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When creating a blog on WordPress it’s important to make sure that you have a theme with the right features, design, support, and functionality for you to achieve your vision. Ideally without needing to hire much–if any–outside help. You want a theme that doesn’t get in the way of your ability to create and publish content easily, but also something powerful enough that you’re able to create unique content experiences for your readers.
In the deep and wide ocean of WordPress Themes, finding the perfect theme for your blog can feel like being adrift in foggy weather, especially for beginners. That’s why in this article we’re going to shine a light on the themes you definitely need to check out for your blog. We’ll start by explaining what makes a good WordPress theme in general, then what makes a good WordPress theme for bloggers, and finally which WordPress themes for bloggers we recommend based on our experience.
Let’s get to it!
What Makes a Good WordPress Theme for Bloggers?
You’re not here to find a WordPress theme. You want one that will be ideal for blogging. However, it is worth mentioning that there is a baseline of quality that all WordPress Themes (at least the ones we feel are worth recommending) should meet. We’ve gone over that baseline criteria in detail in our list of best free WordPress themes. But for your convenience, here’s a quick summary.
Attributes of a good WordPress Theme:
- Serious ongoing development.
- Good reviews and other positive social proof.
- Tight security.
- Broad browser compatibility.
- Essential WordPress plugin compatibility.
- Compatibility with major page builders.
- Translation and multilingual ready.
- Good user-experience design.
- Meaningful support options.
- High-quality responsive and mobile design options.
- Pre-made design resources and/or design features that allow you to meet your specific needs.
Every theme featured in our list below fits this criteria. But what got them on this specific list is the way in which they meet this criteria or even build upon it to benefit bloggers. Here’s a quick list of examples to demonstrate what that means.
Additional attributes of a good WordPress Theme for bloggers:
- Multiple blog post templates
- Breadcrumb navigation through content
- Right-to-Left language support
- Built-in support for multiple page-builders and the Block Editor
- Typography chosen for readability
- Page-speed optimizations including AMP, render-blockers, and lightweight features
A good WordPress theme for bloggers means that the content is placed at the forefront, and that the reader has no barriers to consuming it. That means it has to be easy-to-read, fast-to-load, and simple-to-navigate. Each theme we list below prioritizes these concerns over everything else.
10 Best WordPress Themes for Bloggers
1. Divi
Divi is our flagship product–and the world’s most popular premium WordPress theme–for a reason. Divi is a whole website building suite of tools in WordPress theme form. Users get complete design control (without coding), deep WooCommerce integration, lead generation features, split testing features, design efficiency features, massive extendibility, and tons of free design resources.
The preview video above shows a few blog page layouts included in the 200+ layout packs that come with Divi. Once Divi is installed you can load them up on your website with the click of a button.
Among these free resources are Divi layout packs (released weekly and added to the Divi Library) as well as blog post layout templates, WooCommerce product templates, and Divi tutorials published daily to our blog.
Key Divi Features for Bloggers
One of Divi’s best features for bloggers is the theme builder. It lets you use Divi’s visual editor to design header, footer, post, page, product, and archive templates. Once designed, you can assign a template to any tag, category, page type, author, post archive or any other template used on a WordPress website. You get complete control over how your content appears to your readers.
The preview video above shows just how easy it is to assign a new blog post template design to two different blog posts based on their category. One for a “standard blog post” and one for a “recipe blog post.”
Other blogger-friendly Divi features:
- Deep Yoast SEO and Rank Math Integrations
- Advanced email optin form module with support for all of the major email providers
- Advanced forms building module to capture information
- Deep WooCommerce customization for distribution of supplemental content
- Advanced split testing functionality–called Divi Leads–to help you perfect your content marketing funnels
- Enhanced Gutenberg Block Editor integration. You can include Divi modules and layouts inside Gutenberg blocks.
- In-editor, drag-and-drop media uploads
Divi Pricing: $89 per year or $249 Lifetime
2. Typology
Typology is a theme custom made for writers and readers alike. The theme is very minimal, being designed from the ground up to accommodate bloggers and writers who prefer a nice reading experience over an image-heavy one. Many themes in recent years, have become more and more image-centric to where if you don’t have time, skill, or resources to find just the right photos, the layouts just don’t work. With Typology, bloggers can focus on what they want to (their content), while providing their readers with an excellent and responsive experience.
The preview video above shows just how simple and elegant Typology is right out of the box.
Out of the box, you can start using Typology immediately. You may be a writer, not a web designer or developer, which means that Typology’s ease-of-use and elegance keeps you doing more of what you care about.
Key Typology Features for Bloggers:
The built-in shortcodes for Typology can enhance the design of your blogs enough that you won’t even need to worry about having hi-res images in your posts. Your readers won’t even notice.
This video runs through the various elements that can be inserted by shortcode as well as showing off features like text highlighting and progress bars.
