Top 10 themes for WordPress

Top 10 themes for WordPress

Best WordPress themes for blogs in 2020

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Person blogging Best WordPress themes for blogs

If you have a passion for travel, food, gadgets, or simply enjoy ranting, you may already have discovered the benefits of blogging. Recording your forays into food or experimentation with radical communists allows you to share your news and views with the internet community.

WordPress has thousands of templates to help you get started. In this guide, you’ll explore five of the very best themes specifically for hobbyists and bloggers. Some of these such as ‘Writing’ also incorporate SEO features meaning people searching online will be more likely to stumble across your blog.

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2053962
https://www.pentaxuser.com/user/cracka2zsoft-433805
https://itsmyurls.com/cracka2zsoft
https://works.bepress.com/rohit-sorma/
http://www.abstractfonts.com/members/993008/

If you’re starting on a shoe-string budget, consider using one of the free themes we’ve listed here, such as Morning Time Lite.

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. TheBlogger 1. TheBlogger

TheBlogger has multiple widgets for forms, emailing and more

Helpful documentation

Retina-ready

Newsletter feature

TheBlogger is a WordPress theme suitable for storytelling and writing. It comes with a responsive design and multiple gallery features. TheBlogger also comes with a live customizer which helps you to tweak every part of your theme.

It is Retina-ready and can be optimized for tablets and smartphones. Users can try the theme before buying. They can test drive the customizer to see if it meets their needs.

There are a wide variety of widgets and sliders available to showcase your posts in image or video format.

TheBlogger comes with helpful documentation that is straightforward and easy to follow. MailChimp for WordPress is also included. This allows you to send out newletters to blog subscribers.

The theme integrates with Ninja Forms. Users can easily create and add forms with the drag and drop feature.

A regular license costs $59 (£44.58) (currently on sale for $35) which includes future updates and 6-months support. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $8.63 (£6.7).

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Foodie Pro 2. Foodie Pro

Food lovers will enjoy the mouth-watering layout of this pro blog for a price

Detailed tutorials

Uses Genesis Framework

Expensive

Foodie Pro helps users to create a beautiful blog based around all sorts of culinary delights.

It is created by the Genesis Framework. This means your website will have a solid combination of this Framework along with WordPress. The theme comes with a huge amount of typography and color options.

Users can build their site using up to 3 homepage and 5 site wide widget areas. These can be customized to fit around your brand.

The theme allows users to upload their own logo with one click. There is also full support for text-based logos.

Foodie Pro’s ‘Theme Customizer’ allows users to customize the theme’s settings, colours and backgrounds images.

The ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ can be purchased for $129.95 (£98.23) for one year. This includes the Genesis Framework, Foodie Pro Theme, instant access, unlimited updates, supports, sites and access to detailed tutorials.

If this is not enough, users can avail of the ‘Pro Plus Membership’ for $499.95 (£377.81). This includes all the ‘Foodie Pro Theme’ has to offer plus access to every theme the company makes including future themes.

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Soledad 3. Soledad

Soledad is a simple website builder with a variety of customization options

Multiple homepage demos

Suitable for beginners

Hard to search documentation

Soledad was created as a website builder for all skill types. It is geared towards users who want to run blogs or create magazines.

The theme is highly customizable with multiple homepage layout models available. Users can also change the appearance of the ‘Category’, ‘Tag’, ‘Search’ and ‘Archive Layout’. 

Soledad is an SEO responsive WordPress multipurpose blog and magazine theme. It’s compatible with BBPress and BuddyPress. The theme is fully responsive and displays well on all screens.

Soledad has over 4000 real homepage demos which can be installed with just one click. There are also a number of single post templates for different stories.

The theme can be purchased for $59 (£44.58) which includes future updates and 6 months support which can be upgraded to 12-months for an extra $17.63 (£13.32).

Some online commentators have lamented the lack of a search feature when it comes to support documentation.

