Smashing Magazine
100 Amazing Free Wordpress Themes for 2009
In January last year (2008), we put together a list of 100 Excellent Free Wordpress Themes, over a year has passed and Wordpress development has progressed very fast and gained even more in popularity. We felt it was the right time to put together an updated post and offer our readers the best free themes that Wordpress can offer.
High quality free Wordpress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). But, that aside, the quality is certainly there, and we are sure you will be impressed with this Wordpress theme compilation for 2009.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that we are publishing a Smashing eBook Series? The brand new eBook #3 is Mastering Photoshop For Web Design, written by our Photoshop-expert Thomas Giannattasio.]
Blog & Portfolio Themes
Magazine & Corporate Themes
Photoblog & Gallery Themes
Futurosity Aperio Prototype [Demo]
Minimal & Clean Themes
Smashing Magazine Themes
Something different…
Paul Andrew is a freelance Web designer. He is chief admin for Speckyboy - Design Magazine, a Web design, Web development and graphic design resource blog.
- 194 Comments
- 1
- 2
May 18th, 2009 1:12 amAwesome selection of themes, many good one to pick from, Great job on sourcing them :)
- 3May 18th, 2009 1:28 am
Wow, thank you a zillion ;)
It’s neat to have quality free themes gathered in one article…Good job, once again !
- 4May 18th, 2009 1:28 am
Super collection. Thanks!
- 5May 18th, 2009 1:34 am
Simply stunning list!!
Can’t wait to change mine, but I don’t know which one to choose now.. - 6May 18th, 2009 1:46 am
Thanks for that! I’ve been planning to change my blog design for a while now, but could not decide on the design, an this has brought me even more headache… Thanks a lot! It’s exactly what I needed ;-)
- 7May 18th, 2009 1:47 am
Great article! Just for your information, the link to Speckyboy is not correct…
- 8May 18th, 2009 1:56 am
Thanks for that awesome collection!
- 9May 18th, 2009 2:05 am
great list!!!!
- 10May 18th, 2009 2:13 am
Great collection! Thanks! ;)
- 11May 18th, 2009 2:16 am
100 more reasons for SMASHING MAGAZINE.
Great article. - 12May 18th, 2009 2:30 am
Yay, thanks for being featured! (Linquist)
- 13May 18th, 2009 2:45 am
WoW… Nice One.. !
- 14May 18th, 2009 2:51 am
Great selection, thanks a lot :)
- 15May 18th, 2009 2:51 am
Good selection!
Two themes are the same (Meta-Morphosis)
- 16May 18th, 2009 2:55 am
this is the goods!!!! pure gold. thanks again for all the great design ideas
- 17May 18th, 2009 2:56 am
Colonthree~! :3
Some nice reposts, some nice ones I haven’t seen, but sadly a lot of mediocre… Colourise is still beautiful, though. :’3
- 18May 18th, 2009 3:01 am
Cool list as always, we will get inspiration from them, but I can ask why you do the same for blogger, I mean a list of great blogger templates.
- 19May 18th, 2009 3:02 am
Sweet, Thanks guys! :)
- 20May 18th, 2009 3:06 am
amazing selection ! very nice for inspiration… ;)
- 21May 18th, 2009 3:08 am
Really great !
Quality investment ! - 22May 18th, 2009 3:11 am
Outstanding! 5 star post! thank you so much!
- 23May 18th, 2009 3:16 am
Nice collection. I especially like the City Dreams theme, any theme which features a topless chick has to be good!
- 24May 18th, 2009 3:18 am
An alternative title for this post would have been:
“100 Amazing Free Wordpress Themes for 2009…you’ve probably already seen (here or somewhere else)…in 2009 or earlier!”
;)Although some of them are (still) amazing…
- 25May 26th, 2010 10:46 pm
gag ag
- 25
- 26May 18th, 2009 3:18 am
Nice, nice. But why titled “2009″ as it is a long way until the end of the year. As most of these designs were done in 2008, I would better say 2008/2009 or 2008. However, really great article. Keep up the good work.
- 27May 18th, 2009 3:34 am
“Gallery” – my favor
- 28May 18th, 2009 3:40 am
thank you so much… some themes are very amazing
- 29
- 30May 18th, 2009 4:08 am
Nice ;)
More themes ;) - 31May 18th, 2009 4:19 am
WOW
thank so much!
is a great compilation - 32May 18th, 2009 4:20 am
Very nice collection! I always get inspiration by the themes you collect and publish. No question about it, the WOO themes are really the best free themes!
I love the Scarlett theme!
