32 Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2023

So you want to create a new blog? Or at the very least, give your current one a makeover? Working with WordPress makes it super easy to find a theme to launch a competent-looking site quickly.

However, it’s a bit harder to find blogging WordPress themes that have all the features you want. Or themes that fit within your budget. And it can also be difficult to find a theme that offers aesthetics that fit your brand or actually stand out from the competition.

That’s why we’ve set aside the time today to put in the research and source over 30 different WordPress themes for blogs. And the collection is designed to suit every style, business type, and budget.

But before we dive into the full list, let’s first discuss a few factors up front, including what to look for in a high-quality theme as well as what sort of pricing to expect.

How To Pick the Best WordPress Themes for Blogs

It’s a good idea to keep the following factors in mind as you take a look at the WordPress themes we’ve compiled here:

• Pricing. If a theme’s price is out of your budget, it’s obviously not going to be an option. Be clear about how much you can afford to spend on a theme before you even start looking. This can help prevent some disappointment, too.
• Quality. You should always be on the lookout for themes that are well-reviewed and bear all the marketing of a high-quality product. That is, look for themes that offer thorough documentation, clean code, speed optimization, and that are SEO-friendly.
• Simplicity. If you want to use WordPress for blogging primarily, you’re not going to need a million bells and whistles for that. A simple theme with straightforward features is most often best.
• Compatibility. You’ll definitely want to choose a theme that’s compatible with the newest version of WordPress. And if you want to use Gutenberg, make sure it’s a theme that makes use of blocks efficiently.
• Bundled Features. If you are in the market for additional features, look for a theme that provides plugins bundled with it, or includes the features you’re looking for in the theme options panel. A few examples include things like contact forms, call-to-action-buttons, sliders, galleries, and page builders.

Should You Pay for a WordPress Theme?

There are thousands of WordPress themes available for bloggers of all types. So when should you actually shell out cash for a theme? And when are you better off sticking with a free option? Let’s briefly break down the difference.

• Free themes cost nothing, but also come with no promise for quality or continual updates. However, they can be a good choice for those who simply want to build a blog and have no business or monetization goals tied to the endeavor.
• Premium themes are more likely to guarantee support, quality, and ongoing updates since you’re paying for it. However, this option is best reserved for those with money to spend or the budget for it.

It’s also important to factor in hosting to your budget. You’re definitely going to want to invest in a high-quality hosting option like Kinsta, which provides speed-optimized hosting for a reasonable price. We also offer free migration if your website is currently hosted elsewhere – or walk you through the do-it-yourself approach – and full 24//7/365 support whenever you need it.

If you expect your website to receive a decent amount of traffic, it’s a good idea to invest in a CDN as well. Using a content delivery network means your website loads faster for site visitors, and can greatly improve the user experience. This is a must if you want to keep people coming back to your blog time and time again.

Coupled with this, managed WordPress hosting is typically the best choice for those lacking the time or skill set to perform website maintenance themselves. A managed host means your high-traffic blog will be performance-optimized and consistently updated, backed up, and supported.

32 Best WordPress Themes for Blogs in 2023

And now we’ve arrived at the part you’re here for. This is our selection of the 32 best WordPress themes for blogs currently available in 2023. We’ve broken up the list into two categories: free and premium to make it easier for you to browse through your options. Certainly, at least one of these will meet your needs.

Free Blogging WordPress Themes

Here are 19 free blogging WordPress themes worth looking at.

1. Morning Time Lite

First on our list is the MorningTime Lite theme, which offers a simple and modern design that’s intended for personal bloggers. It makes it super easy to create a blog that looks great, performs well, and doesn’t overload you with the details.

If you want to build a website that you can use to document your daily life, share information about a hobby, or provide a simple news feed, this theme would make an excellent choice.

Notable Features

• Supports gallery posts
• 3 menu location options
• Clean code
• Minimal design

2. Garfunkel

The next of the best WordPress themes for blogs is Garfunkel, which offers a stylish and visually-oriented design that’s certain to serve those who use photographs, illustrations, or other visual elements prominently in their blogging endeavors. This theme is responsive and has a Pinterest style that immediately engages site visitors.

We could easily see this theme being used for a photography blog, travel blog, or fashion blog. It might even work well as a food blog if you were to add a recipe plugin into the mix.

Notable Features 

• Masonry layout
• 6 post formats
• Block editor support
• A variety of widgets
• Full-width page template
• Support for Infinite Scroll

3. Hestia

Another fantastic free blogging theme to consider is Hestia. This theme features a one-page design for drawing visitors into the story of your blog or website quickly. It’s also optimized for performance, so you’ll never need to worry about site speed or the overall user experience.

