Total is a premium multi-purpose WordPress theme from WPExplorer, built around the WPBakery Page Builder. It's been around since we first started tracking it in 2018, and it's held a steady spot as one of the fifty most used themes we track ever since. That's a long run for a page-builder-era theme, and it says something about how many sites still run on it quietly.
A multi-purpose theme built for freelancers and small agencies
Total isn't tied to one kind of site. The author markets it as a premium multi-purpose theme, and the data backs that up — it's not free on WordPress.org, and it doesn't lean heavily toward one industry. What we do see is a mild pull toward agencies and marketing sites, followed by nonprofits, medical and dental practices, schools, and legal or financial firms. None of these dominate; it's spread thin across a lot of small business categories rather than owning one.
Who actually ends up running it
The example sites we detect skew toward small web design shops and local service businesses — a web development agency in Iowa, a German web design studio, a curtain and blind software company. That pattern fits: Total has long been a favorite of freelancers building client sites who want one flexible theme they can reuse across very different projects rather than buying a new theme per niche.
What it's good at
The main strength is flexibility. One license, one theme, and you can build a law firm site or an online store without switching tools. It ships with a large set of prebuilt layouts and options that cut down on custom CSS for common site types. It also holds its ground in our data — not gaining fast, but not fading either, which for a page-builder theme in a market now dominated by block-based building is a real achievement.
Where it starts to hurt
Total leans on WPBakery Page Builder, and that's the catch. WPBakery has a reputation for bloated markup and shortcode soup that can outlive the theme itself — pull Total out later and you'll likely be untangling shortcodes from your content. It also has no meaningful ecosystem of child themes, so customization tends to happen inside the builder rather than through inheritance. And because it's not free, there's no try-before-you-buy on WordPress.org; you're committing on the strength of the demo alone.
Built around WPBakery, not the block editor
Across the sites we track, Total is almost always paired with js_composer (WPBakery) and total-theme-core, its own companion plugin. Revolution Slider shows up constantly too, for hero sliders and banners. On the practical side, Yoast SEO and Contact Form 7 are common, and WooCommerce turns up on a meaningful minority of installs — Total can run a store, but it's not primarily built as one. A smaller slice pairs it with Elementor instead of WPBakery, for those who prefer that builder.
If you want something else
If you want free and block-editor native, Twenty Twenty-Two or Twenty Fifteen are safer long-term bets with no builder lock-in. If the site is really a shop, Storefront is purpose-built for WooCommerce in a way Total isn't. And if you like WPExplorer's style but want something lighter, they also make smaller themes like Pytheas and Adapt, though both see far less use than Total.
Before you decide
Is Total free?
No. It's a premium theme sold by WPExplorer, not listed on WordPress.org, so there's no free version to test first — only the live demo.
What page builder does Total use?
Primarily WPBakery Page Builder (js_composer), which is what most detected installs pair it with. A smaller share use Elementor instead.
Is Total good for an online store?
It can run WooCommerce and some installs do, but the theme isn't built around ecommerce the way Storefront is. For a store-first site, that's worth weighing.
So, should you use it?
Total makes sense if you're building sites for other people and want one flexible theme instead of hunting for a new one per project — that's exactly the pattern we see in the data. It's less appealing if you care about staying close to the block editor, or if you're wary of WPBakery's long-term baggage. For a single-purpose site, especially a store, one of the more focused alternatives above will likely serve you better.
Last updated 2026-07-20
