Theme Forest is a well known site that features many premium plugins and themes, but what if you want a free one? Fortunately, there are many free WordPress themes and many reasons to download them. For example, you can take a look at the files and learn some of the best practices. It’s also a great excuse to just try them out. Let’s take a look at some of the freely available themes.
Eighties
Eighties, created by Justin Kopepasah, is a free theme with a portfolio section. The theme’s main goal is to have readers focus on the content. If you install the plugin, you can upload and change the header. You can download the theme here.
Arcade
Arcade by C. Bavota is another free theme that you can add to your collection. However, keep in mind that there are two versions of this theme: Basic and Premium. You can download the free theme here.
Ravel
Theme Hybrid created Ravel, a free, minimalist WordPress theme that includes an about, portfolio and social section. The theme has a custom plugin that you can use to add portfolio items. You can also customize the tabs on the top of the page with another custom theme-included plugin. If you would like to read a review of the theme, you can click here.
Semicolon
If you wanted a magazine style theme, then you might like Semicolon by Konstantin Kovshenin. Kovshenin states that Semicolon is a responsive magazine-based layout that has easy-to-read typography and a grid layout. You can learn more about the theme on Konstantin’s blog.
Tracks
If you are looking for something different, Tracks might be able to serve that purpose. Tracks is a very simple WordPress theme with few options. One thing that is interesting about the Tracks is that images have a subtle zoom when you hover over them. The author was also kind enough to write some documentation. Sarah Gooding wrote a nice review about the theme here.
Interface
Interface is a free premium theme from Theme Horse and, in contrast to Tracks, is focused on customization. Interface has two different layouts that you can choose from: Narrow and Wide. Interface also has several page templates and widget areas.
Tweet Archive
If you love social media, especially Twitter, then you might want to use Twitter Archive. Ozh recently updated the theme to match the new Twitter profiles. You will actually need to use Ozh‘s Tweet Archiver plugin with the plugin to use the plugin. According to Sarah Gooding, you might be able to use the theme and the plugin to boost your traffic.
If you want to take a look at some more, you can click here for a list of themes that have been built with Twitter’s Bootstrap. Have any suggestions? Leave a comment below!