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Morning Time 4. Morning Time

Morning Time is perfect for sharing news and views via its intuitive interface

Free version

Free premium Demo

WooCommerce compatible

Morning Time is a highly functional WordPress theme suitable for journalists, family blogs or personal blogs.

Users can purchase the theme directly or they can test the demo the site offers. The theme is highly responsive so adapts well to tablets and smartphones.

Morning Time is fully compatible with Gutenberg. Users can create blocks to insert, rearrange and style multimedia content without needing to have a lot of technical knowledge.

Users can create and customize different aspects of their site including portfolio and Google maps amongst others.

Morning Time is compatible with WooCommerce allowing you to turn your blog into an online store if needed.

Users can make their older posts available with the ‘Blog Archive Feature’. Older posts will not disappear as you create new blogs.

Users can also download ‘Morning Time Lite’ for free or subscribe to their premium tiers.

Morning Time has three paid packages available. Users can avail of the ‘Yearly Access’ package for $97 (£74) per year. This includes access to all themes, child themes, PSD, HTML files, Support, updates, theme documentation and multiple site usage.

Alternatively, users can purchase the ‘Lifetime’ package for $247 (£200) which includes all the ‘Yearly Access’ has to offer but with a one-off payment. 

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Writing 5. Writing

A deceptively simple interface that could boost your search rankings

Minimalistic design

SEO optimized

No free download

Writing is the perfect theme for those trying to create a minimalist effect.

The theme uses 24 Social Share Icons along with Facebook Open Graph Tags and multiple Social Icon Widgets. It is WPML compatible. Writing can be translated into any language. RTL support is also available for Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese.

Writing is retina ready and is fully responsive making it adaptable to screens of all size and resolution. Also, images are neatly optimized with features like lazy load.

The whole setup is easy and geared towards users of any skill level. The theme is built according to the most recent rules of Search Engines. This means using this theme will help boost your SEO results maximizing traffic to your blog.

Users can purchase Writing for $39 (£29.47) which includes future updates and 6-months support. 12-months support can be bought for a further $10.13 (£7.65).

Building a website has come a long way since the neon-text-on-black-background days of Angelfire and MySpace. Now you can easily and professionally present your services or business without being a web developer, having coding skills, knowing HTML or looking like a middle schooler's online science project.

The website builder industry has grown substantially over the last 10 years, and it can be overwhelming for first-timers. But that complexity and growth also means that you have more choices than ever, and you can easily find the best website builder tailored to your wants and needs. It's true that a few website builder favorites have emerged -- and those sites are usually a good place to start -- but even the front-runners aren't ideally suited for every scenario. To make it easy for you, we've compiled all the information you need to make a good decision on the best website builder and get to the fun part of designing your site.

Best website builders compared

*Starting price doesn't include cheaper plans if they are ad-supported. Some vendors offer free domain hosting for the first year on some plans as well.

These services are independently chosen by our editors. CNET may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

To compile this list of best website builders, we researched the prices, plans and features of over 12 different website builders and scoured website builder reviews from several sites, including PCMag, Wirecutter, WebsiteToolTester, SiteBuilderReport, WPBeginner and more, to see where there might be any consensus. We also surveyed the CNET staff, and ultimately spent time building some test sites using the tools below (if we weren't already users). We paid particular attention to the categories that not only differentiate one site from another, but that actually matter to business owners, artists and creators.

Read: The best web hosting providers for 2019  

If, by the end of the list, you're still not sure which direction to go, we've included a guide at the bottom, including key questions you should be asking yourself as you start your online venture. Finally, if you already have a website and just need a host or you're interested in building a WordPress site, check out our list of best web hosting services.

Jump to: How to choose the best website builder

WIx

Wix is the clear front-runner in the race for website builder dominance. It's the biggest player, with over 110 million websites built, and boasts the greatest quantity of tools, capabilities, and freedom.  

