One of the first tasks you need to do when you’re creating your WordPress website for your home-based business is to select your theme. Your WordPress theme determines not only how your site will appear to your visitors, but also what functions you can utilize, and even how fast and efficient your website performs.
In this article, I’ll go over the top choices for the Best WordPress Themes for Home Business Websites. I’ll cover the advantages you get and why I prefer these themes, and we’ll take a look at some specific examples for the most popular home-based businesses.
When you’re first starting out, you may be tempted to use the default WordPress theme or one of the free themes you can get from the WordPress.org repository. And, that’s okay when you are just starting out. However, for the best performance and experience, I would recommend that you eventually purchase a premium theme from one of the top vendors.
Considerations when Selecting Your WordPress Theme
- The Look and Design
- Customizations
- Website Performance
- Cost
- Support
Because your theme determines in large part how your website will look, choosing the right looking theme is one of your first objectives. However, you should also be aware of how much and how easy your theme can be customized. When you need to modify or grow your website, it’s much easier if you can just make adjustments in your theme settings rather than having to hire a developer.
Your theme design can also have an impact on your website speed. For your users as well as the search engines, a faster performing site is always better.
There are many free themes available for WordPress. When you’re just starting out, it’s okay to use one of these, but if you’re serious about your business, I would definitely recommend you consider choosing a premium theme. The benefits you get from a premium them (such as performance and stability) far outweigh the cost.
Another big benefit of going with a paid premium theme is that you get direct access to support—usually not the case with a lot of free themes.
Now that we’ve gone over what to look for, let me give you some recommendations on which themes to choose. I actually use themes from these companies.
Astra
I use Astra for WPHomeBusiness.com. Astra is one of the best all-around themes for WordPress. You can use the free version or for more functionality you can opt for the premium version—that’s what I use for my site.
With Astra, you can start with the basic WordPress theme and customize it for your particular business, or to speed up the process, you can use one the many starter templates available.
There are many reasons why I like Astra. First off, you get more customization options than with a lot of themes—meaning you can design your website as you want. Astra also has the reputation of being extremely well-designed—allowing your site to run faster. My experience concurs and I’m definitely impressed with the speed and efficiency I get with Astra. And, the email support from Astra is very responsive.
What’s also great about Astra is, as I mentioned, you can build and customize your theme from scratch (the basic Astra theme) or use one of the great looking starter templates. Astra has a large selection to choose from including those that are perfect for home-based businesses.
See More Astra Templates Here
Genesis StudioPress
StudioPress themes (built on the Genesis Framework) is my other go to source for WordPress themes. Like Astra, StudioPress themes are highly efficiently developed and also easy to work with.
StudioPress offers both in-house and third-party developed themes. I’ve used both and results have been excellent using StudioPress and third-party Genesis themes.
Also, as with Astra, customer support is very good. Email support has been very responsive whenever I’ve needed assistance. You can also use the community forum to get answers.
While StudioPress doesn’t have the largest selection of themes to choose from, the themes they do offer (both in-house and third party developed) are all very efficiently designed and professional-looking.
See More StudioPress Themes Here
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is part of the Envato Market. It’s a platform where theme designers can sell their WordPress themes and other software tools. The good news is with so many contributions, you can find a theme that includes the specs that you need. The downside is that quality or coding can vary greatly. However, there are some great themes available from ThemeForest. For example, I’ve used the Newspaper theme for years with great results.
The two situations where I would recommend you check out ThemeForest is, first if you can’t find a theme elsewhere that has certain features you need. And second, if you plan to run an eCommerce website, then ThemeForest has a greater selection of online store themes than either StudioPress or Astra.
