Best WordPress Themes

10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away

There are now more than 100 premium WordPress themes on the market but the quality of those themes varies greatly. In fact, some ‘premium’ themes don’t really deserve that title; they’re only ‘premium’ themes in that you have to pay to use them. In some cases, you’d have to be mad to do so.

At the same time, amazing free themes keep coming onto the market. Some of those free themes are far and away more impressive than some of those being offered up as ‘premium’ themes.

Here are 10 free WordPress themes that will knock your socks off. They’ll also blow many so-called ‘premium’ themes out of the water.

Brightness

Half magazine and half blog, Brightness is one of the most impressive free theme launches of recent times. Its modern, sleek look is reminiscent of some of the best in professional blog design, sites such as Freelance Switch and PSD Tuts.

Lightning

Lightning reminds me a lot of sites like Smashing Magazine, although it’s much more stripped back in its out-of-the box format. Nonetheless, with the addition of a custom header image and a little tweaking of the styles, this could easily become a professional, eye-catching blog theme.

Charade

Sprinkled with beautiful icons, packing visual punch and offering up stylish typography, Charade is a free WordPress theme that impresses.

Thematic

Thematic mightn’t look all that special but under the hood, this theme offers a wider range of simple customisation than pretty much any premium theme on the market.

MassivePress

With a main content column featuring thumbnails for each post, a central navigation-type column and a right-hand sidebar visually showing off featured articles, MassivePress offers a great degree of flexibility.

The Morning After

There can be little doubt that the creator of The Morning After could charge people to download. It’s a clean, mean magazine-style WordPress machine.

Overstand

Free from clutter but with beautiful visual style, Overstand delivers a magazine-style homepage combining large slugs, neat headlines and thumbnail images.

Thunderbolt

Another clean and simple magazine style, Thunderbolt offers a beautiful, customizable WordPress solution for moderate to advanced users.

The Unstandard

As the name attests, this is not your average WordPress theme. It catches the user’s attention with headlines set over the top of large images on the homepage.

Neoclassical

A three-column classic offering a central column for main content, rotating header images and picture-perfect typography.

Natural Power

It mightn’t have the flexibility of some premium themes but for stylish, modern blogging, Natural Power has all the bases covered.

Don’t miss our full list of the web’s best WordPress themes, including the cream of the premium theme crop.

This entry was posted on July 04th, 2008 and is filed under Features. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

63 Responses to “10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away”

  1. roger

    hi the links for Fake Blog and Thunderbolt are the same.

    5. July 2008 at 03:18

  2. Ian Stewart

    Thanks for including Thematic here. This is a great list with some really great themes. I’m honored to have my work in such fine company.

    5. July 2008 at 05:32

  3. Pam

    Thanks to this list I’ve found a few styles that I didn’t know about that I really like!

    5. July 2008 at 06:29

  4. Joe Hickman

    This is a great list of themes. I agree, some of the best!

    5. July 2008 at 06:39

  5. sneh

    yep. but IMHO none of them offer personalized support. without that, most of these is useless fro novice users.

    5. July 2008 at 13:48

  6. The Masterplan | Crossroads

    [...] I will not be taking on any web design/programming work for the next year or so. I will be writing here quite regularly, and I will, of course, be doing a lot of stuff with Split. I will also, as time permits, continue to maintain and work on the Morning After theme for WordPress (a “clean, mean, magazine-style machine”, apparently). [...]

    5. July 2008 at 14:46

  7. admin

    @Roger – Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve fixed the link now.

    5. July 2008 at 15:02

  8. 10个把付费主题打败的免费WordPress主题 : 行路男

    [...] Want More? 这里吧：10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away，毕竟不是自己总结的，也不需要翻译，就放出这五个吧，另外的大家详看作者的页面。多给一个链接，多一份尊重。BTW，新主题会在这几天发布，大家看看还有什么建议！Live DEMO Here! [...]

    5. July 2008 at 19:41

  9. Aaron Altman

    Awesome, thanks for these. Still a newbie so trying to learn. Is there anything like this for Tumblr?

