12 Best WordPress Themes With Demo Content (Starter Sites)
Madushan Bandara
- Read Time16 mins
Looking for WordPress themes with Demo content?
Here, I listed the best free WordPress themes with demo templates from across 10000+ themes. All are free in WordPress.ORG. I’ve used all of these WP themes. Tested over 100+ themes from the directory before deciding on the best ones for this page.
Demo content can save you time when creating dozens of websites with WordPress. Also, demo templates can save you time and money if you are a beginner.
Each theme has its own collection templates with specific styles. I recommend Blocksy to free users because they provide all demo content for free. And if you have some money to spend, GeneratePress is the most suitable choice, with over 100 starter sites. These two themes are always my first choices for all my web creations.
I’m not into gimmicky demos that look the same as every other theme. But, Blocksy and GP have an ideal blend where you can smoothly replace things and be attractive.
I always recommend using themes and plugins from WordPress(ORG). But only some WP(ORG) themes/plugins are well-coded. WPO has thousands of free themes, but I can only list up to ten of the most useful because many are absolute garbage.
Best Free WordPress Themes With Demo Content
1. GeneratePress
GeneratePress is a free, fast, and simple-to-use WordPress theme. Unlike other themes, GP provides limited customization options. Because GeneratePress gives you a blank paper to create your own. My best choice is the premium version. If you want more features, you should upgrade to the paid version, which includes useful features.
GeneratePress doesn’t provide free demo content, but you can pick the pro version because it is cost-effective and lightweight examples with 100+ starter designs. It uses Gutenberg+GenerateBlocks, thinner than a page builder, and multiple layouts from GB.
Here are some GeneratePress Starter Sites:
- Freelance
- Scribe
- Marketer
- Crypto
- Security
- Summer Camp
Stop looking at other themes and use GeneratePress. If you want a theme that can grow forever with a solid user base. GP is the perfect one, with a bright starter theme collection with styles. I enjoy those that aren’t common. Ideal for clean-line designers.
GeneratePress grew in popularity because of the grade code and docs/support. The free version is perfect, with limitations. The paid version is great, with 100+ demo Content.
I recommend you experiment with GeneratePress. Straightforward and can create different designs, layouts, and others without a web developer. Don’t matter even if you are a coder; GeneratePress simplifies your work by letting you manage with easy UI.
2. Blocksy
Perhaps, Blocksy is the most useful free WordPress theme nowadays, with fully configurable extra features even in the free version. For me, the most impressive part is the “visual header and footer builder,” which no other theme includes. And more.
Blocksy theme is ideal for beginners because it is beginner-friendly and doesn’t require professional skills. It is perfect if you’re new to Blogging and looking for a theme yet have no knowledge. You can easily customize any element of your website with Blocksy, including the header, footer, body, navigation bars, sidebars, menu, etc.
Many themes do not support different colors and patterns, but Blocksy allows you to select lengthy, rich colors and color strategies for each element on your website.
The theme lets you choose the width in pixels and adapts the room between elements on your pages. Also best suited for posts and pages with a thin or full-width layout.
Blocksy offers over 25+ free WordPress demo content (starter sites) that can be started with a couple of clicks. I like the Blocksy starter sites because they are uncommon and attractive. Unlike others, they don’t have traditional appearances.
Some examples:
- Renovation
- Wood
- Justice
- Restaurant
- Car Service
- Gadgets
Blocksy is an optimum theme with attractive, well-refined starter template layouts. Outstanding interface for customizing your website and its page designs. Great stuff with passion about every segment. The perfect one for non-coders, and whatever your skill level, Blocksy will save you time. Highly Recommended to anyone!
3. Neve
Neve is a popular freemium WP theme from Themeisle with plenty of free demo content. This is a thin theme with multiple customization features, even in the free version, and their starter site’s library is based on the cloud-based. You just need to click to import.
