Chapter 30: Top 5 Web Developer Themes

Website developers often spend so much time on client work that they neglect their websites. However, your site serves as the first impression a lot of potential customers have of your work. Finding a ready-made theme you can customize allows you to show off your skills without taking up too much time you could use to bring in more revenue. We scoured the internet for the best web developer themes, narrowed the options down and selected ones we think will work for almost any web development niche.

The web development industry brings in around $43.5 billion per year, with a steady growth rate of 2.2%. However, how much demand grows is also dependent on your specific skill set and demand in that area. For example, artificial intelligence programs are outpacing nearly every other category. 

Key Things to Look for in a Web Developer Theme

In the WordPress themes series, we’ve covered 29 other industries but we’ve yet to look at web development. After all, web developers should know how to code their own theme, right? Yes, and no. Web developers sometimes have specialty areas that either keep them too busy to build out a completely custom site or are in a different wheelhouse. 

With that in mind, we decided to include themes for web developers in our chapters. Here are the things you’ll need:

• Fast Load Times: People bounce away from sites that load too slowly. You want to make that positive first impression, so your site should load quickly. Some themes are so heavy that they bog down your site. Stay away from those. 
• Gallery: You’ll need a spot to show off other projects you’ve worked on.
• Testimonials: Just because someone can design beautiful sites doesn’t mean they have happy customers. If you’ve worked hard on communication skills and customer service, show off your advantages by adding in comments from satisfied clients.
• Beautiful Aesthetics: Your site needs to have a professional look. Why would someone hire you if your site is ugly or useless? 

Obviously, you also want the typical things we look for in good web design, such as navigational structure, beautiful images and a layout that makes sense. 

How We Choose Just Five Web Developer Themes

Obviously, there are hundreds of potential themes in the web developer niche, and also outside of it that might work for your needs. Narrowing the options down takes time and an eye to detail. In addition to good design elements, we look at:

• Has the theme been updated in the last few months? You don’t want a theme that might be vulnerable to hacking or incompatible with updated versions of WordPress.
• Does the theme have decent reviews? A few lower ratings are to be expected as everyone has different priorities. However, the overall reviews should be positive and we aim for four out of five stars or higher.
• Is the theme simple to install and use out of the box? We know you’re busy. We want installation simple.

We do sometimes include themes that work with website builders such as Elementor or WPBakery, etc.

Our Selections for WordPress Themes for Web Developers

These final selections match our idea of an excellent WordPress theme that serves small business owners. We’ve installed each on a staging site to ensure it is simple to install and use and meets the criteria outlined above. We’ve selected four that should work for anyone and a clear winner that goes a bit beyond the others in aesthetics. 

Smart Designer Agency

Smart Designer Agency has a bright, bold look that grabs user attention from the minute they land on your page. You can customize the colors, but why would you? The theme is on a bootstrap framework, making it simple to use and easily personalized. The free version gives you some basic elements, such as mobile readiness, color options and some customization. Upgrading to the Premium version for $49, adds footer customization, more page templates and customer support. 

Classic Developer Portfolio

The Classic Developer Portfolio theme focuses on a single page resume that showcases the person’s experience and work. It is a theme that is excellent for a solopreneur or freelance web developer. We love the dark mode look to the design, which is easy on the eyes.

The layout highlights your experience in a timeline fashion. You can also add images to your free portfolio and lay them out in a simple pattern. The design is compatible with smartphones and other browsers. 

A license runs $49 and brings a slider section, additional customizations and the ability to use the theme for commercial businesses. 

Web Agency Elementor

Web Agency Elementor integrates with the Elementor web page builder for quick updates and simple management. You can even hire a virtual assistant and train them to keep your web developer themed website updated. 

The free version gives you access to block editing. You’ll receive enough layouts to get you started and customize your color palette, fonts and layout. Add custom CSS/JSS for even more functionality.

If you’d like to upgrade to the premium version for $49, you’ll gain more customizations and integration with third-party apps. 

Web Developer

Web Developer theme is free for basic features. The SEO-friendly theme loads quickly and includes compatibility with plugins such as WooCommerce and Contact Form 7. 

For $49, upgrade to the premium version and gain support, additional layouts and customizations to make the design completely your own. With a click or two, you can change fonts, colors and layouts. 

Best of the Best: Web Designer

Although web developers are often much more than just web designers, they also serve the role of designing and redesigning sites. We love the modern look of this design, which also allows you to include multiple services. Web Designer theme showcases the different areas a developer might embrace to make a freelance career successful. 

Some of the features you can use with the free theme include: 

• Responsive theme that looks good on mobile devices 
• Several beautiful page layouts 
• Woocommerce compatibility 
• Customize colors 
• Translation ready 
• Four slides

If you upgrade to the Premium theme for $99, you also have more than 200 other themes and additional features. You can get premium for a single theme for a mere $21.

• Unlimited number of slides 
• Six template pages 
• Contact Us page template 
• Three blog layouts 
• Section enable/disable 
• Google font choices 
• Gallery 
• Mega menu option 
• Customize CSS/JS 
• Customization and support

We think the $99 licensing option is the best one for developers, who might be able to utilize the themes for other clients, too. 

Start From Scratch

As a web developer, you have the skills to build a website from the ground up, coding things the way you want them to appear. However, to save time, using one of the themes above can still result in an impressive design that draws new clients.