Many languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, are read from right to left. Therefore, if a significant portion of your site's target audience reads from right to left, then your site should have right-to-left (RTL) support to reach them.
Fortunately, WordPress has themes that are compatible with RTL languages. And in this article, we'll be considering the best RTL WordPress themes you can use.
Top RTL Themes
- Porto
- Herald
- PinThis
- Flatastic
- Engine
- Lambda
- Sahifa
- Volt
- PowerMag
- WoodMart
- Striking
- Jannah
- SmartMag
- Fastor
- JNews
1. Porto
Porto is a multipurpose e-commerce RTL WordPress theme. The theme is great for beginners and professionals as it requires next to zero coding knowledge to operate.
Porto's Elementor Page Builder support makes it easy to drag and drop different elements around your website to enhance its look. In addition, Porto is SEO-optimized and fully compatible with right to left languages.
What we like:
- One-click demo import
- Powerful admin panel
- Responsive and easy to install
- SEO optimized
Price: $59
2. Herald
Herald is another WordPress theme that supports RTL languages. You will love this super flexible, professional theme if you run a business website. The theme comes with options to help you easily support right-to-left-oriented reading.
You'd also enjoy over 500 post layout combinations that Herald offers and the customization options to make your header area and other parts of your website look and feel how you want them to. You can also monetize your site with the WooCommerce plugin.
What we like:
- One-click demo importer
- Built-in theme translator (compatible with the WPML plugin)
- Multiple header styles
- RTL support
Price: $69
3. PinThis
This is a visually striking Pinterest-style WordPress theme with unique features. This theme offers five different skin colors, tons of demo layouts, social icons and share buttons, a smart admin panel, and much more.
The theme supports embeddable media, is Adsense-ready, offers a responsive slider, and of course, supports RTL languages. You can use the PinThis theme even if you don't have any coding knowledge.
What we like:
- One-click demo importer
- Great support for embedded media
- Support RTL languages
Price: $49
4. Flatastic
Flatastic is one of the best RTL WordPress themes for e-commerce and business websites.
This is a multi-vendor WordPress theme featuring a robust visual composer with twenty-four custom elements. You also get beautiful header and layout styles, a mega menu, layer sliders, unlimited footers, and more. This theme is extensively documented and offers brilliant support.
What we like:
- Multilingual support with the WPML plugin
- Full support for RTL languages
- Multiple header styles and layouts
- SEO optimized
Price: $59
5. Engine
This is a user-friendly, RTL-supported WordPress theme suitable for any news or magazine website.
It has many smart sidebar options, mega menus, a review system, and much more. This theme also offers as many as 50 ad slots, is responsive on all mobile devices, and can be used on the latest versions of WordPress.
What we like:
- Compatible with drag-and-drop page builders
- Optimized for website speed and search engines
- Social media integration
- Supports RTL languages
Price: $49
6. Lambda
This is an RTL-compatible Bootstrap theme you can use across various versions of WordPress. It comes with 65 unique pre-built layouts to breathe life into your site.
It doesn't matter whether you run an e-commerce business, personal blog, restaurant, or something else; you’ll find a demo that fits your needs with this theme.
What we like:
- One-click demo installer
- Over 65 demo sites to choose from
- Live WordPress Customizer
- SEO optimized
Price: $59
7. Sahifa
This RTL-friendly theme can be used on any kind of publishing website. It is compatible with the WPML, bbPress, BuddyPress, and WooCommerce plugins. This theme comes loaded with great features to make any site stand out.
What we like:
- Compatible with WPCOVID-19 plugin
- RTL website demo website
- Supports WooCommerce
- Multiple custom widgets
Price: $59
8. Volt
Volt is a feature-rich, RTL-compatible WordPress theme that works for different types of sites. You get excellent documentation and brilliant support in case you run into a snag. If you use this theme on your site, converting it to RTL language will be a breeze.
What we like:
- Slim and modern look
- Supports WooCommerce
- Custom widget for social icons, recent and popular posts, etc
- Full RTL language support
Price: $59
9. PowerMag
PowerMag is a feature-rich magazine and highly flexible WordPress theme. It is compatible with various modern-day browsers and advanced plugins.
Because the theme is fully responsive and retina-ready, it looks stunning across all screen sizes. In addition, it comes with a great built-in review system, unlimited sidebars and widget areas, custom logo and favicon upload functions, and a lot more.
PowerMag comes with RTL support to create a website in Arabic or any other right to left language.
What we like:
- Custom widgets for social media and recent posts
- Optimized for search engines
- Over 500 Google fonts and unlimited colors
Price: $54
10. WoodMart
WoodMart is an RTL WordPress theme optimized for creating seamless online store experiences with your website. The theme's ajax search capabilities make it easy to browse different products without opening new web pages.
WoodMart is also optimized for all RTL languages and works with multiple plugins like WooCommerce, WPML, Contact Form 7, MailChimp, Yoast, and more.
What we like:
- Responsive design
- Highly suited for online stores
- Over 70 demo sites with one-click installation
- Drag and drop page builder support
Price: $59
11. Striking
Striking is a simple RTL WordPress theme that works great for e-commerce and business websites. This highly customizable theme works well with WooCommerce and the Elementor page builder.
In addition, it comes with demo sites you can easily install and start using without any coding knowledge.
What we like:
- Highly customizable
- WooCommerce support
- One-click demo install
- 100% RTL compatible
Price: $56
12. Jannah
Jannah is a newspaper magazine RTL WordPress theme. This theme helps add a modern and fresh touch to online publishing with stunning design, social media integrations, and modern sharing options.
The theme is optimized for search engines, website speed and performance, and works well with cache and SEO plugins. You also get over 1000 fonts and many more customization options with this theme.
What we like:
- Ajax powered menus
- Email marketing support
- Supports RTL languages
- One-click import with demo content
Price: $59
13. SmartMag
SmartMag is one of the best RTL WordPress themes best suited for news and magazine websites or blogs. The theme is easy to use and its responsive design makes it great for mobile devices.
Built-in features like rich snippets for breadcrumbs, articles, and reviews ensure the theme is SEO optimized.
What we like:
- Compatible with Elementor Page Builder
- Retina ready display
- Custom codes for ads
- Social media integrations
- Supports RTL languages
Price: $59
14. Fastor
Fastor is one of the best RTL WordPress themes you can use to create an online store. This theme is full of features that constantly help you improve the experience online shoppers have with your site.
Fastor supports all languages, whether they read from left to right or from right to left. You can also create dynamic product pages that show visitors all they need to know about a product in one place.
What we like:
- Auto-update price on product page
- Social media icons and widgets
- Compatible with Shopify
- Support RTL languages
Price: $56
15. JNews
Online publishing gets a new look and feel with the JNews WordPress theme. With the theme's live customizer and integrations with page builders like Elementor and WPBakery, it’s easy to drag and drop elements around and see how they affect your website's look.
The theme's demos come with support for RTL languages like Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Hebrew.
What we like:
- Paywall system
- Optimized for website speed and performance
- Embedded video integrations
- One-click demo and plugin import
Price: $59
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Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.