We have come to the end of 2012, and a new year is knocking or has already arrived in some areas of the world. High time for this article. Each year, hundreds of amazing free WordPress themes are released: the good, the bad and the ugly. Naturally, 2012 wasn't an exception. WordPress lovers received numerous free themes for their blogs and websites.
In this round-up, we enlist 50 awesome free themes for self-hosted WordPress sites.
The Best 50 Free WordPress Themes From 2012
Note: In order to view the Demo and Download URLs for any given theme, click on that particular theme’s screenshot in this gallery.
[gallery columns="2" orderby="title"]
Description of Theme Features
Salient features of each theme:
| Theme Name |
Genre |
Responsive |
Localization |
Custom Elements |
USP |
| Ascetica |
Portfolio |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom page templates |
Hybrid Core framework |
| AzSimple |
Blog |
No |
No |
Nil |
BxSlider |
| Bello |
Blog |
No |
No |
Post types |
NA |
| Clean Retina |
Blog, Corporate |
Yes |
Yes |
9 homepage layouts, 5 post layouts, Gallery post type |
Retina-ready |
| Best |
Magazine |
Yes |
Yes |
Shortcodes, page templates |
NA |
| Buttercream |
Blog |
Yes |
Yes |
Nil |
NA |
| Delicacy |
Blog |
No |
No |
Meta boxes, widgets |
NA |
| Codium Extend |
Blog |
Yes |
Yes (French and Russian included) |
Nil |
NA |
| Digifoto |
Portfolio |
No |
No |
Custom sliders, widgets, contact forms, portfolio template |
Part of WP Business Bundle Free edition |
| Elegant Photography |
Portfolio, Photoblog |
Yes |
Yes |
Page templates, photo galleries |
NA |
| Glider |
Blog |
Yes |
No |
Nil |
Uses jQuery's .load() function, no images |
| Grid |
Portfolio |
Yes |
Yes |
Nil |
Infinite scroll |
| Gridly |
Portfolio |
Yes |
No |
Nil |
jQuery masonry |
| Hatch |
Portfolio |
Yes |
Yes |
Nil |
Hybrid Core framework |
| Launch |
Tumblog |
No |
Yes |
Widgets, post formats, page templates |
NA |
| Leatherly |
Single-page |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom Shortcodes |
NA |
| Lugada |
Blog |
Yes |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| Launcher |
Placeholder |
Yes |
No |
Twitter box |
NA |
| Meeta |
Blog |
Yes |
Yes |
Page templates, widgets |
NA |
| Origami |
Blog, Portfolio |
Yes |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| Nomad |
Portfolio |
No |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| Origin |
Blog |
Yes |
Yes |
Nil |
Hybrid Core framework |
| Oxygen |
Magazine |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom homepage template |
Hybrid Core framework |
| Orion |
Portfolio, Magazine |
Yes |
No |
Custom widgets |
Skeleton framework |
| Panoramica |
Portfolio |
Yes |
No |
Custom page templates |
NA |
| Photolistic |
Photoblog |
No |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| Pilot Fish |
Portfolio |
Yes |
Yes (Japanese and Spanish included) |
Portfolio post type |
NA |
| Photo |
Photoblog |
Yes |
Yes |
Nil |
Homepage slider using Soliloquy |
| Responsive |
Corporate, Multipurpose |
Yes (obviously) |
Yes |
9 custom templates |
Retina-ready |
| Respo |
Blog, Magazine |
Yes |
Yes |
41 custom fonts, 3 widgets, shortcode generator, page templates |
NA |
| Prospect |
Corporate |
No |
No |
Custom slider, contact forms |
Part of WP Business Bundle Free edition |
| silverOrchid |
Magazine |
No |
No |
Custom page templates, widgets |
NA |
| Shutterloop |
Photoblog |
Yes |
Yes |
Customizable homepage |
NA |
| Shortnotes |
Tumblog |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom post formats |
NA |
| Solio |
Single-page |
No |
No |
Portfolio items |
NA |
| Simple Grid |
Portfolio |
Yes |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| SimpleCorp |
Portfolio, Corporate |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom post types, page templates |
NA |
| Thoughts |
Blog |
Yes |
No |
Custom post formats |
No sidebar, no footer |
| Tetris |
Tumblog |
Yes |
No |
Custom post formats |
Homepage slider using Soliloquy |
| Stumblr |
Tumblog |
No |
No |
Post formats |
NA |
| Unique |
Portfolio |
Yes |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| Truly Minimal |
Blog |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom widgets, page templates, shortcodes |
NA |
| Tiara |
Portfolio |
No |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| VeeCard |
vCard |
Yes |
Yes |
Post types, resume uploader, vCard settings |
NA |
| Western |
Magazine (tutorial sites) |
No |
No |
Custom post types, taxonomy, meta boxes |
NA |
| Workality |
Portfolio |
Yes |
Yes |
Custom post types, page templates |
Paid version also available |
| WordPress Svbtle |
Blog |
No |
No |
Nil |
NA |
| Zenon Lite |
Blog, Magazine |
No |
No |
Custom page templates |
NA |
| Yasmin |
Portfolio |
Yes |
No |
Custom post types, taxonomies |
NA |
| Zenshop |
eCommerce |
No |
No |
Custom post types, taxonomies, metaboxes, page templates |
Requires Cart66 plugin |
Over to You...
With that, we come to the end of this round-up. What are your thoughts? Any favorite WP theme of 2012 that you think we missed? Have your say in the comments below!
(dpe) 
WOW the Nomad one looks amazing. Nice list. Though I wish the pictures of those themes on this post were a bit larger.
Nice themes collection.
But have you seen Mantra theme?. I am using it and have 10 Plugins installed on hostgator’s shared hosting. My website loads very slowly :(. Does theme effects performance or plugins or hosting?. Please tell me the solution for it. As I have also have plugin W3 Total Cache. But now I deactivated all plugins due to speed problem.
Excellent collections of themes, all are very much colouful. Thanks a lot for sharing
You’re tha man Sufyan!!! I can use these themes for my clients here in Manila.. ciao!
I have used more than 20 from above……!!