Wix covers the full ease-of-use spectrum by offering an AI-fueled automatic website creator on one end ("Wix ADI") that requires minimal effort from the user, all the way to Wix Corvid, an open development platform for advanced applications like Javascript, databases and data-driven dynamic pages. To maximize the experience, we do recommend choosing one lane (e.g., Wix ADI, specific templates or design-from-scratch), since it can be difficult to maintain consistency across your website design if, for example, you start with a template but then decide you want to totally customize it.

Like many competitors in this space, Wix offers a basic free plan that lets you create a free website starter site with ads. If you like what you see, you can spend up for a premium, ad-free site. Pricing falls within industry standards with a $13-per-month "Combo" plan that covers most needs for a personal website, up to a $49-per-month "Business VIP" e-commerce plan for your online store. Those prices do not include a domain, so you'll need to account for that separately. And if you're interested in stats and analytics, you'll either need to get a paid Google Analytics account or another third-party tool, as Wix doesn't have its own.

Despite being the clear favorite among most reviewers, Wix does have a few drawbacks. Wix was one of the few builders that has data limitations for each of its plan tiers, so if you want to upload endless photos and videos, or expect more than 5,000 visitors a month to your site, make sure you do the math before choosing a plan.  

Also, the editor's freedom and range of options can be overwhelming for folks who don't have the time or inclination to make lots of little decisions, and the design flexibility means you'll need to be more hands-on with the format and layout, as opposed to more structured or limited editors where you can't draw too far outside the lines.

Read more: Web hosting deal: Custom domain, custom design and 1 year of hosting for $99

Squarespace strikes us as being the cool kid in high school -- flashy and hip on the surface but lacking substance underneath. We found it to be in between Wix and Weebly in terms of ease of use, though it did get consistently positive marks from reviewers for the quality of design. Where we think it really might shine is for small- to medium-size businesses who want a nicely designed page and room for e-commerce growth with lower transaction fees.

The Squarespace editor isn't as intuitive as Wix and Weebly, requiring a little bit of work until you get the hang of it. It has a fair amount of add-ons, website templates and tools, and the universal style editor and strong photo editing are helpful. The responsive website editor means that your site will always look good on mobile, but you won't be able to make mobile-specific edits like with Wix or Duda. We also found consistent high marks for helpful and responsive customer support, which should put business owners' minds at ease.

Squarespace starts off with a $12-a-month Personal plan, which includes unlimited storage, bandwidth and a domain, and offers an $18 Business website plan that includes unlimited contributors, a Gmail pro account, and e-commerce capabilities. If you go for an "Online Store" plan, you can choose between $26 and $40 a month, the latter of which includes a few final touches like abandoned shopping cart recovery and gift cards. It's important to note that the $26 online store plan, while maybe slightly above the market rate for an e-commerce site, comes with no transaction fees. So depending on your sales volume on a given month, those savings for our online store could really add up.

Overall, Squarespace's website is a good analog for what you get with its products: clean, professional and inviting design, but without the layers of design power or freedom you get from other builders. 

Read more: Best laptop deals 2019: Windows and Chromebooks for under $500

Weebly

Weebly flies under the radar relative to Wix with 50 million websites created, but offers some excellent options depending on your needs. If you want a simple and easy-to-use do-it-yourself website editor, a large site (more than 25 to 30 pages), unlimited storage, site portability and affordable yet powerful online store capabilities, Weebly plays a good David to Wix's Goliath.

The editor is one of the easiest to use, and the low learning curve still nets great-looking sites. That ease-of-use means the editor is more limited in terms of add-ons and design flexibility, and it doesn't have the range of options or mobile customization that a builder like Wix has. Still, in our testing, we never came to a point where we found those constraints to be limiting. For a high-octane web designer, though, it could come up.   

Weebly's prices are similar to competitors like Wix or Squarespace, but its free plan option is one of the most generous among free website builders, and for just $5 a month you can get up and running with your own domain name (albeit with Weebly ads). Its $12-per-month plan will give you an ad-free site with analytics and commerce capabilities, while the $25 plan gets you more store tools, like tax and shipping calculators, inventory management and discounts.

