7 Best WordPress Themes of 2019
The Definitive Review and Tutorial 2019
Pros, Cons, {DISCOUNTS}, and Comparisons.
This review will teach you everything you need to know about the best WordPress themes on the market in 2018 and which one is right for your business.
With a growing number of people using their mobile devices, choosing the right theme for your website is vital. It not only affects the way that your website is presented, but also the speed at which your website loads, customization and browser support.
BUT…..
With so many WordPress themes around, how can you be sure you’re working with the right one? Is your work fully optimized, do your blogs resonate and are you left smiling after a day at the keyboard?
To make life easier…
I decided to look in-depth at the 8 most popular WordPress themes and outline everything you need to know to make the best choice. Including: –
- Best premium WordPress theme overall
- Best WordPress theme for blogs
- Best WordPress theme for photography
Plus, things you didn’t even know, that’s worth knowing!!
If you’re familiar with WordPress themes, then fast forward to our reviews CLICK HERE .
Sit back, relax and enjoy the review:
Introduction
What is a CMS (Content Management System) Theme?
A CMS Theme is a group of file codes and (generally) images that determine the look of a CMS website.
Is a ‘theme’ different to a ‘template’?
In the world of CMS, theme, and template generally, describe a design. The difference in general being; theme = whole website, template = individual page lay out.
Beware
Joomla also uses ‘template’ to mean theme and Drupal has an independent understanding of template files.
Confused yet?
Don’t be. This just means that when you are referring to the ‘components’ that control the Drupal site appearance, this is known as the theme.
The site ‘look’ can be changed using themes Bottom of Form
The theme of a site is all about the ‘look.’ The benefit of a theme system means you can change the entire appearance of the site, without altering any of the content. By using a responsive WordPress theme, even websites containing thousands of pages can switch themes quickly and easily. Super useful.
What is extra functionality?
Because a theme concentrates on the look of a site, it limits its functionality. Many themes/templates include extra features which can be utilized. However, this is more common in WordPress and Joomla, rather than Drupal, (most likely as Drupal is more focused on building sites that have separate modules).
Also included in this extra functionality are ‘paid’ themes (although these don’t generally apply in the Drupal world).
Often, the primary selling point in a Joomla template or paid WordPress theme is the several extra features.
Top 7 Best WordPress Theme Providers on the Market TODAY
As promised, to help make the right decision for YOU, I’ll take that in-depth look at the Top 7 Best WordPress Theme providers, highlighting what works and what doesn’t.
Genesis
Genesis: a first-class theme framework that works together with WordPress (not WordPress.com websites but open source WordPress) and was created by StudioPress. It can be used as a standalone parent theme, but users will get the most from it by combining with a child theme.
Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes: As well as WordPress plugins and themes, Thrive Themes also offer additional resources to help create an effective website. Regardless of what your goals are, the products offered are there to help achieve the highest possible conversion rates from your website.
Themeisle
Themeisle: Began in 2012 and is a WordPress theme shop offering numerous highly rated plugins and themes. The themes aren’t individually available; however, club membership gives open access to all the themes.
Divi
Divi: A WordPress multipurpose theme which can be utilized to create any website. It is available from Elegant Themes as part of the pack containing 3 plugins and 87 themes.
Spacious
A multi-purpose business WordPress theme that is free to download. It is versatile, professional, intuitive and creative and is classed as one of the most highly rated and favorite free WordPress themes within the directory.
X Theme
X Theme: A creation by ThemeCo, a US-based WordPress theme shop. It is their first and very successful item within the ThemeForest marketplace.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a FREE WordPress theme which is designed to be flexible, lightweight and best of all basic.
WordPress Theme ‘Must Haves’
Having opted to use themes, it can be overwhelming which theme to use on your WordPress site. With so many different options, all appearing to offer similar tools, it’s impossible to know where to begin.
Don’t panic! There are 7 top features you need to consider when choosing the best WordPress theme for your site.
The 7 Top features:
The WordPress theme should complement the content within your website
Several WordPress themes come fully equipped with lots of customization options, however, if these are coded incorrectly, changing themes or using other WordPress plugins becomes difficult. Also remember, sometimes, the WordPress themes that look great can slow down your website – something which Google doesn’t like. Remember; the faster the site, the higher it ranks!
So, the must have’s are:
- Simplicity
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Browser Responsiveness
- Supported Plug-ins
- Page Builders
- Support
- SEO Friendliness
The Top 7 features in-depth
Let’s have a look at which of the 7 best WordPress themes ‘Slam dunk’ the Top 7 and which just dunk !
