Porto is a multi-purpose WordPress theme from P-THEMES that we've tracked since 2018. It's one of the fifty most used themes in our database, though its share has been slipping as the market moves toward block-native themes. Here's what that means for a new build today.
What it actually is
Porto bundles a front-end page builder — historically WPBakery, now often paired with Elementor — with dozens of pre-built layouts for shops, agencies and SaaS marketing sites. The author calls it a "Responsive WordPress Multi Purpose + eCommerce Theme," and that's accurate: it's less one design than a kit you assemble per project. It's sold as a premium theme on ThemeForest, not the free WordPress.org repository, so you're buying a license, not downloading it for free.
Who ends up using it
Studying the sites running it, business type matters more than industry: services and ecommerce businesses dominate over personal blogs and media outlets by a wide margin. Industry-wise it clusters lightly around software and SaaS companies, marketing agencies, electronics firms, industrial manufacturers and schools, but no single niche dominates. That spread — heavy in English, with clusters in German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch markets — reads like a theme agencies reach for across unrelated client work, not one industry choosing it on purpose.
How it's actually built
Building a page means working inside a shortcode-driven builder rather than the native block editor, and Porto ships its own porto-functionality companion plugin, which turns up on installs almost as often as the theme itself — a sign much of the layout logic lives outside the core theme files. Revolution Slider shows up frequently too, which explains why so many Porto sites open on a heavy header slider. Switching themes later usually means rebuilding pages, not carrying them over.
What it's actually good at
Porto's strength is breadth. One license covers builder flexibility, WooCommerce support and a large layout library, which is why it shows up on stores as often as on service sites. WooCommerce turns up constantly alongside it, and Yoast SEO and Contact Form 7 appear on most installs — meaning owners generally pair it with a sane SEO and lead-capture setup rather than running it bare. For an agency spinning up a different small-business site every few weeks, that saves real setup time.
Where it starts to hurt
The cost is weight. A shortcode builder, a slider plugin and a bundled functionality plugin add up to a heavier baseline than a block-based theme, and it's built on WPBakery-era conventions WordPress itself has been moving away from — part of why its share keeps drifting down. There's no meaningful child-theme family either, so customization happens at the page-builder level. If you want a lean, fast blog theme, look elsewhere.
If you're comparing options
If the builder approach appeals but you want a comparison, Jupiter sits in the same multi-purpose, builder-driven bracket at similar usage levels. Bricks is the newer alternative worth a look if you'd rather build for the block-editor era instead of layering atop an older one. Need something free and simple? Twenty Thirteen is about as far from Porto's complexity as it gets. P-THEMES also sells narrower builds like Medin for medical sites, worth a glance if Porto's general-purpose sprawl is more than you need.
Questions worth answering first
Is Porto free?
No. It's a premium theme sold on ThemeForest rather than the free WordPress.org repository, so you buy a license instead of installing it for free.
What page builder does Porto use?
It was built around WPBakery and its own shortcode system, though plenty of the sites we see running it now pair it with Elementor instead — it isn't locked to one builder anymore, even if its native layouts assume WPBakery.
Is Porto good for a WooCommerce store?
Yes — that's one of its strongest use cases. WooCommerce appears on a large share of the Porto sites we track, and the theme ships shop-specific layouts and wishlist support that plainer multi-purpose themes skip.
Who this is really for
Porto fits an agency or freelancer who needs one flexible theme to cover unrelated client requests — a shop this month, a SaaS site next — and doesn't mind working inside a page builder instead of Gutenberg. It's a weak choice for a solo blogger or anyone chasing page speed out of the box. Treat it as a solid known quantity for existing sites rather than the obvious pick for a brand-new build.
Last updated 2026-08-09
