Install WordPress 7.1 today, and the default theme is still called Twenty Twenty-Five. There is no Twenty Twenty-Six: WordPress skipped a year, then announced in September 2026 that its next default theme, planned for version 7.2, would drop year-based names altogether.
That detail says a lot about the state of block themes. Since Full Site Editing arrived, a theme can be built entirely in the editor, with templates, patterns and style variations, without a line of PHP for the layout. But the directory still mixes real block themes, classic themes that borrow a few of their features, and abandoned projects.
This comparison only covers free themes from the official directory that we checked, in their own files, to be real block themes. If you are looking for a professional theme in the broader sense, classic or premium, our selection of the best WordPress themes for professional websites covers that ground.
How we ranked them
The first criterion is eliminatory: the theme must contain a templates/index.html file, which is what makes it a block theme for WordPress. A theme.json file on its own is not enough. The second criterion is active maintenance in 2026, read from the last update date and the changelog rather than the “tested up to” header, which authors often forget to update.
Then come the quality of the theme.json file, the number of patterns and style variations (counted in the theme’s files, not in the marketing copy), the “accessibility-ready” tag, and the pressure to install a companion plugin or upgrade to a paid version.
For the theme.json file, one concrete signal: six of the ten themes listed still declare version 2 of the format, while Twenty Twenty-Five, Ollie, Extendable and Variations have moved to version 3, current since WordPress 6.6.
Install counts, always rounded by the directory, and prices were read in October 2026.
1. Twenty Twenty-Five: the reference installed by default
What it does
Twenty Twenty-Five has been WordPress’s default theme since version 6.7, in November 2024, and remains so in versions 7.0 and 7.1. It is installed on more than one million sites. Designed first for blogs, it also offers full pages for an event, a business, a portfolio, a podcast or a shop.
Strengths
Its documentation announces more than 70 patterns and nine style variations, with each palette and font pairing also available separately. It offers four families of blog templates (personal, text-only, photo, news) and section styles for groups and columns. It carries the “accessibility-ready” tag, supports every post format and multilingual typography. Above all, it is maintained by the core team: it is the reference to compare every other theme against.
Limits
Its default settings remain blog-oriented, and it offers no templates dedicated to WooCommerce. Its latest version dates from May 2026 and declares compatibility up to WordPress 7.0.
Price and audience
Free, with no paid version. It is the recommended starting point for anyone discovering block themes.
2. Twenty Twenty-Four: the business-minded default
What it does
WordPress 6.4’s default theme, Twenty Twenty-Four is still installed on more than 500,000 sites and was updated in August 2026. It offers three homepage directions, business, writer and portfolio, and many patterns designed for professional sites.
Strengths
It provides eleven templates, including pages with a sidebar or a wide image, and polished block styles (headings, lists, details). It also carries the “accessibility-ready” tag and benefits from core maintenance.
Limits
Its default look is monochrome and its design dates from 2023. Its documentation announces nine style variations, but we only counted seven in the files of the latest version.
Price and audience
Free. It suits small businesses and portfolios that want core-maintained code with more business-oriented patterns than Twenty Twenty-Five.
3. Ollie: the pattern library
What it does
Ollie, by Mike McAlister, is a theme built around patterns: you assemble your pages from ready-made layout blocks. It offers five complete style variations (agency, creator, ecommerce, startup, studio), color and typography presets, and since February 2026, styles and templates for WooCommerce.
Strengths
Its author announces more than 60 patterns, and we counted more than a hundred pattern files in the package. The free version shows no pushy invitation to install a plugin. Its rating in the directory is excellent. Our guide to block patterns explains how to make the most of this kind of theme.
Limits
It does not carry the “accessibility-ready” tag. The setup wizard and the large online library are reserved for the Pro version.
Price and audience
The theme is free; Ollie Pro starts at $89 per year for one site. It suits freelancers and small agencies who build from patterns.
4. Raft: fifteen looks in one click
What it does
Raft, from Themeisle, with more than 10,000 installs, presents itself as a lightweight, multipurpose theme, and offers fifteen style variations and more than fifty free patterns.
Strengths
It is the quickest way to try many palettes on the same site. Its rating is very good and it was updated in September 2026.
Limits
The vendor pushes its other products: a welcome notice recommends the Otter Blocks plugin, and six patterns marked “Pro” only insert an invitation to upgrade. Its “tested up to” header is stuck on an old version despite recent updates.
Price and audience
Raft Pro starts at $69 per year. Raft suits those who want many visual looks quickly and can tolerate commercial prompts.
