Cool free and premium Wordpress themes

Wordpress users have thousands of themes to choose from. We hunt out the best of the best free and premium themes so you don’t have to. You can thank us later.

Best one-column Wordpress themes

Simplr: It doesn’t get much simpler than this. The front page of this Wordpress template displays just a single post.

Flirtatia: Sassy and simple. White-and-grey with blog navigation and archives at the bottom of the template’s main column.

Day Dream: Blue and white, with a page navigation bar above the fold and weblog categories and archives at the bottom.

Vostok: Less is more. Vostok is a clean and elegant one-column Wordpress template which keeps the focus on your words, images and videos rather than on any design elements. It uses light text on a dark background to great effect.

PocketT: PocketT is a crisp, clear one-column theme with clear navigation across the top and an ‘about’ box built in above the main content of the blog.

DePo Skinny: A super-simple but powerful Wordpress theme with one 500-pixel-wide column. It accommodates categories and tags easily, and features a row of Flickr images across the top.

Fontella: Large fonts and a simple design that highlights a single weblog post at the top, and then recent posts and categories in a three-column footer. Perfect for blogs with good content but low turnover.

Tiny Studio: Tiny Studio is a stylish, narrow, one-column Wordpress theme with an illustrated header, neat navigation bar and simple overall presentation.

Best two-column Wordpress themes

FTW 2.0: A clearly legible white and dark-grey 2/3 column Wordpress theme with tagging and Widgets. Gets a little busy in the right column but you can avoid that by not using too many Widgets.

Copyblogger: Ultra-clean code with detailed comments makes this an easy Wordpress template to work with. Custom stylesheets, killer comments and search engine-friendly code make this one of the best.

Salmon: A beautiful colour palette, rounded corners, and an eye for the details makes this weblog theme stand out from the pack.

Minyx 2.0 Lite: Contemporary green, blue and orange template with stylish horizontal page navigation and wide sidebar.

Autumn Concept: The default green colours may not appeal but the colour scheme is easily customised. Full-width, with a large banner image and Widget support.

K2: K2 is more than a theme. It’s an advanced Wordpress template that allows for a whole range of hacking. Out of the box, it’s simple and stylish.

Skittlish: Let your users choose between fixed and fluid width, and seven bright colours for the sidebar.

Beautiful Day 2.0: Soft and bright template with a classy horizontal page navigation bar.

Tranquility White: Very plain and easily customisable white-and-green theme with an impressive Flash animation in the header.

Geezeo: The eye is drawn straight to the content thanks to this clean grey, blue and black design with neat support for asides in the main column.

Elite: Very readable layout with sidebar on the left and white text on grey background. Clean and sleek Wordpress template. No images.

Cutline: Easily customisable, black and white theme with large header image and navigation bar. Theme author has provided a lot of online tips for tinkering with the theme.

Upstart Blogger Minim: Minimalist, fast-loading, ad-friendly blue-and-white Wordpress theme. Just add your own header image.

Natural Essence: Natural earthy colours, large header image and big footer make this a simple, effective theme.

281: One of the cleanest, fastest-loading themes you’ll find. A great base to work off.

Cold Blue: Beautiful typography and nice blue colour tones make this Web 2.0 style theme stand out from the crowd.

Simplicity: The content comes first in this clear, simple Wordpress theme. Choose from light-on-dark or dark-on-light colour combinations.

Dropshadow: Modern, elegant, professional-looking blog template.

Margot: Clean, text-based, fixed-width Wordpress theme with Widgets and rounded corners. Highly readable text.

IAMWW W2 DnD: A confusing name but a clean, grid layout with blue and grey on white design.

Blueprint-WP: Blueprint-WP is a simple, clean two-column Wordpress theme with a white content area and a grey sidebar. It’s a very traditional blog look but has considerable flexibility.

Prisa2: Are you looking for a stylish two-column Wordpress theme with plenty of white space and a Web 2.0 feel? Then Prisa2 might just be the answer to your prayers.

Cubismo: Cubismo is a clean and simple, widget-ready, two-column Wordpress theme. The layout includes a horizontal menu, highlighted page navigation and also a page menu in the footer.

Lemon Twist: The colours are actually more lime than lemon, but regardless, Lemon Twist is an impressive two-column template boasting tabbed navigation, a clear layout and stylish typography.

Elixir: A well-designed dark, two-column Wordpress theme with a splash of bright colour (and I do mean bright) in the header area. Choose from five colour variations.

Plane Jane: Plane Jane is a simple but sharp two-column theme with light text on a dark background, drawing a little inspiration from well-known Mac website Daring Fireball.

GimpStyle: There’s nothing flashy or fancy about the GimpStyle theme for Wordpress - but that’s what makes it great. It’s a minimal, stylish white and grey two-column theme that will allow the stories and images you post to shine.

The Azure Hut: A clean two-column design, featuring a distinct split between the content (with a white background on the right) and navigation (set against azure blue on the left).

45 Degrees: A classic two-column Wordpress theme with a traditional weblog layout that could serve almost any purpose you want to put it to.

Modicus Remix: Modicus Remix is a stylish, minimalist, two-column Wordpress theme that uses classic colours, smart navigation and a weblog-style layout.

Olegario: A mix of serif and sans serif fonts, large headlines, lots of white space and a distinctive left sidebar are the hallmarks of this stylish two-column Wordpress theme.

Abstractia: Attention to small detail and beautiful typography set this template apart from the hordes of two-column Wordpress themes.

