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Free Joomla 2.5 Templates
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Free Joomla templates are not difficult to come by. Quality free Joomla templates are another story. Over the past couple of years even the free templates available have gotten much better in terms of looks and performance. While you can expect links back to developer's sites in exchange for the free software on some, we have tried to find the best looking and performing free templates out there. Many on this list are from well known development teams that have massive catalogs of templates and themes at this point.
There is also a trend in offering a very basic, stripped down template with a developer's custom framework. For some website builders, this is a fantastic way to go as you start with more of a blank canvas, but have access to a framework that helps make most modifications quick and easy. These types of templates are available for most of the well known Joomla frameworks, such as Gantry and Warp.
Between the basic free templates and the framework themes we've found, there's definitely something here for everyone and every project.
Basic Free Templates
Zaara
JoomShaper's latest free template offering is Zaara, and it's a very stylized but still quick-loading template suitable for almost anything from a personal site or portfolio site to a business site. Zaara is built on JoomShaper's own Helix Framework, which is detailed later in this article.
Zaara comes with 6 preset color styles and over 68 collapsible module positions. It also sports the Free Slider SP1 module for the front page slide show. Google Font support and native jQuery support are also built in. JoomShaper has provided an easy to install "QuickStart Package" for delivery.
Elastica
Responsive web design couldn't be more popular these days, and JoomlArt has provided a free, block based responsive Joomla Template to work with called Elastica. The menu system is decent, and there are several device specific layouts to take full advantage of the template's responsive nature.
One great thing about JoomlArt is that they provide a Demo Builder function with each template so you can get a good idea of what it will be like to work with before you buy. Just look for the tab on the left of the screen and give it a try.
JA Purity II
JA Purity II is just about half-way between a full fledged template and a stripped down base theme for a framework. It is the default theme for JoomlArt's framework, T3, but it is much more fleshed out than some of the others listed below. It's also been a very popular template, boasting more than 90,000 downloads.
The menu system is particularly impressive on the demo site, which includes 4 menu choices, inline modules and support for embedded video.
BLOQ
Bloq 2.5 is a free template offered by JoomlaPraise featuring 31 module positions, a built in CSS dropdown menu and 8 different starter themes. Although this is a free template, JoomlaPraise is still providing the logo source artwork for smooth customization.
You have the option of sidebars on the left or right, and the modules are collapsible. Some nice typography styles have also been included along with some very basic Google Font support.
Grunge
RocketTheme is well known for putting a lot into their templates in terms of images and style. Both of these are usually lacking in free templates; however, Grunge offers both as you would expect from this developer.
There are several highly customizable aspects to this template, due in large part to the fact that it was built on RocketTheme's framework, Gantry. More about Gantry is listed below.
Quasar
The first free Joomla template to be built with RocketTheme's Gantry 2.0 was Quasar. The tabbed content sections are one its most distinguishing features, but under the hood it boasts 6 style variations, a solid CSS dropdown menu, custom typography and 60 module positions. Developers also built in 4 different module variations and an SEO optimized layout.
Afterburner
Afterburner has been around for a while. It's a pretty stripped down template as well. Its main benefit is its speed. It really is a blazing fast Joomla template, and its sparse design can also be a huge benefit for a developer who knows exactly what a project calls for and can modify the CSS and PHP to make it happen.
RocketTheme says that, "The size of the frontpage of a default Joomla install, using Afterburner, is 59KB." So what you end up with is an "ultra lean, fast loading and high performance template."
The template ships with 8 preset styles in both light and dark colors, and it's been optimized for a strong SEF layout.
JoomlaShine
While they may not have vast numbers of templates built up in their catalog yet, JoomlaShine offers templates for several different industries and applications. All five of their Joomla templates are compatible with version 2.5 and offer a stripped down free version. For very basic sites, these templates will be more than adequate. For those wishing to give the templates a test run, you can download the free version and have a very good idea whether or not the full version will work for your project. This is a fantastic feature of their template offerings.
Template Frameworks
While certain web developers may find the following links more useful than others, these can be a great starting point for anyone looking to get into Joomla web development in a serious way. Each of these frameworks comes with a standard "vanilla" template that is very customizable as long as you learn the accompanying system.
Those with strong coding knowledge of HTML / CSS and possibly PHP will get the most out of these templates. Most of these frameworks also come with a full package to install Joomla, the framework itself and the base template. Some also include demo content.