- 33May 18th, 2009 4:25 am
This is crazy! Wow 100s of them. Bookmark for sure!
- 34May 18th, 2009 4:51 am
Thanks so much great work
- 35May 18th, 2009 4:53 am
Thanks a lot for that awesome collection!
- 36May 18th, 2009 5:02 am
Wow! What an awesome collection! Can never have too many!
- 37May 18th, 2009 5:24 am
Fantastic Themes … Thank You for this Collection …
- 38May 18th, 2009 5:28 am
@Tschai: very funny
I’m using Irresistible on a couple of sites right now. It has some nice features but some quirks too.
- 39May 18th, 2009 5:54 am
Was really hoping to see Eventina in this list… oh well… guess I gotta work more :))
- 40May 18th, 2009 5:59 am
Thanks for adding Absynthe and Gallery to the list.
- 41January 27th, 2010 8:45 am
Absynthe is no longer free on the themeforest website… it’s listed for $15-17 now. :-(
- 41
- 42May 18th, 2009 6:24 am
This is fantastic !! Thank you SM! Great work!
- 43May 18th, 2009 6:26 am
great list, good job smashingmagazine :)
- 44May 18th, 2009 6:51 am
What is so amazing about those plain and regular templates ?!
- 45May 18th, 2009 6:52 am
Best freebies post I’ve seen
- 46May 18th, 2009 7:01 am
Paul –
Awesome set of free themes, I have used of couple of these and the quality is excellent, the set up was super simple. I see a few that I am looking forward to incorporating into my online businesses and presence.
Thank you!
James
- 47May 18th, 2009 7:05 am
Magaling is my favourite! :-)
Many of those themes are somehow “over-designed” in my eyes. But I suppose this is more or less a matter of taste! ;-)
Thanks a lot for this smashing overview anyway! :-) - 48May 18th, 2009 7:34 am
Nice collection! Just wished I had something to blog about to use one!
- 49May 18th, 2009 7:40 am
Some great themes there and some nice ideas too. Keep them coming!
- 50May 18th, 2009 7:45 am
bookmarked !!!
- 51May 18th, 2009 7:46 am
I love One Room (the Second in the List) Theme and used it (modified by me) on my Site.
- 52May 18th, 2009 7:47 am
What a f*cking great list! Thank you!
- 53May 18th, 2009 7:53 am
Smashy M., I love you so much.
- 54May 18th, 2009 7:54 am
Thanks for featuring Arras Theme! Though the screenshot for the theme doesn’t give justice it lol.
- 55May 18th, 2009 8:16 am
Thanks wow
- 56May 18th, 2009 8:48 am
Wow! sweet thanks gotta try them all :)
- 57May 18th, 2009 8:56 am
Nice, quite a few I haven’t seen yet. I really like the simplicity of the 5Thirtyone theme. Thanks SM!
- 58May 18th, 2009 9:08 am
All themes are great but I’m still not able to find one for me :(
It seems that number of creative web designers have increased a lot now.
- 59May 18th, 2009 9:26 am
wooow, wonderful theme.
thankyou so much. - 60May 18th, 2009 9:39 am
Dugg ! Nice, infact Aaaasum Post ! :)
- 61May 18th, 2009 9:47 am
hello wordpress addict !
I’m looking for a good plugin for autocomplete search but by title. Do you know one like this ?
- 62May 18th, 2009 10:09 am
I thought I had seen a lot of good WP themes in my day, but you’ve just shown me a whole bunch of cool new ones.
Smashing FTW!
- 63May 18th, 2009 10:24 am
To have all these great (and free) themes in one place is both exciting and inspirational for a WP newbie. I’ll definitely bookmark and refer to often!!
- 64May 18th, 2009 10:26 am
2 of my designs are there! :P
Irresistible and Meta-Morphosis =)Thx to Woothemes and SmashingMagazine!
- 65May 18th, 2009 12:37 pm
Very nice. Wordpress Rocks!
Thank you for the post
- 66May 18th, 2009 2:39 pm
Very nice collection
- 67May 18th, 2009 3:14 pm
Wow, really great collection.
- 68May 18th, 2009 3:28 pm
I was waiting for this post!!! Thank you SM!
- 69May 18th, 2009 4:55 pm
once more, lovely post
- 70May 18th, 2009 5:17 pm
Great post! Thanks a lot!
- 71May 18th, 2009 6:15 pm
Good stuff, nice to see a lot of ones suitable for portfolios/photo blogs.
- 72May 18th, 2009 6:43 pm
Thanks for putting together this great collection. We use IsoTherm News and have really enjoyed it.