1– Simplicity
In this section, you’ll discover which WordPress theme is easy to use.
In my view, sometimes simplicity is key. After all, you don’t want to be spending hours and hours getting to grips with their dashboard.
There are lots of WordPress themes out there in the market that include complex layouts, flashy animations and myriad of colors. Occasionally, these things may be needed, but more often than not, they aren’t. That’s what you’ll quickly discover by reading on.
So let’s find out…
Genesis
Genesis is extremely easy to use, is well-optimized and contains easy-to-use hooks, which developers love. It gets the thumbs up from us with 4 stars.
Thrive Themes
Thrive themes is super easy to install and use and is totally tech-friendly. Beautiful websites and landing pages can be built in a few minutes. Well done Thrive Themes, you get 4 stars.
Themeisle
Themeisle offers good quality themes for websites which can be easily managed by those with a little amount of web design and coding knowledge, and for those non-experienced users. Great start ThemeIsle, a strong 4.5 stars.
Divi
Divi is relatively easy to use on the initial website set up. For customization and website layout, however, it can be a little tricky to the novice. Good, all the same, 4 stars
Spacious
Spacious is a straightforward and flexible WordPress theme. It comes easy to install, use and provides many features to customize the appearance of your WordPress site. Well done Spacious, you get 3.5 stars.
X Theme
X Theme has many options, settings, and features, which may lead you to surmise it’s tricky to setup and use. However, thanks to an enhanced version of the original WordPress customizer, which configured the theme, there are no awkward theme options pages to contend with. Big up to the X Theme! Really impressive 4 stars.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is extremely easy to use and is a good choice for those looking for a basic theme which is well-developed and that users can customize on their own. It’s lightweight, fast, flexible, well coded and well-supported by a developer who clearly cares about his product. A well-deserved 4 stars.
2– Mobile Responsiveness – Are the themes mobile ready?
In this section, you’ll learn how mobile responsive these WordPress themes are.
Make sure your theme supports various screen resolutions, is future-proof when it comes to the design and layout, ranks better on Google, improves your online marketing and creates a better user experience your customers will love.
Let’s talk a little more about why it’s important…
With the ever growing rise in people using mobile devices, not having your website designed to adjust and respond to mobile devices would be a huge disservice to yourself.
Mobile friendliness really is a game changer and fast becoming one of the most crucial factors affecting the SEO and visibility of your site. In other words, by ensuring your website is fully mobile responsive ensures that Google’s Search Algorithms can find you ensuring you get a better ranking on Google.
What does this mean?
Nearly all WordPress themes are responsive; by way of default, however, there are still sellers marketing fixed-width layouts, that are not mobile compatible at all. Crazy eh!
Let’s see how they did.
Genesis
Genesis has an excellent mobile responsive design which makes it compatible with all mobile devices. Enough said which is why it deserves a massive 5 stars.
Thrive Themes
Many of the shared features found in Thrive Themes WordPress themes have a fully mobile responsive design, though not all are 100% mobile ready. So close but with this in mind, I’ve only awarded you 4 stars!
Themeisle
This theme adjusts to any layout, whether mobile, PC, tablet, etc. It’s designed with responsiveness in the forefront. An impressive 5 stars!-
Divi
Divi has simplified its process to make specific device adjustments, guaranteeing compatibility on any screen size, however to change the colour of the icons a small amount of coding is required. A top end 4 stars DIVI.
Spacious
The Spacious themes have a fully responsive layout which automatically adapts them to the visitor’s mobile device. Well done Spacious with 4 stars.
X Theme
With many visitors to websites using smartphones and tablets, having a responsive design is a must. The stacks that are included in this theme quickly respond to match any screen size which is why I’ve awarded X Theme 4 stars.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is completely mobile responsive and looks amazing as well as being easy to use even on the smallest of screens. A very well earned 4 stars.
3- Browser Responsiveness/Compatibility
Now, this is really important…
In this section, you’ll understand just how compatible these WordPress themes are when using different web browsers.
Ensure your visitors get that perfect browsing experience that keep them coming back to your site again and again.
It’s a well known fact that your site visitors will be using different browsers, which is why it’s so important your website not only looks great, but also that it functions properly on them all, which includes:
- Google Chrome
- Safari
- Firefox
- Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Edge
It’s important to note that just because the theme looks great in one browser, it’s not a given that it displays the same on others and will give your visitors a poor browsing experience, which will of course mean that they leave your site.