This WordPress theme features a material design and straightforward customization options you can access directly via the Customizer. Beyond blogging, you can also use this theme to set up an online store, a corporate portfolio, and more.

Notable Features

• Gutenberg-ready
• Compatible with top page builders including Elementor, WPBakery, Divi Builder, Beaver Builder, Brizy, and SiteOrigin.
• WooCommerce integration
• Includes starter sites

4. Namaha

If you want something a bit more minimal and simple, the Namaha WordPress theme is a great choice as well. The design is undoubtedly simple but sometimes that’s precisely what is needed to get your message across.

Though the emphasis here is on blogging features like multiple post formats and lovely typography, this theme can also be used to set up an online store or portfolio website.

Notable Features

• Responsive design
• Included demo content
• WooCommerce compatibility
• Premium version is available

5. Writee

Another option is the Writee WordPress theme, which offers an elegant design that’s suitable for blogs of all types. It can be customized to accommodate any topic and also provides several layout options for building blogs in the food, fashion, travel, and personal niches.

You can make a wide variety of adjustments using the Customizer, making it a good theme choice for beginners as well.

Notable Features

• A multitude of Customizer options
• 3 custom widgets
• A full-width and boxed slider
• Translation-ready

6. Didi Lite

If you’re looking for a theme that really is best suited for a personal blog or journal, the Didi Lite WordPress theme may be a good choice for you. It emphasizes typography with plenty of white space and room for prominent photos. It’s an ideal choice for storytelling.

It’s also been optimized for use on any device and offers a minimal experience without feeling or looking boring. Didi Lite would make a good choice for lifestyle or fashion blogs as well as personal journals.

Notable Features

• Responsive design and layout
• Live Customizer support
• Demo content importer
• Accessibility-ready
• Supports RTL

7. Ashe

Another of the best WordPress themes for blogs to consider is called Ashe and it offers a decent set of features that should help you get a blog site up and running quickly. It offers a minimal yet modern design that could easily be adapted for use by any niche including blogs focused on food, travel, photography, lifestyle, or personal journaling.

Its design is responsive, as is standard these days, and offers several customization options for appealing directly to your audience.

Notable Features

• Speed-optimized
• Compatibility with top plugins and page builders including Elementor, WPBakery, Beaver Builder, and Divi.
• RTL support
• Text and image logo support
• Fullscreen slider
• Instagram slider widget.

8. Inspiro

The Inspiro blogging WordPress theme is another modern option that offers more professional styling and can be used for both personal and corporate use. Its overall design is lightweight but it offers plenty of opportunities for showcasing both photos and videos in blog posts and on portfolio-style pages.

The feature set is impressive here, especially for a free theme.

Notable Features

• Fullscreen area with support for YouTube, Vimeo, and self-hosted video backgrounds.
• Page builder integration with support for Elementor and Beaver Builder.
• Support for photography and video portfolios.
• WooCommerce compatibility

9. Olsen Light

If you’re looking for a fast WordPress theme that prioritizes speed, the Olsen Light theme is a good choice. This theme is appropriate for blogs across a multitude of niches, including cooking, lifestyle, fashion, travel, weddings, and health & fitness. It could also be used by photographers or even hobby bloggers.

Olsen Light is lightweight, easy to set up, and supports a variety of customizations including column layouts, excerpts, and logos.

Notable Features

• Multi-author support
• Full documentation
• Responsive and retina-ready design
• Homepage slider
• Footer Instagram carousel
• Compatibility with top page builders including Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, and Divi

10. Responsive

Responsive theme is a fast, lightweight, and fully customizable theme, which includes 100+ Responsive Starter Templates. It’s compatible with all the leading WordPress plugins like Elementor, WooCommerce, form plugins, and much more.

Having a blazing GTMetrix score of 96, your website will load instantly, helping your customers to get a better user experience. Responsive is an SEO-friendly theme and provides you with a vast collection of individual pages for all your business requirements

Notable Features

• Mega Menu
• One-click template importer
• Grid view
• WPML ready

11. Bento

The Bento WordPress theme is another easy-to-use option for building a blog quickly and efficiently. Though it can be used for blogging, it also has features that you can use to build a full-fledged business website.

This speed-optimized theme offers a wide range of customization options that make use of the Customizer interface for added convenience. It also has full SEO optimization so any website you build with this theme will have a higher likelihood of showing up in search engine results.

Notable Features

• Unlimited colors
• 500+ vector icons
• Google Fonts
• WooCommerce integration with templates, widgets, and checkout styling
• Full documentation
• Comes with a child theme

12. Color Blog

Another free blogging theme worthy of your consideration is the Color Blog theme, which as its name would suggest, is a super colorful and eye-catching option. It’s a sure first for bloggers and authors who want to capture the attention of their readers (and keep it).

