21 Best WordPress Themes for Magazines

Colin Newcomer
Colin Newcomer

Published:

Searching for the best magazine WordPress themes? If you're launching a publication that creates a lot of content, using a magazine theme can help you share all of that content with your readers.

woman reading a magazine purchased from a magazine wordpress theme in a home library

Unlike a traditional blogging theme that lists blog posts one by one, a magazine theme uses a grid-based layout that lets you display different types of content, such as featured posts, your latest articles, content from specific categories, and more.

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In this post, we've curated the 21+ best WordPress themes for magazines in all niches, from news to lifestyle, travel, technology, food, gaming, and more. Let’s dive in.

The Best WordPress Themes for Magazines

1. JNews

magazine WordPress themes, JNews

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JNews is an excellent WordPress magazine theme that offers a flexible, modern magazine design.

You can get started by choosing from 67+ pre-built starter sites for a range of different niches. No matter which starter site you choose, you'll be able to easily customize everything to your needs thanks to its flexible theme options and built-in visual, drag-and-drop design tool.

Beyond its stylish looks and flexible design options, one of the most notable things about JNews is how it goes above and beyond to offer features to help make your publication a success.

For example, JNews comes with a paywall feature to help you monetize your site. This lets you create your own fixed or leaky paywall and accept payments via WooCommerce (including recurring payments via WooCommerce Subscriptions).

If you have a multi-author site, JNews also lets writers submit content from the front end. There's even a "pay writer system" that lets you offer author payouts based on different criteria, such as word counts, post-visit counts, and more.

What We Like

  • Detailed theme options area, including a live style editor
  • Drag-and-drop builder for your header, footer, templates, and more
  • Packed with other smaller features such as reading progress bars, likes/dislikes, select and share text on social media, and more

Price: $59 with lifetime updates

2. MH Magazine

magazine WordPress themes, MH Magazine

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MH Magazine is a popular WordPress magazine theme that can work equally well for professional news institutions, online magazines, and even high-volume blogs in various niches such as travel, lifestyle, glamor, and more.

To help you get up and running quickly, MH Magazine comes with 15+ importable starter sites covering different niches and design styles.

You get flexible content layout options to control the magazine grid, as well as helpful features such as a built-in content slider and carousel. To help you monetize your magazine, MH Magazine also has built-in display ad slots that fit into the content grid.

What We Like

  • Built-in display ad placements to easily monetize your site
  • Excellent responsive layout so that your site looks great on all devices
  • Flexible layout options to control how your content displays

Price: Choose from a basic free version or a $49 pro plan

3. Newspaper

magazine WordPress themes, Newspaper

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Newspaper is one of the most popular template magazine WordPress themes at Envato's CodeCanyon marketplace, where it's racked up well over 100,000 sales.

To get started with the right design for your magazine, Newspaper comes with 150+ pre-built importable starter sites/templates for tons of different niches.

From there, you can customize everything about your site using the theme's built-in live layout editor, along with its visual, drag-and-drop builder. You can use this builder to design your pages and posts, along with other elements such as your site's header and footer.

What We Like

  • Useful monetization tools such as display ad slots, a paywall feature, and more
  • Built-in popup builder eliminates the need to use a separate popup plugin

Price: $59 with lifetime updates

4. Jannah

magazine WordPress themes, Jannah

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Jannah is a WordPress magazine theme that can also help you build more of a social community thanks to its integrations with BuddyPress and bbPress. Of course, you don't need to use those integrations — but it's nice to have them!

To create the base for your site, Jannah comes with 28+ pre-built starter sites for different types of publications, including news, technology, videos, recipes, travel, and more.

To help you monetize your publication, Jannah offers built-in display ad slots on both your main pages and your individual post pages. It also includes some unique widgets to help you promote your Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee pages, which is great for creators using those subscription channels.