Weebly is a good option for those who may be more limited in terms of their time investment, and its commerce options outshine competitors like Wix and Squarespace. For those who are wary of committing to a website builder knowing that you won't be able to pick up and leave later on, Weebly also offers the ability to download site files so you can move to another host, a rarity in the site builder landscape. 

Read more: How to register a domain name

Duda

Duda is a smaller player compared to the other builders above with around 15 million websites built, and it focuses on a specific market segment: designers and design agencies. It caters to individuals and groups that make a lot of sites, but with a powerful and easy-to-use builder and a number of differentiated offerings, it's emerged as a good option for anyone looking to develop an online presence.

Duda's builder boasts a number of features that set it apart, including mobile site customization, detailed data analytics (e.g. advanced metrics like form submissions, time on page and bounce rate), and user personalization so you can easily display specific messages or offers to users based on the time of day, their location or their browsing history. It's also known for its multilanguage support and a free e-commerce add-on that allows you to sell up to 10 products.

Duda's pricing is a little bit higher than its main competitors like Wix and Weebly, starting off at $14 per month for the Basic plan. At $22, you can add up to four editors for your site (instead of only one with Basic), access advanced analytics, and begin using Duda as a white-label/custom-branded builder, another one of Duda's selling points. Its "Agency" plan at $74 per month is geared toward web designers who are building pages for multiple clients, and includes eight websites and the ability to download site files for portability.  

Duda is a little expensive, but fills some of the voids that the main players have, like analytics, multilingual capabilities and better personalization and mobile customization.

Read more: Domain names 101

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is best known for its custom domain names and web hosting services, so it makes sense that it also offers website builder software. The problem is that it very much feels like an ancillary service -- it doesn't seem like it's put in the development time and effort that some of the mainstream website building players like Wix, Duda and Weebly have. Nevertheless, if you're looking for simplicity, and a user-friendly interface, GoDaddy could be a good option.

The GoDaddy "GoCentral" builder is one of the simplest tools available, but it's also the most restrictive. You can build a website and get it live in an hour or two, and the rigid structures and lack of customization options means it will look good, if not dramatically unique. It is challenging to make specific site edits to the pre-made templates, as with pre-made templates you're generally restricted to adding a content "block" that has preset text, image and formatting, instead of being able to add, drag or drop individual elements. The editor is more of a Madlibs-style fill-in-the-blank instead of a responsive, free-flowing experience.

It's slightly ironic that it doesn't include a domain name in its prices, given its core product offering, but other than that there aren't too many surprises. The $6 monthly plan is straight-up basic; $10 gets you a PayPal option and SEO help; $15 tacks on email marketing and social media integration, and its $20-per-month plan is for online store capabilities, which are actually pretty impressive. You get abandoned cart recovery, inventory management, discounts and promotions, and Amazon, Etsy and eBay integrations -- most of which are usually only available for an online store at higher prices.

GoDaddy is a well-known name, but not for its website builder. Still, we like that there's a super simple and not-too-expensive option out there for those who don't care about specific style placements and nuanced themes.

WordPress

When most people talk about WordPress, they're usually referring to the free open-source software available through WordPress.org. That's very powerful, but it takes some time to learn and still requires that you find a website host and domain name. If you're interested in going the advanced route of WordPress.org, we recommend you check out a tutorial or guide such as those you can find on WPBeginner or WebsiteToolTester to learn how it works.

The WordPress.com website builder is something else. It's similar to the other builders listed above and is primarily geared toward bloggers and writers. The editor is fairly limited compared to other services, but is easy to set up and has everything you need for blogging. We should also note that it's not an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder like Wix or Weebly.

Its pricing is fairly cheap, starting off at $5 per month to remove WordPress ads and giving you 6GB of storage. From there it goes to $8 for 13GB of storage and online selling capabilities, and finally a $25 option that allows you to use custom themes and add-ons. The $8 option seems like the best deal if you're setting up a blog and thinking about monetizing it at some point.

