12 Top WordPress Themes People Actually Use in 2026 (Tested & Ranked)

A great theme makes building your WordPress site feel effortless.

I went through the most popular options on WordPress.com — based on real usage data — and tested each one. 

From personal blogs to online stores, I looked at what works best for different types of sites.

Here are the 12 best WordPress themes worth considering in 2026.

TL;DR: The best WordPress themes

Here are our top picks of WordPress.com themes based on real usage data from WordPress.com:

• Twenty Twenty-Four: Best for content-focused sites.
• Retrospect: Best for photography websites.
• Twenty Twenty-Three: Best for getting a flexible starting point
• Twenty Twenty-Five: Best for building an adaptable, creative site
• Zoologist: Best for all types of blogging websites
• Hey: Best for personal blogging
• Tsubaki: Best for ecommerce websites
• Fewer: Best for portfolio sites
• Poema: Best for poetry or pure text sites
• Nook: Best for hobby and community-driven sites
• Aether: Best for small business sites
• Vivre: Best for magazine sites.

Pro tip: Set up and customize your site in minutes with our AI website builder, using simple text prompts to define the layout and visual look.

1. Twenty Twenty-Four

• Best for: Content-focused sites
• Price: Free

Twenty Twenty-Four is a great WordPress theme for beginners who want a clean, simple, and minimalist design.

It’s one of the most popular themes in the WordPress.com universe, with 9.78% of sites using it based on our data. 

The theme’s simple yet powerful features make it perfect for content-focused sites, such as blogs and portfolio sites.

My experience

Right from the start, I loved the styling options. The typography and color choices are excellent and offer a lot of diversity.

Each option looks elegant and professional. You can easily pick one that fits your brand and tweak it to your liking.

I also liked the template options. 

They felt especially geared toward content-heavy sites, with layouts for pages with sidebars, index pages, blog homepages, and single posts.

Twenty Twenty-Four also comes with over 200 patterns — predesigned blocks you can drop into your pages.

I found them helpful for building layouts quickly without starting from scratch.

Choose this theme to:

• Build a content-heavy site, such as a blog or personal writing website.
• Showcase your creative work.
• Create a clean, minimal, and modern design.

2. Retrospect

• Best for: Photography websites
• Price: Free

Retrospect is a perfect WordPress theme for photographers. It displays images at full resolution alongside your post content. 

Over 5.93% of WordPress.com users choose this theme for photo blogs and visual-first sites.

My experience

I liked the minimalist approach of the Retrospect theme. It’s a strong choice for art, travel, or photography blogs, where the focus should stay on visuals. 

The layout is distraction-free, so your images can shine without clutter.

It also comes with patterns for newsletter sign-up, booking forms, and contact sections.

Setup is fast and intuitive. On mobile, images still look sharp without taking over the whole screen.

Choose this theme to:

• Build a visual-first site, whether that’s a photo journal or personal blog.
• Run a low-maintenance site that’s easy to set up.
• Create a clean, distraction-free layout.

3. Twenty Twenty-Three

• Best for: Getting a flexible starting point
• Price: Free

Twenty Twenty-Three is a minimalist theme that gives you a clean starting point without heavy styling. 

It offers plenty of style variations, but the base design stays flexible — more blank canvas than finished product. 

About 5.53% of WordPress.com users choose this theme.

My experience

I liked the style variation options in this theme. The color palettes and typography options are vastly different from one another, making it easy to match the look to different kinds of sites.

If you’re building a simple one-page website, the template library and patterns make it easy to get started. 

The minimal base also gives you room to experiment, which is great when you want more creative control over the design.

Choose this theme to:

• Create a minimal design without heavy styling.
• Maintain full creative control over your website’s design.

4. Twenty Twenty-Five

• Best for: Building an adaptable, creative site
• Price: Free

Twenty Twenty-Five sits at the cusp of a blank canvas and a fully designed premium theme. 

It hits the right balance if you want something that looks and feels polished but is still easily customizable to your needs. 

This theme is chosen by 3.83% of WordPress.com users.

My experience

My favorite part about this theme is the new and improved patterns. 

There’s a wide variety of choices, from online store layouts to poster-style sections and event RSVP blocks.

