Say It With Style: 31 Stunning WordPress Magazine Themes

If you want to create a news website, technology blog or celebrity culture hub, you need to check out a WordPress magazine theme.

They are designed to cater to content-driven websites and provide the structure, engagement and style you’re looking for.

We have created a few magazine themes in our time so we know a thing or two about how they should work.

We tested some of the most popular magazine themes out there and assessed them on:

• Design aesthetics and customization options
• Content organization and layout options
• Performance and SEO friendliness
• Sidebar options for ad placement
• Responsiveness

If you’re looking for inspiration or have a specific type of design in mind, you’ll find it here!

Common Uses for WordPress Magazine Themes

WordPress magazine themes are versatile designs that can be used to create a variety of engaging websites.

Here are some common uses:

• News websites: Online news outlets that need to display a large volume of articles, breaking news, and multimedia content. For example, Drone DJ and Reuters.
• Industry blogs: Niche publications focused on specific industries, such as technology, fashion, or health. For example, TechCrunch.
• Entertainment portals: Sites covering movies, music, and celebrity news. For example, Variety.
• Political hubs: Platforms dedicated to political news and analysis. For example, Quartz.
• Gaming websites: Highlight game reviews, news, and community discussions and incorporate forums or social features. For example, Sparkian.

Those are just a few examples of how magazine themes can work. We’re sure you can think of others.

What We Look for in a Magazine Theme

Here are a few things we look at when choosing a magazine theme:

• Mobile-friendly design – According to Exploding Topics, 61.95% of global website traffic comes from mobile.
• Flexible layout and customization options – According to Zippia, 38% of users will exit if the layout is unattractive.
• Custom widgets – Custom widgets allow you to add as many elements as you want. You can place them anywhere you want and include almost anything you want.
• SEO optimization – The cleaner and more optimized the code, the more it will help you rank in SERPs.
• Monetization support – Love them or hate them, ads help keep the lights on. That’s why we consider support for ads or other forms of monetization.
• Regular updates – Actively maintained website themes stay compatible with the latest version of WordPress and plugins.

WordPress Magazine Themes: Our Top 5 Picks

This is an extensive post covering 31 magazine-style WordPress themes. While all of them are worth checking out, these 5 are the star performers.

Theme	Our Rating	Best For	Price
Astra	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Complete flexibility and a wide variety of templates	Free/From $49
Newspaper	⭐⭐⭐⭐	A lot of ad opportunities	From $59
Soledad	⭐⭐⭐⭐	Column-based layout options	From $59
ColorMag	⭐⭐⭐⭐	Unique post system	Free/From $55
BoomBox	⭐⭐⭐⭐	BuzzFeed-like design	From $59

Let’s now check out the full list in detail.

List of Best WordPress Magazine Themes

We began with a list of over a hundred magazine WordPress themes and ended up choosing the 31 best.

Whatever type of news you want to share, one of these magazine themes can help you do it!

Let’s start with the best WordPress magazine theme.

Astra

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Best for any type of magazine, review, or news website.
Price	Free; Pro features start from $49/year.

Astra is the most popular WordPress theme, with over 1.6 million installations.

It offers 250+ pre-built website templates, making it suitable for creating any business or personal website.

Fast-loading webpages are important for SEO and user experience, making Astra the perfect theme for any type of website.

You can easily adjust fonts, colors, containers, images, and everything else. You can customize your website using the block editor or popular page builders like Beaver Builder, Elementor, or Spectra.

Astra offers:

• High quality templates including magazine options.
• Dedicated header and footer builders.
• Complete control over the design of posts and pages.
• Clean code and fast load times.
• Full compatibility with page builders and WordPress themes.

Astra Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Built with vanilla JavaScript for lightning-fast load times.	❌ Premium starter templates are unavailable in the cheapest pro (Astra Pro) plan.
✅ Offers sidebar widgets and other ad placement.	❌ Extensive features might overwhelm new users.
✅ Extensive documentation.
✅ Lots of design options for complete flexibility and control.
✅ Pre-built themes for news and magazine sites.

Why We Picked Astra

We picked Astra as our top choice for a magazine website because it’s fast and easy to use.

We particularly love the wide variety of Starter Templates and the ability to customize the header and footer without relying on a third-party page builder.

Astra Is Great For

Astra is great for building any personal or business website. But let us show you a few pre-built templates for news and magazine websites.

1. Tech News

The Tech News template is a perfect example of professional minimalism. The pastel colors make it look appealing and enhance the user experience.

The content layout follows a typical news website style, but the customization options with Astra allow you to play with the appearance and create your unique layout.

Tech News is compatible with all the popular WordPress page builders and offers sidebar options for ad placements, a native header and footer builder, and an integrated newsletter subscription form.

2. Food Blogger & Influencer

Our Food Blogger & Influencer template is elegant, clean, and professional.