Overall, WordPress caters to bloggers who don't want or need to spend a lot of time on website design, but it feels very limited for most other use cases. That said, anyone who's looking for more robust off-the-shelf CMS (content management systems) options should consider Joomla and Drupal. Both are arguably less user-friendly than WordPress, but offer more customization options. At least one CNET editor also felt that Drupal and Joomla also offered faster page loading speeds.

Read more: The Best Web Hosting Providers for 2019

Shopify

If Wix is the clear favorite for most website building needs, Shopify fills that role for an e-commerce store. The platform offers an easy and user-friendly way to get an e-commerce website store up and running online, and it supports business owners throughout the process with their e-commerce tools. Shopify is a safe place to start for most "e-tailers," though similar to Wix, that doesn't mean it's perfect for every scenario.

Like most other commerce-focused builders, Shopify's platform is geared toward your product and sales details. Fortunately for those without a ton of experience setting up a retail operation, Shopify's process ensures you won't miss an important step as it guides you through inventory, customer information, and tax and shipping rates. And if you still have a question, Shopify offers 24-7 phone and chat support and an active online community forum.

Given that its user base is fairly defined, Shopify doesn't offer a plethora of plan options, and its prices come in above the market average. The "Basic Shopify" plan is $29 a month and covers most of the basic needs for an online store, while the $79-a-month plan offers gift cards and more staff accounts. From our perspective, it was hard to rationalize the $50 jump from basic to standard, but if you factor in the reduced transaction fees and shipping discounts, it might make sense. If you're running a bigger operation, they also offer a $299-a-month plan.

The main drawback of Shopify is probably its pricing model. If you want the support, guidance and a builder that will take care of most of the technical details, the extra costs are worth it. And the many apps available are enticing, but can also add up if you're using those that cost extra. If after considering the different e-commerce features you're still on the fence, we recommend you calculate the total cost of additional add-ons and transaction fees based on your sales, and then compare with competitors like BigCommerce, which offers more product variants and combinations and lower fees. 

BigCommerce

BigCommerce lives up to its name -- it's best for medium- to large-scale online stores that can cash in on the lack of added transaction fees and unlimited product variants. The store site builder might not be quite as easy to use as Shopify's, but the amount of time you spend getting used to it could save you a lot of money down the road.

The editor has a lot of features and flexibility when you're getting set up, but similar to Wix, that can be overwhelming for newcomers. If you have a little experience, however, those features and tools -- like product variants and tax rates -- will probably come in handy as you grow or if you're already at scale.  

BigCommerce's price tiers are identical to Shopify's at $29 (Standard), $79 (Plus), and $249 (Pro), but what you get at each level differs. Even the lowest BigCommerce plan at $29 gives its clients unlimited users, unlimited bandwidth and storage, unlimited products, and no added transaction fees. You can even link your e-commerce site to eBay, Google Shopping and Amazon. Where the pricing gets a little tricky is with the sales thresholds: The Standard plan only supports annual sales of less than $50,000, while Plus supports up to $150,000 and Pro up to $400,000. So basically you save a lot of money on transaction fees the more sales you rack up, but if you have enough sales, you have to upgrade to the next plan tier.

As with all the online store builders, it'll be worth it to do a little math based on your product inventory and expected sales. No transaction fees -- they even have a discount deal worked out with PayPal where you can save an additional 0.5% to 1% -- strikes us as a major deal-maker depending on your size, so if you're a bigger operation, take advantage of the 15-day trial and give BigCommerce a shot. 

How to choose the best website builderWix

Given the wealth of options and the fact that many website builders don't allow you to pick up and move later on, it's important to enter the fray with a clear idea of what you need. By first establishing your priorities and direction, it will be easier to find a match for the best website builder and avoid buyer's remorse down the road.

In terms of pricing, most builders offer two to four different price tiers, each with a different set of features. This can make comparing services difficult, since they don't make it easy to line up apples-to-apples, but that's a big reason why we've created this handy guide!  

