You’re not the only one who has wondered, “What is a WordPress theme?” A WordPress theme, in simple terms, alters the appearance of your WordPress-powered website. These design improvements typically involve alterations to your display’s look and feel as well as some functionality.
The purpose of installing a theme is to reduce coding and customisation work for the typical WordPress user. Themes can also help you get closer to a certain intended design, such as one for a restaurant or a website with videos.
What Is a WordPress Theme?
WordPress is a standalone content management system that allows for the addition of pages, menus, media files, blog posts, and more. WordPress manages every aspect of your site, but that doesn’t mean the required design is already in place.
In actuality, the reverse is true. The default theme for a brand-new WordPress installation is straightforward and uncomplicated. Even better, you can choose to scrap the pre-installed theme and start again. However, doing so would call for very highly developed coding abilities. In addition, since a theme has already done a lot of the design work for you, even seasoned developers could view this as a waste of effort. Use our theme detector tool to find the theme if you’re browsing the web and come across one you like.
WordPress has the ability to modify websites, but it doesn’t have a lot of front-end design features included. That is where a theme enters the picture. A theme uses colours, fonts, and formatting to provide elegance and style to your website. You are able to have unique navigational menus and headers as well as general specialist designs like online store or membership website themes.
Do I Need a WordPress Theme?
Actually, no. However, for many users, there isn’t really a good reason to create a WordPress website without a theme.
If you want to utilise WordPress as a coding training ground, bypassing a theme is something you might think about doing. In this situation, you’re not developing a finished product but instead using WordPress as a training system.
It’s also conceivable that some businesses might choose a completely unique look for their website. In this situation, they would require the funds to forgo theme installation and instead employ a developer and designer. To develop the website, that design is still very certainly employing some kind of template.
Finally, some users might prefer to use headless WordPress, where the frontend visual component is rendered by a JavaScript framework like Gatsby while WordPress handles the backend content management and publishing process.
WordPress themes are generally required in some way by business owners, developers, agencies, and bloggers. Themes are the quickest way to create a professional website and, in some situations, can let you establish a lovely site in only a few minutes.
Even if you have no prior design experience, you can still create a respectable theme-based product. A theme simply aids in focusing on the more significant and complex elements of the design if you are an experienced designer.
What Is the Best WordPress Theme?
The best WordPress theme is really difficult to choose, but we can discuss the qualities of a good theme and offer suggestions for vendors and theme categories to take into account.
The Components of a Good WordPress Theme
- A broad, all-encompassing design versus a specific, business-focused design
- Rapid page loads to ensure that your site works smoothly and renders quickly.
- Clean, lightweight code that doesn’t interfere with plugins.
- Exceptional customer service with access to forums, online guides, and possibly a direct contact option.
- A responsive design that functions on a variety of gadgets, such as tablets and phones.
- An effective blog design.
- Importing sample content will instantly make your website functional and appealing. If not, it necessitates significantly more customisation than is desirable.
- A straightforward, basic layout that effectively makes use of whitespace and reduces extraneous clutter.
Different Themes To Think About
Picking a WordPress theme is a decision you must make.
Determining whether you like a versatile or speciality theme is the first step. A multipurpose theme is ideal for WordPress agencies or users who want to be able to customise the default theme to fit any kind of design or industry. Although multipurpose themes are more adaptable, if you already know the topic you’re focusing on, they may not always be necessary.
An industry-specific design, such as one for a band’s website or an architecture firm, is referred to as a niche theme. You must choose a speciality theme depending on your industry or desired functionality if you do so.
For instance, the following categories contain a variety of themes:
- Ecommerce.
- Corporate.
- Medical.
- Blogging.
- Entertainment.
- Communities and forums.
- Websites for members.
- Social networks.
- Specific help websites.
- Restaurants and food.
- Directories.
- Lodging and travel.
The internet is filled with free themes, some of which are excellent and others which are useless. Although the same could be said about premium themes, themes that cost money typically have more quality control.
If you have a tight budget, using a free theme can be your only choice. However, given that the cost is typically not too expensive, we urge you to at least take into account a premium WordPress theme.
WordPress Themes for Free
- They are immediately available for free download and installation.2.
- They’re usually much simpler in design and functionality.
