Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Purchasing a product through one of these links generates a commission for us at no additional expense to you.
“These themes are hand-picked for their outstanding design quality, features, and customer reviews.”
Blogs are one of the most popular and prolific types of content you’ll find online. Practically every kind of site will benefit from a steady supply of fresh blog posts.
Blogging can also be the basis for the entire site. If you can develop a loyal audience, your blog can earn money through advertising, affiliate marketing, or your own products.
In fact, over 409 million people view WordPress blogs alone each month!
Blogs are also great for boosting an e-commerce store. Posting guides and other information in your blog section helps you connect with potential customers. Plus, including the right keywords and topics in your blogs can help boost your site’s position in the search results.
You may also like our collections of health blog, travel blog, and food blog themes for more options.
My new plugin, Strive Content Calendar, adds an editorial calendar to the WordPress dashboard. It’s a must-have for dedicated bloggers.
WordPress blog themes
Every theme listed here is up-to-date with WordPress and mobile-friendly (responsive).
Ready to take your blogging to the next level? Check out the best WordPress themes for your personal or professional blog.
Check out this theme list for more of the top WordPress blog themes.
Here are my top picks for best blogging WordPress themes for 2024.
1. Grand Blog by ThemeGoods (Themeforest)
Theme Description
Over 110,000 bloggers choose Grand Blog – and it’s easy to see why. The Grand Blog theme is professional, elegant, and versatile. For over seven years, Grand Blog has been a preferred theme among news bloggers, photojournalists, travel bloggers, and more making it a great WordPress theme for writers.
Over 20 different predefined blog layouts are available. The Grand Blog layout is open with an emphasis on photography. Many layouts have a magazine-like style with large headlines, bold photos, and columns of text. Import pages, posts, sliders, widgets, and other settings easily with Grand Blog’s one-click installation. Plus, any Let’s Blog element can be added to your page automatically. Finally, their “Retina Ready” features help improve the display of every photo and image on your site. If your blog uses images, the Grand Blog theme is worth checking out.
2. Norway by Major Themes (Themeforest)
Theme Description
Publish visual and shareable content with the Norway blogging theme. Norway is made for blogging, but the featured posts provide a magazine-like style on the homepage. Regardless, this theme will serve your blog well whether you publish once a day or once per month.
Norway comes with Instagram and Twitter plugins, so you can get social right away. It also has WooCommerce integration for selling both digital and physical items on your site. Choose from numerous layouts and switch sidebars instantly with the robust design features included in Norway.
3. Challenger by Compete Themes
Theme Description
Challenger is a single-column blog theme with a built-in lead generation header. If you want to focus on great writing and getting visitors to read your posts, Challenger will be a great choice.
This theme uses a bold sans-serif font to grab attention with your titles, so make sure to take your time crafting the perfect title for each post. A single Featured Image, post byline, and excerpt also accompany every post on the homepage. The post pages themselves also use a single-column design so it’s all your visitors will focus on. Challenger is also fully compatible with the most popular blog plugins for WordPress.
Since there is no sidebar, you can build your email list using inline forms or popups. Also, the lead gen header is very useful for this purpose. You can choose which pages to display it on, change the background color, add a new image, and edit all the text. Use the button to link visitors to a popup form or a separate landing page and you’ll see great conversions.
4. Sensational by MyThemeShop
Theme Description
Add bold, energetic style to your blog with Sensational. A perfect combination of colors and white space, this theme grabs the eye while also allowing for easy readability. Sensational includes four layouts, five pre-defined demos, and unlimited color schemes, so your blog can be easily adjusted to fit into your brand’s existing style and logo. This flexibility makes it a strong choice for business bloggers, Indian bloggers, photojournalists, and event bloggers.
Sensational’s Advanced Typography options include instant access to over 620 fonts from Google Fonts. Even better, fonts can be changed quickly and easily from the Admin Options panel. Of course, blog success extends beyond the website. Sensational includes integrated social media support. Asynchronous loading techniques allow for fast loading times for readers. Sensational is an excellent choice for fun, flashy blogs.