Neve provides 50+ Demo content; nearly 20 are free, with the rest available only in the paid version. Also, the theme allows you to modify and re-design the footer and header sections using drag-and-drop elements. You can choose between contained or complete spacing design and layout and fine-tune those selections.
Unlike other themes, Neve works with Gutenberg and all site builders, including beaver builder and Elementor, and even works with Divi and Thrive builders.
Neve has global color schemes, allowing you to change your site’s color varieties with all locations. However, unlike Blocksy/Kadence, Neve’s free version has limits with layouts, header/footer builder, blog layouts, and other features only open in the paid version.
Neve is a good theme and is well-coded. Even the free version is enough for many sites, so here are some examples of free starter sites.
- Architecture
- Blogger
- Fitness Trainer
- Neve 3
- Photography
- Yoga Studio
Yes, Neve has many features like others. Created by a famous company with massive support. It is an excellent choice if you require a lot of assistance. It also has cloud demos and can transfer across multiple websites. However, their demos are common and need to be updated with new styles or designs.
4. OceanWP
OceanWP is a popular freemium WordPress theme with many customizations, free/paid demo templates, and over 5K positive reviews in the theme Directory.
OceanWP balances multiple features, even the free version, like font flexibility, various layouts, full/box width, styles, page design, and many other darling features.
OWP is compatible with all page builders and Gutenberg, including beaver builder, Brizy, WP-Bakery, VC, etc. You can control your page layout and activate or deactivate theme features with a few simple clicks. Also include add-ons, effects, position, menus, and visuals, but the major downside is the lack of header and footer builders.
However, you can select from seven different header styles (transparent header) and change headers on the global and individual page/post. OceanWP theme comes with 3 other mobile menus, which you can select from the header settings.
About OceanWP Website demos, you can choose from 200+ Gutenberg-ready full-website WordPress demos, most of which are paid, but at least 40+ are free.
Examples:
- Freelance designer
- Blogger
- Coach
- Stylish
- Tattoo
- Bedding
OceanWP is famous and useful. The designs are beautiful and give it a shot. I also feel the new interface was a little overloaded and not as old, but it is still an awesome stable theme and a good option if you like their styling templates.
5. Zakra
Zakra is a thin theme with no full features in the free version. But it has lightning-fast speed, making it ideal for any website. It works with all page builders and Gutenberg. Even beginners can easily use the free version, which allows you to customize the header and footer, and has a pro version with extra customizable options.
Zakra includes a real-time customizer and the ability to set specific page settings. This theme has many templates and is ideal for building an e-commerce store.
Creating a website is straightforward with Zakra because you can get 80+ ready-to-import attractive templates and 39+ free starter demos. The bad news is that most of their demos are created for the Elementor page builder, which is a huge problem.
Zakra theme demo examples:
- Business Firm
- Professional
- Education
- One Page
- eGuru
- Antique
There are considerable differences between the free and pro versions. Sticky header, menu styling options, masonry and grid layouts, and many other designs and styling options are available in pro. Nonetheless, Zakra free version is plenty for your starter.
6. Kadence
Kadence parallels another Blocksy in that most of the customizations are very similar. Some say Kadence copied Blocksy, but both coding structures are different.
It is hard to believe it was copied. However, Kadence is a highly customizable theme with classy possibilities with a drag-and-drop header and footer builder.
Kadence theme comes with 12 sharp color palettes that you can configure. The layout settings in Kadence allow you to customize the website design down to the screen size. Settings for webpages, posts, and even different post and page types. You can switch between wide, narrow, and sidebar designs and layouts.
About Kadence starter templates, there are plenty of demos you can use for free and pro. At least 60+ free demo content is available, which is vast in a free version. Yeah, that is cool. Also, most of the design is with the Gutenberg+Kadence Blocks plugin.
Free Kadence Starter Templates:
- BBQ BEER Fest
- Writing Course
- Greenthumb
- Nutrition Course
- Design Course
- Single Product
Kadence includes global font, scroll to the top, transparent/sticky header, adaptive controls, breadcrumbs, etc. You can easily set up menus above/below.
