Best WordPress Blog Themes For 2017: The Top 10 To Check Out

If you're planning on starting or updating your personal WordPress blog in 2017, it's surely not a bad idea. With a wide variety of top-notch WP blog themes, you may even get spoiled from the available choices. But among the numerous WordPress themes in the market, which one should you actually choose? This article is here to help and guide you towards making that very choice.

Consider The Following Before Choosing Your WordPress Blog Theme

For choosing the right WordPress blog theme, you need to carefully evaluate your needs and determine what exactly do you want in your blog. I would personally recommend considering the following variables before you make final choice:

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Budget: Before putting your money on a specific WordPress theme, do look into the features and plugins that's pre-installed and packaged within the theme. On the outside you may perceive that 'the more the features, the better it is for me'.

But if a theme looks pricey just because it has extra features that you will probably will never even use, consider instead the options that will put a lower pressure on your bank balance. Then again, if you think that you may need to spend extra bucks on buying plugins that be important in the future with a specific theme, consider getting an alternative theme in which they come pre-installed.

Plugins: All good themes should at least be compatible with the most popular 3rd party plugins and should be easily connectable with your social media profiles. Most good themes have SEO-compatible plugins as well which can adequately serve to the needs of most bloggers. Determine which plugins will be necessary for you in advance and see whether a theme has those plugins (or something similar) or not.

Updates: The best themes in the market are updated regularly and can support the latest versions of WordPress. Also consider getting themes from developers who are responsive towards fixing bugs and vulnerabilities and are in for the long run.

Theme Editing: Some of the most successful WordPress themes have built-in editing features with which you can easily change the basic layout of the website without the need to code anything. This allows you to freely make the necessary modifications you want, effectively ending the need to regularly call an expert for help.

Appearance: Every blog is as unique as the personality of the blogger. Thus, take your time and choose a theme with which you can best reflect your personality. In this regard, pick a theme that can best accommodate your design requirements.

I know that selecting the right theme for your blog can be confusing. So with the intent of helping you make the right choice, this list has been compiled. So, let's proceed with the countdown.

10. SugarBlog

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One word is enough to summarize the quality of this theme: elegance. The manner in which SugarBlog has managed to combine the best of classic and modern design capabilities is simply amazing. I'm personally a big fan of the theme’s clean white background. This theme is perfect for many millennial-themed blogs and can give a special appeal to many photographers, fashion designers and artists.

The image gallery with 2-5 customizable column layout features can seamlessly handle multiple pictures. With 10 custom widgets and 9 posting formats, bloggers can post anything they want on their blog, including gallery, audio, video and slideshow.

If you are a fan of Instagram, you'll really enjoy this theme because of its amazing compatibility with the network. In fact, it’s even got a dedicated custom widget for Instagram. Even with other popular social sites like Flickr, Twitter and Facebook, SugarBlog works just as great with custom widgets for them as well.

The theme is also a great option for bloggers who want to cleanly monetize their website. It features ample spaces for 125 x 125 ads, which can be customized with a purpose-built widget. Similarly, sharing your posts across multiple social channel is as easy as a breeze with this brilliant theme.

Built by Hercules Design, you really will have a hard time finding flaws in SugarBlog. Even if you do, their wonderful customer service will easily handle your grievances. The theme can easily work with all screen sizes and in my own tests, I found it superbly compatible with all browsers that I used it with.

9. Alizee

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At number 9 in this list of best WP blog themes is Alizee. If you're a fan of the grid-style layout, then you'll surely want to give Alizee a try. The theme sports a bold no-nonsense design that can appeal to industry professionals and newbies alike. It can serve as a wonderful choice if you want to provide a formal appeal to your personal blog.

The basic version of Alizee can be downloaded for free or directly from your WordPress dashboard. In fact, even this basic version can adequately serve the needs of many bloggers. All versions of the theme come with a flawless slider and Pinterest-style boxes for displaying blog updates. But, if you would like to avail advanced features like Live Customizer, 100+ Google Font support and it’s amazing Theme Customizer, then putting your money on the Pro version of the theme would indeed be a good decision to make.

With thousands of satisfied users and a wonderful support team Alizee Pro is one of the most successful offerings from the UK-based developers, Athemes.

8. Gladiolus

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I would call Gladiolus ‘a perfectly neat theme’. With its beautiful typographic elements in combination with the white background, the theme easily makes any personal blog look brilliant and outstanding. You can choose from a variety of design options with unlimited color options through the Theme Customizer.

The theme performs amazingly well even on mobile devices with easy to touch font arrangements. Its semi-formal look, along with its unique visual settings is perfect for fashion, arts and design based blogs. I have also spotted this theme with a lot of female-audience centered personal blogs as well and I have to admit that they looked remarkable.

Gladiolus supports 5 basic post formats including audio, video and gallery. Its social media integration capabilities are second best to none. So, if you want a neat but a uniquely remarkable WordPress theme, then Gladiolus is the theme for you.

7. Kalium2

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Kalium2 is one of the most complete blog themes for WordPress out there in the market. With dozens of graphics and layout options built to fit the requirements of almost every professional blogger, Kalium2 is simply remarkable. This multi-award winning theme has been built by Laborator.

This dynamic theme is popularly used by personal bloggers representing a wide variety of industries including photography, movies, fitness, arts and fashion. I really liked the drag-and-drop design functionalities in this theme. With Kalium 2 you can arrange your posts in a variety of alignments, ranging from perfect grid like squares to Pinterest-style layout. I don’t know of many themes that are as flexible in terms of design as Kalium 2.