You can test the themes using a variety of compatibility tools (Browsershots is a free tool, however there are paid for tools such as Litmus or BrowserStack). Be sure to test the layout, your content and images as well as other elements.
So, how did they do?
Genesis
Genesis primarily supported Chrome and FireFox but have now included Safari, Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge, so an excellent 4 stars.
Thrive Themes
Thrive themes integrates with all the most popular browser types, so you don’t have to think twice when designing your content. Well done Thrive Themes, a well deserved 4 stars!
Themeisle
Themeisle converts into all browser types making it extremely compatible which means that the themes are not only pleasing to the eye but convert well too !! Well done Themeisle, a deservedly 4 stars.
Divi
Divi’s compatibility with Microsoft Edge and Chrome is slightly under standard causing pages to jump and the navigation bar to shrink and resize when clicking on a different menu item. Earning Divi 3 stars.
Spacious
As the developers of Spacious have thoroughly tested the themes with all major browsers, there should be no problems. Therefore we award Spacious with 3 stars.
X Theme
X Theme has been tested thoroughly by its developers using all major browsers with no glitches. Good show guys and a satisfying 4 stars.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress works in all major browsers including Explorer 8 – which is superb. It is also constantly being tweaked to ensure that maximum performance is always achieved. Well done GeneratePress – 4 stars.
4- Supported Plugins
In this section, you’ll learn what plugins are available to your WordPress themes which will help you to decide which theme is more suitable to you.
Remember…
Without the use of plugins, NOTHING will work on WordPress sites. We’ve checked this out for you because there are a lot of plugins available. But there are ‘must–haves; Yoast SEO, Gravity Forms, W3, Total Cache, etc.
Ensure your WordPress theme supports them.
Let’s go…
Genesis
As well as the additional child themes, Genesis offers a whole host of plug-ins that are available from either the WordPress repository or StudioPress Marketplace. These both increase functionality and improve the simplicity of use on the WordPress site. Well done Genesis, a well-deserved 4 stars.
Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes offers seven, yes seven. WordPress plugins within their portfolio. These help to customize your website, optimize your content and generate more leads. Seven really is the magic number here! Great work Thrive Themes, an amazing 4 stars!
Themeisle
Themeisle offers excellent plugins like WPPR Custom icon, WPPR Easy Preloader, WPPR Comparison Table, WP Product Review, and many more. The downside is, Themeisle relies on its plugins to give its theme extra functionality which lowers my score to 3 stars.
Divi
When purchasing Divi, you are given full access to 87 themes and 7 plugins with the most popular being Monarch and Bloom. Another added bonus is that by using the Divi Builder plugin you are able to use Divi on any other theme – even ones not made by Elegant Themes. Superb Divi 5 stars to you.
Spacious
Spacious offers various plug-ins, including Social Sharing, Social Icon and Contact Form 7 (this particular one though, had many issues and was slow on load time). A little disappointing which is why it’s only been awarded 2 stars.
X Theme
X Theme has over 20 plug-ins created by Themeco, and 3rd parties that work seamlessly with X. These cover a wide range of needs, including; building/designing custom newsletter sign-up forms, direct email list integration, and tools providing white labeling X on client sites. They can all be downloaded instantly and automatically updated with each verified purchase. Very impressed and well done X Theme, you have been awarded 4 stars.
GeneratePress
There are several addon plug-ins that are available for GeneratePress which extend the theme to include more options and features. It’s worth taking note that each addon is priced at $7 or if purchased separately at $10, however you are able to get GeneratePress for a one-off payment of $39-95 which does include ALL the features of the addons (including any future new ones) all packaged into one plug-in. Good show GeneratePress a well-deserved 4 stars.
5 – Page Builders
In this section, you’ll learn whether your WordPress theme comes with it’s own page builder.
Page builders are tools which help you to arrange your layout of your website, and most nowadays have a drag and drop feature, meaning it’s super easy and quick to build your webpage.
Several years ago, WordPress page builder plugins didn’t exist. In order to make your page look amazing, you would need to know how to use either HTML or CSS, or of course know someone who could. Nowadays, plugins have been made available for WordPress which means that you don’t need to be an HTML or CSS expert.
There’s more good news is though…
Several of the premium WordPress themes already have these installed.
