Do you want to find the best free WordPress magazine themes? If you said ‘YES,’ you landed on the right article.
The number of audiences who look for online information is increasing daily. That’s why starting your own magazine site or news portal would be a great idea.
And there cannot be any better choice than a WordPress Magazine theme, to begin with.
The magazine theme is an easy-to-use theme for passionate bloggers, writers, and editors. It comes with many easy options to create, customize, and manage online news, magazine, and blogs.
And another good thing is you can use the theme absolutely for free.
Hence, today, we’ve come up with a list of the best free WordPress magazine themes. Let’s begin by briefly discussing the features that you need in the theme.
Features to Look For in A WordPress Magazine Theme
It’s suggestible that you don’t miss out on these features if you want a versatile & functional WordPress magazine theme:
i) Powerful Theme Options: This feature allows users to customize theme settings without modifying theme files. The process is free of any technicality. Thus, it makes it easier to craft and design the site in the way you require.
ii) Flexible Custom Widgets: Custom widgets are another dynamic feature that provides you more authority over the content. You can use it to optimize the content to match the requirement of your users/audience. Also, this option helps integrate & analyze additional elements or ideas to enhance your site.
iii) Featured Section for Ads: This particular feature helps a lot to take your magazine business to the next level. Nowadays, advertising plays a big part in earning good revenue from your site. Thus, the WordPress magazine theme you select must have sections for Google Ads, Adsense, and banner adverts.
iv) Stunning Slider Area: Any WordPress theme with sliders helps for better website design and conversion rate. You can use the area to display featured content, services, products, company services, or offers. This way, your site also becomes more engaging & interactive to the users.
v) Miscellaneous Properties: Other essential features for a WordPress magazine theme are having responsive layouts and optimized for SEO & speed. Likewise, it should work well with all major page builder plugins like Elementor, Brizy, etc.
23 Best Free WordPress Magazine Themes for 2023
Now, you have a clear idea of a magazine theme and its essential features, let’s go to our list of the best free WordPress magazine themes.
Before beginning, just a tiny note all of them are well-tested for WordPress. They also include all the major features we discussed above.
Thus, your site is entirely up to date upon using them. Let’s get going then!
1. ColorMag
ColorMag falls amongst the best free WordPress magazine themes. With over 100k active installs, this theme comes with great features to create your magazine site. Moreover, it’s fully compatible with Elementor to craft better and more beautiful layouts.
It means all the demos are. Likewise, the range of demos it provides is versatile and super helpful. All of them are well-optimized for speed & SEO and don’t compromise on any aspect.
Key Features of ColorMag:
- 1200+ five-star ratings
- 25+ ready-to-use starter sites
- Compatible with major browsers
- Easy customization & advanced typography
- Reliable & instant technical support
2. Zakra
Zakra is one of the powerful multipurpose WordPress themes. It has all the advanced features required to create a fully functioning site. As a multipurpose theme, it comes with versatile starter templates for different types of sites.
For building a magazine & news site, Zakra presents Kantipur News. This vibrant demo has an elegant design and every other function you want to craft & customize beautiful web page layouts.
Key Features of Zakra:
- Lightweight framework
- Optimized for performance
- Live preview with easy customization
- Fully responsive & SEO-friendly
- WPML/Polylang & translation ready
3. Astra
Astra is the greatest free WordPress magazine theme. It’s the only free theme with more than 1 million active installs. It has a highly configurable and lightweight design that provides a quick-loading website, which is important for user experience and search engine results.
Astra’s huge collection of pre-made templates and customization features allow users to easily create aesthetically attractive magazine websites. It also works perfectly with popular page builders like Elementor and Gutenberg, making it simple to create content.
Key Features of Astra:
- Lightweight and fast
- Highly customizable
- Seamless integration with page builders
- Ready-to-import starter templates
- WooCommerce compatible
4. MH Magazine Lite
MH Magazine Lite is amongst the most popular free WordPress news magazine themes. It highlights responsive & dynamic templates suitable for professional blogs and editorial websites. Additionally, this magazine theme is fast, secure, and optimized for search engines.