Whether you’re a food blogger or social media influencer, this template is perfect for you.

It offers built-in social media integrations, allowing you to embed and share content easily.

It’s compatible with leading drag and drop page builders and offers a newsletter signup form on the homepage to help build your email list.

3. Business Magazine

If you post business-related content, the Business Magazine template could be exactly what you’re looking for.

It offers a clean and professional design, and the content layout is in a grid to give your website an organized look.

Business Magazine has placeholders for trending news, editor’s picks, and world news. It also offers social media integrations and newsletter sign-up forms.

You also have the space to include the latest videos or even podcast episodes.

4. Fashion Lifestyle Blog

The Fashion Lifestyle template is a great magazine theme for WordPress.

It has elegant colors and a fine font that will give your site a sophisticated style. You can tweak them to fit your brand using built-in tools.

For a content-driven website, especially in the fashion niche, you have to communicate a lot using images. This template helps you do that.

Most importantly, Astra is known for its performance which is necessary for a magazine website.

Get Started With Astra

Newspaper

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	A lot of ad space and plenty of customization options.
Price	$59/year.

Newspaper is the most popular WordPress theme for news websites. With over 145,000 sales, it is one of the bestselling premium WordPress magazine themes around right now.

Newspaper offers a native flexible frontend page builder called tagDiv Composer to help you design websites easily.

The theme comes with 155+ pre-built website templates you can install and customize however you like.

It also includes lots of magazine features such as content blocks, ad blocks, and image blocks.

These give you the ability to customize every part of the page and change individual colors, fonts, and a whole lot more.

Newspaper Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Built-in translation panel with 90+ language translations.	❌ Only 6 months of support.
✅ 2,400+ design templates via tagDiv Cloud Library.	❌ There is a learning curve initially as you get familiar with the tagDiv page builder.
✅ Default demo sites are of professional quality.
✅ Built-in review system (stars, percentage, points).

Why We Picked Newspaper

We really liked the Newspaper theme’s content layout, which mimics an actual newspaper.

This makes it perfect for news websites. It also offers unlimited sidebars, making it easy to monetize with ads.

Newspaper Is Great For

As you can imagine from its name, this template’s layout and design are perfect for creating a news magazine.

Try Newspaper

Soledad

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Column-based layout for a great user experience.
Price	$59/year with 6 months of support.

Soledad is one of the most popular WordPress themes on Envato, with more than 52,000 sales.

It offers 230+ pre-built website templates and 1,300+ content blocks to create any website you want.

Most of Soledad’s pre-built templates are for gaming, news, food, and tech niches. It offers over 6,000 homepage demos and is compatible with popular plugins like Elementor, BBPress, Slider Revolution, WooCommerce, and WPBakery.

Buying Soledad gives you access to useful plugins such as Bookmark and Follow, Live Blog, Text to Speech, and Paywall and Membership.

Soledad Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ OpenAI integration for creating content.	❌ Too many features might overwhelm beginners.
✅ Built-in text-to-speech feature.	❌ Additional costs for support beyond 6 months.
✅ 1,300+ pre-built blocks in the cloud library.
✅ Live Blog plugin to cover the latest news and live events.

Why We Picked Soledad

We picked Soledad for its wide variety of pre-built websites and content blocks that allow you to use it for almost any kind of website.

In particular, we like how it integrates text-to-speech and AI content creation.

Soledad Is Great For

Most of Soledad’s templates are news magazine templates, so it is a great theme for news websites.

There are also some specific ones for gaming, traveling, and recipes. It offers a Paywall and Membership plugin to help you create exclusive content for paying members.

Try Soledad

ColorMag

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Unique post system.
Price	Free; Pro features start from $55/year.

The ColorMag theme is made by ThemeGrill and comes with 33 pre-built demo sites that can be installed and customized in minutes.

Demos use classic magazine design with great aesthetics to provide a basis for personalization.

There are a ton of page customization options you can make using built-in tools and everything is included to help make the theme your own.

ColorMag is fully compatible with popular page builders like Elementor, Beaver, Brizy, and SiteOrigin. It also supports WooCommerce.

ColorMag Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Free version so you can try before you buy.	❌ Typography customizations (font size, font weight, font family) not available in the free version.
✅ Compatible with Beaver Builder, Brizy, Elementor, and SiteOrigin page builders.	❌ Limited date formats (2) and navigation styles (3) for posts, even with the Pro version.
✅ Specific layout options for WooCommerce pages.
✅ The theme is translation-ready and fully responsive.

Why We Picked ColorMag

ColorMag is a great freemium WordPress magazine theme with its featured content slider, custom header support, and custom widgets.

The theme offers a lot of color choices and custom backgrounds to determine the look and feel of your website.

ColorMag Is Great For

ColorMag is great for news websites or fashion-related websites that are image-heavy.

