Best Free Sports & Fitness WordPress Themes

If you’re on the hunt for a really good WordPress theme that won’t cost you anything and is ideal for either a sports or a fitness website, then…

…we’d probably have a lot to talk about.

In between sets, of course. 💪

As someone who’s been working out since the age of 15 and even managed an entire fitness facility at one point in my life, I know a thing or two about what “my kinda people” are probably looking for in a theme. I also happen to be a WordPress fanatic who’s played around with dozens of themes over the years.

To put this list together, I tested out more than 30 different fitness themes, and unfortunately, the vast majority of them are just clickbait. They show you the pre-built demo site in the preview images, but then when you install the theme, it’s blank and you have to upgrade to get the starter site content. I found that frustrating and I’m assuming you would too. Therefore, I narrowed the choices down to only those themes that either give you the demo content as shown, or at least part of it.

So whether you’re a gym owner, a yoga studio manager, a coach of a weekend warrior sports league, a member of a bar calisthenics team, or even a CrossFitter – you’ll likely find something here to suit your tastes.

My list is guaranteed to give you all the gains 💪

Neve

Before we dive in, I’d like to briefly introduce you to our Neve theme. Besides being our flagship theme, it’s also one of the most popular themes in the official directory (with 5,022,344 total downloads so far).

It comes with over a hundred pre-built starter sites, including for a gym, a personal trainer, and a yoga studio. It’s an excellent overall choice. However, to avoid any potential appearance of bias, I intentionally excluded it from the list. Nonetheless, I encourage you to check it out separately and see why so many other websites – fitness and non-fitness – use it.

1. FitClub

FitClub theme laptop mockup.
FitClub theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

FitClub is an excellent theme for any type of fitness facility – be it a hardcore bodybuilder gym, a posh fitness club, a functional fitness center, or even a mind + body studio. The free version gives you enough to get the job done, but to really crank up your gains, check out the pro version.

⚠️ This theme installs as a blank template. To get the design you see above, from your WordPress admin dashboard, go to AppearanceFitClub OptionsGet started with FitClub.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Compatible with popular page builders like Gutenberg, Elementor, Beaver Builder, and SiteOrigin, allowing for easy customization of layouts.
  • Offers ready-to-import starter demos, saving time in setting up a professional-looking fitness website.
  • Provides responsive design, ensuring the website looks great on all devices, including smartphones and tablets.
  • Includes WooCommerce compatibility, enabling you to sell products or services directly from your website.
  • Has multiple layout options for pages, posts, and containers, providing you with design flexibility.
  • Features a built-in slider functionality for showcasing important content or promotional materials.
  • Contains widget areas for easy content organization and customization.
  • Integrates with social media platforms, helping to expand your website’s reach.
Pro Version 💰

The pro version offers additional design options, with extra header and footer layouts, unlimited slider settings, and expanded color customization choices. It also provides access to Google Fonts for typography enhancements and includes premium starter demos for a more polished look right from the start.

Overall, it’s an ideal choice for those who want to create a more distinctive and feature-rich fitness website without delving into complex coding.

It costs $55 for one year of support and one year of updates. You can renew annually, or you can pay $199 for a lifetime subscription.

💡 Did you know? While stretching increases flexibility and can prevent injuries, using responsive design stretches your site to fit screens of all sizes and helps prevent user experience issues.

2. SKT Karate

SKT Karate theme laptop mockup.
SKT Karate theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

This theme is perfect for you if you’re a martial arts maestro, karate coach, or self-defense sensei looking to kick your online presence up a notch. Whether you’re running a dojo, teaching taekwondo, or showing folks how to defend themselves with style, SKT Karate’s got your back (and your front, and your side too)!

⚠️ When you install this theme, it comes as a blank template. To get the design you see above, you need to install the SKT Templates plugin. You’ll be prompted to do so right after you activate the theme. Simply click on Begin installing plugin to start the process. Separately, you’ll also need to install the Elementor page builder via the usual way of installing a plugin. You can then find and import the SKT Karate template from inside the SKT Templates interface.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Sleek, modern design that’ll make your website as sharp as your moves.
  • Students can easily book classes online, so you can focus on teaching, not scheduling.
  • Built-in image gallery to showcase your students or yourself.
  • Mobile-responsive, so your site will look great on any size device.
  • Sell merchandise directly through your site with WooCommerce integration.
  • Comes with pre-built demo content, so you can have your site up and running faster than you can say “Hadouken!”
Pro Version 💰

The free version of SKT Karate is great on its own, but if you want to become a true web warrior, the pro version is your ticket to a black belt in web design.