No matter what type of site you’re building, you’re guaranteed to find something valuable here, which makes it a strong choice for beginners and more advanced users.

The style variations are also ready to use. You can switch between different color palettes and typography options without extra tweaking.

The bottom line: Twenty Twenty-Five sits between Twenty Twenty-Four, which is more specialized toward blogging with a clearly defined design, and Twenty Twenty-Three, which is broader and more open in its design.

Choose this theme to:

• Gain a versatile base for many kinds of sites.
• Build pages visually using patterns and templates.
• Customize the appearance of your site easily.

5. Zoologist

• Best for: All types of blogging websites
• Price: Free

Zoologist is an ideal theme for all sorts of blogging websites. 

The single-column layout displays your posts in a clean, linear format, with no sidebars or distractions. 

My experience

Zoologist has strong blogging roots. 

To me, it felt like a great choice for anyone publishing long-form, whether that’s a business blog, a personal website, or a journal. 

You can choose from several color variations to customize the visual design of your site.

The theme also offers templates and patterns similar to Twenty Twenty-Four, which help you add essential elements such as newsletter sign-up forms and waitlists.

My favorite part of this WordPress theme: It has little noise, with no unnecessary bells and whistles — just set it up and start publishing.

Choose this theme to:

• Publish content using a simple, clean, single-column layout.
• Build a straightforward blog or content-centric site.
• Create a lightweight, minimal design.

6. Hey

• Best for: Personal blogging
• Price: Free

If you want a site that feels like your creative playground but is still easy to use, it doesn’t get better than the Hey theme. 

It’s designed for personal blogging and keeps things simple with a ready-to-go setup.

My experience

The Hey theme instantly reminds me of a personal diary or journal. It works well for founder or artist notes or for logging your creative progress. 

The focus is purely on the reading and writing experience, with no extra frills or complex customization options.

Choose this theme to:

• Get your website up and running quickly.
• Prioritize readability and simplicity over fancy layouts.
• Create a blank-canvas feel with generous whitespace.

7. Tsubaki

• Best for: E-commerce websites
• Price: Available on the Business plan ($25/month on the annual plan)

If you’re building an online store, Tsubaki is a WordPress theme worth considering. 

It’s designed for e-commerce and integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, so your store, blog, and site all live in one place.

My experience

Tsubaki is built around e-commerce from the ground up. 

The layout, navigation, and structure all support product displays and shopping flows. 

The patterns are e-commerce-focused, with options for product categories, new arrivals, checkout sections, and more.

The additions don’t detract from the core blogging features, though. You can use this theme to host your blog while selling your physical or digital products. 

Choose this theme to:

• Build an online store or e-commerce site.
• Combine shop and blog content on one site.
• Use WooCommerce with an e-commerce-friendly layout.

8. Fewer

• Best for: Portfolio sites
• Price: Free

Fewer’s clean content presentation and project-driven focus, which combine text and visuals neatly, make it an excellent choice for building portfolio sites. 

Its design is clear and readable without being noisy, which helps keep the spotlight on your work.

My experience

I was immediately impressed by Fewer’s style variations. 

The designs are versatile but not so loud that they shift focus away from the projects you want to highlight. 

I found the typography especially clean and balanced.

Fewer is a solid choice if you want an elegant, content-first site that displays your work with minimal clutter.

While it’s great for portfolio sites, it’s also flexible enough to work for business or blog sites. 

Choose this theme to:

• Take advantage of style and typography variations.
• Build a blog, portfolio, or content-driven site.
• Keep the focus on your content or visuals through good typography and design.

9. Poema

• Best for: Poetry or pure text sites
• Price: Free

Poema is a simple black-and-white text site built in honor of writer and poet Fernando Pessoa. 

It’s designed to focus 100% on the writing material, with no visuals or design elements overpowering the text. 

Poema is perfect for poetry sites, personal journals, or anywhere writing needs to take center stage.

My experience

Entering the Poema theme feels like opening a poetry book. 

The design is clean and clutter-free — just your words on the page. The layout feels classic and literary, with serif fonts, neutral colors, and lots of whitespace. 

Despite the name, it works just as well for long-form essays, journal entries, or personal reflections.