Other blogger-friendly Typology features:
- Tells the reader an approximate reading time for each article
- Limited image integration by default (though they are still perfectly usable)
- Native shortcodes for columns, progress bars, drop-caps, and other design features
Typology Pricing: $59 for a single-site license
3. Writing
Like many themes for bloggers, Writing is minimal in the ways you need, but robust in features that make your users and you comfortable and want to spend time on the site. The theme is written to take advantage of SEO preferences from Google and other search engines, and the theme can easily be swapped from LTR reading to RTL and is ready for WPML translation whenever you are.
“Writing” is a minimalist theme with a focus on visual flair to enhance the text.
The typography in Writing is chosen to reduce eye-strain, and simple navigation and meta-information keeps visitors on your site longer. The large featured image enhances the reader’s experience and keeps their eyes drawn to the upcoming text.
Key Writing Features for Bloggers:
Multi-language and translation support is available in most themes for bloggers, but not every theme is built for right-to-left (RTL) languages. Writing, however, can be swapped easily, and the layouts and design aren’t adversely impacted at all by the shift.
One of the key features of Writing is that it supports RTL languages such as Arabic right out of the box. You can just set the language, and the blog styling and design adjusts from LTR to RTL with no fuss.
Other blogger-friendly Writing features:
- RTL language support
- Social widgets and Open Graph support built in
- Multiple blog styles, including lists, grid, masonry, and classic blog
Writing Pricing: $49 for a single-site license
4. Astra
Astra has taken the a much-deserved spot near the top of the WordPress theme repository. What Astra excels at is that it’s a blank slate for bloggers to take and shape into exactly the kind of theme they want. With a robust free version and a powerful Pro upgrade, Astra allows user control over the headers, layouts, colors, typography, and blog/blog archive pages. Add in support for all the major page builder plugins, and Astra definitely becomes one of the best WordPress themes for bloggers.
Astra is a clean, simple theme that is incredibly extensible. You can see in the video above the blank slate you get, but with that comes power, flexibility, and deep integration with your favorite page-builder plugins.
You can use the standalone Divi Builder plugin with the theme and get access to all our layouts, too! Many people choose to use page-builder plugins with Atra because every aspect is modular and customizable.
Key Astra Features for Bloggers:
The Astra theme’s website database is full of different pages and website templates that you can use. Because of the ubiquity of page builders, you can search for the perfect look by the software you prefer to use.
On top of any existing page-builder themes and layout packs you have access to, Astra as a theme comes with a slew of them to choose from.
Other blogger-friendly Astra features:
- Incredibly lightweight and performance optimized
- Full customization from the ground up
- An incredible library of pre-built websites, sorted by page-builder compatibility, for free and Pro users
Astra Pricing: Free with $47 annual license or $249 lifetime
5. Mesmerize
We are listing Mesmerize as one of the best themes for bloggers because of its simplicity, elegance of design, and built-in elements such as forms, sliders, video background support, gradient overlays, and predesigned pages. By default, the free version of the theme includes 5 header designs and 30+ content sections for you to mix and match. While you will need to jazz up your site with stand-out images to take full advantage of Mesmerize’s design, the blog templates themselves are minimalist and easy-to-read. Plus, the category hierarchy goes 4 deep, and they are breadcrumbed in the post meta-data for easy navigation by your readers.
Mesmerize includes built-in page-editing in the Theme Customizer.
Often, sites have to use plugins to customize and include the different elements that come default in Mesmerize. These inclusions reduce friction between the user and getting the site looking just perfect so their readers can have the best experience possible.
Key Mesmerize Features for Bloggers:
The various elements within Mesmerize help bloggers create an easy-to-read website that readers won’t have any trouble navigating though just the WordPress theme customizer.
While some elements are only available to Pro users, the theme is free for anyone, and it is very usable in its free form, too.
Other blogger-friendly Mesmerize features:
- 30+ customizable content sections
- Nested category hierarchy breadcrumbs
- Drag-and-drop styling through the Mesmerize Companion plugin
Mesmerize Pricing: Free with $79 annual pro upgrade and $199 lifetime
6. Lovecraft
Who would have thought that a theme named after such a prolific writer would be so good for blogging? Well, we would, actually. Which is why it’s here on this list. Lovecraft is designed first-and-foremost to be elegant and beautiful. While you won’t get the full customization out of the box with Lovecraft, page-builder plugins can always enhance whatever you need. Varied post types, including asides that will show up in your feed alongside full posts, make Lovecraft one of the best WordPress themes for bloggers. Especially when you take into account that it’s free, and the developer has kept it updated for the past 6 years.
Lovecraft’s typefaces and design is purposefully chosen by the developer to give the readers a top-tier experience.
