Quick overview of my favorite WordPress themes of 2026…
I got inspired to write this since today’s fallout of KadenceThemes under LiquidWeb’s recent changes. The Kadence refugees are panicked and scrambling, and the whole WordPress theme market appears shaking up again, but have no fear…WPJohnny with his opinions are here! (sung in theme song cadence)
Here’s the quick run of my current favorite WordPress themes and why…
1. GeneratePress
Quality theme & block library with minimalist approach, perfect for devs. My favorite starter template designs, but others may find them too bland.
More dev approach with its plugin feature-set and minimalist Gutenberg blocks, but I love their starter templates (very clean and hipster, on trend, although others may not like it and feel it’s “too simple”). Pick this if you want more dev approach to things. I really like them but can’t recommend them to every other type of WordPress client.
This is my number one personal choice for my own personal projects. I like the minimalist starting point and starter templates. Gives me a blank canvas to visualize the future design coming together. And then if custom-coding a theme, it’s definitely gonna be on GeneratePress.
I don’t recommend GeneratePress to clients because the themes are too minimal for most, and their block library requires more skill to maximize. Whereas KadenceBlocks already has so many options built-out off the bat.
Get GeneratePress (free & pro)
2. Kadence
Great full-featured theme & blog library, nice starter designs. But I worry about their future with recent changes by parent company.
This was my #1 starting theme for client projects. They had all the trendy features, with clean UI, nice starter themes (not generic template stuff), and perfect-sized Gutenberg block library that wasn’t too complicated or too overblown. I recommended and used Kadence for years until now.
I don’t know what LiquidWeb (hosting conglomerate) is doing with the Kadence brand since they acquired it. Their hosting has fallen in performance and customer support. And for a long time now, no new development or updates were given on Kadence. Then all of the sudden this happens. They don’t seem transparent, and I simply don’t trust them.
(Oh, you don’t know what happened? One day, Kadence customers woke up and saw the Kadence site was taken down and now redirects to a LiquidWeb page with prices more expensive and many people lost access to their lifetime plans. LiquidWeb recently made a post saying all current customers will retain their grandfathered pricing, and that any problems of lost access will be rectified but these sudden interruptions do not look good.)
Now, with Kadence out of consideration for future stuff, I’ll be recommend Neve a whole lot more to people as the default go-to theme.
3. Neve
Full-featured theme & block library, quality code by long-respected dev house, excellent customer support especially for newbies. Not my favorite template designs.
Awesome (big) dev house that’s been around a long time with many customers. Full-feature theme and Gutenberg block library (otter blocks), excellent support channel that can babysit and handhold the newbiest of customers. I only hate their very generic-looking starter templates, 98% look good in a catalog that you scroll though but only very few I would ever actually use. But these guys are pure quality, many years experience, and top customer service.
The only reason they aren’t more popular is because they used to follow a different business model, releasing new themes under new names instead of sticking to one framework and releasing child themes under that framework. It’s already been years now since they’ve stuck to the modern trend of sticking to the framework and I’m so happy to see their well-deserved brand growth.
Neve and it’s complementing Otter Blocks block library is a combo I love using. Sometimes I use this just to shake things up and see something new. Only reason I don’t use them more is because I have more habits with GeneratePress/Kadence and like their starter templates better. But definitely, I recommend Neve to everybody.
4. Blocksy
Full-featured, fancy starter templates, small font UI, lacks a complementing block library.
The most comparable to Kadence, especially considering Kadence copied some things from them. Nice set of features, UI and very polished starter templates. Biggest lack is a complementing Gutenberg block library under the same brand. Of course, you can pair it up with other block libraries from other dev houses but would have been nice to have everything all under the same umbrella.
I really like and recommend Blocksy all the time. But I personally don’t use it because I prefer having a more closely-integrated theme and Gutenberg block library. That and also the Blocksy UI text is a little smaller, which is tougher to see on my MacBook Air (I often work remotely).
With that said, Blocksy is clean, beautiful, full-featured. And built their starter templates off the GreenShift block library (which is very popular nowadays). If you’re a GreenShift blocks fan, then this is a perfect fit for you.
5. Astra
Overhyped marketing, copied features from competitors, very generic templates, still buggy.
