Most Popular WordPress Themes 2021
When it comes to WordPress Themes there are literally thousands to choose from and it can be a minefield depending on what you are trying to achieve!
We’ve listed ten of the most popular WordPress Themes of 2021 to help you narrow down your search for the perfect start to your WordPress website.
The 2021 Contenders
We picked the most popular themes through not just knowledge but also browsing the list on the WordPress repository. They are a mixture of free/freemium and the great thing about them is you can install them within seconds to see if they suit your needs or not – no faffing around!
Twenty Twenty-One
Each year, WordPress releases a default theme that comes loaded with WordPress when you install it.
2021 was no different and saw the Twenty Twenty-One theme included. This minimal theme is perfect for a casual blog or just getting started, but like all the default annual WordPress themes you’ll rarely find them in the open on live websites of a commercial nature.
That said, you would no harm in using it as a starter theme along with Gutenberg Blocks or your favourite page builders, such as Elementor or Beaver Builder.
Twenty Twenty-One theme also includes a dark mode as an option too!
| No. of Installs | 1+ Million | ||
| Price | FREE | ||
| Download | Visit website |
WP Astra
Astra is brought to you by the well-known WordPress development company, Brainstorm Force. It is a very popular freemium theme – offering a brilliant start to any website, this theme has tons of features with the free version and stacks more with the premium add-on if you so wish.
Recently Astra added a rather cool Header and Footer builder with the theme to help you customise your website without any extras.
It is suitable for sites from blogs, business portfolios to WooCommerce storefronts too – it is one of the themes that we recommend to use with Learndash (if you wish to run a courseware website)
Finally, Astra offers another free plugin with this theme that allows you to install over 150 different starter templates to kick off your new website!
| No. of Installs | 1+ Million | ||
| Price | FREE / $59 | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium version | Visit website |
Hello Theme
The Hello Theme is brought to you by WordPress’s most popular Page Builder tool, Elementor.
It is fairly perfect for getting started, but an extremely basic theme for creating sites with Elementor or another builder – there is no premium option available, so what you see is what you get.
This is one of the most lightweight themes available for use with WordPress and is the choice of many developers because of this. Coming in at just 6KB of code and a loading time of less than 1/4 second you will be hard-pressed to beat this theme for speed!
| No. of Installs | 800,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE | ||
| Download | Visit website |
Page Builder Framework
Page Builder Framework is a great all-around WordPress theme that can be used with Gutenberg Blocks, Elementor or Beaver Builder – or just by itself if you wish.
Don’t be followed by the small install-base compared to some of the bigger boys, this is one of the more lightweight WordPress themes out there!
Page Builder Framework is perfect for those wanting to have a lightning-fast website. They also offer a premium add-on which adds a host of extra features to your WordPress website and is backed up with a helpful Facebook community, great support and detailed documentation.
| No. of Installs | 20,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE / $67 | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium Version | Visit website |
Neve
Neve is a theme by a company called Themeisle – they are well-known in the WordPress industry and offer many themes, Neve is one of those with a free and premium version.
The free version comes with plenty of options to configure your website and with an additional (free) helper plugin you can install various starter sites to help you get going with your website too.
The premium version offers features such as a Page Header Builder and extra features for those using Elementor, WooCommerce, LifterLMS and more.
| No. of Installs | 200,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE / $69 | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium Version | Visit website |
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a well-known mature theme used by many WordPress developers. It is particularly popular with the Beaver Builder page builder community.
Offering a free and premium version, you’ll find plenty of options in both and the premium version also comes with some beautifully designed starter sites too!
Using GeneratePress Premium and their new GenerateBlocks plugin you’ll be able to create a Gutenberg Blog built website without any hand-coding or other page builders.
| No. of Installs | 400,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE / $59 | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium version | Visit website |
Kadence
Kadence is a great theme – ideal for pretty much any type of WordPress website (including WooCommerce stores) and in fact, we use it here on WP Champion!
It offers a free version that also comes with a free Gutenberg Blocks plugin too – additionally, there is a premium version of both the theme and blocks plugin available for those after a few more configuration options.
There are numerous starter sites also available for you to install and get your website up and running with just a small amount of configuration.
| No. of Installs | 70,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE / $59 | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium version | Visit website |
Hestia
Hestia Theme is our second theme by the people at Themeisle. This theme is great for creative businesses (Wedding Planners, Restaurants) and Startups, Agencies, etc. The theme also has some great extra features if you happen to use the page builder Elementor too.
The premium version boasts 50 extra options!
| No. of Installs | 100,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE / | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium version | Visit website |
OceanWP
OceanWP is a very well-known and popular theme with nearly 3/4 of a million installs!
The theme is extremely mature and comes bundled with some unique WooCommerce options if you plan to run a store.
It is fully compatible with all the major page builders and comes with a bunch of free demo/starter templates to get your site up and running as soon as possible!
| No. of Installs | 700,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE / $39 | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium version | Visit website |
Storefront
Storefront is a theme by the WooCommerce team and is the ideal WooCommerce theme to get started.
It is really quick, offers a heap of configurable options for WooCommerce and there are also some paid upgrades that offer even more WooCommerce-related features for your store.
| No. of Installs | 200,000+ | ||
| Price | FREE / $69 | ||
| Download | Visit website | ||
| Premium version | Visit website |
Final thoughts
So that is our list of the Most Popular WordPress Themes in 2021!
With over 10,000 themes to chose from, it is hard to pick just ten that we recommend – but you won’t go wrong by picking one from this list.
Depending on what you want to do and who your target audience is, you may wish to try a few and see which you feel the most comfortable with.
All of them allow you to try them for free (and use them commercially for free too!) – before you upgrade to one of their premium options.