- 73May 18th, 2009 7:28 pm
This is really cool
- 74May 18th, 2009 8:14 pm
I wish you could put nav links for each section of the huge list. Otherwise, terrific.
- 75May 18th, 2009 8:36 pm
Nice themes selection.
- 76May 18th, 2009 9:29 pm
Great selection – several that I would consider, and easy to compare when all in a list – thank you!
- 77May 18th, 2009 10:07 pm
Wow great collection. Thanks!
- 78May 18th, 2009 10:30 pm
Great post! Thanks a lot!
- 79May 18th, 2009 11:41 pm
Sketchy theme had an error in it that did not allow it to be used. I wonder what the general quality of most of these templates is (behind the glossy looks)!
- 80May 18th, 2009 11:46 pm
thx 4 sharing these r great!
- 81May 19th, 2009 12:15 am
Thanks for including my Minimal theme in your list!
- 82May 19th, 2009 12:16 am
I love Manifest! Great work all round though.
- 83May 19th, 2009 12:20 am
I’m pleased that the guys at Woo Themes have featured because not only are their designs great, their support is fantastic and Gazette must be one of the best magazine themes ever.
- 84November 28th, 2009 11:37 pm
Thanks…. i tried alot of themes including sharpfolio… loved it~!!
- 84
- 85May 19th, 2009 12:35 am
My portfolio is based on Sharpfolio :) sweet collection!
- 86May 19th, 2009 1:18 am
Nice List..Thanks
- 87May 19th, 2009 2:17 am
Another great list from Smashing Magazine. Every time I need to look for free themes, your site is the first place I go!
- 88May 19th, 2009 4:34 am
Cool selection, good for design inspiration too!
- 89May 19th, 2009 4:37 am
Nice one
- 90May 19th, 2009 4:38 am
Very impressive collections and I like the fact that is hows how much vareity of deisgn you can have using one syste.
- 91May 19th, 2009 6:48 am
Great compilation, thanks for sharing!
- 92May 19th, 2009 8:10 am
Tanks for add my themes :)
- 93May 19th, 2009 8:48 am
Great line-up !
- 94
- 95May 19th, 2009 2:16 pm
Infinity – its really great!
- 96May 19th, 2009 2:43 pm
This is great Thx
- 97May 19th, 2009 4:01 pm
Great list. Thank you!
- 98May 19th, 2009 8:27 pm
Thanks guys! that was amazing!
- 99May 19th, 2009 8:33 pm
this amazing wordpress theme list
thanks
- 100
- 101May 19th, 2009 10:59 pm
I can see this article topping web hit ranks for a long time to come!
- 102May 20th, 2009 1:13 am
excellent!
- 103May 20th, 2009 6:06 am
Great collection with lots of usable stuff; also inspires the creative side of me.
Thanks for the article.
- 104May 20th, 2009 6:09 am
Thank you, I’m trying out some of them now…
- 105May 20th, 2009 7:41 am
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…………….!!!!!!
Great themes, and a lot of them….
great post
Thank you - 106May 20th, 2009 8:33 am
A great set of themes, I keep coming back for another and another and……
Thank you!
Jamess
- 107
- 108May 20th, 2009 10:04 pm
for CryBook you added the image from Compositio :)
great list :)
- 109May 20th, 2009 10:28 pm
Cool list.
Thank you very much - 110May 21st, 2009 4:57 pm
Thanks guys, great useful post!
- 111May 21st, 2009 6:39 pm
awesome list
- 112May 23rd, 2009 6:48 am
I’ve been looking for a good wordpress theme for a while… so this is very useful! Some really beautiful designs here. Thank you!
- 113May 24th, 2009 3:50 am
Some great themes, Good source, only downside is no mention of WPMU themes, or at least compatible themes.
- 114May 24th, 2009 5:02 am
Magazeen and Gallery are premium themes, really premium! Amazing they are free 0_o
Cheers from Poland
- 115May 25th, 2009 3:29 am
I have tested Masinop for my blog
- 116May 25th, 2009 10:36 pm
I love it!
All in one place with screenshots! What a great reference.
-Christina Hills
- 117May 26th, 2009 8:55 am
Thanks for this! I just re-launched CreativeXpert using Viewport, and I love it!
- 118May 27th, 2009 2:25 pm
gergous themes
thanks a lot for this collection! - 119May 28th, 2009 7:17 pm
Huge and great collection, complete with screenshot. Thanks for sharing this!
- 120June 1st, 2009 1:20 pm
crazy question….
