7 Best WordPress Freemium Themes for Blogs

WordPress is an amazing space for you to do business and post your thoughts.

But it’s a space that can be customized to your liking and has an effect on your posts, customers, and business.

Themes are vital in the conversion of your website. People leave the website if they don’t like the design or the navigations. The design is a vital part of any website and WordPress themes are in the core of any website design.

There are free and paid WordPress themes. Free themes can be a good place to start, but they don’t have enough features nor the support to have a flexible website.

Premium themes, on the other hand, are costly and the worst part, you can’t get your money back if don’t like the theme after purchasing.

Freemium themes offer a free theme with an option of converting to premium theme after you spend some time with it. Usually, the free version will have some constraints on the features, but this version is enough to decide if you want to go for the premium option.

But before we try and find out the best freemium themes for blogs we need to take a look at the parameters of freemium themes.

Factors considered while ranking freemium themes

1. Responsive design

As of 2016, it was found that 56.1% of mobile users access the internet with their smartphones. And these numbers are bound to increase to 63.5% by 2019.

Responsive design refers to that design that is compatible not only to your desktop but your smartphone as well.

Google has stated that they prefer mobile representative sites. Plus, having a design that is responsive and compatible with that of smartphones is said to be a beneficial SEO tactic – but more on that later.

2. Simplicity

As Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

The same goes for how things need to be for your theme.

You need to remember that people only end up staying on a page for an average of 8 seconds. So, you need to make sure that you get your point across to them within this time frame.

You need to ensure that your page isn’t too cluttered as it could end up distracting your viewers and making them lose on what you’re trying to convey.

3. Fast loading speed

You might not have thought this trough, but the loading speed of your site is important.

If your site doesn’t load within 2 seconds, you are bound to lose 47% of your expected customers

A 1-second delay in your loading time can affect 7% of conversion

40% of people are bound to abandon your site if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds

Though these numbers seem scary, don’t fret. You can use tools such as Pingdom, G.T Metrix etc to help you figure out what your site speed is.


This is especially important for e-commerce websites, each second delay will lead to tons of customer bouncing. Make sure you use the best plugins in order to have an optimal experience.

The way that the theme is built, and all its other components are bound to reduce the loading time of your page.

4. Browser compatibility

While making a WordPress theme, you make it based on a particular browser.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that your users will use the same browser as you.

Which is why you need to make sure that your theme is compatible with all kinds of browsers.

You can use browser compatibility tools such as CSS validation or HTML or XHTML validation and more.

There are many browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari that you will need to run your browser compatibility test on.

Last but not least, make sure that you run the test for mobile browsers as well.

5. SEO friendly

The thing about themes is that they don’t only need to look good, they need to benefit your SEO.

If you have a poorly coded theme, it’s bound to affect your SEO negatively.

Which is why you need to ensure the theme(s) you choose are SEO friendly.

6. Translation and multilingual ready

A lot of people in the world don’t know the English language. And that is something that you need to consider while making your theme.

You need to make sure that your WordPress theme is  “ready to translate” and supports multilingual WordPress plugins.

7. Ratings and review

Of course, no one goes for something without looking at the reviews and ratings. And WordPress themes are no exceptions.

You can take a look at the reviews and ratings of themes from the users and then decide if you want to download it or not.

Bonus tip: Make sure that you take a look at the reviews thoroughly before downloading the theme of your choice.

Now that we know the basic criteria’s that need to be considered for ranking a theme, let’s take a look at the 7 best freemium themes for WordPress blogs.


Best WordPress freemium themes for blogs

I’m sure that you must be wondering as to why it’s necessary to even have a theme. Well, let me clear that out for you.

Themes aren’t really that important when it comes to blogs, but they do give you an added advantage.

Themes basically give your page a personality off sorts. They are an easy way for you to showcase what your page is all about.

Now, let’s take a look at the best WordPress freemium themes for your blog.

1. Slipstream

This theme can be customized easily and has a sidebar to help you display all the information that you would want your viewers to know.

Slipstream is a free theme that has been made by a premium theme shop ThemeLab.

This is the best theme for:

  • Personal blogs
  • Leadership blogs

Some of the special features of this theme are:

  • Create galleries
  • Add custom wedges
  • Customization with different page layouts

Slipstream is a very responsive theme. It’s compatible with desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

2. Hueman

This theme has multiple layout choices, a custom options panel, social menu, unlimited colour choices etc.

Hueman is a highly customizable free WordPress theme. It’s used by over 200,00 WordPress websites.

Some of the special features of this theme are:

  • It’s highly responsive
  • It has a flexible colour and design option
  • Multiple page layout option
  • It comes with a footer credits editor
  • Has dynamic sidebars and widgets

This theme is best for:

  • Blogs
  • Magazines
  • Simple corporate sites

3. Sydney

Sydney is a mobile-first theme, an in, it has responsive web design and is highly compatible with smartphones.

This theme can be customized easily and can be used for any kind of WordPress site. It uses the latest trends and is updated frequently.

Take a look at some of the special features of the theme below:

  • Full-screen background
  • Parallax background
  • Easy access to 600+ Google fonts
  • Frontpage blocks

This theme is best for:

  • Companies
  • Freelancers

4. Arcade basic

Having a large image as your background is the latest trend.

Arcade basic fits right into that category. It has a large background image in the front, it’s a lightweight WordPress theme that supports post formats, e-commerce, and bbPress.

Want to know more about bbPress? Check it out here.

Some of the special features of this theme are:

  • Custom CSS editor
  • Advanced colour picker
  • 20 Google fonts to choose from
  • Ready for handheld devices

This theme is best suited for:

  • Those setting up an e-commerce store
  • Photographers
  • Businesses
  • Bloggers

5. Vantage

Vantage is a mobile-friendly WordPress theme.

It’s highly customizable and can be used for a business, corporate, personal or blog site.

This theme is one of SiteOrigin’s oldest and most refined theme.

Some of the special features of this theme include:

  • Multiple logo positions
  • 3 menu alignment options
  • Google font is built right into the WordPress Customizer

This theme is best for:

  • Business sites
  • Portfolios
  • Online stores

6. Codium now

Codium now comes with a navigation menu on top, which makes it easier for you to access the navigation menu.

This theme fits right into the trend of having feature image(s) in the background that helps you talk about your business more.

Some of the special features of this theme are:

  • Has a Pinterest-type appearance
  • Thumbnail display on the homepage
  • Fixed menu on top

This theme is best suited for:

  • Blogs
  • News

7. Spacious

Spacious is a rather elegant and modern theme that is best suited for business sites.

This theme comes with multiple sidebars, page templets, and easy customization.

Special features of this theme include:

  • 4-page layouts
  • 2-page templets
  • 4 blog display types
  • 13 widgets areas
  • 5 custom widgets
  • Business templets
  • Primary colour option to match your logo
  • Boxed and wide layouts
  • Light and dark colour skin
  • Translate-ready

This theme is best for:

  • Businesses
  • Portfolios
  • Blogs
  • Any other type of website as well

CONCLUSION

Now that you know the best WordPress freemium themes out there, I’m sure that you aren’t going to go wrong when it comes to applying these themes to your website.

Do let us know if you’ve come across any other freemium themes out there. You already know the classification criteria for them.

Don’t forget to share the love and happy website making! (:

See also: Social Media Analytics Tools Every WordPress User Must Know