With a wide-variety of plugins included in this theme, including ACF, WooCommerce and Yoast SEO, you can proceed to working on your blog without any need to install any extra plugin. The setup is so simple that even an amateur can install this theme and make it up and running in a few minutes.

6. Introfolk

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Introfolk is perhaps one of most user-friendly themes for WordPress blogs available in the market. I would even say that this is perhaps the perfect theme for new bloggers in every way. You can effortlessly set up the theme within minutes and get your blog up-and-running without worrying about the background technicalities.

With tonnes of customization options, this theme will make your personal blog look as professional as it can get. Whether you want a professional-look blog or a minimalist blog, Introfolk can easily do the job for you. The theme loads and runs really fast and provides readers a really delightful experience. It’s also very easy to monetize with a purpose-built banner management system.

It’s probably the top theme from the Europe-based developers Magnium Themes, who are renowned for their top-of-the-line themes and amazing customer service.

5. Brixton

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At number 5 in this list of best WP blog themes is Brixton. If you are looking for a luxurious-style layout for your personal blog, then you should consider using this theme. With dynamic design capabilities supporting unlimited color options, this theme can deliver a really clean but powerful blog.

If you want to combine your blog with Facebook, then Brixton is a great choice with its custom-built Facebook Widget. Its search box is really handy, although you also have the option to hide it if you want. I have to give extra marks for the theme's creators Premium Coding, for their amazing social widget and their top-notch SEO integration.

With 20+ designs option and growing this theme can easily accommodate the needs of professional bloggers. The support for this theme is excellent and judging by its popularity, you can expect it to remain in the market for years to come. But despite all these amazing features, at $44 it is comparatively inexpensive.

4. Ink

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It’s no surprise why this theme is in this list of top WP blog themes. Ink has been the preferred choice for hundreds of highly ranked blogs on the web. With its amazing design elements and brilliant functional capabilities, it’s as useful to a blogger as a Swiss Army Knife is to a hiker.

From beautiful static front-pages to brilliant tile-styled blogs, you can create the blog of your dreams with Ink. Just bid farewell to those themes with cluttered design and get the best of WordPress with this theme. I would call this theme ‘extra-responsive’ because of its effortless integration with different screen types and sizes. In fact, I really liked this theme’s adjustment with my iPad Mini 2 retina display.

I would recommend this theme, especially for professional-themed personal blogs. If you want your personal blog to appear unique and pretty, this theme isn’t going to disappoint you.

3. Total

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Are you a fan of themes with drag-and-drop capabilities? If so, Total is totally the theme for you. Even a new or an amateur blogger can create an impressive website just by playing around with this theme for a few minutes. Just choose whatever you like and where you want to put it and you are ready to move on with your blogging. If you want to tweak the design anytime, you can effortlessly do so in a matter of minutes.

With dedicated layouts for hosting texts, images, audios and videos, a blogger can do everything imaginable on the web with this amazing theme. It’s a really secure theme and is compatible with popular payment gateways in the world: perfect for making blogs with e-commerce capabilities. Monetizing your blog is as easy as a breeze with Total.

With its post type reorder tool, you can easily highlight specific posts in the blog. The compatibility of the theme with 3rd party plugins is pretty impressive as well. It’s also one of the most SEO-friendly themes in the market, with some really advanced built-in SEO tools.

2. Soledad

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Soledad is a theme that can impress just about any blogger out there. From professional e-commerce layouts to newspaper-themed layouts, this theme is among the most dynamic options in the WordPress theme market. With over 200 layout options and over 600 front page designs, you could be spoilt by the choices provided by the theme.

Whether you want a clean distraction free blog, or a tile-styled multi-post layout, Soledad is easily up to the task. From awesome compatibility with the social media and 3rd party plugins to visual editor, it’s got almost everything that blogger would like with their blog. One of the most notable features that I really loved about this theme was its ability to add a video background. This theme also offers one the most comprehensive slider designs and options to users.

It’s simply unbelievable how such a wide range of options is available at just $59.

1. H-code

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Having used H-code for many months, I have to say that this is perhaps among the most convenient WordPress themes I have ever used. As you go on using this theme, you may even begin thinking that there is really nothing that you can not do with this amazingly delightful theme. From multiple layout options to readymade fill-in templates, you are ready to take off with your website within a matter of minutes with this awesome theme.

This theme comes with pre-installed Visual Composer and Slider Revolution plugins. With these features, you really don’t need to put time selecting the plugins. You can customize the theme as you want with extremely easy drag-and-drop functionalities. With it’s shortcodes, even if you are a newbie without the slightest knowledge of coding, you can get your blog up-and-running within minutes.

You also have the option to add or remove sidebars with all the designs fully responsive with all the popular browsers and devices. Also the theme is one of the fastest that I have ever used with auto-compression features static cache features. Besides these benefits, publishers Themezaa also provides a lifetime update support for this theme. So, consider this theme as a long term investment.

Conclusion

The options are nearly unlimited in the world of WordPress theme. With a little bit of effort you may not even need to spend a penny in designing your blog. However, free themes also come with their own particular hassles that not everyone will want to (or can afford) to take. It's precisely here that you can benefit a lot with the functionalities offered in the above themes.

Thus, your dream to start a blog no longer needs to be a dream in this day and age. Even if you possess little or no technical skills, you can effectively own and run a blog by obtaining the right WordPress theme. With any one of the above mentioned WordPress blog themes, you can not just effortlessly enter the blogging arena, but thrive in it, provided that you are willing to put your effort and resources building the right content.