Key Lovecraft Features for Bloggers:
Lovecraft is a minimal theme that’s built to be readable and easy to navigate. The typography and available widgets and options make this a great theme for anyone who wants to jump in and get started writing. And with the price-tag of totally free, there’s very little reason not to give it a shot.
Lovecraft is a completely free theme, and it has been maintained with updates for years at no cost to users.
Other blogger-friendly Lovecraft features:
- Free and continuously updated
- Default fonts specifically chosen to readability and beauty
- Integration with Jetpack to add even more display options, editor styles, and translations
Lovecraft Pricing: Completely and Totally Free, $0
7. Hemingway
While we’re talking about blogging themes named after writers, let’s discuss Hemingway. Known for his straightforward, nothing-extra writing style, Hemingway’s namesake theme is following in that same path. Block Editor and page builder support means that you can cut the extra and get down to content creation.
Hemingway, like the writer it is named after, is simple, straightforward, and gets the job done.
Key Hemingway Features for Bloggers:
Hemingway’s speed is one of its top features. The two column-theme for bloggers takes after the writer from whom it takes a name and creates a simple space where you can read and write without distraction.
The theme may not come with many frills, but it is a free theme and is lightweight and customizable via page-builder plugins.
Other blogger-friendly Hemingway features:
- Block Editor and page builder support
- Lightweight and fast
- Simple, minimal effects on elements
Hemingway Pricing: Free
8. Writee Pro
Writee is not only fun to say, but fun to use as well. The Pro version is where the power of this theme lies. With it, you get an integrated post slider, multiple headers, animations on menu hover, and nearly a decade of support and upgrades.
The Writee theme comes with so many base customizations that writers can write without having to worry about being designers, too.
Key Writee Pro Features for Bloggers:
The ease with which you can swap between elements and layouts in Writee Pro is incredible. Additionally, the options that you have for those swaps give you a huge number of potential sites. The developer website has lots of demos, and any page builder layouts you import will work as well.
Choosing the style you want for the Writee Theme is as easy as clicking a button. With specific deigns for post types, pages, and menus (and more), Writee Pro will make your blog sparkle.
- Importable demo site templates
- Incredibly language and translation support
- Dozens of pre-built layouts for elements you can change with a click
Writee Pro Price: Free with a $49.99 Pro upgrade
9. OceanWP
OceanWP is one of the most downloaded themes on the WordPress.org theme repository for a reason. It is fast and flexible, both in its free version and its pro upgrade. Built-in support for every major page builder means that no matter which plugin you use, you shouldn’t be hit with problems. The code for OceanWP is clean and easily added to, and the developers have 100+ demo theme templates that you can import and edit with your favorite builder plugin. With RTL support and being ready-made for translation and customization, OceanWP definitely deserves a look.
OceanWP sits at the top of the WordPress.org theme repository because of its great support, a stellar free version, and flexibility for developers.
Key OceanWP Features for Bloggers:
The OceanWP demo themes can be easily sorted and imported into your site. Once there, you can mix and match elements from any you like to create the blog your readers clamor for.
The number of demo sites and templates that you get access to with OceanWP is staggering.
Other blogger-friendly OceanWP features:
- RTL language and translation support
- Demo theme gallery made for page builders
- Pro upgrade includes extensions, demos, and widgets
OceanWP Pricing: Free with a $39 pro upgrade
10. Neve
Neve rounds out our list with another fully-customizable theme for bloggers right within the theme customizer. More than that, Neve is built for speed. Where some themes say they prioritize speed, Neve takes it to the next level, with AMP compatibility that doesn’t come native in WordPress. With access to 80+ starter sites, custom layouts for different pages, and a white-label option, Neve is a complete blogging platform on its own. And when you load your favorite page builder plugin like the Divi Builder, your readers won’t have anything but good things to say about you.
Between the fantastic customizer and built-in AMP compatibility, Neve is worth a look for taking advantage of every facet of WordPress and making it excel.
Key Neve Features for Bloggers:
Neve has an entirely separate options menu from the theme customizer, letting you access colors, logo, layouts, and your content from within a single page in your dashboard instead of having it spread out. You can install starter site layouts from here, find premium plugins that may help, and more.
Everything Neve offers is included in the WordPress backend, including layouts for Divi itself!
Other blogger-friendly Neve features:
- No jQuery to block site rendering
- 1-click rollbacks if something goes wrong
- Support for RTL and translation
Neve Pricing: Free with a $59-99 Premium upgrade
Final Thoughts on the Best WordPress Themes for Bloggers
The WordPress ecosystem has no dearth of themes. You have so many to choose from that it can be overwhelming to even start looking. But we think if you grab and install any of the themes on this list, you will be happy with your site. In how it looks, how it feels, how it treats your visitors. When your focus is blogging, and you want the best of the best to represent the best of your best, these are definitely the best WordPress themes for bloggers.
Featured Image via Sammby / shutterstock.com
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