MNML: A dark two-column theme with a hint of the tumblelog about it. The theme has some neat features, including asides and a quick-post box that appears at the top of the home page if you’re logged in to the site.

Best three-column Wordpress themes

Whitespace: One of professional theme creator Brian Gardner’s free themes, Whitespace is a minimalistic, white theme. Very clean, although the columns could probably use slightly wider margins.

Depo Clean: A minimalist, flexible, ad-ready Wordpress theme with Flickr integration. Some hand-coding required to personalise the footer, but this actually makes it more flexible.

Illacrimo: Two Widget-ready sidebars and a highly legible layout make this blue coloured theme a winner.

Grid Focus: Black-and-white theme with useful navigation bars and a modern grid layout.

Silhouette: A clean, contemporary, grey-and-white theme with a nice page navigation bar. Also available as a two-column theme.

Blue Zinfandel: Print-inspired two or three-column theme useful for online newspapers and magazines - or just a professional blog.

Rihanna: Rihanna is a three-column Wordpress theme with the central column devoted to the main content. Think white. Think Web 2.0. Think lightweight.

Agneka Simple: An extremely simple but at the same time elegant three-column Wordpress theme. Nice attention to small details such as stripped-back sidebars inside posts.

Neoclassical: A simple and elegant template system that offers classical styling, rich typography and huge random header images.

WP Premium: Despite the name, WP Premium is a free theme. But it does offer some impressive ‘premium’ features, including the option to choose between two or three columns.

Futurosity Eos: A sophisticated Wordpress theme with a minimal three-column design and the flexibility to create a magazine-style site.

Sans-serif Racer: A minimalist three-column, fluid-layout WordPress theme which uses one theme color, default sans-serif typeface and no images. Smart styling.

Best magazine-style Wordpress themes

The Morning After: The Morning After is a brilliant free Wordpress theme designed for magazine-style websites. It’s one of the best, if not the single best, free magazine templates available.

The Block Magazine: The Block Magazine theme boasts a simple but attractive magazine-style homepage layout in blue and white tones.

Overstand: A fabulous magazine-style layout, Overstand is free from clutter and highlights content beautifully using a combination of white space, large slugs, neat headlines and thumbnail images.

Best photo gallery Wordpress themes

Photopress: Display your photos against a clean, white background with simple navigation elements.

Best specialised Wordpress themes

Tumblelog for Wordpress: Tumblelog for Wordpress, as the name suggests, turns your Wordpress installation into a tumblelog engine, creating a custom page in your admin section for posting photos, quotes, links, chat transcripts and video, and automatically formating each type of post.

Sharpfolio: It’s designed to show off a professional portfolio, but photobloggers should also check out this Wordpress theme.

LaunchPad: A domain parking Wordpress theme that creates a homepage saying “Welcome to ‘X’ site” and asking visitors to sign up for RSS or email alerts so they know when the site launches.

Braintied: A one-column theme with no sidebar, no widgets, no archives and no categories. And yet it’s a beautiful theme that could easily fill a number of specific uses.

Best Premium (Paid) Wordpress Themes

Quommunications News: With a professional-looking layout and attention to the small details, this has to be one of the best premium magazine-style Wordpress themes around, if not the best at this point in time. ($US75)

Mimbo Pro: An extremely professional magazine-style layout. The creators’ attention to detail is clear: the theme offers a lot of extras you won’t find in many premium themes, let alone in free Wordpress themes. ($US89.95)

Revolution Theme series: With eight beautifully designed Wordpress themes, the Revolution series offers something for just about every type of site: news sites, magazines, tech sites, sports sites, small businesses and more. ($US79.95)

Magazine News: A magazine-style, three-column Wordpress theme with modern typography and built-in spots for your advertising. It’s widget-ready and displays a wide range of content on the homepage. ($US49)

Thesis: Chris Pearson has designed some of the slickest, most attractive free Wordpress themes doing the rounds. He’s now turned ‘pro’, introducing his first premium Wordpress theme Thesis. It’s a study in minimalism, white space, search engine optimsation and beautiful typography. ($US67)

Fresh News: This is a theme with visual punch, not to mention a lot of panache. It makes great use of images attached to posts and with 8 colour combinations, it could be used for virtually any type of blog or magazine-type website. The list of features is enormous, making this a theme truly worthy of the premium tag. ($US99.95)

Photo Gallery by ithemes: A sleek and minimalist photo gallery, showcasing 9 photos on the homepage. There’s nothing to get in the way of the viewer checking out your stunning photos. The publisher can choose a black or white background. ($US29.95).

Live Wire series: This news/magazine style theme comes in three style combinations, each offering four colour options. That makes 12 choices – all of them stylish and professional. ($US99.95)

VideoFlick: Videobloggers take note. VideoFlick is a beautiful and effective premium theme specifically designed for video blogs or websites focused on posting video content. ($US25)

VideoFlick: Video Elements is a premium Wordpress theme that should catch the eyes of video bloggers everywhere. ($US25)

Quommunications Video: An extremely professional, dark, ultra-modern theme perfect for videobloggers. Videos are featured front and centre, with details about the particular video that’s being played appearing below. ($US95)

Best Wordpress resources

Wordpress Theme Generator: Simply choose the colours, column configuration and other settings you want and then download your own Wordpress theme ready to go.

Blank Wordpress themes: These themes provide the bones of a Wordpress site ready for you to roll your own theme. A great starting point.

Best Wordpress Themes