Best WordPress Blog Themes: 5 of 13 Still Sold

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A blog theme recommendation ages badly in a way that a plugin recommendation does not. Theme shops prune their catalogues, retire designs that stop selling, and fold the survivors into a subscription. A list written once and left alone becomes a list of dead links, and the reader who clicks one cannot tell that the theme they liked stopped being sold three years ago.

So this is not a list of thirteen themes. It is a status check on thirteen themes, done by loading each vendor’s own product URL on 4 September 2026 and recording what came back: a live page, a redirect to the shop index, or a 404. Prices below are the figures the vendor displayed on that date.

What is still sold, and what it costs

CSSIgniter prices shown include the site-wide WORDPRESS30 coupon, advertised in a banner across the shop on the day of reading. List prices are $49 (single theme), $69 (Standard Club), $79 (Developer Club) and $249 (Lifetime Club). Every displayed price is exactly 70% of list, which is the coupon doing the work; expect the higher figures if it ends.

The figure: 62% of this list no longer exists

Eight withdrawals out of thirteen recommendations is a 62% attrition rate, and it did not happen evenly. Broken down by vendor, on 4 September 2026:

• MyThemeShop: 1 of 5 survives (20%). Only Schema is left. Cyprus, Reader, News and Personal have no listings on a themes page that now shows 8 products in total — 5 premium at $39 each and 3 free.
• CSSIgniter: 3 of 7 survive (43%). Spencer, Public Opinion and Olsen Pro are in the catalogue. Doberman, Brittany and Paperbag now redirect to the theme index; Moment 404s.
• StudioPress: 1 of 1 survives, technically. The Essence Pro page loads, but it no longer sells the theme by itself.

The derivation is deliberately dull, because that is the point: 13 product URLs, opened once each on one day, with the HTTP response and the vendor’s own catalogue listing recorded for each. No estimates, no press releases. A redirect to a shop index is the clearest signal a theme shop ever gives that a product is finished, and four of these gave it.

One more number worth having before you buy. CSSIgniter’s Standard Club, which covers every theme and plugin it sells, was $48.30 against $34.30 for a single theme — a difference of $14.00, or 41% more. Two single themes would cost $68.60. So if more than one CSSIgniter design appeals, the club is already the cheaper purchase, and it is the answer to this page’s whole problem: buy access to a catalogue that gets pruned rather than a specific design that might be next.

The five that survive

Spencer, CSSIgniter — the pick of the five

Spencer is a clean blog and entrepreneur theme with a newsletter signup, a hero area with calls to action, a sticky menu, multiple layouts and dozens of colour options, and it is the only theme on this list whose product page shows evidence of recent attention: the page’s own last-modified stamp reads 15 February 2024. It runs on CSSIgniter’s Ignition framework, integrates with Elementor and the block editor, supports WooCommerce and ships a one-click demo import. The licence covers unlimited websites with lifetime usage of the files you download and one year of premium support.

Spencer on CSSIgniter  |  View demo  |  Get hosting (affiliate links)

Public Opinion, CSSIgniter — for magazine-style blogs

Public Opinion is the magazine end of CSSIgniter’s range: multiple featured-post and category layouts, multi-page articles, an article review system, sticky sidebars, mega menu support, custom Elementor modules and generous advertising slots. It is still listed in the catalogue under Blog / Magazine. We could not load its individual product page — CSSIgniter served our reader a Cloudflare verification screen — so the catalogue listing is the evidence it is still sold, and the price shown is the shop’s standard single-theme rate, not a figure read from its own page.

Public Opinion demo  |  Get hosting (affiliate links)

Olsen Pro, CSSIgniter — renamed, still here

Olsen was the lifestyle and fashion pick on this list, with lookbook templates, a front-page carousel, an Instagram feed, 11 blog layouts and 80 Customizer settings. It is now listed as Olsen Pro in the CSSIgniter catalogue, which is worth knowing if you go looking for the old name and assume it has gone. The same Cloudflare caveat applies: the catalogue confirms it is sold, its own page did not load for us, and the price is the standard single-theme rate.

Schema, MyThemeShop — cheap, fast, and five years stale

Schema is genuinely light and its performance panel is still useful, which is why it earned a place here. But the vendor’s own changelog ends at version 3.9.23 dated 11 October 2021, and the product page states WordPress compatibility only “Upto 6.7.7”. At $39 a year that is a support subscription on frozen code. It still works; it is not what you should start a new blog on. Our full Schema review has the release history and the arithmetic.

Schema on MyThemeShop  |  View demo  |  Get hosting (affiliate links)

Essence Pro, StudioPress — no longer a purchase

Essence Pro is a clean Genesis Framework theme suited to lifestyle, health and wellness blogs, with six widget areas, a customisable header and WooCommerce styling. The page is still up, but the offer has changed: its headings now point to “Free themes with Premium WordPress Hosting” and “Get StudioPress-made themes with Genesis Pro”. No standalone price appears anywhere on the page, and studiopress.com/pricing/ returns a 404. The page’s own last-modified stamp reads 3 June 2021. We could not verify a purchase price for Essence Pro on 4 September 2026, so none is quoted here. In practice you now get it by hosting with WP Engine or subscribing to Genesis Pro, which makes it a hosting decision rather than a theme decision.