First day this list was out there was a design with a plaid background. The link was not set correctly and it linked to the designer – not the template in demo. Anyone remember the theme name or designer? (I should have copied both down) Humpf…. - 121June 1st, 2009 11:45 pm
wow!
- 122June 2nd, 2009 5:06 am
Yet another great list, very timely too!
- 123June 2nd, 2009 12:30 pm
Muy muy bien. Difícil decidir
- 124June 3rd, 2009 7:12 am
wOw! superb collection.
- 125June 5th, 2009 5:46 am
Excelente. Gracias.
- 126June 5th, 2009 12:17 pm
thanks for the themes! Really amazing work.
I just installed the “Gamezine”
- 127June 11th, 2009 10:27 am
Really good! Don’t forget to download the theme called “Cellar Heat”. It’s fantastic, and inspired by my web site actually. ;) Bye from Sweden!
- 128June 21st, 2009 9:55 am
thanks for the another awesome collection,
- 129June 28th, 2009 10:02 am
:O woow… amazing.. tnks a lot
- 130July 12th, 2009 8:19 am
ha ha ,a lot of thems !!
- 131July 20th, 2009 6:28 am
almost of themes had posted ever….
- 132July 23rd, 2009 11:32 am
Really awesome list! There are some very premium-isc free temps here!
- 133July 23rd, 2009 10:56 pm
thenx
- 134July 27th, 2009 8:12 am
TYVM!
- 135July 29th, 2009 1:50 am
its amazing themes. thanks for sharing
- 136August 4th, 2009 10:49 am
I’ll be using this more for inspiration to design my own blog rather than using these templates.
Brilliant never-the-less.
- 137August 23rd, 2009 11:13 am
Goodness Gracious.
Paul if you can share the process of writing such a post that would help me understand you are able to find the sites and the themes. It must be lots of hours of work.
Thank you for the effort.
- 138September 5th, 2009 11:10 am
I hate huge lists but this one is actually quite good. A few old “favourites” but a couple of new themes that I didn´t know. Respect for the research you put into this.
- 139October 7th, 2009 11:49 am
How are the free themes found for inclusion? I would like to see what people think of the one I created. It is on Wordpress right now. THAT Simple Any comments would be appreciated.
- 140October 10th, 2009 9:10 pm
This is a great collection of Wordpress themes, that I reference often. Thanks Smashing Mag!
- 141November 1st, 2009 9:19 am
i am newbe, for me this is great colletion from wordpress themes
- 142November 1st, 2009 1:09 pm
Wow! I’m really impressed, it’s a very nice collection, thanks :)
- 143November 2nd, 2009 1:29 am
looks like premium templates…
- 144November 9th, 2009 10:20 pm
All are amazing except for the NIPPLE on the CITY DREAMS theme… oops!
- 145November 10th, 2009 1:22 pm
Your themes are absolutely beautiful. I am new to the internet scene. I have to say that finding your site might not be such a good thing for me, trying to stay focused on one thing at a time. You see when I see each theme I become inspired to create a different kind of site. FREE??? Really??? or am I confused?
- 146November 11th, 2009 2:47 am
important, exellent, impressive, beautifull, creative, inspiring: And a 1000 kisses and thanks for this portfolio of wordpress’s spirit …
- 147November 18th, 2009 4:42 pm
wew..nice template…
thanks for shared..:D
- 148November 22nd, 2009 6:57 pm
Instinct has new version (update) of Crafy Crafts. Instinct is a maker of WP E-commerce plugin, you should check their website for Crafy Crafts update. This is not an ad.
- 149November 28th, 2009 11:38 pm
Thanks!!
- 150November 30th, 2009 7:06 am
A lot of themes … great selection … thanks !!
- 151December 4th, 2009 11:20 pm
so many nice theme. thanks.
- 152December 13th, 2009 10:20 pm
I loved the clean ones. Very interesting post! Added to my favorites.
- 153December 26th, 2009 11:19 pm
Excellent themes. I love wordpress
- 154December 29th, 2009 4:47 am
I didn’t find any good theme
- 155December 30th, 2009 4:02 pm
Is it just me, or is City Dream pedo?
Wiping my drive and computer after that shiate. A good heads up would have been noteworthy. At the very least a simple NSFW tag would have been nice - 156January 6th, 2010 4:21 am
Thanks for the great article!
Gonna use something from here for my blog XD. - 157January 9th, 2010 7:16 am
wooow amazing selection ,
Thanks
Javad - 158January 12th, 2010 8:46 am
Hey, very good and professional ideas!
Thank you so much for sharing!
