Over a couple of years, the dark theme has come to become one of the most preferred themes. The dark mode was earlier used for women’s fashion. But now, there has been a paradigm shift – it is making its way into UI and UX. Enterprises, such as Google and others made the dark theme a significant part of UI.
The web has been obsessing over dark mode recently though these dark interfaces have been around a long time ago. In the past few years, we have witnessed a proliferation of dark mode options across Android, Apple iOS, and macOS, and apps and platforms, to name a few.
A lot of theories are revolving around this switch to the dark mode. Though during the day time, dark text on light background offers enhanced readability, the more time we spend on a screen (to read or write), it strains our eyes. This is one reason that many have switched to using light text on dark background as they found dark to be less harsh when looking at the screens, especially during the night time. A darker interface would seem better to the eyes and helps save battery on mobile devices. However, dark mode is not recommendable always because when not designed properly, it might strain the eyes.
Is Dark theme right for you?
Dark theme is best for you if are in the creative industry: web-design, photography, artist, etc. and have minimal content.
If your website would have a lot of content or has a lot of content, then this is not for you.
So which dark theme is the best for you?
Below we have shortlisted the must-haves when purchasing Dark WordPress themes:
- Responsiveness.
- Lightweight. not too bloat.
- SEO friendly.
- Easy customization
- Cross-browser friendly
- Good color palette and matching font
Here, are some of the most preferred dark themes of 2020:
Photolux – Photography Portfolio WordPress Theme
This dark WordPress theme is one of the most elegant portfolio and photography themes. It is a great choice to showcase your work (mostly, photographers or professionals who are in the creative line and are looking for portfolios to exhibit their creativity). Regardless of whether you are a beginner or an expert, Photolux is easy to use. You need not be an expert at coding to work with it.
Powered by the Pexeto Panel, this dark theme offers a wide range of features and functionalities, some of which include the following:
- Choice of multiple base skins: dark, light, and transparent
- Functionality to generate dynamic sidebars
- Easy to change page layouts
- Right-click disabling option included
- Theme translation and logo replacement features included
- Footer with social media icons section
- Reply functionality included for comments
- Drop-down menus included
- Portfolio section included
- Includes full-width background image option
Purity – Dark WordPress Theme
This WordPress theme follows the minimal design approach. It offers a “bold” feel, which is preferred when designing personal portfolios or business websites – to add the extra icing to the cake. The theme is compatible with WordPress version 5.3. The demo content and documentation available with this theme makes it easier to set up a page within hardly a few minutes. And also, it is abundant with a number of features, including:
Includes revolution slider, full-width blog layout, header designs, top bar section, and child theme
- WPML-compatible
- Breadcrumbs, sticky header, and Google Font Switcher available
- Includes Font Awesome Icons
- Multiple portfolio options
- Includes 20 page templates
- Lightbox gallery – explore the image options
- Slider manager included (with draggable effect)
- Translation panel and flex sliders included
- The portfolio is filterable (accompanied with support from Vimeo and YouTube videos)
- Boxed and wide layout
Skylab – Portfolio or Photography WordPress Theme
This WordPress theme has a jaw-dropping dark skin, which will enhance the appearance of your website or portfolio. It has an innovative and super-smooth hardware-accelerated slider that comes with touch navigation. It can be used by anyone, including bloggers, illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, creative directors, and others.
Regardless of whether you want to showcase a design or your photography project, this is a great choice. Below listed are some of the unique and interesting features of this theme:
- WPBakery Page Builder – easy-to-use drag and drop page builder that can be used to create layouts faster
- Offers excellent performance – enhanced site loading speed
- One-click installer available – use the same look as in the demo – later, you can customize to meet your business-specific requirements
- Gallery blocks – easy to embed slideshow strips or image grids
- WooCommerce integration
- Loco translate plugin available for translating the theme to any language of your choice
- Retina-ready
- Flexible pages
North – Single-Page Parallax WordPress Theme
Powered by the Twitter Bootstrap 3.2 Framework, it would make a great choice for creative professionals. It is integrated with the Visual composer plugin and the theme options panel, which makes it easy to customize the theme to meet your needs. Some of the interesting features of this theme are listed below:
- Integrated with multiple sliders, such as revolution and layer sliders
- Essential grid available – lets you build any kind of grid
- Powerful theme options panel included
- Excellent theme customizer included
- Filterable and Isotope Portfolios
- 12 Versions available
- Three different skins available: dark, light, and night layouts
Music Press – An Elegant Audio Theme
This WordPress theme is well-suited for a band, a label, or a webzine (music-oriented theme). Apart from these, it can also be used for a variety of other purposes. Also, it is customizable and fits well across any device regardless of their screen sizes.
Here are some of the unique features of this theme:
- Multiple premade skins: dark, light, and grunge
- Multiple playlists
- Multiple home page sliders
- Photo galleries and a video gallery
- Multiple post formats included
- Unlimited sidebars and widget areas
- Multiple custom widgets included
Cascade – Personal vCard WordPress Theme
This is another minimalistic WordPress Theme, which comes with tons of features. It uses tabs for presenting content across pages. It offers updates free for a lifetime. The regular license for this theme is available for US$39.
We will take you through some of the interesting features of this theme:
- Multiple color schemes and predefined icons for tabs
- Multiple predefined page backgrounds
- In-built lightbox and Google Map shortcode included
- Working contact form
- Tweet widgets included
The Luxury – Dark or Light Responsive WordPress Theme
This WordPress theme can be used for featuring a wide range of luxury products, including resorts, jewelry, bags, watches, and more. These products can be featured as portfolio items and also you can link these to the WooCommerce system. This theme comes with an add-to-cart button on the product list, which will help you to sell your product with ease.
Some of the most interesting features of this theme are listed below:
- Includes dark and light skins
- Integrated with WooCommerce
- Easy demo importer included
- Boxed and full layout
- Master slider included
- Limitless page builder and advanced admin panel included
FullScene – Portfolio or Photography WordPress Theme
This WordPress theme is a great choice for photographers, designers, and design agencies (who are more into creative works). The regular license for this theme is available for US$39.
Below are some of the most unique features of this theme:
- Can be integrated with WordPress version 5
- Customizable accent colors
- Over 800 Google fonts included
- Nine custom widgets and eight widegetized areas included
- Child theme included
- Retina-ready and localization-ready
Skrollex – Creative One-Page Parallax
This one-page theme serves multiple purposes. It can be used for showcasing a portfolio, and for modern business, photography websites. The regular license for this theme can be availed for US$41.
Below are some of the most interesting features of this theme:
- Dark and light skins
- Hover animation and retina-ready
- Fullscreen menu and sections
- Multiple color customization
- Viewport border
WoodStock – Electronics Store Theme
This retina-ready WooCommerce theme is a great choice for designing online stores, such as electronics, cloth, accessories, furniture, and more. The regular license for this theme is available for US$59.
We will take you through some of the interesting features of this theme:
- In-built live Ajax search for pages, posts, and products
- Features product videos
- Quick view plugin available (optional)
- Visual composer page builder and more
Scent – Model Agency WordPress Theme
This elegant WordPress theme comes with a number of features. It offers a model gallery that comes with a category filter and model profile pages. The regular license for this theme is available for US$49.
Below are some of the most interesting features of this theme:
Includes price tables, blog, models gallery, and Google fonts
- Background options
- Customizable colors
- Contact Form 7 included