The eight that are gone

These were on this page and are no longer sold. The vendor links are kept so the record is complete and so you can see for yourself where they now land, but none of them will sell you the theme named.

• Cyprus (MyThemeShop) — conversion-focused blog theme with drag-and-drop homepage sections and a “Featured On” strip. No catalogue listing. Old vendor link, old demo link.
• Reader (MyThemeShop) — reader-focused layout with three header options and managed ad slots. No catalogue listing. Old demo link.
• News (MyThemeShop) — minimal news and magazine layout, AdSense-optimised. No catalogue listing. Old vendor link, old demo link.
• Personal (MyThemeShop) — personal and lifestyle theme with four blog layouts and a featured slider. No catalogue listing. Old vendor link.
• Doberman (CSSIgniter) — viral blog and magazine theme with social counts and custom reactions. URL now redirects to the CSSIgniter theme index. Old demo link.
• Brittany (CSSIgniter) — lifestyle and fashion theme with a lookbook and Instagram integration. URL now redirects to the theme index. Old vendor link, old demo link.
• Paperbag (CSSIgniter) — blog theme with a front-page slider, lookbook templates and floating share icons. URL now redirects to the theme index. Old vendor link, old demo link.
• Moment (CSSIgniter) — minimalist masonry blog theme with a slide-out menu. URL returns a 404.

Where it loses: the catch with each survivor

Five themes survived, but “still sold” is a low bar. The honest weaknesses:

• Two of the five are not really purchasable as themes. Essence Pro has no price on its page and reaches you through WP Engine hosting or Genesis Pro, so choosing it means choosing a host and a subscription. That is a much bigger commitment than the one this page originally described.
• Schema is frozen. It is on the list because it is fast and cheap, and it stays on the list only for people already running it. Five years without a release is disqualifying for a new build, whatever the price says.
• The prices you see are coupon prices. Every CSSIgniter figure here is 30% off under a promotion running on the day of reading. Budget for $49 a year for a single theme, not $34.30, unless the banner is still up when you buy.
• Annual renewals on all of them. CSSIgniter and MyThemeShop both sell yearly licences. You keep the files if you stop paying, but you stop getting updates — which is precisely how a theme ends up in the state Schema is in.
• Two survivors we could not open directly. Olsen Pro and Public Opinion are confirmed only by their catalogue listings, because CSSIgniter’s bot protection blocked their individual pages for us. That is weaker evidence than we would like, and we have said so rather than quietly presenting a price as read.
• Premium is now the harder sell. Astra, Kadence and GeneratePress are free, were each updated within the last nine months, and cover most of what these paid themes do. A lookbook template is a narrower reason to pay than it was in 2019.

What to do instead

If you want a paid blog theme, buy the CSSIgniter club rather than a single design from this list: it is $14 more than one theme, covers everything the shop sells, and insulates you from exactly the attrition this page documents. If you want the cheapest maintained option, start with the free tier — Astra, Kadence and GeneratePress were all updated within the last nine months and all handle a fast, clean, ad-friendly blog. Our free WordPress themes guide covers those, and the fastest themes comparison has the performance side. Whatever you pick, check the vendor’s changelog date before you pay: it is the most predictive thing on any theme sales page. If you are new to this, our WordPress 101 guide comes first, and what to check before buying a theme covers the rest.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best premium WordPress blog theme right now?

Of the themes this page has historically recommended, Spencer from CSSIgniter is the pick: it is still actively sold, its product page was last touched in February 2024, and at $34.30 a year with the current coupon it covers unlimited sites you own. If two or more CSSIgniter designs appeal, the Standard Club at $48.30 a year is better value than buying singles.

How many of the themes on this page are still available?

Five of thirteen, checked on 4 September 2026 by opening each vendor product URL. Spencer, Public Opinion, Olsen Pro, Schema and Essence Pro are still listed. Cyprus, Reader, News and Personal have gone from MyThemeShop’s catalogue, and Doberman, Brittany, Paperbag and Moment have gone from CSSIgniter’s, three of them redirecting to the theme index and one returning a 404.

What happened to the Olsen theme?

Nothing bad; it was renamed. Olsen is now listed as Olsen Pro in the CSSIgniter theme catalogue, still under Blog / Magazine. If you searched for “Olsen” and found nothing, that rename is why.

Can I still buy Essence Pro from StudioPress?

Not as a standalone theme, on the evidence of its own page. The Essence Pro page is live but shows no purchase price, and its headings direct you to free themes with WP Engine’s premium WordPress hosting or to a Genesis Pro subscription. The studiopress.com pricing URL returns a 404. We could not verify any standalone price for it on 4 September 2026.

Should I pay for a blog theme or use a free one?

Start free unless you need something a free theme cannot do. Astra, Kadence and GeneratePress are free on wordpress.org, were each updated within the last nine months, and handle speed, clean markup and ad placement well. Pay when you want a specific design language — a lookbook, a magazine grid, a particular editorial layout — and when the vendor’s changelog shows recent releases.

Sources, all read 4 September 2026: cssigniter.com theme catalogue and the Spencer product page, including its plan and price block; the CSSIgniter product URLs for Olsen, Public Opinion, Doberman, Brittany, Paperbag and Moment; mythemeshop.com themes catalogue, Schema product page, Schema changelog and pricing page; studiopress.com Essence Pro page and pricing URL; wordpress.org theme directory pages for Astra, Kadence and GeneratePress.