Try ColorMag

BoomBox

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Nice layout and user engagement features.
Price	$59/year.

If you want to create a website similar to BuzzFeed or Scoopwhoop, then BoomBox is the magazine theme for you.

BoomBox is an all-purpose viral magazine theme and offers a lot of engagement-boosting features, such as quizzes, polls, an upvote/downvote ranking system, emoji reactions, GIF comments, and more.

It also comes with 16 pre-built demos that can be installed in one click and customized further.

BoomBox is not compatible with third-party page builders, but it offers plugins to create custom post layouts, listings, and paginations.

BoomBox Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Support for ads, sponsored posts, affiliate reviews, and downloads.	❌ Not compatible with third-party page builders.
✅ Add polls, quizzes, and lists to posts and engage your audience.	❌ You have to pay more for extended support.
✅ Translation-ready with WPML support.	❌ Limited pre-built website templates.
✅ Dark mode switch available on the header.

Why We Picked BoomBox

We really liked the engagement-boosting features of BoomBox, such as lists, polls, quizzes, and the upvote/downvote ranking system.

BoomBox Is Great For

If you want to create a user-generated website or publish content like BuzzFeed and engage users with lists, polls, and quizzes, BoomBox is the magazine theme to go for.

Try BoomBox

Extra

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	A simple layout with flexible customizations.
Price	$89/year. No free version.

Divi has a range of themes, but Extra is designed specifically for magazine websites.

It includes a drag and drop page builder, demo templates, a category builder for the main page, and very straightforward user navigation.

The Extra theme works only with the Divi page builder, but it’s easy to learn and takes seconds to install and customize it.

The theme comes with advanced modules for building creative homepage and category layouts specially designed for bloggers and online publications.

Extra Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Access to the Divi drag and drop page builder.	❌ Only works with Divi page builder.
✅ Optimized for search engines and fast loading.	❌ Will need work to really make it shine.
✅ Category builder specifically for magazine websites.
✅ Quality design and clean code.

Why We Picked Extra

We picked the Extra theme for its native page builder as it gives you complete control over the appearance and feel of your website.

It also offers 2,600+ layouts you can import with a click and incorporate into your design.

Extra Is Great For

Extra is great for large online magazines that cover a wide variety of topics.

Try Extra

Magazine Pro

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Category-based layouts for a neat user experience.
Price	Genesis Pro bundle costs $360/year.

Magazine Pro is another superb WordPress magazine blog theme worth considering.

It is made by StudioPress and is built on their proprietary block editor Genesis Pro, which helps you build a wide range of websites.

The theme is responsive, has a premium aesthetic, and can be customized almost infinitely to suit any type of magazine website.

The default demo is fairly plain with black, blue, green, or orange accent colors, but you can easily customize the page’s look and feel.

Magazine Pro Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Built on the very stable and powerful Genesis Framework.	❌ No pre-built templates.
✅ Includes block editor support.	❌ Price.
✅ Includes a theme customizer to manage every aspect of the design.	❌ Cannot buy the theme separately.
✅ Ideal for corporate use or professional industries.

Why We Picked Magazine Pro

Magazine Pro is built on the powerful Genesis Framework, which lets you fully customize your theme however you like.

We also like how Magazine Pro aims to be simple and can be used for multiple purposes.

Magazine Pro Is Great For

Due to its sober style, Magazine Pro is more suitable for business, finance, and law where visuals are not particularly important.

Try Magazine Pro

Hestia Pro

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Stylish design layout.
Price	Free version available; Pro plans start at $69/year.

Hestia Pro is one of the most popular one-page WordPress themes and is suitable for various websites, including news and magazine websites.

It may not be your first choice for a magazine site but the quality is undeniable. That’s why we included it.

Hestia Pro doesn’t have a magazine demo, but the page builder and native customizability allow you to build one with very little effort.

While the free version has some limitations, the pro version offers enhanced customization options and additional layout features.

Hestia Pro Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Flat, material design is very contemporary.	❌ No pre-made magazine starter template.
✅ WooCommerce-ready theme.
✅ Supports WordPress and popular page builders.
✅ Flexible enough to be turned into a magazine site.

Why We Picked Hestia Pro

The thing we like the most about Hestia is its universal appeal. It’s a multipurpose WordPress theme like Astra and Divi and can be used for blogs, magazines, and even eCommerce stores.

Hestia Pro Is Great For

Hestia Pro is great for hobby-related magazine websites such as fitness, gaming, or food reviews.

Try Hestia Pro

Pixwell

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Recipe websites due to its seamless integration with the WP Recipe Maker plugin.
Price	$59/year.

Pixwell is a versatile and user-friendly WordPress theme suitable for news, magazine, and blog websites across various niches.

You can customize styling, typography, and layout with Ruby Composer, Pixwell’s native drag and drop builder.

Pixwell is SEO-friendly, featuring schema compatibility and optimized markup to improve search engine visibility.

