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30 Free High Quality Wordpress Themes

By Smashing Editorial, August 25th, 2008 in Developer's Toolbox | 255 Comments | Forum

Free professional WordPress themes always come in handy. Whether you are looking for some design inspiration or professional coding solutions — in both cases you can learn a lot, you can apply them and you can build customized designs upon them without reinventing the wheel all the time.

In this article we present over 30 fresh free high-quality WordPress themes. All themes can be downloaded, customized and used for free — in personal or/and commercial projects. Please read license disclaimers carefully before using the theme in commercial projects — they can change from time to time.

You might also want to take a look at our previous selections:

100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes
Together with hundreds of other designs, these themes have been manually selected, installed and tested over the last weeks. They all can be downloaded, customized and used for free in both personal and commercial projects.
83 Beautiful WordPress Themes
An overview of beautiful, but rather unknown themes you might have missed.
21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant Themes
A quite pretty selection of elegant yet well thought-out themes.
10 Fresh and Clean Themes
The beauty of these themes lies in their clean look supported by a legible content presentation.

30 Free Professional Wordpress Themes

1. Colourise
A two-column Wordpress theme with an ultra large header image, a dark backdrop and a fat footer.

2. Twilight Saga WordPress Theme
“There are so many books that hit the shelves these days that covers just start to blend together into one big mottled wallpaper. So it was a mild surprise when I encountered the stark black and minimalist cover designs.”

3. NewsWeek Wordpress Theme
“The theme is originally inspired from Business Weeek website. This is a three column theme having spots for advertise block, a featured video, and other functionalities. I might improve the theme in future but for now, you will have to do with this.”

4. Superfresh
“SuperFresh is a 3-columns theme based on natural green color. It contains 2 widget-ready sidebars, custom templates, with a featured post section on the main page. It’s compatible with WordPress 2.6 and has been tested in Firefox, Internet Explorer 6 & 7, Opera, and Safari.”

5. Our Rights WordPress Theme
Tested with WordPress 2.5, gravatar ready, widget-ready sidebar, valid CSS/XHTML, tested in IE6Win, Firefox 2, Opera 9 and Safari 3.

6. Thunderbolt WordPress Theme
Thunderbolt is a savvy, grid-aligned, magazine-style Wordpress theme with plenty of white space, impressive typography and sensible use of images. The theme has a beautiful custom archives page, showcasing the images attached to each post (to appear properly, the theme relies on the author to add images to each post).

7. WP Imagination

8. Resurrection

9. StudioWordpress Theme

10. Ashford WordPress Theme
“It is a theme for WordPress that makes building, customizing and maintaining a web site as simple as possible. A free WordPress theme that extends WordPress software with premium features making it as simple as possible to manage a web site.”

11. Vikiworks V5 theme

12. Lady In Green

13. The “Charred” WordPress Theme

14. MassivePress WordPress Theme

15. Portfolio Wordpress Theme

16. Outdoorsy Theme

17. Guzel Magazine WordPress Theme

18. Free Premium Themes Check Mate

19. Miniml - Free WordPress Theme

20. Ultimate Baseball Wordpress Theme

21. Arthemia 2.0

22. WP CODA Orange

23. Firebug WordPress Theme

24. Refreshed Wordpress Theme

Wordpress Themes - Refreshed Wordpress Theme » Daustralala

25. Lightning Wordpress Theme

26. ~~Dirty Girl Theme 1.0~~
The theme is not available any longer.

Wordpress Themes - Dirty Girl Theme 1.0 Released

27. Elegance WordPress Theme

28. Leon Paternoster » Posts » Introducing the “Into the White” theme for WordPress

Smashing Magazine’s Free Themes

29. Infinity: A Free Wordpress Theme
The theme has 3 fixed columns, thumbnails integration, Flickr, Delicious and Twitter integration as well as an attractive visual design. The theme was designed by Zhang Yichi, the creative mind behind Vikiworks Studio from Shanghai, China.

30. Wordpress.fun
The theme has 2 columns, thumbnails integration, a “featured” post section as well as a nice grungy design. The theme was designed by Maleika Attawel from Germany, purchased by Smashing Magazine and is now released as a gift for our readers.

31. Fervens: A Free Wordpress Theme
The theme has 3 columns of fixed width, comes in 3 flavours and is supposed to be a starting point for your projects. The theme was designed by Elena Gafita especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

32. Notepad Chaos
The theme has 2 columns, a quite vibrant design including “personal” design elements such as handwritten headings, stick-it-notes, clips and pins. The theme was designed by Evan Eckard.