Theme fonts settings are ideal for your site fonts with multiple options. If you are unfamiliar with Blocksy or GeneratePress, Kadence might be a good option.
7. Colibri WP
Colibri WP is another well-known theme that comes with the Colibri Page Builder, which helps improve the Customizer and adds more exciting features. They provide solutions that help average users create ideal websites with minimal specialist knowledge.
Colibri WP is not just a theme. It is a theme, toolkits, and assets package. You can manage nearly all Colibri WP elements by using the Customizer. It differs in something like a block manager with integrated page-builder ability.
Another way is Colibri WP introduces it all throughout its custom builder. Logically splits the page into the top corner, content, and footer parts. It may be difficult for beginners to use the first time, but you can do things efficiently with practice.
However, it seems to be bloated on my side because I would want to do things in Code Editor or Gutenberg, but this is good for beginners who want to stuff in drag and drop or ease of use or whatever, but it doesn’t interest to me at all.
You can create a simple website for free, and get it PRO and unlock the maximum elements on this theme, But I’ll never buy:) Despite all these, Colibri provides 80+ demo sites, most of which are paid, as well as 6-8 free Templates for Colibri page builder.
Example demo templates:
8. Astra
When discussing WordPress themes, we can’t forget ASTRA, a trendy freemium theme, but I’m not a big fan. Nevertheless, ASTRA offers 250+ styles and custom demos, possibly the biggest source of website demo templates.
I did not count how many were in the free version, but at least 50. Astra theme is their biggest brand and aggressive marketing, but it is fast and widespread, so they are doing something good. They (Brainstorm Force) do more marketing than better quality.
Astra is following the money and the audience with the highest revenues. It is fast because it lacks many features, unlike Blocksy, Kadance, OWP, Neve, etc.
Many fast themes are available, but you can only do a little with them. There are few or no features…so few that you have to use plugins for all components, overriding their clean lines. Astra is also that type to me. I’m not a fan anymore.
ASTRA Website Templates:
- Outdoor Adventure
- Love Nature
- T-Shirts Store
- eBook Author
- Real Estate Consultant
- Sports Wear Store
Astra is a super popular theme with over 1 million active installations. It is beginner friendly and gives massive support and docs compared to others, but if you want more or don’t want much help, move to another theme like GP/Blocksy/Kadence, etc.
9. ColorMag
ColorMag is well-known for its magazine, news, and blog theme. But the free version is awful, with no at least minor features and a complete restriction theme that encourages you to upgrade to the premium version to get full features, so this is outside my lineup.
Still, ColorMag offers free and paid demo content, which is why I included it in this list. It has 27 demo sites, 8 of which are free. Also, all concepts have a very similar and not unique appearance, so I never use this theme in my projects, but ColorMag is fine if you want a generic news, blog, or magazine website. Here are some free templates:
- General News
- Dark
- Wild Magazine
- Beauty Blog
- Entertainment News
- Top Magazine
ColorMag is different from my taste because the free edition lacks even a tiny feature. The pro version differs little from the free version except for a few extra features. But ColorMag is fine if you like outdated news, blog, or magazine website with free demos.
10. Futurio
Futurio is an Elementor-based crap theme with all demo content based on the Elementor builder. That isn’t very good! I never recommend this theme because page builders will harm your website as it grows, and it is difficult to move to another theme or builder after growth with bloated page builders. But newbies will love it with drag-and-drop stuff.
Futurio theme comes with a few customization options, including color presets, four footer widget columns, a background image, footer credits, a website preloader, a left or right sidebar position, a header image, and a few other stylish features.
They have 20+ pre-Domo sites built with Elementor; here are a few examples.