Choose this theme to:

• Create an elegant site focused on typography and reading.
• Set up a simple site that’s easy to maintain.
• Publish writing without complex layouts

10. Nook

• Best for: Hobby and community-driven sites
• Price: Free

Nook uses a classic two-column layout with a sidebar structure, giving it a familiar blog feel. 

It’s a strong choice for someone creating a personal site, food blog, journal, or craft-focused blog. 

My experience

Nook has a warm, nostalgic blog feel. 

If I were building a site for fun or to explore a hobby, this is the theme I’d pick. It’s great for getting creative and connecting with people who share your interests.

The templates and patterns are especially helpful if you’re a beginner or want to get started quickly.

I also liked the overall familiarity of the theme. Everything feels intuitive — easy to set up for you and easy to navigate for your visitors.

Choose this theme to:

• Create a classic two-column blog layout with a sidebar.
• Design a warm, comfortable, and timeless site.
• Build a blog or personal site.

11. Aether

• Best for: Small business sites
• Price: Available on the Premium plan ($8/month on the annual plan)

Aether is a great WordPress theme for small-scale stores that want to weave storytelling into their business site. 

It’s particularly suitable for handcrafted goods, boutique products, or small merch brands, where you want clean presentation and built-in store-style flows.

My experience

As soon as I entered the Aether theme, its focus was clear: it’s built to help you sell your products while combining shop functionality with a brand story, an About page, a testimonials section, and a visual gallery.

The homepage includes sections for best-sellers, brand story, testimonials, and contact info, so you can launch a shop with minimal custom work. 

The patterns are small business-friendly, with options for Instagram grids, sitewide notices, product displays, and more.

Choose this theme to:

• Run a small jewelry, accessories, or artisan brand store.
• Showcase products with a focus on style and storytelling.
• Launch quickly with a ready-to-use homepage and store-oriented sections.

12. Vivre

• Best for: Magazine sites
• Price: Free

Vivre is heavily inspired by fashion and lifestyle magazines, making it a good fit for publication sites. 

The design has a stylish, editorial feel that enhances the reading experience. The font pairing (heavy sans with elegant serif) and generous whitespace give it a traditional magazine vibe.

My experience

Vivre feels like a magazine from the moment you open it. 

It features bold visuals, strong headers, and stylized typography that feels like ink on paper, making it well-suited for editorial or publication sites.

The patterns are also especially helpful when finishing your site. You can quickly add a hero post, a recent content section, and a posts grid.

It’s a great theme if your site relies on strong visuals or a distinct brand style.

Choose this theme to:

• Create a bold, magazine-style look.
• Balance style with readability. 
• Build a fast-loading site, even with heavy stylistic elements.

How to choose the right WordPress theme

The best WordPress theme is the one that matches your site’s purpose and saves you time down the road. 

Use this quick checklist:

• Does it match your use case? If you’re building a blog, pick a blogging theme. If you’re building a portfolio, choose one designed for showcasing work. You’ll get the right features without extra customization.
• Does it fit the visual style you want? Most themes offer style variations, so check them all before committing. Think about the impression you want to make, whether it’s calm, minimalist, bold, or editorial.

• Does it have the features you need? For example, if you’re selling products, you’ll want a theme with WooCommerce support. If you’re a beginner, look for a solid pattern library to help you build pages fast.

• Can it scale with you? If you’re planning to add pages, products, or content over time, make sure the theme can handle it.

• Is it well-maintained? Themes from trusted developers get regular updates, which means fewer bugs and better performance.

You can always switch themes later — it’s not irreversible. But investing time upfront helps you avoid dealing with broken layouts and user experience headaches down the road.

Get started with WordPress.com

WordPress.com gives you plenty of themes to build any kind of site. 

But themes are just the start.

WordPress.com also takes care of the essentials that keep your site running smoothly:

• Power your site with specialized WordPress hosting so it always stays up.
• Get a free domain name for one year with paid plans.
• Add unlimited pages and users, with pricing that doesn’t scale with traffic.
• Protect your site with built-in security against spam and attacks.
• Expand your site with hundreds of plugins, AI features, and more.

Original Post https://wordpress.com/blog/2026/01/26/best-wordpress-themes/