What we like

  • The BuddyPress and bbPress integrations let you build a community around your publication
  • Built-in support for Google Web Stories
  • Dedicated widgets to promote your Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee pages, along with other monetization tools

Price: $64 with lifetime updates

5. Gillion

magazine WordPress themes, Gillion

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Gillion is a magazine theme for WordPress that uses a modular approach to help you create the perfect magazine layout for your publication.

Beyond using the 50+ modular elements to control your site, you can also speed things up by importing one of the 18+ pre-built starter sites. Gillion also bundles in the WPBakery Page Builder plugin at no extra cost, which gives you access to visual, drag-and-drop design.

Some other notable features in Gillion include built-in display ad slots, a bookmarking system for your visitors, and support for 6+ different post formats.

What We Like

  • A modular design system makes it easy to customize your magazine layout
  • Free access to the WPBakery Page Builder and Slider Revolution plugins
  • Built-in support for AMP

Price: $55 with lifetime updates

6. Foxiz

magazine WordPress themes, Foxiz

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Foxiz is a mobile-first WordPress magazine theme that puts a special emphasis on creating a great experience for mobile visitors (though your site will work great for desktop visitors, too).

For example, it offers a mobile horizontal scroll mode that can help display large amounts of data on smaller devices. It also offers tons of helpful features for your readers, such as a bookmarking system that lets both logged-in and guest users follow categories and writers.

In terms of design options, you can get started by choosing from 85+ importable starter sites for a range of different niches. All of these demo sites are built with the Elementor plugin, which means you can customize them using a visual, drag-and-drop interface.

What We Like

  • Tight Elementor integration allows for easy visual customization
  • Built-in monetization options including paywalls, subscriptions, display ad slots, and more
  • Helpful features for your readers including bookmarking, customized interests, and more
  • Built-in AMP support, including automatically showing ads on AMP pages

Price: $59 with lifetime updates

7. Avada

magazine WordPress themes, Avada

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Avada is a multipurpose WordPress theme that comes with its own built-in visual, drag-and-drop design tool — the Avada Builder.

While the Avada Builder is flexible enough to let you design your site from scratch (here are some real Avada examples for inspiration), Avada also offers 91+ pre-built websites, including multiple magazine layout options.

Thanks to Avada's builder, you can easily customize the magazine grid for your homepage (or even add a magazine grid to a starter site that doesn't have one by default). Avada is also packed with other useful features, such as a built-in form builder, WooCommerce support, and lots more.

What we like

  • The built-in Avada Builder is one of the most flexible visual design tools for WordPress
  • Full WooCommerce support — use this to monetize with subscriptions or sell physical products
  • Detailed integration with the HubSpot WordPress plugin

Price: $69 with lifetime updates

8. Independent

magazine WordPress themes, Independent

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Independent is a flexible WordPress magazine theme that can work for both small and large publishers.

You can get started by choosing one of the 20+ importable starter sites. All of these designs have nice magazine looks, but they're focused on different niches such as news, technology, travel, sports, lifestyle, cryptocurrency, and more.

To help you customize those designs, Independent bundles in the visual, drag-and-drop WPBakery Page Builder plugin. You also get a detailed theme options area where you get even more customization options, such as 20+ header styles.

What We Like

  • Includes WPBakery Page Builder for visual, drag-and-drop design
  • Built-in display ad slots, including an ad management system
  • Includes 25+ custom widgets for social media integrations, weather reports, and more

Price: $79 with lifetime updates

9. Astra

magazine WordPress themes, Astra

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Astra is the most popular multipurpose WordPress theme in existence. But thanks to its 240+ pre-built starter sites, you can find plenty of magazine designs to work for any niche (such as the TechNews demo site pictured above).

When importing a demo site, you can choose your preferred builder from options such as the native WordPress editor (Gutenberg), Elementor, and Beaver Builder.

Beyond its many stylish demo sites, Astra is also known for its performance-optimized design and its detailed customization options in the real-time WordPress Customizer.

