and my client gets exactly what they want.

Developing a site this way means I can easily extent the site with more functionality and features for my client in the future and as my clients business grows.

This makes sense as lots of templates and themes are often overbloated with code and comes with every possible feature a website owner does not want or need. It also means that I do not have to dig into hundreds of thousands of lines of code to add or modify a feature of the website which in turn saves on time.

My basic websites are of course handbuilt and designed from scratch, Include 4 or 5 pages including a home landing page, about us, services and a contact page and are designed for people and small business owners looking to develop an online presence.

How much does a basic website really cost? Well these usually take me about one week to design and code with custom graphics, hosting setup and email account creation and usually start at the low price of five hundred pounds.

Small Business or Blog

Although basic websites are good to people wanting to start out with a business and are looking to gather interest, leads and customers. It’s usually better to start with a Small Business website and Blog included because I build these ontop of WordPress CMS and are easily extendable.

Just like a Basic website, I build these from the ground up to my clients wants and needs but are also designed for my client to update the site on a regular basis without having to consult and rehire myself all the time.

These sites offer a lot more than just a basic site like social media integration, Analytics, custom domain email accounts, Review and Testimonial integration and finally Google My Business.

How much does a Small Business or Blog website cost? Well naturally this is a lot more involved than just building a basic one in HTML and CSS and of course, I have to also provide training on how to use and update the website. This kind of website can usually take me anywhere between three and six weeks. Because of this my fee usually starts at £3000.

Ecommerce websites

Most of the websites I build from scratch are the small business ones above but sometimes you want all those features and more like selling your products and services direct from the website.

Perhaps you are a bookstore or a theater and don’t want to use any third-party integration to sell your tickets or books because they take a commission. This is where Ecommerce integration comes into play. These sites are much like the Small Business or Blog websites above and include the custom theme creation but are a lot more involved.

How much does an Ecommerce website cost? On top of the bespoke theme I would have to integrate a lot more functionality into the site, Are you selling physical products or a service? order management, tracking delivery, delivery costs, live chat, stock levels, product description and variations of a product are just a few of the features I build into these websites.

This of course takes a lot more time to work on and to train my client. Because of this these Ecommerce websites start at £3500.

Bespoke Websites and Apps

Sometimes WordPress just will not do and a truly bespoke and unique database driven website or PWA (Progressive Web App) is required. WordPress is great and although some themes can take me six or more weeks to work on, generally WordPress can be setup in a day or so with a downloadable theme or template. Another benefit is infinity choice of plugins, some os them give priceless functions for search engine optimization.

Although rare, I do from time to time get a client wanting something very unique and bespoke with a budget to match. These websites usually have highly advanced and specific features the owner wants and needs.

It could be a bespoke Ecommerce website with a highly advanced feature that’s not possible within a WordPress theme or Plugin. It could also be a bespoke Social network or Forum like Facebook or Twitter. It could be an advanced PWA (Progressive Web App) that can be added to a mobil home screen and work offline (much like most apps from Google Play store or Apple).

How much does a Bespoke Website Cost? As with most things of this nature it takes a lot of time and skill to research, design, develop, test and finally deploy as I need to take into account the different browsers and devices the website and app will have to run on. Safety and Security as well as Legality’s and user data, Website and App speed, Database structure, PHP, MySQL, Design and so much more.

Because of all this a bespoke site can take anything from four months to build and as such my fee usually starts from £5000.



Thank you for reading,