As a webmaster with over 15 years of experience building websites in WordPress, I‘ve helped dozens of bars, pubs, and nightlife spots create beautiful online homes customized to promote their brands.
A well-designed WordPress theme is the cornerstone of any bar or pub website. It needs to reflect your venue‘s unique atmosphere and make the right impression on potential customers.
With WordPress powering over 40% of all websites, it offers the most themes and customization options. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share my expert advice for choosing the best WordPress themes for bars, pubs, and other nightlife establishments.
When evaluating WordPress themes for bars and pubs, keep these important features in mind:
Contents
Mobile Responsiveness
With Google prioritizing mobile-friendly sites, a responsive design is essential. According to Statista, over 25% of web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices. The theme layout should automatically adjust for optimal viewing on phones and tablets.
Booking/Reservations
Integrated booking dramatically simplifies reservations for your customers. Look for a table booking widget, contact form, or integration with restaurant reservation plugins like TablePress. Online bookings can help venues generate up to 20% more reservations according to research from Resy.
Menus
Clearly displaying your food and drink menus helps customers know what you offer. Themes with dedicated menu templates, page layouts, or integration with menu plugins like Menu Item Custom Post Type are ideal. This encourages patrons to order more items.
Events/Live Music
Highly effective for promotion, a theme section dedicated to events lets you highlight special happenings like live music, open mic nights, guest bartenders, and more. Event listings build engagement and draw in targeted traffic.
Visual Style
Choose a modern, lively design that reflects your venue‘s vibe. Look for themes with multiple homepage and layout options to find the perfect fit. First impressions matter, so make sure your theme aligns with your branding.
Page Builders
For easier customization, opt for a theme compatible with popular page builders like Elementor or Beaver Builder. This allows you to drag-and-drop sections and tweak your website design. Coding skills aren‘t required.
You can find both free and premium WordPress themes suitable for bars and pubs. Based on my experience, here‘s an overview of what each offers:
Free Themes
Pros:
- No cost to download and use
- Offer basic features and customization options
Cons:
- Very limited design options and layouts (usually just 1)
- Designs tend to look generic rather than distinctive
- May lack support and not receive future updates
- Less flexibility compared to premium; reliant on theme developer‘s roadmap
Premium Themes
Pros:
- Hundreds of design choices to stand out
- Include multiple useful features like integrated bookings, menus, events, etc.
- Top-notch support direct from the theme developer
- Regular updates with new features and improvements
- Documentation and tutorials provided
Cons:
- Cost money to purchase (typically a one-time fee of $60 to $90)
Based on my experience, most bars and pubs will benefit tremendously from investing in a premium theme. The additional cost pays for itself through access to an arsenal of industry-specific features, modern designs, options for customization, and helpful support.
Well-executed branding and promotion is critical in the bar and restaurant space, where competition is fierce. A premium theme gives you the tools you need to stand out.
Once you‘ve selected a suitable theme, you can customize it to match your brand identity.
Here are some tips that have worked for my clients:
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Change colors, fonts, and images site-wide – Most themes let you alter the color scheme, typography, and graphics throughout your site with just a few clicks. Match it to brand guidelines for cohesion.
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Set up menu and booking widgets – Display your food/drink offerings and enable reservations right from your homepage. This makes it easy for visitors to learn about your offerings and make a booking.
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Add brand logos and icons – Reinforce branding and consistency by uploading your logo image to the header. Repeat it on footer and key content areas. Upload custom icons to use throughout the site.
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Showcase high-quality photos – Include full-width image sliders, galleries, and other photo integrations. Show dishes, drinks, interior spaces, special events, staff, and customers enjoying themselves.
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Promote live music and events – Dedicate homepage space to promote upcoming live music acts, open mic nights, trivia, guest bartenders, and specialty food/drink menus. Rotating promotions build interest.
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Display testimonials – Sprinkling in positive testimonials builds credibility. People trust real reviews from other customers.
With the right customizations, your theme will convey the atmosphere and experience of visiting your establishment. This gives visitors a preview that may entice them to check it out in-person.
Below are my top picks for WordPress themes catering to the bar and pub space, based on 15 years of web development experience:
Astra is one of the most popular free WordPress themes, with over 1 million active installs. It‘s lightweight, fast, and comes with multiple bar and restaurant templates.