Published in Developer's Toolbox, August 25th, 2008
Tags: downloads, free, themes, wordpress

1.

ArtHack (August 25th, 2008, 4:20 pm)

Sum up the very good!
2.

wy (August 25th, 2008, 4:23 pm)

cool
3.

rafael tosta (August 25th, 2008, 5:00 pm)

foda!
4.

MikeWhoBikes (August 25th, 2008, 5:05 pm)

Terrific post as always; there’s plenty of these I haven’t come across before that I’m eager to take a closer look at.
5.

Pat (August 25th, 2008, 5:06 pm)

I have just released the first free child theme based on the Thematic Theme Framework. It can be found at Link [www.patdryburgh.net]
6.

didut (August 25th, 2008, 5:24 pm)

cool .. thanks :D
7.

FreeMarketingGraphics.com (August 25th, 2008, 5:27 pm)

Those themes are nice,

however I think we need another 5 months for some real cool themes to come.
8.

Nick (August 25th, 2008, 5:35 pm)

Wow, some awesome themes there!
9.

kevin (August 25th, 2008, 6:07 pm)

I really like Infinity. I set up my blog using it and changed lots of.
10.

Rick (August 25th, 2008, 6:08 pm)

WordPress themes are nice but…. how about some Joomla or Drupal stuff for a change.
11.

Chad (August 25th, 2008, 6:23 pm)

lol at Joomla or Drupal
12.

Jason (August 25th, 2008, 6:27 pm)

sad to see that none of my Link [www.easternwest.com] made it. :(
13.

Brandon Cox (August 25th, 2008, 6:36 pm)

I love these posts, if for no other reason than to analyze and learn. Thanks again!
14.

ifender (August 25th, 2008, 6:40 pm)

yes!it is cool
15.

Ginmini (August 25th, 2008, 6:43 pm)

Oh~i like~ cool!!!Thanks : )
16.

purewebdesigner (August 25th, 2008, 6:46 pm)

Awesome list, I love the 1st one!
17.

Me (August 25th, 2008, 6:48 pm)

Very nice list, Thanks!
18.

JONxBLAZE (August 25th, 2008, 6:53 pm)

Glad to see more Wordpress designs are coming out beautifully.
19.

Abner (August 25th, 2008, 7:29 pm)

Found a perfect “one post at a time theme” here. Love u guys!
20.

Adam (August 25th, 2008, 8:06 pm)

Why would you promote a theme that actively rips off a high profile design (Dirty Girl, ripping off Subtraction).

I expect it from them, but this just proves that you guys have no filter whatsoever.
21.

kailoon (August 25th, 2008, 8:29 pm)

Thanks for including my theme. BTW, wrong screen shot ….
22.

CHia (August 25th, 2008, 8:52 pm)

How do you guys created it ?
23.

anish trehan (August 25th, 2008, 9:21 pm)

coooool coooooooooooooooooooooool cooooooooooooooooooooooooooool supercoooooooooooooooooooooool man!! very good
24.

Daus (August 25th, 2008, 9:34 pm)

Thanks for mentioning my theme (Refreshed theme).
25.

Adam Kirkwood (August 25th, 2008, 9:40 pm)

26. Dirty Girl Theme 1.0 looks like a rip off of Khoi Vinh’s Design at his site, Link [www.subtraction.com]
26.

锐风 (August 25th, 2008, 9:50 pm)

very cool!
27.

Hinduismnet.com (August 25th, 2008, 10:07 pm)

So much of free themes will make many of us web designers jobless in a few months from now. Small businesses who have someone who is computer savvy at top will surely update content and maintain the website.

I am not all that happy about these developments.
28.

mark rushworth (August 25th, 2008, 10:43 pm)

any free themes that could be used for corporate sites - not using the standard blog style templates with date etc, but with banner and bucket layouts?
29.

femetal (August 25th, 2008, 10:48 pm)

I think that the thumbnail of the theme #4 (Superfresh) is wrong!

Anyway, thanks a lot for the themes!!
30.

Jon Aizlewood (August 26th, 2008, 12:20 am)

Wow. Great themes, great designs. Wordpress is taking over the world!!!

Compare this set with those from about a year ago - is it just me or are the calibre of WP theme designs is only going up?

My only gripe… Notepad Chaos IS WDW… I know it was inspired, but it’s a bit too close for comfort.
31.

Carlton Dickson (August 26th, 2008, 1:23 am)

Really like the firebug theme, a lot like the “Elite” theme I am using now but better, definitely time to upgrade my theme :)
32.

emanuele (August 26th, 2008, 2:19 am)

grandioso!!!! davvero fantastico!!!!
33.

