WordPress Themes With Hero Image Headers: The Ultimate Collection – Info Tutorial
A strong hero image can help sell anything from products to social networks and even blog posts. Images grab attention faster than headlines and the right hero image will keep people glued to your page.
But if you’re not really a designer you won’t know how to make a layout with a hero image. That’s exactly why I made this list of the best WordPress themes with built-in hero images.
Whether you’re looking for a WP portfolio theme, a blog design, a personal site or an ecommerce shop, there’s bound to be something here that’ll work.
And if you’re stuck trying to find great photos take a peek at our list of stock photo sites all 100% free and open source.
Creative Core
If you work in the creative space then you know the importance of a portfolio website. The Creative Core theme is a brilliant example of a strong portfolio running purely on WordPress with tons of options for customization.
You can rework the structure to fit anything from SEO agencies to web design firms, digital art studios, print shops, and pretty much anything else.
Each page uses a strong hero image near the top with a clean animated header.
This works to grab attention fast and bring people further into your site. It’s a very smooth transition effect and I definitely recommend this theme for any agencies who want that hero image feature.
You could even try running this as a personal theme too if you make some time to customize the layout.
Barber Shop
The Parlor is basically a general business theme geared towards salons, spas, health stores and barber shops. You’ll find all the typical “small business” features like embedded maps, contact forms, and pricing pages.
But the main hero image is what gets this theme listed here.
The hero header doesn’t take up the entire page but it does span the main content section. And it uses dot navigations for an image slideshow appearing behind the logo.
Note this theme is a single-page design so make sure you’re OK with that structure before purchasing.
Cribs
And it goes without saying that any sort of structural design work should always include photos. They’ll help sell your interior skills, your architectural work, and/or your remodeling work.
This theme can work for both commercial and residential photos and it’s the perfect layout for anyone who designs livable spaces.
Naturally it’s fully responsive and works on all major devices too. The hero header feature looks beautiful on all screens and there’s a backend feature where you can preview the hero header photo before saving it. Pretty cool!
Seasons
Restaurant layouts are some of the most popular styles of WordPress themes. Since there are so many different types of restaurants you may be searching for hours to find the perfect design.
With the Seasons theme you’ll get a traditional restaurant layout with a strong color scheme, a big hero image area, plus a usable responsive navigation menu.
I recommend this theme primarily for sophisticated places like bistros and classier restaurants. It can work for more specific restaurants like BBQ joints, but it’ll probably take some editing in the WP customizer.
But with such a beautiful hero header and a strong image slideshow you can get a lot from this restaurant theme.
Balance
Looking for a super clean theme with a minimalist layout? Then Balance is definitely worth checking out.
With this theme you can restyle it to support basically any type of website. Online blogs, ecommerce shops, personal portfolios, you name it.
It’s such a simple theme that feels like it can blend into pretty much any layout. But don’t let the minimalist design fool you—it’s a detailed theme with plenty of behind-the-scenes features such as:
- Full visual editor
- Hero image slideshow
- Full-width page sections
- WooCommerce support
Check out the demo of Balance and see what you think. It won’t work for all websites but it’s one of those versatile themes that you can get working with some elbow grease.
VideoBox
If you have a large YouTube channel then VideoBox will prove immensely valuable.
So many people make a living with video content. It’s widely becoming the preferred method of content consumption on the web. With a theme like VideoBox you can add your videos right into a hero header to grab more attention from incoming visitors.
It works with all the typical video hosting sites like YouTube and Vimeo. Plus everything auto-embeds into the page from just a URL. So all you do is add your video link into the WordPress post and hit save. Easy!
This works kinda like a blog layout but can also be structured as a portfolio site with some effort.
It’s a very flexible theme that can be used for business, personal, or branded blogging. The only common factor here is the ease of use and the amazing hero header layout for videos.
Massive Dynamic
I’ve seen a lot of handmade ThemeForest themes but few offer as many features as Massive Dynamic.
This isn’t just a simple WordPress theme. It’s an entire site editing framework built on the backbone of WordPress. The default layout lets you adjust the page however you see fit with massive headers, custom feature icons, and of course hero headers.
If you grab this theme you’ll be picking up a whopping 66 templates you can use for your own website. Pretty cool right?
Each template is like a pre-made style running on top of the Massive Dynamic theme framework. All of these templates are fully responsive, WPML ready, and come out of the box with 70+ different shortcodes. Talk about a powerhouse!
Note this may be overkill if you just need a simple theme with a hero header design.
But if you want a theme you can use for pretty much any project then this should be your go-to choice.