Generally speaking, you can get a good individual website built for around $8 to $10 a month with an annual subscription. Most e-commerce plans range between $20 to $25 per month, and if you need an enterprise-style plan with multiple editors and VIP-level support, prices can go up to $300 per month for premium plans.  

Storage and bandwidth are usually unlimited, but there are exceptions like Wix, which scales its storage capacity according to the plan tier. And even its lowest tier plan has a decent amount (3GB of storage and enough bandwidth to support up to around 5,000 visitors per month).

After the big questions like price and storage, finding the best website builder all comes down to what you're looking for. Below are some guiding questions to help ensure you're ready to shop like an expert and find the best website builder for your needs.

What is the purpose of your site?Squarespace

Your first step should be to determine the primary goal of your web presence. Do you want to sell a product? Attract potential customers for your services? Build a portfolio page?

By first establishing your raison d'etre, you'll be able to prioritize the tools, plugins and capabilities you want in your builder and not get pulled off track by a fancy add-on that isn't actually helping you achieve your goal. If you're primarily interested in racking up sales, start by looking at the e-commerce specialists, like Shopify and BigCommerce. If you're a photographer or designer who wants a beautiful portfolio site, Wix and Squarespace are good places to start. Wix might edge Squarespace if you want more control over the design, while Squarespace might be better if you just want a stylish frame for your work.

If you just want something easy to use, Weebly and GoDaddy both offer intuitive builders, with Weebly offering more features and design finesse, while GoDaddy is much simpler and more limited. If you're setting up a site or store and you want to present a customized experience to users or you have something specific in mind for the mobile version of your site, Duda offers the most customization capabilities. And if you're a wordsmith who can't be bothered by design decisions and fancy editors, WordPress can help you get your blog up and offers good ways to reach your readers.

How much time do you want to invest in building your website? 

This obviously will vary depending on a number of factors, not the least of which is how clear of a design vision you have and whether you have experience building a website. That being said, each site builder has pros and cons when it comes to level of usability or ease-of-use based on the features, flexibility and intuitive design of the editing interface. On one end of the spectrum you have a builder like Wix, which is very easy to use but also comprehensive -- the sheer number of options and tools makes it hard to whip up a site quickly. On the other end, you have a builder like WordPress or GoDaddy, each of which doesn't provide you with a ton of options when building your pages.

Most people will want to devote enough time to their site that it serves its purpose of representing you online in a good light, so we generally recommend you take the time to learn your editor and take advantage of the many options available.

How much design control do you want?

Wix offers a pretty comprehensive suite of site editing tools. 

Wix

This goes hand-in-hand with time investment, since the more control you have, the more choices you have to make. There are builders like Squarespace that have a fairly rigid design structure, but still let you customize fonts, colors and content, and on the other end of the spectrum you have a site like Wix, that lets you place objects anywhere on your site (at your own risk!), or Duda, which allows you to customize the mobile experience or create custom user experiences based on browsing history.  

How big is your site?  

Certain editors are more geared toward large site structures (40-plus pages) than others, so it's important to know whether you will have a ton of pages and sections, or whether it's more in the realm of a glamorized digital business card or fancy work portfolio.  

The number of navigation levels, for example (which you can think of like file folders (or Inception): a page within a directory within another directory would represent three levels of navigation), can be an important consideration. Most pages probably use two levels -- sections and the pages within each section, but online stores and other types of sites might need more. Weebly and BigCommerce are probably the best examples of builders that support large site structures, while Squarespace and Wix limit you to two levels of navigation.

How important is e-commerce?Shopify

Every builder we researched has an e-commerce option available, but that doesn't mean that they're all up to the task. A site like WordPress isn't really what you want if your plan is to sell products online, while a site like Shopify or BigCommerce is expressly focused on online sales and has lots of e-commerce features. If you really just want to have a clean and easy-to-use online storefront, one of the dedicated e-commerce builders makes the most sense, but if it's more of an ancillary service or simply nice to have, you can go with the builder that feels the best and sign up for its e-commerce option. There are even builders like Duda, which allow you to sell up to 10 products for free using another plan.

