50 Great Free WordPress Themes From 2011
- By Kevin Muldoon
- Posted in WORDPRESS
- 51 comments
There are probably a good amount of Noupe readers who would think little to nothing of paying money for a high quality WordPress theme if it was exactly what they were looking for. When compared to spending thousands of dollars on a unique design, a $40 investment in a premium theme for your website design is relatively painless. The number of premium WordPress theme stores and marketplaces has increased considerably over the last two years. Thankfully, many developers are still releasing quality designs for free.
Today we will be showing you 50 great WordPress themes that were released in 2011 for free. A few of the themes listed are the free version of a premium theme. Upgrading to the premium version usually gives you priority support and/or more features.
We hope you enjoy the list :)
1. News
A clean design from DevPress that could be used for a blog, news or magazine website. The home page has a beautiful featured slider for showcasing your important articles or videos.
2. Swatch
A free business and portfolio design that was developed to celebrate the release of the 100th theme from WooThemes. Features a custom homepage, featured slider, custom widgets, custom typography and multiple colour schemes.
3. Wootique
A free ecommerce design that was released in conjunction with the launch of the WooCommerce WordPress Plugin (which is a modified version of Jigoshop, the free ecommerce plugin we reviewed in Extending the Functionality of WordPress). With a featured slider, custom home page and custom widgets; Wootique is a great example of what can be achieved with Wootique.
4. Fungus
A Colourful blogging design that has social media links integrated in the sidebar and support for post image thumbnails.
5. WordPress Anniversary Theme
Released at the beginning of 2011 by Matt Mullenweg and ‘The WordPress Crew’, the anniversary theme has a traditional blog structure with a prominent header image.
6. BlueBubble
A simply minimal design that would be suitable for a blog or a portfolio. Includes an advanced option panel, 8 different colour schemes and social media integration.
Designed for artists and photographers, Fotofolio Landscape automatically resizes uploaded images to fit the surrounding area and includes a useful slideshow option.
8. Big Square
A clean minimal design that is suitable for photo blogs. Perfect for travel blogs, personal blogs, portfolios and photography websites.
9. Balita
A brand new eCommerce designed for Smashing Magazine that was created to help sell children’s toys and related products. It was designed using HTML5 and CSS3 and features a beautiful home page slider, custom shopping cart and Facebook integration.
10. Parallax
A simplistic portfolio design that features a large homepage slider and a useful portfolio template page.
Designed for photographers, AutoFocus lite is a simple HTML5 powered design that has a grid design and clean typography.
A retro style design that was designed in HTML5 and CSS3. It uses Google web fonts, has built-in pagination and an AJAX powered contact form. Uploaded photos are displayed beautifully using lightbox.
13. Splendio
Based on the Twenty Ten theme, this is a feature rich colourful blogging theme from Smashing Magazine. One of the few free designs that also comes with the original layered photoshop psd files.
14. Gynix Tema
A business design which places featured articles on the home page. The theme could easily be used for a blog as well.
15. Triton Lite
Triton Lite is a self-proclaimed ‘All In One’ design that features a beautiful home page slider, shortcodes for styling content and 3 built in widget areas.
16. Shuttershot
A portfolio design with a difference, Shuttershot shows photos in full screen in the background of the design. Even when a visitor views a blog page or page the background continues to change. A unique idea that has thankully been implemented well.
17. Bonpress
A colourful blogging theme that supports custom widgets. It includes custom widgets for social media services and comes in 4 colour schemes (blue, black, pink, orange).
18. MyPhoto
The first photography theme from WP Explorer is a minimal effort that uses Javascript to highlight photos when a user hovers over them. It’s clean and fast loading, making it a good choice for a photo website.
19. Shadows
A minimal blogging design that was created for WordPress 3.0+. It supports post thumbnails and includes built in pagination and an author information box on blog pages.
20. MyCorp
A business theme that features a home page slider, custom post types and custom fonts.
21. GazpoMag
Featuring post image thumbnail support, social media integration and a beautiful home page slider. GazpoMag is a great option for an online magazine.
21. Lefty
A fun blogging design that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The home page has a featured post image slider and you can use custom fonts using Google fonts.
22. theSevenFive
A social media theme that is powered entirely by custom widgets. Through the options page you can style the colour of the background, fonts, links and borders.
23. Side Blog
A great looking blogging theme that uses post image thumbnails in the index and in the recent posts section on the sidebar.
24. PolarMedia
A multimedia friendly design that would be suitable for a blog, news website or online magazine.
25. Blissful Blog
A simple yet elegant WordPress theme that was created specifically for wedding related websites.
26. Melville
Inspired by classic literature, Melville is a clean minimal theme that has beautiful typography.
27. PhotoClick
One of the few one-column themes that was released in 2011. It comes in two colour schemes and includes short codes and custom widgets.