Unique features like dark mode, infinite load, and a newsletter system further enhance user engagement.

Pixwell Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ 30+ pre-built demo templates.	❌ Only supports WordPress and Elementor.
✅ Support for WooCommerce and Elementor.	❌ 6 months of support.
✅ Ruby Composer is user-friendly and reliable.
✅ Ideal for recipe websites.

Why We Picked Pixwell

Pixwell is a very likable theme. Demos are colorful, have real character, and have great page balance.

If you know a little about WordPress and can figure things out on your own, this could make a great magazine theme.

Pixwell Is Great For

Pixwell is a multipurpose theme with demos for food, healthcare, cryptocurrency and travel.

Try Pixwell

Independent

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Minimal layout with a lot white space around the content.
Price	$79/year.

Independent is a standout WordPress magazine theme that comes with 18+ pre-built demos for news, food, gaming, and sports.

It comes with the WPBakery page builder to help you customize your magazine website easily.

You can add page elements, remove them, restyle them, change colors, fonts, and headers, add banners, and do whatever you like with your pages.

Independent supports popular plugins like WooCommerce, All-in-One SEO, Yoast SEO, BuddyPress, and many others.

Independent Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ 9+ ad block layouts for display ads.	❌ Some users report compatibility issues with WPBakery.
✅ Supports eCommerce.
✅ Variety of layouts for posts, header, and footer.
✅Well-designed demos.

Why We Picked Independent

Independent is a very likable theme. Demos are colorful, have real character, and have great page balance.

If you know a little about WordPress and can figure things out on your own, this could make a great magazine theme.

Independent Is Great For

Independent is a useful theme for gaming and eSports magazines, but could also work great with travel, food and other topics.

Try Independent

Gillion

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Modular customizations.
Price	$55/year.

Gillion is a modular WordPress magazine theme perfect for any type of news, magazine, or personal blog.

It is optimized for mobile devices and offers 15+ demo templates to install in one click.

Gillion offers many features that enhance the reader experience, such as a bookmarking system, review module, post read time, and post view counter.

Buying this theme will give you access to the WPBakery website builder. It’s a simple and flexible drag and drop builder with a ton of options but is no Elementor or Spectra.

Gillion Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Bookmarking system allows readers to save topics for later.	❌ Too many features can overwhelm beginners.
✅ Includes access to the WPBakery page builder.	❌ Only supports WPBakery and Elementor.
✅ 9+ variations for header and footer.
✅ Create sliders easily with Slider Revolution.

Why We Picked Gillion

We really liked the trending section. It makes Gillion a good choice for time-sensitive topics such as news. sports or celebrity-related magazines.

Gillion Is Great For

Gillion offers pre-built templates for tech, magazine, news, and journal styles. If you want to create a magazine website in these niches, could be a good choice.

Try Gillion

Anymag

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Magazine-like reading experience.
Price	$39/year.

Anymag is designed for bloggers and content creators who want a magazine-style layout that’s both visually appealing and user-friendly.

It offers 6 pre-built website templates that offer a split-view, giving readers the reading experience of an actual magazine.

You can personalize with multiple color schemes, fonts, and layout options to match your brand identity.

It’s very close to an actual premium magazine experience, which is why we like it so much.

Anymag Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Mimics the look and feel of a print magazine.	❌ Supports only WordPress and Elementor.
✅ Custom widgets for social media buttons and latest posts.	❌ Limited number of demo websites.
✅ Full compatibility with WooCommerce.	❌ Limited sidebar options for inserting ads.
✅ Translation-ready and fully responsive.

Why We Picked Anymag

We picked Anymag for its unique and stylish content layout, which gives the feeling that you are reading an actual magazine.

Anymag Is Great For

Anymag is great for fashion, travel, and photography websites. Its unique design layout helps it stand out in a very crowded market.

Try Anymag

SmartMag

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Beginners who don’t want advanced customizations.
Price	$59/year.

SmartMag is a cool WordPress magazine theme that offers top performance, SEO features, and complete flexibility.

It offers 54+ demo website templates to install in one click and an intuitive drag and drop builder to customize them the way you want.

It uses HTML5, retina graphics, and responsive design to create a flawless user experience across devices.

You also get an unique dark mode that you can specifically customize colors for, which is a great touch

SmartMag Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ 37+ readymade templates for headers.	❌ Support mainly via user forum.
✅ Auto-scrolls the next post to keep users engaged.	❌ Only supports Elementor.
✅ Visible scrolling menu on mobile devices.
✅Great performance and flexibility.

Why We Picked SmartMag

We particularly liked its mobile optimization features like the scrolling nav menu, sponsored labels, and fast load times.

SmartMag Is Great For

The colors and style of SmartMag’s templates make it an ideal theme to talk about technology, movies, and other entertainment topics.

