News and technology are two popular topics online and WordPress is a great platform for building websites around them. News is something that changes often. The more categories you have the more difficult it can be to find the latest news for a specific category. You want your content to be easy to navigate and your categories to stand apart from each other. This means you need a clean and modern magazine-style theme.
Best WordPress Themes for News & Tech Sites
News and tech sites need a clean and modern magazine feel that lets you focus on categories and present them in a way that makes sense to your audience and give you all the features you need and help you stand out from the crowd.
The best themes for news and tech site will focus on the user’s experience. They should have modern layouts with category features, sliders that feature content, menu and header systems that are customizable with a focus on categories, have lots of customizations, widgets, and the ability to customize the layout. They should load fast, look clean, and feel professional. They should also include the standard features you expect in a modern WordPress theme: SEO optimization, translation ready, and be fully responsive.
With this in mind I’ve found 15 of the best WordPress themes for news and tech sites. They’re in no particular order. Let’s take a look.
1. Extra
Extra is an Elegant Themes magazine theme built on the Divi Builder platform. It includes a new Category Builder that allows you to easily create magazine home-pages and drag and drop the elements where you want them. It has lots of category modules such as featured post slider, tabbed posts, post modules, posts carousel, and more. A ratings system allows you to create custom reviews. It comes with a premade magazine homepage layout as well as several other layouts. A sharp mega menu displays your featured and latest posts for your categories. It’s an excellent choice to create an online publication with story driven posts.
Features include:
- Modular
- Custom layout for each page or post
- Category Builder
- Responsive
- WPML ready with RTL support
- Mega menu
- Header options
- Shortcodes
- Ratings system
- Theme customizations
- Dozens of modules
- Options panel
- Custom CSS areas
- Page templates
- Ads manager
- WooCommerce ready
Price: $69 | More Information
2. Newspaper
Newspaper includes 20 designs and you can import even more. Several of its many pre-made layouts are news and tech specific. Smart category templates let you place content, lists, sidebars, footers, top bars, news tickers, and more. Multiple post templates help you create story-driven articles. It also includes a detailed product review system.
Features include:
- 20 Designs
- Design interface
- Grid layouts
- Page templates
- Dozens of category templates
- 14 post templates
- Review system
- Mobile theme
- Predefined and custom ad spots
- 7 premium widgets
- Multiple header styles
- Responsive (including Google Ads and Adsense)
- Integrated translation panel
- Lazy load
- Font Awesome
- Sticky menu
- Visual Composer
- eCommerce integration
- Speed Booster
- Free lifetime updates
Price: $59 | More Information
3. Broden
Broden is a lifestyle magazine theme that lends itself well to news and tech. It has multiple magazine layouts to choose from that would make any news or tech site look spectacular. The mega menu system is unique in the way it includes a sub-topic selection menu. The slider system lets your prominent categories stand out, or you can simply show your latest posts. You can display ads and social links without them getting in the way of your content.
Features include:
- 3 headers
- 4 sliders
- 5 custom widgets
- 3 post styles
- Responsive
- WPML ready
- Hand-picked Google fonts
- Mega menu
Price: $49 | More Information
4. Sahifa
Sahifa includes over 200 improvements and new features that give it a fresh and modern look. Build your own homepage with the custom drag and drop builder. Display content with the content slideshow. It includes lots of custom pages, widgets, and plugins to help you create a news or tech site with virtually any feature you can imagine. It’s optimized for speed.
Features include:
- Media page template
- AJAX live search
- Mobile navigation
- Taqyeem ratings plugin
- Admin panel with over 400 options
- TiePage Builder
- Social counter widget
- Multiple layouts
- Mega menus
- Menu icons
- 6 premium plugins
- Multiple homepage sliders
- Sticky sidebars
- 10 page templates
- Over 40 shortcodes
- 3 custom widgets
- WooCommerce ready
- Responsive (including Adsense)
- Optimized for speed and SEO
- Translation ready with RTL support
Price: $59 | More Information
5. The-One
The-One is a news magazine theme with category layouts. It has lots of modern features to make your website feel professional including lazy loading, newsletter promotion, and elegant mouse-over animation effects. It includes custom WooCommerce plugins in case you want to sell your own products. Build your news or tech magazine with multiple magazine and blog layouts, and you can fully customize them even further. The mega menu system looks outstanding.