5. Spectra One: for Spectra users
What it does
Spectra One, from Brainstorm Force (the maker of Astra and the Spectra blocks plugin), with more than 8,000 installs, provides dozens of patterns and eight color variations. Since version 1.2.0, it even registers abilities for the WordPress Abilities API, usable by AI assistants.
Strengths and limits
It is well maintained and tested with WordPress 7.1. But its directory tags mention neither its style variations nor its patterns, which makes it hard to find through filters. A welcome notice asks you to install the Spectra plugin.
Price and audience
The theme is free; Spectra Pro costs $69 per year for three sites. Spectra One suits sites already built with Brainstorm Force’s tools.
6. Extendable: the most installed outside core
What it does
Extendable, from Extendify, is the most installed third-party block theme in the directory, with more than 200,000 sites. It offers a very large number of palettes and font pairings.
Strengths and limits
For choosing among dozens of variations without leaving the editor, it has no equal. But it only has about twenty patterns. Its vendor’s plugin, an online pattern library, integrates with it, but the theme itself does not prompt you to install it. It has received only four reviews, and nothing public explains its install count.
Price and audience
The theme is free. It suits those who want the widest choice of palettes in a single theme.
7. Variations: templates galore
What it does
Variations, by Tyler Moore, with more than 10,000 installs, is all about templates and patterns: we counted more than 160 pattern files and about thirty templates. It describes itself as compatible with the official pattern directory.
Strengths and limits
For starting with ready-made layouts, it is one of the best stocked. Paradoxically, it contains no style variation file despite its name. Its last update dates from January 2026, and it is not yet declared compatible with WordPress 7.0 or 7.1.
Price and audience
Free. It suits users who want many ready-to-use layouts, while keeping an eye on its maintenance.
8. Greyd WP: the accessibility-ready pick
What it does
Greyd WP, from the German company Greyd, is one of the very few third-party block themes carrying the “accessibility-ready” tag. It offers about a hundred pattern files, style variations and section styles.
Strengths and limits
That tag is only granted after a review by the directory’s accessibility team, which sets it apart from a mere marketing promise. But its user base is tiny (a few hundred installs), and its latest version dates from May 2026. To go further on this topic, see our WordPress accessibility fixes.
Price and audience
Free. It suits public-sector or nonprofit sites that want a theme reviewed for accessibility, outside the default themes.
9. Neve FSE: Neve as a block theme
What it does
Neve FSE, from Themeisle, is the block-theme version of the classic Neve theme. It has more than 9,000 installs, about forty patterns and seven style variations.
Strengths and limits
It lets Neve regulars move to Full Site Editing without changing vendor. But its maintenance looks minimal: its last update, in March 2026, only touched dependencies, and its header declares old compatibility. Themeisle maintains Raft more actively. Like Raft, Neve FSE shows a welcome notice recommending Otter Blocks.
Price and audience
Free. It suits Neve users who want a block-based equivalent.
10. Blockbase: the base for a child theme
What it does
Blockbase, from Automattic, is a deliberately minimal block theme, presented as a starting point. It offers only about fifteen patterns, all structural (six headers, eight footers, a 404 page), and three style variations.
Strengths and limits
It is a solid base for building a custom child theme, and it is still updated in 2026. The WordPress News site theme actually started in 2021 as a fork of Blockbase, before going live in February 2022. On the other hand, it offers almost nothing to a non-technical user.
Price and audience
Free. It suits developers building a child theme.
The real case: how WordPress gave up on Twenty Twenty-Six
The default theme is the showcase of block themes: it is the one every new user discovers. Its recent history, documented on the core team’s blog, shows where Full Site Editing stands.
Twenty Twenty-Five, a theme built in public
In July 2024, the team opened the Twenty Twenty-Five repository and asked the community what it wanted from the next theme; post formats and dark mode came up repeatedly in the replies. In August, designer Beatriz Fialho presented the project around a simple idea: make simple things intuitive and complex things possible. The theme shipped with WordPress 6.7 on November 12, 2024, after more than 300 merged contributions on GitHub.
The year without a theme
In July 2025, the WordPress 6.9 roadmap announced there would be no new default theme, a decision tied to the pace of the release and the maturity of block themes. WordPress 6.9 shipped in December 2025 without a new theme. There was a precedent: no theme was released in 2017 either.
From Twenty Twenty-Seven to Ipsum
In March 2026, after alignment with Matt Mullenweg, the team issued a call for volunteers for a “Twenty Twenty-Seven”, intended for the last release of the year, 7.2. A team was formed in April, with, for the first time, a mentor role dedicated to welcoming new contributors. It designed a theme for writers, named Mētis, drawing directly in the editor rather than in a mockup tool.