Let’s see how they did…
Genesis
To begin with, decide which page builder you want to use with Genesis. This is quite easy as all the popular page builders work well, and websites can be easily created using Visical Composer or Siteorigin page builder. With this in mind Genesis score a satisfying 4 stars.
Thrive Themes
Versatility is the name of the Thrive Themes game here. Using the drag and drop user interface to create fantastic web pages, and allowing the creation of custom WordPress post and pages. It’s Thrivetastic!! Another fantastic rating of 4 stars.
Themeisle
The general-purpose themes are light-weighted ones offering several customization options. The all-purpose themes, however, are much ‘heavier’ and include many different types of page builder. Great variety ThemeIsle! All round worth a 4 stars from us.
Divi
Divi builder is fast and simple to use with a fairly good choice of 32 premade layouts. There are no frustrating delays or sluggish performances, which can’t be said for every page builder. We are pleased to rate Divi 5 stars.
Spacious
Spacious has many different page layouts together with page templates, various blog display types, great sliders and much more. A deserving 3 stars.
X Theme
X Theme has an integrated page builder called Cornerstone. This incorporates over 40 shortcodes which can be implemented by using the drag and drop interface for complete control over your post and page designs. A deserving 4 stars.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress has full page builder integration and the editing screen for each page has really simple option panels, which enable everything to be set up on a per page basis EXACTLY how YOU want or need it.
Brilliant stuff GeneratePress another 4-star rating
6 Support – What support is available if you need help?
When it’s time to choose between these different competitors, it can come down to the customer support and quality of service they offer. We all want to be able to get our questions answered quickly and efficiently, as time is money!
A good and reliable customer support can be a deal maker or deal breaker!
My key factors for this should be…
- Quality: To solve problems quickly and effectively with good communications and good working knowledge of the software platform;
- Options: To have numerous support channels in place such as phone, user community, live chat, Facebook groups etc;
- Docs: Provide in-depth documents covering the frequent issues users may come across;
- Speed: To provide a fast response time to your questions and tickets.
This is what we thought about their support available.
Genesis
Genesis offers first-class premium support with unlimited updates. When using StudioPress and purchasing a Genesis theme, the individual then becomes a lifetime member with no need to pay an annual fee. Well deserving 4 stars.
Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes customers can open support tickets via the private forums, which is also an easy way to look for solutions to problems that may have been previously raised by other users. You can contact them via email which can take a few hours to respond which can sometimes be frustrating, so we give Thrive 3 stars.
Themeisle
Themeisle offers extra services of after-sale support, training, and guidance, which is something that other competitors within the same field lack. They can be reached via contact forms, mailing them or by posting questions on their forum. Overall a great service which deserves 4.5 stars.
Divi
Divi can resolve most issues via the forums and offers online documentation which covers all steps necessary to create your site and get it up and running. Unfortunately no live chat, as yet which is why we award you 4 stars.
Spacious
Spacious provides free support forums which can help you with any setup issues or troubleshooting. Those who are members of Spacious Pro can get access to premium support where queries are opened via a ticket system. Shame the ticket support is only available to premium members which is why we have given them a 3 star rating.
X Theme
X Theme offers several support videos to help with the installation process, how to use the customizer and much more. For other issues, there is support available from the user forums, and inside the member’s area, there is a vast amount of written documentation which can be accessed. With this in mind, not offering email or Livechat means we score it 3 stars.
GeneratePress
Within the GeneratePress site is extensive documentation all rolled into a knowledgebase for both developers and beginners. Those who are using the free GeneratePress theme are able to get support via the WordPress.org support forums. Generally, the threads are answered with hours and resolved extremely quickly due to the theme author being very active on there. Thumbs up for GeneratePress and a four-star rating.
7 SEO Friendliness
In this section, you’ll learn about whether your theme supports SEO.
I’m sure you have heard the term ‘SEO Friendly Website” many times. It’s important to understand what it means and why your site needs to be SEO friendly because it really can make that important difference to the growth of your business.
By building your website so that it’s SEO friendly, search engines, such as Google and Bing, are able to crawl (or read) and understand your website and what it’s all about.
The reasons why your website needs to be “SEO Friendly” are listed below:
- It will get you more organic traffic (that is traffic from search engines)
- It will make your website user friendly
- It gives you brand credibility
- It is cost effective
- It helps you understand what your most important customers want
- SEO is even more important on mobile
The below are the most important characteristics of an SEO Friendly website:
- Unique titles and Descriptions for all pages
- Well formatted URLs – URLS
- Fast loading web pages
- It has unique content
- Includes images that are optimized for search engines
- Pages have a meaningful structure
The SEO friendliness of your site can be hugely influenced by the WordPress theme used. You need to understand whether the Theme you are looking to use has any SEO tools to better your chances of being found on search engines.
