WordPress Themes vs. Templates: What’s the Difference and What Do They Do?

Do you ever get confused about WordPress themes and templates or wonder how they differ?

WordPress is ideal for creating websites that look exactly how you want. But if you’re not entirely sure what themes and templates are or how to use them effectively, you might not have as much control over the presentation of your site and its content as you could.

But don’t worry; this post will get you up to speed. In this post, you’ll learn:

The differences between themes and templates.
How to choose a suitable theme.
How to create a custom page template.
How to create a custom post type.
How to use custom templates and post types.
How to create a WordPress.com site.

If you don’t already have a WordPress website, this post also covers how to create one and get set up with a great theme.

By the time you’ve finished, you’ll know how to build a WordPress website, find a theme, and create your own custom templates and post types.

In this article:

WordPress Themes vs. Templates

Before we get to the practical tutorial part of this guide, here’s some information on themes and templates.

Themes and templates are a core part of WordPress. Understanding what they are can help you take full control of the design of your website.

What Are WordPress Themes?

WordPress themes control the appearance of your site, including the colors, menu positions, content presentation, and much more.

Themes are a collection of files that are added to your site in a single package. A WordPress website can only use one theme at a time. However, you can change themes whenever you like.

Some themes are free to use, while others are paid options. Both types can be found in the WordPress.com Theme Directory.

Anyone can access the WordPress.com Theme Directory. But if you have a WordPress.com site, you can apply any of the themes from the directory to your site in just a few clicks.

To do so:

Go to your WordPress.com site WP Admin by visiting your site and adding “wp-admin” to the URL, e.g., https://mysite.com/wp-admin
Once logged in, click on Appearance → Themes from the left sidebar menu to browse the available themes.
Themes can be filtered using the search field. You can filter them by feature, layout, and topic.
Whether you filter the theme selection or not, you can browse the options, view live demos, and activate a theme on your site. To activate a theme, click on the three dots below a theme, then select Activate from the menu.

The WordPress.com Theme Directory isn’t the only place to get themes. You can also find free and paid themes at many other places, including marketplaces, such as ThemeForest, where multiple vendors sell themes, or theme companies, such as Elegant Themes, that only sell themes they’ve created.

If you’d rather install one of these third-party themes on your WordPress.com website, you can do so as long as you’re subscribed to a plugin-enabled plan.. These plans let you upload themes to your WordPress.com website, including those you’ve downloaded for free and paid themes from outside the WordPress.com Theme Directory. To do so:

Download a theme from a site like the WordPress.org Theme Directory.
Upload the theme file to your WordPress.com WP Admin by clicking on the Appearance → Themes menu item.
Click on the Install theme button in the top right area of the screen.
Click on the Upload Theme button at the top of the screen.
Click on the Choose File button.
Find the theme file you downloaded on your computer and upload it to WP Admin.
Click the Install Now button.
Click on Activate.

Those are the two main ways to add themes to your WordPress.com website.

What Are WordPress Templates?

As mentioned, WordPress themes come as a package containing many files, and templates are among those files.

While a theme controls the appearance of your entire site, templates typically only affect the piece of content, such as a post or page, that they’ve been applied to.

For example, you might have a page template with a full-width layout that doesn’t display a sidebar. It might also display the featured image above the post title in full-width mode. Every time you apply that template to a post or page you publish on your site, it won’t include a sidebar, and the featured image will be displayed above the title.

Your site can have as many templates as you need, including those that came with your theme and any you’ve created yourself. This lets you present your pages differently, depending on the template you use.

Some themes let you present your pages in different ways by supplying multiple templates.

Going Beyond Default Templates

Most users should find that their theme’s default templates are enough. However, for those that need more templates, you can also create your own. We cover exactly how to do this later in this guide.

It’s also possible to apply your custom templates to custom post types. But before we discuss that further, let’s quickly look at what WordPress custom post types are.

WordPress Custom Post Types

The two main ways of publishing content on your WordPress website are to use posts and pages.

Pages tend to be used to publish timeless content, such as an About or Contact page. As posts are displayed on your site in reverse chronological order, they’re typically used for blogging and sharing other content that’s more time sensitive than what you’d publish on a page.

However, it’s possible to create additional post types. Content published using these post types is kept separate from posts and pages in WP Admin and when published on your site. You can also apply custom templates to custom post types, giving them their own unique look.

