WordPress is the largest standalone website creation platform in the world, with over 25 million websites relying on it to showcase their content.
This is a completely open source project that supports a wide range of amazing themes and plugins, giving its users complete freedom to build and customize their sites.
The WordPress community is constantly evolving and providing more and more new ways to customize your WordPress sites beyond the standard design and functionality, and some of the results are more than amazing.
Here we present just 20 perfect examples of how they do it.
1. Gisi Design
Gisi Design is a website of a German company that is built on X Theme – ThemeForest - one of the most popular WordPress themes.
The site is built with the idea of content being at the front, with mouse scrolling through the individual pages, with minimalistic text and a very elegant design. Scrolling through each page is smooth with lots of beautiful effects and animations that look amazing whether you're browsing from a desktop or mobile device.
2. Dagobert
Dagobert is a French site that incorporates some of the most beautiful animation effects you'll see in a WordPress theme.
Clicking on the menu will trigger more animation effects. Despite the simplicity of the site, scrolling through it is fascinating.
Mercedes-Benz is just one of the world's biggest brands whose international website is built on WordPress.
With a luxurious and elegant custom theme consistent with the brand image, the site clearly serves to highlight images and videos of Mercedes brand vehicles. Most pages include full-size sliders to display the images to visitors.
4. Katy Perry
Many big celebrities use WordPress for their websites, and singer Katy Perry is just one of them.
Her site uses a lot of parallax effects, with large background images that change as you scroll down the page. Social media has a big focus here and is highlighted in a very effective way on the site.
5. Fair Ivy
Fair Ivy is a gift subscription service website that is built on another of ThemeForest's most popular themes - The Retailer.
The site maintains a clean and elegant look that is easy to navigate for users without registration. Those who have signed up for a subscription get easy access to their profile and shopping cart without being overwhelmed with too many visuals.
Outward Bound Croatia is a non-profit organization organizing amazing adventures in nature. Their website is built on Topic Integrity.
Scrolling through the site and all its wonderful images will make you want to get out in nature and do something fun. The numerical counters for statistics are clean and stand out.
Happy in My Skin is a wellness therapy website that uses the theme Renew.
In a nutshell, the site offers visitors a look that's relaxed, serene and spa-like, while noting only the essentials as you scroll down. Overall, it's a stunning example of a simple site that makes a big impression.
Neopolitan Glothing is a company that uses WooCommerce website and a specially designed WordPress theme.
Black and white colour schemes are used, combined with large and underlined header texts. The theme highlights images and details extremely well while maintaining a clean and pleasant to browse interface.
Malala Yousufzai is Pakistani socialite. Her Malala Fund website is built on WordPress and helps spread her message.
The site uses a combination of video, images and animations in unison with a bright colour scheme. There are also several clear calls to action that encourage visitors to subscribe, donate or learn more.
10. Brandice Daniel
Brandice Daniel has its website bbrought a coach who works with Icon theme.
The layout is minimalistic, yet features impressive storytelling as you scroll down through all the sections. This is just one example of a site that can serve as inspiration for anyone looking to make a complete overhaul of their WordPress site.
11. Fineshmaker
Fineshmaker is a boutique production company website that flaunts a unique approach to their videos.
Videos are displayed in a grid and appear above the page when clicked. The menu bar is simple, off to the side and is accessible at any time by the user. There is also a static TV animation effect that goes great with the overall theme of the site.
Photographer James Brandon's website uses Ethos theme.
While the theme itself is perfect for news style sites, this site is a good example of how a photography site can look amazing using huge images and practically nothing else. There seems to be a very nice balance between the photos here and the additional information and resources.
The world's largest social network uses WordPress to power its news blog.
As an extension of Facebook itself, the blog has a very clean and minimal look, making it easy to read and browse. You probably won't mistake it for anything other than Facebook with that blue and white color scheme.
14. Blue Cadet
Blue Cadet is a digital agency that designs unique user experiences, and you can bet that they display it through their own website as they should.
Everywhere we look, there are smooth and engaging effects throughout the site that visitors see when they click on content. Simply scroll and hover over each image to get a first-hand look at how exquisite this site looks.
15. Wanda Print
Wanda Print is a prolific creative studio with a website that is truly mesmerizing as you browse it.
As you scroll down, the images on the screen will appear with half of them sliding from the top and the other slides from the bottom of the screen until it becomes one. The menu is available anytime you need anything - information, pictures.
Harvard's Business Review website makes business content look a lot more exciting than most people would imagine.
By using a newsroom-style layout, visitors can scroll past the latest articles to see other good-looking sections like the Insight Center. The site maintains a very clean and well-organized structure, making it easy and enjoyable to browse.
17. The Next Web
The Next Web is a popular technology news site that relies on WordPress to present its content.
The site puts its most recent stories right at the top, then breaks its major categories into map-like summary sections. With a layout like this, you can read your news without being inundated with too much clutter.
18. Bloomberg
Bloomberg is another popular brand that uses WordPress to showcase and sell their products to customers.
The site features an extensive video library with overlapping talks to the videos, followed by featured blog posts that use full-size images and huge headlines. This is another example that shows the most essential information in an enticing way without overwhelming users with too much to watch.
19. NASA
Everyone knows that NASA is the US government's space agency - and they're a big fan of WordPress.
NASA has actually used the help of WordPress for years in several places, including open.nasa.gov and data.nasa.gov. You'll see large, compelling images with lots of information, well spread across the topic.
20. PrimeIT
PrimeIT is an international consulting company that is our latest example of a great WordPress website.
The site includes many of the features we've included on this list already, including great video backgrounds, parallax effects and a clean design. Every page and everything you click on will contribute to your seamless browsing experience.
Conclusion
If you've had a chance to dive deep into any of the websites included above, you should have gotten a very clear idea of just how versatile a platform WordPress really is. The possibilities really are endless, and it will be exciting to see what new and amazing things WordPress programmers and designers can come up with in the near future.