Remember,
Even an attractive looking theme can produce poorly coded HTML, which in turn could affect how your site performs on search engines. It’s a big No No!
So, how did you do WordPress themes?
Genesis
Genesis has built in SEO tools, which many premium quality themes do not offer. Because of this we rate it an excellent 4 stars..
Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes does offer some intuitive SEO tools, which does make building a site so much more comfortable. Well done Thrive Themes, we give you a 4 stars rating.
Themeisle
For a business to have a robust online presence, SEO is a must these days, Themeisle comes with an SEO ready structure making it an excellent choice. Superbly SEO Friendly with our rating of 5 stars!
Divi
Divi is extremely SEO friendly with built-SEO integration, with many users choosing it for their high-ranking websites. That’s why we rate Divi a deserving 4 stars.
Spacious
Spacious themes are ready for search engines with SEO readiness, pushing you up the ranking in the search results. For our review, we didn’t feel it was quite up there yet with it’s competition, which is why we rate it 3 stars.
X Theme
X has been built using the most up to date semantic HTML5 markup, which allows the search engine spiders to understand what the content is about quickly. The X theme doesn’t have SEO options built-in, so a WordPress SEO plugin such as Yoast will be required. Not the end of the World, but for our review, it’s only a 2 stars.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is SEO frienly which makes web building quicker and easier and the perfect choice for high ranking websites. Good job – 4 stars.
How do these Top 7 ‘must haves’ compare – Checklist Criteria
So there you have it, our comprehensive look at the Top 7 best Word Themes ‘must haves’.
The table below illustrates how they measure up and show the scores we gave:
That’s great, but I’m still not sure which WordPress themes provider really suits my business.
What’s missing ?
The comparison table may help you decide which is the best WordPress theme for simplicity, mobile compatibility, and SEO, but what about the cost.?
We’ve got it covered!
Price
Price, means different things to different people. Some see keeping the costings lower as a priority, and subsequently choose a tool that ticks all the right boxes at the right cost.
On the other hand, the critical factor for some is having the best tools possible available to ensure that the job is carried out to perfection, regardless of how much it may cost.
Let’s not beat about the bush- here’s a look at a price comparison of our top 8 best WordPress themes.
Pricing Table
What’s best value for money?
Based on the table above, the cheapest theme that includes a free version is GeneratePress, and the cheapest overall is Genesis. The BIG question is though, which gives you better value for money and which is most suited to your needs?
Relax, all will be revealed, just keep reading…
But, really the bottom line is…
Are these WordPress theme providers what you need for your business?
One of the most popular blogging platforms is WordPress; this is due to its flexibility and powerful features. One of the standout features is that WordPress themes are straightforward to customize and allow you to design the website to match your brand. If you happen to be mega web-savvy, you will be able to create your unique WordPress theme and upload it for both public or personal use. However, for those that aren’t so tech minded, choosing the correct theme will be crucial for your site.
Choose wisely, my son….
There are loads of WordPress themes available, so we have broken it down into a few categories:
Best WordPress Theme on a Budget
Divi
Divi is a thorough, ambitiously expansive theme. A comprehensive and substantial all-inclusive website building solution for both large and small websites. It’s suitable for professional or personal, corporate or commercial and both rookie and pro level webmaster.
Divi builder comes with a theme containing more than 40 customizable, unique content block modules, all available for drag and drop use when creating business pages. Alternatively, you can edit and experiment with the vast numbers of preconfigured template pages, suitable for many purposes. Divi becomes it’s most powerful when building an eCommerce theme, offering several versatile demo websites including many sleek and sophisticated options. These eCommerce purposed websites come adorned with AJAX-powered searches, product pages, and dynamic filtering, with WooCommerce suite compatibility for the complete WordPress eCommerce experience. In addition, these themes come packaged without the need to write any code whatsoever yourself! To sum up, Divi is most likely the only theme that you will ever have to use!!
The runner- up is…
Genesis- it’s raw and simple yet robust. With a plethora of celebrity backers, including Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Matt Mullenweg (the founder of WordPress) and Mark Jaquith, etc. Genesis’, development time is significantly decreased when using the Genesis theme framework to create child themes.