Along with that, MH Magazine Lite has many excellent features. For instance, you can upload contrasting background images, your own logos, and other popular content without any errors.
Key Features of MH Magazine Lite:
- Modern & chic layout design
- Flexible custom widgets
- Availability of upgraded premium version
- RTL Language Support
- Dedicated support and in-depth documentation
5. Hueman
Hueman is another favorite pick among the free magazine WordPress themes. To date, it powers more than 70k websites, and the number is growing every day. The best part about using Hueman is its unique & high-resolution images and layouts.
Thus, the theme is ideal for crafting a beautiful magazine interface that fits all types of screens. Moreover, it provides endless customization and modern options that make it one of the best-rated magazine themes on WordPress.org.
Key Features of Hueman:
- Unlimited widget areas
- Ten elegant post formats
- Varied options for magazine branding
- Slider story image option
- The unique toggle sidebar feature
6. News Portal
News Portal is a magazine theme with creative design and beautiful features. It helps you build a fully functioning online magazine without any coding. You can simply import the entire demo in just one click and begin the customization as you desire.
Additionally, the interface of the News Portal is genuinely engaging & attractive. Also, it’s perfectly widgetized for more functions. Thus, this lets the owner & users manage the site using easy-to-use widgets.
Key Features of News Portal:
- Social media integration
- Built-in customizer with specific categories
- Focus on catchy advertising ideas
- Multiple schemes or colors, text, sections
- Stylish design with major content emphasis
7. Metro Magazine
Metro Magazine falls on the list of free WordPress magazine themes with ad space. With cool fonts & colors, it offers updated advertisement settings for your online magazine. That’s why it’s an excellent choice for building a magazine site that drives traffic and generates leads.
Other than that, it has custom widgets with a variety of options. For instance, it helps collect email addresses, run campaigns, and put lovely bio sections for authors.
Key Features of Metro Magazine:
- Responsive & engaging user interface
- Optimized for speed and SEO
- Access to custom CSS
- Default & feature-rich color scheme
- Integrated with major social media
8. Dynamic News Lite
As the name suggests, Dynamic News Lite is a free WordPress news magazine theme with dynamic features. It’s also a responsive theme with a featured content slider and a magazine page template. Moreover, it highlights bold colors and fonts to make your site look stunning.
All in all, Dynamic News is one of the trending themes on WordPress.com. Thus, to maintain the same with WordPress.org, it doesn’t compromise on anything, even if it’s a free version.
Key Features of Dynamic News Lite:
- Header search and social icons
- Powerful theme options
- Custom category posts widgets
- Unlimited setup alternative for the homepage
- Amazing post-slider templates
9. HitMag
HitMag, by ThemezHut, is amongst the most powerful & stylish WordPress themes. It’s precisely crafted for magazines, newspapers, and personal blog sites. The most significant benefit of using HitMag is the versatile customization options for designing the site you like.
For that, it comes with incredible magazine homepage layouts. Further, there are four unique blog listings and major color schemes. All these and other features make HitMag a massive hit theme.
Key Features of HitMag:
- Author Details box
- Control post meta data
- Responsive and optimized layouts
- Related posts after the article
- Custom background feature
10. Refined Magazine
Refined Magazine is an easy-to-use and lightweight magazine WordPress theme. It supports a one-click demo import option along with a quick and straightforward setup. Thus, you can instantly build your own magazine newspaper site with minimal effort.
Moreover, this theme is loaded with excellent features, including nine added custom widgets. Additionally, it’s advertisement-ready with well-optimized code and is compatible with major WordPress plugins.
Key Features of Refined Magazine:
- Unlimited color variations
- Meta options with header and footer
- Gutenberg Ready
- Individual sidebar for a single post
- Simple magazine monetization
11. Magazine NP
When it comes to clean and elegant themes, we can’t miss Magazine NP at all. It’s SEO-friendly and perfect for blogs, online news, magazine, publisher & news portal sites. Also, this theme is a widget-based WordPress theme with a practical slider feature.
