WordPress is an incredibly versatile platform and this year, with the advent of HTML5 and CSS3, there have been a huge number of incredible looking, well coded WordPress themes hitting the market. Sure, a lot of WordPress themes and templates are available free of charge, but if you’re willing to pay just a few dollars (usually $30 – $50 approximately), you can actually get a well-coded, beautifully created HTML5 theme that sets you apart from the sea of other websites on the net.

Although most HTML5 WordPress themes are good, in my opinion there are some that really stand out from the crowd in terms of their design. So, I thought I’d round up a list of what I consider to be 15 of the best WordPress themes (coded in HTML5) that have been released this year.

In the meanwhile you may want to read some of our wordpress and themes related articles

Parasponsive

Parasponsive is an incredible parallax one-page theme that makes use of large imagery and subtle animations to help it really stand out from the crowd. It’s fully responsive, so works perfectly on all mobile devices and has a tonne of features including pricing tables, a homepage layout builder and tonnes more.

Hunter

Hunter is an absolutely beautiful theme that has been designed primarily for agencies and creative individuals looking for a great business website. It has a tonne of features including an AJAX content form and is also fully responsive. It has video, audio and standard blog post formats too.

Squash

Squash is a pretty straightforward theme that looks great on any device and is perfect for a variety of uses. It has portfolio pages, social media buttons, a fantastic looking slider for the homepage and of course, full mobile optimisation. It’s easy to customise in a number of ways from the backend too.

Parallel

I absolutely adore this theme; it’s simple, bold and modern. It would be the perfect theme for a creative agency looking for a modern new look. It also has unlimited colour schemes, so it’s easy to ensure that it fits with your already existing logo or brand image.

Cleaner

If you’re looking for a simple, yet well coded HTML5/CSS3 business website/blog, this is the theme for you. It’s a great looking simple theme that’s absolutely packed with functionality. It’s got a lightbox, slider and a tonne of other features. It’s also responsive and looks great.

Reportage

Setting up a blog/magazine? This is the absolute perfect theme for you. It has a sidebar, reviews system, 23 widgets and more. It’s also fully customisable in terms of the colour scheme (unlimited).

Nuzi

Nuzi is an amazing theme that would be perfect for just about any business. It has a page builder that’s second to none, a fully responsive design and is also Retina display ready. What’s more, the page builder is drag and drop, so it’s extremely simple.

Yalu

Yalu is an exceptional theme that has been created with almost all site types in mind. It doesn’t matter whether you run a business, blog or a creative agency, the huge control this theme gives you will allow you to build the perfect website. It’s minimal, cool and obviously, fully responsive.

Fffolio

Ffolio is the perfect one-page portfolio theme. Built in tableless HTML5 and CSS3, this is the perfect way for any freelancer/creative agency to showcase their work. It has a sticky navigation, choice of two colour schemes and an AJAX contact form.

Rudder

I personally love this theme as it’s simple and clean but also, works perfectly on all devices. It would be absolutely perfect for anyone looking to start their own personal blog. If you’re looking to create a minimalistic portfolio, this is also a great theme option as it has reusable portfolio page templates.

Studio

Studio is the perfect theme for a creative studio as it displays your work in an interesting (almost Pinterest-like) style. It has a responsive layout, incredible looking gallery, contact form and everything else a creative business website needs. Oh, and it also looks fantastic in general.

Moderna

Moderna is a WordPress theme that has been designed specifically for mobile devices, so if you have a lot of visitors from Smartphone’s, this could be the theme you’ve been waiting for. In terms of the design, it’s modern, simple, clean and straightforward. However, it’s still packed with features such as custom page templates, SEO options, 22 shortcodes and even a page preloader (perfect for mobile visitors with slow connections).

Concept1

Concept 1 is a really cool theme that has a fantastically flat (yet beautiful) design. It’s perfect for a number of websites including businesses, creative freelancers and more. It’s also great if you’re just looking for a blog too. It has a tonne of page templates, unlimited sidebars and also, a page builder.

Bluri

Bluri is an exceptionally creative one-page theme that has a unique, blocky appearance. It’s a really simple and modern theme that has minimalism at the heart of its design, but a lot of effort has been put into creating an intuitive and beautiful UI. Despite its simplicity, it’s packed with features including a number of post types and a portfolio manager. It works on all devices too.

Magazinly

This has to be one of the best Magazine styled themes out there as it not only looks great, but also has all the functionality you’d expect from a great magazine theme (including already placed ad slots). It’s SEO optimised (including rich-snippets) and the AdSense slots are fully responsive, as is the entire site.