Best WordPress themes for a business site: Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence and more (2026)

What a theme does, and what it doesn’t

A WordPress theme controls how your site looks: the header, footer, fonts, colors and page layouts. Your words, images and pages live in the WordPress database, not in the theme. If you’re not sure how that differs from a builder template, see template vs theme.

Most themes below are free, with a paid add-on. The add-on is usually a yearly subscription, and its settings belong to that one theme.

We build on WordPress every week, and we build our own sites on GeneratePress. We have no affiliate deal with any theme company, and that doesn’t change this comparison. Every price below comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, in US dollars before tax.

The themes compared

We picked nine themes a small business is likely to run into: six free themes with paid upgrades (Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, Blocksy, OceanWP and Neve), two made for a page builder (Hello Elementor and Divi), and WordPress’s own default, Twenty Twenty-Five.

Prices and licenses

Notes on the table:

• Astra says its checkout prices “are introductory rates for your first year,” and that your renewal rate “is fixed at the time of purchase.” A footnote says “all renewals are at full price,” but the cheapest Astra Pro plan prints no full or renewal price (Astra pricing).
• GeneratePress now sells GP Premium only inside GeneratePress One: $99 a year for 1 site, $149 for up to 10, $199 for up to 100, or $596 lifetime for up to 100 (GeneratePress pricing). It says existing GP Premium licenses keep working and renewing as they do now.
• Kadence is now sold only through Liquid Web as a bundle with Give, The Events Calendar and LearnDash, from $350 to $999, and the billing period isn’t stated (Liquid Web’s Kadence page). Its terms say fees may increase on renewal.
• Blocksy shows its prices with a dollar sign but doesn’t name the currency.
• OceanWP lists $34 and $52 for its 1-site plan and says “annual renewals are 20% off full price.” If full price is $52, that’s $41.60 a year (our math).
• Neve says “all renewals are at full price” but doesn’t print that figure. We read it as the $139 shown struck through.

Type, fit and listing tags

Block or classic. Only Twenty Twenty-Five is a block theme. With a block theme you change headers, footers and templates in WordPress’s Site Editor. With a classic theme you use the Customizer and whatever builder the theme provides. Themeisle also offers Neve FSE, a separate block theme from the Neve in this table. Divi 5 saves pages “in a block-based format,” but Divi is still a classic theme with its own builder.

The accessibility-ready tag. Some themes carry the accessibility-ready tag on WordPress.org and some don’t. Astra and GeneratePress don’t have it; Divi isn’t listed on WordPress.org at all. The tag is a label on the theme’s listing, not a verdict on how accessible a theme is. Your site’s accessibility also depends on your content, colors, forms and plugins. Our web accessibility entry explains what to check.

Popularity. The only theme market share figure we found is a third-party count by Dataprovider from February 2024. It put Hello Elementor first, then Divi and Astra, among WordPress sites with a detectable theme. It’s over two years old and its percentages don’t match its own stated base, so treat it as a rough sign, not a measurement.

Who each theme is right for

Astra (Brainstorm Force) is a good fit if you pair a theme with Elementor, Beaver Builder or Spectra and want ready-made starter templates. The free theme already includes a drag-and-drop header and footer builder. Watch the +AI plans, which renew higher than their first-year price, and the 14-day refund window.

GeneratePress (EDGE22 Studios) suits sites built in the block editor that want a small footprint; the vendor says a fresh install adds less than 10kb (gzipped) to your page size. It has a 30-day refund window. There is no drag-and-drop header builder: custom headers are built as Block Elements in GeneratePress One.

Kadence (Liquid Web) fits block editor builds using Kadence Blocks. The free theme has a drag-and-drop header and footer builder. The catch is buying the premium version: it now comes only in a larger software bundle.

Blocksy (Creative Themes) works with the block editor or Elementor and has a lifetime option for one site at $199. Its free version includes a header and footer builder. Refunds are limited to 14 days.

OceanWP (OceanWP LLC) is aimed at Elementor and WooCommerce sites on a small budget, with 17 free and 201 Pro site templates. Renewals are 20% off full price, not the first-year price, so expect a higher bill from year two.

Neve (Themeisle) works with most page builders and suits small business and blog sites. Neve Pro covers unlimited sites for updates and support, and Themeisle’s FAQ says you can use the Agency license on customers’ sites “unless you are offering hosting services.”

Hello Elementor is Elementor’s free, nearly blank theme. It’s right only if you build the whole site in Elementor, since headers and footers come from Elementor Pro’s Theme Builder.

Divi (Elegant Themes) is a theme and visual builder in one, priced for unlimited sites. It suits agencies building many sites in one tool. It also ties your layouts to Divi more than any other theme here.

