Developing themes for WordPress from scratch is a formidable task. It takes a lot of time and demands an in-depth knowledge of coding and skill. Keeping up with all the new updates that make their way to the WordPress core itself a challenge. In recent times, order to make all our lives easier, WordPress frameworks of different themes have been made available on the internet. Some of these frameworks are premium whereas some are free to be used by anybody.

These WordPress frameworks act as a structure for any new theme to be developed on it. They have different features and functionalities any developer can use and make their own themes.

Developers are divided in their opinions about the WP theme frameworks. The fans of these frameworks make the argument that these frameworks save time and shorten the workload. They make the workflow smooth and allow developers to concentrate more on the design rather than just intensive coding. While more veteran developers say that frameworks are just way too restrictive in their process.

A pretty valid counter argument to the high learning curves is that understanding how the framework works is just a one time problem and will be beneficial in the long run. It will streamline the development process and make developing more about creativity than about coding.

Whatever your opinion may be, WP frameworks have had a very positive response from the general audience. They have been widely appreciated so you definitely should check them out. In this article, we go on to talk about our favorite frameworks. In order to make sure you find what you’re looking for, we give you five free ones and five premium frameworks.

A neat framework that works well on both desktop and mobile devices. It is highly customizable and secure. It offers a number of custom templates, widgets and an elaborate array of options. Genesis is possibly the most known WordPress framework available. You can check out genesis child themes available on the internet and make use of them. Genesis theme framework is available for 59.95$.

A great WP framework that is search engine optimized and allows you to customize everything according to what you need. It has a drag and drop interface that makes it very easy to work on for someone with limited technical knowledge. It has editable skins for developers to implement their own designs. It also has features for veteran designers who can make use of the handy thesis API. Its price range lies between 87$ to 197$

Headway divided into two parts. You first use the Visual Editor to create a layout for your theme. After creating a layout you use the Design editor to edit and customize visuals such as colors, font etc. It is available between 89$ to 199$.

A handy framework which itself is based on WooThemes’s WooFramework. WooThemes are basically built on WooFramework that unfortunately isn’t available for everybody. However, they introduced canvas as a framework for developers to build their themes on. Canvas has an easily customizable layout with a variety of cool options to work with including some advanced ones. It can also be integrated with WooCommerce. Canvas is available for 99$ to 119$.

Ultmatum is a great theme framework with a number of advanced features like extendable layout builders for drag and drops, live editors for CSS to see the effects as you make changes and a lot more. It can also be easily set up for mobile devices. Its price range lies between 65$ to 125$.

Gantry is a neat framework which is efficient and light. It has been developed by the RocketTheme who have made it free to use by any developer. It has many great visual layouts and a number of sophisticated design features.

This is an amazing WP framework that allows you to generate independent themes that can be distributed with your brand name. It has a very user-friendly interface with a variety of visual and design options. Runaway is also free for anyone to use.

This FrameWork is very useful. It allows you to adjust layouts and appearance of your theme. It provides a Static Area Builder which arranges the static elements of your page such as logos.

A great open-source framework which allows you to add and create customized options for themes. It isn’t really user-friendly though and can be used only by more experienced coders. It is available for free.

This is also a great free framework. It is where a lot of professional developers start from. It has gained a lot of popularity since its creation. It is highly customizable. The one problem is that it doesn’t have an options panel.