If you plan on running a blog, chances are you’ll use WordPress as your hosting site of choice because it’s so popular. WordPress offers thousands of free and paid templates for blogs. While the variety is impressive, it can also be overwhelming.
A WordPress theme is a folder of files that work together to create the design of your blog. The theme includes stylesheets, images, and JavaScript files. All of these files affect how your blog posts and individual pages will look.
People use WordPress themes in order to improve the readability of their website and ensure cohesion across the various forms of content on your blog. To help you weed through the countless choices of WordPress themes, this article will cover the best WordPress themes for blogs in 2021.
What Are the Benefits of Using a WordPress Theme For Blogs?
Using a WordPress theme for your blog will make your life a lot easier. Plus, WordPress themes can help you put together a blog that not only looks cohesive but it will perform exceptionally well, too. Here are three of the most significant benefits of using a WordPress theme for blogs!
Better design than your competitors
First impressions are everything. You’ll want your blog to stand out to your customers. If other people are blogging about the same topic or products, your goal should be for consumers to trust your blog over theirs. A well-designed theme can help you stand out and win the trust of your target audience.
Easy to update
A suitable WordPress theme is one that helps you improve upon your website as your blog expands and develops over time. If your goal is to grow your blog and your businesses, the right theme will be one that can grow with you. The following WordPress blogs won’t require that you start from scratch when it’s time to scale your blog.
Impressive blog performance
Many WordPress themes are developed by professionals who know how to write code. This minimizes your blog’s chances of encountering bugs or viruses. The best WordPress themes will ensure that your blog operates optimally.
What to Look for in the Best WordPress Themes For Blogs
When looking at the various WordPress themes for blogs, the following factors are worth considering before you commit to one blog theme in particular.
Option for category pages
Make sure the WordPress theme you choose comes with a built-in template that showcases your category pages. A template of this nature will highlight the category title and show the category description below it.
Customization opportunities
A quality theme will allow you to distinguish your company from the competition and build value as a result. In addition, a good theme will offer a variety of design options and customization opportunities so that you never feel limited when it comes to the aesthetic of your blog.
Easy to use and good UI/UX
A good WordPress blog theme should come with an interface that is easy for you to navigate. The last things you want to deal with when editing and optimizing your blog are unnecessary and confusing elements. Usability should be a priority.
Ready-made pre-designed blocks
A good theme will incorporate blocks, which are pre-designed section templates. These templates can be easily combined to create a well-designed blog in a short amount of time.
Lightweight and speedy coding
A lightweight theme will make your blog run quickly and smoothly. Look for a WordPress blog theme that comes with quality, professional code in order to speed up your WordPress site.
The 5 Best WordPress Themes For Blogs
Now that you know the benefits and factors to look for when researching WordPress themes for your blog, it’s time to look at specific themes. We have handpicked five of our favorite WordPress themes and listed them down below.
Each of the following themes offers advantages to different types of bloggers. Read on to learn more about the theme that is best for you and your blogging style!
Olsen stands out because it is entirely customizable, making it ideal for showing off your best work. The Olsen theme is recognized for the way it makes for a fluid and intuitive experience for readers.
Pros: Olsen is a smart choice if you want your images to stand out. We love the featured content slider and the Instagram footer widget available with the Olsen theme, both of which are outstanding theme elements when sharing your work with readers.
Cons: Unfortunately, the best features of the Olsen theme are not free. Although we believe the theme is worth the price, you have to pay to access the more advanced aspects of this WordPress theme. The Olsen theme is best for lifestyle or fashion bloggers who are looking for a modern theme.
Pricing: There is a free version of this WordPress theme and it’s called Olsen Light. However, even though it is free, Olsen Light is missing many of the features that make the Olsen WordPress theme desirable. The paid Olsen theme packages start at a one-time payment of $34.
We chose Astra as one of the best WordPress themes because it's great for first-time bloggers. It also happens to be free and customizable.
Pros: The Astra theme is suitable for personal blogs, portfolios, business blogs, and ecommerce websites. It’s responsive and very intuitive, making it easy for beginners to implement and use. Astra offers a wide array of color options, and all of the available Google fonts are built into the theme.
Cons: Astra is a very popular theme, and there are not many cons to report. Of course, you will need to upgrade to Astra Pro in order to access the more advanced features. However, beginner bloggers don’t need to upgrade as these features are not necessary when you’re first starting out.
Pricing: The Astra theme is entirely free of charge and the platform promises that it will remain that way. As with many WordPress themes, there is an Astra Pro theme that you can upgrade to for $59 per year. But as we mentioned earlier, this upgrade is not necessary for bloggers who are just getting started.
Extra is one of our top choices because it is one of those rare themes that lets you do it all. There are no limits or boundaries to the blogs you can create with the Extra WordPress theme.
Pros: We love Extra’s modules because they can help you create and organize your content for your readers. Extra comes with post feed, post carousel, post slider, and tabbed posts features. The template makes it easy to categorize and arrange your blog posts with a variety of appealing layouts.
Best For: The Extra WordPress theme is best for anyone blogging for digital magazines, portfolios, and online stores. However, it’s suitable for any and all types of bloggers, no matter your niche.
Pricing: The one drawback to Extra is that there is a charge to use this wildly versatile theme, and it’s not as beginner-friendly as some other WordPress themes on our list. The Extra theme is $89 per year or a one-time fee of $249 for a lifetime subscription. A subscription to Extra includes 24/7 premium support and unlimited usage of every product.
We love Hestia because it is a highly flexible and responsive theme for all types of websites. One of the best parts about Hestia is the easy setup wizard and free companion plugin, which adds testimonials and services sections to your website.
Pros: The theme is designed to accommodate WooCommerce right out of the box, which is a great feature for bloggers who are just getting started in online sales. Some users find that the text editors are slightly confusing.
Cons: Also, the number of customizable options in the free version is far more limited than the options available with other WordPress themes. For example, you will need to spring for the Pro version of Extra if you want to implement sliders, a portfolio section, or a video background.
Pricing: The free version of Hestia is best for beginners who want to integrate some basic e-commerce features into their blog via WooCommerce. There is a free version of the Hestia WordPress theme, but you will have to pay for the Pro version if you want access to the more advanced features.
Hestia costs anywhere between $69 and $199. The final price will depend on the exact version of the WordPress theme that you want to implement.
Newspaper is the best WordPress theme if your blog delivers new content to readers on a daily basis. The Newspaper WordPress theme is fantastic when it comes to complementing breaking news blog posts with sound, moving images, and other features that will engage your audience.
Pros: The best part about the Newspaper theme is that none of these features will slow down or delay your site. Newspaper is integrated with the Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) plugin, so your readers will have no problem reading your blog on a mobile device, too.
Cons: One con of the theme is that it is not free, but the price is reasonable if you create blogs that deliver daily content to a broad audience. The Newspaper theme is best for bloggers who release daily content and want to make their content accessible not only on desktop browsers but via mobile devices as well.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $59 for a regular license. This includes free future updates and six months of premium support. You can extend your premium support to an entire year for an additional fee of $17.63 USD.
Choose Your Theme and Get Started
We hope this article sparks some ideas about the type of WordPress theme that will suit your needs best. With thousands of free and paid options flooding the internet, it can be very hard to decide which theme is worth your while. However, you can’t go wrong with the themes in this article, so pick the one that works for you and start blogging!