- Free themes are frequently discussed and reviewed online, making it simpler to comprehend what other people think about them. It can be challenging to determine what customers think of a premium theme at times.
- Although free themes normally allow you access to a user forum where you may discuss problems, there is typically a lack of customer assistance.
- The search process can be a bit challenging because the greatest free themes are often updated and maintained but developers are not required to do so.
The Best Places to Find WordPress Themes
The internet is a gold mine of libraries and marketplaces for discovering the ideal solutions, from free themes to commercial themes. Additionally, you may utilise Kinsta’s free WordPress theme detector tool to determine what WordPress theme is used on a particular website if you like it. Here are some suggestions about where to obtain premium and free themes of excellent quality:
Free WordPress Themes Resources
When seeking free themes, the WordPress theme library is by far the greatest choice. You can browse themes from your WordPress dashboard, install them with a click of a button, and presto—you’ve changed your theme in addition to reading ratings and reviews.
You can also visit premium merchants to find free themes. They frequently offer free downloads of the constrained versions of their premium themes.
What Distinctions Exist Between Themes and Plugins?
The extensibility of WordPress is one of its main benefits. Similar to that of a smartphone with apps, WordPress offers extensions in the form of plugins. Themes are different from plugins in that they are additional third-party components that you can add to the core WordPress system.
The WordPress Core is kept light and adaptable by both themes and plugins. Without having to work with a content management system that’s overstuffed with hundreds of built-in capabilities, you can install the themes and plugins you require.
Yes, WordPress already has plenty of built-in features, but only the essentials. The ability to add new changes, functionality, and stylings to your site is made possible through plugins and themes.
Thus, both plugins and themes are extensions of WordPress. Both of them are set up on your site as a third-party tool to enhance their appearance and functionality.
But what sets them apart?
Themes for WordPress
WordPress themes affect your WordPress site’s functionality and appearance. Typically, themes are installed by site owners and developers to incorporate a particular website style.
By doing this, they may practically instantaneously build a website for particular sectors and purposes, such as if you wanted a real estate-focused design or a forum that resembles Reddit, rather than releasing a dull, blank design.
Although it’s not always the case, installing a WordPress theme is usually how developers begin. WordPress themes enable developers and designers to forego bespoke coding and start from scratch when constructing a website because there is no use in reinventing the wheel. To put it simply, someone else has already completed the work for them, much as when you write your resume using a template.
WordPress Plugins
While plugins are typically built to add a new feature to your WordPress site, they typically enhance the core WordPress functionality. WordPress themes change the visual design and some functions of your website.
Plugins are different from themes in that they often have less of an impact on the appearance of your website. However, that’s not always the case – like how mega menu plugins may affect the way your menu looks.
The features that different plugins offer and how they operate differently. While other plugins offer extensive lists of tools, some just add one or two specialised functionality.
Additionally, a lot of plugins just connect software suites so that you can sync the data and automate the procedure between the software and your WordPress website. An example of this would be linking a complex customer relationship management software (CRM) to WordPress.
When Would a WordPress Theme Be Useful?
It’s normal to wonder whether or not a WordPress theme is required. In most cases, you may pick when to use a theme or plugin separately instead of having to decide between them.
Here are some instances where using a WordPress theme might be necessary:
- when you want to implement a particular website design without starting from scratch with the code.
- making your website design industry-specific, such as for a photographer’s portfolio or a business site focused on construction.
- if you’re in charge of an agency or development firm and need to quickly build a lot of websites for customers.
- when you want to change the way your website is currently configured. Finding a theme with the proper hues, designs, and fonts is frequently required for this.
Summary
A WordPress theme is a useful kind of extension that you may use to alter and manage the appearance, functionality, and style of your WordPress website. It gives you the freedom to create anything, from an eCommerce site to a straightforward blog, while maintaining the integrity of the fundamental WordPress capabilities.
A WordPress theme, in other words, makes your website attractive. A theme also directs that attractive design toward a certain practical end result, such as a photography website or forum. Themes and plugins work together to enhance WordPress’ built-in functionality, such as photo gallery plugins for photographers and provide the developer with more options.
Even though WordPress themes are created using a wide range of necessary files, the typical user can buy and install themes without having much technical knowledge. And that’s one of the key factors that help WordPress grow its market share.