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Starting your own business has become more popular than ever, and a lot of people are gravitating toward freelance work. Because of this, freelancers must put their best foot forward by displaying their work to future clients.
Everyone has something to show on their portfolio or business sites, but where do you start?
WordPress themes are a great way to start your web design journey with any site easily. They offer a variety of looks and customizations from the get-go, and thanks to WordPress open source roots, a lot of them allow you to make changes to their code and CSS. Oftentimes, themes also allow you to choose from templates, so you’re never starting from scratch.
In this article, we will be discussing the best free WordPress themes for freelancers – to put their best foot forward and display their skills for users to review.
Why free? Because we know when you are first starting your business, money is one of the most critical factors. These free WordPress themes offer many options where you do not have to spend money to get a great-looking website.
These themes are also great in general or if you are a web designer and need some templates for customers.
What Makes a Good Theme for Freelancers?
- Customization – Access to customization is one of the main factors in choosing a theme. Similar to page builders, users want to be sure the theme can change without installing multiple different themes if they decide to change up their site look.
- Ease of Use – Building a website is only one step of being self-employed; there are other more important factors, such as creating your brand and services, so learning a new complicated tool should not be something you should worry about.
- Compatibility – With thousands of plugins and options on WordPress, you want to ensure your theme can work with other tools, especially if you plan on making your site an e-commerce opportunity. Compatibility with WooCommerce, security plugins, and more is essential.
- Overall Satisfaction – The theme section allows you to see how many stars a theme has per rating, but you can see reviews of each theme in the WordPress.org repository.
Top 3 Free WordPress Themes
1. Astra
Astra is one of the most popular free WordPress Themes for a reason. It offers a free version and a pro license that expands on the general use of the theme.
Once installed, Astra advises you to use a template plugin and walks you through activation. Template recommendations are narrowed down depending on whether you use WordPress, Elementor, or Beaver Builder.
If you prefer not to use a template, you can still use full site editing from your customization menu in WordPress. If you choose to have more layout options, a sticky header, better spacing, and more, you will have to upgrade to the pro version; however, Astra is powerful enough on the free version.
One of the compelling factors of Astra is its claim to be built for website builders and fast performance. If you have a site builder you already prefer or would like to expand the power of the improved Gutenberg builder, Astra is a good option to choose.
- Customization – Full site modifications from the WordPress Customization menu
- Ease of Use – Beginner friendly with options to use free templates
- Compatibility – Advertises itself as WooCommerce Ready, capable of working with multiple site builders
- Overall Satisfaction – 4.9 out of 5 stars per WordPress.org
2. Crio
Created by BoldGrid, Crio is another broad theme with full site customization from the WordPress Appearance menu. Crio clearly labels which options are available to customize with a pencil icon and highlights the section for redundancy.
If paired with the BoldGrid Post and Page Builder and the Inspirations plugin, Crio expands its versatility. There are multiple templates to best fit your business needs, and Inspirations allow you to modify the number of pages and blocks before pushing the template into production. The addition of the block editor also allows easy drag and drop customization to create a freelance portfolio quickly and easily, so you can focus on growing your business.
Crio also has a pro version that allows you to make further modifications to the website options, including Sticky Headers, custom page headers, white labeling, and more; however, most of the options are available on the free version.
If you want to focus on modifications for your site and would like to use a post and page builder that works great with your theme, Crio is an excellent option to choose.
- Customization – Full site editing from the WordPress Customization Menu
- Ease of Use – Beginner friendly with labeled setting options
- Compatibility – Compatible and recommended with BoldGrid Website Builder, WooCommerce Ready
- Overall Satisfaction – 4 out of 5 Stars per WordPress.org
3. Blocksy
Blocksy, similarly to Astra, is advertised as being lightweight, fast, and Gutenberg-ready. After installation, it prompts for Blocksy Companion, which includes demos, templates, and other features. While it does not label everything you can change from the customization panel, an edit button will appear if you hover over the desired area, taking you to the needed panel for changes.
If you activate one of their templates, Blocksy Companion will provide plugin options that best fit the starter site and import the layouts. Activation and installation of the templates and plugins only takes a couple of minutes and is an entirely free process.
Blocksy is eCommerce ready, and some of its templates incorporate WooCommerce as a plugin to pre-install before import. You can use drag and drop builders with this theme, and it does provide you the options of Gutenberg, Brizy, or Elementor in some cases. Still, their main focus seems to be Gutenberg.
A Blocksy premium license includes enhanced features, more fonts, header and footer options, and WooCommerce features. The free versions theme is suitable for freelancers who want to continue using Gutenberg rather than a block editor and keep their plugin numbers light.
- Customization – Full site editing with plenty of templates and integrations
- Ease of Use – Beginner-friendly
- Compatibility – Compatible with Website Builders and WooCommerce
- Overall Satisfaction – 5 out of 5 Stars per WordPress.org
Free WordPress Themes: Special Mentions
Hestia
Hestia is popular thanks to its user-friendly interface and header options similar to Astra. It recommends using it with your favorite website builder and is WooCommerce compatible. It has 4.8 stars out of 5 on the WordPress repository.
OceanWP
OceanWP is fully customizable and is advertised as ”one of the only free WordPress themes with pro features.”
It has a premium version with extensions for the theme, but most features are available on the free version. There are integrations with WooCommerce, and it is compatible with most website builders. OceanWP has 4.9 out of 5 stars on WordPress.org.
Final Words
Themes are one of WordPress’s strongest features, and using them as a freelancer allows you to quickly make a fully working website ready for you to customize. The free WordPress themes listed are an excellent option for you to build your business, portfolio, or hobby site in a short amount of time.
If you are looking into hosting your own WordPress freelance site, InMotion Hosting offers WordPress Optimized hosting on highly available servers with 24/7/365 Support, so you can hit the ground running when building your website.
Ready to get hired? At Twine, we have dozens of top-quality jobs being posted each and every day. From design to marketing, development to copywriting – there’s a job ready for your skills. Join the marketplace of diverse creative talent here.
Michelle Payne
WordPress.com
Becca
