101 Awesome new WordPress themes

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June 13, 2012
101 awesome new wordpress themes

I’m a WordPress themes junky, as I’m sure a lot of the rest of you are. I love checking out new themes, both for ideas and inspiration, as well as to keep up to date on what’s happening in the world of WP theme design. The great thing is that new themes are released on practically a daily basis. There are thousands of themes out there, a lot of which are truly awesome. And they just keep getting better. Designers and developers are really pushing the envelope of what WordPress can do, constantly creating better, more powerful themes. Regardless of what kind of site you’re builddeing, it can probably be done with WordPress. Below are 101 new WordPress themes released in the past few months. A lot of them are free, but we’ve included plenty of premium themes, too.

Free themes

Free themes have come a long way in the past few years. Many now include features previously only found in premium themes. Free themes are a great place to start for your next project.

Workz

Workz

is a free business and portfolio theme that’s great for showcasing your work. It includes custom post types, as well as a filterable portfolio” feature and pagination. 

Bodega

Bodega

is a minimal business and portfolio theme that includes a custom homepage slider, custom post types, filterable portfolio pages, and much more. 

Neptune

Neptune

is a portfolio and gallery theme that’s perfect for a photography website. It includes a custom post type for the portfolio items, which can be organized into categories. 

GoPress

GoPress

is a minimal, lightweight theme perfect for blogs, magazine, or news sites. The focus here is squarely in the basic post format, emphasizing your content. 

Adapt

Adapt

is a free responsive theme with a clean and elegant design that’s great for business or portfolio sites. It has built-in post types for homepage highlights and a homepage slider, as well as your portfolio. 

Architekt

Architekt

is a unique, minimalist theme that was designed specifically to showcase architectural portfolios, though it’s suitable for almost any kind of portfolio or image-heavy site. 

Leon

Leon

is a fully responsive WP theme based on the Skeleton boilerplate. It has custom menus, featured thumbnails, a theme option page, and more. 

Shuttershot

Shuttershot

is a fullscreen slideshow theme that’s perfect for photography sites. It can be configured to either display the full screen slideshow or a blog-style homepage with a regular image slideshow. 

Zenshop

Zenshop

is a free ecommerce theme for use with the Cart66 ecommerce plugin. It has a minimalist grid layout and supports custom post types, custom taxonomies, and more. 

Axis

Axis

is a fullscreen portfolio theme with many premium features. The homepage features a fullscreen slider, with options for transitions and delays between each slide. 

Canyon

Canyon

is a news magazine theme with custom menus, custom widgets, featured thumbnails, and more. It also comes with five different color schemes and a configurable home page. 

Rolex

Rolex

is an elegant business theme perfect for luxury goods and services. It includes a jQuery slider, a widgetized homepage, and more. 

Nomad

Nomad

is a clean, elegant magazine theme with a two-column design and jQuery featured image slider. It includes CSS3 animation effects for the logo, and is WP 3 ready. 

Vasiliki

Vasiliki

is a minimalistic theme with jQuery masonry for a dynamic grid layout. The content grids animate and rearrange as the browser window size changes. 

Xenastore

Xenastore

is an ecommerce theme for use with the Cart66 ecommerce plugin. It includes custom post types, taxonomies, metaboxes, and more. There’s also a premium version you can upgrade to. 

Yasmin

Yasmin

is a responsive theme that includes features like custom post types, taxonomies, custom menus, featured thumbnails, and more. Portfolio post types are also included. 

Valor

Valor

is a theme for gamers. It includes things like custom post types, custom menus, custom background, metaboxes, theme options, and more. Three different post types are included: posts, reviews, and videos. 

Western

Western

is a premium-style theme for tutorial sites. It includes custom post types (including one for tutorials), metaboxes, custom taxonomy, and more. 

Origin

Origin

is a free, simple responsive theme perfect for personal blogs. It’s a parent theme built on the Hybrid Core framework, so you can easily customize it with child themes. 

FontFolio

FontFolio

is a grid-based theme designed to showcase your typography portfolio, inspired by the work of Svetoslav Simov from FontFabric. 

Grid Style

Grid Style

is a magazine style theme inspired by the fashion industry. It includes theme options, custom menus, and more. 

Grid Theme Responsive

Grid Theme Responsive

is a grid-based responsive theme that features infinite scroll. It’s great for portfolio sites, and includes custom menus, theme options, widgets, and more. 

Simple Grid

Simple Grid

is another grid-based responsive theme, perfect for creative portfolios. It includes theme options, custom menus, and more. 

Widely

Widely

is a minimalist theme perfect for business, creatives, and portfolio sites. It includes a custom theme admin, custom widgets, a shortcode generator, and more. It even includes the Photoshop files. 

