Nowadays, it’s an absolute necessity that your educational institution has a website. But if you’re busy helping people learn, you probably don’t want to spend all the time and effort to have one developed from scratch. That’s where this post comes in. I’m going to show you the 30 best WordPress themes for education sites so that you can find the perfect theme for your school or online course without needing to spend hours wading through the muck!
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The 25+ Best WordPress Themes for Education
- 1.1 1. Education WP
- 1.2 2. Eduharvard
- 1.3 3. Lincoln
- 1.4 4. Invent
- 1.5 5. Academia
- 1.6 6. Capital
- 1.7 7. WPLMS Learning Management System
- 1.8 8. School Time
- 1.9 9. Education Hub
- 1.10 10. Upside
- 1.11 11. EDU
- 1.12 12. University
- 1.13 13. LMS WordPress Theme – eLearning WP
- 1.14 14. Preschool
- 1.15 15. Masterstudy
- 1.16 16. Education Pack
- 1.17 19. Academy
- 1.18 18. Buntington
- 1.19 19. Skilled
- 1.20 20. Clever Course
- 1.21 21. Social Learner
- 1.22 22. Lectura Lite
- 1.23 23. Varsita
- 1.24 24. Erudito
- 1.25 25. Elementary
- 1.26 26. Blackboard
- 1.27 27. University
- 1.28 28. Education Center
- 1.29 29. Polytechnic
- 2 For Elegant Themes Members
- 3 Wrapping Up
The 25+ Best WordPress Themes for Education
There are a lot of WordPress themes out there, which can make it difficult to find the best option. So, when making this list, I used a few guidelines to help pick the best themes:
- Looks/Functionality: Obviously I only searched for themes that have the necessary features to create an education website. Sure, you could probably turn a lot of themes into education sites with enough hacking, but that’s a major waste of time!
- Public theme rating: For themes on wordpress.org, ThemeForest, or other sites with public ratings, I took the rating into account when deciding whether or not to include the theme. For new themes, I looked at the rating of the developer when necessary. I tried to stick to themes with a minimum of 4 stars – ideally 4.5 stars.
- Sales/Downloads: While not an overly important metric by itself, I tried to bias towards themes with a large enough sample size for the ratings to be meaningful. If a theme has maintained a good rating over hundreds of confirmed sales, it’s probably safe to say it’s a quality theme.
- Code quality: At a minimum, the theme needs to be responsive. I also tried to make sure the demo site loaded smoothly. While not a perfect indication of code quality, if the demo is sluggish, there’s a good chance the theme will be sluggish on your site, too.
With that out of the way, let’s dig into the 30 best WordPress themes for education!
1. Education WP
Education WP is a popular theme from Envato Elite Author ThimPress. With over 3,800 sales and a 4.82/5 rating, Education WP has the credentials to back it up. Education WP is designed for all educational institutions, from kindergartens to universities.
With over 10+ educational demos and Visual Composer included, Education WP delivers on its promise to fit “any school or educational project.”
Price: $64 | More Information
2. Eduharvard
Eduharvard is a new theme, so it hasn’t built up a ton of ratings yet. But because it comes from Envato Elite Author CMS-Theme, I feel comfortable including it on this list. Eduharvard is fairly minimalist as far as education themes go, which I really like. It’s also responsive, retina ready, and includes 5+ homepage styles.
Price: $59 | More Information
3. Lincoln
Lincoln is a beautiful material design education theme from Envato Elite Author lunartheme. It includes 8 different homepage demos to make getting started easy. It’s also responsive, retina ready, and integrates completely with LearnDash, a learning management system. Lincoln’s styling likely fits more with colleges and universities, and online courses
Price: $59 | More Information
4. Invent
Invent is a responsive and retina ready education theme that’s perfect for both schools and universities. Like other options on this list, it comes from an Envato Elite Author. It has also maintained a 4.53 rating over 1,200+ sales.
Invent fully integrates with LearnDash, includes the SiteOrigin page builder, and includes custom post types for courses, faculty, departments, and more.
Price: $59 | More Information
5. Academia
Academia is designed for both schools/universities and online course providers. It includes multiple homepage styles, integrates with WooCommerce to sell paid courses, and includes Visual Composer for easy page building.
Academia is also responsive, retina ready, and comes from an Envato Elite Author. It’s maintained a 4.6-star rating on over 360 sales.
Price: $59 | More Information
6. Capital
Capital is a multi-purpose theme from WPZOOM that works perfectly for education websites. It’s responsive, includes a dedicated homepage builder, and has easy integration with an events calendar plugin so you can list all your educational events.
The theme also includes a one-click demo importer so you can easily bring in all the education demo content.
Price: $69 | More Information
7. WPLMS Learning Management System
Built on BuddyPress, WPLMS Learning Management System aims to act as a fully-functioning learning management system for your educational institution. You can use it to create and sell courses or just provide information on your school.
