Best Free WordPress themes for membership sites:
When starting a membership site it is important to pick out all of the correct tools and resources to help you get started in the right direction. If you are going to build with WordPress, picking the right membership site theme and the right membership plugin is going to help you in the long run by making it easier to manage and scale your site.
What is the difference between a membership site theme and a WordPress membership plugin?
Membership Site Theme: Gives you the general site identity such as colors, locations of menus, prebuilt page designs for organizing your video course page.
Membership Site Plugin: Gives you the ability to actually lock content behind a payment wall. Allows you to manage member accounts, giving you the ability to drip feed content, and much more!
Make sure to understand why it is more important to select the right membership site plugin. Find out what the top WordPress Membership Plugins are!
Here are the best free wordpress themes for membership sites:
Completely free:
1. OceanWP
OceanWP is one of the fastest growing free WordPress membership sites and ecommerce. This is a very flexible theme that integrates into made of the top membership plugins while also retaining lightning fast load speeds.
Standout Features: Although it does not have the Pre-Built Layouts and designs, this theme is super snappy with amazing mobile support and overall reliability.
Price: FREE!
Free and With Paid Upgrades
- Divi
Divi is recognized as one of the top WordPress themes and page builders. For new and more experienced website designers, Divi allows for easy drag and drop design and makes it an easy choice for many different kinds of websites. Divi also allows you to use your purchased license to make an unlimited number of websites, including for clients! (The speed of building and the lack of limitations is why we have Divi as our #1 pick!)
Standout feature: Thousands of pre designed websites with 5+ pages per site design. Including membership site, with a course page, purchase page, etc…
Price: $89/year While slightly on the more pricey side it is still well worth the functionality and speed that Divi allows you to build.
- Astra
Astra is one of the fastest growing WordPress theme options available. It too, comes with dozens of pre-built designs you can select from, although not as extensive as Divi. Astra also comes with easy integration for page builder such as Elementor but does not come with a page builder already.
Standout Feature: Astra comes with a prebuilt LearnDash template, along with easy integration with Woo-commerce and Memberpress (A WordPress membership plugin)
Price: Starting at only $47, Astra is a great theme
- Ultra
Ultra is another outstanding membership site. It provides an easy drag-and-drop builder that allows you to customize your membership site to your liking. It does also come with 30+ prebuilt demo sites you can choose from, including one of the best WordPress themes for video membership sites.
Standout Feature: Simple page builder, oriented towards agency owners and entrepreneurs with less technical skills. It comes with many custom social media integration options that allow for improved SEO.
Price: Starting at $59, this theme is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a cheap, simple, yet powerful wp theme for membership sites.
- GeneratePress
GeneratePress is the best lightweight WordPress membership theme. This theme is built with speed in mind and with pages at 30 KB, you’ll be able to create fast-loading and SEO optimized pages from the start. GeneratePress also comes with 30+ pre-built demo sites which can be easily customized and filled with unique content.
Standout Features: The main benefit of this theme is the ultralight weight nature while still allowing for easy integrations with the top WordPress membership plugins such as Woo-commerce and much more!
Price: At $49.95 this theme option is a good recommendation for someone looking for a lighter quicker theme, that still maintains all the functionality needed to create a membership site theme.
Overall, any of these Themes would work great as WordPress themes for membership sites. Just keep in mind the theme only determines the appearance and pre-built page selections. In order to actually lock content and give members access to content after they pay is by using a WordPress membership plugin!