6 Best WordPress Theme Frameworks

WordPress Themes are beautiful and eye-catching. They capture the essence of the beautiful web but have you ever thought what’s running behind those beautiful and functionality rich themes? There are tons and tons of code running behind the themes and not every developer out there would love to create the theme from the scratch.

Frameworks are drop-in code repositories that provide the skeleton for the creating powerful WordPress themes that are both full of features. Best WordPress Frameworks provide the basic fundamental tools to help in the creation of WordPress themes, thereby decreasing the development time taken by the developers.

There are many benefits of using the framework than coding from scratch. The biggest benefit is the saved time. Also, the framework helps programmers to follow a certain set of programming rules that results in high-quality code, which is further editable by other programmers.

The high-quality code in turn ensures that the theme is SEO friendly and creates an ecosystem where it can improve on previous bugs easily and helps the community to use plugins without any issues.

There are hundreds of WordPress Frameworks that are used by developers to build exciting new themes. But, today we will go through Best WordPress Frameworks that are used by many WordPress Developers out there.

Best WordPress Theme Framework

We have hand-picked the most used WordPress Frameworks. Before starting, I must mention the difference between a starter theme and a framework. A starter theme usually provides the core functionality of the WordPress, whereas the WordPress Frameworks provide the necessary tools and enhanced child-parent relation for the developers.

Code Refactoring, Reusability, and Semantic Code generation are some of the benefits of using frameworks.

Let’s list the best WordPress Theme Framework.

  1. Genesis Framework

Genesis Framework by StudioPress

Genesis Framework is undoubtedly the best WordPress framework theme out there. Genesis Framework underlines the principle of balancing both power and affordability in the same package. You can grab the framework for jus $59.99 and the one-time payment is worth the investment. The one-time investment will ensure that you will get lifetime support for the framework, including access to their active forums.

The framework is the work of Copyblogger Media, the leading professional marketing company. They are leaders in copywriting and also offers tons of WordPress related services.

The framework offers tons of features including responsive design and support for latest web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3. The framework also offers adequate documentation and resources to get started and is great for new WordPress Developers.

Full Details and Download

  1. Thesis

Thesis framework by DIYthemes

The thesis starts where we left of Genesis framework. I mean to say that Thesis is a great framework that offers advanced features and more control over the actions performed by the developers. It offers flexibility but at the cost of the high learning curve.

But, do not worry, if you are just starting out as a newbie WordPress developer, as the theme supports drag and drop builder. So, all in one a perfect place to be for both the expert and the novice.

The Thesis framework is available for $197 for the professional license and $87 for the basic license. The framework offers lifetime support and an active community.

The frameworks support lots of features including typography based approach, API coding, easy integration with authorship and google webmasters and more.

Full Detail and Download

  1. Headway

Headway framework

Designers are an integral part of the internet and many of them do not like coding or at least do not want to dive deep into the likes of coding. What ever the reason may be, they have a WordPress framework that supports ultimate drag and drop feature, creating the environment where they can turn the ideas into full-fledged WordPress theme.

With Headway, you as a designer or developer can control each section of the web page and customize it according to your creativity. It supports HTML5, CSS3, and responsive grid and thus is completely ready for the modern web.

With the help of the live CSS Editors, Developers can create useful block elements for their themes, making it useful for the coding buddies.

Headway is available at $59 for a Personal license, $99 for Business license and $199 for Developer license.

Full Details and Download

  1. Tesla Themes

TeslaThemes Club

Tesla Themes have a great collection of themes and all their themes build upon their custom framework. This means that all their themes come with the same admin panel and customizer. Tesla framework is unique and the themes do not have any parent-child relationship with their products.

The framework has implications for the developers but provides tons of features for the users including uploading a background image, adding a favicon and much more.

The framework is available for $49 for all the themes, whereas single theme is available for only  $39.

Full Details and Download

  1. WooFramework (Canvas Framework)

Canvas by Woothemes

WooFramework is leaders in developing theme shops in WordPress and they have a popular WordPress framework known as WooFramework. As they sell themes based on the WooFramework, they have envisioned the idea of creating a base theme that is available for download for the developers.

The Framework is available for $97 with a support of one year.

The Canvas frameworks come with lots of features including WooCommerce support, frequent updates, portfolio ready and offers a great foundation to start with. The theme also offers tons of custom shortcodes.

Full Detail and Download

  1. Gantry

Gantry framework

The Gantry is one of the popular free alternatives to the framework discussed above. Gantry is par with the other paid framework and is available under the GPL license. Community driven support is readily available, which can make the framework a worthy investment of time and effort for the developers.

The framework supports a responsive design, all based on Twitter bootstrap. It also supports LESS CSS for more customization. The framework comes with tons of widgets.

The downside of Gantry is its learning curve, which can be daunting for the new developers.

The framework support is available for $99 a year and completely negates the free usage. Still, you can try your luck in Gantry Google Groups, where other developers are readily available to answer questions.

Full Detail and Download

Wrap Up

WordPress offers a great platform for the developers to share their passion of coding and development. The Frameworks helps the developers to reach their goal in a better-systemized manner.

Some Developers including me will argue that it’s better to use the underscore starter theme, but every choice has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Do you think, I missed a framework? Comment below and let us know.

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Editorial Staff
mail@85ideas.com

Editorial Staff at 85ideas is a team of WordPress experts led by Brian Harris. Here to share amazing tuts, guides and collections.

9 Comments
  • psddownload
    Posted at 20:40h, 02 March Reply

    Take a look at this one based on twitter bootstrap…

    • Brian H
      Posted at 11:01h, 05 March Reply

      Hi, Thanks you for your suggestion, it looks very interesting. If you want, you can send us over a copy to look closer at and maybe include here 🙂

      • ricardocorreianunes
        Posted at 12:18h, 08 March Reply

        Hi Brian, where can we send a copy of Impulse Press for a review? Thanks

        • Brian H
          Posted at 14:34h, 10 March Reply

          Sorry for the delay in my reply, please it to hello[at]85ideas.com

  • Leno Maximo Trisneto Gomes
    Posted at 11:26h, 05 October Reply

    Só um retardado nao percebe que isso é uma propaganda forçada. nem disfarça, cheio de placas com preços grandes, e o texto então nem se fala..seja mais inteligente na hora de falar de forma exageradamente tendendiosa sobre agum produto. me stressa vê pessoas com preguiça de pensar.

  • Michael Thompson
    Posted at 05:35h, 18 November Reply

    How about Themler , Builder and TemplateToaster

  • George Fleming
    Posted at 07:17h, 23 November Reply

    Another theme framework worth considering is templatetoaster . which is particularly anautomated web design software that does not require any coding skills.

    • Amica Catherine
      Posted at 06:29h, 25 April Reply

      Agree, TemplateToaster indeed is a useful theme builder nowadays.

  • Daniel Brown
    Posted at 04:54h, 24 November Reply

    Good article.

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