5. Ignite by Compete Themes
Theme Description
Ignite is one of the first themes I designed and thousands of people are still using it for their sites every day. It has a simple and colorful design, but don’t worry if you don’t like the orange because it’s easy to change.
Ignite has a fully responsive design which means it adapts to smaller screen sizes like phones and tablets. The menu, all the posts, pages, everything is still accessible on mobile devices.
In the Live Customizer, you’ll find a wealth of options for customizing the site’s design. You can add social media icons, change the font, edit the excerpt length, and much more.
You can use Ignite for a website in any language because it’s translation-ready. You can use a free translation editor like Poedit to translate any English text you see into your own language. Better still, Ignite has already been translated into a lot of languages, so you may not have to do anything.
6. Startup Blog by Compete Themes
Theme Description
Startup Blog is a really modern WordPress theme for blogs and news sites. While you can use it for any topic you’d like, it’s modern flair makes it a great choice for tech and software related websites on topics like apps or Raspberry Pi projects.
One stand out feature of Startup Blog is the cool gradient used throughout the design. In the Customizer, you can change these two colors to whichever colors you’d like, and you’ll see the gradient in the slider and everywhere else update right away.
Startup Blog also features a responsive slider prominently at the top of the site. The slider can be updated to use your latest posts or custom pages from your site. This makes it quite versatile. Besides the colors, you can also edit aspects like the button text and the navigation options.
7. MyBlog by MyThemeShop
Theme Description
Professional, modern, and even a bit low-key, MyBlog is a solid choice for basically any type of blogging. Use it to write about professional topics, start a family blog, or use it purely as a creative outlet. This theme is highly flexible and includes eight layouts:
- Default
- Food
- Gaming
- Celebrity
- Travel
- Lifestyle
- Tech
- Shop
Each layout includes an attention-grabbing banner headline followed by a clean, well-organized blog space. WP Mega Menu compatibility improves navigation even with content-heavy blogs. Additionally, the theme includes social media sharing so readers can easily share content across their networks. Plus, MyBlog includes 11 free widgets to help you manage recent posts, on-site ads, and more. With easy operation and solid, well-designed layouts for common niche markets, MyBlog is a great choice if you want to get a blogging site set up fast.
8. WorldMap by TemplateMonster
Theme Description
WorldMap is perfect for creating a travel blog. It has a wonderfully balanced design that will give your brand a professional vibe the second the homepage loads.
WorldMap can be used to publish as many posts and photo galleries as you want. The customizable menu can be set up however you want and social icons in the header allow you to promote all of your profiles.
By using the free Elementor plugin, you can totally customize the homepage. There are pre-designed page elements that you simply drop into place. This way, you can add elements like filterable posts, galleries, and simple lists of your latest posts. Since a page builder is used, you can reorder and customize each section too.
Overall, WorldMap is an impressive theme and deserves the great reviews it’s gotten so far.
9. Writing Blog by A Works (Themeforest)
Theme Description
Not every blog theme needs a fancy design and endless options for customization. Writing Blog from ThemeForest puts the focus on the words. This is a clean, minimal blog without any bells and whistles. Writing Blog is a great theme if you just want to get setup and writing as quickly as possible and works well for personal blogs. With a few quick clicks, your blog will be up and running. You can select between four different blog styles:
- Default
- Classic
- List
- Masonry
Customer support is available, but most bloggers probably won’t even need it. If you’re writing fiction, opinion pieces or other content where the emphasis is almost entirely on the words, this theme is one of the simplest, easiest options available.
10. socialMe by MyThemeShop
Theme Description
Is your blog heavily involved with social media? If so, socialMe is the theme for you. Four pre-defined designs and four home page layouts will help your brand engage with an audience interested in fresh, fast content. The unique, high-quality design focuses on increasing customer engagement and building a vibrant community. Social media content is typically bold, colorful and eye-catching. An effective WordPress theme for this niche market should get out of the way so the content can shine. Archives are an important part of any social media based blog. socialMe includes a complete archive section. Visitors can browse through older content to find social media gems they might have missed.
11. Author by Compete Themes
Theme Description
Author is a great theme for bloggers who want to build their personal brands. The always-present sidebar includes space for a site title and your avatar which is perfect for helping new visitors get familiar with your brand.