Features include:
- Visual Composer
- Categories layout
- YITH WooCommerce Wishlist
- YITH WooCommerce Compare
- Custom CSS area
- Dynamic sidebar
- Mega menu
- 500 Google fonts
- Super cache
- WPML ready
- Responsive
Price: $59 | More Information
6. FlexMag
FlexMag is a news and magazine theme with a mobile-first design. It has a strong focus on article layout design to help your articles stand apart from other news and tech websites. Your site can stand out even more by creating a unique homepage with the drag and drop layout builder. It has lots of custom page and layout designs including 9 featured post layouts and 8 article layouts. Display your content using the custom widgets and create your own styling with the custom CSS feature.
Features include:
- Drag and drop homepage builder
- 8 custom widgets
- Mega menus
- Auto-loading posts
- 9 featured posts layouts
- 8 article layouts
- 4 skins
- Custom fly-out navigation
- Unlimited ad units
- Sticky sidebars
- 700 Google fonts
- Custom footer
- Custom CSS
- SEO Optimized
- Responsive
- Translation ready
- Free lifetime updates
Price: $59 | More Information
7. Magazine
Magazine is a news and tech magazine theme with a modern grid and category design. It includes lots of page templates and several homepage styles. Along with the unlimited colors, shortcodes, headers, and footers you can create a uniquely styled magazine for your audience. You can divide your homepage into categories and make it easy for your readers to find your latest posts. It’s sharp, elegant, and fast.
Features include:
- 4 homepage layouts
- Responsive
- Page builder
- Shortcodes
- Google fonts
- Unlimited colors
- Header layout
- Footer layout
- Wide or boxed layout
- Backup theme data
Price: $59 | More Information
8. NewsFront
NewsFront is a feature-rich news magazine theme with a clean and modern design. It has lots of theme options and customizations and you can create any type of layout you want. It was developed with eCommerce in mind and integrates perfectly with WooCommerce. It includes a built in review system. An automated smart content list lets you easily create list for your articles. The unique menu system includes a mega menu that highlights categories. A news ticker highlights your latest news.
Features include:
- Responsive
- Visual Composer
- Multiple skins
- 60 builder elements
- WooCommerce integration
- Advanced pagination
- Mega menu
- Social integration
- WPML ready
- Free lifetime updates
Price: $59 | More Information
9. TechNews
TechNews is a modern magazine theme designed for content-rich tech news sites. It presents your content in a way that’s easy to browse. A unique reviews ratings feature lets you graph the pros and cons. An article page lets you choose between two different title options and two different feature image options. Big stories can display a full-width title. The mega menu highlights your articles and you can fully customize the look of your site with the theme customizer.
Features include:
- Magazine3 widgets
- Ad management
- Theme customizer
- WPML ready
- Responsive
- Article page
- Mega menu
- Review options with Google structured data support
Price: $59 | More Information
10. Red Plus
Red Plus is a news theme that can create complex magazines. It includes category blocks with an AJAX loading feature so readers can load more of any category they want. There are several homepage, post, and page layouts, and several category templates to choose from. The built in review system lets you choose between stars, percentage, or a number. Animations are smooth and the loading is fast. The multiple layouts give you plenty of options to customize the look and feel of your website.
