With 2023 quickly approaching, I decided to take a look at the free WordPress themes that were released in the official WordPress.org theme repository in the last 12 months. Is there any useful information that we can learn from? Let’s find out.
I have a similar analysis of the Top WordPress Plugins Released in 2022 on WordPress.org.
If you like this type of content, you might like my Youtube channel.
1. Data set
A few things before we look at the data.
- The data set includes a total of 1,397 themes that went live in the repository between December 1st 2021 and December 1st 2022.
- The two official WordPress themes, Twenty Twenty-Two and Twenty Twenty-Three are excluded.
- All the data was pulled from wordpress.org/themes/ on the 7th of December 2022.
2. WordPress Themes Sorted by Active Installations
- All 1,397 themes are active on 433,910+ websites;
- Only 2 themes are active on more than 10,000 websites;
- Only 4 themes are active on more than 5,000 websites;
- 80 themes are active on more than 1,000 websites;
- 219 themes are active on more than 500 websites;
- 472 themes (33.7%) have never been updated and are active on 97,890+ websites (22.5%).
| # | Theme | Actives | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChromeNews | 10,000 | afthemes |
| 2 | Royal Elementor Kit | 10,000 | wproyal |
| 3 | Zeever (FSE & Block Patterns) | 7,000 | jegstudio |
| 4 | Newsment | 6,000 | afthemes |
| 5 | Elevate WP | 4,000 | extendthemes |
| 6 | Extendable (FSE & Block Patterns) | 4,000 | extendify |
| 7 | Flavita | 4,000 | nayrathemes |
| 8 | Minimalist Newspaper | 4,000 | superbthemescom |
| 9 | BlogSite | 3,000 | wpenjoy |
| 10 | Gradiant | 3,000 | nayrathemes |
| 11 | News Hunt | 3,000 | themeansar |
| 12 | Pathway | 3,000 | extendthemes |
| 13 | SplashNews | 3,000 | afthemes |
| 14 | Startupzy (FSE & Block Patterns) | 3,000 | jegstudio |
| 15 | Apace | 2,000 | pubudu-malalasekara |
| 16 | Best Shop | 2,000 | gradientthemes |
| 17 | Björk (FSE & Block Patterns) | 2,000 | anlino |
| 18 | Blockpress (FSE & Block Patterns) | 2,000 | motionblocks |
| 19 | ColorPress | 2,000 | nayrathemes |
| 20 | Elsie | 2,000 | elfwp |
| 21 | Hugo WP | 2,000 | extendthemes |
| 22 | Intrace (FSE & Block Patterns) | 2,000 | jegstudio |
| 23 | Minimalist Builder | 2,000 | themeeverest |
| 24 | Namaha | 2,000 | outtheboxthemes |
| 25 | Raft (FSE & Block Patterns) | 2,000 | themeisle |
| 26 | Refined Blocks | 2,000 | candidthemes |
Only 7 out of the top 20 themes are tagged with Full Site Editing and include custom Block Patterns.
3. WordPress Themes Sorted by Ratings (Reviews)
- 1,162 themes (83%) have zero ratings and are active on 295,170+ websites (68%);
- The other 235 themes have collected a total of 454 ratings;
- 165 themes (11.8%) have only one rating.
| # | Theme | Actives | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChromeNews | 10,000 | 30 |
| 2 | Royal Elementor Kit | 10,000 | 18 |
| 3 | Craftnce (???) | 100 | 13 |
| 4 | Wabi | 500 | 13 |
| 5 | Gradiant | 3,000 | 12 |
| 6 | Blockpress | 2,000 | 11 |
| 7 | Anews | 600 | 7 |
| 8 | Best Shop | 2,000 | 7 |
| 9 | Elsie | 2,000 | 7 |
| 10 | Blockify | 500 | 6 |
| 11 | PixelPop | 300 | 6 |
| 12 | Shapebox | 1,000 | 6 |
| 13 | WPKites | 1,000 | 6 |
| 14 | Namaha | 2,000 | 5 |
| 15 | Storely | 1,000 | 5 |
| Rating | Ratings | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 384 | 84.58% | |
| 15 | 3.30% | |
| 5 | 1.10% | |
| 13 | 2.86% | |
| 37 | 8.15% | |
| Total | 454 | |
4. WordPress Theme Authors and Developers
- These 1,397 themes were uploaded in 2022 by 293 authors;
- 12 authors have uploaded 20 or more themes;
- 47 authors have uploaded 10 or more themes;
| # | Author | Themes | Actives | Actives per theme | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | themeinwp | 40 | 10,140 | 254 | 4 |
| 2 | themepalace | 39 | 5,570 | 143 | 3 |
| 3 | wptexture | 34 | 3,390 | 100 | 1 |
| 4 | misbahwp | 33 | 4,460 | 135 | 7 |
