There are a million and one reasons why teachers, professors, and educators need their own website – professional enrichment, student outreach, personal branding/marketing, the list goes on. It could be a site geared toward your present students, your own professional portfolio & publications, or a collection of resources & education tips. Whatever direction you’re planning to go, it’s really a no-brainer – especially since crafting a website is so much easier than it used to be!
Themes are one of the “killer” features of using WordPress to power your website. Unlike drag and drop website builders , you start with a defined, beautiful template with built-in features. While some themes come with feature overkill (or a blank slate), there is a whole universe of themes customized for every type of website imaginable.
In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of “off-the-shelf” WordPress themes for teachers, professors & educators that have stunning design and amazing functionality – like student forums, social media integration, landing pages for everything from resources to blog posts and even eCommerce capabilities so you can sell resources, tuitions & consultations!
And, even better, WordPress themes are (supposed to be) open-source & GPL licensed so you gain access to a wide community of resources and help…which means you’ll never be left high and dry by a design firm. Some require a learning curve, and some are super-simple, but all have the versatility for a traveler that wants an active online presence.
Here are the 13+ Best WordPress Themes for Teachers, Professors & Educators (+2 frameworks) curated from marketplaces and theme sellers around the Internet.
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Birch
Birch is a clean, modern theme with a responsive design – which means that it will look great on any device, from smartphone all the way up to a big screen. It has a ton of theme options that will allow you to make your website uniquely reflect your skills, passions, and interests. You can include anything from a personal bio to recent blog posts & publications to videos…really anything you can imagine. Plus, you can customize all the design elements like typography, layout, and color scheme to create the look you’re going for. See more on Birch here.
Creative Blog
If you’re looking for bold, beautiful and minimal-esque, Creative Blog is the theme for you. It’s responsive, so you can be confident that it will look great anywhere. Plus, it’s geared to really make great content stand out – a perfect choice for a teacher or professor looking to post regularly. It’s got video and social media integration, and you can customize practically every design element to create the perfect look. Check out Creative Blog here.
Education Hub
Education Hub has a sleek, modern look with a great deal of versatility. With this responsive theme, you can create landing pages for anything from a biography to a portfolio to galleries with audio & video – if you can imagine it, you can create it. You can also customize all the little details like color scheme, typography, and widgets. It’s also incredibly easy to create a custom mailing list with the built-in contact form. See more on Education Hub here.
Educator
Have a classic, professional design in mind? Educator is a great option because of its flexibility and options. All the design options are easy to customize to your preferences. You can create a website as simple as blog posts and a personal/professional biography or as complex as offering video tutorials, social media integration, and client interaction through contact forms. It’s also compatible with a number of popular plugins, which can add even more functionality. Check out Educator here.
Faculty
Faculty has a unique look that will really set your website apart from the rest – and it was created specifically for people in academia. It’s a great place to start off with a website because it looks fabulous as an online CV but has the functionality to expand into an online portal for publications, personal blog, and more! It’s highly customizable – and making any changes is easy with the drag and drop editor. See more on Faculty here.
High Class
Modern & sophisticated are the perfect way to describe High Class as a theme. Not only does it have a responsive design, but it also has a ton of great features to boot. You can create amazing landing pages with the custom post options, plus it’s easy to integrate things like social media, commenting, and more. All the design elements are easy to customize to your preferences – and the parallax scrolling effect adds an extra visual flair. See more on High Class here.
iCoach
iCoach has a clean, professional theme with great versatility – and it’s responsive, so it’ll look great on any device. The drag and drop page editor makes customizing the layout easy, and all the design elements like typography, color, etc are a breeze to adjust to your preference. You can incorporate everything from a personal bio/history to a blog to lessons and services – really anything that you can think of. Check out iCoach – it’s a free download!
Online Tutor
Online Tutor uses a classic design and has some great functionality. It’s geared toward learning tutorials and educational lectures, so if you have a focus on providing live or recorded educational material, this might be the theme for you. It also has options for great landing pages like a biography, professional publications, a blog – your imagination is your only limitation here! It also has a lead capture form built-in, so you could even create a mailing list with ease. All the design elements can be customized as well. See more on Online Tutor here.
Persuasive
Persuasive is a portfolio-focused theme that serves as the perfect foundation for any teacher, professor, or educator. It’s modern and bold and comes packed with some useful features. You can display information like your professional/personal background, your educational philosophy, class syllabi, and more. The design elements are all customizable to your preference, so you can easily craft the look you’re going for. You can also add little extra bits of functionality like social sharing, commenting, and more. Check out Persuasive here.