    6. July 2008 at 01:06

  10. Ricardo Gomes

    Thanks for the list… ! :) yeah, they blow premium themes…

    6. July 2008 at 04:17

  11. UtahLuxury.com

    We took the “master Plan theme and made it more for us. But what a great launching point!!!
    http://www.utahluxury.com

    6. July 2008 at 07:17

  12. UtahLuxury.com

    My bad it is called the “Morning After” theme by the “Master Plan”
    http://www.utahluxury.com

    6. July 2008 at 07:19

  13. duivesteyn

    wow
    i will certainly be recomending this website ;)
    great pics

    http://www.duivesteyn.com.au

    6. July 2008 at 22:22

  14. Do you really need to pay for a premium WordPress theme when you can download these? | WordPress Philippines

    [...] WordPress Themes shares the 10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away. Here’s the [...]

    7. July 2008 at 15:58

  15. Mike

    OpenBook by jbj from catswhocode.com

    http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/featured/wordpress-openbook-premium-theme-available-for-download-20

    8. July 2008 at 02:14

  16. Best WordPress Themes (urbanmainframe.com)

    [...] 10 free WordPress themes that blow many premium themes away. (No Ratings Yet)  Loading … [...]

    8. July 2008 at 06:19

  17. Siam

    I definitely agree with Mike. OpenBook is an awesome theme and would fits very well in this lits.

    8. July 2008 at 15:17

  18. ekspi

    great to share the themes

    11. July 2008 at 16:55

  19. » “10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away”

    [...] “10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away” – and they’re not kidding. And I’ve been shopping and shopping for a theme – most likely to exccess – and there were several thems that I found very appealing and hadn’t seen. And I haven’t even looked at 60 Best WordPress Themes For Freelancers, or Shutter Themes (”Show off your photos in style”) [...]

    13. July 2008 at 01:53

  20. Chris

    Great list, a couple of themes I havent seen before here! Ive added some of them to my site as well
    Themes that dont suck!

    http://www.themesthatdontsuck.com

    Thanks!

    22. July 2008 at 13:32

  21. mehmet ali

    thanks goog theme

    25. July 2008 at 21:36

  22. Get your own blog! | Lazy Perfection

    [...] Best Wordpress Themes – 10 free Wordpress themes that blow many premium themes away [...]

    31. July 2008 at 12:51

  23. Bookmarks about Themes

    [...] – bookmarked by 3 members originally found by rsgranne on 2008-07-18 10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away http://www.bestwpthemes.com/10-free-wordpress-themes-that-blow-many-premium-themes-away/ – [...]

    7. August 2008 at 09:15

  24. Maxwell

    Wow!! I’m blown away.
    I’m now diving into WP…Blogger is too LIMITING.
    Is there a PDF file I can download with lots of offline tutorials?? I’m here in bandwidth-starved Kenya so I’m not always online.

    - Max (aka MaxTheITpro)

    22. August 2008 at 00:22

  25. ERC

    This is a great collection of free themes. Thanks for putting this list together.

    27. August 2008 at 07:02

  26. Kumpulan Download and Link « Oktara’s Blog

    [...] -10 Free WordPress Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away (link) [...]

    27. August 2008 at 12:03

  27. BlogCini

    Awesome colletions!

    Very beautiful thmes, thank you.

    28. August 2008 at 17:50

  28. tejo

    the charade theme is awesome…

    29. August 2008 at 16:17

  29. Spokane realtor

    AWESOME! I especially like the MassivePress theme, the idea of using a thumbnail for each post is amazing. Sharp and clean, I’ll be migrating to it this week.

    6. September 2008 at 00:37

  30. 750+ temas para Wordpress indicados pelos melhores! - 2.0 WEBMANIA - Portugal, a Web 2.0, o Mundo e a Internet

    [...] 10 Free Wp Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away [04 JUL [...]

    11. September 2008 at 12:17

  31. 750 e più temi per WordPress | TechNotizieNews

    [...] [16] 10 Free Wp Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away [...]

    11. September 2008 at 19:33

  32. 750+ excellent Wordpress themes pointed by the best blogs around! - 2.0 Webmania

    [...] 10 Free Wp Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away [04 JUL [...]

    12. September 2008 at 03:46

  33. Matt

    This post is definitely “bookmark” worthy. I’ll certainly be using some of these themes in the near future.

    13. September 2008 at 02:44

  34. WPJunkie

    Very nice set of themes!!

    14. September 2008 at 13:28

  35. 10 Free Wp Themes That Blow Many Premium Themes Away

    [...] Best Wordpress Themes; Date: 2008 / 04 [...]