Additionally, it’s fully compatible with the default WordPress editor; Gutenberg, and other WP plugins. Those plugins include the page builders like Elementor and WordPress eCommerce plugins like WooCommerce.
Key Features of Magazine NP:
- Easy homepage setup
- Fully responsive with modern design
- Regularly updated themes
- Extendible with the premium plugin
- Clean & elegant feature slider
12. SuperMag
SuperMag, by Acme Themes, is the ultimate theme for building excellent magazine-style sites. All the templates & demo comes with all general features with further added unique traits. For instance, it has advanced custom widgets for posts and advertisement management.
Similarly, the theme highlights five different custom sidebars and complete control of page customization. Such flexibility helps to design & manage the whole site freely and as per your need.
Key Features of SuperMag:
- Drag/drop/reorder widgets & theme options
- Featured section with slider & site content
- Versatile header and footer options
- Full layouts control with color options
- Related post options
13. Poseidon
Powering more than 10k sites, Poseidon is a beautifully designed WordPress theme. It’s also one of the free WordPress magazine themes with a slider function. You can use this beautiful fullscreen image post slider to highlight important content of your magazine site like blog posts, and headlines.
Likewise, it provides easy configuration for slider settings as well. There, you get to choose a slider category, slider speed, number of slider posts, and slider animation effect.
Key Features of Poseidon:
- Mobile-ready white layouts
- Beautiful fullscreen image post slider
- Splendid typography and web design
- Featured image header
- Magazine posts widgets
14. NewsCard
NewsCard is a multi-purpose magazine news WordPress theme. You can instantly build a magazine site related to food, travel, fashion, music, health, sports, photography, and more. Likewise, due to the additional features, the theme is excellent for news sites as well.
Those features include header image & overlay, advertisement section, social profiles, and banner slider. Also, the theme is compatible with WooCommerce, bbPress, Contact Form 7, etc.
Key Features of NewsCard:
- 1000+ Google font with unlimited color
- Popular Bootstrap framework
- Incredible support forum
- Built-in theme customizer
- Multiple layouts with standard options
15. NewsMag
NewsMag is amongst the free WordPress magazine themes with ad space. It comes with clear and modern layouts that paint an attractive landing page for your site. Additionally, it features an awesome slider module for showcasing recent blog posts, social media buttons, and more.
Along with this, you won’t have to worry about your site’s fit on various devices. Moreover, it gives you options like creating a contact form, and user profiles to stay connected with your visitors.
Key Features of NewsMag:
- Module for featured post banner
- Font Awesome icons for typography
- Add Google Maps to the contact page
- Custom background support
- Well-built Redux Framework
16. Cream Magazine
Cream Magazine, by themebeez, is another wonderful news & magazine WordPress theme. With modern design, it’s for those who aspire to share stories, publish the latest news and blogs. The interface is equally attractive, so your site will attract a bunch of visitors every time.
Also, Cream magazine has enough space for ads and offers easy monetization. Besides, this theme guarantees quick loading, effortless user experience, and better SEO results.
Key Features of Cream Magazine:
- Built-in WordPress Live Customizer
- Fully responsive layouts & demos
- Translation ready & constantly updated
- Lazy load for images
- Extra library files for better performance
17. Magazine Hoot
Magazine Hoot is one of the multicolored free magazine templates for WordPress. It comes with a contrasting combination of layouts for the homepage that later helps for publication. Also, there are multiple category tags to put on top stories, breaking news, and other highlights.
Also, the theme has many powerful widgets and social media icons for advertising the content. Similarly, it works well with major page builder plugins, SEO plugins, contact forms, Jetpack, etc.
Key Features of Magazine Hoot:
- Simple drag-and-drop interface
- Elegant design for layouts, media buttons
- Attractive & unlimited color options
- Custom logos and backdrops
- Display content with specific categories
18. Magbook
Magbook is a super flexible and responsive free WordPress news magazine theme. It comes with fantastic page layouts with a clean and modern design. Also, they’re fully loaded with outstanding features like one-click demo import, lifetime free updates, and many more.