Features include:
- News ticker
- Slider
- Ad management
- 3 home pages
- Multiple page and post layouts
- Modular pages with 13 block styles and 3 block areas
- Tabbed widget
- Social buttons
- Responsive
- WPML ready
Price: $49 | More Information
11. Bangkok Press
Bangkok Press offers a lot of features for any news or tech site. It includes lots of pre-built layouts and you can create your own using the layout builder. It includes lots of page templates, several home page designs, and several blog layouts to choose from. Place elements using the built-in shortcodes to create a unique news or tech magazine.
Features include:
- Drag and drop layout builder
- Drag and drop slider manager
- 10 blog styles
- Shortcodes
- 15 background patterns
- 4 custom post types
- Unlimited sidebars
- Font uploader
- Responsive
- SEO optimized
- Layered PSD files
Price: $49 | More Information
12. HotMagazine
HotMagazine is an interesting news/tech magazine theme with segmented vertical scrolling. The 17 different homepages and the drag and drop builder ensure that your site will look unique. The built in review system with stars, percent’s, and points will make your reviews look professional. There are lots of demo layouts to get your started and you can customize them even further. The unique tiled slider looks amazing and the mega menu adds to the professional look and feel. Your readers will be kept up to date on the latest news with your news ticker.
Features include:
- 6 default demos
- 5 headers
- 7 post formats
- Sticky navigation menu
- Mega menu
- Category template
- Unlimited sidebars
- Review system
- Visual composer
- RTL support
- 9 style demos
- Google fonts
- qTranslate plugin
- Responsive
Price: $49 | More Information
13. Compass
Compass is a magazine theme with a highly configurable homepage and a news ticker to help make your news and tech site look great. You can create practically any type of layout and color combination you want. The AJAX loading system allows readers to load more content without having to leave the page. Pages can show sidebars or be full-width. You can easily display your latest news and categories. It’s built on the Zoom framework.
Features include:
- Touch Slideshow
- Shortcodes
- Page templates
- Visual Composer
- Dynamic homepage builder
- Customizer
- Custom widgets
- Advanced options panel
- Responsive
- WPML ready
Price: $69 | More Information
14. Pixagraph
Pixagraph is a news magazine theme with a built in post formats, lots of post templates, and a ratings system with custom scoring. You can adjust the layout using the page builder to make the design your own. The mega menu features your posts and categories. The post grid system makes your layouts look modern and clean. Plenty of custom widgets and shortcodes are included.
Features include:
- Page builder
- Review system
- Sticky sidebar
- Sticky headers
- Options panel
- Global and custom background
- Video popup
- Soundcloud popup
- Ad management
- Google fonts
- Category slider
- Post grid
- Custom sidebar per page
- Shortcodes
- Mega menu
- Responsive
Price: $39 | More Information
15. Master
Master is a great magazine style WordPress theme, perfect for anyone creating a news or tech blog. It comes with a wide array of design and editorial options that will make starting your blogging empire a breeze.
Features Include:
- 5 blog layouts
- 3 slider designs
- 5 category presentations
- One-click installation
- 9 ready to use demos
- 40+ widgets/shortcodes
- And more
Price: $59 | More Information
Start Building Your Next Site
Well that’s 15 of the best WordPress themes for news and tech sites. The themes are feature-rice and easy to use. The layouts look sharp and modern while focusing on your content and ease of use. They help you set your categories apart and make them easy to navigate. Most provide tools you need to create your own layouts and they have lots of customizations, shortcodes, and widgets to help your website look unique. They’re fast, clean, and look professional.
Article thumbnail image by ArchMan / shutterstock.com
I have been doing a lot of “best wordpress template for news” searching, and this post has been the most useful.
What do you think are the easiest themes to use? I am not a designer or a developer and just want something that looks great but is super easy to get up and running.
My site may one day have some original content, but to start it will essentially be a “clipping service” that links to other content related to my industry in my state. I am creating a custom map that I will invest some time into, so the template should be able to accommodate that (I’m looking at either Mapify Pro or WP Google Maps Pro – open to suggestions on that as well!)
Thanks!
wow.. these are really hand picked cool selections.. going for master
Great things. You have detailed the top styles for Information relevant sites.