- Woocommerce Electronics
- Lifestyle Blog
- App Landing Page
Elementor is made for beginners. I enjoy ease, but I hate messy layouts that are inflexible to use. However, if you are new to WordPress, Futurio+Elementor can help you, but only after you have grown will you understand what I am saying. Elementor, Divi, and BB are very slow, and many users are replacing them with lightweight options.
11. Sydney
Sydney is another popular corporate theme that includes both free and paid demo templates. The biggest problem is that all of their demos involve Elementor page builders. That awful. However, Sydney is a friendly theme for your awesome website design.
Even in the free version, Sydney has some decent customization features. However, most of them are locked to the premium version. It also has multiple pre-set color schemes, or you can design your own. You can select from a variety of header and footer layouts.
If you want to maintain a blog on your website, Sydney has a blog design with basic designs and customizable settings for both the archive and posts.
Compared to other themes like Blocksy and Kadence, Sydney’s free version is minimal, and if you want to unlock additional modification features, you must switch to the premium version. But I never recommended it because, even in the free version, you can pick a more powerful theme with a plethora of built-in features.
Sydney offers 6 free demos and 15+ premium demos. Here are the free Sydney demos.
- Photography
- Fashion Shop
- eLearning
- Lead Generation
- Agency
- Plumber
Sydney theme is a good option for your projects. However, the worst part is that all demo content was developed for Elementor. Yet, you can design your own approach using Gutenberg or another builder. Choose a better theme like Kadence, Blocksy, Astra, or GeneratePress because they have many templates that work with Gutenberg.
12. Phlox
Phlox is another Elementor-based crappy WordPress theme. I only put it on this list because they provide a variety of complete website templates, all built with Elementor.
Yeah, until you install Elementor, this theme is lightweight.
Despite that, Phlox has a lot of customization features that allow you to easily customize any place on your website, even in the free edition. You don’t need to use Elementor, but most theme parts are designed with it. It’s great for beginners who enjoy page builders and drag-and-drop features, but I don’t recommend Phlox to others.
But they have over 200 full demos and 40 free ones. Plus, all the demos are built for Elementor and can be integrated with a single click. Here are some free examples:
I’m not saying this is a terrible theme; it’s suitable for some websites, like Galleries, One-page websites, and other simple websites with few content or pages. Because you have a limited number of pages, you can even change your theme. But, if you use this theme for advanced websites or blogs, it is not ideal for future optimizations.
If your website is too slow, it’s perhaps somewhat related to your theme. Slow themes load far too nonsense. Many themes claim to be thin but still use more unnecessary stuff.
The worst-case example is when most features are part of third-party plugins and are incompatible with cache plugins, etc. The thinnest themes are explicitly designed for fast. It only includes the needed features, with no extra load for unused sections.
Use Gutenberg over page builders to speed up your website. I noticed many themes on ThemeForest, and other third-party themes are slow as a nightmare. It’s because they’re coded by every script and have far too many dazzling features to justify the cost.
But we can’t blame it solely on the theme. A slow website means you should check other factors, including hosting, CDN, asset optimizations, plugins, caching (use FlyingPress for better performance), and many others.
Quality themes are always created following WP coding standards. This means that features run smoothly/securely. Never conflict with cache/security plugins. But, not all themes are trusted to stick with guidelines, which is why using such themes is important.
Sum Up
My final lines on WordPress themes with demo content. I’ve used 100+ WP themes over the years, and I still do. But most are super bloated and absolute junk. I have experienced many other notable themes, but Blocksy and GeneratePress get the most priority.
You can see on WP(ORG) that there are 10000+ free themes to download.
But I think almost all themes are garbage except Blocksy, GeneratePress, Neve, OceanWP, Zakra, Kadence, Astra, etc. Yes, the default WordPress themes (Twenty Twenty-one, two, three) look perfect, aren’t flawed, and are well-coded with better approaches.
Every WordPress theme claims to be the best theme ever created. Another is addressing their narrow codes and batch processing and performance options.
But demand for user-friendly & highly customizable themes remains still tall.
You agree? Let me know in a comment.
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