Furthermore, some of its unique highlights include multiple layout options and smart sticky navigation. You can even count on the theme for having templates on contact us & other widgets.
Key Features of Magbook:
- Plenty of advertisement spaces
- Easy & quick site monetization
- Modern customization and design settings
- Breadcrumb navigationXT
- Integrated with all popular plugins
19. CoverNews
Crafted with AF themes, CoverNews is a perfect WordPress theme for online blogs and magazines. It comes with versatile options like live customizer, and custom widgets to design the site in a way you wish. Further, the interface of drag and drop makes the process much easier.
Using such features, you can highlight a list of trending news, stories, and other content. Also, the theme makes it easy to advertise using the banners in the header and sidebar widgets.
Key Features of CoverNews:
- Colorful & engaging tags
- Proper RTL support
- Dedicated support from the team
- Compatible with Gutenberg
- Vibrant layouts for magazine & news
20. Elegant Magazine
Building an online style or fashion magazine is always super simple with Elegant Magazine. It comes with an easy-to-use theme customizer and multiple widgets. They help you to design trending layouts and present them on your site in an attractive way.
Thus, the theme is an excellent choice for news journals, modern fashion magazines, travel blogging, etc. Moreover, the speed and SEO optimization with dedicated support makes it an even better option.
Key Features of Elegant Magazine:
- Elegant & minimalist theme
- Ready to use drag and drop interface
- WordPress customizer with live preview
- Custom left-Right sidebar widgets
- Threaded comments
21. Rowling
Rowling is an unheard yet one of the most beautiful & feature-rich free WordPress magazine themes. Firstly, it comes with a simple and elegant design that nobody can easily ignore. Thus, it helps the stories, blogs, and other content of your site connect more to the audience.
As a bonus, it provides advanced typography with cool fonts and sections. Also, the theme supports a block editor, social media menu, and various other editor styles.
Key Features of Rowling:
- Custom accent color support
- Featured gallery post format
- Custom background & logo support
- Mobile responsive layouts design
- Frequently updated
22. Viral
Viral is yet another great free WordPress news magazine theme. You can simply build fully functioning magazines, publishing, personal blogs, reviews, and editorial sites. Also, the theme supports the Elementor page builder plugin.
Therefore, you can freely create the website you imagined without any trouble. Similarly, if you want to avoid customization, the theme has 20+ unique elements to design and set up your site instantly.
Key Features of Viral:
- Five unique built-in widgets
- SEO friendly with optimized codes
- WPLM/Gutenberg/Translation ready
- Quick & straightforward import and set up
- Promotes all major social media
23. VMagazine Lite
Lastly, VMagazine Lite is one of the free WordPress magazine themes you shouldn’t miss. This theme is fully responsive and features a multi-layout suitable for magazine newspaper websites. Also, its performance is always on the mark and is optimized for search engines.
Another great point about VMagazine is the flexible configuration using SiteOrigin Page Builder. Further, it highlights eight built-in widgets, multiple demos, and flexible options to place ads on your site.
Key Features of VMagazine Lite:
- Custom header & logo option
- Full flexibility in customization
- Translation & multilingual ready
- Compatible with WooCommerce
- Frequently updated
Wrapping Up!
If you’re a passionate writer or editor, you should definitely start your own online magazine site or blog. And a magazine WordPress theme is the best help for you to begin with.
First, it provides multiple layout choices that are beautiful and equally engaging to the visitors. You can choose one from these pre-built layouts, import it, and start using it with ease.
Along with this, there are several advanced features too.
So, do go through the list of the 23 best free WordPress magazine themes, select any one of them, and get going.
If we’ve to select anyone out of them, then it’d be ColorMag for sure.
It’s actually one of the best choices available for a free WordPress magazine template. With all the beautiful features, it has successfully won the trust of thousands of users.
At last, if you think this article was helpful, don’t forget to share and keep on spreading the knowledge. You can use social media for it, and the handles are right in front of you!!
If you wish to explore more, go through our other articles on ‘Best Free Job Board WordPress Themes & Templates’ and ‘Best Free WordPress Themes for Freelancers.’
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