2020’s Most Popular and Best WordPress Themes (Expert Pick)

Are you looking for the best WordPress themes of 2020?

With thousands of free and premium WordPress themes available, it is very hard for beginners to choose the best WordPress theme for their need.

In this article, we will share our experts’ pick of the best and most popular WordPress themes in 2020.

Note: Some of these themes are even older than 2019, but they have remained highly popular due to their incredible design, features, and updates.

The Most Common Traits of All Popular and Best WordPress Themes

WordPress themes are either niche-based or multipurpose in terms of features and options.

You can use a niche-based theme for your industry (for example, a restaurant theme). Alternately, you can choose a multipurpose theme that’s designed to be flexible and works for any kind of website.

Regardless of the type, all the best WordPress themes have the following features and traits:

Mobile-responsive design: The theme designs are responsive and retina-ready, so your WordPress website looks great on all screen sizes and devices.

SEO optimization: The theme follows the best SEO practices, so your website can rank higher in search results.

Page builder support: The theme is compatible with popular WordPress drag and drop page builders. It helps you create custom landing pages whenever you need them.

Speed and performance: Your theme plays an important role in the speed and performance of your website. You should look for the theme with faster page loads and an optimized user experience.

These are the essential features that you should look into a theme before selecting it for your website. Every theme in our list comes with many other useful features aside from the main ones that we mentioned above, and you can read about it in their descriptions.

Now that we have discussed the common traits of all popular themes, let’s take a look at our expert pick of the best themes of 2020.

Note: Looking to start a new website, blog or online store? Follow our step by step guide on how to start a blog, how to create a website, or how to start an online store.

You can even have our team setup your blog for free with our free blog setup service.

1. Divi Theme

Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes and an ultimate page builder. It has multiple visual elements and modules that help you create a beautiful website.

The theme comes with hundreds of free ready-made layouts for multiple industries and niches. It allows you to import a website layout with the 1-click demo importer which helps you quickly get started.

With the built-in drag and drop page builder, you can move elements, save and manage custom designs, and use global styles on all website pages.

Divi gives you complete control of the layout design, inline text editing, and custom CSS. It is highly flexible and easy to use.

Get the Divi theme today!

2. Astra WordPress Theme

Astra is a modern WordPress theme designed to create any website. It works with all the popular drag and drop page builders seamlessly.

The theme comes with several starter sites that you can use to launch a website quickly. These ready-made websites are perfect for small businesses, blogs, and WooCommerce stores.

It has tons of amazing features, including page headers, mega menu, multiple layout choices, Google Fonts, unlimited color options, separate blog page layouts, and custom widgets.

Astra theme also offers powerful integration with the WooCommerce plugin to create an online store. Their WooCommerce theme features infinite scrolling, quick product view, shop page, product gallery, and cart options.

It also integrates with popular learning management systems like LearnDash. Astra has built-in SEO optimization to help rank your website in the search engines.

Get the Astra WordPress Theme today!

3. Themify Ultra

Themify Ultra is a powerful WordPress multipurpose theme built to help you easily make a website. It comes with dozens of ready-made sites for lifestyle, magazine, restaurant, photography, fashion, and more.

It also includes the Themify page builder that you can use for customization. It has several builder addons to add advanced elements like progress bars, counters, pricing tables, audio player, and more.

Other notable features include smart layout options, color choices, crisp typography, section-based scrolling, image filters, and portfolio options.

Themify Ultra is also an ideal theme to start a WooCommerce store. It is easy to set up and customize with the live WordPress customizer.

Get the Themify Ultra theme today!

4. OceanWP

OceanWP is a free WordPress multipurpose theme. It comes with a 1-click demo content importer and hundreds of ready-made sites to launch a website instantly.

The theme has multiple extensions to add features to your website like a login popup, an Instagram feed, a sticky footer, a featured posts slider, and more. It is translation ready to create a multilingual website.

The OceanWP theme supports WooCommerce out of the box. It has built-in SEO features to help in improving your website rankings.

Get the OceanWP theme today!

