While WordPress is commonly used as a backend for blogs, it can be used for a number of other purposes such as eCommerce and other types of webpages which serve a specific purpose. To build these sites within WordPress, you will need to download a specific theme which fits your needs, or you’ll need to mix specialized plugins with a theme to create a new app-style site.
There are tons of themes available for WordPress that can turn your site into a new app, but some aren’t the greatest, and others aren’t incredibly unique. That’s why I’ve put together this list of my favorite app themes for WordPress. These themes are well designed, stable, and can help you take your WordPress site far beyond a traditional blog. In fact, your finished site might look nothing like a blog, but it’ll still be just as easy to manage as simple WordPress blog.
WishList Member
If you’ve wanted to create a paid online club, subscription local news service, or other type of content network which charges for access, you should definitely check out WishList Member. This theme turns your site into a paid site, and allows members who haven’t paid for your service to “preview” some content before becoming a member. WishList Member also helps you with accepting payments and content distribution.
Price: $97 – $297
Developer: WishList
JobRoller
If your company is hiring, you need to check out this WordPress theme. JobRoller is a quick and easy way to set up a job listing board from your WordPress installation. JobRoller helps you manage CVs, create job applications and even create applicant logins. You can also use JobRoller to create your own job seeker site. If you do this, JobRoller will help you manage payments and create separate applicant and recruiter logins.
Price: $99 – $159
Developer: AppThemes
ClassiPress
ClassiPress is a classy way to create your own classifieds board with custom membership packs, Facebook login and coupons. This theme allows members to post their products for sale online and get in contact with buyers with ease. ClassiPress also helps you implement advertising on your site to maximize profits. This theme also looks great with a completely customizable color scheme.
Price: $99 – $159
Developer: AppThemes
BuddyPress
BuddyPress is a free and easy way to create your own social network. This WordPress application allows users to add friends and share information, just like any full featured social network. You can even create buddy groups within BuddyPress, making it easy for users to communicate via threaded comment stream and @mentions. BuddyPress is ideal for anyone creating a social network for a small group of people, such as for schools and work offices. However, it can also be used for large groups of people as well. For instance, Volkswagen recently used BuddyPress to power their TankWars promotion.
Price: Free
Developer: BuddyPress
P2
P2 is an absolutely awesome theme for WordPress. It allows you to create a multi-user microblogging service, like Twitter, which you could use privately or publicly. One of the best uses for P2 is at your work office, as you can collaborate with fellow coworkers quickly. For example, if you want to share the ongoing progress of a team project, you can do this quickly and easily by sending regular status updates to everyone on the team. The Automattic team, the people behind WordPress, even use it internally to manage their own team communications.
Price: Free
Developer: Automattic
WooCommerce
If you’ve always wanted to own your own store, now’s your chance. With WooCommerce, you can start your own online shop and manage it with ease. WooCommere even handles payments and calculates taxes for you. This theme can also handle your inventory and product selection, so all you have to worry about is making amazing products.
Price: Free
Developer: WooThemes
SupportPress
If you’ve ever sold a product, you probably know how annoying and unorganized email support can be. This is where SupportPress comes in. With SupportPress, your customers can easily create support tickets which you can reply to via email right from WordPress. After you’ve answered their questions, you can add these questions and your answers to your knowledge base, which can be automatically set up within SupportPress. Coming in at only $100 for a one-time purchase, SupportPress is a must have for anyone who runs a business or sells goods compared to the price of other support services.
Price: $100
Developer: WooThemes
Estate
Estate is a very beautiful home listing tool aimed at realtors. With Estate, you can easily list homes for sale and add vital information, like the number of bathrooms and bedrooms in a stylish manner. This theme customizes WordPress from the inside-out with a customized dashboard made specifically for Estate by adding easy-to-use functions and advanced SEO control. Estate also adds advanced search, making it easy for your customers to search for properties that match their needs.
Price: $200
Developer: WooThemes
FaultPress
If you want an easy way to interact with your customers about their problems and bugs they find in your application, FaultPress has you covered. FaultPress is a ticketing system in which your customers can ask questions, leave comments, and even make suggestions on your products and services. This makes for a very social and interactive experience, without having to rely on another company’s business social network service.
Price: $100
Developer: WooThemes
Listings
Listings is a great way to launch a niche directory based website. You can either sell your own products or allow your visitors to upload their products to sell. Listings offers an absolutely gorgeous layout with an optional featured slider which can showcase selected products. Another cool feature of Listings is that it offers built-in listing uploading from the front-end, allowing you to accept submissions without having to manage dozens of WordPress user accounts. With all of these awesome features and endless possibilities, you could easily create a Craigslist killer (and please do!).
Price: $200
Developer: WooThemes
Clipper
I’m going to start by saying that Clipper is simply amazing. Clipper is an advanced theme for coupon management. This full featured theme packs a ton of integrated features such as email templates, coupon submission forms and a plethora of customization options. All of this combined with amazing social and monetization intregration makes Clipper the perfect theme to start making money, and to help others save money as well.
Price: $99 – $159
Developer: AppThemes
WP Bids
Getting an idea either funded or approved can be hard and often takes time. WP Bids aims to make the proposal process a little easier by making a super-easy-to-use WordPress theme which acts as a project proposal sheet. After using WP Bid’s custom backend, you can send your clients their password protected proposal. You can specify proposals for each client, enabling you to keep all of your proposals on the same WordPress install.
Price: $59
Developer: ThemeJam
WordPress Wiki
While there are many ways to set up your own Wikis, none are as stylish as WordPress Wiki. WordPress Wiki harnesses the power of CSS3 and HTML5 to provide an asthetically pleasing appearance and an intuitive user interface. It’s easy to add editors to your Wiki because of WordPress’s easy sign up and sign in process. WordPress Wiki also offers loads of free themes which can really “spice up” your Wiki.
Price: Free
Developer: WordPress Wiki
JobPress
While there may be a bunch of different job board themes for WordPress, JobPress is by far my favorite. This is because of its elegant design, the ability to add featured listings, and the ease of using online job applications. JobPress also integrates perfectly with LinkedIn and Facebook so applicants can get a head start on their applications. In addition, JobPress also has a built-in payment gateway, making it easy for companies to list their open jobs while you make a little extra dough.
Price: $119
Developer: DailyWP
Reviews Engine
If you’ve always wanted to start your own product review site, now’s your chance. With reviews engine, you can easily format reviews and rate products all while having a completely customizable website. You can also give members of your website reviewer rolls so they can write and publish reviews to your site. Reviews Engine allows you to add specific specifications to each product you review such as storage, resolution and size, making it perfect for reviewing computers and smartphones.
Price: $119
Developer: DailyWP
Conclusion
So there you are: over a dozen ways to make a new web app out of WordPress and a unique theme. Whatever you want to do with WordPress, it seems like you could do that and more today. We’d love to know about any unique ways you’ve used WordPress on your sites in the comments below!