Helix
As mentioned above, JoomShaper also has an available framework called Helix, and the default template is designed to be fast loading and lean. While some of the other free templates only offer very basic menu systems, Helix includes a nicely complex and flexible menu system which includes Mega Menu, Dropline Menu, Split Menu and MooMenu options.
The overall design of the base theme of Helix is very minimal, which allows a lot of possibility with design choice.
Vertex
The Vertex Framework is the system built by Shape5. Its strongest point is its flexibility and responsive design. It includes support for Google Fonts, has a built in color picker and provides the ability to set row sizes very easily. You also have "an average of 80 module positions" within the layout of the template.
Warp
YOOtheme produces the Warp Framework and includes their Master Theme with the installation. It's a very clean, basic template that has a dedicated mobile theme built in, a flexible grid system, HTML 5 based code and some slick JavaScript standard. YOOtheme has also built their system to allow custom theme styles or "child themes" that inherit and override existing resources.
Warp is expected to have responsive capabilities in its next release, version 6.2.
Gantry
The Gantry Framework is a well known platform created by the team at RocketTheme. Many commercially available templates are now built on Gantry. It's created on the 960 grid system, includes smart phone support and 65 base module positions out of the gate. You can also add more of your own if needed. The front end grid is entirely customizable from the Gantry back end.
Comments
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Wednesday, 27 June 2012
You're very welcome Robin. Glad it's helpful. I've spent many hours surfing for good Joomla resources myself. We're happy to pass it along.
If you've found one that's been particularly helpful to you, come back to our forum and let us know. -
Wednesday, 27 June 2012Music Free
Check out Music Free by GavickPro. It has just been released.
· Giovanni Yarabek likes this comment. -
Wednesday, 27 June 2012This is very resourceful of you, Robert! Our Joomla components are all ready to blend in with these templates any time.
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Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Hello Robert,
This Joomla resource is invaluable. The articles are very informative and I usually come to this site or use my pro membership to find the answers to Joomla design issues I have.
These 2.5 free templates are excellent. Do you have any that qualify as response templates, suitable for multiple devices?
Keep up the good work. -
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Thanks Bruce!
Yes, Elastica and Vertex are both responsive. Warp is scheduled to have responsive design included in the next version, due out soon. We also received notice of a new free responsive template recently from GavickPro called Music Free. You'll find the link in the comment above.· Giovanni Yarabek likes this comment. -
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Great list. All these template are really good for joomla !
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Thursday, 28 June 2012
Thank you so much for taking the time to compile the information for this post. We can all spend hours looking at free Joomla! templates and you've found the cream of the crop and you've saved us a considerable amount of time. I look forward to your newsletters but this has been the best so far..
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Thursday, 28 June 2012
You're very welcome Carl. It's really good to know that this info is valuable for our community here.
Thanks. -
Thursday, 28 June 2012
I had used Elastica for one of my client and its really great.I am now using Helix framework by joomshaper for custom design and its really rox.Most of my clients like helix for joomla custom design I didn't know why but when I had started design with helix I had realized why they are so much fan with helix.
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Friday, 29 June 2012
I am in process of updating my website to Joomla 2.5. I also work on a couple of others with joomla 2.5. Kindly let me know which framework is the best, Helix, Elastica, or any other, and what I am interested in the most is if there is a video demo on how to work with it. Similar to what I've seen for Artisteer. Also I used Gantry, and somehow my changes got overridden, and I consider it pretty rigid.
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Friday, 29 June 2012
I loved your post.these templates are so good.they have the complete look & features that premium templates offer...amazing..!!joomla is a great way to design websites using these templates for free
.Thanks for posting -
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Nice one, Thank you Robert! I use JoomlaShine template "JSN EPIC", I'm fully satisfied, they provide No.1 documentation and very good tech. support.
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Saturday, 22 September 2012
Hi thanks for such helpful and interesting Joomla templates . I like this two - BLOQ and Grunge .
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Tuesday, 6 November 2012
I have downloaded ZAARA but its not working in my site
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Saturday, 6 April 2013
Very useful sharing and thanks for the template.
This is really a terrific article, Robert! Thanks for the information. As a relative "newbie" to Joomla website creation (one under my belt, and another potential looming), I've spent many hours "surfing" the web to find free templates for Joomla, trying to compare & contrast them. To have it nicely encapsulated like you've done here is a real benefit & time-saver! Thanks again...!