Design Bliss (August 26th, 2008, 4:35 am)

“Dirty Girl” is no longer available.
34.

Jason (August 26th, 2008, 4:45 am)

That rainbow stripe effect in the Colourise theme has been so overused in the past couple of months.
35.

Flavio Mendes (August 26th, 2008, 5:19 am)

Very good!
36.

Anthony Bruno (August 26th, 2008, 5:50 am)

These themes are pretty amazing. I cant believe how far WP has actually come.
37.

gagahput3ra (August 26th, 2008, 6:55 am)

I really recommend Refreshed!!!! I use it in my own blog, and it’s AWESOME!!!!
38.

Danesh (August 26th, 2008, 8:14 am)

Awesome themes. Thanks
39.

Sheena (August 26th, 2008, 9:35 am)

These are great…and I have only come across a few of them before! Very cool.
40.

Make Design, Not War (August 26th, 2008, 10:00 am)

Wow those are hot - it’s amazing what a huge improvement has been made to Wordpress themes just over the last 3 months… it feels like the demand for high quality WP themes is finally being met. I remember having to hunt for templates just 4 months ago for a client project and genuinely having problems finding good starting themes… now, there’s a theme prebuilt for just about any type of blog/site you could ever need; a great little tool for freelancers who don’t want to start from scratch.

I’m using FreshNews as a base for my design blog, Link [www.blog.epicerastudio.com], but each of these is a damn good starting place for any creative looking to launch a new blog. Thanks for another helpful list. I wonder if this type of massive template growth will ever translate to ExpressionEngine or similar services.
41.

MD (August 26th, 2008, 10:40 am)

hey! great post :) thnx
42.

Angela Quattrano (August 26th, 2008, 2:28 pm)

I tried to install “Twilight” and it’s not widget-ready, doesn’t even have a sidebar template. Beautiful, but hardly useful
43.

Reşit (August 26th, 2008, 2:43 pm)

Nice… Thanks
44.

Gabe Diaz (August 26th, 2008, 3:06 pm)

Great list. Makes me question if I should just release the theme I was working on as a freebie or put it up on a site like: ThemeForest.net

It’s a magazine style theme called ScatterBrain. Feel free to get a peek at the preview and leave some advice.
Link [gabediaz.com]
45.

bssn (August 26th, 2008, 5:51 pm)

I ever used some of them. Amazing.
46.

Planet Malaysia (August 26th, 2008, 7:18 pm)

Somehoe I’m still using wordpress default theme.
47.

Dirk (August 26th, 2008, 9:07 pm)

Nice list. I like those new magazin themes like NewsWeek.
48.

Robert (August 27th, 2008, 1:41 am)

very nice
49.

sav.bz (August 27th, 2008, 2:15 am)

Nice… Thanks
50.

hello (August 27th, 2008, 4:55 am)

yo check Link [www.mirsab.nl]
51.

smear (August 27th, 2008, 7:21 am)

wow…. so many of these are direct rip-offs of existing sites…. it sucks that as a designer your stuff can get blatantly stolen and handed out for free by someone else and you have no recourse…. now i know how musicians feel….
52.

Libor Fikr (August 27th, 2008, 8:54 am)

And 30 Free High Quality Drupal Themes? :-D
53.

Curtis Henson (August 27th, 2008, 9:34 am)

Thanks for including my theme Checkmate, didn’t expect to see one of my own on the list. If anyone is interested there is a lot more info at Link [curtishenson.com] about Checkmate and it’s next release.
54.

Straderade (August 27th, 2008, 12:45 pm)

WoW - these are beautiful! Thank you so much for taking the time to put together this list. I always enjoy finding list like this that compose lots of cool and related stuff - keep up the great work!
55.

lee (August 27th, 2008, 4:13 pm)

what happened to dirty girl theme?
i So wanted that ..
56.

Roschelle Nelson (August 28th, 2008, 1:11 am)

my blogs are currently listed on blogger. I have changed the templates enough times to know Wordpress themes are so much nicer than most templates offered for blogger based sites. Occasionally you’ll find some wordpress themes that have been converted to blogger friendly ones. This is a real bummer.
57.

arfandia (August 28th, 2008, 9:05 pm)

i like wordpress.fun
cool template, thanks
58.

Danilo (August 30th, 2008, 11:30 am)

WordPress Premium Themes FREE !!

Look–> Link [www.meutema.com.br]

Temas premium de graça pro seu WordPress
59.

Danilo (August 30th, 2008, 11:31 am)

WordPress Premium Themes FREE !!