The Author theme adapts fluidly to different devices thanks to its responsive design. You’ll see that on tablets and phones, the sidebar moves up top into a simple header that can be opened and closed with the tap of a finger. All of the same content is viewable regardless of the screen being used to view the site.
Author also includes a nice variety of features for customizing the design. It’s compatible with WooCommerce if you want to add a shop and works with the Elementor page builder plugin if you’d like to make a landing page or other custom page design.
12. Median by TemplateMonster
Theme Description
Have you visited Medium before? If so, you’ll recognize the aesthetic of this theme right away. It’s designed to look just like the popular content platform that’s grown to popularity over the past few years.
Median’s design is gorgeous and lead by beautiful typographic styles. It will be a great choice for a single blogger, but this theme really shines for multi-author websites. If you have a team then prioritize this theme over other options featured in this collection.
Median has pre-designed homepage templates you can choose from and then customize further from the Live Customizer. It’s a simple system and you may find it much easier to work with than the complex page builders that have become commonplace for premium WordPress themes. Median also includes custom colors, sticky header options, and more, so make sure to click the link below to visit the live demo.
13. Typology by Meks (Themeforest)
Theme Description
Typology is a minimalist blogging theme. Many blogging themes emphasize large images, but if you’re only concerned with writing, sourcing relevant images can be a pain. Skip the hassle and use a theme that’s gorgeous purely through its typography. Authors, writers, and poets will find Typology especially gratifying to use. The look of this theme is professional and modern. It’s completely responsive, so it just as good on mobile devices as desktops. Typology has quite a few templates to choose from for the blog and post layouts. You’ll also have fine control over the typography with font size control for a ton of elements. Also, you can quickly change the color scheme, add special content with custom widgets, and do more with numerous advanced customization settings.
14. Molly Belanger by TemplateMonster
Theme Description
Based on its unique name, you’d be right to expect this theme is made for the individual blogger. If you’re looking to share your perspective rather than creating an online magazine or team-authored website, this could be the perfect theme for you.
The minimalist style of this template makes it an appropriate choice for lifestyle, fashion, and food blogs. That said, you can use it for whatever topic you want. The design is flexible and simple so there’s no limit to how you can use it.
Speaking of the design’s flexibility, Molley Belanger works with a free page builder plugin called Elementor and includes an additional 50 elements on top of the dozens that come pre-included with the plugin. This gives you a ridiculous number of ways to create and style your content. Even better, there are high-quality stock images that come bundled with the theme, so creating a gorgeous website has never been easier.
15. Laurel by SoloPine (Themeforest)
Theme Description
If you’re looking for something a little different, check out the Laurel theme. Laurel is a sophisticated WP blog theme with an original layout for your posts. It’s templates make it especially good at promoting a brand along with the top posts. Following the post slider on the homepage, you can add links to social profiles, an about page, and even a shop on your site thanks to the WooCommerce compatibility. Laurel is more than just a pretty theme, it comes with an extensive set of controls for tweaking and customizing the design. Pick from two different header layouts, four post layouts, and five blog layouts. Laurel also supports post formats, so posting videos, galleries, music, and even quotes in place of standard posts is simple. Use it for an elegant poetry site or personal blog.
16. Techtonix by TemplateMonster
Theme Description
If you’re starting a tech blog then you’ve got to check out Techtonix. It has an image-heavy design that would be great for a gadget blog or online magazine.
Like many modern themes, Techtonix integrates effectively with the Elementor page builder plugin. This lets you design your own layouts. You’ll have total control over the presentation of the website this way. Not to mention, it comes with the JetElements plugin which gives you even more widgets for page building with Elementor. There are some other features and plugins bundled for options like mega menus and footer layouts.
On top of the features, Techtonix is written with SEO-friendly code and includes plenty of documentation if you get stuck and need guidance.
17. Foodie Pro by StudioPress
Theme Description
Hungry for a great WP theme? The Foodie Pro theme is a feast for any food-centric blog. The design is simple and clean, but underneath lies a huge number of useful features.