Then the direction changed. After a review with Matt Mullenweg, the team concluded that the theme shipped with WordPress should be as simple a starting point as possible. Mētis became a separate project, and on September 16, 2026, designer Henrique Iamarino introduced Ipsum: a minimal blog theme, a blank canvas, in which every color combination passes the AA level of the accessibility guidelines, according to its author. Year-based names are gone: default themes will “change when the design calls for it, not when the calendar does,” Iamarino wrote.
What to take away
The debate is not closed: in the comments, one contributor asked whether WordPress still needs a default theme at all, rather than letting users start from nothing; another replied that starting from scratch intimidates most users, and that themes show what is possible. The final decision will come with WordPress 7.2, planned for early December 2026; our overview of what changed in WordPress 7 covers the recent releases.
Three lessons are already settled. Core considers block themes mature enough not to require a new theme every year. Accessibility is becoming a stated design constraint. And the default-theme team now designs directly in the Site Editor.
Kadence, Blocksy, Neve, Frost: what to know
Several very popular themes are often presented as block themes when they are not. Kadence and Blocksy are classic themes: they contain a theme.json file and work very well with the block editor, but they have no block templates. Kadence’s own documentation says it: the theme does not provide Full Site Editing. A dedicated mode is under development, but unreleased.
The same goes for Neve, Astra and GeneratePress: they are classic themes. The block version of Neve is a separate theme, Neve FSE. As for Frost, from WP Engine, long cited as a model pattern-first theme, it has not been updated since March 2025 and is only tested up to WordPress 6.7. The choice between these approaches is covered in our comparison of Gutenberg versus page builders.
How to check that a theme is a real block theme
In the admin
With a block theme, the Appearance menu shows “Editor” and the link to the classic Customizer disappears, unless a plugin still uses it. With a classic theme that uses a theme.json file, WordPress shows “Design” since version 6.8.
In the files
Before installing, open the theme package and look for templates/index.html. It is exactly what WordPress checks: without that file, in the theme or in its parent, it is not a block theme. The wp_is_block_theme() function returns the answer, and the REST API exposes it in the is_block_theme field.
What tags are worth
Directory tags are declared by the author. Raft, Extendable, Neve FSE and Spectra One have style variations without carrying the matching tag, and Variations has a misleading name. The “accessibility-ready” tag is the only one that triggers a review, but the Theme team handbook states it does not guarantee WCAG level AA.
What WordPress 7.0 and 7.1 change for block themes
The two 2026 releases filled several gaps that still pushed people toward classic themes or page builders. A recent theme takes advantage of them; a theme frozen since 2024 will only partly benefit.
WordPress 7.0: fonts and states
Since version 7.0, the Font Library, previously reserved for block themes, works with every theme: it appears under Appearance, then Fonts. The theme.json file also accepts styles for the :hover, :focus, :focus-visible and :active states of the Button block and its style variations, such as Outline, where until then these states could only be set on the generic button element.
WordPress 7.1: configurable breakpoints
Version 7.1 lets block themes define their own mobile and tablet breakpoints in theme.json, and apply different styles depending on the screen. The defaults are 480 and 782 pixels; a theme can override them like this:
"settings": { "viewport": { "mobile": "30rem", "tablet": "45rem" } }The post editor now runs in an isolated frame for every theme, which makes the preview more faithful to the public rendering. The theme.json format remains at version 3, in place since WordPress 6.6.
Child themes for block themes
A child theme of a block theme only needs a style.css file with a Template header naming the parent’s folder. Its theme.json file layers on top of the parent’s, then changes made in the editor are added on top of that, stored in the database.
That is the key point: what you change in the Site Editor lives in the database, not in the theme’s files. The official Create Block Theme plugin lets you create a child theme, a style variation, and above all write your changes back into the files before switching or updating the theme. Our guide to Full Site Editing and theme.json covers these mechanics in detail.
How to choose
- To discover block themes: Twenty Twenty-Five, maintained by core.
- For a simple business site: Twenty Twenty-Four or Ollie.
- To build quickly from patterns: Ollie or Variations.
- To try many looks: Raft or Extendable.
- For accessibility requirements: a default theme, or Greyd WP.
- For custom development: a child theme of Blockbase or Twenty Twenty-Five.
Test before adopting
A block theme is judged in the editor, not on a screenshot. WordPress Playground lets you try one in the browser without installing anything; Ipsum’s repository even offers a direct link of this kind. On your own site, always test a new theme on a staging copy, with your real content.
In every case, look at the last update date and the changelog rather than the “tested up to” header, and be wary of themes that require a companion plugin to work fully.