If you are going to create courses, you can easily manage them inside the theme and even create quizzes inside your dashboard from over ten types of questions. Notes, discussion modules, drip content, and lots of other features create a complete online course ecosystem.
With three different skins and multiple child themes, WPLMS Learning Management System is a great option. The 12,000+ sales and 4.54-star rating back that up!
Price: $64 | More Information
8. School Time
School Time is a simple education theme perfect for schools and universities of all levels. It includes default pages for the essentials like admissions, faculty, school fees, and more.
It also comes packaged with LayerSlider and Visual Composer to add value. School Time is nowhere near as complicated as something like WPLMS, but if you just need a simple, stylish theme for your school, it’s a great option.
Price: $54 | More Information
9. Education Hub
Education Hub is a sleek education theme suited for any institution. The design is simple, but includes all the essentials an educational website needs.
It’s a free theme listed on the WordPress.org repository. It has over 10,000 installs with a 5-star rating and comes from WEN Themes. It’s definitely the best free option I was able to find.
Price: Free | More Information
10. Upside
Upside is a multi-purpose WordPress theme designed primarily for educational and medical institutions. The theme includes functionality to let you easily manage events and courses. You can also add a forum with support for the bbPress plugin.
The theme is responsive and comes bundled with Visual Composer to make page building easy.
Price: $59 | More Information
11. EDU
EDU can work as a theme for both universities and online course providers. It includes custom post types for both courses and events, which makes it easy to handle those two important educational elements.
EDU is responsive, multi-language compatible, and comes with its own page builder. It also comes from an Envato Elite Author and has over 1,300 sales with a 4.3-star rating.
Price: $59 | More Information
12. University
University is a simple free education theme that is perfect for smaller educational institutions. It doesn’t have the depth and number of features of many of the premium education themes on this list, but it does have a nice, clean look.
Price: Free | More Information
13. LMS WordPress Theme – eLearning WP
LMS WordPress Theme – eLearning WP is another option from Envato Elite Author ThimPress. Like WPLMS, it’s a fully-functioning learning management system. You can create courses, lessons, and quizzes all from inside your WordPress dashboard.
On top of this functionality, it comes with eight different demo sites to help you get started. The design is clean and makes it easy for users to find the right online course.
Price: $64 | More Information
14. Preschool
I hesitated to put Preschool on this list because it lacks sales and ratings. But I decided to include it anyway because it’s the best design I found that was geared entirely towards preschools/kindergartens.
It features a fun design with childish graphics and age-appropriate font choices. In other words, it’s perfect for preschools, but definitely will not work for colleges or universities.
Price: $59 | More Information
15. Masterstudy
Masterstudy is geared towards online courses and tutors, but could be adapted to any type of educational institution. It features a bold, colorful design that showcases both courses and teachers. The course system is based on WooCommerce.
Masterstudy is created by a Power Elite Author and has a 4.69 rating on over 2,400 sales.
Price: $59 | More Information
16. Education Pack
Education Pack is designed to cover a broad spectrum of learning institutions. From dance studios, to universities, to design schools. Not only does Education Pack support these types, it also includes demo content for each type of school.
All told, Education Pack includes nine different educational demos.
Price: $49 | More Information
19. Academy
Academy is another learning management theme. That means it provides everything you need to create and sell online courses. You can track course progress, quiz students, and more. It includes custom post types for courses and lessons to make setting them up easy.
Price: $59 | More Information
18. Buntington
Buntington is an affordable premium theme perfect for educational institutions and non-profits. It features custom post types for courses and events, as well as a clean, light design. It also includes a visual homepage builder.
Price: $40 | More Information
19. Skilled
With its big, bold slider, Skilled is perfect for all types of educational institutions. It can also function as a learning management system if you purchase an additional premium plugin called Sensei Courses, which gives Skilled a good deal of flexibility.
Price: $60 | More Information
20. Clever Course
Clever Course is a WordPress learning management system that lets you feature both online and offline courses. You can create instructor profiles and sell your courses directly with the integrated payment gateways.
Like other learning management systems, you can create courses, lessons, and quizzes inside your WordPress dashboard.
Price: $63 | More Information
Social Learner is a powerful learning management system built on LearnDash and BuddyPress. It includes integrated gamification to make your online courses both educational and addictive. It’s also integrated with WooCommerce to make selling courses simple.
Functionality aside, I think Social Learner just flat out has one of the best designs, too.
Price: $179 | More Information
22. Lectura Lite
Lectura Lite is the free version of Academia Themes’ Lectura theme. While the premium version is also a good option, I think Lectura Lite is still a suitable option for any educational institution. The design is clean and simple – perfect for a private school or small university.
Price: Free | More Information
23. Varsita
Varsita can function as both a school website or a learning management system for online courses. It includes demos for both options to make setup easy. In order to get the LMS functionality, you’ll need to also purchase the premium Themeum plugin.