There’s more…
Once familiar with the hooks, it’s easy to work with. It has so many built-in features that other WordPress Themes lack, including custom body post classes for each post, multiple layouts, breadcrumbs, numeric navigation and so much more fantastic stuff. It provides 47+ themes with more being released every day and honestly, there is a theme for anything. The Pro-Plus package is life membership for a one-time fee, unlike other companies who offer monthly or yearly membership options. So, Genesis is the most affordable and provides ample for your dollar!
Best WordPress Theme's FREE Page Builder
GeneratePress
Well, I think it’s pretty obvious, it has to be GeneratePress. The core product is 100% free, and the user interface is impressive. There are unique styling and hidden elements, to ensure maximum responsivenes. There is loads of support available within the GeneratePress site which in turn provides a knowledge base for both developers and beginners. Generally, the threads are answered with hours and resolved extremely quickly due to the theme author being very active on there.
Best WordPress Themes for Blogs
Themeisle
If you have an existing WordPress blog or are looking for a theme for a new one, then you should definitely check out ThemeIsle.
Offering 30+ themes for FREE, you’re guaranteed to find one that suites your needs.
All of their themes are updated regularly, they are well coded and designed, and have detailed admin panels which help you in your setting up.
If It’s more functionality that you’re craving for, they do have premium themes and plugins, but for most bloggers, ThemeIsle’s free themes will more than do the job. You won’t be disappointed.
Our runners up were:
Thrive has, over time, brought out some super high-quality themes. These have followed modern design trends and kept it aesthetically pleasing too. It’s fantastic functionality makes your blog look instantly superior with a host of Thrive Themes tools to help engage an audience. The three most popular themes are FocusBlog, Performag, and Rise.
In fact,
Within their portfolio, Thrive Themes have 7 WordPress plugins which help to personalize your website, lead to more audience engagement and enhance your web content. If you are planning to monetize your blog to include affiliate links or by the promotion of your products, then one of the best themes to choose would be Rise. The theme, Rise is a blogging theme specially designed for optimizing the most conversions. Luckily, Thrive Themes easily meets the specific criteria that need to be met when selecting a theme, including:
- Great appearance
- Readily usable without the need for coding
- Easily customizable
- Well coded
Minimal space required on the blog
Best WordPress themes for photographers
Which WordPress theme is the best for photographers to best showcase work and connect with like-minded photographers. There are thousands of WordPress photography themes available, so let us do the groundwork to find your bestfit theme.
ThemeIsle
The photography themes are built into the ThemeIsle framework are all mobile responsive with built-in portfolios. ThemeIsle is developed using clean code and together with its child themes makes for a developer- friendly platform. The use of hooks is another feature of the framework which helps to boost the developer-friendly credentials.
Rockphoto is completely FREE. It’s fully customizable and very easy to work with and you can get your new website installed and online in under 1 minute. Rokophoto comes with a powerful, responsive, and user-friendly mega menu, which makes arranging and organizing your sub menu content a breeze
It provides many options to showcase your work in an attractive portfolio design.
The Pros of using ThemIsle for photography are:
- Well coded framework with frequent updates
- There are no limitations
- Dedicated plugins together with solid features
- Will always work consistently
- It’s FREE
The Cons of using Genesis for photography are:
- A lack of options for customization
- Less flexibility for non-coders
The best WordPress themes for businesses
All business websites need a WordPress theme that reflects both a corporate and professional look. There are several corporate WordPress themes available to use on a business Website. To take advantage of all the great features on offer within WordPress you must ensure you have a self-hosted WordPress.org site. WordPress has made it easier and less expensive to create corporate and professional websites and offer multiple business themes to accommodate your needs. The WordPress themes are custom-built and provide all the necessary features to run and promote a business online.
Are you looking for the best corporate WordPress theme for your website? Business websites need a WordPress theme that reflects a professional corporate look. By doing this, the consumer builds trust in your brand and subsequently boost your conversions. In this article, we have hand-picked some of the very best corporate WordPress themes you can use on your business website. You will need a self-hosted WordPress.org site to take full advantage of all the great features offered by WordPress.
Thrive Themes
Thrive has a tremendous amount of landing pages to choose from and fortunately, they all have some sort of theme. Eg, landing pages for webinar signup, download pages, thank you page and a sales page – all containing a continuous theme.
Squared is a theme which has been created for building high-converting websites for business, and is also suitable for promoting both business or agency services with post and page templates.