An example of when you might want to create and use a custom post type is publishing reviews on your site.

After creating a reviews custom post type, you would publish reviews on your site using that post type. Due to this, they’ll be stored separately in WP Admin. They can also be displayed and organized on your site separately from posts and pages.

A custom post type can also be configured to store additional information about your reviews, such as a rating, release date, and director. A custom template can be assigned to the new post type by default, helping you to organize and present your content more effectively. You can even create custom taxonomies, such as custom tags and categories, that can only be applied to content created using the new custom post type.

Creating a Simple Website with a Theme + Page and Post Templates

Now that we know that themes control the appearance of the entire site, while templates only control individual pieces of content, such as pages and posts, as well as parts of the site, such as headers and footers, it’s time to move on.

In the next section, we’ll put this knowledge into practice by creating a simple website, choosing a theme, and creating a template.

We’ll also create a custom post type and assign a template to it.

To create the site, we’ll sign up for a WordPress.com account and browse the available themes.

Create a WordPress.com Account

You’ll need a WordPress site to start working with themes and templates.

If you don’t have one already, signing up with WordPress.com is a free and easy way to get started.

To do so, go to WordPress.com, click the Get Started or Start your website button, and enter your details.

You can then choose from one of the paid plans or the free option.

Choose a Theme

As mentioned, WordPress themes control the design of your entire site. There are many free and paid options to choose from, including lots available inside your WordPress.com WP Admin.

After logging in to your WordPress site, click on the Appearance → Themes item on the sidebar menu in WP Admin.

To activate a theme, browse the options in the Themes area of WP Admin. Then click on the three dots menu of a theme you’re interested in. From that menu, you can view a live demo of the theme, see more information, and apply it to your site by clicking on the Activate menu item.

To get the most out of template creation and editing, choosing a theme with Full Site Editing (FSE) theme is best. These themes let you access the Full Site Editor features of WordPress, enabling you to edit theme templates through a visual interface in WP Admin.

You can filter the themes in the WordPress.com Theme Directory to only show FSE themes by entering “Full Site Editing” in the search field and clicking on the appropriate suggestion.

For this tutorial, I’ve chosen the Twenty Twenty-Two theme. It’s a free, modern theme with a clean design. It also comes with several page templates that can be edited using the Full Site Editor.

Now that we’ve created a website and chosen a theme, let’s create a page template.

Create a Simple Page Template

We will create a simple page template that includes a Social Icons block. Every time you create a post or page using this template, it will display a set of social media icons that link to your profiles. The template will also include the post or page title and the post or page content.

Any time you want to publish a new post or page that includes social icons that link to your profiles, you can use this template. You can also apply it to existing posts and pages on your site.

There are multiple ways to create a page template in WordPress, but for this guide, we will start from the Block Editor.

To open the Block Editor, create a new post by clicking on Posts → Add New on the sidebar menu of WP Admin.

On the New Post screen, click on the Template name on the right sidebar, which in this case is Single. If the right sidebar settings panel isn’t visible, click on the cog icon in the top right corner to display it.

Next, click on the Add Template icon.

Give your new template a name, such as Single Post with Social Icons. You’ll then be taken to the WordPress Template Editor.

The Template Editor displays the template’s name at the top of the screen. The right sidebar has a heading titled Template. There’s also a dark frame around the content area.

These visual cues let you know you’re working in the Template Editor rather than the Block Editor, which is used for creating post and page content.

Because you created your new template from the Block Editor screen, your new template will already contain some blocks. You can see which block it includes by clicking on the List View icon on the left side of the top banner.

The template in this example includes the Site Title, Site Tagline, Post Title, Post Content blocks, and a few others.

When a post or page is published using this template, those blocks will be replaced by the site and post or page information, such as the site title and post or post content.

Quick Tip: Make sure you don’t delete the Post Content block, or no content will be displayed.

You can start working on your template by adding additional blocks. To add a block, click on the plus sign button in the top left corner of the screen.

You can then scroll through all the blocks on your site.

As we want to add social media icons to the template, scroll through the list of blocks until you find the Social Icons block. Alternatively, type “social icons” into the Search Field to filter the blocks.

