Choosing a theme is one of the very first things you’ll need to decide when starting a new blog. And it’s an important decision. There are countless WordPress themes to choose from. It can be really hard to know which one to pick. In this post, I’ll give you my top 5 picks and a few other tips for narrowing them down.
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First, let’s look at a few key aspects of choosing your theme.
Free VS. Paid Blog Themes
Support
Free themes are generally built by independent creators, which can mean little to no support staff. Or sometimes the quality of the coding just isn’t as good as it could be.
It’s also not unheard of for the creators of free themes to just abandon the theme and move on. Thus ending any support you may have had.
In comparison, premium (paid) themes tend to have a team of staff behind them, ready to troubleshoot issues if they arise. Some of the best themes offer 24/7 support when you need help.
Customization
Free themes can be quite limited when it comes to available features and the ability to customize things as you see fit. You may not be able to do simple things like changing the font, font size, or theme colors.
Whereas paid themes have much more advanced abilities and allow you to customize things to look exactly the way you want.
Popularity
When you pay for a highly recommended premium theme, there is often a lot of other bloggers out there using it too.
Being able to search for tutorials on YouTube or reach out to fellow bloggers in Facebook groups can be invaluable when you are still learning.
If you choose a free, unheard-of theme, it will be harder to find step-by-step videos if you’re a visual learner.
P.S. With over 36,000 members, our Blogging For New Bloggers Facebook group is a fantastic place to ask those burning blogging questions!
What to look for when choosing the best theme for your new blog
But there are literally thousands of themes to choose from. How do you choose which is right for you and your blog?
Make a list of features that are important to you. Some questions you will want to ask might include:
- is it easy to use/user-friendly?
- is it customizable?
- is it fast/responsive?
- does it adapt well across all devices/browsers?
- does it fit my budget?
- was it created by a reputable theme developer?
- does the developer provide quality support?
- does it suit my niche?
Spend some time thinking these questions through before choosing your theme and you’ll avoid regrets later.
Now onto my recommendations.
First up…
Astra or Kandence + Elementor Pro (I use this)
Astra and Kandence are without a doubt one of the most popular WordPress themes available.
And with good reason!
For a theme that has so many great features, Astra and Kandence are very lightweight, needing less than 50 KB in resources (most other themes need at least 300 KBs). They’re both built for speed, and responsiveness and are very SEO friendly.
Astra and Kandence are also very USER friendly! They were created so beginners could create professional-looking websites without any coding experience.
They come with tons of starter sites and templates to choose from. You can simply choose one you like and adjust it as needed. This means you can create your site in hours, instead of days.
When it comes to building any blog or website, I love using Elementor Pro. It helps you create gorgeous landing pages, design your blog, customize an online store, etc.
Elementor is the world’s most popular WordPress website builder, loved by both professionals and DIY’ers.
So the fact that the Astra theme is so tightly integrated with Elementor made choosing Astra an easy decision for me.
If you want the easiest way to build a professional, fast website with minimal effort, plus seemingly endless customization options, your best bet is choosing Astra or Kandence + Elementor Pro.
Not that I think you’ll need it, but they also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Best Feminine WordPress Themes: Bluchic (my personal favorite)
Here is another theme that I personally use and love – actually, it has become my absolute favorite: Bluchic themes.
Designed for women business owners who want to show off their flair and finesse, these themes are a female entrepreneur’s best friend. Sleek, feminine, sophisticated, and just a little bit sassy, these themes are not cookie-cutter, bland WordPress themes… They’re perfect to make a statement in style!
There’s no coding, no graphic design courses, and no huge contractor fees required. Just install, click, and create a stunning website that shows off the best of your business! Plus, there is a template for literally any kind of business – coaching, digital or physical products, services, and more!
Last but not least, Bluchic themes integrate perfectly with Elementor Pro making every page a breeze.
Best of all? They also provide add-on templates, sales funnel templates, and all-in-one bundles so that while you grow your business, your website will grow right along with it!
Launching a podcast? You need a new page for that.
Creating a resource library? You need a new page for that.
Developing a sales funnel? You need a *few* new pages for that.
But no need to worry. That’s where the Bluchic’s Add-Ons, Templates Kits, and All-In-One bundles come in.
For example, with the Sales Funnel Templates Kit, you’ll be able to create a sales funnel without stress with these nine page templates:
- A long opt-in page
- A short opt-in page
- Tripwire page
- Sales page
- Webinar registration page
- Webinar replay page
- Webinar confirmation page
- Waitlist page
- Thank you page
You can check out their collection now to see why I am in love with Bluchic!
Genesis
Genesis is actually a theme framework for WordPress sites. By choosing the Genesis framework via StudioPress, the overall look of your blog/website can then be customized by installing one of the Genesis child themes.
You’ll be able to choose from 35 premium child themes.
StudioPress? Genesis? Child Theme? What does this all actually mean!?
- StudioPress is the creator of the Genesis framework.
- A website framework (Genesis), is basically a really powerful WordPress theme. This framework provides the core functionality, basic design, SEO foundation, security, etc, for your site.
- A child theme works on top of the framework and provides all the design aspects and layout details of your site. This is where you control how your site actually LOOKS.
The Genesis framework is popular, powerful, well coded, well supported, and always up to date with the latest WordPress updates. It’s definitely a favorite choice among pro bloggers and designers.
It also offers a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Divi
Finally, I recommend checking out Divi by Elegant Themes.
While I don’t personally use Divi, it’s a very popular, premium theme with fantastic features.
This premium theme offers template pages, different layouts, easy-to-use drag and drop elements, font options, and lots of cool image customization features.
While it’s all very straightforward, Divi is very widely used so you will have no trouble finding troubleshooting videos if needed.
They also offer 24/7 support and their customer service gets rave reviews. Plus their 30-day money-back guarantee makes Divi a risk-free premium theme.
The only downside is that it may slow down your site and it may not be as easy to move to another theme if you ever want to migrate.
In conclusion
You want your theme to look great, load quickly, allow for precise customization, and work seamlessly across all devices. It’s a tall order. But at the end of the day, you truly do get what you pay for. It really is best, in the long run, to buy yourself a premium theme.
Your theme is the foundation of your new blog and sets the tone for your brand and business. You want to get it right from day one.
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