How big is your sales operation? 

Many website builders support Square's payment solutions.

Square

Transaction fees: While we're not small business owners, we do like math, and this variable struck us as particularly important. If you sell $10,000 of products in a month with a 3% vendor processing fee, you're spending an extra $300 every month. If you're paying your website host an extra 1% to 3%, that's another $100 to $300. Those numbers greatly eclipse the monthly rate you're paying, and add up even more if you're selling significantly more. So before you choose a builder, make sure you read the fine print about transaction fees.

Many builders don't charge on top of the Square or Paypal rate (usually 3%), but some do. Shopify charges extra if you don't use Shopify Payments, but if you do use its services, you can get a rate below 3%. Then there are sites like BigCommerce that doesn't charge extra and even has a PayPal discount, but has sales limits for each plan.  

We know you're a smart and savvy business owner who pays close attention to the books, but we thought it would still help to remind you: do the math before signing up.

How flexible do you want to be with the host? 

As we mentioned at the top, many builders lock you into their hosting service, but not all. If you're afraid of commitment or think you might want to switch as your business or services evolve, go with a service like Weebly or Duda that allows you to download your website files for easy use on another host.  

The other big factor here is the free trial period. The industry standard is around 14 days, but some go up to a month, and others don't have a trial period but will give you your money back within 30 days if you're not happy.  

Originally published earlier this year. It has been updated to better reflect t

Best e-commerce WordPress themes of 2020

© Provided by TechRadar null Best e-commerce WordPress themes

WordPress is far more than a simple platform for blogging enthusiasts. Many WordPress themes are devoted to e-commerce, meaning that if you want to monetize your skills and/or start a small business, you can set up a payment processing site with little or no coding knowledge.

Not all e-commerce platforms are created equal, though. Some may require advanced technical skills, or they might not display well on tablets and smartphones.

In this guide, we’ve rounded up five of the very best e-commerce WordPress themes. These all represent a good balance between value for money and useful features such as being able to display product slideshows.

Each of these themes also has a free demo, so feel free to test drive them before you buy.

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Shopkeeper 1. Shopkeeper

Revolutionize your online shop with this easy to use and elegant theme

Highly customizable

WooCommerce compatible

Learning curve for new users

Shopkeeper is a user-friendly WordPress e-commerce platform. The homepage consists mainly of one large slider, designed to catch the eye of any potential clients. This is part of the Slider Revolution plugin which is included. Various optional plugins like "Shopkeeper Portfolio Addon" can also be installed.

The theme integrates completely with WooCommerce, and translation is supported with the WPML plugin. Shopkeeper is Retina-ready and fully responsive, making it perfect to view on both tablets and smartphones as well as your desktop computer.

The theme is easily customizable. Users do not need knowledge of complex codes in order to use it.  There are a huge array of pre-built layouts to suit your needs, but failing this, users can create their own layout from scratch.

Users can also upload their own logo, change fonts and colors. Visual Slider and Revolution Slider plugins are included with the Shopkeeper theme; these cost around $26 (£19.5) each. Shopkeeper itself sells at $69 (£52) for a regular license. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $21.38 (£16).

Some online commentators have noted that the huge amount of customizable settings contained within Shopkeeper can be overwhelming for newer users.

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Bazar Shop 2. Bazar Shop

Customize your way to success with this great multi-purpose theme

Zoom effect

300+ shortcodes

Support is costly

Bazar Shop is a slightly more complex e-commerce platform. To be precise, it’s a multi-purpose theme which offers a variety of ways in which to build your website.

The theme is fully responsive making it perfect to view on platforms other than a desktop PC. Users can choose from several different sliders and there are no restrictions to the number of sliders you can have on your page.