Even without Themeum, it includes options to manage courses and faculty.
Price: $59 | More Information
24. Erudito
Erudito is another education offering from WPZOOM. With 12 different color options, its design is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of colleges and universities.
No course management in this one – just a clean design to showcase your school.
Price: $69 | More Information
25. Elementary
Elementary is a premium option from Academia Themes (no lite option, unfortunately). It’s very similar in looks to Erudito and is perfect for any school or university looking for a nice, clean design.
I also like that they use Hogwarts in their theme demo!
Price: Included in $99 Academia Themes Club | More Information
26. Blackboard
Blackboard is another functional education design from Academia Themes. It features a multi-column layout with space for events, contact details, and blog posts. The design is simple and professional – exactly what most educational institutions need.
Price: Included in $99 Academia Themes Club | More Information
27. University
University is a great looking theme which provides dedicated management for courses and events. I think the blue color they use in their demo site is perfect for colleges and universities.
University comes from a Power Elite Author on Envato and has a 4.45 rating on over 600 sales.
Price: $49 | More Information
28. Education Center
While Education Center claims to focus on colleges and universities, I think its design is more suited to preschools and kindergartens (at least on the demo site).
Education Center also integrates with LearnDash to create a full learning management system if needed.
Price: $59 | More Information
29. Polytechnic
Polytechnic is a crisp looking theme for all types of educational institutions. It also has some helpful backend tweaks such as a “Faculty Member” user role, course catalogs, and a customized login screen.
The theme also includes an events calendar and an integrated bookstore powered by WooCommerce, which is a fairly unique feature.
Price: $59 | More Information
For Elegant Themes Members
If you’re a member of Elegant Themes then our flagship theme Divi is a great option for Educational sites.
Divi
You might not be able to tell at first glance – but the website above is actually created with Elegant Themes’ own Divi theme. Because of its flexibility, Divi is the perfect option to power education websites. The brand-new visual builder lets anyone create beautiful pages, and Divi’s multitude of choices when it comes to fonts and layouts allows you to pick the perfect style for your educational institution.
Price: $69/year for themes only. $89/year for themes AND plugins | More Information
Wrapping Up
I hope you enjoyed the 30 best WordPress themes for education! I did my best to sort through and find only the best for your school or online course site, but I know it’s possible I missed one. While some may want a theme that helps them build course websites, sometimes the best route is by using an LMS plugin that can be used with any theme.
Do you know of a great education theme that’s not on the list? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Article thumbnail image by PureSolution / shutterstock.com
Our school choose DIVI for good reasons. It looks great and goes with our everchanging need.
Has anybody successfully used Divi with Learndash? Would the two integrate seamlessly. I’ve read that the only difficulty that people face when trying to use a theme like Divi is that often their page builder doesn’t apply to the custom post types of third-party plugins (such as LearnDash).
As much as I love Divi, I’d have thought Extra would also be a great alternative to include on your list.
Divi was the obvious choice when Viva Design Studio created the Windsor Bergen Academy website. Because it is so flexible, I was able to create an info-packed site that allowed the school to continuously add timely updates, while being both kid- and parent-friendly.
Next Step, Brenda, when will someone create a Divi education instituion/school template? or Who has ?
Thank you.
We’re actually working on a few free layout packs for Education 🙂
Any progress on the layout packs?
How come you have missed the Ventura divi child theme?
LifterLMS is a great plugin btw ( it’s also used in the child theme )
What’a the best LMS plugin to use with Divi? Preferably, when will ET release their own customized LMS plugin that would allow course creation, quizzes, gamification, certificate, etc.? Online education is a great part of the future, Divi users are currently at a disadvantage in that arena.
Hi Douglas-
LearnDash can be used with Divi. I’d be happy to discuss it further with you: contact [ at ] learndash.com
Kindly,
Justin
Hi Justin,
Does LD offer a pre-test function as well or can be configured to do so?
Thanks
Jae
Can you advise on plugins and platforms for LMS that work well with DIVI? Maybe a break down on how to fully set up an LMS, with login, payment and so forth? I’m always using DIVI but I find myself hacking it with plugins to make things work properly.
LearnDash And Sensei might be your best choices.
Thanks Brenda. Wouldn’t a blogging theme like Extra theme be a good option for an educational theme? If not, why not?
Extra could of course be a good fit for educational institutions. It all depends in how you set it up as it’s extremely flexible (just like Divi).
Excellent, Brenda! Thanks so much for doing all this work for me! One of my New Year’s resolutions it to finally put together an eCourse folks have been asking for. When I would go to look for themes it was overwhelming…
Your post helped me narrow it down to three (one I knew about already the other two I didn’t) and I really appreciated the fact you took ratings and sales into consideration as that is the criteria I was looking at too.
WoW! This looks really good, cant wait to try it out