Try SmartMag

MH Magazine

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Custom widget layouts.
Price	$25/year (renews at $49/year).

MH Magazine is a top-rated WordPress theme ideal for creating online magazines, news websites, and blogs.

Its responsive design and flexible layout options make it easy to customize your site’s appearance and sidebar positions or add a second sidebar.

The theme supports custom widgets, SEO optimization, and a collection of popular Google fonts.

There are 15 demos for magazines, lifestyle, technology, news, food, travel and sports so there’s something for everyone.

MH Magazine Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Support for drag and drop page builders.	❌ Theme follows a very basic and flat content layout which won’t be for everyone.
✅ Touch support for sliders.
✅ Translation ready with RTL support.
✅Smart demo templates with some nice touches.

Why We Picked MH Magazine

We picked MH Magazine for its customizability. Although most demo templates offer a basic layout, it’s one of the best customizable WordPress themes for beginners.

MH Magazine Is Great For

We think MH Magazine is useful for creating magazine websites for various niches like travel, food, and political news, to name a few.

Try MH Magazine

MagPlus

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Wide variety of elements and layouts and built-in cache system.
Price	$59/year.

MagPlus is a versatile WordPress magazine theme designed for blogs, newspapers, and review sites.

It offers 44 demo layouts tailored to various niches, including fashion, sports, food, and technology.

The theme is compatible with Elementor, WPBakery and offers 200+ shortcode styling modules to customize your website the way you want.

If you want to create a multilingual website with WPML to cover global news, then MagPlus is a great choice as it’s fully translatable.

MagPlus Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Compatible with Elementor and WPBakery.	❌ There’s a lot to learn to make full use of it.
✅ Built-in cache system for fast load times.
✅ Wide collection of header, footer, sliders, and widgets.
✅ Flexible theme with tons of options.

Why We Picked MagPlus

We picked MagPlus for its mobile optimization, and built-in cache system called MagPlus Cache.

The theme is also deeply optimized for Google AMP and Facebook Instant Article, which is useful.

MagPlus Is Great For

MagPlus offers a wide variety of themes for niches ranging from news, magazine, lifestyle, fashion, tech, and more.

Try MagPlus

Metro Magazine Pro

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Built-in ad-blocker detector.
Price	$59/year with optional addons.

Metro Magazine Pro is one of the most popular WordPress themes offered by Rara Themes.

It’s a great option for news websites due to its Breaking News feature and offers 20+ unique section designs to customize your website.

The theme features an ad blocker detector that asks visitors to disable blockers before providing access to site content.

Stylish design with a processional look and feel, ideal for more serious content or corporate use.

Metro Magazine Pro Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Built-in ad blocker detection.	❌ Only 1 demo template.
✅ Multiple layouts for different sections like header, banner, and categories.
✅ Breaking News section for covering the latest news and live events.
✅ Floating social icons.

Why We Picked Metro Magazine Pro

We really like the ad-revenue boosting features like ad management, multiple ad placement options, ad blocker detection, and content blocking.

Metro Magazine Pro Is Great For

Metro Magazine Pro’s flexible layouts make it perfect for creating magazines of any kind.

Try Metro Magazine Pro

Uncode

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Grid-based content layout for magazines and news websites.
Price	$59/year with optional addons.

Uncode is one of the best-selling WordPress themes on Envato Market, with more than 120,000 sales.

With its Bento Grids layout system, you can build justified columns within a grid layout, making it one of the best grid-style WordPress themes.

Uncode offers 100+ pre-built website templates covering various categories like business, blog, shop, agency, photography, freelance, and creative.

It is compatible with WooCommerce, WPBakery, Layer Slider, Revolution Slider, Lightbox, and more.

Uncode Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Includes the Slider Revolution plugin.	❌ Not compatible with third-party page builders.
✅ Innovative grid system to enhance content layouts.
✅ 10 menu styles with advanced options and effects.
✅ WooCommerce compatible.

Why We Picked Uncode

We picked Uncode for its unique grid-based design layout that can be used for creative websites, online shopping, and personal blogs.

Uncode Is Great For

Uncode is a great theme for topics like electronic gadgets, fashion, or software.

Try Uncode

TheGem

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Image-focused content layouts to display images effectively.
Price	$59/year with 6 months of support.

TheGem is a popular WordPress theme that can be used for almost any type of website, including magazines.

It has over 400 pre-built website templates and is ideal for businesses, agencies, online shops, photographers, bloggers, and designers.

The theme is compatible with drag and drop page builders like Visual Composer, Elementor, and WPBakery.

TheGem is also 100% compatible with Polylang and Loco Translate and is certified by WPML – the leading multilingual WordPress plugin.

TheGem Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Integrates with Elementor and WPBakery.	❌ There’s a lot of features to learn when you first start.
✅ 400+ website templates covering various niches.
✅ 300+ premade page sections.
✅ Extensive translation options including RTL.