Don’t even think about it. These guys have been around long enough now, and they should know better. Always ripping off innovations from competitors, always buggy, big promises and poor follow-through. Do not use them. They’re too profit-oriented and it shows. Marketing is also over-the-top hype. Starter themes are the classic “1000 generic templates”. But hey…I admit their stuff works just fine for most use cases, I just can’t support them knowing what I know. If you’re really liking Astra, what you should be going for is Neve instead.
Some of you won’t listen and will still be tempted. Cuz the WPAstra site looks so nice, and seems so many “millions” of people are using it. And the Spectra blocks looks so cool, and Astra has so many other great plugins. It’s like just pay one price and get it all included, right? RIGHT?!
—WRONG! The Brainstorm Force guys (team behind Astra) are a hyper-profit shop. All their plugins are mostly me-too plugins, riding the coattails of actual innovators. Once they establish a foothold in the market, they send their best devs to create the next moneymaker. And existing products are only maintained (not innovated upon).
Except only, I can’t even call it maintained. Every product in their suite is slightly buggy, join the FB Group and count the unhappy comments for yourself. I can forgive bugs related to new features, but not quality-control bugs related to old features. Every few years, I give them another shot and get disappointed again.
Simply put, Astra works but I cannot recommend them in full confidence (at least not for anything other than very general stuff). Do NOT go custom-coding or custom-building stuff on Astra, cuz you’ll run into all the little bugs. I still have one site on Astra and it hurts to look at it everyday.
6. GreenshiftWP
Focuses on FSE-compatibility, animations, high pagescores. I think their designs are ugly or lacking polish. Growing in popularity.
Really not my thing but so many people like them that I have to recommend them. I mean first off, they’re definitely a dev house and not a design house. And by that, I mean that they’re coders and not designers. Look at their website and starter themes for yourself. Lacks a lot of professional polish (aesthetically-speaking). Which to me is the #1 requirement of a theme, it has to look good!
Secondly, is they have too much focus on animation and pagescores. (Which by the way, many people like and its become their unique selling point.) Take away those gimmicks, and I think they’re a less-polished product overall than the others. With that said, they are unique and well-intended. And still maturing. If you like how they do things and enjoy their UI and styling, why not? How much do you need/want FSE in your site-building approach?
7. Stackable
Closest to Elementor-style designs and design-building UI.
Very pagebuilder approach to Gutenberg, sold as the perfect Gutenberg-block replacement for bloated Elementor/DIVI/etc. This is just getting further from all other themes. Different approach altogether. It’s great if you like Elementor and all the flashy Stackable demo templates.
Good product but personally not for me. I prefer starting more minimal and altering from there, rather than overly-designed and trim down. Common problem when the product that has too many features…then every template becomes a showcase for them. Which is NOT what you need in your site. But nonetheless, Stackable good way to have fancy/flashy site design and still good speed and pagescores, and familiar Elementor-esque pagebuilding interface.
Why not the others?
- OceanWP – always been popular but I hated their previous aggressive pricing model (charging for every little add-on), but they’ve thankfully gone away from that. There was a time when OceanWP & Astra were the top 2 newcomers and I believe pricing along with drama (between its founders) were the reason why Astra won out. The original OceanWP founder now runs WPOlympus (which doesn’t look good either to me). I haven’t kept up with OceanWP today. Still popular but I think they’re outdated. Their site and giant theme library all looks generic as heck.
- OllieWP – newcomer with the most professional polished designs, and A-grade quality. I appreciate their unique native Gutenberg approach providing only layouts & patterns, but sounds too undeveloped for non-pros. Now the premium price is almost $100/year for 1 site. No thanks, that price is a full bundle suite with other dev houses or LTD. I can’t see any design library examples, and they don’t have a FB group, so not much community either. Based on their footer, OllieWP is targeting GeneratePress/Kadence users like me but I’m not so sure I’d recommend them as 1st choice for anybody.
Trust me…I heard about all the others. Some look great. Some are great. But they’re still lacking many things:
- Full-feature set – for everybody to use (from newbies to devs).
- Starter templates – so we don’t have to design totally from scratch.
- Polished UI – friendly looking interface that not only looks good to us builders, but also end clients.
- Established user-base – community of other users to ask for help, share tips, pass feedback to official devs, and grow together
- Working business model – crazy premium pricing off the bat is not it. Copying every competitor feature for free is also not it. I (and my clients) need to know that you’ll be around for 10 years. We never want to (unnecessarily) change our theme—ever!
Ultimately…I can’t recommend a theme and put my name on the line without these minimal requirements. But by all means, feel free to suggest something you think I should consider for a future list.
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