What We Like

  • Has a functional free version
  • Detailed code-free customization options in the real-time WordPress Customizer
  • Lightweight design with a focus on performance optimization

Price: There is a functional free version at WordPress.org and a pro version that costs $59

10. SmartMag

magazine WordPress themes, SmartMag

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As the name suggests, SmartMag is a WordPress magazine theme that comes with smart features to help you make your publication successful.

To that end, it comes with features like built-in JSON-LD schema data, smart image adjustments, built-in newsletter subscribe forms, and more.

In terms of design, SmartMag comes with 32+ importable demo sites. All of these demo sites are built with Elementor, which allows for easy drag-and-drop customization.

SmartMag also adds its own tweaks and enhancements to Elementor, such as a Smart Studio feature that offers 100+ pre-built layout options for Elementor.

What we like

  • Elementor integration for visual, drag-and-drop customization, along with custom enhancements to Elementor to give you even more control
  • Lots of enhancements such as autoloaded next posts, live Ajax search, built-in review boxes, and plenty more

Price: $59 with lifetime updates

11. Newsmag

magazine WordPress themes, Newsmag

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Newsmag is one of the most popular WordPress magazine themes at the ThemeForest marketplace, where it's racked up over 18,000 sales.

To help you control the design of your publication, Newsmag comes with its own built-in drag-and-drop builder: tagDiv Composer. You can also get up and running quickly thanks to 15+ importable starter sites for different news niches including gossip, travel, tech, sports, and more.

Other notable features include built-in ad slots, a trending news/content ticker, social media follow buttons, and lots more.

What We Like

  • Comes from an established developer with other successful magazine themes
  • Built-in drag-and-drop builder (tagDiv Composer)
  • Custom widgets for ad slots, social media buttons, Instagram feeds, and more

Price: $49 with lifetime updates

12. Neeon

magazine WordPress themes, Neeon

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Neeon is a modern WordPress magazine theme that comes with 24+ importable starter sites for different magazine niches such as technology, gaming, travel, sports, fitness, pets, food, and more. This versatility can make it a great option no matter which niche your publication is in.

All of the starter sites have modern looks. They're also built with the Elementor page builder plugin, which means that you can easily customize everything using a drag-and-drop interface. You also get 48+ custom Elementor widgets to give you even more control.

Other helpful features in Neeon include infinite scroll functionality, a reading progress bar, WooCommerce support, and more.

What We Like

  • All of the starter sites have very modern looks, which is great if you prefer that design aesthetic
  • By using Elementor and adding 48+ custom elements, Neeon gives you powerful no-code customization
  • Affordable pricing when compared with other premium WordPress themes for magazines

Price: $29 with lifetime updates

13. Gutenify Magazine

magazine WordPress themes, Gutenify Magazine

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Gutenify Magazine is a free WordPress magazine theme that harnesses the power of the new WordPress editor (Gutenberg). (Technically, it's a child theme for the Gutenify theme, but it's listed as a separate theme at WordPress.org.)

With Gutenify Magazine, you can use the new Site Editor feature to design every part of your publication using WordPress Full-Site Editing. If you're not familiar with this term, this means that you can actually design your site's templates using blocks (including pre-built block patterns to help you save time).

Beyond that, it also comes with other useful features such as built-in display ad slots, 5+ header layouts (via block patterns), and more.

Overall, if you're interested in using the new WordPress Site Editor, this is a great magazine theme to consider. But if you'd rather stick with the more "traditional" approach, you might want to choose a different magazine theme for WordPress.

What We Like

  • The pre-built block patterns help you save time
  • Lots of templates and template parts (all of which you can customize using the Site Editor)
  • Has a functional free version at WordPress.org

Price: A functional free version is available at WordPress.org, with a Pro version starting from $60

14. Blueprint

magazine WordPress themes, Blueprint

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Blueprint is another modern WordPress magazine theme that offers clean designs with plenty of empty space, including built-in support for dark mode.

You can get started by choosing from 9+ importable starter sites. While some of these starter sites are niche-specific, they primarily offer different design aesthetics for your site.