I love the idea of the Category Builder in Extra; but I’d like to start using Divi for all my sites. Is there an equivalent capability in Divi?
I need to be able to feature blog posts from about 6-8 categories.
Thanks.
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve been thinking of building my own website for tech purposes so it’s nice to see what others in the industry are doing.
The ‘Divi’ theme is the only one i will recommend in RTL use.
Thanks for the info 🙂
Awesome information, as always. Thanks for share
Great stuff. You have listed the top themes for News related sites.
Hello Randy brown, i sincerely love the Divi themes. It is the most easily customized themes for newbies.
I almost used it on every single websites i created. I vouch for Divi
wow all these theme are beautiful would try to buy one some day especially the divi theme
Do all Themes that are made by Elegant Themes, support Divi Builder? And whats the advantage to using the Divi theme vs just using a Divi Builder with an existing theme?
Agree with those who commented on the quality of themes posted here. It definitely does users a disservice to see such low quality themes promoted as such.
In addition to this, I feel that Divi and Extra need to be combined into one singular theme. The specific blog modules seen in Divi would be extremely beneficial to use in Divi and with Divi being the defacto theme in the portfolio, I see no real reason to split the difference.
Truth is, I bought a lifetime subscription for Divi and not the other themes. In WordPress’s infancy, there was a need for content-specific themes, but as theme development evolved, today’s premium themes offer such flexibility that can accommodate most types of content. This is where I feel Divi has and is headed (especially after 3.0). Divi should be the premiere theme that encompasses the best tools from across all of ET’s themes and with Extra, I feel that it’s modules would be better served under Divi and could easily be a great way to promote it’s evolving flexibility and use for all purposes.
Agree! Please combine Divi and Extra. Extra has great modules like post carousel and Social Media stuff. But no full width (post header) possibility.
Divi should be the flagship!
Thanks for the post. I rarely comment on these but I’m pretty surprised not to see Newspaper 7 Theme on Themeforest here. Currently the 7th most popular theme with almost 30,000 sales and a rating of 4.86 on over 3000 ratings – I used it on a client’s website recently, a local newspaper and it was just fantastic to use – many many options, post templates etc, easy to customise. The theme deserves to be in this list.
I agree with some of the concerns about themes in this list with very low sales over a number or months however this seems to be the norm with most themeforest themes lately. A fairer comparison would have included some of the big selling blog / magazine themes.
Re Extra, I tried to love it and thought I did however I just find myself struggling to build something that I am happy with. It really is quite boxy and when I got sort of close to a layout on the desktop I am happy with when viewing on tablets / mobile devices I just find the responsive breakpoints remove the feeling of viewing an online publication.
If anyone has a list of links to Extra themed sites that inspire / look great I would really be grateful!
I do wish Divi had the category builder.
Dear ET, I would like you to go on full disclosure and reveal what was the methodology behind recommending themes.
1. Were they actually tested?
2. If not – were they researched (at least on Theme Forest, where comments, reviews and other data is freely available)
3. Were the links at least checked? (some of the links to mojo market don’t work properly)
Thank you.
It is important to understand since I read your blog often and now I will have a second thoughts about following recommendation for other products on this blog.
Hi Randy, nice wordpress themes, and I think divi is one of the best fits from all of them for me.
Come on… what’s this?
“Best” themes…. ???
2 snapshots :
5. Naomi
22 Sales
and
12. NewsWall
Created December 15
Last update December 15
32 sales….
Is this serious ? On what did you base your “review”?
Is there anybody from ET who checks guest posts before they are published?
Another one – Tissam theme
– No reviews at all (!!)
– Created 4 months – meaning it is raw and buggy
– Only 8 sales in 4 months
The only comment from the real buyer says:
“Dear i’ve installed you theme and after 10 days there was nothing on front page. Everything is lost. Please suggest something. Pages are but the content is not there, and i cannot make update to the existing pages.”
