So, you want to start a blog?
Kudos to you, and good for you for following your dreams!
But before you start imagining yourself writing blog posts, adding stunning imagery to the blog, and connecting to your audience on social media, we have to give you a bit of a reality check.
Starting a blog is not a quick or easy process. There are a lot of things that require your full attention: finding a reliable web host, choosing a domain name, choosing a template to build your blog, etc.
Not only that, but starting a blogging career is, unfortunately, not cheap.
According to WebsiteBuilderExpert, choosing a blogging career in 2022 could cost you an arm and a leg (over $5,000, to be exact). And that is without the tech gear and hardware, you as a blogger, must have.
The good news is that you can minimize those initial costs by choosing WordPress, a platform that powers 43% of all websites. If you choose WordPress to build your blog, you’ll come across costs related to the domain name, hosting, WordPress themes (templates), and plugins (tools you can use to add extra functionality to your blog). In total, you’ll have to invest a bit over $100 to build your website.
But what if there was a way to minimize costs further? Wouldn’t it be great?
The good news is that there is.
You can opt for a free WordPress template, a theme, instead of a premium one.
And we’ll explain everything in the following text. We’ll also include the top 3 minimal free WordPress themes for bloggers created at Themes Kingdom. Let’s get started!
A few words on free WordPress themes for bloggers
If you have been googling about WordPress and its themes, you have probably come across multiple websites warning you not to download free WordPress themes. Something like this post.
According to these WordPress experts, the main reason why you shouldn’t choose a free WP theme is that free themes are usually more hack attacks-prone and prone to malware attacks, as they often contain malicious code in their scripts and files. Not only that, free WordPress themes tend to be less SEO-friendly and are not responsive, meaning that your blog won’t be able to rank high in search engines.
Now, if you turn to Quora or any other forum to see what WP users have to say about using a free WP theme, you’ll find answers like this one: “I have used a few free themes over the years and some actually worked very well, while others unfortunately did not. I don’t think there’s a problem with using free themes, but just be sure to get them from a trusted source like worpress.org. Stay away from nulled themes, that goes for nulled plugins as well, and nulled anything really.”
If you choose to follow this piece of advice, you can conclude that using a free WP theme is a Russian roulette一you may win, or you may lose; there’s no way to predict the outcome. And the real danger hides behind the term ‘nulled themes’. Those themes are pirated copies of the premium WordPress themes and are sold illegally, usually at lower prices or for free. We strongly suggest you not download a nulled WordPress theme. If you want to learn more about the nulled WordPress themes and how they can ruin your blog, visit our Nulled themes page.
However, we know you can get a well-coded, reliable, secure, and FREE theme.
How, you may ask?
Well, firstly, you should look for free themes in the official WordPress theme directory. The WP developers thoroughly checked the themes in the directory before they were published, so you’ll know you won’t have any trouble using one of them.
And secondly, you can find a theme creator that makes free WordPress themes for bloggers. To ensure that you are choosing a well-coded theme, take on the role of a PI and investigate the theme creator. Be sure to check their social media reviews and comments, website comments and reviews on Google. Also, don’t forget to click on the button often referred to as ‘theme demo’. A demo of a theme portrays how a theme will look and perform on your website. Additionally, by viewing a theme’s demo, you can get an idea of how the theme works and which parts of it you would change.
Now that you know that you can save money, and get a reliable template for your blog, let’s get to listing the top 3 free WordPress themes for bloggers you’ll love.
Vesta WordPress theme
Vesta is an ultramodern WP theme that can be used for a personal, portfolio website or a blog.
The theme is the embodiment of minimalism, trendiness, and grace. If you are a minimalist yourself, it will reflect your way of living beautifully, allowing the readers to focus on the imagery and blog posts.
Vesta has three pages: Home, Blog, and Say hello (Contact page).
The first thing you’ll see on the homepage is a heading, followed by text, on the left side and an image on the right. We purposefully added this section on the homepage so potential readers can get to know you and connect with you immediately.
The Blog page has a newspaper-like design, as the posts are placed in columns.
The Say hello page is sleek and subdued: it invites readers to reach out to you, allowing them to use the contact form to get in touch with you faster.
If you want to see just how well the theme looks and performs, you can check out Vesta’s demo.
Cerebro WordPress theme
Cerebro made the ‘best free WordPress themes for bloggers’ list thanks to its structured, almost harsh, yet discreet design. You can check out the image below to see what we mean.
As you can tell by viewing the theme’s homepage, Cerebro’s design is the epitome of web design trends: it has a lot of whitespace, large typography, and just enough functionality. The design itself can be referred to as masculine, perfect for a tech/business blog.
The theme comes with three pages: Guides, Contact, and Info.
Guides is the blog page that carries a collection of blog posts. It is designed to show the posts in a list, one below the other.
The Contact page consists of an inviting copy and a contact form, while the Info page has just enough room to allow you to mention the most interesting facts about you and your blog and to add a couple of portraits. Portraits will help you paint a picture of who you are and how you carry yourself.
What is so interesting about Cerebro is that it has a hidden sidebar. If you click the three-dot icon in the top right corner, the sidebar will appear. In the sidebar, we chose to place a short ‘about you’ information, and social media links.
Check out Cerebro’s demo to see how it performs.
Limipa WordPress theme
Limpia is one of our original free WordPress themes for bloggers that has been around for years.
Ever since its release, it has been the product that has the most downloads, so we can positively say that our users enjoy Limpia’s design and performance.
When it comes to this theme’s design, we have to mention one thing: the term limpia in Spanish means clean. And this theme is just that: a polished, minimal template with a lot of whitespace that ignites your imagination, so that you can play with your blog’s design.
The theme has three pages: Home, About, and Contact.
The homepage is where your blog posts are placed. The posts are placed in a list form, one on top of the other. We believe that this page is the reason for Limpia’s popularity: the homepage has a nice, slow scroll to it, and you can get the overall vibe of a blog quickly. You can check out Limpia’s demo to see what we mean.
The About and Contact pages are also minimal in design.
Just like the Cerebro theme, Limpia also comes with a hidden sidebar that opens at the very right of the screen.
Are you ready to start blogging?
Now that you have gone through our list of best free WordPress themes for bloggers, can you choose the one for your website? Which theme from the list goes well with your aesthetic and style? Let us know in the comments.
If, for some reason, you haven’t found what you are looking for, know that there are more themes available. You can explore our collection of blog WordPress themes.
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