Building a website or blog shouldn’t be a difficult process. In fact, with WordPress.com, it’s possible to get your site up and running in less than 24 hours.
One of the first things that you’ll need to do when building your site is choose a WordPress theme. Below are descriptions of fifteen free and basic WordPress.com themes that can be used to design any type of WordPress.com site.
Click the links below to check out previews of these themes including different types of pages and how they appear on different devices (phones and tablets).
15 basic WordPress.com themes
WordPress.com updates its default theme each year to highlight some of its newest features. Twenty Twenty is the latest addition to the line of default themes, and it’s designed around the flexibility of the WordPress block editor.
Although they’re older, Twenty Seventeen and Twenty Fifteen, are still a favorite among new bloggers. With a focus on typography, Twenty Fifteen is a clean, content-focused option.
Radcliffe 2 is a beginner-focused theme that is perfect for entrepreneurs or small business owners. It has some simple but robust business-friendly features like a call-to-action button and prominent contact information. The theme page also contains four instructional videos to help you get the most out of its features.
AltoFocus is geared towards artists, photo bloggers, and other creative types. It has built-in features to help you write about your creative adventures, including an elegant, dynamic grid system that showcases posts on your home page, prominent ways to present your posts’ featured images, and a responsive image gallery.
While you can use any WordPress theme to build a business website, one we’ve specifically designed for small businesses is TheFour. This theme works well for a variety of industries – from realtors and consultants to ad agencies and creative professionals. It’s a Premium theme with a sleek modern look, but it’s free to those with a plugin-enabled plan or higher.
Independent Publisher 2 is a great theme for bloggers, as it’s clean and minimalistic. Some of its benefits include a light color scheme, bold typography, and support for full-width images. This theme was created with a focus on readability, so the content looks crisp and is easy on the eyes.
If you’re building a portfolio, Snaps is the perfect theme for you. While the theme is designed to showcase portrait-oriented photographs, illustrations, and other works of art, it can just as easily be used to showcase your digital portfolio.
Blask is another perfect theme for displaying a portfolio. Its bold grid design highlights specific projects and scales to fit any screen size.
Many individuals and freelancers use WordPress.com to showcase their work, so it’s no surprise that another portfolio theme makes the list. Sketch is perfect for showcasing creativity with its clean, light design.
If you’re looking for something different, consider Cyanotype. Cyanotype is a monochromatic theme with a bold, simple look that will set your blog apart from others. Be careful though — some readers may not be prepared for a bright red blog!
Ryu is a simple, uncluttered theme. Perfect for personal blogs, it’s readable and features a large font size and support for displaying full size images in each post. Ryu also has a special treatment for the image post format — the background color will change to match the image chosen for that post.
Satellite is another clean, modern theme, but has a strong focus on content. Your blog menu and social media icons will be delegated to the sidebar of your site so that your visitors can focus on reading your posts. Satellite’s Social Links Custom Menu supports all the major social networks, from CodePen to YouTube, making it the perfect blogging theme for everyone.
If you’re a writer and you want to share your content with the world, you can’t go wrong with Penscratch 2. No matter what type of content you create (from analytical essays to long-form fiction), this theme makes for pleasant reading and writing experiences all around.
Blogging is becoming a popular way to showcase wedding preparations or other significant events, and Libretto is great for these purposes. Its classic style and responsive single column is suited to showcase long-form writing that includes beautiful images or inspiring quotes, the perfect way to showcase your special day.
Build a beautiful site with WordPress.com themes
So, there you have it: fifteen basic WordPress.com themes for almost any style of website. Choosing a theme is as easy as selecting the one that feels like the best fit, applying it to your site, and adding your content.
The great thing about using a WordPress.com theme is that if you decide it doesn’t fit, switching it out for a new one is just a click away.
Now go out there and create something special with your WordPress.com site!
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