Danko

Danko

was created as a theme for charity organizations and non-profits, and puts the focus squarely on raising funds. 

Tint

Tint

has a simple, professional layout that lets you use custom colors on every element within the theme. 

Good

Good

is a mobile-friendly blog theme that works with the Jigoshop e‑commerce plugin. It includes built-in breadcrumbs, single post stylesheets, and more. 

Fanwood

Fanwood

is an all-purpose responsive theme with 18 widget areas, 12 optional layouts, and integrations for bbPress, BuddyPress, Jigoshop, and Hybrid Tabs. It supports all ten post formats, and includes a full-width layout, too. 

Ultra Grid

Ultra Grid

is a modern, minimalist grid theme perfect for portfolios. It includes support for custom menus and theme options. 

BusinessPro

BusinessPro

has a business portfolio layout, perfect for company websites. The theme options panel includes support for advertisements and Google analytics. 

ERays

ERays

is a news-style theme with a featured content option. It’s suitable for a variety of niches, but was designed with fashion sites in mind. 

Pink Touch

Pink Touch

puts the emphasis on color, texture, and typography. It includes a custom header, custom background, and three widget areas. 

Fresh Citrus Magazine

Fresh Citrus Magazine

has a calm color scheme and clean design that’s perfect for niche sites. It’s a two-column theme with right-hand sidebar and a featured slider for highlighting your posts. 

JC One Lite

JC One Lite

is a simple, minimalist theme built on the HTML5 boilerplate. It includes support for a custom background and menu, as well as customizable color schemes. 

Gridly

Gridly

is a free, minimalist responsive portfolio theme. It includes an options panel, featured images, and a logo upload option, as well as two color schemes. 

Panoramica

Panoramica

has a fluid layout that works well on small and large screens alike. There’s an extensive options panel for customizing its appearance, and images are heavily emphasized. 

Illustrious

Illustrious

is clean and well-organized, making it perfect for portfolio or business sites. Custom post types can display your site’s main features, while the options panel gives you plenty of customization options. 

Lugada

Lugada

is a minimalist, responsive theme with two columns and a built-in slider. It’s perfect for blogs and includes a custom menu, header, widgets, and more. 

Skirmish

Skirmish

is a responsive two-column theme that’s perfect for personal blogs. It has a clean layout and excellent typography. 

Origami

Origami

is a simple responsive theme that takes advantage of CSS3 columns for enhanced readability. It supports all the key media post types (photo, video, and gallery), too. 

Photum

Photum

is a clean portfolio site that’s great for photographers. It provides a neutral, clean backdrop for your work. 

Pronto

Pronto

uses the jQuery Masonry plugin to create a grid layout that re-adjusts with your visitor’s browser size. It uses regular posts to create the site’s structure, rather than custom post types. 

Bizz

Bizz

is a clean and minimal theme that’s perfect for business and portfolio sites. The homepage is built using custom post types (slider, homepage highlights, and latest portfolio items), making it very easy to set up. 

Lysa

Lysa

includes eight color schemes, a two-column layout, and plenty of other features. It’s easy to change the logo, and it also has a custom archive layout and six widget areas. 

Blaskan

Blaskan

is a free responsive theme built specifically for blogging. It’s highly accessible, includes a variety of JavaScript libraries, and includes @font-face typography. 

Reco

Reco

has a clean and modern feel and can be fully customized to meet your needs. There are two site layouts included, plus a custom contact page. 

Ascetica

Ascetica

is an elegant, responsive portfolio/​blog theme that’s well-suited for bloggers, photobloggers, photographers, designers, and more. It features custom backgrounds, custom menus, custom page templates, theme options, and more. 

Yaminth

Yaminth

(Yet Another Minimal Theme) supports custom menus, threaded comments and Gravatar support, and more. Its clean, minimal design is modern and versatile. 

Hatch

Hatch

is a a responsive theme from DevPress that includes a built-in Fancybox script, and utilizes core WordPress functions for image and gallery management. It’s built on the Hybrid Core framework, which offers near limitless possibilities for expansion. 

Delicacy

Delicacy

is a free theme specifically designed for food bloggers, but can be adapted for a personal blog, too. It includes a drop down menu, custom meta boxes, and theme options, among other features. 

Buttercream

Buttercream

offers three different styles, supports all post formats, and an optional responsive layout for smaller screens. 

Responsive Theme

Responsive Theme

is a free responsive theme that adapts to any screen resolution or device. It includes a fluid stackable grid system, nine widget areas, a custom background and header, and much more. 

Meeta

Meeta

is a simple blogging theme that includes unique widgets and custom templates. It’s built on the WPZoom framework for easy customization. 

Premium themes

If you can’t find the perfect free theme, or you want ongoing support (which very few free themes offer), premium themes might be the answer. Here are some of the best released in the past few months.