Why We Picked TheGem

We picked TheGem for its clean code, wide collection of pre-built demo templates, and amazing SEO performance.

TheGem Is Great For

TheGem’s pre-built templates cover a lot of blog and magazine niches such as fashion, lifestyle, travel, and technology.

Most of the themes are image-heavy, so you can aptly use them for photography or a fashion blog.

Try TheGem

REHub

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Product comparison boxes and review tables.
Price	$59/year with 6 months of support.

If you want to monetize your magazine or news website via affiliate marketing, then REHub is a great option.

It offers pre-built templates with high-converting pages such as versus pages, specification comparisons, offers and price ranges.

REHub uses the Elementor website builder but is fully compatible with WordPress blocks.

The REMag demo is colorful and characterful, ideal for magazines and news. It includes strong colors and fonts, a great header image element, and flexible pages.

REHub Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Card blocks for comparing products in a list.	❌ Limited number of pre-built templates.
✅ 30+ product and post layouts.
✅ Chart builders for comparison articles.
✅ Some great template designs.

Why We Picked REHub

We picked REHub for the pre-built tables, charts, and product comparison layouts as they make it easy to monetize your blog or magazine.

REHub Is Great For

We think REHub is a great choice for product-focused magazines where you write comparison posts and detailed reviews.

Try REHub

Tribune

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Categorized layout to create a newspaper-like reading experience.
Price	$69/year.

Tribune, as its name hints, is a newspaper theme ideal for a more traditional news website.

It has an elegant, minimal design that lets you have a running news banner at the top of the page. This makes it ideal for news or financial sites that need to display the latest information.

The theme also comes with an easy-to-use options panel, video, and carousel widgets, and it is completely responsive.

Overall, Tribune is an excellent choice if you’re creating a news website. It allows you to display a ton of information in a well-designed way.

Tribune Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Sleek design that suits traditional news websites.	❌ Only 3 pre-built templates.
✅ Can showcase a lot of content without being overwhelming.
✅ Includes Infinite Scroll from Jetpack.
✅Good design reminiscent of a quality newspaper.

Why We Picked Tribune

We picked Tribune for its real traditional design that makes it feel like you’re reading an actual newspaper.

Tribune Is Great For

Tribune is great for news websites that post a lot of regular content.

Try Tribune

Felt

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Full-screen carousels in hero sections.
Price	$75/year.

Felt is a very well-designed WordPress magazine theme. It’s built around large images, which makes it ideal for magazines.

The theme is responsive and comes with ways to easily modify colors, borders, buttons, spacing, and other design elements.

Felt makes it easy to customize your site with the WordPress customizer. While it isn’t as flexible as Spectra for example, it’s very easy to use.

The theme is not only optimized for ads but it is well-integrated with WooCommerce, making it easy to use ads and sell products.

Felt Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Image-focused demo templates.	❌ More of a focus on images than text.
✅ Filter and highlight news or personal stories on your homepage.	❌ The theme is quite expensive compared to other themes on the list.
✅ Modular and responsive layout.
✅ Uses the WordPress customize rather than page builder.

Why We Picked Felt

We like Felt’s carousel and slideshow widget that lets you engage users the moment they land on your website.

Felt Is Great For

It offers a range of themes perfect for fashion, personal blogging, and other image-focused websites.

Try Felt

Public Opinion

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Image-focused newspaper theme.
Price	Plans start at $34/year.

Public Opinion is a popular WordPress theme for newspaper websites due to its grid-style content layout.

We particularly like the breaking news section where you can present the latest headlines as well as a categorized primary menu to sort your content.

It offers customizable headers and footers, a global sections system to manage reusable blocks, the ability to create your own color scheme, and a wide selection of Google fonts.

Public Opinion works with only WordPress and Elementor but is WooCommerce compatible.

Public Opinion Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Attractive demo templates.	❌ Templates will take a bit of work to make them unique.
✅ Filter and highlight news or personal stories on the homepage.
✅ Modular and responsive layout.
✅ Breaking news section could be useful for magazine sites.

Why We Picked Public Opinion

We picked Public Opinion for its newspaper-like layout and breaking news section as we think they are perfect for news websites.

Public Opinion Is Great For

This is an excellent theme if you want to build a news-based WordPress site and don’t mind a little work.

Try Public Opinion

Magazine Express

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Image-focused content layouts with pre-built blocks.
Price	Free version available; premium plans start at $39/year.

The Magazine WordPress Theme is well worth checking out if you run a content website.

The theme is based on the Bootstrap framework, offering options like full-width templates and various inner page layouts. There’s a lot of flexibility built in, which is why we like it.

User-friendly features include pagination settings, customizable footers, and sidebar placement options.

Additionally, advanced color choices and over 100 font families allow you to create a vibrant and engaging blog.