Look–> w ww.meutema.com.br

Temas premium de graça pro seu WordPress
60.

Sofhal Jamil (August 30th, 2008, 9:58 pm)

Wow. I think I have to change my blog’s themes. Terima kasih. Salam.
61.

WP-MagaNews (August 31st, 2008, 7:59 am)

Wow, nice themes !

WordPress Theme for Magazine & News => Link [www.wp-maganews.com]
62.

oscar (August 31st, 2008, 10:32 am)

great themes…!!!!

Link [www.epidemicdesign.com.ar]
63.

jd7 (September 2nd, 2008, 11:24 am)

Very nice list, thanks for the share.
64.

Campusvill (September 3rd, 2008, 6:53 am)

This is a very lovely, nice theme for wordpress

Link [www.campusvill.com]
65.

Gebalatomasz.com (September 4th, 2008, 4:51 am)

Thanks for showing my template here ;]
cheers,
Tom.
66.

Wulmin (September 4th, 2008, 2:18 pm)

Your blog is really great..
Check mine..

Link [www.healthmad.com]
67.

Jason (September 8th, 2008, 7:31 am)

Just thought you guys should add this one on the next list. Found it Sunday. its a portfolio theme for Wordpress

Link [wpjunkie.com]
68.

Tinh (September 10th, 2008, 7:24 pm)

Excellent collection, thanks
69.

Kudungga (September 11th, 2008, 5:17 am)

Great info and Excellent collection, thanks for share
70.

party (September 12th, 2008, 9:22 pm)

Awesome..cant say thankyou enough times:-)
71.

Dudinha (September 27th, 2008, 12:56 pm)

WordPress Themes PREMIUM FREE !!!!

LOOK >> W W W . M E U T E M A . C O M . B R
(Write..)

The best themes.. !!
72.

wordpressranch (September 28th, 2008, 7:23 am)

nice collection.
thanks for posting. :)
73.

program (October 2nd, 2008, 9:05 am)

Link []
74.

Viv Singh (October 7th, 2008, 1:29 pm)

I hope you will add my theme too in your next collection.
can be seen here: Link [prologic.vivsin.com]
75.

manshurin (October 19th, 2008, 3:57 am)

thanks so much
76.

Rewolve44 (October 26th, 2008, 3:58 pm)

Großartiges Themes für WordPress, einfach schön zum ansehen.
This themes is fantastic, it’s very great.

Liebe Grüße,
best regards,
Rewolve44
77.

HowToMakeMyBlog.com (October 27th, 2008, 1:53 pm)

Thanks for this great WordPress theme collection! I have included a link to you at: Link [www.howtomakemyblog.com]
78.

didi (October 30th, 2008, 2:32 pm)

Look premium Themes FREE !!!

meutema.com.br/index.php
79.

unilifemalaysiaboleh (November 3rd, 2008, 3:42 am)

Awesome!!!
80.

hitesh (January 22nd, 2009, 2:10 am)

All are very nice
81.

Octavian (January 28th, 2009, 12:26 am)

I modified Guzel to work on my site.

It looks great - badday. in. ua
82.

jefferson faudan (February 4th, 2009, 2:37 pm)

i really loved “infinity” among all themes… i guess i have always been a very visual person and am very much attached to colors and combination… the content would matter but still… the more colorful it gets the better it is for me… with Link [www.geofferson.blogspot.com] i preferred a torn jeans concept… i wish wordpress will have more beautiful themes though and a more drag and drop concept for easy usage…
83.

Tash (March 10th, 2009, 7:25 am)

Thanks for all the linkies! My tab box is full.
84.

len (March 11th, 2009, 10:49 pm)

Wow! Nice templates, I love them :D
85.

Leonardo (March 13th, 2009, 8:20 am)

Are subjects with extremely high quality!
2 of those already used in some of my blogs
86.

Vlad (April 26th, 2009, 10:46 am)

Theme #14 is linked to the main storefront and the theme is $75 - not free as far as I can tell
87.

Eeuwbiri (May 14th, 2009, 6:18 am)

P63KFb comment1 ,
88.

jumps bond (May 22nd, 2009, 12:24 am)

some of themes are old but still are really good
89.

An Kim (June 2nd, 2009, 4:34 pm)

wow these themes are bomb!
90.

Steve Patterson (June 6th, 2009, 8:59 am)

Thanks, I already have a blog on my site, adding a 2nd one for my sisters MS Support Group and found one to use. Thanks.
91.

Sha (June 27th, 2009, 2:38 am)

i cant see the download link. how can i download these?