Prooduct ($29 membership)

Prooduct

is a premium e‑commerce theme that makes it easy to publish, promote, and sell digital products. It has a clean, minimalist design, integrated PayPal gateway, custom theme administration, and you even get the Photoshop files included. 

Invo ($29 membership)

Invo

was designed for freelance workers, and includes a client area for simple communication, client invoicing, and two payment gateways (PayPal and 2Checkout). It also features a shortcode generator, Google maps integration, and custom theme administration. 

Stomaci ($29 membership)

Stomaci

is a classically modern design for restaurant websites. It includes a menu card, reservations, and events pages, as well as custom theme admin, custom widgets, color skins, and more. 

Gleam ($39 membership)

Gleam

includes flashy effects and full custom background photos for each page. It makes it easy to customize each section of your site, and even includes a full-screen portfolio section. It includes ajax loading, optional blog-style structure, and theme options. 

Evolution ($39 membership)

Evolution

is a fully responsive theme that comes with four distinct layouts. It includes four color schemes, threaded comments, and you even get the PSD files. 

Trim ($39 membership)

Trim

is a simple, versatile theme that’s fast and professional. It’s perfect for a variety of different websites, has unlimited color schemes, and includes an optional blog-style structure. 

DailyJournal ($39 membership)

DailyJournal

is a responsive theme for a personal blog with a fun and endearing design. It includes four color schemes, threaded comments, and a theme options page. 

Photographer Theme ($69)

Photographer Theme

is a responsive theme that’s perfect for showcasing and selling your photography. It includes several portfolio page templates, a slideshow template, shop template, and more, with a beautifully clean and simple design. 

Notes ($39)

Notes

supports a variety of different post formats, including image, video, gallery, and more, just like a tumblog. The theme is styled based on the iPhone Notes app, with a light textured background, and has a fluid layout that adapts to any resolution or screen size. 

Gridport ($49)

Gridport

has a fluid grid that instantly responds to changes in screen sizes on any device. It also includes V‑Grid animation for your product page images, an optional pop-out shopping cart tab, and customizable color scheme. 

Edge ($49)

Edge

is a simple theme with two different layouts and a large homepage slider. Product pages are shown in grid view, while individual single product pages are well-designed and spacious. 

Eleven40 ($79.95)

Eleven40

is built on the Genesis Framework, and was designed to grab a reader’s attention. It’s a responsive theme with four color styles, six layout options, custom background and header, and more. 

Proto ($19)

Proto

is minimalist but offers a lot of visual creativity. You can change the colors, backgrounds, and turn on or off select page elements. You can even have different layouts for the blog, archives, categories, author posts, full single posts, and even search. 

Emotive ($19)

Emotive

has an old school look blended with modern design conventions. It includes an accordion menu, two different blog styles to choose from, over sixty theme settings, and stylish typography. 

Incantation Professional ($19)

Incantation Professional

is a clean, minimalist theme with over 120 theme settings and plenty of flexibility to customize the overall look and feel. It includes six blog styles, flexible front page templates, custom widgets, and more. 

BioSphere ($19)

BioSphere

has a ton of customizable options, including an almost unlimited number of color style combinations. It also has a floating menu bar that floats behind the main content. 

Handmade ($60)

Handmade

was designed specifically for cooking blogs and sites, with a unique home page layout. It also includes beautiful gallery features for showcasing your latest creations. It’s even e‑commerce compatible. 

Azione ($60)

Azione

is a video blogging theme that allows for unlimited videos to be displayed on the home page, as well as support for self-hosted videos. It even has oEmbed support, so all you have to do to include a video is cut and paste the URL

Mag.Press ($60)

Mag.Press

is a magazine theme framework that includes the new Obox Typography Manager among other comprehensive features. It also has a custom slider, multiple home page widgets, a home page gallery slider, and custom video sidebar widget. It’s even e‑commerce compatible. 

Kiosk ($60)

Kiosk

is an e‑commerce theme designed to sell a single product. It supports galleries or thumbnail views for multiple product images, has a header image uploader, and even features a blog. 

Portfolio ($68)

Portfolio

is a responsive theme for designers, photographers, and other creative professionals. You can create and organize multiple portfolio pages, add video, photos, or text to your portfolio items, and much more. 

Duet ($68)

Duet

is a two-column theme with a sophisticated style designed for writers, journalists, and business bloggers. It has a responsive layout, featured slider for showcasing important posts, and three beautiful color schemes. 

Chalk ($68)

Chalk

is aimed at teachers and creative bloggers. It includes tons of great features, including to-do lists, chats, links, podcasts, photos, and video. 

Hoon ($75)

Hoon

has a simple design built with HTML5. It includes a custom audio player and playlist capabilities, a responsive layout, and much more. 