The Pros of Using Thrive:
- You can customize opt-informs much simpler by using the visual editor
- Rather than being reliant on a third-party site for self-hosting your forms (which could go offline), you are keeping it in-house
- Split-testing is simple to do
- There is almost unlimited customization for how forms look and appear, making it easy to utilise how, where and when you use them.
The best WordPress themes for e-commerce
Retailers these days, are making a move towards online stores and are therefore always looking for alternative ways to market or sell themselves online. Online selling is growing exponentially and with it comes a surefire tap into a Worldwide customer base. Not everyone has the funds of a multinational corporation to pay for developers to instrument the changeover from store to superhighway so a great way to fill this niche is by using WordPress. Many of its themes are geared around eCommerce, from small, simple online stores to the multipurpose websites.
It is almost guaranteed that there will be one suited to your online needs.
So, what IS the best WordPress theme to use for e-commerce?
It's …. Genesis
One of the main draw-in factors of the Genesis framework is the vast amount of eye- pleasing child themes available for it – which can be a huge plus point when using it for eCommerce. Quite often, the child themes alone are enough to encourage WordPress uses to also become Genesis users.
Once the Genesis framework has been installed onto your WordPress site, you can use any of the child themes available for the framework. The child themes incorporate the features, core code and functionality of the framework, but at the same time bring their unique layouts and designs to your website, enabling you to build any website using WordPress.
The Cons of using the Genesis framework together with the child themes are that they do lack the heavy feature sets and multi-functionality that some of the other premium best-selling WordPress themes offer. Genesis prefer to focus on easy use, clean designs, efficient code, fast loading and above all simplicity. It is also perfect for eCommerce as site owners have the choice of increasing more features, of their choosing from the vast library of plug-ins from WordPress, rather than them being forced on them via the developers.
The Runner- Up……Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes – this offers all the tools you could ever possibly need, whether you are a blogger or affiliate marketer – every aspect is catered for. Thrive Themes has an enormous selection of themes as well as WordPress plugins, together with additional resources. Whatever your goals the Thrive Themes will ensure that you get the highest conversion rates from your website.
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WordPress Themes (Short Reviews)
Now that I have compared the WordPress themes, based on various factors, here’s a brief summary of each. Remember, there are full reviews available, and these are merely ‘mini’ ones that reflect the findings from the roundup post, together with my own analysis.
Genesis Short Review
CopyBlogger: Media created the company called StudioPress who in turn produce the software. Genesis themes can be used as standalone parent themes, but users really will benefit the most by incorporating it with a child theme. At present, within StudioPress, there are well over 40 professional child themes available, and this doesn’t include all of the third party child themes. The Genesis framework is positioned on the top of the WordPress’ core code, which in turn creates a secure search engine optimized base from which you can build your WordPress site. The actual installation of the Genesis framework alone doesn’t make for a very visually appealing website. That is where Genesis child themes come into play, as these sit above the Genesis framework and add the visual enhances.
Pros
- The theme framework is of high quality
- It is extremely affordable
- It is lightweight and very easy to install
- The layouts and settings are very simple
- There is a wide range of both StudioPress and third-party child themes
- There is no annual membership as it is a lifetime one
- Lifetime update
- Fantastic support
- It is mobile responsive and has built-in SEO and HTML5 markup
- Efficient and clean code = fast loading pages
Cons
- Without the use of plugins, it is perhaps not the easiest to incorporate advanced personalization too
- It does require extra free plugins to improve some of its functionality
- It has no social sharing buttons built-in
Thrive Themes Short Review
Thrive Themes are a set of WordPress plugins and themes that were created by Shane Melaugh (who was the creator of SE Cockpit, Hybrid Connect and is an ActiveGrowth blogger).
For you to be able to create an effective website, Thrive Themes offers a selection of themes, WordPress plugins plus additional resources. It doesn’t matter what goals you have in mind; the products are aimed at helping you to gain the highest rates of conversion for your website.
Thrive Themes has all the tools that you could want, whether you’re a service provider, affiliate marketer, product supplier or merely a blogger who is looking to interact more effectively with their audience.
