It seems like everywhere you go on the web, there’s a Free Wordpress Theme to be downloaded. Every kind of theme that you can think of has been created. From simple minimalistic type themes to high image/high style themes. From 2 & 3 colum layouts, to the new popular Magazine style layouts. They can all be found. But with the exception of a rare few, most of these free themes are garbage! Don’t worry this is not some premium theme commercialized message. Keep on reading!

The Benefits of Wordpress Theme Frameworks

When you download one of the typical free themes, you are forced to make tons of changes & customizations over the time you are using that theme. In which case you have to ask yourself, was this really worth it? And what about the free theme you downloaded? Was it coded properly? Is it secure? Is it Search Engine Friendly? Does it work in all major browsers? These are important questions you should be asking before downloading and activating a free wordpress theme. This is where Wordpress Theme Frameworks come into play. They provide the following benefits.

Properly Coded

All valid XHTML and CSS. No garbage. Often times these free wordpress themes do not fit the bill in this category. But these Wordpress Theme Frameworks do, allowing you to build on top of a strong foundation as opposed to messy code and a weaker foundation.

Search Engine Friendly

This has quite a bit to do with the benefit above, but I though I would give it mention separately. Depending on the Theme you are using, you could be hurting yourself big time in your SERP’s. This has everything to do with your code being valid XHTML. Be very cautious of this!

Minimal Is The Way To Go

Wordpress Theme Frameworks tend to be very what we call “Minimalistic” in nature. They are much more plain than the average wordpress theme. This of course can be customized, but the idea is something to take note of. There is power in having your wordpress blog simple. This allows you and your readers to focus on the content, not on all this image work everywhere. It also allows the blog to load faster which is never a bad thing.

Very Customizable

Speaking from someone who has customized over 300 blogs in the last couple years, Wordpress Theme Frameworks are much less of a hassle to customize. It’s such a cleaner approach with these frameworks and makes the effort so much more productive for the designer/developer. And no matter how much you customize a regular free theme, there’s always something about it that reminds you of the original theme you downloaded. Which upsets you of course when you are striving to have your own look and feel.

There is a fantastic list of free and commercial Wordpress Theme Frameworks over at the CodeFusionLab. I of course have my favorites that I enjoy working with more than others. Here are the ones I recommend.

1. Hybrid Theme Framework

2. Thematic Theme Framework

3. Ashford Theme Framework

4. WP Framework Theme

5. The Buffet Theme Framework

All of these theme frameworks for Wordpress are free. You are also free to customize them as much as you want and retain rights for your changes. To me there is no better way to theming your Wordpress blog than through a Wordpress Theme Framework. Have fun and good luck. Oh and in case you were wondering, this blog is getting a whole new makeover and i’m using one of these free wordpress frameworks.