It’ll hook you up with a full suite of inner pages to showcase every aspect of your martial arts mastery. Plus you’ll get four header layouts and four footer layouts to help you create an attractive navigation menu for your visitors. You’ll also gain access to premium support (because even a sensei needs a hand sometimes).

It costs $39 as a one-time purchase.

3. VW Fitness Gym

VW Fitness Gym theme laptop mockup.
VW Fitness Gym theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

If you were intrigued by the first theme on this list – FitClub – but it just wasn’t quite the right fit for whatever reason then check out VW Fitness Gym. It has a similar target demographic and can also be used for a variety of fitness-related websites, particularly gym-based ones.

⚠️ VW Fitness Gym also installs as a mostly blank template. However, you can import some elements of the demo version for free by going to AppearanceAbout VW Fitness Gym from your WordPress admin dashboard. For the full demo template, you’ll need to upgrade.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • You’ll look awesome on any device with a fully responsive design that adapts faster than you can do a burpee.
  • Customize your home page like you customize your workout – add, remove, or rearrange sections to create the perfect routine for your visitors.
  • Speak to a global audience with translation-ready features, because fitness knows no language barriers.
  • Sell your merch, protein shakes, or workout plans with WooCommerce compatibility – turn your site into a 24/7 fitness store.
  • Choose from a variety of page layouts to showcase your classes, trainers, and success stories.
Pro Version 💰

The premium version of this theme is worth considering if you want to speed up your overall website building process. It grants you access to way more template patterns compared to the free version. On top of that you get a mega menu option, support for custom CSS / JS, a gallery, and other exclusive functionalities.

It costs $40.

4. FSE Sports Arena

FSE Sports Arena theme laptop mockup.
FSE Sports Arena theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

As you can guess by the title, the FSE Sports Arena theme is an excellent choice for any kind of venue that hosts sporting events or leagues. It also works well for leagues themselves or team websites within leagues. Beyond that, with a little extra tweaking, it can be used by other types of fitness-related businesses.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Perform like a champ on any device thanks to FSE Sports Arena’s responsive design.
  • Use retina-ready images that are so sharp, they’ll practically pop off the screen.
  • Keep your fans in the loop with social media integration.
  • Design your site your way with customizable layouts and the WordPress full site editor.
  • Take advantage of the event management feature to share news about upcoming games or tournaments.
  • Showcase your team members, athletes, or instructors with dedicated profile sections.
  • Add a store to your site with WooCommerce integration.
Pro Version 💰

Consider upgrading to the premium version of FSE Sports Arena if you want to jumpstart your website building process. It’ll unlock access to easily importable demo content, useful plugins, more fonts and color choices, and other cool features like video popups. On top of that, you’ll get premium support if you ever get stuck on anything.

It costs $40 as a one-time purchase.

💡 Did you know? Team sports can boost communication and teamwork skills. When it comes to web development, teams use collaborative tools like GitHub to enhance communication and work on projects more efficiently.

5. FitCoach

FitCoach theme laptop mockup.
FitCoach theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

FitCoach is ideal for anyone involved in CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, calisthenics, kettlebells, or any broadly defined “functional training” business. It has a built-in class schedule that you can edit to fit the names, times, instructors, and other details of your own classes. This feature alone will save you a lot of time when building your site.

⚠️ FitCoach is not available through the WordPress repository. You have to go directly to the Modern Themes website, create an account (for free), and then download both the theme and the demo files from your account:

Modern Themes my account section showing FitCoach theme and demo available for download.

