Best WordPress Themes

15 themes compared · Updated August 2026

All Free only 15 Premium only 15

There are tens of thousands of WordPress themes available, and most published "best of" lists cover the same handful. This one is built from the directory data instead.

We ranked 15 themes using our WPScore, which weighs the user rating (adjusted for how many people actually rated it), how many sites run it, how recently it was updated, and which WordPress version it is tested against. 15 of them have enough public data to be scored; the rest are listed below the ranked block, clearly marked, rather than being given a number we cannot justify.

How this list is funded. Some links here earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not move anything up the list — the order comes from the WPScore, which is calculated from public ratings, install counts and update history. See the method.

At a glance

1. Astra Best overall 88/100
2. Kadence 87/100
3. OceanWP 87/100
4. Blocksy 87/100
5. Royal Elementor Kit 85/100
6. Hello Elementor 84/100
7. Twenty Seventeen 84/100
8. Neve 84/100
9. Sydney 84/100
10. GeneratePress 83/100
11. Extendable 83/100
12. Lightning 83/100
13. Hestia 83/100
14. Colibri WP 83/100
15. Woostify 83/100

Best overall Free by Brainstorm Force

Astra

The Astra WordPress theme is lightning-fast and highly customizable. It has over 1 million downloads and the only theme in the world with 6,000+ five-star reviews! It’s ideal for professiona...

4.9★: from 6,514 ratings
1M+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

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Free by Nexcess

Kadence

Kadence Theme is a lightweight yet full featured WordPress theme for creating beautiful fast loading and accessible websites, easier than ever. It features an easy to use drag and drop heade...

4.9★: from 452 ratings
500k+: active installs
Updated: Jul 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org

Free by oceanwp

OceanWP

OceanWP is the perfect theme for your project. Lightweight and highly extendable, it will enable you to create almost any type of website such a blog, portfolio, business website and WooComm...

4.9★: from 5,713 ratings
500k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org

Free by Creative Themes

Blocksy

Blocksy is a fast, modern WordPress theme with advanced WooCommerce support and full compatibility with the block editor.

5★: from 872 ratings
300k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

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Free by WP Royal

Royal Elementor Kit

Truly all in one Solution For Elementor Lovers. 140+ Elementor Templates KIT, 100+ Professional Elementor Widgets, Elementor theme builder, Elementor Popup Builder, Elementor Premade blocks...

5★: from 92 ratings
100k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org

Free by Elementor

Hello Elementor

Hello Elementor is a lightweight and minimalist WordPress theme that was built specifically to work seamlessly with the Elementor site builder plugin. The theme is free, open-source, and des...

4.2★: from 128 ratings
1M+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

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Free by WordPress.org

Twenty Seventeen

Twenty Seventeen brings your site to life with header video and immersive featured images. With a focus on business sites, it features multiple sections on the front page as well as widgets,...

4.5★: from 119 ratings
300k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org

Free by Themeisle

Neve

Neve is a next-generation, ultra-fast WordPress theme designed for top performance, SEO, and Core Web Vitals. Its lightweight codebase and small size ensure minimal overhead and lightning-fa...

4.7★: from 1,281 ratings
200k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org

Free by aThemes

Sydney

Sydney is a fast, highly customizable WordPress theme for businesses, freelancers, and creative portfolios that want a professional online presence. It works with both Elementor and the Word...

4.9★: from 794 ratings
80k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

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Free by Tom

GeneratePress

GeneratePress is a lightweight WordPress theme built with a focus on speed and usability. Performance is important to us, which is why a fresh GeneratePress install adds less than 10kb (gzip...

5★: from 1,426 ratings
500k+: active installs
Updated: Dec 2025

WPScore

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Free by Extendify

Extendable

Extendable is a distinct, dynamic block theme designed as a canvas for your next online venture. Sporting multiple style variations, Extendable is the most expressive block theme yet. Go fre...

5★: from 4 ratings
200k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

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Free by Hidekazu Ishikawa

Lightning

Lightning is a very simple & easy to customize theme which is based on the Bootstrap. It is also very friendly with custom post types and custom taxonomies. When you add a new one, the b...

4.8★: from 12 ratings
100k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org

Free by Themeisle

Hestia

Hestia is a modern WordPress theme for professionals. It fits creative business, small businesses (restaurants, wedding planners, sport/medical shops), startups, corporate businesses, online...

4.8★: from 560 ratings
70k+: active installs
Updated: Jul 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org

Free by Extend Themes

Colibri WP

A beautiful, very customizable, multipurpose theme that you can use to create amazing websites through drag and drop. It comes with a pre-designed home page, 5 header designs and over 35 rea...

4.8★: from 266 ratings
50k+: active installs
Updated: Aug 2026

WPScore

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Free by dylan ngo

Woostify

Woostify is fast, lightweight, responsive and super flexible WooCommerce theme built with SEO, speed, and usability in mind. The theme works great with any of your favorite page builder like...

4.9★: from 126 ratings
40k+: active installs
Updated: Jul 2026

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org