    15. September 2008 at 08:00

  36. Miocarbon

    Your Design is cutting the edge, especially for themes with image.
    Nice themes…!!

    25. September 2008 at 04:43

  37. Goldie

    Wow, this may make me change the theme of some of my websites today!

    10. October 2008 at 23:12

  38. baloot

    i like the morning after more than other themes.

    it’s free and magazine style themes.

    and, thanks for this listing. makes me useful choice.

    20. October 2008 at 03:42

  39. Blog Shot

    The Morning after is very nice. So clean.

    3. November 2008 at 21:47

  40. Sergio Sedas

    I too prefer “The Morning After” It is very nice and clean. Particularly in my case when I have to combine announcements with posts.

    14. November 2008 at 12:17

  41. Jay Timball

    Superb collection of themes. I am definitely going to use these for my blogs.

    Thanks!

    14. November 2008 at 18:31

  42. kami

    Nice collection
    Thanks
    Kami
    Dotlancer.com

    5. December 2008 at 01:54

  43. Kim Dion

    Great themes,

    On the massive press can you video shots there instead of pic’s.

    I have been looking for some great themes, do they work well with wp 2.7 new upgrads.

    Kim Dion

    15. December 2008 at 23:41

  44. Free WP Themes And Over 33,000 Templates To Download | FeedingTheCrave.com

    [...] 10 Free WP Theme that blow most Premium WP Theme [...]

    9. January 2009 at 02:28

  45. 1000+ Free Wordpress tema | webija.com

    [...] [26] 1o free Wp Themes that Blow many Premium themes away [...]

    10. January 2009 at 19:28

  46. rsin

    Cool themes. I have downloaded one..

    13. January 2009 at 06:08

  47. Mark

    These are excellent themes which i never found while searching for free wordpress theme. I have got a blog the look of which is very boring. I will certainly use one of these now.

    26. January 2009 at 05:22

  48. Side

    I don’t think “Thematic” theme is free anymore… from what i can see, a donation is required before being able to download?

    26. January 2009 at 08:06

  49. Side

    Dol, the link to download it is there – just keep scrolling down… Will try it first, then donate. ta

    26. January 2009 at 08:10

  50. Masrur

    Nice theme list…

    Thanks for posting this here.

    26. January 2009 at 19:19

  51. Internet Marketing IQ

    I’ve yet to come across any free themes beside Brian Gardner’s temporarily free Revolution Series that implements drop down top navigation. And with the thousands of themes I’ve looked at free and premium still nothing that does a good job of implementing drop down with a 3 column design. I use Neoclassical in a modified version and I find it okay for most basic quick sites. But one day I will come across a quality CMS theme other than WP Remix which has a few problems. Found your page by searching for WP themes of course.

    3. February 2009 at 14:01

  52. Aaron

    Thanks for the great themes. I’ll have to use some of these

    2. March 2009 at 04:22

  53. Siddharth

    Cool Themes !! I gotta use some of them at my own website after I finish with CSS paintings !!

    Thanks

    2. March 2009 at 21:13

  54. Salman

    Massive Press is a rocking theme… I’ll surely use it in the future.

    9. April 2009 at 10:43

  55. Jade

    i like the thunderbolt, very clean!

    28. April 2009 at 20:36

  56. donadony

    Nice themes , but always looking for a white and clear one

    28. April 2009 at 23:37

  57. Mr Quicker

    This much better way to browse themes – and better themes – than what I’ve found on Wordpress.org!

    17. May 2009 at 23:49

  58. karmin

    nice themes bro…

    18. May 2009 at 03:42

  59. Joachim

    wow great themes, thanks for sharing
    Joachim

    19. May 2009 at 04:04

  60. smith

    Great collection .. But..can i use these free wordpress themes for free wordpress account at wordpress.com…

    20. May 2009 at 17:41

  61. Ray

    Hi,

    Can you start doing 2009 lists just as everyone else has done please? we’re past half way through already and these are from before April last year, many thanks.

    26. June 2009 at 09:24

  62. Buckminster

    MassivePress, aka Massive News: Not free. Bummer.

    27. June 2009 at 11:56

  63. Azhar Ahamed

    Great collections! It will be better if you update with latest collections !!

    11. July 2009 at 01:08