28. Minimatica
A fantastic looking minimal theme that has a beautiful image slider on the home page. This feature rich theme is perfect for blogs, portfolios or video websites.
29. Min
This is an extremely simple, clean and to the point theme. It has two widgetized footer areas to handle navigation or anything else you feel like sticking in there.
30. Ari
A beautiful 3 column blogging theme that comes in a light and dark version. It uses Google fonts and has great social media integration.
31. Grid
A fantastic fast loading minimal design that uses a 4 column grid layout to display posts. Perfect for a portfolio or blog.
32. Amphion Lite
A blogging design that comes with 2 theme skins, 2 custom widgets, 2 short codes and 2 WordPress menus. Featured articles are displayed prominently on the home page in an image slider.
33. Grid Portfolio
A beautiful minimal theme that was designed for illustrators, photographers and graphic designers. There are several custom home page layouts to choose from with most displaying posts in a grid layout.
34. Scherzo
A simple, clean and minimal design which features a widget ready sidebar, custom header image and custom background.
35. Showcase
A portfolio design that could also be used for a corporate website or blog.
36. WP Creativix
A nice corporate design that also features a basic portfolio template (which has jQuery lightbox support).
37. Spectacular
Another fantastic design from Smashing Magazine, Spectacular includes short codes for styling content. An elegant theme that is perfect for blogs.
38. Steira
A boxy minimal blogging theme from the Automattic team.
39. Platform
Designed in HTML5, Platform is a drag and drop framework that makes creating your ideal site a breeze. One of the best free blogging themes released in 2011.
40. Retro Fitted
A fun retro style blogging theme that comes with several widget areas.
41. Ambrosia
An HTML blogging design that is optimised for viewing on mobile devices. It features 4 widget areas, two custom menus and an option to stick posts.
42. HTML5Press
Created using HTML5 and CSS3, the theme lets you choose from over 40 Google fonts. It includes a featured posts slider, post image support, post format support and 6 colour schemes (pink, blue, green, red, orange, and bluish purple).
43. Portfolio Press
Another theme that was designed using HTML5, Portfolio Press is a good option for a simple portfolio blog.
44. Liquorice
A beautiful vintage design that uses Google fonts.
45. Delicate
A clean minimal blogging design that was created using the NattyWP framework.
46. PressWork
An HTML5 WordPress Framework for designers, developers & publishers. The user friendly front page editor allows you to move things around and modify your website in a live environment.
47. Tungstenation
A good choice for a business or portfolio website. The home page features a beautiful jQuery slider. It also features post image thumbnails, social media integration, built in page navigation, custom font integration and much more.
48. SixHours
A great looking minimal blogging theme from Caroline Moore.
49. Busby
A clean blogging theme that was built using the UpThemes Theme Framework. It includes social media integration in the header and a featured post slider on the home page.
50. Blog-O-Folio
Last but not least is Blog-O-Folio, a great looking blog and portfolio design from Noupe. Features portfolio integration, built in advertisement options and an email subscription form.
Do you know of a great WordPress design that was released for free in 2011 that didn’t make the list? If so, we encourage you to share it with fellow readers in the comment area.
(rb)
About the Author
Kevin Muldoon is a Scottish webmaster and blogger who currently lives in South America. His labour of love is WordPress Mods; a blog which focuses on WordPress Themes, Plugins, Tutorials, News, Modifications.
Darren Bowden, 28 October 2011
Thanks for this great article, we are in the process of creating a new resources page for our website and we will link our visitors to this page. As you mentioned there are individuals and companies that do not have the budget or knowledge in design to create a great layout or design.
Thanks again.
Kevin Muldoon, 28 October 2011
Thanks Darren. Glad you found it useful. If you search the Noupe archives you will find a similar articles which I’m sure you will find useful.
miranbuke, 28 October 2011
awesome themes.
thnks
samwise, 28 October 2011
Insomnia apparently isn’t a free download, correct me if I’m wrong. Your link only redirects to DesignerThemes’ website where you have to buy an account in order to download their themes.
Kevin Muldoon, 28 October 2011
Please accept my apologies regarding Insomnia. I wrote this article a few weeks ago. When the theme was initially released the lite version was free and the pro version was $49.
It came to my attention a week or so ago when a review of the theme was published on my own site that the developer had changed the pricing structure and bumped the lite version up to $39 and the professional version up to $79. I updated my own article but I completely forgot that I included the design in this list -if I had I would have removed it.
I have replaced the design with Balita; a free ecommerce design from Smashing Magazine that was released last week.
Again, sorry for any inconvenience. Unfortunately, theme developers sometimes change the pricing of their themes from time to time and there’s little you can do :)
Zhu, 28 October 2011
Same here… Insomnia doesn’t seem to be free.
Marios, 28 October 2011
Kevin great list, Thank you for including my theme..
I think http://www.wpshower.com should be on your list too, they released few Free themes in 2011
Kevin Muldoon, 28 October 2011
No problem.
