20+ Best Content Sharing WordPress Themes for Viral Sites in 2024
Content sharing and viral content sites have exploded in popularity in recent years. Platforms like Buzzfeed, Upworthy and Bored Panda attract hundreds of millions of visitors per month with their highly shareable articles, videos, quizzes and more.
If you‘re looking to start your own viral content site in 2024, one of the most important decisions you‘ll make is choosing the right WordPress theme. The best content sharing themes make it easy for your content to be discovered and shared, driving more traffic and engagement.
In this post, we‘ll take an in-depth look at over 20 of the very best content sharing WordPress themes for viral content sites. Whether you‘re launching a site focused on news, entertainment, or any other niche, these themes have the features and design options you need to go viral in 2024.
What Makes a Great Content Sharing WordPress Theme?
Before we dive into the top content sharing themes, let‘s discuss some of the key features and characteristics you should look for:
1. Prominent Social Sharing Buttons
This is a must-have for any content sharing theme. Look for themes that allow you to add highly visible social sharing buttons for all the major networks like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Pinterest, etc.
Having the buttons "float" on the side of the content or "stick" to the top/bottom as the user scrolls can boost sharing significantly. Showing share counts is also a great way to provide social proof and encourage more sharing.
2. Front-End Content Submission
Many of the most successful viral content sites, like Buzzfeed Community, allow visitors to submit their own articles, images, and videos. Choosing a theme that supports front-end posting can help you quickly scale up your site with user-generated content.
The submission process should be intuitive, mobile-friendly, and customizable with options for admin approval, user profiles/dashboards, and more.
3. Voting, Rating and Reactions
Allowing your audience to up/down vote and rate content is a great way to increase engagement and surface your most popular posts. Some themes also support Facebook-style reactions so users can express what they feel about each piece of content.
4. Eye-Catching, Responsive Design
In the fast-paced world of viral content, you only have a second or two to grab a visitor‘s attention. Choose a theme with a bold, visually appealing design that puts your content front and center.
Since the majority of social media browsing now happens on mobile devices, it‘s also critical that your theme is fully responsive and looks great on smaller screens.
5. Flexible Layouts and Customization
While it‘s great to start with a pre-built viral site template, you‘ll also want flexibility to make the design your own. Look for themes that are highly customizable, with options for changing colors, fonts, layout, navigation, and more.
Page building tools like Elementor or a built-in drag-and-drop editor can be very helpful for designing unique viral-optimized pages and article templates.
6. Excellent Performance and Speed
With viral traffic spikes, your site needs to be able to handle large volumes of visitors without slowing down or crashing. While much of this comes down to your web hosting, some themes are better optimized for speed than others.
Look for a theme that scores well on performance tests and offers optimization features like caching, lazy loading, and minimized code.
The Best Content Sharing WordPress Themes in 2024
Now that we‘ve covered what separates the best content sharing themes from the rest, let‘s take a look at our top picks for viral sites in 2024:
1. Bimber
Bimber is the most popular content sharing theme for WordPress, powering over 40,000 viral sites. It offers a wide range of demo designs suited for viral news, entertainment, videos, quizzes and more.
Key features:
- 16+ pre-built demo designs
- Snax front-end submission plugin included
- Responsive, infinitely scrolling layouts
- Powerful viral content builder
- Reactions voting system
- Built-in ad locations
- Optimized for speed and SEO
Bimber also integrates with the WordPress popular posts plugin to display your trending content and offers a unique "Don‘t Miss" section to highlight important posts. If you‘re looking for an all-in-one solution for your viral site, Bimber is an excellent choice.
2. Buzzy
Buzzy is a modern theme designed specifically for creating Buzzfeed-style viral content sites. With its card-based post layouts and unlimited scrolling, your content is presented in the most engaging way possible.
Key features:
- 10 beautifully designed demo layouts
- Built-in quiz maker
- Voting and reactions
- Trending and hot post widgets
- Front-end post submission
- Fully customizable with Elementor
- Share count recovery
One of the most unique features of Buzzy is its "share count recovery" system. This tool allows you to accurately display the total number of shares across multiple URLs, which is perfect for boosting social proof on old posts that have changed slugs.