Reportage ($49)

Reportage

is a news site theme with a grid-based layout, excellent typography, and sharp styling. It’s responsive design adapts to any screen size while maintaining an elegant, readable site. 

Le Journal ($49)

Le Journal

is a magazine/​news theme that’s great for any publishing-style site. There are several widgetized sections, and a three-column layout that’s great for displaying advertising and affiliate links. 

Sharpness ($49)

Sharpness

is a child theme for the Backbone Framework, designed to showcase photography with minimal distractions. It includes a variety of customizations through the theme options panel, plus features lieka hover effect to show photo details, rounded thumbnails on your profile, and more. 

Magazine Explorer ($69)

Magazine Explorer

is a spacious magazine theme with unique widgets, custom features, and a mobile-ready design. It’s built on the WPZoom Framework for easy customization, and includes a responsive layout. 

Discovery ($69)

Discovery

is a business theme that’s well-suited to a variety of different kinds of websites. It’s easy to adapt and customize, includes a featured posts slider, and up to four highlighted static pages. 

Whitelight ($70)

Whitelight

includes a clean and responsive design, with a customized modular homepage. It also has portfolio functionality and works with WooCommerce (via a child theme) for your online store. It has a featured slider, custom typography, and more. 

SMPL ($70)

SMPL

is a responsive business theme with a clean, modular design. It integrates with WooCommerce for easy e‑commerce setup, and includes a custom homepage, portfolio features, and a featured slider. 

Merchant ($70)

Merchant

is a responsive theme for portfolio, personal, or business sites. It includes Woo Component widgets for a truly customizable homepage, as well as JS Masonry for advanced layout controls. 

Designfolio Pro ($79)

Designfolio Pro

is fully responsive, with a filterable, responsive portfolio feature and Flex Slider with iPhone/​iPad touch capability. There’s also a limited-feature free version available. 

Emporia ($99 membership)

Emporia

is a minimalist responsive theme with three-column page layouts, slideshow support, and five alternate styles. It’s a chile theme for the Base theme framework. 

Seneca ($99 membership)

Seneca

is an e‑commerce enabled responsive theme that also works great as a stand-alone blog theme. It lets you manage your personnel, products, video, and blog posts directly. 

Gridspace ($99 membership)

Gridspace

is a responsive portfolio theme that works with vertical, horizontal, and square images. It supports seven post formats, a custom portfolio post type, and multiple page templates for customizing your homepage. 

Crescendo ($35)

Crescendo

is an elegant, clean theme that’s ideal for portfolio, photography, and business sites. It comes with light and dark styles, extensive theme options, and page templates for both blog and portfolio pages. 

Endless ($35)

Endless

is a stylish theme with infinite scrolling functionality. It includes some awesome HTML5 and CSS3 features, and even a Facebook-style timeline layout. 

Volumes ($40)

Volumes

is a bold portfolio theme that’s perfect for creative professionals. It has a responsive design, supports custom backgrounds and post formats, and offers a filterable portfolio. 

Trine ($35)

Trine

is a responsive portfolio theme that’s packed with useful elements. The featured section can be displayed as a static image, video, or slider, and theme options allows for the homepage to be rearranged. 

Next ($35)

Next

is a responsive business theme for business or portfolio sites. It offers touch controls and sliders, Retina-display ready, and custom backgrounds. 

Iris ($35)

Iris

is a clean and responsive theme with tons of shortcodes and a custom background for each page. It supports Vimeo and YouTube videos, an Ajax portfolio loader, and more. 

Marriage ($35)

Marriage

is a responsive theme for wedding websites. It has a minimal design with stitching details, simple colors, and custom web fonts. The custom admin panel makes it easy to edit the settings, change colors, or modify the layout. 

Drench ($35)

Drench

is an HTML5 theme that’s perfect for business or creative pros. It’s fully responsive, offers full-size Google maps integration, Flex Slider, and Isotope Project Manager. 

Prokon ($30)

Prokon

is a clean blog and portfolio theme that offers a customizable highlight color via a backend color picker. It offers simple theme options, shortcodes, and Google maps integration on the contact page template. 

Method ($35)

Method

is a smart responsive theme that’s beautifully designed for agency or business websites. It’s easy to customize the colors, backgrounds, and layout of the theme, with just a few clicks. 

WowWay ($35)

WowWay

is a modern, responsive theme that includes creative galleries, sliders, and effects. It also supports custom backgrounds for each page, lots of shortcodes, and two portfolio displays. 

Oh!

Oh!

is a one-of-a-kind responsive portfolio theme that offers a flexible layout (stretched or fixed layouts), built on a 960 pixel grid. It supports blog post formats, shortcodes, and much more. 

Cameron Chapman

Cameron Chapman is a freelance writer and designer from New England. You can visit her site or follow her on Twitter.

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