Click on the Social Icon block to add it to your template. Next, click on the black plus sign icon to see all the social icons you can add to this block.

You can type into the search box to filter the icons to find the social media platforms you’re looking for. Alternatively, you can click on the Browse all button to view the full list of social media icons.

Clicking on an icon adds it to the block on your template. Once you’ve added an icon, you can click on it to add the URL or web address of your profile on that social media site. When a user clicks on the icon, they’ll be taken to that URL.

Now add any other icons to the block you’d like to include and enter the URL for your profile. If you don’t add a URL for an icon, that icon won’t be displayed when the template is used.

By default, the icons are aligned to the left of the block. You can change this by clicking on the block, clicking on the Align icon, and then choosing from the options.

If you want to customize the appearance of the Social Icons block, you can click on it to display the block settings in the right sidebar.

Once you’re happy with the appearance and settings of the Social Icons block, you can save the template by clicking the Publish or Update button in the top right corner of the screen.

You can add other blocks to your template, such as the Post Featured Image, Subscribe, and Latest Instagram Posts blocks, in a similar way as you added the Social Icons block.

You can now apply your template to any posts or pages you create on your site. We’ll cover how to do that later in this guide. But before we do, let’s make a custom post type.

Create a Simple Custom Post Type

As mentioned, it’s also possible to create custom post types as well as custom templates on your WordPress site.

There are two main ways to create a custom post type. One is to install a (free) plugin, while the other is to edit the code of the functions.php file that’s part of your theme.

For most people, the former option is much easier and more convenient. Therefore, if you’ve subscribed to the WordPress.com Business plan or above, which allows you to install plugins on your website, installing the free Custom Post Type UI plugin is a good option.

If you’re not on the WordPress.com Business plan or above or would rather manually code a custom post type, this guide has the relevant instructions.

If you’re going to use a plugin to create a custom post type, log in to your WP Admin and click on the Plugins menu item.

From the Plugins screen, search for the “Custom Post Type UI” plugin and click on the plugin name.

On the next screen, click on the Install and activate button.

Once the plugin is installed, click Back to plugins to return to WP Admin.

From WP Admin, click on CPT UI → Add/Edit Post Types from the left sidebar menu.

Now you can enter the details of your custom post type, starting with the slug. The slug is displayed in the URL or web address of the content. As we’re creating a custom post type for publishing reviews, enter “reviews.”

You must also enter the label or name of the custom post type in both singular and plural forms. It would be “review” and “reviews” in this case.

Clicking on Populate additional labels based on chosen labels will automatically populate the fields in the Settings panel below.

If you scroll down the page, you can see the Settings panel. This lets you configure many aspects of the custom post types, such as which icon will be used in the sidebar menu and which post editor features are available when creating and editing these post types.

In most cases, the default settings will suffice. You can return to the settings anytime you want if you need to make any changes.

When you’re happy, click on the Add Post Type button.

You should now see a menu item for your new custom post type added to the sidebar.

You can add a new piece of content to your site using the custom post type by clicking on Reviews → Add New.

Add Pages and Posts Using Their Templates

After creating a new custom post type and a new template, you can start using them on your site.

To use the template, go to WP Admin and create a new post or page on your site by clicking on the Posts → Add New or Pages → Add New.

You can also use your new template with your new custom post type. To do so, click on the Reviews → Add New menu item (or whatever you called your custom post type.)

Once you’ve created a new post or page, you can change the template it’s using by clicking on the template name in the right-side settings panel of the Block Editor.

Depending on the design of your template, you might not see any changes to the post or page area in the Block Editor.

However, when you view your post or page, by clicking on the View button on the right side of the top panel, you should see that the template you created has been applied.

Congratulations, you have created a page template and a custom post type!

Now You Know the Difference Between Themes and Templates

You should now have all the information you need to use themes and templates effectively on your WordPress site.

Themes give you thousands of options for your site’s overall appearance, while templates let you control how posts and pages are presented.

Creating your own templates and custom post types gives you even more control over how your content looks and is organized.

Now that you know how to build a site, make templates, and create custom post types, you can launch an online presence that works the way you want.If you don’t have a site already, you can sign up for one now with WordPress.com.

Want more tips? Get new post notifications emailed to you.

WordPress Themes vs. Templates: What’s the Difference and What Do They Do?