- 159January 15th, 2010 7:44 am
Wow! What a great collection of themes, thank you for compiling these. I have already downloaded 4 of them to use on some of my blogs.
- 160January 21st, 2010 11:08 am
Hats off smashing !
- 161January 24th, 2010 4:20 am
Hey very cooool thx!
- 162January 25th, 2010 8:38 am
Smashing Magazine does the best job everytime… Thanks again guys. You rock
- 163January 27th, 2010 7:41 am
Tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooope
mean tooooooooo nice - 164January 27th, 2010 3:44 pm
Nice Themes.
http://forfreewordpressthemes.blogspot.com/ – Download also a lot of free themes - 165January 28th, 2010 9:44 am
Awesome looking themes just a pitty that none of them install properly…. :(
- 166February 2nd, 2010 2:19 am
Thanks a lot…
- 167February 5th, 2010 7:09 am
Great selection… amy&pink are great!
- 168
- 169February 9th, 2010 6:00 pm
Milany and the Crafty cart are some of our users favorites. Nice list of themes.
- 170February 10th, 2010 8:20 am
This is the best accumulation of free themes I’ve seen so far. Great article!
- 171February 22nd, 2010 11:30 am
Elegant themes wordpress
- 172February 22nd, 2010 11:31 am
Estupend estuvo genial
- 173February 26th, 2010 10:58 pm
Amazing collection, Thanks for sharing.
- 174March 13th, 2010 2:37 am
So beautiful!
- 175March 18th, 2010 12:17 am
beautiful collections…
- 176March 18th, 2010 9:09 am
Thanks for the list! I was wondering if I would have to buy a premium theme or not. This helps.
- 177March 25th, 2010 10:54 am
Will you have any new 2010 WordPress themes being released soon?
ArticlePlayground.com
Social-Article-Marketing.ArticlePlayground.com
- 178April 1st, 2010 6:48 am
Thank you so much for sharing!
- 179April 15th, 2010 12:42 am
Very nice website you head to check my blog
- 180April 16th, 2010 3:35 am
Thank you for sharing and its more interesting to see more theme here.
Thanks
Mayur Shah - 181April 22nd, 2010 5:33 am
really very very sexy themes.. i usually like the magazine templates, because we can do much with magazine templates.. we have lot of options to modify add content and more..
see one of the finest magazine template.. http://b-tips.x10.bz/
- 182April 29th, 2010 5:15 am
Great list of themes, you can find more free WordPress themes released in 2010 here WordPress Themes.
- 183May 6th, 2010 10:25 pm
I’m new at this whole wordpress world and not that tech savvy. Can anyone explain how I can download these free templates? or direct me to a written explanation on how to upload these awesome templates?
- 184May 18th, 2010 10:29 pm
Hi Mary,
The download link is mentioned on the websites of particular themes you would like to download.
They will be in a compressed archive format. Once downloaded you need to uncompress them using a popular software either 7zip of winzip.
Then transfer the entire folder of your theme to the wordpress site in the folder wp-content/themes use any popular ftp program such as filezilla which is free.
Once transferred you need to go to the dashboard of your wordpress blog / site and browse to appearance from which you can select and activate your theme.
If all this is easy for you to understand and implement then best of luck other wise you can consider using a little bit of professional help where people can help you host your wordpress blog with your required themes and plugins for as little as USD 20.
Contact me if you wish to avail of such services.
- 184
- 185May 25th, 2010 6:46 pm
Very nice list of free themes. I wanted to see some more for maybe artists/music bands themes as well if possible for your next posts.
- 186June 3rd, 2010 1:05 am
hey. amazing themes thanks for the post. … i am looking for recipe theme for my website easyindianfoodrecipes.info
- 187June 16th, 2010 4:56 pm
These are great Word Press themes…
its very nice cause its for free!
camp fire - 188June 16th, 2010 6:00 pm
Thanks you so much of this article.. Keep up the good work!
used cars Arizona - 189July 5th, 2010 1:53 pm
really greaaaaat
- 190July 7th, 2010 4:26 am
eleen
- 191July 7th, 2010 4:28 am
g5e4656757690088tyrrts3wq
- 192July 22nd, 2010 3:27 pm
sorry sos themes worpress free from i.am site
- 193July 26th, 2010 4:30 am
tq very much!!! i love the notepad chaos design ! it’s the best one for me.
- 194July 26th, 2010 9:47 pm
High Quality Word Press Themes and Unbelievable Value all for FREE!!!
So glad I found your website and I will be referring others here immediately not to mention that I’ll be back for more pickings.
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Love that “Irresistible” theme. Nice post.