This theme provides numerous customization options by means of the live Customizer.

Notable Features

• Several blog layouts
• Translation and RTL-ready
• Gutenberg compatible
• Compatible with Elementor
• Tons of custom color options

13. Fascinate

Here’s another theme option that’s fantastic for creating niche blogs of all types. Fascinate features a modern design with a minimal layout that allows your content to sit front and center. Use it to showcase photography, lifestyle tips, travel blogs, and more.

It also supports four different post formats so you can automatically share your content in a stylized way.

Notable Features

• Responsive layout and design
• Gutenberg compatibility
• Live Customizer options
• Custom author widget
• Image lazy loading
• Support for numerous plugins including Mailchimp, Yoast, and Contact Form 7

14. Vogue

If you’re looking for a fashion-oriented theme, Vogue is an obvious choice. This free WordPress theme is search engine optimized and ready to be put to work for your next blog project.

With speed-optimization on deck, Vogue offers a clean design that’ll speak to fashion and lifestyle diehards.

Notable Features

• WooCommerce integration
• Several blog and footer layouts
• A range of color settings
• Customization settings built into the Customizer
• Compatible with the top page builders

15. Tracks

The Tracks WordPress theme provides still another quick and easy option for setting up a new website for your blog without having to spend a dime. It’s a great choice for personal blogs, of course, but also includes features for setting up an ecommerce store.

The layout options here are intrigued and designed to capture attention – no matter the focus of your blog.

Notable Features

• Minimalist design and multiple layout options
• WooCommerce compatibility
• Gutenberg compatibility
• 50+ social media icons
• Comment controls

16. Elsie

Whether you wish to start a simple online journal or a more robust photography blog, Elsie is a great theme to fulfill those needs. This WordPress theme is super customizable and offers an elegant design that will appeal to a variety of people across multiple niches.

It’s also highly customizable.

Notable Features

• Responsive layout
• Full range of Customizer options
• Lightweight design
• Customizable header, footer, and hero sections
• Control over typography and color

17. Maxwell

If minimalism is your thing, Maxwell is a great option. This WordPress theme offers a straightforward design that would work for most personal blogs on any subject. And with typography options and multiple post layouts, it’s a great option for those who want an easy way to get started.

Notable Features

• Responsive design
• Optimized for search engines
• Speed optimized for high performance
• Built-in GDPR compliance

18. Shapely

Shapely is another standout WordPress theme that offers powerful features for bloggers across every industry. Its versatile one-page design makes it a great choice for portfolios and service-based sites. But it can also be used for displaying blog content professionally.

Plus, it’s easy to adjust the homepage thanks to several included homepage widgets for controlling things like testimonials, product info, and portfolios.

Notable Features

• WooCommerce compatibility
• Compatibility with top plugins like Kali Forms, Yoast, and Gravity Forms
• SEO-friendly
• Mobile-optimized
• Truly multipurpose options

19. Kale

Kale is another beautiful blog theme, this time with a stunning design that suits food blogs and other photo-heavy blogs well. Lifestyle, beauty, and fashion niches would make great use of it as well. The design and layout include plenty of whitespace for a refined, uncluttered look but it’s quite full of content, i.e. text and images.

This theme promises easy setup and full search engine optimization.

Notable Features

• WooCommerce integration
• Multiple post types and layouts
• Social media menus
• Banner and slider overlay options
• RTL support

Premium Blogging WordPress Themes

While free blogging themes can serve you well, there may come a time when you’re in need of an upgrade. Or, at the very least, you’ll require a theme that offers a more robust feature set, additional support, or a combination of the two.

What follows are several premium blogging WordPress themes we’ve found to be reliable top-notch choices.

20. Personal

The first of the premium themes we’ll be discussing here today is called Personal. Developed by MyThemeShop, this theme was designed with telling your personal story in mind. It’s a fantastic choice for launching a journal or blog that needs to convey your personality.

This theme is not only beautiful, but it’s also been thoroughly optimized for SEO as well as for speed and overall performance.

Pricing

The personal theme costs $39 for unlimited site licenses, which includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Notable Features

• 4 blog layouts
• 2 header layouts
• Built-in featured slider
• Opt-in subscription box
• AdSense optimized

21. TinySalt

TinySalt is a lovely blogging theme for WordPress that makes for an ideal choice for food bloggers and recipe lovers. It offers a multitude of layouts and styles for creating a custom look. Likewise, it offers compatibility with numerous free plugins including Mailchimp and Contact Form 7.