Beyond its aesthetic style, Blueprint is also packed with useful features including auto-loading next posts, live search, advanced author support (you can add multiple authors to a single post and let guest authors post without creating an account), built-in display ad slots, and more.

What We Like

  • The design aesthetic is very clean and modern — plus, each demo supports both light and dark modes
  • Has lots of helpful features to help you create a better magazine
  • Bundles in custom blocks for features like social share buttons, Instagram/Twitter feeds, subscribe forms, and more

Price: $69 with lifetime updates

15. Extra

magazine WordPress themes, Extra

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Extra is a WordPress magazine theme from Elegant Themes, the same team behind the popular Divi theme (which you can also use for magazines).

Just like Divi, Extra includes the built-in Divi Builder tool, which lets you use visual, drag-and-drop design. However, whereas Divi is a multipurpose theme, Extra is specifically focused on magazines and comes with a tool to help you control your site's magazine layouts.

Overall, if you like the idea of having an integrated builder like Divi but you'd rather start with a more magazine-focused design, Extra is a great option to consider. Learn more in our Extra theme review.

What We Like

  • Comes from Elegant Themes, one of the most established WordPress developers
  • Custom layout builder to control the magazine layout
  • Built-in review system, which is great if your publication writes a lot of reviews

Price: Starts from $89, which gets you access to all of the developer's themes and plugins for use on unlimited sites

16. Zeen

magazine WordPress themes, Zeen

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Zeen bills itself as a "next-generation magazine WordPress theme," which is backed up by its modern designs and strong feature list.

To launch your publication quickly, Zeen includes 30+ starter sites covering different publication niches. You can import a demo site with just a few clicks and then customize everything using Zeen's built-in Tipi Builder design tool.

Zeen also includes other useful features such as paywall support, Google voice schema, user post reactions, and dark mode. Plus, you get free access to a number of useful plugins that can help with reviews, live blogging events, social media, pop-ups, and more.

What We Like

  • The bundled Tipi Builder tool allows for visual, drag-and-drop customization
  • Built-in support for subscription paywalls (powered by its Restrict Content Pro integration)
  • Integrates schema to help your magazine gain visibility in Google voice search (only available for U.S. Google News Publisher-approved sites)

Price: $64 with lifetime updates

17. Pixwell

magazine WordPress themes, Pixwell

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Pixwell is another excellent WordPress magazine theme for publications that value clean, modern looks. It comes with 30+ importable starter sites covering a range of different niches.

Beyond having clean looks, Pixwell is also fully compatible with the Elementor design plugin, including bundling in 40+ of its own custom Elementor widgets. There's also a detailed theme options area.

Pixwell also adds lots of helpful features to create a better experience for your readers, including a bookmarking system, dark mode, post reactions, Ajax live search, infinite post loading, and more.

What We Like

  • 40+ custom Elementor widgets
  • Built-in integration to create a paywall and/or membership subscription, along with other monetization tools
  • User-friendly features such as a bookmarking system for readers, infinite load next posts, user reactions, dark mode, and more

Price: $59 with lifetime updates

18. MagPlus

magazine WordPress themes, MagPlus

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MagPlus is a popular WordPress theme for magazines that comes with 44+ importable demo sites to help you get up and running quickly.

To help you design and customize those starter sites, MagPlus is compatible with both Elementor and WPBakery Page Builder — you can choose your preferred design experience when setting up your site.

MagPlus is also packed with other helpful features including built-in support for AMP and Facebook Instant Articles, a related posts bar, built-in display ad slots, mega menu support, and more.

What We Like

  • Compatible with both Elementor and WPBakery Page Builder for visual design, which gives you more flexibility
  • Uses the native WordPress Customizer for real-time, code-free customizations
  • 25+ different article layouts to help you create the perfect reading experience for your visitors

Price: $59 with lifetime updates

19. The Fox

magazine WordPress themes, The Fox

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Not to be confused with the Foxiz theme above, The Fox is another popular magazine WordPress theme that can work for all types of different publications.

