10 Free Simple & Responsive WordPress Themes

WordPress has long been highly regarded as one of the best CMS (Content Management System) platforms offered today for free on the web. Truly as it is, there have been millions of users who take advantage of grabbing an almost instantaneous online presence with a few clicks. Talking about the ‘few clicks’ here, thankfully, there are just good resources out there to make your appearance a way lot better.

Below are the top of our list in terms to the best free themes that you should not miss when starting out. Whether you are a designer, a simple blogger who loves to talk about fashion, or you wanted to start a small online networking business, you essentially need a good look to get a plausible amount of audience or viewers. These themes that you’ll encounter are all modern, minimalistic, responsive, and the best thing—as mentioned—is that, they are free.

1. Responsive Theme

Responsive Theme is probably the most basic theme that you should get to know as a starter. As the name suggests, the theme is offered generally as being responsive, meaning that it can fit to virtually any screen size or device. The theme does not really give that much distracting elements—even simple elements for putting out a good show. Instead, with just the basic CSS structure (fluid stackable grid system), support for widgets, and standard web page format with a little custom templates, you will surely enjoy seeing your content fitting just right on your own smart device.

2. Skeleton WordPress Theme

Contrary to popular impressions, the Skeleton Theme for WordPress is not practically skeletal for use, but is actually highly presentable enough without losing functionality. Available in three branches namely standalone, master, and buddy press, the theme created by Casey Lee is very simple but features cross-browser compatibility. The theme also supports several widgets, and offers good documentations such as setting up manuals and even other tweaks.

3. Sparks WordPress Theme

The Sparks theme is one of the most content-friendly theme that you should encounter especially when you’re starting out a small business. The theme features its own options page, and other than this, features support for thumbnail, shortcodes, shopping carts, banners, widgets, and cross-browser compatibility. Though you may get the maximum features only when you get a license, the free version at least offers you a lifetime theme update and bug fixes.

4. Gridly Theme

The Gridly is one of the most minimalistic yet feature-istic themes you could encounter these days. As the name says, the theme’s main feature is the grid-like layout system, but such layout comes with two color schemes. Widgetized footers are also supported, and before I miss it, the theme is also optimized for iOS devices. The design does not come too much with ornaments to give an outstanding appeal, but if you have a lot of photos to cover your contents, then this theme should be very functional for you.

5. Opulus Sombre WordPress Theme

With a dark color palette, highly fluid grid layout, and with free custom theme options panel, the Opulus Sombre theme should be very terrific for those designers and photographers seeking a more serious presentation of their art collections. The theme is from Nimbus Themes, and sharing the same Nimbus Framework, shares hundreds of free resources such as font choices, color options, page layouts, and even shortcodes. Pin your best shots and your blog will be good as it should be with this theme.

6. Auto Focus Responsive WordPress Photography Theme

Catered by Vandelay Design, the Auto Focus theme focuses on what it predicts to be designed for: gallery of photos. With five custom color schemes, highly responsive layout, customizable photo galleries, support for custom uploads of logo or contents, and even support for widgets, the theme should be terrific for those who want a very minimalistic approach to displaying the best memories ever captured.

7. gRID! Theme

A very feature-rich them that you’d love to download for free is the gRid! by Bea Theme. Coming in very rich grid layout with highlight labels, the theme is perfect for portfolios or contents with great images covering them. The them features four-column layout which is a bit of a rarity, and supports sidebars and widgets, thumbnails, featured posts, advanced typography, and incredible web page load speed. Though the basic setup comes with a silver color scheme, you can get a great-looking bundle of designs for a few bucks to pay.

8. Eclipse

Very straightforward, minimal, but attractive, this black-ish theme offers you a very easy approach to displaying your artwork especially with the support of a sliding banner. The highly responsive theme features drag-and-drop for its options, and also supports several widgets without overly crowding your page. Being straightforward, you won’t really get that much functions except showcasing what you do and what you are, but well, what else should really matter more?

9. Gridster Theme

If you are already familiar with how Facebook will be in the near future, you better not miss this new WordPress theme that features almost the same elements as a blog page. Very neat and presentable, this grid-based portfolio theme should be terrific also for photographers and designers because of the easy access to contents. Typography is also widely varied, and the left-hand sidebar is really catchy enough nowadays. Being responsive as well, your contents will surely be easily accessed without roaming too much from page to page.

10. Contango Free WordPress Theme

If you are looking for a very clean and very refreshing layout without losing a highly modern and pleasing look, then this theme should be absolutely perfect for you. Great for bloggers who love to tell their daily stories and update posts with cover photos, the Contango theme features its own options panel, custom header and background, threaded comments, dropdown menus, search engine optimization, cross-browser compatibility, and much more to list. A pro version at $49 comes with a whole lot of extra goodies perfect even for the latest and the fanciest devices ever.