2012 was an amazing year and we saw an incredible number of WordPress theme releases during the year. We are very happy and excited to showcase our compiled list of top 75 best free WordPress themes from 2012, with what we from WP Daily Themes think are themes that stood out a bit out of the ordinary. We would love to hear your opinion about the themes!
There were so many great and awesome WordPress themes to choose from, but we hope you like and enjoy the list with all the popular free WordPress themes from excellent themes designers located all over the world. We’ve hope you can create an awesome online presence with these awesome 75 free GPL licensed WordPress themes from 2012. Cheers!
75 Best Free WordPress Themes from 2012
Twenty Twelve
Twenty Twelve new default theme in WordPress.org and it is of course free. Twenty Twelve is an elegant theme with clean and light design. It comes with features such as theme options, responsive layout, post formats etc.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Responsive
Responsive is a beautiful responsive free WordPress theme by ThemeID and is one of the most downloaded theme from WordPress Themes Directory. It comes loaded with a lot of great features and options.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Lensa
Lensa is a free WordPress theme release from ColorLabs and is designed with photographers and photo interested in mind. Lensa is a theme perfect to showcase and display photos and images in a attractive and stunning way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Simple’n’Bright
Simple’n’Bright is an elegant WordPress theme release from Site5. This is a free GPL theme packed with great features and perfect for all kind of portfolio and blog websites, but will work great as a business site as well.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Illustrious
Illustrious is a free WordPress theme from CPOThemes that is perfect to for all kind of business, corporate, portfolio websites to showcase their work, design, graphic, portfolio etc. This is a theme with elegant design.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Danko
Danko is a free feature-rich WordPress Theme from Themes Kingdom that is perfect for charity organizations. Danko comes with Integrated PayPal gateway and is focused on raising funds for all charity organizations.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Diary
Diary is a free awesome WordPress theme release from MyThemeShop. This is a theme perfect for all kinds of niches from writing personal diary to showcase and display images in a very beautiful, elegant and stylish way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
JustBlue
JustBlue is a free GPL WordPress theme for magazines and news portals. This is a theme designed by MyThemeShop and comes with responsive layout so the theme will appears perfect in all screen resolutions.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Snapshot
Snapshot is a free WordPress theme designed for photographers in mind. This is a great theme from SiteOrigin to showcase photographs on their blogs in a great way with the home page slider.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Simple Catch
Simple Catch is a free WordPress theme based on on the popular 978 Grid System CSS Framework by Catch Themes that is perfect for all kind of blogs and websites.
Launch
Launch is a free micro blogging WordPress theme from ThemeZilla. This is a perfect theme for the personal blogger who likes to blog in style.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Respo
Respo is a free WordPress Theme by Themnific with a sleek and customizable design. The layout and even the slider is fully responsive so the theme will adapt to the screen size of your visitors.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Photum
From PhotographicBlog.com comes the free portfolio WordPress theme Photum. The theme is built with HTML5 and comes with a responsive design so the theme will work with many different screen resolutions and mobile devices.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Workz
Workz is a WordPress theme release by WPExplorer that you can download for free. This theme is perfect and suitable for all kind of business, portfolio or design websites to display and showcase photos, products, graphics etc.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Murmur
Murmur is a free and powerful free WordPress theme release from DevPress. This is a theme perfect for display and promote portfolios and galleries. The theme is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Theron Lite
Theron Lite is a free WordPress theme release from Towfiq I that comes loaded with great features. This theme is suitable and perfect for all kind of business and personal websites and is optimized for iPhone, iPad and desktops.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Pinboard
If you like online pinboards such as the new social network Pinterest and sharing content and images, then Pinboard from One Designs definitely is a theme for you. The content is showcased in a beautiful grid.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Photographer
Photographer is a great looking free WordPress theme from Dessign. This is an elegant theme that is perfect for all photographers and photobloggers to display and showcase photos, images, art, design etc.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Magnifique
Magnifique is a free beautiful WordPress Theme release from cssigniter.com with an elegant and clean design. This is a theme that is perfect for bloggers who want to display photos or content in a simple but stylish way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Clean Retina
Clean Retina is a free retina ready WordPress theme from Theme Horse. The theme is designed with responsive layout and is retina ready so you can enjoy sharp text, vibrant colors and sharp images on your retina display devices like new MacBook Pro, iPhone and the new iPad.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Interstellar
Interstellar is a free GPL WordPress theme from UFO Themes with a very nicely designand responsive layout. Interstellar is perfect and suitable for niches such as business and company sites but also to showcase portfolios.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Folly
Folly is a free GPL WordPress Theme release from Nice Themes with an awesome design. This is a theme creative people to present their work, photo, design, art and other inspiring content in great looking style.