And any customizations you want to make are made possible via the standard WordPress Customizer, which reduces any potential learning curve.

Pricing 

TinySalt costs $54 for a regular site license, which includes updates and 6 months of support.

Notable Features

• 12 demos with easy one-click importing
• WP Recipe Maker plugin integration, making it easy to present recipes with photos, steps, and recipe metadata.
• Includes an instant Ajax recipe search with filtering.
• Fully Gutenberg-ready
• WooCommerce compatible

22. Soledad

The next premium blogging theme we’ll discuss is Soledad and this one is absolutely loaded with features, demos, and options. It can be used for creating any kind of website, including a business portfolio, online store, or personal photography collection.

It includes support for mega menus and includes a Mega Menu Builder, so you can create navigation that suits your specific needs

Pricing

$59 for a regular site license, including updates and 6 months of support.

Notable Features

• 6800+ homepage demos
• Broad compatibility with top page builder plugins including WPBakery and Elementor
• Header and footer builder
• Mega Menu Builder
• 1000+ templates from the Cloud Templates Library
• eCommerce compatibility
• BBPress and BuddyPress compatibility
• Real Awesome Gallery
• 1500+ options included in the WordPress Customizer

23. Indigo

Now if you’re looking for a blog theme that can work for a multi-author magazine-style website, Indigo might just be the solution. This theme is easy to set up and use and offers an array of features and layouts you can use to create a powerful website for your personal journal, online magazine, or business.

Indigo can be customized to work for any theme or subject and has features to support blogs that discuss topics like fashion, food, automotive, sports, and beauty.

Pricing

Starts at $59 per year and includes automatic updates and a year of support and updates. Or you can pay a one-time fee of $159 to use the theme forever plus receive lifetime updates and support.

Notable Features

• Advanced Theme Options panel
• Responsive design and layout
• Relies on the built-in Customizer for making adjustments to fonts, colors, and styles
• WooCommerce support
• Featured slider support
• Multiple widget areas
• Gutenberg-ready
• WPML compatible and translation-ready
• SEO-friendly code

24. Chronicle

Looking for a simple theme that makes setting up a blog easy? The Chronicle blog theme is a good one to consider. Its minimal design, clean layout, and overall simplicity make it a great choice for showcasing your content – both text-based and visual.

This theme has a responsive design that allows it to look fantastic on any mobile device and offers a handful of layout options to give you the creative control you need.

Pricing

You can purchase Chronicle for $39 per year. You can use the theme on unlimited sites for this price and receive updates and support. Alternatively, you can purchase a membership to MyThemeShop for $199 per year which provides access to all their themes and plugins.

Notable Features

• 2 header layouts
• 3 blog layouts
• SEO-friendly code
• Speed-optimized
• AdSense-ready
• Advanced Theme Options panel for adjusting colors, backgrounds, and typography
• Gutenberg-ready
• Compatible with Elementor

25. Writing

Another of the best WordPress themes for blogs is the aptly-named Writing WordPress theme, which provides a super simple design that puts all the emphasis on the words you write and any photos you choose to accompany them.

And best of all, the minimal layout is a real pleasure to browse and read through, making it more likely site visitors will return. Set up is simple, too, and you can easily launch a new blog within an hour using this theme.

Pricing

$49 for a regular license on ThemeForest, which includes updates and 6 months of full support.

Notable Features

• Several blog layout styles
• Solid social media integration
• Clean typography options
• SEO-optimized
• Unlimited colors
• RTL support and translation-ready

26. Typology

If all you’re interested in is words, words, words, then the Typology theme might be the perfect fit. This theme emphasizes typography above all else and bills itself as a text-based blog theme where “no images are required.”

This theme is pretty unique in that regard – it’s designed to look fantastic and be a stylish choice without needing images to create a cohesive look.

Pricing

$59 for a regular site license from ThemeForest, including updates and 6 months of support.

Notable Features

• Material and flat design options
• Multiple post layouts
• Superior control over typographic elements
• Performance optimized
• Compatible with top plugins including Jetpack, Disqus, Mailchimp, and more
• WooCommerce support

27. Elegant

Another option that could serve a great number of people is the Elegant WordPress theme. This one offers a simple design that’s quite sophisticated, offering a multipurpose focus that can be customized to suit any industry or niche.

This theme marries form and function well, offering a slew of features for customization while prioritizing the aesthetics that capture the attention of site visitors (and keep it). It’s an ideal choice for bloggers who like to tell a story with images and text. It’s also great for portfolios and magazines.

Pricing

Elegant is available from Themify for $59, which includes an unlimited site license plus a year of support and updates. Or you can pay $69 to receive the associated Photoshop files as well.