5. Breakthrough Pro

Breakthrough Pro is a minimalist WordPress theme. It is built on top of the Genesis Theme Framework by StudioPress which makes it powerful and robust.

The theme is ideal for any business website. It comes with 9 custom widgets, 3 layout options, landing page templates, and a custom header. It works with the Gutenberg block editor to customize posts and pages smoothly.

StudioPress is now part of WP Engine, the most popular managed WordPress hosting company. You can get this theme and all 35+ other StudioPress themes if you sign up for WP Engine hosting to build your website.

Bonus: WPBeginner users also get an additional 20% OFF. Get started with WP Engine today!

Get the Breakthrough Pro theme today!

6. Hestia Pro

Hestia Pro is a modern WordPress multipurpose theme. It comes in a one-page and multi-page layouts to make any website.

With a slick material design, you can showcase your business and services professionally. It integrates with popular page builders like Beaver Builder, Elementor, Visual Composer, etc.

The theme is fully compatible with WooCommerce, and it allows you to create beautiful products and shop pages easily. It also ships with multiple starter sites for eCommerce stores and other business niches.

Get the Hestia Pro theme today!

7. Nozama

Nozama is a WordPress WooCommerce theme built to start an online store quickly. It is highly customizable to display your featured products on the homepage.

It comes with a built-in storefront to create product filters, custom product layouts, and more. Other features include social network integrations, color customization, and header visibility.

Get the Nozama theme today!

8. Alpha

Alpha is an advanced WordPress magazine theme. It is well-suited for newspapers, online magazines, personal blogs, and authors.

The theme comes with 2 different layout designs, a featured slideshow, a video widget, a breaking news ticker, ad placement spaces, and more. It is beginner-friendly and easy to set up.

You should also check out our article on the best WordPress magazine themes.

Get the Alpha theme today!

9. Zelle Pro

Zelle Pro is a premium one-page WordPress theme. It offers a minimal layout with a custom logo, a fullwidth header, and call-to-action buttons.

The theme features custom backgrounds, unlimited color choices, and mega menus. It has built-in SEO and speed optimization for better performance.

Get the Zelle Pro theme today!

10. Sydney Pro

Sydney Pro is a fantastic WordPress multipurpose theme. It uses the custom Elementor blocks for carousel slider, pricing tables, and timeline.

Other notable features include page templates, header choices, customizer options, and a video header. The theme is translation ready and allows you to create a multilingual website easily.

Get the Sydney Pro theme today!

11. Storefront

Storefront is a popular WordPress WooCommerce theme. It comes with an intuitive and flexible layout to create an online store.

It works with all WooCommerce extensions seamlessly. The theme is fully customizable for background, colors, and font using the WordPress customizer with live preview.

Get the Storefront theme today!

Bonus: see our guide on the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store.

12. Inspiro

Inspiro is a stylish WordPress theme. It comes with a fullscreen video background slideshow that supports YouTube, Vimeo, and custom videos.

The theme is perfect for a portfolio, a small business, or an eCommerce website. It ships with a gallery module to display your images, videos, and work portfolio beautifully.

Don’t miss our article on the best portfolio WordPress themes.

Get the Inspiro theme today!

13. Neve

Neve is a modern WordPress multipurpose theme designed to create all kinds of websites easily. It is highly flexible and easy to use.

This theme is compatible with popular page builders, including Divi Builder, Beaver Builder, and more. Neve also supports the Gutenberg editor to customize your pages and posts.

Get the Neve theme today!

14. Authority Pro

Authority Pro is a powerful WordPress theme. It is built with a multipurpose approach to make any professional business website and online store.

The theme is highly scalable and works equally great for small to large business websites. It supports the WPForms plugin to create a contact form or any other form quickly.

Get the Authority Pro theme today!

15. News Portal

News Portal is a free WordPress magazine theme. It has a widgetized layout and multiple ready-made magazine templates to launch your online magazine instantly.

It comes with multiple color schemes, category color options, background colors, and more. The theme is easy to set up and manage with the WordPress live customizer.