Magazine Express Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Flexible layout options, including single, double, or no sidebars.	❌ Needs extra effort to make it work with WooCommerce
✅ Comes with an integrated slider.
✅ Translation-ready and supports RTL layouts.
✅ Youthful design with a wide appeal.

Why We Picked Magazine Express

We like how simple the Magazine Express theme is, and that simplicity makes it a great design that can be used for any website.

Magazine Express Is Great For

Magazine Express is a great option if you’re looking for a simple free WordPress theme to kickstart a magazine-style site.

Try Magazine Express

Royal News Magazine

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Traditional, formal-style newspaper design.
Price	Free; premium costs $49.

If you want a WordPress magazine theme that looks readymade for news websites, Royal News Magazine is a great choice.

It offers extensive customization options, allowing users to adjust layouts, colors, and fonts to fit your brand.

Built with SEO optimization in mind, the theme enhances visibility in search engine results. It features a responsive design that ensures mobile compatibility.

It also includes multiple pre-built demo layouts and a user-friendly interface, making it accessible for beginners.

Royal News Magazine Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ One-click dark mode.	❌ Only really suitable for news websites.
✅ Use custom images as the theme background.	❌ You need to buy the pro version to make the most of the theme.
✅ Main menu can be customized to display categories and pages.
✅ Add social media icons in the header section.

Why We Picked Royal News Magazine

No matter what type of news you publish, this theme will help you stand out and attract visitors. That’s why we picked it.

Royal News Magazine Is Great For

It’s a great newspaper theme for any niche such as politics, sports, travel, or finance.

Try Royal News Magazine

Hueman

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	The sidebar sections offer a lot of flexibility.
Price	Free version; premium costs $49/year.

Hueman is a simple WordPress theme that focuses on flexibility. It has 4 different styles and can be customized using the block editor or included Nimble builder.

With Font Awesome, CSS, and a modern flat look, this theme has a lot to recommend it. You can take it anywhere with a little creativity too.

The pro version offers enhanced control over post-grid design options, including the number of columns and grid styles. Plus, two sidebars that offer extra flexibility.

Combining the masonry grid style and infinite scrolling, you could have a visually appealing layout with minimal effort.

Hueman Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Show leaderboard ads on the header and footer.	❌ You’ll need to learn Nimbus builder if you don’t want to use the block editor.
✅ Extensive styling options for topbar, header, footer, and background.	❌ Not compatible with third-party page builders like Divi or Elementor.
✅ Up to 10 post formats supported, including video, audio, image, and more.
✅ Two sidebars offer flexibility in terms of layout.

Why We Picked Hueman

We picked Hueman for its stylish content layout that can suit almost any style of magazine.

Its fixed-width sidebar sections also give the theme a professional look, enhancing the reader experience.

Hueman Is Great For

Hueman is great for lifestyle or fitness magazines or for niche magazines that want to look a little different.

Try Hueman

Ultra

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Large menus that add a touch of luxury.
Price	Free version is available; the premium costs $49/year.

Ultra is a powerful WordPress theme created by Themify. It comes with pre-made minimalist templates, including magazine style layouts you can import with one click.

Ultra intends to be a minimal WordPress theme, and its demo website templates show that.

The Magazine template is suitable for bloggers, authors, writers, and storytellers who want their audience to focus on the content.

Pages also include modest animation that keeps interest and outstanding imagery that will attract your audience.

Ultra Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ 60+ pre-designed layouts including magazine designs.	❌ Works with Themify page builder only.
✅ Access to 12 free builder addons.	❌ Some features can be overwhelming for beginners.
✅ 17 styles for headers and posts.
✅ Full section scrolling enhances the user experience.

Why We Picked Ultra

We really liked the demos. Each delivers in terms of quality and could work for literally any type of site.

Ultra Is Great For

The Magazine template looks professional and would look great if you have a website covering the entertainment or lifestyle niches.

Try Ultra

Color NewsMagazine

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Hero slider makes it easy to show your latest posts.
Price	Free version; premium costs $40/year

Color NewsMagazine is a free WordPress theme designed for magazine and newspaper websites.

The blog layout is also well-suited for professional bloggers who prefer a vibrant, multi-colored aesthetic.

A standout feature of this theme is its ability to dynamically change the highlighted color with each page load, adding a unique touch to the user experience.

Posts can be filtered based on various criteria, including the number of comments, author, random date, and recent date.

Color NewsMagazine Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Flexible theme that could be truly special.	❌ Not compatible with page builders.
✅ Add a search filter to your posts page.	❌ No demo templates.
✅ Set up to five social media accounts at the top of the theme.
✅ Lots of features for a free theme.

Why We Picked Color NewsMagazine

We really like the multi-column layout for setting up the homepage. You also get a nice slider that complements the sections very well.

Color NewsMagazine Is Great For

Color NewsMagazine is great for magazines related to niche topics like history or gardening.