Key features:
- Drag and drop page builder integration
- WooCommerce ecommerce support
- Menu and reservations functionality
- Responsive mobile-friendly design
- Custom typography controls and color palette
The pro version ($59/year) unlocks additional features like headers, footers, advanced menus, and 1-click website demos to expedite setup.
Astra is highly customizable and constantly being improved – a great free option. The premium upgrade is affordable and provides excellent value.
Neve is one of the top multi-purpose premium themes great for pubs, bars, breweries, and more. It delivers beautiful, professional designs and intuitive customization options.
Key features:
- Blazing fast – optimized for performance
- Fully compatible with page builders like Elementor
- Cafe and restaurant specific templates
- Custom layouts, typography, colors, and branding
- Built-in WooCommerce functionality
For just $59, Neve provides stunning designs backed by outstanding support direct from the theme developers at ThemeIsle. It‘s easy to customize without touching code.
Well-suited to bars and nightlife, Neve is used by notable brands like Lenovo, Pepsi, and MIT. Its clean, modern aesthetic makes a superb first impression.
One of the most powerful themes around, Divi comes packed with incredible customization capabilities through its intuitive drag-and-drop page builder. The versatile layout options make it an ideal pick for bars, pubs, clubs, and more.
Key features:
- Visual page builder to customize everything inline
- Over 100 premade page layouts and sections
- Custom layouts for menus, venue info, headers, footers, etc.
- Responsive mobile-friendly designs
- Built-in theme builder and 1-click install demos
At $89 for unlimited sites, Divi costs more upfront. But its superior flexibility and wealth of features make this theme well worth it. For extreme customizability, Divi is hard to beat.
Extra offers a premium collection of 89+ industry-leading WordPress themes for restaurants, bars, breweries, bakeries, and food-based businesses.
The diverse modern designs and detailed demo content make getting started quick and painless.
Key Features:
- 25+ restaurant and bar website demos
- Built with Elementor for easy drag and drop editing
- Bookings and reservations functionality
- Catchy animations and interactive elements
- Top-notch customer support
While pricier at $99, Extra delivers premium quality designs backed by exceptional support. Their niche themes are purpose-built for food and drink establishments.
SeedProd specializes in fast-loading landing page and coming soon themes. Their drag-and-drop builder makes beautiful custom layouts for promoting your grand opening, events, specials, contact pages, and more.
Key Features:
- Intuitive drag and drop page builder
- 100+ premade templates for landers and coming soon pages
- Countdown timer, email signup forms, contact forms, and more
- Optimized for speed – achieves 99% Google PageSpeed score
- Easy to customize and build conversion-focused pages
At $99 annually, SeedProd fills an important niche. Use it alongside your main theme when you want to create high-converting landing pages, takeout menus, or early website launches.
| Theme | Price | Page Builder | Templates | Top Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astra | Free/$59 year | Yes | Multiple | Fast, responsive, booking/menu integration |
| Neve | $59 one-time | Yes | Multiple | Fast, beautiful designs, restaurant templates |
| Divi | $89 one-time | Yes – visual builder | 100+ | Extremely customizable, premade layouts for anything |
| Extra | $99 one-time | Yes | 80+ | Bar/restaurant specific templates and demos |
| SeedProd | $99/year | Yes – drag & drop | 100+ | Landing pages, coming soon pages, speed optimized |
This table provides an at-a-glance comparison between these top themes. Evaluate which pros are must-haves for your project and budget.
The themes covered above represent some of the top options for bar and pub websites in WordPress. There are certainly many additional quality themes out there as well.
Each venue has unique needs, so consider your specific goals, brand style, features wishlist, and budget as you evaluate options. I always recommend trying demo sites first to get a feel for editing and customization before committing.
Here are a few closing tips:
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Match your theme‘s visual style – Choosing a design that reflects your branding sets the right tone. Avoid generic or overly elaborate themes.
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Prioritize essential features – Pick a theme with critical elements like mobile responsiveness, integrated booking, and menus built-in or easy to add.
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Focus on conversion optimization – Use landing page themes like SeedProd to promote specials and events in a persuasive way.
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Plan for growth – Select a theme with the flexibility to accommodate new pages, sections, features, and design needs down the road.
With a tailored, well-designed theme that effectively promotes your establishment, you can attract more foot traffic both digitally and physically. Here‘s to choosing the perfect theme and enjoying the rush! Cheers!