To install the demo, unzip the demo content file. Then, from your WordPress dashboard, go to ToolsImport. Find WordPress on the list and if it’s not already installed, click on Install Now. Then click on Run Importer. Upload the XML file you unzipped and follow the remaining instructions.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Coded by professionals, based on WordPress coding standards.
  • Includes a sample XML file that you can upload after you install the theme, which will make it look just like the demo.
  • Offers access to Google fonts so you can customize your typography in numerous ways.
  • Fully responsive and tested across a variety of browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.
  • Built-in color picker that’s right inside the WordPress Customizer, so that you can choose whatever color scheme combinations you like best.
  • Comes with a .pot file which makes theme translation a piece of cake. The developers even a have a video to show you how to do it.
Pro Version 💰

The theme developer behind FitCoach offers premium versions of some of their themes, but FitCoach only comes in a free version.

6. Fitness Exercise Hub

Fitness Exercise Hub theme laptop mockup.
Fitness Exercise Hub theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

This theme’s sleek design and comprehensive features make it particularly suitable for modern, tech-savvy fitness businesses aiming to attract a health-conscious audience who prefer accessing fitness content and services online. It can also work as a digital presence for brick-and-mortar facilities who want to display their class offerings and their instructors / trainers online.

⚠️ The free version of Fitness Exercise Hub doesn’t come with the full demo template. You can, however, import a limited version of the home page. To do it, create a new page and save it as a draft. Then from your WordPress admin dashboard, go to PagesAll Pages. Find the page you just made and click on Quick Edit. Look for where it says Template and change it from Default Template to Custom Home Page.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Let your website visitors calculate their BMI using the interactive calculator tool.
  • Show profiles of your fitness instructors and group exercise trainers.
  • Highlight client testimonials to gain trust from potential new clients.
  • Display a gallery of dynamic fitness images that showcase various exercises.
  • Publish blog posts and news related to fitness and health.
  • Provide detailed information about different online fitness classes.
  • Allow clients to book personalized training sessions or group classes.
  • Sell fitness-related products or services directly from the website.

* Note that most of the pre-built features (e.g., the BMI calculator) come in the paid demo import version of the theme.

Pro Version 💰

Similar to the other themes on this list, the main benefits of upgrading to the premium version have to do with additional customization options and better support. If you decide to do it, you’ll get the full demo import, extra templates, color options and fonts. You’ll also unlock access to premium technical support, as well as support forums where you can ask questions if you get stuck on something.

It’s also only $21, which makes it a bargain for a premium theme.

💡 Did you know? Athletes often use visualization techniques to improve performance. In web development, visualizing the end-user experience can guide design choices, leading to a more effective WordPress site.

7. Fitness Hub

Fitness Hub theme laptop mockup.
Fitness Hub theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

I find the Fitness Hub theme to be a nice middle-of-the-road option. It doesn’t quite fit the aesthetic of a high-end fitness club, while at the same time it’s polished enough to not be the best choice for a hardcore weightlifting gym. It’s particularly well-suited for standard gym owners, yoga studio managers, and community wellness centers. The theme’s default design also makes it appropriate for certain specialized fitness niches such as Pilates studios.

⚠️ If you want to have the demo template to start with, make sure you pay attention to the prompts on your screen after you activate the theme. You’ll be asked if you want to get started. After you agree, the theme will install the Advanced Import for Fitness Hub plugin. Once that’s done, you can import the demo content. I also want to add a note here to say that Fitness Hub’s import process was one of the smoothest ones on the list.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Includes customizable widgets for homepage and sidebar management.
  • Integrates with page builder plugins for easy site customization.
  • Allows unlimited sliders to showcase your content effectively.
  • Enables easy customization of colors, logos, and layout options.
  • Incorporates social media integration to easily increase your online presence.
  • Supports multiple languages for broader audience reach.
  • Facilitates online class enrollments to streamline your business operations.
  • Features a blog section so you can share fitness-related content and engage with your audience.
Pro Version 💰

One thing I appreciate is when a developer makes a clear chart showing the differences between their free theme and its premium version. Acme Themes does exactly that.

Some of the features that aren’t available in the free theme but are included in the premium include related posts, author info, show/hide comments, breadcrumbs, advanced customization of footer, and more.

Depending on your needs, it might be worth the $55 investment.

8. Kortez Yoga

Kortez Yoga Theme Laptop Demo.
Kortez Yoga Theme Mobile Demo.
Who it’s for 🤔

The name of this one makes it clear who its targeted user base is, but don’t let the name pigeonhole you into thinking it’s only for that. The theme actually makes a great fit for any other kind of mind + body or holistic wellness business. It could also work for dancing, gymnastics, ice skating, or any other type of athletic activities that benefit from having a class schedule on their website.

