There are several routes to take when selecting a theme:
The WordPress Codex:
There are over ten thousand free and fully vetted themes available for use on the WordPress.org site which has them filtered and classified in terms of attributes. Any of these themes will show a preview of how they look and function, list reviews left by users and record of its’ on-going development. In order to pass the vetting process, these themes will also lend themselves easily to child-theming.
Child Theme
Any well-formed theme will allow for the creation of a “child” theme which takes all the attributes of the parent while overriding selected attributes of that parent.
Commercial (paid) Theme
Ironically a commercial theme that doesn’t have a “free” version posted on the WordPress Codex has not been vetted by the WordPress community and is only required to meet the quality standards that the author sets themselves. Those paid themes which follow the “freemium” model will have passed WordPress QU standards. Generally, a commercial theme will have expanded customizer controls and many are bundled with page builders.
Custom Theme
There are several good starter themes available (like: https://underscores.me/ ) that provide the baseline functionality for a fully compliant theme that can be fully customized to specifically suit the project. Custom themeing does require a solid understanding og PHP, HTML, CSS and JavaScript but does offer the highest level of customization.
There are now 3 types of WordPress Themes
Traditional Theme (the bulk of WordPress themes)
- Gutenberg in content region.
- Gutenberg in widgets region(s).
- Ability to use reusable blocks.
- Ability to use block patterns.
- Menu module active.
- Customizer active.
- Header & Footer controlled by theme files.
- Presentation styles are set in theme.
Full Site Editing Theme (less than 1% of total WordPress themes as of 2023)
- All site regions controlled by blocks.
- Menus are blocks.
- Style customization done via the site editor.
- Templates & template parts are editable via the editor.
- Ability to use reusable blocks.
- Ability to use block patterns.
Hybrid Theme (less than 1% of total WordPress themes as of 2023)
- Menu module could be active.
- Customizer could be active.
- Some regions in site could be controlled via the site editor as template parts.
- Ability to use reusable blocks.
- Ability to use block patterns.
When selecting a theme, it is important to remember that most elements such as color scheme, typography, accent images, positioning of elements, and even what post attributes are visible is entirely editable via a child theme. You theme choice should be made based on the underlying structure not by the individual aesthetic embellishments.