5 Best Text-Based WordPress Themes (Free & Paid)

Text-based WordPress themes have created quite a stir among bloggers and writers in recent years for their clean easy-to-read layout, minimalistic design, and focus on typography. These themes are fully customizable, allow you to select from a wide range of fonts, colors, and styles to easily create a distinctive look for your website that matches your brand and style.

If you are a blogger, writer, or run a business of your own and want to build an online presence that focuses on your written material, text-based WordPress themes can definitely come in handy as they will place your written content in the spotlight.

However, with so many options available, finding the right one that can make all the difference in creating an engaging online presence might well be a bit hard. But don’t worry, we’ll take care of it here. We’ll take a look at some of the best text-based WordPress themes available, highlighting their functionality and why they can be a good fit for your blog.

Whether you want a clean and minimalist theme, a vibrant and eye-catching layout, or something in between, we’ve got you covered.

Best Text-Based WordPress Themes

1. GroundWP

GroundWP is a block theme made for modern WordPress. GroundWP might be the perfect option for you if you want to build a simple and elegant online presence for your website and want your written content to take center stage, as it has the cleanest and most minimalistic style. Its responsive layout adapts to different screen sizes, making it accessible to all users on all kinds of devices.

Its customizable homepage allows you to highlight your most recent posts, and feature specific content. The theme features a modern and professional style that focuses on your content, and you can personalize the look and feel of your site by choosing from numerous pre-designed layouts.

The theme is optimized for speed and efficiency, as well as SEO. GroundWP also includes multiple headers, footer templates, and some page templates like blank, no title page templates. This theme is completely free so you can simply install it and see how it looks on your website.

Key Features:

Simple and Minimalistic Design

Fully Customizable (Using Full Site Editing)

Lightweight and Fast

Fully Responsive

Fluid Typography and Spacing

Custom Menu

Translation and Accessibility-ready

SEO Optimized

Gutenberg Optimized

Cross-browser Compatible

Free or Not: GroundWP is totally free.

2. Typology

Typology is another minimalist blog theme that focuses on font and white space, making it simple for readers to browse and read your content. Its responsive design makes it look nice on all devices. Its extensive customization features allow you to adjust the colors, fonts, and layout of your site to reflect your brand or personal style.

Typologys’ most significant feature is its diversity of post layouts. This gives you the liberty to present your content in the way that best matches your needs. The Typology theme also has assistance with multiple post formats (including video and audio), social media integration, and a built-in newsletter subscription form. The theme also supports popular plugins like Jetpack and Yoast SEO.

Key Features:

Text-based and Minimalistic Design

Fully Responsive

Multiple Post Formats

Fully Customizable (colors, fonts, widgets, etc.)

Minimalist Color Palette

Social Media Integration

Translation Ready

SEO Optimized

Free or Not: Typology’s regular license costs $59. You can get it on Envato Themeforest.

3. Textual

As the name implies, Textual is a text-based and clean WordPress theme designed specifically to show off your written content. Its basic style, with a white background and black lettering, creates a relaxing reading experience.

The posts are in a grid format, allowing users to quickly scroll over your content. To make your material stand out, Textual offers a variety of custom widgets and post formats like standard, image, gallery, video, and quote.

As this theme is fully responsive, it looks great on all devices. It’s also SEO-friendly, which can help you rank higher in search engine results. It also allows you to share your posts on other social media platforms. Also, the theme comes with extensive documentation and developer support, so you may receive assistance if needed.

Key Features:

Text-focused Design

Fully Customizable (layout, widgets, etc.)

Different Post Formats

Fully Responsive

SEO Optimized

Translation Ready

Social Sharing Available

Support and Documentation Available

Clean Code

Free or Not: You can get Textual at $47 on Envato Themeforest.

4. Ariva

Ariva is a fast-loading, minimalistic, and sleek text-based WordPress theme designed specifically for writers and bloggers. It gives you full customization control, with over 125+ Homepage layouts, 9 attractive Featured sections, 6 minimal Headers, and 7 engaging Post layouts. You will also get color setting preferences to make your site more engaging.

You can easily add a beautiful author box, post social share options, styled comment forms, and newsletter subscription forms with this. It also lets you add advertisements to your posts.

This perfectly SEO-optimized theme has clean codes and supports JSON LD (Schema) & AMP features. Designed with user experience and search engine ranking factors in mind, Ariva focuses on text-based layouts that offer a pleasant experience to both users and search spiders.

Key Features:

Attractive Home Layouts

Fully Customizable

Different Header Types

SEO Optimized

Simple Mega Menu

3 Type of Review System(Star, Point and Percentage)

Sticky Sidebar

JSON LD(SCHEMA) Integrated

Woocommerce Ready

Supports Post Ad

Free or Not: Not free. You can get this theme at $39 on Envato Themeforest.

5. Arctic by GeneratePress

Arctic by GeneratePress is actually a demo starter that comes with the main GeneratePress theme. It is one of the most lightweight WordPress themes out there that prioritizes speed, stability, and accessibility. Designed with a focus on performance and usability, it is a perfect blend of minimalism and practicality.

It is fully responsive and compatible with most major page builders. For those looking for a theme that allows for extensive customization without the need for technical know-how, it could be a great option. There are many layout options available, including full-width and boxed layouts.

This theme is very user-friendly and can be translated into over 25 languages. It is SEO-optimized as well.

Key Features:

Lightweight and Fast

Easy Integration with Page Builders

Multiple Layout Options

Full Customization

SEO Friendly

WooCommerce Support

Translation and RTL Support

Cross-browser Compatible

Open-source

Free or Not: It’s not free. You will need to get the premium plan to use this theme. The yearly plan will cost you $59, and a lifetime subscription will cost you $249.

Conclusion

And that brings us to the bottom of our listing of the best text-based WordPress themes for improving the readability and engagement of your website’s content.

A well-designed theme not only elevates your website but may also have a major impact on user experience and overall success. All of these have minimalistic and sleek looks, as well as feature-rich options and full customization that meet various niches and tastes.

Take the time to experiment and explore multiple alternatives until you find one that meets your needs and fits with your vision. I’m sure you will easily find the one that fits your preferences from any of these.

Hope this helped. Thank you.