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12 WordPress Themes That Look Nothing Like Blogs

What do Beyoncé, Sweden, and The Metro have in common? Their websites all run on WordPress. Completely different sites for different audiences in different styles. All using the versatile WordPress publishing platform to build unique websites. And so can you.

WordPress is the industry-leading Content Management System (CMS) that powers over 75 million websites. It hasn’t always been that way though and most people still think of it as a blogging platform. That may have been how it started out but now it runs huge websites you’ve probably visited – The Metro,  Time Inc, some BBC sites. Plus ones you would never suspect – Beyoncé, Walt Disney, Vogue. Even official Government sites – the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, anyone?

There might be blogs on those sites, but this is so much more than blogging.

WordPress is an incredibly flexible CMS thanks to its themes, plugins, and massive community. Its open source roots make it an amazing playground for developers and website owners can build sites as complex or as simple as they like. And by using the right WordPress themes those sites can look nothing like blogs.

Business sites are easy to make on WordPress. Even the more dynamic social sharing sites and online shops can be simple if you have the right theme and plugins. There’s a huge variety possible on WordPress and a WordPress site can look like anything.

To show what WordPress is really capable of, here are the top 12 WordPress themes that look nothing like blogs.

WordPress themes for Business sites

Specialised to every possible niche, the WordPress themes designed for business sites look like any other website you might come across.

 

BeTheme has nearly 300 pre-built sites included with the theme. They specialise in everything from sushi restaurants to mechanics to investment firms. That means you can get something completely optimised for your industry and your audience.

Then there are specific themes such as Consulting, for business and finance. Or Construction for – you guessed it – the construction industry. All industries have their own conventions when it comes to webdesign or labelling. Your WordPress theme can do the heavy lifting on that for you. They can even come with usable images and template pages to make setting up even simpler.

WordPress themes for Creative and Portfolio sites

Creative businesses can showcase their talents with amazing images and portfolios, thanks to these WordPress themes that look nothing like blogs. Some have barely any text on them, let alone a blog. What they do have is bold typography and vibrant visuals. A clean layout lets the images speak for themselves in creative and portfolio themes.

 

Bridge is one such theme and it has over 200 demos ready to go for all sorts of businesses – creative or not. But with the large, prominent images, creative and portfolio sites are easy to put together.

Brando has lots of options too but is optimised as a one page theme, to keep things simple. Massive Dynamic has more templates with multiple agency-style themes for creative sites.

WordPress themes for Community and social sites

Using BuddyPress, bbPress and other plugins you can make a community site using WordPress. As a forum, for discussions, sharing links, social networking. Even complex-looking sites like Product Hunt and Reddit can be replicated on WordPress with the right themes and plugins.

 

If you are talking about WordPress themes that look nothing like blogs then a site like Reddit is pretty far from the standard WordPress blog. There’s a detailed post about how to make a site like Reddit with WordPress that uses Epic Themes’ own WPeddit theme. User generated content, upvoting, subthreads and all the Reddit essentials are there.

Woffice can be used as an intranet for businesses or schools and OnePress is another popular social network theme.

WordPress themes for ecommerce sites

Thanks to ecommerce plugins WordPress can even be used as a fully featured online shop and marketplace. There are thousands of WordPress themes that will give you a slick and professional storefront that looks nothing like a blog.

 

Shopkeeper boasts all the features an ecommerce site needs – four different product page templates, galleries and a flexible shop layout.

The Retailer is another top ecommerce theme and Atelier for beautiful storefronts – all built on WordPress but looking nothing like blogs.

No limits with WordPress themes that look nothing like blogs

Build anything from a business site, a creative portfolio, an ecommerce shop front to a social networking site – using WordPress and these 12 WordPress themes that look nothing like blogs.

Using the right theme for your project there’s really no limit to what you can create using WordPress. All sorts of sites run on WordPress and even ones that don’t – like Reddit – could be. WordPress is so much more than blogging.

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