Leatherly
Leatherly is an awesome vCard WordPress theme release by ColorLabs. This is a free one-page GPL licensed theme perfect for presenting yourself, your company, website or whatever you want to show the world.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Gadgetry
Gadgetry is a free WordPress theme from Themefuse and built with the Fuse framework. This is a theme in magazine style and is perfect for anyone who wants to display much content and articles at the same time.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
HUMIX
HUMIX is a free WordPress theme from Theme4Press loaded with great features. The design is responsive meaning the theme will look great in any devices such as iPhone, tablets and desktop screens.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Sunspot
Sunspot is a free GPL WordPress theme by automattic. Sunspot is beautifully designed with responsive layout and comes with a dark color scheme. This theme is for all kinds of blogs and web sites.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
ShutterLoop
ShutterLoop is a stylish free WordPress theme by Responsive Deck with a very neat and clean design. The theme is perfect for photographers that want to promote and showcase photos in a creative way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Simple Photo
Simple Photo is a free WordPress theme by Dessign that is perfect for anyone who likes photography and images. The theme comes with responsive layout, which means the will look great in any screen resolutions.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Workality
Workality is a free responsive WordPress theme loaded with great features and options. This is a theme prefect for all creative people to showcase portfolios, images, photos, art, design etc. This theme is perfect for most niches.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Panoramica
Panoramica is a great looking WordPress theme from CPOThemes and is designed with fully fluid layout so the theme will adapt the screen width of any device. This is an elegant and flexible free theme.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Photogram
Photogram is an elegant free premium WordPress Theme from ColorLabs. With this theme you can easily connect your WordPress site with your Instagram and Pinterest accounts. This is a elegant free WordPress theme.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Minimalistiq
Minimalistiq is a free WordPress theme release from WPLegion. This is a beautiful theme with 2 color schemes, white and brown. This is a flexible and multi purpose WordPress theme with a lot of great features included.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Widely
Widely is a free WordPress theme from Themes Kingdom and is suitable and perfect businesses, corporate, creatives and perhaps as a regular blog! This theme is suitable for most niches, it’s just up to you to choose!
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Great
Great is a free WordPress theme from MyThemeShop that is designed in magazine style. The theme comes with features such as responsive layout, meaning the theme will adapt to any browser size automatically.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Spun
Spun is a great looking free WordPress theme by Caroline Moore. This is a theme with a little different layout and it is really cool. Spun comes with responsive layout, meaning the theme will adapt to any screen resolutions.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Classic Photography
Classic Photography is a free GPL WordPress Theme release from Vandelay Design. This is a theme with clean design perfect for all photographers to displaying photos on a website or blog.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
BeFree
BeFree is a cool free beautiful WordPress Theme by Theme4Press. This is a theme loaded with great features such as Google Fonts, author bio widget, 2 custom menu areas, GPL licensed and much more.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Cascade
Cascade is an elegant free GPL WordPress theme from Alpine Press and it is perfect for anyone who likes to show and display pictures, photos and create professional galleries in a stylish minimalistic way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
SimpleCorp
SimpleCorp is a great free WordPress Theme release from Site5. This is a theme perfect for all business, corporate and portfolio websites to showcase and display products, photos or other creative stuff in a elegant way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Perolia
Perolia is a WordPress theme with a clean and elegant design. This is a free responsive theme from ThemeElephant that is suitable and perfect for all kind of bloggers from personal blogs to business and portfolio websites.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
GoPress
GoPress is a free WordPress theme in magazine style from WPExplorer.com. GoPress comes with features such as Homepage image slider, Grid style design, Widgetized footer with 3 sections, custom menu and more.
Meeta
Meeta is a free WordPress theme release from WPZOOM. This theme comes loaded with features such as responsive layout, SEO options section etc, and with the WPZOOM Framework it is easy to customize every detail of the theme.