| 5 | superbthemescom | 32 | 18,700 | 584 | 6 |
| 6 | themespride | 30 | 5,690 | 190 | 6 |
| 7 | pewilliams | 29 | 4,290 | 148 | 1 |
| 8 | sensationaltheme | 27 | 2,850 | 106 | 1 |
| 9 | themagnifico52 | 26 | 3,760 | 145 | 4 |
| 10 | vowelweb | 25 | 5,970 | 239 | 12 |
| 11 | wpkoithemes | 21 | 3,060 | 146 | 1 |
| 12 | luzuk | 20 | 3,610 | 181 | 3 |
| 13 | creativthemes | 19 | 5,000 | 263 | 1 |
| 14 | catchthemes | 19 | 8,000 | 421 | 8 |
| 15 | themearile | 18 | 6,700 | 372 | 1 |
| 16 | ascendoor | 18 | 4,650 | 258 | 3 |
| 17 | netnus | 17 | 1,670 | 98 | 0 |
| 18 | avadantathemes | 16 | 1,620 | 101 | 1 |
| 19 | peccular | 15 | 2,170 | 145 | 0 |
| 20 | blossomthemes | 15 | 4,200 | 280 | 4 |
| 21 | adorethemes | 14 | 4,400 | 314 | 0 |
| 22 | sonalsinha21 | 14 | 3,080 | 220 | 1 |
| 23 | gutenifydev | 14 | 5,900 | 421 | 3 |
| 24 | nalam-1 | 14 | 5,500 | 393 | 3 |
| 25 | themeansar | 14 | 12,400 | 886 | 6 |
| 26 | alxmedia | 14 | 4,700 | 336 | 14 |
| 27 | bizbergthemes | 13 | 5,500 | 423 | 0 |
| 28 | wpelemento | 13 | 1,820 | 140 | 1 |
| 29 | automattic | 13 | 4,980 | 383 | 7 |
| 30 | designwicked | 12 | 780 | 65 | 0 |
| 31 | thinkupthemes | 12 | 2,590 | 216 | 0 |
| 32 | kantipurthemes | 12 | 7,090 | 591 | 0 |
| 33 | raratheme | 12 | 3,300 | 275 | 0 |
| 34 | mohammedashfaque | 12 | 2,240 | 187 | 4 |
| 35 | nayrathemes | 12 | 12,100 | 1,008 | 16 |
| 36 | sharkthemes | 11 | 1,580 | 144 | 0 |
| 37 | bosathemes | 11 | 5,200 | 473 | 0 |
| 38 | shuttlethemes | 11 | 2,100 | 191 | 0 |
| 39 | athemeart | 11 | 3,700 | 336 | 2 |
| 40 | jegstudio | 11 | 17,000 | 1,545 | 10 |
| 41 | gracethemes | 10 | 1,450 | 145 | 0 |
| 42 | reviewexchanger | 10 | 1,200 | 120 | 0 |
| 43 | walkerwp | 10 | 3,200 | 320 | 2 |
| 44 | inpersttion | 10 | 950 | 95 | 2 |
| 45 | buywptemplates | 10 | 2,400 | 240 | 5 |
| 46 | blazethemes | 10 | 4,500 | 450 | 6 |
| 47 | burgersoftware | 10 | 4,140 | 414 | 7 |
If we look at the number of active installations per theme, the authors with a high number of themes don’t seem to have an advantage compared to authors with less themes.
| Author | Themes | Actives | Actives per theme | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| afthemes | 6 | 21,800 | 3,633 | 31 |
| extendthemes | 5 | 9,500 | 1,900 | 0 |
| jegstudio | 11 | 17,000 | 1,545 | 10 |
| nayrathemes | 12 | 12,100 | 1,008 | 16 |
| themeansar | 14 | 12,400 | 886 | 6 |
| anlino | 5 | 4,200 | 840 | 6 |
| gradientthemes | 8 | 6,400 | 800 | 8 |
| wpenjoy | 9 | 6,800 | 756 | 0 |
| scriptstown | 6 | 4,300 | 717 | 1 |
| volthemes | 2 | 1,400 | 700 | 0 |
| wpmagplus | 3 | 2,100 | 700 | 0 |
| themezee | 5 | 3,500 | 700 | 4 |
| themegrill | 2 | 1,300 | 650 | 1 |
| candidthemes | 9 | 5,780 | 642 | 0 |
| kantipurthemes | 12 | 7,090 | 591 | 0 |
| superbthemescom | 32 | 18,700 | 584 | 6 |
| spicethemes | 5 | 2,900 | 580 | 6 |
| sellerthemes | 8 | 4,490 | 561 | 5 |
| bhadaway | 2 | 1,100 | 550 | 5 |
| risetheme | 3 | 1,600 | 533 | 2 |
| wenthemes | 6 | 3,100 | 517 | 0 |
| bosathemes | 11 | 5,200 | 473 | 0 |
| codeworkweb | 3 | 1,400 | 467 | 2 |
| spiraclethemes | 2 | 900 | 450 | 0 |
| blazethemes | 10 | 4,500 | 450 | 6 |
| olivethemes | 4 | 1,700 | 425 | 2 |
| pixahive | 4 | 1,700 | 425 | 0 |
| bizbergthemes | 13 | 5,500 | 423 | 0 |
| gutenifydev | 14 | 5,900 | 421 | 3 |
| catchthemes | 19 | 8,000 | 421 | 8 |
| burgersoftware | 10 | 4,140 | 414 | 7 |
| themesdna | 8 | 3,300 | 413 | 2 |
| codeclove | 2 | 800 | 400 | 2 |
| seosbg | 5 | 2,000 | 400 | 2 |
In Conclusion
Some WordPress theme authors release a lot of themes, but that doesn’t seem to help their numbers grow by a lot. Meanwhile other authors release less themes and gain more users. It’s something to think about.
This post is somewhat related to WordPress.org is ineffective for plugin distribution in 2022 published by Alex Denning of Ellipsis Marketing on October 18th, 2022.
Let me know if you are interested in a similar summary about the themes published in 2020 or 2021.
Be the first to comment