Month: March 2025

WordPress theme development has evolved. There are now two distinct paths for building your perfect theme.

So-called “classic” themes continue to thrive. They’re the same blend of CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and PHP we’ve used for years. The market is still saturated with and dominated by these old standbys.

Block themes are the new-ish kid on the scene. They aim to facilitate design in the browser without using code. Their structure is different, and they use a theme.json file to define styling.

What hasn’t changed is the desire to build full-featured themes quickly. Thankfully, tools and frameworks exist to help us in this quest – no matter which type of theme you want to develop. They provide a boost in one or more facets of the process.

Let’s look at some of the top open-source WordPress theme development tools and frameworks on the market. You’re sure to find one that fits your needs.

Block themes move design and development into the browser. Thus, it makes sense that Create Block Theme is a plugin for building custom block themes inside WordPress.

You can build a theme from scratch, create a theme based on your site’s active theme, create a child of your site’s active theme, or create a style variation. From there, you can export your theme for use elsewhere. The plugin is efficient and intuitive. Be sure to check out our tutorial for more info.

TypeRocket saves you time by including advanced features into its framework. Create post types and taxonomies without additional plugins. Add data to posts and pages using the included custom fields.

A page builder and templating system help you get the perfect look. The pro version includes Twig templating, additional custom fields, and more powerful development tools.

Gantry’s unique calling card is compatibility with multiple content management systems (CMS). Use it to build themes for WordPress, Joomla, and Grav. WordPress users will install the framework’s plugin and one of its default themes, then work with Gantry’s visual layout builder.

The tool provides fine-grained control over the look and layout of your site. It uses Twig-based templating and supports YAML configuration. There are plenty of features for developers, but you don’t need to be one to use the framework.

Unyson is a popular WordPress theme framework that has stood the test of time (10+ years). It offers a drag-and-drop page builder and extensions for adding custom features. They let you add sidebars, mega menus, breadcrumbs, sliders, and more.

There are also extensions for adding events and portfolio post types. There’s also an API for building custom theme option pages. It’s easy to see why this one continues to be a developer favorite.

You can use Redux to speed up the development of WordPress themes and custom plugins. This framework is built on the WordPress Settings API and helps you build full-featured settings panels. For theme developers, this means you can let users change fonts, colors, and other design features within WordPress (it also supports the WordPress Customizer).

Available extensions include color schemes, Google Maps integration, metaboxes, repeaters, and more. It’s another well-established choice that several commercial theme shops use.

Kirki is a plugin that helps theme developers build complex settings panels in the WordPress Customizer. It features a set of custom setting controls for items such as backgrounds, custom code, color palettes, images, hyperlinks, and typography.

The idea is to speed up the development of classic themes by making it easier to set up options. Kirki encourages developers to go the extra mile in customization.

Get a Faster Start On Your Theme Project

The idea of what a theme framework should do is changing. Perhaps that’s why we’re seeing a lot of longtime entries going away. It seems like the ones that survive are predicated on minimizing the use of custom code.

Developers are expecting more visual tools these days. Drag-and-drop is quickly replacing hacking away at a template with PHP. We see it happening with a few of the options in this article.

Writing custom code still has a place and will continue to be a viable option. But some frameworks are now catering to non-developers. That opens up a new world of possibilities for aspiring themers.

If your goal is to speed up theme development, then any of the above will do the trick. Choose the one that fits your workflow and enjoy the benefits of a framework!

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