Gridly
Gridly is an awesome looking free WordPress Theme with responsive design and with 2 color schemes. The theme is perfect as a portfolio and suitable for graphic designers or photographers.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Adelle
Adelle is a 2 columns free WordPress theme from BluChic. This is a theme with responsive minimalist design and is perfect for female bloggers.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Tequilla
Tequilla is a free WordPress theme with a clean and elegant look. This is a theme release from Joolu that is perfect for all kind of portfolios from personal portfolio to company portfolio.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
CleanBusiness
CleanBusiness is a WordPress theme with a stylish and professional look. It is a free WordPress theme release from EGrappler and is perfect and suitable to display and showcase creative portfolios and galleries.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Picturesque
Picturesque is a free theme created by by Justin Tadlock and is a great theme perfect for all photographers and photobloggers. Picturesque is built with Hybrid Core framework and comes with a clean design.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Groovy
Groovy is a clean, minimalistic and beautiful free WordPress theme from MyThemeShop. This is a very fast loading and light weighted theme even on mobile devices or slow connections.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Leaf
Leaf is a free WordPress theme release from Fatboy Themes with magazine style and loaded with great features. This is a free WordPress theme that’s perfect for online news portals or magazine blogs.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Grid Style
Grid Style is a free WordPress theme release from Dessign. This is an elegant and stylish theme with great features included and is perfect to showcase fashion, graphics, images, webdesign in a great looking portfolio style.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Catch Box
Catch Box is a CSS3 based free WordPress theme with a beautiful layout from Catch Themes. The design is responsive so the theme will look great in small mobile devices to large wide screens.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Divident
Divident is a WordPress theme from Dynamicwp.net that comes for free, licensed under the GPL license. This theme is perfect for all kinds of blogging. It comes with features such as theme options, 2 custom widgets, SEO settings etc.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Oxygen
Oxygen is a free WordPress theme by Alien WP that comes with responsive and elegant design. Oxygen is a theme built on the Hybrid Core framework, Child- theme friendly and GPL licensed.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Gridiculous
Gridiculous is a great free HTML5 WordPress theme by bavotasan that is based on the grid layout boilerplate with the same name. This is a very lightweighted theme that comes with a responsive layout.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Tint
Tint is a free Portfolio WordPress theme perfect for all kinds of portfolios but can be used for business sites as well. This is an elegant free GPL theme from Themes Kingdom and a lot of great features included.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Yaminth
Yaminth (Yet Another Minimal Theme) is a great looking WordPress Theme from Azmind.com. It is released under the GPL – GNU General Public License version 3.0, and you can use the theme in personal and commercial projects.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Montezuma
Montezuma is a free WordPress theme from BytesForAll that is perfect for online magazines and news portals. This is a very powerful, flexible and customizable WordPress theme.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Folder
Folder is a free WordPress theme from LuisZuno. Folder is perfect to display images, photos, portfolios, art, design and can be used for many purposes and is suitable for business, corporate to a personal blog.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Auto Focus
Auto Focus is a free WordPress theme release from Vandelay Design. This is a theme that is perfect for photobloggers and for anyone who likes to showcase images online in a stylish way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Bloggie
Bloggie is another free responsive WordPress theme release from MyThemeShop. This is a theme perfect for blogs with personal approach to online magazines and news portals.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Best
Best is a feature-rich and free WordPress theme. It comes with responsive layout so you can be sure it is accessible and displayed awesome in any mobile devices such iPhone and iPad, Blackberry and Android.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Clean Response
Clean Response is a free WordPress theme release from themefurnace. This is a WordPress theme that is perfect and suitable for all kind of business websites but can be used as a regular and personal blog theme.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
OnePager
OnePager is a free WordPress theme from Umair Ashraf. This is a theme that will work perfect for all types of business websites and blogs. OnePager theme is perfect to promote products, portfolios, galleries etc.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Path
Path is a free GPL WordPress theme created by Sami Keijonen and built on Hybrid Core framework. Path comes with responsive design and is perfect for all kind of online magazines and news portals and blogs.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Tiga
Tiga is a free responsive WordPress theme meaning the theme will look awesome in both small and big screens. Tiga is released under the GPLv3 license so you can modify it to suits your personal needs.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Table
Table is a free WordPress theme with a clean and beautiful design. This theme from Theme Junkie is perfect to use for magazines or news websites to present great and interesting content. It is easy to manage and configure from the advanced theme control panel.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
BlogFolio
BlogFolio is another free WordPress theme for photographers and photobloggers from Vandelay Design. This is a theme perfect to showcase photos, art, design or other creative work in a stylish way.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Max
Max Responsive is a free responsive WordPress theme designed by gazpo.com. The theme comes with a very easy to use theme options panel so you can customize theme and layout so it suits your needs.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Neptune
Neptune is a portfolio, gallery and photography WordPress theme. This is a great free GPL theme from WPExplorer.com with features such as portfolio custom post type, PrettyPhoto build-in, shortcodes, blog section etc.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Oversized
Oversized is a free WordPress theme for prmote images in a stylishway. This is a theme from Vandelay Design with free full-screen where you can showcase full-size background images.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Hatch
Hatch is a great looking photography and portfolio WordPress theme from Alien WP. This is a responsive mobile friendly theme built on the Hybrid Core framework and support Child themes.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Prosume
Prosume is a free WordPress theme release from Site5 with a simple and clean design. This is a theme prefect for websites displaying photos, graphics, designs or other creative things, but can be used for all kinds of blogging.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Silesia
Silesia is a stylish free WordPress theme from NattyWP, powered by the NattyWP Framework and comes with a lot of great features such as theme options, 15 color options, slide navigation sidebar, GPL license and much more.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Bridal Show
Bridal Show is an beautiful wedding WordPress theme that comes with responsive design and loaded with great features such as custom menus, widgets, featured thumbnails and more. Read more : 5 Free WordPress Themes from WPDance
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!
Origin
Origin is a free responsive and Child-theme friendly WordPress theme from Alien WP. This is an elegant theme with simple and clean design. The theme is GPL licensed, comes with theme settings, translation-ready etc. Read more : 3 Free WordPress Themes from Alien WP
NO LONGER AVAILABLE!