⚠️ Similar to some of the other themes, Kortez Yoga also gives you a prompt to install plugins after you activate the theme. Two of these are necessary to import the theme’s demo content. These are: Kortez Toolset and Advanced Import. However, you want to proceed carefully here because the suggested installation includes Elementor. If you wish to build your site using the default Gutenberg editor, then I would manually install only the two plugins you need rather than the recommended, default installation. With that said, the Elementor version looks closer to the demo than the Gutenberg version, so the latter will require a bit more work on your part.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Compatible with both Gutenberg and Elementor.
  • Choose from up to five pre-loaded animations (ten in the pro version) to keep your visitors from leaving while your page loads.
  • Fully responsive so your site will look great on any size device.
  • Multiple inner page templates to speed up your page building process.
  • RTL / LTR language support in case you want to build your site in another language (or multiple languages).
Pro Version 💰

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the free version of Kortez looks really nice. If you’re satisfied with the look of the demo content then you should be good to go.

On the flip side, if you want to deviate from that look at all and customize the colors, typography, the sidebar layouts, and other aspects of your site, then upgrading to the premium version is worth it. You’ll not only get those additional customization options, but you’ll also get access to lots of other cool effects like parallax scrolling, sticky menu and sticky sidebar, tons of different layouts for your posts, breadcrumbs, and more.

A single-site license will run you $39.99 per year.

💡 Did you know? Yoga enhances concentration and mental health. Similarly, a minimalist WordPress theme can enhance user focus on your content without distractions.

9. Bootstrap Fitness

Bootstrap Fitness theme laptop mockup.
Bootstrap Fitness theme mobile mockup.
Who it’s for 🤔

Bootstrap Fitness is a well-rounded fitness theme that has enough range to make it suitable for all sorts of sites. I would suggest anything from hardcore training to weekend warrior fitness types could use this theme and make a nice website out of it. That includes facilities that cater to these demographics.

⚠️ To import the demo content, from your WordPress dashboard, go to AppearanceBootstrap Fitness. Then install the two plugins it recommends: TBThemes Theme Import and The Bootstrap Theme Companion.

Features 🏋️‍♀️
  • Customize the site’s logo, title, and tagline with options for visibility and style adjustments.
  • Configure font color and size for the site logo for brand alignment.
  • Upload a custom favicon to enhance brand visibility in browser tabs.
  • Integrate social media links and icons directly into the site header for enhanced connectivity.
  • Manage general site information like contact numbers and email addresses through a dedicated section.
  • Personalize the banner section with titles, descriptions, and a customizable Call to Action (CTA) button.
  • Enable or disable various site sections such as banners, services, or testimonials with simple toggles.
  • Save all configurations directly from the customizer with an immediate publish option to see changes live.
Pro Version 💰

Bootstrap Fitness has one of the more comprehensive free demo imports on this list, which means you might not be quite as eager to jump on the premium version. However, as with the others, it could be a good decision if your needs match the premium features. Some of the highlights that stand out to me about the paid version include a class schedule section, a custom offer section, access to Google fonts and advanced colors, and customer support.

For those extra features, you’ll need to pay $59 per year, or $149 for lifetime support and updates. The lifetime option also lets you use the theme on unlimited sites, versus the annual plan, which you can only use on a single site.

Last set 🏋️‍♀️

As I mentioned in the introduction, one of the most frustrating aspects of sports and fitness themes compared to perhaps some other niches, is that the overwhelming majority of the ones in the WordPress repository are just blank themes that lure you in with the demo, but when you install them, the demo content is behind a paywall. While I did include some themes on this list that didn’t have the full demo content shown in the preview, all of them had at least partial pre-built templates, with some delivering comprehensive pre-built sites.

Before I let you go, I thought I’d share my final top three choices. The main criteria I went by for narrowing these down was how closely the demo preview matched the actual imported demo content when I installed it. With that said, my top three are FitCoach, Fitness Hub, and Bootstrap Fitness.

What do you think of the list? Are there any good sports or fitness themes that I missed that you would have included? Let me know in the comments below.

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