Pros
- Replaces the need for multiple plugins
- Conversion Optimised landing pages
- Visually pleasing content design
- The drag and drop editor is simple and easy to use
- The pricing is affordable
- There is a variety of elements that can be added (e.g., testimonial boxes and exit-intent popups)
Cons
- The article isn’t as clean coded as stated
- While in editing mode the website length is squeezed
- It is limited to WordPress CMS sites
- Does take time to gravitate to
- It is difficult to modify old pages using Thrive Themes builder. It is only helpful for new posts or pages
Themeisle Short Review
Themeisle began in 2014 as a company selling WordPress themes and plugins, and its purpose was to serve the WordPress community. The team is made up of web developers, web designers, project managers and customer care specialists. Themeisle aims to create premium quality themes for websites which non-experienced users can use with ease. If you are looking for a theme shop that has a solid WordPress background together with fantastic customer support, then don’t look any further.
Pros
- Products are user-friendly which means those with little web design and coding knowledge can easily navigate the themes
- Extra after-sale support is available together with training and guidance
- All plans include 1 years free shared hosting
- Great themes and plugins at a great price
- Support over the weekend
- Fully mobile responsive
- Extremely SEO friendly
- Offers FREE shared hosting for a year
- Fantastic Page Builder
Cons
- Extra features and higher quality products may be provided by the competition at a lower price
Divi Short Review
Divi is a multipurpose WordPress theme which can be used for the creation of almost any website. Using WordPress to build a website is relatively straightforward, however, getting the WordPress site to look exactly how I want it to isn’t. When customizing a WordPress website, there are restrictions, and unless you know CSS and HTML it’s a huge problem. Until DIVI came along, and now changing the layout is as easy as pie.
Pros
- It is perfect if you are a non-tech online entrepreneur
- It is multipurpose, which makes it ideal for businesses, magazines, freelancers, small agencies and online stores
- HTML/CSS knowledge is not needed to create compelling landing pages
- It has one of the top-rated drag and drop page builders including numerous premade layout, sections, and modules
- The graphics and designs are visually appealing
- It is compatible with Aweber, WooCommerce, Google Maps, and MailChimp
- Updates are for life
- Extremely good value for money
- It is fast with a minimal and clean interface
Cons
- Not the best option for developers as it is not a theme builder
- The panel for the Main Theme Options does look outdated
- Columns can be challenging to work with
- Poor selection of templates
- The Live Chat support is only for pre-sales
Spacious Short Review
Spacious is a simple multi-purpose business WordPress theme that was created by ThemeGrill, that is beautiful, and best of all it is FREE !! This theme has lots of useful features and is very responsive with a great design. It is suitable for blogging, business or any website that you want to build. It is professional, stylish and versatile all rolled into one. It’s sophistication, class, and style mean that it is a perfect WordPress theme for corporate and business sites.
Pros
- It’s a free business theme
- Primary options are available
- There are numerous widget and custom widget areas
- There are call to actions
- It is compatible with WooCommerce
- There are a number of layouts
- There is a Contact Form
- The slider is amazing
Cons
- For users looking for more advanced options or more intense support, they will need to look at the Pro version or will need to consider using plugins
X Theme Short Review
X Theme is a theme on ThemeForest and is one of the most popular and top selling. It is fast, easy to use and aesthetically beautiful. X claims to be the ‘last WordPress theme you’ll ever have to buy’ due to the multiple designs all contained within one package. These designs have been named ‘stacks’ by the developers, and the package currently holds four different ones, with more planned for the future.
Pros
- Highly versatile theme
- Lots of page layouts and templates included
- The front-end page builder tool is impressive
- It’s regularly updated
- Lots of third-party plugins included
- There is lots of support for third-party plugins
- There is lots of helpful support and documentation available to beginners
Cons
- As there are lots of features, newbies may find it overwhelming
- Not the best choice for those looking for a minimal theme
- Does need some configuration to get set up and started
GeneratePress Short Review
Tom Usoborne is the genius behind GeneratePress and if you look on his website he claims that the concept was to create a ‘solid theme’ on which to base all his client work on. What he began to realise was that there was a need for more features to be included, however he still wanted the theme to remain ‘light’ for developers – hence the introduction of ‘modular add-ons’, which could be turned on and off accordingly and meant that there was no unnecessary ‘stuff’’ uploading in the background of the theme.
Pros
- SEO friendly
- Developer friendly
- Quality Code
- Mobile friendly
- Well supported
- Extensive options
- Perfect for all types of websites
- Excellent documentation
- Many high-quality support channels at hand
Cons
- None
Now, over to you...
Now I’d love to hear from you:
If your head’s in a whirl and you’re still unsure what WordPress theme will best suite your business, read the full reviews or message me and we can discuss what is best for you and your website.
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