Get the News Portal theme today!

16. Shoptimizer

Shoptimizer is a fast WordPress WooCommerce theme. It comes with multiple features to set up and grow your eCommerce store quickly.

The theme has a beautiful layout, custom header, featured content section, cart options, a wishlist, and more. It is optimized for SEO and speed performance.

Related: You should check out our article on the best WooCommerce WordPress themes.

Get the Shoptimizer theme today!

17. Gema

Gema is a beautiful WordPress theme designed specifically for photographers, personal bloggers, authors, lifestyle, and fashion websites.

It comes with a custom logo, a classical navigation menu, buttons, post layouts, and a style manager. The Gema theme is beginner-friendly and easy to set up.

Get the Gema theme today!

18. Tusant

Tusant is a unique WordPress podcast theme well-suited for musicians, bands, podcasters, vlogs, and any audio or video streaming website.

It allows you to embed audio and videos from multiple sources. The theme has several layout choices, crisp typography, and custom background color. You can also use the drag and drop page builders for customization.

Note: If you want to check out other options, then take a look at our handpicked list of the best WordPress themes for podcasters.

Get the Tusant theme today!

19. Saved

Saved is a WordPress church theme ideally built for non-profits, churches, and fundraising websites. It comes with a built-in homepage builder to set up your website’s homepage quickly.

It is packed with a Church Content plugin that helps you add sermons, staff profiles, events, and locations. Other notable features include custom page templates, sticky menu, font choices, color schemes, and more.

Get the Saved theme today!

20. Didi

Didi is a WordPress fashion blogging theme designed specifically for lifestyle, fashion, wellness, and magazine-style blogs. It comes with a white background that makes your content standout.

It offers multiple layout choices, custom page templates, sidebar layouts, and video support. The Didi theme is compatible with WPML to create a multilingual website.

Get the Didi theme today!

21. Travel Way

Travel Way is a modern WordPress theme ideally built for travelers, travel bloggers, travel photographers, mountain trekkers, and adventure tourism companies.

It features a fullscreen custom header background with call-to-action buttons, social icons, logo, navigation menu, and other details. The theme has multiple sections to display your favorite locations beautifully.

You should also check out our article on the best WordPress themes for travel blogs.

Get the Travel Way theme today!

22. Fitness

Fitness is an elegant WordPress theme beautifully crafted for personal trainers, gyms, yoga instructors, and any health-related business.

It allows you to create custom pages for trainers and classes. With 1-click demo content importer, you can import a ready-made website and get started quickly.

Looking for more options? Check out our experts’ pick of the best WordPress themes for crossfit and gym.

Get the Fitness theme today!

23. Moroseta

Moroseta is a versatile WordPress multipurpose theme. It uses light colors that make your content highly readable to users.

The theme features include a separate blog page, multiple sidebar positions, featured content slider, a promo box, and more. It is fully compatible with drag and drop page builders to design custom landing pages.

Get the Moroseta theme today!

24. Foodica

Foodica is a new-fashioned WordPress theme for food bloggers, food critiques, chefs, and food recipe websites. It comes with a minimal layout and 10 color schemes.

On the homepage, it has a beautiful featured slider, featured recipes section, multiple ad placement spaces, and more. The theme integrates with WooCommerce to start an online food delivery service quickly.

You should also check out our article on the best WordPress restaurant themes.

Get the Foodica theme today!

25. Kale Pro

Kale Pro is a premium WordPress food blog theme. It has a beautiful layout that you can also use to create a lifestyle blog, a fashion website, or an online magazine.

It features a recipe index templates to showcase your recipes stylishly. Other features include a sticky navigation menu, an image slider, custom fonts, color schemes, and a background image.

Get the Kale Pro theme today!

26. Kea

Kea is a WordPress hotel theme designed beautifully for hotels, resorts, BnBs, and accommodation businesses. It offers a fullscreen image background on the homepage.