Try Color NewsMagazine

NewsCard

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Column-based layout for displaying posts in categories.
Price	Free version; pro version starts at $55/year.

NewsCard is one of the best WordPress magazine themes you can use.

It offers a trendy magazine layout with a sidebar layout, a front page template, an advertisement section, and so much more.

It is built using the Bootstrap framework and offers a built-in customizer to modify the appearance of your website. It doesn’t support third-party page builders like Elementor or Divi though.

The theme does offer lots of customization options and compatibility with popular WordPress plugins like bbPress, WooCommerce, and Contact Form 7.

NewsCard Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Flexible theme with plenty of options.	❌ Very few pre-built website templates.
✅ Featured slider to highlight important posts.	❌ Bootstrap CSS framework adds extra code.
✅ Multiple sidebar layouts for posts and pages.
✅ Column-based layout is ideal for magazine and news sites.

Why We Picked NewsCard

We picked NewsCard because of its multi-device compatibility and column-based layout that makes building a website easy.

NewsCard Is Great For

NewsCard is suitable for magazine websites of all kinds. Due to WooCommerce compatibility, you can even turn your website into an online store!

Try NewsCard

XOXO

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Playful design with animations and vibrant colors.
Price	Starts at $59/year.

If you’re looking for a creative WordPress theme with a BuzzFeed-like vibe, then XOXO is a great option.

XOXO has its own customizer and does not support third-party drag and drop page builders. That’s a shame but not a showstopper.

On the upside, it displays your content in a card-like style, making it perfect for creative, lifestyle, travel, and even food blogs.

Since it is a relatively new theme, it is not compatible with a lot of plugins, but with time, they will bring in more connections.

XOXO Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Creative design that can enhance user engagement.	❌ Relatively new theme.
✅ 7 post formats.	❌ Not compatible with page builders.
✅ Infinite scroll and custom “to top” button.
✅ Unique design that really stands out.

Why We Picked XOXO

We picked XOXO for its playful design with card-like display. The vibrant colors and engaging animation can boost user engagement and time spent on the site.

XOXO Is Great For

XOXO is great for creative, lifestyle, travel magazines, and personal blogs.

Try XOXO

Jnews

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Audio podcast feature and AI writing assistant.
Price	Starts at $59/year.

With 25,000+ sales, JNews is a smart, contemporary WordPress magazine theme.

It offers 67+ customizable website templates and 150+ homepage designs to create your magazine/news website.

The theme offers a built-in podcast system and audio player, making it one of the best podcast themes too. You can even import podcasts from other platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, and Soundcloud.

JNews’ writing assistant, JegAI, can help you generate ideas for blog posts, write compelling headings, and create engaging content in minutes.

JNews Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ JegAI writing assistant included.	❌ Only supports Elementor.
✅ Built-in live visual builder.
✅ Header, footer, menu, and archive builder.
✅ Podcast support for multichannel websites.

Why We Picked JNews

We really like the AI writing assistant, JegAI, which helps write content effortlessly.

The theme also has a built-in podcast system, which is a neat feature.

JNews Is Great For

JNews comes with 67 pre-built website templates that cover various niches, from tech and lifestyle to travel and finance.

Try JNews

Gridlove

Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐
Best For	Colorful grid-based layout.
Price	$69/year.

Gridlove is specifically built for magazine and news websites. It offers a handful of layouts for the homepage and pages.

Gridlove follows a modular customization framework and offers multiple layouts for headers, mega menus, footers, and single post pages.

This WordPress magazine theme is optimized for high speed and responsiveness on multiple devices.

It’s compatible with all the popular WordPress plugins like Mailchimp, Disqus, WooCommerce, WPForms, and more too.

Gridlove Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
✅ Unique templates available for each category.	❌ Limited custom layouts for pages and homepage.
✅ Offers a lot of space to display ads.
✅ GDPR-compliant theme.
✅ The grid-based layout is ideal for newspaper or magazine sites.

Why We Picked Gridlove

We picked Gridlove for its grid-based custom layouts that let you create an appealing user experience.

Gridlove Is Great For

Gridlove can be used for any kind of magazine or news website with a little work, which is why it’s in our list.

Try Gridlove

Which WordPress Magazine Theme Should You Choose?

We think every theme listed above is suitable for a magazine or a news website.

Some offer pre-built magazine templates, while some allow you to customize your website to make one from scratch.

Either way, with a little imagination and creativity, you could create something truly unique.

Here are the best newspaper themes as far as we’re concerned:

1. Astra offers magazine Starter Templates to help you launch a website in minutes.
2. Newspaper offers a newspaper-like layout to enhance the user experience.
3. BoomBox engages visitors with smart design and social sharing buttons.

So that’s what we think are the best WordPress magazine themes around. What about you? Do you have any to suggest? Tell us about them in the comments below!

Want to give your readers the best user experience?