Notable Features

• Themify drag-and-drop builder
• Fluid and responsive design
• Responsive and retina-ready
• A wide range of typography options
• Pre-designed color skins
• WooCommerce compatibility
• Masonry/grid portfolio post type

28. Foodie Pro

Now if you want to create a blog around the subject of food, specifically, Foodie Pro is an excellent choice. This theme is actually a Genesis child theme and it features a minimalist style that can be customized to suit your needs.

It’s loaded with color and typography choices – unlimited, in fact. It is only available now when your purchase the Feast plugin, however.

Pricing

You can get access to the Foodie Pro theme (along with 5 other recipe blog themes) when you subscribe to The Feast Plugin for $249 per year. The Feast Plugin provides a new admin interface within WordPress that promises to be easier to work with.

Notable Features

• Widget-enabled home and recipe pages
• Ad space
• Speed and performance optimized
• Includes demo content
• Continual updates and support
• Block editor compatible
• SEO optimized

29. Akea

Or maybe the Akea WordPress theme is more your style? This one offers a minimal design that gives your content plenty of white space to breathe while still being visually interesting.

It can be customized to suit a blog of any sort, including personal journals, lifestyle blogs, magazines, photography portfolios, and travel blogs. And that’s just to name a few of the possibilities. It’s clearly designed for multi-author support, with sticky posts, visible “likes” and social share buttons, and prominently featured images.

Pricing 

Akea costs $54 from ThemeForest, which includes updates and 6 months of support.

Notable Features 

• Gutenberg-ready
• GoodLayers Page Builder comes built-in
• WooCommerce-ready
• Background wrapper options
• Powerful demo importer
• Fluid layout
• 19 header options
• Floating and secondary navigation options
• 6 footer layouts

30. Jevelin

Sometimes you want more out of your blogging theme and that’s okay. The Jevelin WordPress theme is a great choice on those occasions when you’re looking for something a bit more versatile. This theme can be customized to work for a wide range of websites and in many niches. And the outcome will be professional every time.

In fact, it offers design options that would work well for landing pages, online stores, personal blogs, portfolios, and more.

Pricing

Jevelin costs $59 on ThemeForest and comes with updates and 6 months of support.

Notable Features

• One-click demo importer
• Comes with tons of pre-built demos for a variety of niches including weddings, gyms, yoga studios, portfolios, and more.
• 10 portfolio options
• An easy-to-use theme options panel
• Custom color schemes, fonts, and layouts
• Comes with the Unyson drag-and-drop page builder
• Includes the Slider Revolution plugin
• Includes mega menus and custom widgets
• Incorporates social sharing features

31. Fresh

The Fresh WordPress theme is a fantastic choice for creating a blog, magazine, or online shop. It’s loaded with features but its true appeal is centered on its gorgeous aesthetics.

This theme is immediately eye-catching and offers an optimized layout and combines form and function well. It’s also responsive and optimized for mobile, so will look good on every device. Use this theme to create a recipe blog, craft store, travel review site, or anything else that could benefit from this minimal design.

Pricing

Fresh is available from MyThemeShop for $49, which includes an unlimited site license,

Notable Features

• Drag-and-drop homepage editor, with 7 sections to adjust
• 3 header layouts
• SEO optimized
• Speed and performance optimized
• Featured slider
• AdSense optimized
• Gutenberg and Elementor compatible
• Includes an Advanced Theme Options panel

32. Memory

The last theme on our list here today is called Memory and its design and typographic choices make it an excellent choice for someone who writes personal essays or who wishes to share a travel journal.

The theme features a paneled layout and is stylistically reminiscent of blog theme trends of the past while still being decidedly suitable for the present moment.

Pricing

The Memory theme is available for $49 from GretaThemes, which includes a year of updates and support. However, you can also opt for the Premium Bundle, which provides access to all GretaThemes, plus updates and support for one year. The Lifetime Bundle is also an option, which provides access to all themes with a lifetime of support and updates.

Notable Features

• Speed optimized
• Comes with 7 demos
• Dozens of page templates
• Block-enabled and works with the built-in Customizer
• 4 slider styles
• Advertising banners
• Social media modules for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
• Simple setup process

Summary

We hope you enjoyed browsing through this collection of some of the best WordPress themes for blogs. Each brings a little something different to the table, whether that’s ecommerce integration, excellent typography, or portfolio support. Regardless, any of these themes would serve you well when trying to launch a new blog.

And by including free and premium selections, it is our hope you’ll find something that suits your personal needs or company’s brand, your chosen subject, and your budget. Good luck!