Shopkeeper
I mentioned earlier how images sell. They grab attention fast and leave a lasting impression on visitors.
Images are great for blogs and portfolios but they’re even more valuable for ecommerce shops. That’s why the Shopkeeper theme is a great place to start if you’re planning to launch an online shop with a hero header.
It’s a fairly pricey theme considering some of the alternatives. But you also get 4 different product layouts, custom image slideshow modals, and a live customizer that lets you change every aspect of the design.
My favorite feature is the optional hero header you can append to each page.
If you’re selling products based on looks then you’ll really want to pursue a theme that supports large hero images. Shopkeeper is just one of many and it’s definitely a personal favorite, especially for already-existing WooCommerce shops.
Kalium
Here’s another fantastic multi-purpose theme on ThemeForest created by the design team Laborator. They’ve released dozens of themes and this one is probably their best.
Kalium is a general creative theme that supports the newest version of WordPress, WooCommerce, and newer PHP 7 features.
It can work for agency themes, personal sites, blog layouts, and ecommerce shops. In fact, the current version of this theme comes with 8+ different templates you can use as starting points for your site.
These work like pre-made layouts that you can install with the theme and customize to suit your needs. You’ll find designs for fitness, architecture, photography, and for a clean online store.
Jevelin
When it comes to hero headers I really like the ones that overtake the whole page. These designs work with a massive image that blends naturally into the background with a captivating headline and a CTA button.
Jevelin is a great example of this with a super clean layout and a strong oversized hero header. This theme was designed for basically any purpose so you can use it for an agency site, a custom portfolio page, or pretty much anything.
This all works on top of a powerful backend editor with a GUI that anyone can learn.
I’d actually recommend this for non-technical WP users who want to customize their site without a whole lot of effort.
If you can work with the default WP admin panel then you’ll adore the Jevelin editor. It fits well with the theme’s multifaceted design and easy-to-use hero header feature.
Charity by WPLook
There’s a ton of charity themes out there but my favorite is this one by WPLook. It’s definitely a simple theme with a very simple purpose: to grab attention and help sell the charity.
Most of the work in charities happens on the ground. A website is mostly used for three things:
- Donations
- Recruiting
- Sharing information about the cause
With a strong hero header you can immediately grab attention while encouraging visitors to perform one of those things(maybe even all 3!)
Really the main selling point is the homepage CTA with the strong hero header. It lists all the main donations along with upcoming events right on the homepage so you can sell your charity with words and photos.
Studio 8
This theme was designed mostly as a clean agency theme. But you can use this for a freelancing portfolio too. It works great for all kinds of work from photography to web design and architecture.
How can this fit with so many creative disciplines?
Because it’s the photos that sell. If you know how to replace the photos in this theme with shots of your work, you can easily redesign the theme to fit any creative field.
Studio 8 comes with a small child theme for customizing the design without making tremendous changes to the core. And Studio 8 has multilingual support right out of the box.
You can even edit the custom post types, default shortcodes, and the main page layout to reformat this theme however you want. It’s a great way to customize your own layout and never touch a single line of code.
Music by Themify
Band websites are huge these days. Every genre of music has its artists and those artists deserve their own websites to share info on touring, new releases, and band updates.
The Music theme by Themify is one of the best musician themes with a strong hero header. Right from the first pageload your eye immediately drifts towards the strong CTA and the full-page image.
Whether you’re starting a new band, redesigning your current site, or working on a website for a band, this theme is a great way to get something online that’ll last for years.
It’s fully responsive and retina ready so it’ll look crisp on @2x devices. You can even upload hero header images at double the size so they’ll look great on retina iMac displays.
Every Themify theme comes with a bunch of smart layout options that let you easily restyle the page to your liking. Wanna change some features or the overarching layout format? All it takes is a few clicks.
Everything from the navigation menu to the page colors and shortcode placements are all customizable from the backend. If you need to get a sweet band or musician website online then look into Themify’s music theme.
Flatshop
Here’s one more amazing example from the Themify library, this theme made primarily for ecommerce.
Flatshop runs a parallax design and supports a single-page style on the homepage. This can include a massive hero header photo which is pretty common for ecommerce shops.
Whether you’re selling toys, clothes, furniture or gadgets, a strong hero image will always help. It tells visitors exactly what your shop is about and what kinds of products they can find.
Note the hero header actually comes with a full-width slider pane which is awesome for getting people to click further into your site.
You can embed multiple images from your shop and get people digging deeper with just a few well-placed images.
That’s the beauty of a hero image design: grab attention fast to get visitors engaged so they’ll read more and click deeper into your site.
Article Prepared by Ollala Corp