How can ET recommend this? I have the same question :
Is there anybody from ET who checks guest posts before they are published?
I must say I agree with much of what Elijah had said. Can I also ask a question. Are the links here affiliate links? If so I would recommend that a statement to that affect appears at the start of the article. I really enjoy reading the elegant blog but this article really feel short of the standard we’ve come to expect..
Hi David, as I have responded to Elijah above, we never publish affiliate links.
It is really hard to seriously take the list that lists 2 ET themes (as #1 and #2 option) AND it is posted on ET site.
Some of the examples are pretty outrageous and reveal that no research job was done properly.
For example the theme that you mention – Newsrack
The theme was added only 4 months ago (meaning it is raw and is guaranteed to have bugs), on top of all that – it has a rating of 4 out of 5, which by Theme Forest standard it is very low. It means there are problems with support and quality.
Moreover – only 30 sales in 4 months, this is not a good sign. And you actually recommend this one as the 3rd best theme in your least.
Why did you actually omit ThemeForest bestsellers and have chosen this theme it is a mystery.
Such an unbalanced and seemingly biased list raises questions about creating it for affiliate payouts. Just an assumption, but there are reasons to assume that.
Elijah,
@Elijah
Get off your pedestal dude. It’s their blog. Why wouldn’t they promote their own themes (since both Divi & Extra are IMO as well – the best of the best).
“meaning it is raw and is guaranteed to have bugs”
What do you base this decision on? Have you looked at the code? Have you used it? Do you have one single item of proof to substantiate this claim? “Guaranteed” is a pretty strong word. Are you willing to back that up with anything?
What do their sales have to do with the quality of the theme (which is subjective after all)?
And…..you need to seriously apologize for the “affiliate payouts” BS. It’s 100% unfounded and you know it. Do you see any affiliate links? NO! You know what they say about ASSumptions.
@Ron
I would also be interested in hearing you the answer to this question, if you don’t mind answering.
“Would you recommend your client a theme for his business that is:
1. Created 9 month ago and since then there were no updates whatsoever issued by the theme author
2. In the last 9 month – no reviews at all on the theme page on theme forest.
3. Managed only 32 sales in 9 months”
If the answer is ‘no’, then I would encourage you to take a more critical look at the list of presented themes. Because what I described is the NewsWall theme recommended in this list.
There are others with the same set of characteristics as well.
If your answer is ‘Yes, I would be comfortable recommending such theme’, then I’m afraid there is nothing that can be said here.
“What do you base this decision on? ”
— Experience. Worked with a lot of freshly minted themes and had a of issues with them. I agree, ‘guaranteed’ is inappropriate term. Let’s replace it with “highly likely”.
Let me remind that even Divi had significant amount of issues when that needed to be polished after the initial release.
It;s just the nature of the beast – and this is why buying a freshly released theme should be done with caution. I’m a little bit surprised it is news for you.
I’ll gladly get off the pedestal – it’s all yours .
“What do their sales have to do with the quality of the theme (which is subjective after all)?”
—Just on of the factors. If you combine it with the rest, it should give you a good indication.
So my advise would be – take a look at the all factors together, do not pick on a single one.
Number of sales relates to quality of support. Support is something to be considered when you create a serious website, especially when you have contractual obligations to your client.
If you have 2 different themes, but the other on has significantly better sales numbers – it can be used to make a better business decision.
If you see the list of themes that consistently neglects those factors – it can make you question the quality of presented list.
Hi Elijah,
Thanks for stopping by our blog and taking the time to leave a comment. In response I wanted to address a few of your points:
As the editor I can assure you that we never publish anything with affiliate links. So that is never a motivation when it comes to selecting themes we feature in posts like this one.
As for featuring our own themes, well, it’s a bit ironic. Turns out that when we do not, we get comments about that too! So seeing as it’s impossible to please everyone AND we believe deeply in our products (as well as their ability–as multi-purpose themes–to fill many if not most niche needs) we have chosen to feature them prominently.
