Whether you want to bring your university or school online or simply have a place to list all of your courses, WordPress and a great-looking education theme is the way to go.
A quality WordPress education theme will make it easy for you to list your courses, allow students to enroll, and keep track of their progress. It will also allow you to share information about your enrollment process, your staff, and any other important information for potential students.
More importantly, a great education theme for WordPress will help you make a great first impression on your website visitors who are interested in enrolling in your school, university, or an online course.
There are plenty of education WordPress themes out there. However, a free WordPress education theme is an excellent place to get started, especially if your budget is limited. And the best part about these free themes is that they all feature a beautiful and responsive design, paired with the right features needed to create a professional website for your institution.
We have scoured the Internet for the best free education themes for WordPress and gathered them below so you don’t have to waste time going through thousands of available themes. Check them out below.
1. Sydney
If you’re looking for a professional yet versatile theme for your education website, Sydney is a strong option.
This freemium multipurpose theme has a stylish appearance and is officially recommended by the Elementor page builder plugin’s developers. It’s intuitive, easy to use, and comes with multiple menu layouts; slider, static, and video headers; and blog post styles. It’s also optimized for Google’s Core Web Vitals.
Another benefit is that Sydney includes a free eLearning starter site that is fully compatible with the Tutor LMS plugin. That free tool includes everything needed to get your e-learning website up and running in no time. If you wish to upgrade this theme, you’ll also get access to a variety of advanced widgets, including options for testimonials, pricing tables, and forms.
All in all, Sydney is a flexible and highly customizable theme that can take your education website to the next level.
2. Education Base
The free Education Base theme features a bold and colorful design.
The homepage has a well-organized layout with a full-width header that’s perfect for featuring your university or school or student life on campus. Your website visitors will be able to easily find the right information thanks to feature boxes and sections that highlight your teachers, courses, and other important information.
The Education Base theme has a number of customization options that make it easy to incorporate your brand and style. You can upload your own logo, change colors as well as fonts, add numerous widgets to your homepage, and more.
The theme also integrates with WooCommerce and SiteBuilder by Origin page builder plugin which means you can easily sell physical and digital products and create unique page layouts without ever touching a line of code.
3. Education Zone
Education Zone is another minimalistic free education theme for WordPress.
What makes this theme a great choice is the fact that you can easily divide your homepage into different sections so your visitors can easily find the information that’s most relevant to them.
The theme also makes it easy for your visitors to connect with you on social media so they can stay up to date with the latest news.
4. Astra
If you’re looking for a versatile, popular theme for your education website, Astra might be the perfect solution.
This fast, lightweight, and multipurpose solution is highly customizable. It boasts a modern and flexible look that’s been used by some of the biggest names out there, such as Google and NASA.
Astra includes a library of more than 180 pre-built websites that enable you to easily create a site in no time. There are starter templates for building a LearnDash Academy, as well as online coaching, music schools, online courses, and other education-based sites. It also integrates seamlessly with the LifterLMS and LearnDash plugins.
5. Educator Education
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to create a professional education site. With a theme like Educator Education, you can have an appealing and fully-functional website within minutes.
While this theme only comes with a small selection of templates, you do get some flexibility over their design. For example, you can change the colors and typography and add widgets such as social media icons and call-to-action buttons. Plus, there’s a slider that enables you to showcase your courses, projects, and more.
Educator Education is also WooCommerce-ready. This means you can sell study material, video lectures, and other educational content through your site. In addition, for each course you offer, you can display the number of lessons and students.
If you have a small budget or want something without unnecessary frills, Educator Education may be all you need to create your education website.
6. Zakra
A simple theme is crucial for helping users smoothly navigate your courses. This is where Zakra comes in handy.
With Zakra, you get a diverse selection of LMS starter sites. For example, eGuru has a clean layout that enables users to explore courses by category or popularity and look for a particular course using a search bar. The demos are created with page builders such as BlockArt Blocks, Elementor, and Brizy, so you can easily customize them to suit your exact needs.
Plus, Zakra is compatible with a variety of useful plugins. These include Events Calendar, which you can use to promote webinars and online classes, and WPML, which enables you to create a multilingual education site. Most importantly, Zakra is fully compatible with Masteriyo, a powerful LMS plugin for selling online courses.
Zakra can help you build a user-friendly website with all the essential tools for your online courses.
7. Rara Academic
As the name suggests, the Rara Academic theme is a perfect choice for university websites as well as online course sites. The theme has a modern and professional design.
The header area is perfect for adding a call to action which directs potential visitors to other areas on your site. You can also feature your most popular courses, share information about your stuff, and share testimonials from past students.
In addition to that, it comes with a custom sidebar and eight social media icons that you can use to share your social media profiles.
8. GeneratePress
Are you searching for a fun theme that targets a young demographic? If so, GeneratePress may be the right option for you.
The Summer Camp starter site by GeneratePress has a fresh and modern look, with clean layouts and bold colors. You can customize these elements (and many others) using the free GenerateBlocks plugin. This tool enables you to build every aspect of your site with blocks, including footers, headers, and single post templates.
With GeneratePress, you get all the features you need to promote your programs. These include an Activities section with a list of available facilities, a gallery where you can display photos of past projects or programs, and prominent call-to-action buttons that encourage users to get in touch or book a spot.
If you want a highly-customizable theme for your educational site, GeneratePress is definitely worth a look.
9. Educenter
Educenter is another WordPress theme that caters specifically to educational institutions such as K-12 schools, colleges and universities, preschools, childcare centers, and tutoring centers.
On the customization front, Educenter offers a wide range of options to create the type of site you want with just a few clicks. With the included demos, you can get started quickly and make very few modifications if you wish. Or, you can make full use of the advanced features and customize them to your heart’s content. You can adjust things like header layouts, CTAs, courses, teams, testimonials, and colors.
It also works well with all the popular page builder plugins if you want to have even more control over how the finished site looks. It’s compatible with WooCommerce, so you can easily sell products or services from your site (ideal for online learning sites), and it works with Jetpack, Contact Form 7, and many other plugins so functionality will never be a problem.
10. Kadence
A fast website can help you increase conversions. While there are many ways to enhance site performance, a lightweight theme such as Kadence can play a key role.
With Kadence, you get several starter sites to choose from, all designed with speed in mind. For example, the Digital Course demo has a minimalist design with modern fonts and neutral colors. Additionally, this theme is fully compatible with the Elementor and Beaver Builder plugins, so you get almost total control over your site’s design.
Kadence also supports several LMS plugins, including LifterLMS and LearnDash. Plus, it’s fully compatible with Restrict Content Pro, a tool that enables you to create a membership site and restrict course material to members only. You can even create a forum for your students using the bbPress plugin.
If you want a clean and fast website with essential LMS tools, Kadence may be the theme for you.