To start you off, The Fox comes with 33+ importable starter sites. All of these starter sites are built with Elementor, which gives you easy access to visual, drag-and-drop customization.

The Fox also builds in its own Elementor enhancements, such as 20+ Elementor widgets that give you more control over your magazine layouts, as well as an Elementor-based header and footer builder.

For even more control, The Fox gives you 1,500+ options in the real-time WordPress Customizer.

What We Like

  • Uses Elementor for code-free design and also adds its own magazine-focused enhancements to Elementor
  • 1,500+ options in the native WordPress Customizer give you even more control over your site
  • Built-in features such as related posts, reading progress, view counts, autoloaded posts, and more

Price: $59 with lifetime updates

20. Ncmaz

magazine WordPress themes, Ncmaz

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Ncmaz is a unique WordPress magazine theme that uses a combination of WordPress, GraphQL, React, and Tailwind CSS. This tech stack creates a very speedy, interactive frontend experience for your readers.

If you're interested, you should play around with the demo sites to experience the React interface.

You can get started by choosing from 7+ importable starter sites, including a RTL text option. Ncmaz can also handle multimedia sites well, which is great for magazine sites focused on videos, audio, podcasts, and so on.

Overall, if you're interested in using the headless approach for your publication, this is a great one to consider.

What We Like

  • Uses a headless WordPress approach powered by React, GraphQL, and Tailwind CSS
  • The frontend React app creates a very speedy, unique experience for your visitors
  • Strong support for multimedia including videos, podcasts, and audio
  • Built-in social share support

Price: $44 with lifetime updates

21. The Issue

magazine WordPress themes, The Issue

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The Issue is a premium WordPress magazine theme created by Fuel Themes, a WordPress VIP Silver Agency Partner and Envato Power Elite Author.

To help you get started, The Issue offers 17+ importable starter sites, all of which have clean magazine layouts. These starter sites cover different niches for your publication, such as food, travel, lifestyle, celebrity gossip, fashion, and more.

The Issue also comes with tons of other useful features including Ajax live search, built-in advertising spots, sponsored posts, a smart list tool for curation, "Shop the Post" functionality, infinite loading, and more.

What We Like

  • Comes from an established developer
  • Lots of customization options - 9+ article layouts, 50+ post layout elements, 10+ header styles, and more
  • Has some unique functionality, such as a "Shop the Post" feature (especially great for fashion magazines)

Price: $79 with lifetime updates

How to Choose the Best WordPress Magazine Theme for Your Site

Now that you've read through the best WordPress themes for magazines, it's time for the important part — choosing the right theme for your site.

While a lot of the decision will come down to your specific situation, here are some general tips to help you choose the best WordPress magazine theme for your publication.

Review magazine layout options.

Magazines are unique in that they need to display a lot more content than a regular blog. As such, you'll want to make sure your chosen theme's magazine layout options can meet your needs.

Consider performance optimization.

Page load times are important for all WordPress sites, including magazines. As such, you'll want to make sure your chosen theme can help you create a fast-loading site that passes Google's Core Web Vitals.

Choose the right monetization options.

Most magazine themes support built-in display ad slots. However, depending on the monetization strategy for your publication, you might want to look for other tools such as paywall/subscription integration, sponsored post support, affiliate marketing tools, and so on.

Explore reading experiences.

To create an optimal experience for your magazine's readers, you'll want to make sure that the individual article templates create a good reading experience. You also might want to look for reader-friendly features such as reading progress bars, bookmarking tools, and so on.

Review pricing and license terms.

Beyond looking at the price itself, you'll also want to consider licensing terms for your theme. Most of these themes include lifetime updates for a single site, but a few themes will require you to renew your license to continue receiving updates.

Create Your WordPress Magazine Today

If you want to create your own online magazine, choosing a dedicated WordPress theme for magazines will set you up for success and make it easier to showcase all of your content to readers.

All of the themes on this list offer flexible magazine layouts, so it's really just about choosing the right theme for your publication. Pick one today, and you'll be delighting your readers in no time.

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