As for the other themes featured in this post, they are not listed in any particular order.
Best,
Nathan
Nathan, I think you fail to address the main point – the quality of reviews provided in this article.
You (not you personally) do a disservice to your readers by not properly researching the recommended themes. Newsrack is a good example of what should not be recommended.
– bad rating on theme forest
– only 4 months old
– 30 items sold in 4 months
I think that every developer that has experience with working with the themes downgrade your your rating as an authority on specific topics at least.
Nathan, your explanation that “we place ET themes on top because if we don’t – we receive complaints”… only a people with underdeveloped intellectual abilities will truly believe it. And by providing such explanation you treat me as member of this group. Sorry.
All in all you reply is understandable, you are trying to protect your colleague, but what you don’t seem to understand is that being honest makes much better impression and retains customer base.
If you said ‘sorry, we made a mistake’ – that would be understandable, I would accept it, no harm done.
Instead you came up with a defensive explanation that makes completely different impression.
Sorry, for speaking my mind, but sometimes it is hard to avoid.
Elijah, I can see this means a lot to you and I’d like to reassure you as to the quality of our blog and its writers.
I hope it is obvious that it is not my intention or Randy’s to insult your intelligence or somehow trick, deceive, or mislead you or anyone else in regards to the themes listed above. On the contrary, it is important to us to maintain transparency and integrity as a publication.
So here is what we will do. We will update this post with the criteria used to make the list. When we do that we will also cross-reference the themes mentioned in the comments here that you and others believe should have made the cut. If they make it they will be included.
I hope this helps to alleviate your concerns.
“So here is what we will do. We will update this post with the criteria used to make the list.”
—– Nathan, any updates on this?
Thank you.
Elijah.
The updates were turned into me at the end of day Friday. I will be updating the post today. I would appreciate your patience.
Thanks Nathan, that would actually be great (if you can explain the criteria).
I’m a previous ET customer and I actually follow this blog, it i bookmarked and I use it for reference quite often, with some of the topics bookmarked.
I’m not indifferent to the quality of this blog and this is why I read it often, but this article does make me question if I should really rely on recommendation presented here.
Thank you.
“Sorry, for speaking my mind, but sometimes it is hard to avoid.”
Apparently even if you’re wrong.
This is an interesting list. I’m approaching it from the point of view of, look at the popular magazine/blog themes that are not made by Elegant Themes, and how can I take the best features from them and implement them using Extra.
Hello, Randy. Thank you for such a great post. I am working to put together a news-related website and I’m just curious for your opinion — what would be a better ElegantThemes product — Divi or Extra — for such a project? I originally preferred Extra, largely because of the advertising component. But Divi has ad capability as well. FYI, I would be anticipating about five posts per week, including a weekly blog with three items. Thank you, in advance, for sharing your knowledge.
Hi Ron. That’s a tough one. The advantage of Extra is the category builder is already set up for magazines. The advantage of Divi is there are lots of magazine child themes and tutorials to help you build your own. I use Extra for my magazine but I can just as easily use Divi. I recommend playing around with the category builder to see if you prefer using it to the standard Divi layouts.
I was recommended Newspaper and Sahifa. Anyone have thoughts on if those should be on this list?
Hi Randy, beautiful list, a your usual. I just woul like to add Anemos, by Euthemians, for the clean and unusual solutions.
Best Regards
Alberto
Thanks Alberto! Anemos looks really nice. It has a lot of features and layouts.
My #1 choice for a news site is definitely Extra. It’s a great theme!
You have put together a good list of news/magazine themes Randy. There are a lot of options here, and I think Extra has the best look for a site that is focused, whereas Newsfront seems like a great option for a more diverse news site.
I am going to bookmark this list for future projects. One of these themes may be useful for a client project.
Thanks James. I love magazine layouts. I’m especially interested in seeing what can be done with Extra.