Twenty Twenty-Five shipped with WordPress 6.7 in November 2024. It’s free, built for the block editor, right for simple sites, and has no premium version or support.

What each theme costs over 3 years on one site

We use the same baseline as the rest of the site: Bluehost Starter at $3.99 a month on a 36-month term ($143.64 upfront, renewing at $9.99 a month), $36.96 for the domain’s second and third years (the first year comes with the plan) and one Google Workspace inbox at $252.00. That’s $432.60 over 3 years before any theme.

Where a vendor doesn’t state its renewal price, the 3-year figure assumes you keep paying today’s price, and the table says so. The OceanWP and Neve rows are our math from their stated renewal rules. Two cases need a second number:

• Neve: if renewals stayed at $69, the math is $69 x 3 = $207, or $639.60 for the whole site.
• Kadence: Liquid Web doesn’t say whether $350 is a one-time or yearly price, so we show both.

Elementor Pro Essential is cheaper at $60 a year ($180 over 3 years, $612.60 for the whole site), but its forms can’t receive submissions, which most business sites need. For more on that choice, see Elementor vs Divi.

Across the paid options, the 3-year gap is a few hundred dollars. A free theme is a fine start for many business sites, and you can add the paid version later.

What happens when you switch themes

Changing themes is a redesign, not a move. This is general WordPress behavior, and it applies to every theme here:

• Your content stays. Posts, pages and media live in the WordPress database, so they’re still there under the new theme.
• Theme settings stay with the old theme. WordPress saves Customizer settings per theme (see the get_theme_mods() reference), so your colors, fonts and layout choices don’t carry over.
• Theme-only features stay behind. Hooks (spots in a theme’s code where you insert content), custom layouts and header builders belong to the theme. That covers Astra Pro custom layouts, GeneratePress Elements, Kadence Hooked Elements and Blocksy Content Blocks. The vendors don’t document this, so treat it as general guidance about how theme features work.
• Builder layouts stay with the builder. Pages built with blocks, GenerateBlocks, Kadence Blocks, Spectra or Elementor are stored in your content and keep working as long as that plugin stays active.
• Divi is the exception. Divi 4 pages show raw shortcodes after you switch away. Divi 5 leaves “a blank slate” instead, but the layouts still don’t carry over.
• Block themes can export their design. With Twenty Twenty-Five, the Site Editor’s export gives you a zip of the theme with your templates and styles.

If you stop paying instead

What each vendor documents about a lapsed license:

• Astra: “Your existing sites keep working”; updates, support, AI features and new premium templates stop. Sites hosted inside an Astra plan go offline when the subscription ends.
• GeneratePress: the current pricing pages don’t say. A 2019 forum reply from its creator, Tom Usborne, says “GP Premium will continue to work, but you won’t receive future updates or premium support in this forum.”
• Kadence: the terms say you can keep using the products without updates or support, but without an active subscription you can’t activate them.
• Blocksy: “The websites you have built will continue to work without any issues.”
• Divi: “You may continue using the themes that you have already downloaded forever.”
• Elementor Pro (for Hello Elementor): existing Pro designs stay while Pro stays installed, but turning Pro off stops them from displaying.
• OceanWP and Neve: we found nothing on their pages about license expiry.

None of this changes how portable your site is. Self-hosted WordPress scores 10/10 on our exit scores with any theme, because you own the files and the database. Before you switch themes, copy the site to a staging site and check every page there. Our guide to leaving your website builder covers bigger moves.

How to choose

1. Pick your editor first. Building in the block editor points to GeneratePress, Kadence, Blocksy or Twenty Twenty-Five. Building in Elementor points to Hello Elementor, Astra, OceanWP or Blocksy. Building in Divi means the Divi theme.
2. Count your sites. For one site, the 1-site plans above are enough. For 10 or more, compare the multi-site tiers: GeneratePress One covers 10 sites for $149 a year, and Divi and Neve price for unlimited sites.
3. Read the renewal line. First-year prices on Astra, OceanWP and Neve are introductory. Where renewal isn’t stated, ask before you buy or budget at today’s price.
4. Check the refund window. GeneratePress, Kadence, Neve and Divi offer 30 days; Astra, Blocksy and OceanWP offer 14.
5. Try the free version first. Every theme here except Divi has one. Build a test page and see if you need anything paid.
6. Keep your pages portable. Content built in standard blocks moves to another theme more easily than content built with theme-only features.

What to do next

• Compare two of these in depth: Astra vs GeneratePress.
• Choosing a page builder too? See Elementor vs Divi.
• Still deciding on WordPress itself? Start with our WordPress review.
• Need a host? Compare 3-year costs on our web hosting page.