It allows you to integrate a reservation and booking service to manage your online bookings easily. The theme supports a fullscreen video or carousel slideshow to display your hotel rooms, lobby, and services.

Get the Kea theme today!

27. Elite

Elite is a creative WordPress fullscreen theme packed with tons of features that you can use to launch a powerful eCommerce store. It allows you to showcase your products in beautiful image galleries and increase your sales.

It comes with image and video galleries, custom logo, Google Fonts, page layouts, and more. The Elite theme is easy to set up using the WordPress customizer with a live preview.

Get the Elite theme today!

28. Daylight

Daylight is a bright-colored WordPress multipurpose theme. It is a perfect choice for small businesses, digital agencies, social media marketers, and skilled professionals.

The theme offers a one-page and a multi-page layout to let you select the best option that matches your business requirements. It has built-in page load speed optimization to outrank the other WordPress business themes.

Get the Daylight theme today!

29. Essence Pro

Essence Pro is a beautiful WordPress theme designed specifically for health, wellness, and lifestyle niches. It features an eye-catching fullwidth custom header image to create a powerful first impression.

The theme is built on top of the Genesis Framework, which makes it rock solid and robust. It ships with the Atomic Blocks and WPForms plugin to help you get started quickly.

Other notable features include 6 layout options, custom widget areas, landing pages, and more. It’s translation ready and supports WooCommerce out of the box.

Get the Essence Pro theme today!

30. Panoramic

Panoramic is a free WordPress multipurpose theme to create any website. It has a minimal layout with a simple and clean design that attracts users in the first look.

The theme integrates seamlessly with popular WordPress plugins like WPForms, SiteOrigin, and WooCommerce. It comes with a homepage slider and flexible theme options that you can manage using the WordPress live customizer.

Get the Panoramic theme today!

31. Agama

Agama is a free WordPress theme designed specifically for digital agencies, corporate businesses, photographers, and portfolio websites.

It has a white background with beautiful color selection for font, links, and buttons. The theme is SEO-ready and compatible with the WPML plugin to translate your website easily.

Get the Agama theme today!

32. Silk

Silk is a modern WordPress fashion blog theme. It comes with an attractive layout and a featured content slider on the homepage.

With this theme, you get an Instagram feed display, social tools, custom post layouts, an image slider, and a mega menu. It has color choices, animations, fonts, and custom backgrounds.

Also, check out our complete article on how to start a fashion blog and make money.

Get the Silk theme today!

33. Blockchain

Blockchain is a crypto business WordPress theme. It is ideally built for financial traders, investors, advisors, and consultants.

The theme includes cryptocurrency exchange tables, post types, unlimited color schemes, custom widgets, and more. It fully supports drag and drop page builders and WordPress WooCommerce plugin.

Get the Blockchain theme today!

We hope this article helped you find the best and most popular WordPress themes. You may also want to see our handpicked list of the must have best WordPress plugins for all websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 2020’s Most Popular and Best WordPress Themes (Expert Pick) appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 03, 2020 at 05:16PM

How to Fix Your Connection is Not Private Error (Site Owners Guide)

Are you seeing ‘Your connection is not private’ error on your WordPress website? This is the error message you’ll see on Google Chrome.

The same error will be displayed on all modern browsers with slightly different messages, and it can be a bit confusing for beginners to troubleshoot.

In this site owner’s guide, we’ll show you how to easily fix ‘Your connection is not private’ error on your website. We’ll also talk about why this error appears, and how you can avoid it in the future.

What is ‘Your Connection is Not Private’ Error?

‘Your connection is not private’ error appears on websites using the SSL / HTTPs protocol when your browser is unable to validate the SSL certificate issued by the website.

Basically, any website using SSL / HTTPs protocol sends a security certificate information to users browsers upon each visit. Browsers then try to validate the certificate using the public key accompanying the certificate.

If it checks out, then users browser encrypts the data using the private key sent by your website. This encryption secures the data transfer between a user’s browser and your website.

However, if the browser is unable to validate the certificate, then it cannot transfer the data securely and displays the error that your connection to the website is not private.