3. ViralNova
As the name suggests, the ViralNova theme is laser-focused on helping your content go viral. Its masonry grid layouts, infinite scroll, and large featured images are all designed to draw readers in and keep them engaged.
Key features:
- One-click demo install
- Built-in social sharing buttons
- Voting system with heart icon
- Post view count display
- Responsive, SEO-optimized design
- Compatible with Elementor and Divi Builder
ViralNova also includes custom widgets for showcasing your popular and trending posts to maximize visibility and shareability. While not as feature-rich as other themes on this list, ViralNova offers a clean, intuitive design that‘s well suited for viral content.
4. 15Zine
15Zine is a stylish magazine theme that works well for viral news and entertainment sites. It features a variety of article layouts, sliders, and widgets to engage readers and drive more shares.
Key features:
- 6 pre-built demo designs
- WooCommerce compatible for monetization
- Heart and view count for social proof
- "Hot" post indicator
- Built-in reviews and ratings
- Optimized for fast loading
The theme also includes several customizable ad locations so you can monetize your viral traffic effectively. 15Zine is a great theme if you want to combine the style of a magazine site with viral content optimization.
5. Valenti
Valenti is a highly flexible theme that can be easily customized to suit any kind of viral site. With 18 pre-made demo layouts, you can quickly launch a professional-looking viral site focused on news, videos, entertainment, or any other niche.
Key features:
- Front-end content submission with user profiles
- Heart voting system
- Trending/hot post widgets
- Click-to-play autoplay videos
- Built-in advertising system
- Light and dark modes
One of Valenti‘s most unique features is its "smart" autoplay video system designed to maximize views and engagement. As the user scrolls, the current playing video switches to the next automatically, keeping them watching.
6. Webpick
Webpick is a clean, modern WordPress theme for creating viral news and video websites. It includes custom post types for videos, articles and lists, making it easy to publish the most popular types of viral content.
Key features:
- Front-end user submission
- Built-in star rating system
- Infinite loading articles
- Customizable headers, fonts and colors
- Supports Facebook Instant Articles
- Compatible with Elementor
Webpick also integrates with the WordPress popular post plugin and includes widgets for displaying trending content in your sidebar and footer to boost engagement and sharing.
Honorable Mentions
In addition to our top picks above, there are several other high-quality content sharing WordPress themes worth considering:
- TheVoux – A stylish viral news theme with 15+ unique layouts
- BuzzBlog – A Buzzfeed-inspired theme with quizzes, polls and reactions
- Booster – A multipurpose theme with front-end submission and voting
- Bunchy – A Pinterest-style theme for viral visual content
- Goliath – An engaging theme for viral stories and videos
Choosing the Best Content Sharing Theme
With so many great content sharing themes available, how do you decide which one is right for your viral site? Here are a few key factors to consider:
Niche and Content Type
First and foremost, choose a theme that aligns with your content niche and the primary types of content you plan to publish. If you‘ll be focused on video content, pick a theme with video-centric features and layouts. For a site publishing mostly quizzes and polls, look for a theme with a built-in quiz maker.
Customization Options
While all of the themes on this list can be customized to some extent, some offer much more flexibility than others. If you want full control over the look and feel of your site, choose a highly customizable theme like Valenti or one that‘s compatible with a page builder like Elementor.
Feature Set
Think carefully about the specific features that are most important for your viral site. Do you need front-end content submission? Is a voting system a must-have? Make a list of your top requirements and use it to narrow down your options.
Performance
Page speed is a critical ranking factor, especially for viral content sites. Before buying a theme, test the demo sites with a tool like Pingdom or GTMetrix to ensure it loads quickly.
Price
Finally, consider your budget. While there are some great free content sharing themes available, most of the highest-quality options are premium. Expect to spend around $50-$100 for a feature-rich viral WordPress theme.
Conclusion
Choosing the right WordPress theme is one of the most important decisions you‘ll make when launching a viral content site. The 20+ themes featured in this post are some of the very best options for creating a highly engaging and shareable viral site in 2024.
Consider your specific niche and content strategy, your must-have features, and your budget to choose the theme that‘s the best fit for your needs. With the right content sharing theme powering your site, you‘ll be well on your way to viral success!