Yeah WP Shower have released some great designs this year. I’ve actually included their designs on several lists on my own site though I unfortunately had to leave out some good designs from this list as I wanted to make sure I included something for everyone.
Rednights, 29 October 2011
These are always a good source of inspiration to look through, thanks for putting these together.
Dejan, 29 October 2011
Thanks for this great collection excellent free themes
John Tsevdos, 29 October 2011
Great source of free themes!
Thanks for the mention, I appreciate it!!! (I’m the developer of the Ambrosia theme ;-)
Emprego, 30 October 2011
Amazing collection themes. Thanks
Eko Setiawan, 31 October 2011
Hi Kevin, thanks for include our free wordpress theme “Fungus”. Great!
Anyway, amazing list for free wordpress themes.
Sagar Ranpise, 31 October 2011
Awesome Roundup! All are really great themes!
Nora Reed, 31 October 2011
These are really very creative n inspiring collection :)
Coretech, 31 October 2011
Excellent themes, looks great!!! Will be good if you select themes collection for joomla too :)
manuele haisek, 31 October 2011
fine collection! I think I will use some of these themes Thank you!
Orlando, 31 October 2011
The first one with the guys by the pier is my favorite. Nice selection!
Grim Cris, 31 October 2011
Thanks for this awesome list. I love WordPress Anniversary Theme :D
Bong Da, 01 November 2011
wow, nice collection, free but very beautiful.
Prateek Modi, 02 November 2011
Excellent collection of wordpress themes there!! I think I have FINALLY found one for my website redesign! thanks a lot for sharing guys.
Lojra, 02 November 2011
Great themes ;)
smashinghub, 03 November 2011
excellent list
thanks
TK, 03 November 2011
Good job and thanks for providing the source of free WordPress themes.
Loved the 39. Platform, 45. Delicate, 46. PressWork and 49. Busby theme framework :)
Esther, 08 November 2011
Gracias por estos temas.
Muy bonitos.
Robert, 09 November 2011
Awesome list of real fresh & great WP themes !
But I’m jalous or yours :)
I’d just saw the footer I understand now why :) Smashing family member ;)
Thank’s anyway for this amazing list..
Robert
George, 10 November 2011
I would love to see a similar list for commercial themes
Rahul Tilloo, 10 November 2011
Hey great list dude….
I love the gapzo theme amazing free theme…..
Paul, 15 November 2011
thanks for this list. i always love these top lists, makes it easy to find some great themes to utilize.
Aneslin, 18 November 2011
woow, thanks for the great collection.
Ramsharan Adhikari, 22 November 2011
Really nice collection for wp template
Aimee, 23 November 2011
Thanks- this list helped me put together my school blog!
nuManaGa, 11 December 2011
Wonderful themes. Thanks.
Paul Weston, 14 December 2011
A great collection of WordPress themes. There are some really inspiring examples, I love the Big Square example for its clean bold layout. I also really like the PolarMedia template for its use of colour and navigation. Overall a great collection of interesting templates that shows me what can be created.
A. Marc, 22 December 2011
What a list Kevin! Grabbed some nice ones (Diary/notebook looks sweeeeet). Have some photographer friends that would love a few of these slick themes.
João Paulo Vanzuita, 24 December 2011
awesome !! thank you very much!
Robert Bowen, 25 December 2011
Thanks João, for the heads up. Link has been corrected.
Noupe Editorial Team
Yulia, 25 December 2011
Thank you so much for this post. These themes are great!
Imraan, 27 December 2011
Thanks. stunning collection dude. Helped me a lot in one of my quick response to a client. Thank you again.
Vi?t Designer, 28 December 2011
Great! I love it XD
Swamykant, 30 December 2011
Superb Collection. Thanks for share
Nauman, 01 January 2012
Thanks for the collection. It’s one of the best ones out there.
Aamir Raz Soomro, 19 January 2012
Hey, thanks for the wonderful collection; it’s amazing!
In fact, you have me a list of wonderful ‘magazine’ themes.. and I wanted just one! :) See, you confused me which one to go for.
Good job, buddy!
Dzi, 22 January 2012
Nice, I just needed a theme having realized my suffision is not doing it…
Rasel Rony, 27 January 2012
awesome themes thanks for share
Rich Maker, 28 January 2012
Great list. I have chosen one template for my blog. Thanks.
Steve, 06 February 2012
Great collection of themes. Will probably use some of these as frameworks for upcoming projects.
peace, 13 February 2012
There is no match with Pagelines.
Compras online, 22 February 2012
Excellent contribution, was looking for ecommerce type themes and thanks to the information presented in this paper could guide me more and get some topics of interest to my website, thank you very much again for the info.
Kevin Muldoon, 28 October 2011
It looks great. I’ve scheduled a review it on my own site in two weeks time :)
Dzi, 23 January 2012
You mean review suffision in general?