This is a common SSL error and appears on all modern browsers with slightly different error messages.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome will show this error as ‘Your connection is not private’.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox would show this error as ‘Your connection is not secure’.

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge browser displays it with the ‘Your connection isn’t private’ or ‘This site isn’t secure’ error message.

Safari, Brave, and other browsers will display similar messages.

Why This Error Message Occurs?

Now you may be wondering, what caused ‘Your connection is not private’ error to appear on your website. This error is peculiar because in many cases it may show up without you making any changes to your website.

It can be caused by several reasons. For instance, if a user’s computer clock is out of sync, then it may show the certificate as expired.

Another scenario is that a certificate previously issued by your website is stored in user’s browser. The private key sent by your website does not match the old certificate and the browser fails to validate the secure connection.

Last but not least, the most obvious reason you’d see this error is if the SSL certificate on the website has expired.

The following are the steps you can take to fix the ‘Your connection is not private’ error. You can also try these steps even when the error is appearing on other websites as well.

1. Force Reload a Page

The first step is to try turning it on and off method. Start by simply shutting down the browser app and then reopening it.

After that, try to visit the website. If you can still see the error then try force reloading the page. Use Command + R keyboard shortcut on Mac or CTRL + Reload button on Windows.

This will force the browser to ignore the cached version of the page and load the latest version.

2. Check with Multiple Browsers

If you are only checking it with one browser on the same machine, then try visiting the website using any other browser app.

This step will eliminate the possibility that the issue is limited to a specific browser. If it is, then reinstalling that browser would fix the issue.

Otherwise, you can move on to try the next steps in this guide.

3. Clear Your Browser Cache

You may have heard this as the first advice for many internet and website-related issues. It is true in this case too. Your browser may be loading files from an older version of your website which may be triggering the issue.

We have a complete guide on how to clear browser cache for all major browsers with step by step instructions.

Once you have cleared the cache, try visiting the website again to see if the issue has resolved. If it hasn’t, then continue reading.

4. Check Your Computer’s Clock

Normally, your computer syncs its date and time settings automatically. However, if your computer has incorrect date/time settings, then this may cause your browser to think that a website’s SSL certificate is invalid.

Sync Date / Time on Windows Computers

If you are using a Windows computer, then simply right click on the taskbar and select ‘Adjust Date and Time settings’.

This will open date and time section in the Windows Settings app. Make sure that your computer’s date and time is correct and ‘Set time automatically’ option is checked.

Sync Date / Time on Mac Computers

If you are using a Mac computer, then open the ‘Settings’ app and click on the ‘Date & Time’ icon.

Next, switch to the Date & Time tab and make sure that the option next to the ‘Set date and time automatically’ option is checked. If it is not checked, then click on the padlock icon at the bottom left corner of the window to enable this option.

5. Turn off Antivirus and VPN Apps

If you are using any antivirus programs on your computer or a VPN service, then you may want to temporarily turn them off.

This would allow you to verify that these apps are not blocking the SSL certificate and forcing your browser to show the ‘Your connection is not private’ error.

If you discover that one of these apps was causing the problem, then you can reach out to their support team for help.

6. Check Your SSL Certificate Expiration

Another common reason for this error is expired SSL certificates. These certificates are issued for a specific period and expire when they reach the end of that period.

You can check your certificate’s expiration date by clicking on the padlock icon next to your website and selecting the certificate option.

This will bring up your SSL certificate details. You can clearly see certificate expiration date in the window.

Most domain registrars and SSL certificate providers will automatically notify you when your SSL certificate needs to be renewed.

If you are using a free SSL certificate, then most WordPress hosting companies have scripts in place that automatically renew them upon expiration.

However, those mechanisms may fail and your SSL certificate may expire. Don’t worry, you can easily fix that by simply replacing your SSL certificate.

Instructions to do that may vary depending on your certificate provider and hosting company. In fact, many hosting companies will update it for you upon request.

7. Test Your SSL Server

If you have been setting up your SSL certificate manually by yourself, then you may want to make sure that all configuration settings are working properly.