RS Card
RS Card has a minimalist feel to its professional design – and it has a ton of helpful features that make it a versatile choice. You can go as basic as an online resume of sorts all the way to providing services like consultations and tutoring displayed with price points to blog updates and more. This theme is also compatible with eCommerce, so it’s easy to manage your transactions all in one place. All the design elements are fully customizable, plus the design is responsive so it’ll look great anywhere. RS Card is certainly worth looking into if you want an all-in-one type theme. See more on RS Card here.
The WP
The WP may look simple, but that’s what makes it so great! It’s especially versatile if you aren’t afraid to get creative. Not only can you customize all the design elements like layout, typography, color, etc – but it’s also optimized for eCommerce, solid SEO, and more. You can easily create landing pages for practically anything you can imagine – a professional portfolio or bio, latest research & discoveries, media galleries. And it’s quite the bang for your buck since it’s a free download! Check out The WP here.
Throne
Throne is an awesome choice for an educator, professor or teacher because it’s tailored for tons of quality content – which means if you want to post lectures or educational videos, write opinion pieces, or even publish your past work online, you can do with ease. The design is bold and intuitive, plus it will look great on any device. You can also customize all the design elements to create the perfect look. A few stand-out features are social media integration, AdSense optimization, various post formats, and an easy-embed feature. See more on Throne here.
Titania
If you’re looking for a sleek design, Titania is certainly that. It’s a multipurpose theme so it’s amazing in terms of flexibility and functionality. You can customize all the design elements and create landing pages for anything and everything. It’s also optimized to create online forums for discussions, social networking for your site members (or current classes) to use, and eCommerce if you plan on offering any kind of service or consultation. You really can do practically anything with this theme! Check out Titania here.
Zeyn
Zeyn is another multipurpose theme that will enable you to create the website you want as a professor or teacher. You can start off with any of the 16 demo designs and customize to your heart’s content. And setting up and designing your site are incredibly easy with the drag and drop page builder. Not only can you create endless landing pages for everything from a bio to blog posts, but you can also add beautiful galleries with images and videos that relate to your education experience. Check out more on Zeyn here.
Smart School
Smart School is a powerful WordPress theme, which was crafted with care to help you present the department of high school education in the best light! Built with Power Page builder, this theme allows you to compose professional-looking layouts of any complexity without touching a line of a code. Meanwhile, a WordPress Live Customizer will help you to edit your website in a real-time mode. Here you get a large set of content modules and custom widgets, therefore, you can easily spice up your high school website with multiple types of content and to enjoy an advanced theme’s functionality.Check out Smart School here.
Spello
Spello is a fully responsive language school WordPress theme, which boasts a well-faceted documentation, a SEO-friendly nature, a clean code and more! This education WordPress theme comes with an ultimate pack of Cherry plugins. Therefore, you can make your website look far more reliable by showcasing your team, a full range of your services, clients’ feedback about your school, etc. Moreover, it is pre-loaded with a Power Page builder, multiple layout options, a WordPress Live Customizer, and lots of other features that will help you to enjoy a hassle-free website building process! Check out Language School here.
Genesis Theme Framework
A theme framework is a foundation for themes with consistent, rich functionality that allows simple design changes across a range of themes. Genesis is one of the oldest (and most cutting edge) theme frameworks in the world of WordPress. Their framework has an immense amount of well-documented features and “hooks” where you can implement infinite functionality for your website.
StudioPress also has plenty of “plug and play” child themes for Genesis with several child themes that you can install out of the box. Check out Genesis by StudioPress here.
Elegant Theme Framework
Like Genesis by StudioPress, Elegant Themes is a large, established themes creator with their own theme framework. They also have a deep theme “club” where you get unlimited access to themes to download, try and swap out at will. They are a great choice for anybody that wants lots of choices. Check out Elegant Themes here.
Conclusion
Using WordPress Themes is one of the best options out there for creating an active online presence as a teacher, professor or educator! It may even be the perfect way to expand your professional portfolio. And the best part? It’s all completely controlled by you! Always be sure to use themes with high coding standards, and remember that a good theme is flexible and works well with other plugins.
If you’re considering creating an amazing site with WordPress from scratch, here are some detailed guides on how to choose a theme, how to set up your website and how to get started with WordPress.