Summary table
| Theme | Installs | Accessibility-ready | Plugin pushed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twenty Twenty-Five | 1 million+ | Yes | None | Starting point |
| Twenty Twenty-Four | 500,000+ | Yes | None | Business site |
| Ollie | 6,000+ | No | None (optional Pro) | Patterns |
| Raft | 10,000+ | No | Otter Blocks | Varied looks |
| Spectra One | 8,000+ | No | Spectra | Spectra users |
| Extendable | 200,000+ | No | None (published by Extendify) | Palette choice |
| Variations | 10,000+ | No | None | Ready-made templates |
| Greyd WP | 300+ | Yes | None (dashboard showcases Greyd Suite) | Accessibility requirements |
| Neve FSE | 9,000+ | No | Otter Blocks | Neve regulars |
| Blockbase | 2,000+ | No | None | Custom child theme |
Frequently asked questions
Does Twenty Twenty-Six exist?
No. No default theme shipped with WordPress 6.9, 7.0 or 7.1, and the next one, proposed for version 7.2, is called Ipsum. WordPress 7.1 still installs Twenty Twenty-Five by default.
Is Kadence a block theme?
No. It is a classic theme that is very compatible with the block editor, with a theme.json file but no block templates. Its own documentation states that it does not provide Full Site Editing to date.
What does the “accessibility-ready” tag guarantee?
That a review checked a list of requirements: skip link, keyboard navigation, contrast, heading structure, labeled fields, among others. The handbook states it does not guarantee WCAG level AA, and the content you add remains your responsibility.
Do I need a child theme?
Not for simple settings, which are saved in the database. Yes if you edit files, add templates or code: a child theme protects them from parent theme updates. Create Block Theme creates one in a few clicks.
Do I lose my settings if I switch themes?
Global styles and modified templates are tied to the active theme. Before switching, export your changes with Create Block Theme, or write them down: another theme will start from its own settings.
When will Ipsum ship?
It is proposed for WordPress 7.2, planned for early December 2026. Until that version is released, it remains a project: you can try it from its GitHub repository, but it is not yet in the official directory.
Conclusion
Free block themes have matured: the default themes serve as a reference, Ollie and Variations make building with patterns accessible, and Greyd WP shows that a third-party theme can pass the accessibility review. But the directory remains misleading, between self-declared tags, outdated headers and classic themes presented as block themes.
So check three things before installing: the presence of templates/index.html, a recent update, and no forced dependency on a plugin. The rest is judged in the editor, by trying.
Sources
- Make WordPress Core (July 28, 2025). Roadmap to 6.9
- Make WordPress Core (March 13, 2026). Twenty Twenty-Seven default theme: Call for Volunteers
- Make WordPress Core (April 8, 2026). Twenty Twenty-Seven: Team Announcement
- Make WordPress Core, Henrique Iamarino (September 16, 2026). Introducing Ipsum, the new default theme
- Make WordPress Core (September 18, 2026). Roadmap to 7.2
- GitHub, WordPress. Ipsum
- The Repository, Rae Morey (September 18, 2026). ‘Ipsum’ Proposed as Next WordPress Default Theme
- Make WordPress Core, Beatriz Fialho (August 15, 2024). Introducing Twenty Twenty-Five
- WordPress.org (November 12, 2024). WordPress 6.7 “Rollins”
- WordPress.org Documentation. Twenty Twenty-Five
- WordPress.org (August 19, 2026). WordPress 7.1 “Mary Lou”
- WordPress.org. WordPress 7.0 release page
- Make WordPress Core, Isabel Brison (August 5, 2026). Responsive block styles and configurable viewports in WordPress 7.1
- WordPress Developer Resources. wp_is_block_theme()
- WordPress Developer Resources. Child Themes
- Make WordPress Themes. Accessibility review
- WordPress.org. Create Block Theme
- Ollie (October 2026). Ollie Pro pricing
- Themeisle. Raft
- Nexcess Docs (July 2026). Building Headers and Footers in Full Site Editing with Kadence Blocks
- WordPress.org. Frost
- WordPress.org. Block themes
- Make WordPress Core (March 9, 2026). Pseudo-element support for blocks and their variations in theme.json
- Make WordPress Core, Jessica Lyschik (July 8, 2024). What would you like to see in the next default WordPress theme?
- GitHub, WordPress. twentytwentyfive
- WordPress.org Documentation. Twenty Twenty-Four
- GitHub, WordPress. wporg-news-2021
- WordPress.org News (February 16, 2022). A New WordPress News
- Spectra (October 2026). Pricing
- Make WordPress Themes. Accessibility: required
- GitHub, Kadence Blocks. Pull request 1580
- WordPress.org News (December 2016). WordPress 4.7 Vaughan
- WordPress.org News (December 2018). WordPress 5.0 Bebo
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