To do that you can run an SSL server test. This test allows you to check the complete SSL set up of your website.

This includes TLS protocol, cross-browser testing, and SSL/HTTPs set up checks. The scanner will also provide you detailed information about each test.

8. Check Certificate Domain Name

You can set up your SSL certificate to work for different variations of a domain name. For example, www and non-www URLs.

If your certificate is only set up for one variation of your domain name, and you access the website using another variation, then this would result in ‘Your connection is not private’ error. Google Chrome will show the error code as SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN.

This error could also appear if you have recently moved your website to a new domain name or server.

One easy solution is to issue a free SSL certificate for both variations of your domain name. You can request your hosting provider to do that for you.

Another solution is to redirect your website visitors to the correct variation of your domain name. See our article, on how to set up redirects in WordPress for more details.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix ‘Your connection is not private’ error in WordPress. You may also want to bookmark our guide on fixing the most common WordPress errors.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Fix Your Connection is Not Private Error (Site Owners Guide) appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 02, 2020 at 07:01PM

How to Add Special Characters in WordPress Posts

Ever wondered how popular sites add trademark ™, copyright ©, registered ®, or currency characters into their articles?

Recently one of our users asked us if there was an easy way to add special characters into WordPress posts and pages. These characters are not found on an average keyboard which makes it difficult for beginners to use them.

In this article, we will show you multiple ways to easily add special characters in WordPress posts. You can choose an approach that best suits your workflow.

Add Special Characters in WordPress Block Editor

WordPress block editor does not come with a special block or menu button in the paragraph formatting options.

However there are two ways you can use to add special characters in WordPress block editor. Let’s take a look at both of them, so you can decide which one is easier for you.

1. Add Special Characters using HTML Entity Code

When you write a blog post, WordPress automatically formats it into HTML. It is the markup language used by almost all websites.

HTML comes with a list of HTML entities. These are special codes that you can use inside HTML to display characters, symbols, arrows, and more.

This allows you to add special characters in HTML that are not normally found in keyboard layouts.

For example, if you wanted to add a trademark ™ symbol, then you can use the HTML entity code ™ to display it.

Similarly, if you wanted to add a copyright © symbol, then you can use © code in your article.

Notice how each HTML entity code begins with an ampersand sign and ends with a semicolon.

After you add an HTML entity code in the post editor, it will not immediately convert into the corresponding character. However, when you publish or preview your post, then you will see it automatically display the special character instead of the HTML entity code.

There is a whole range of characters available as HTML entities, including special characters, latin characters, mathematical symbols, currencies, scientific measurement symbols, and more.

For the complete reference, check out W3.org’s HTML character entity reference chart.

Method 2. Add Special Characters in WordPress using a Plugin

If you need to add special characters on a regular basis, then you would be better off using a plugin instead of checking the HTML entity reference chart each time.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Insert Special Characters plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, simply edit the post or page where you want to add special characters. Inside the paragraph block, click on the drop-down arrow in the block toolbar and select the ‘Special characters’ option.

This will bring up a popup displaying special characters. Simply locate the special character you want to add and then click to insert it into the editor.

Adding Special Characters in Old WordPress Editor

If you are still using the old classic editor in WordPress, then here is how you can easily add special characters while writing blog posts.

First, you need to click on the kitchen sink button. This will expand the second row of formatting options where you should see the Special Characters button.

Clicking on the special characters button will bring up a pop-up window showing some commonly used special characters. It has currency symbols, trademark, copyright, registered signs, mathematical symbols and signs.

Remember, this method would only work if you are using the old editor in WYSIWYG mode.

If you are using it in the text mode, then you’ll either need to switch to the Visual editor or use the HTML entities method described above.

You simply need to just click on the symbol or character you want to use, and it will be added in your post.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add special characters in WordPress posts and pages. You may also want to see our complete guide on mastering the WordPress block editor.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add Special Characters in WordPress Posts appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 01, 2020 at 05:00PM