This third-party theme is designed by the pros over at Feast Design Co. It has an open, airy feel with plenty of white space. Food blogs tend to feature plenty of photographs, and Foodie Pro has lots of image options. You can also spice up your content with hundreds of typography options. This theme is a bit more expensive than many other specialty themes, but many food blog websites find this theme more than pays for itself over time. With the Foodie Pro theme, food bloggers really can have their cake and eat it, too!
18. Genesis Framework by StudioPress
Theme Description
This theme isn’t tailored for a specific niche. Instead, it’s a feature-filled WordPress blog theme designed for general blogging. If you can’t find a theme for your type of blog, the Genesis Framework is a responsive, full-featured theme which will work for just about any blogger. The “under the hood” technical specs are the real seller here. The Genesis Framework provides a rock-solid site foundation as well as search engine optimization. Full customization options are available including content widgets, mobile accessibility and three pre-made templates (Default, Archives and Blog Page). Without a niche-specific hook, Genesis Framework tends to be overlooked by many bloggers. That’s a shame because this is a solid WordPress framework which works well in a variety of blogging situations. Note that many other themes build upon the Genesis Framework.
19. Brixton by Premium Coding (Themeforest)
Theme Description
Brixton has undergone some massive changes recently. With the release of version 4.0, this popular blog theme has added a whole bunch of new features. Don’t worry if you’re a fan of the earlier Brixton versions. All the 4.0 features can be easily turned off – although we bet most bloggers will want to keep them on! Brixton’s new improvements include new Sidebar options, new widgets, CSS fixes and improved speed. Plus, Slider Revolution comes bundled with Brixton. Considered one of the premier WordPress sliders, the Slider Revolution lets you tell your brand stories in a fun, engaging way. The visual drag-and-drop editor allows real-time customization of sliders, carousel, hero images, and more. If you’re already a fan of Brixton, get ready for even more to like. If you’ve never used this WordPress theme before, now is the perfect time to check it out.
20. Hemlock by SoloPine (Themeforest)
Theme Description
Sophisticated elegance is the driving idea behind this theme. Hemlock is a modern, minimal look which lends a sense of gravitas to your blog. It works great for a variety of topics including professional subjects like finance and health. All clutter has been removed in this blogging theme; it’s a one-column theme with no peripheral elements. The latest version adds new font capabilities and social icons, including Snapchat and LinkedIn.
21. Smart Passive Income by StudioPress
Theme Description
Do you run a site which teaches others how to develop passive income streams? The Smart Passive Income Pro theme will likely be worth every penny. This theme incorporates vibrant design, relevant content categories, and a customer-focused conversion strategy. The theme uses the Genesis Framework, which means the underlying stability of your site will be reliable and secure. Plus, Genesis can help increase your position in the search results. Passive income professionals understand how to set themselves up for success. With one-button installation and dedicated customer support, the Smart Passive Income theme is an excellent choice for a premium blogging theme.
22. The Essence by MeridianThemes
Theme Description
The Essence is a chic, mobile-friendly blogging theme for WordPress that uses white space and elegant fonts to help make your content stand out. It comes pre-packaged with 17 different blog layouts that feature different column-sidebar combinations and homepage promo boxes that are designed to encourage readers to click on them. The Essence is fully customizable through the native WordPress Customizer and the Meridian Styler plugin that lets you modify specific page elements. And for those of you who are big on making social media impressions, The Essence comes with custom built widgets that let you display your Instagram feed and social profiles through your website. It also comes with handcrafted social sharing buttons that fit right in with the theme’s design so you won’t have to go looking for a third-party plugin.
Which blog theme is right for you?
If you’re ready to start your blog, you can’t go wrong with these top WordPress blog themes. The functionality needed for a blog is basic and most features you’ll need are included already in WordPress. While you should choose a theme that will have the customization options you’d like, it may be practical to focus first on aesthetics.
Grand Blog is one of the most popular WordPress blog themes of all time, so it’s worth considering first.
If you’d prefer a free theme then check out our themes here.
Regardless of what you’re writing about whether it’s tech, fashion, or travel, you should be able to find an excellent template in the collection above.
If you found a theme you love here then make sure to share this post and help someone else find their next theme too.