There are two custom checkout pages to choose from. The ‘zoom’ effect is included in these so there is no need to bother with a third-party plugin. Users can also add multiple images of a product, similar to what you see on eBay and Amazon.

The homepage includes social media sharing, email subscription forms, featured products and contact information.

Bazar Shop has over 300 ready-to-use shortcodes, which are perfect for users who do not have any coding knowledge.

Users can utilize the option panel to change layouts, edit headers and footers, create a sitemap, change the colors, turn on responsive, and customize blog pages.

Bazar Shop costs $64 (£49) for a regular license and includes 6-months of support.  Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $19.5 (£14.65). 

Online commentators have noted that it is inconvenient to be forced to pay for support after the initial half-year period.

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Divi 3. Divi

A simple to use multi-purpose theme

Frontend page builder

Point and click editing

No coding skills required

Divi is a multi-purpose theme featuring website options to cater for most users, plus it’s highly customizable.

The theme comes with WooCommerce functionality. The drag and drop feature allows users to include pricing tables, video sliders, tabs and videos. A rating module is also available.

Users can access a variety of pre-built layouts. These include creating a sales page, multiple blog layouts and a variety of portfolio types.

Divi is one of the few WordPress themes to include a frontend page builder tool with point and click editing. This gives users instant feedback on any editing that takes place.

Users can upload logos, choose a new color palette, decide how many posts are displayed on a page, set up social media integrations and more.

Newer users will find Divi particularly handy as you don’t need any coding skills or any former experience building websites. The user-friendly interface makes the whole process seamless. Furthermore, with various CSS transform options, users can offset the position of any page element with ease.

Divi allows you to use multiple rows, columns and content elements. All layouts are fully responsive.

The theme comes with an impressive array of content elements which include an audio player, bar counter, blog, number counter, shop, testimonial and contact form amongst others.

Divi can also be translated into more than 30 languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Czech, Russian and Spanish to name but a few.

Users can try a demo version of Divi for free, and there’s the option to purchase a one-year subscription to all of Elegant Themes’ products for $89 (£68) or $249(£187) for a Lifetime access. 

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Halena 4. Halena

A clean, simple design that should attract clients to your online store

Minimalistic design

Quick view mode

Large variety of templates

Halena is the perfect choice for users with a minimalist philosophy, as its design is clean and simple, meaning that any web page you build will load almost immediately.

Users can employ the custom-built product quick view mode to get a better view of their items, and the AJAX filtering tool makes inventory searches simple.

Halena comes with a large variety of pre-built layouts. These include options for product display, shopping cart, checkout and customer accounts.

The theme also includes WPBakery Page Builder, a drag and drop content editor. This can be used to customize templates as well as creating unique web pages. The Builder also come with its own selection of templates.

Halena costs $49 (£36.8) for a regular license which includes 6-months of support, future updates and quality checks. Users can extend support for a further 12-months for $13.88 (£10.4).

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Artemis 5. Artemis

Ideal for those looking for an elegant and sophisticated shop-front

Excellent customer support

Includes Visual composer

Fully responsive

Artemis is aimed at those wanting a stylish and classy look for their website. It’s a multi-purpose WordPress WooCommerce theme which includes a variety of online shop demos. All the demos are laid out on the Artemis homepage, making it easier for users to find the right one for them.

Designs are easily imported onto your WordPress site. Artemis comes with Visual Composer included – a drag and drop page builder plugin which will save you time when building your site.

Slider Revolution is also part of Artemis. Users have a large variety of number options to choose from, and even novice users will have no trouble creating their perfect website.

The whole theme is built around WooCommerce. Users can choose to have a full width shop or add left or right sidebars to their web page. Artemis is fully responsive, making it perfect for viewing on tablets and smartphones.

A regular license costs $59 (£45) with 6-months support and future updates included. Users can upgrade to 12-months support for a further $17.63 (£13.32). Many online commentators have praised the customer support provided.

Link

Link

Link

Link

Link