This page used to hold a catalog of commercial education themes. That catalog is gone (more on that below). What’s here now is a short guide to choosing a theme for a school, college or online course site, plus links to our in-depth guides.
Our guides
- Best WordPress themes for schools, colleges and online courses
- CoursePress Pro alternatives: where to move your courses
- WordPress LMS plugins compared
Five checks before you choose an education theme
- Does it support your LMS plugin? The LMS plugin produces course pages, lesson navigation, quizzes and student dashboards, but the theme decides how they look. Look for named support for the LMS you plan to use, not a vague “works with all plugins”.
- Is it actively maintained? Check the last update date and the changelog. A theme that hasn’t been updated in a year is a security and compatibility risk, especially on a site where students log in.
- Is it accessible? Schools, colleges and public bodies often have legal accessibility duties, and WCAG 2.1 AA is a common target. Test keyboard navigation, color contrast and heading structure on the demo before you commit.
- Is it fast for logged-in users? Page caching does little for students who are logged in, so a heavy theme hurts a course site more than a brochure site. Lightweight themes such as Kadence, GeneratePress, Astra and Blocksy are popular for this reason.
- Can you leave it later? All-in-one education themes often bundle their own page builder, LMS and demo content. That’s quick to launch but harder to move away from. A general-purpose theme plus a mainstream LMS plugin is usually easier to maintain.
About the old ThemeCycle themes
The themes that used to be sold on this domain, and their demo sites, are no longer available and aren’t supported here. We don’t offer downloads, licenses or updates for them. If your site still runs one, plan a switch to a maintained theme: the education themes guide explains how.