Cool websites made with WordPress

Transcribed from Elegant themes blog by Tom Ewer.

1. Gisi Design

Gisi Design is a German brand company website that runs on the X Theme – ThemeForest’s most popular WordPress theme.

The site has clearly been built to put visuals front and center while keeping text minimal and elegant. Browsing through each page will take you through some very beautiful transitions and animations that look incredible, whether you’re browsing from a desktop or mobile device.

2. Dagobert

Dagobert is a French brand company website that features some of the most stunning animation effects you’ll see on any WordPress theme.

Clicking the menu will trigger another little animation effect and prompt it to quickly expand to full screen. Despite the simplicity of the site, scrolling through it is as captivating.

3. Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is just one of the world’s largest brands that has its international site running on WordPress.

With a slick and high-end looking custom theme to match its brand, the site clearly serves to highlight the images and videos of its cars. Many of its pages feature full screen sliders to show those images off to visitors.

4. Katy Perry

Huge celebrities use WordPress for their websites too, and singer Katy Perry just happens to be one of them.

Her site is all about parallax scrolling visuals, with large background images that change as you make your way down the page. Social media has a big focus here too and is emphasized around her site in some effective ways.

5. Fair Ivy

Fair Ivy is a gift subscription service with a website that runs on another one of ThemeForest’s most popular themes, The Retailer.

The site maintains a clean and elegant look that’s easy to navigate for users who are thinking about signing up. Those who do sign up for a subscription can easily access their account and see their cart items without being overwhelmed with too many visuals or effects.

6. Outward Bound Croatia

Outward Bound Croatia is an outdoor adventure organization that has a website running on the Integrity theme.

Scrolling through the site and all its gorgeous imagery will make you want to get outside and do something fun. The number counters on this one are also great for really making those stats and figures stand out.

7. Happy in My Skin

Happy in My Skin is a wellness therapy website that uses the Renew theme.

Right off the bat, the site offers visitors a look that’s calm, serene and spa-like while highlighting just the essentials as you scroll down. Overall, it’s a stunning example of a simple site that makes a big impact.

8. Neopolitan Clothing

Neopolitan Clothing is an apparel company that uses a WooCommerce website and a custom-designed WordPress theme.

This one is all about black and white color schemes combined with large, striking headline text. It works extremely well to emphasize the images and details while still maintaining a clean and pleasant browsing experience.

9. Malala Yousafzai

Human rights activist Malala Yousafzai has her Malala Fund website running on WordPress to help spread her message.

The site uses a combination of video, images and animations complimented by a bright color scheme. There are also several clear calls to action that encourage visitors to subscribe, donate or learn more.

10. Brandice Daniel

Brandice Daniel has a business coaching website that runs on the Icon theme.

The layout is minimal, yet it features impressive storytelling as you scroll down through all the sections. It’s just one example site that may serve as a great inspiration for anyone looking to give their own personal WordPress site a makeover.

11. Fineshmaker

Fineshmaker is a boutique production company website that takes a unique approach to showing off their videos.

Videos are displayed in a grid and appear over the page when clicked. A simple and responsible sidebar can be accessed any time from the right, and there’s a TV static animation effect that goes great with the overall theme of the site.

12. James Brandon Photography

James Brandon’s photography website uses the Ethos theme.

While the theme itself is ideal for sites with a news magazine style, this site is a good example of how a photography site can still look amazing without having to be all about huge images and practically nothing else. There seems to be a very nice balance here between photos, additional information and resources.

13. Facebook Newsroom

The world’s largest social network uses WordPress to power its news blog.

Looking like an extension of Facebook itself, the blog has a very clean and minimal look that makes it easy to read and navigate. You probably couldn’t mistake it for anything else but Facebook with that blue and white color scheme.

14. Blue Cadet

Blue Cadet is a digital agency that designs unique user experiences, and you can bet that they show it off through their own website as well.

Everywhere you look, there are smooth and engaging effects throughout the site that get visitors wanting to click to see more. Just scroll and hover your mouse over any image to get a firsthand look at how exquisite this site really is.

15. Wanda Print

Wanda Print is a productions and creative studio with a site that really is mesmerizing to scroll through.

As you scroll down, full screen images will appear as one half of it slides from the top and the other slides from the bottom to fit together. The menu is always accessible when you need more than just pretty pictures to look at, plus there’s a clickable headline that appears over each image.

16. Harvard Business Review

Harvard’s Business Review website makes business content look much more exciting than most people would assume it to be.

Using a news-style layout, visitors can scroll past the most recent articles to see other great looking sections like the Insight Center. The site maintains a very clean and well organized look that makes it easy and pleasant to browse.

17. The Next Web

The Next Web is a popular tech news website that relies on WordPress to deliver its content.

The site puts its feature stories right at the top and then breaks its main categories up into sections with card-like article summaries. With a layout like this, you can get your news fix without being overwhelmed by too much clutter.

18. July July

July July is a digital agency that may just be one of the most fun websites to browse through.

The site uses a lot of large images, videos and text combined with animation effects to make a big impression on visitors. Click on any case on the front page to see a superb presentation of its contents.

19. Bloomberg

Bloomberg is another huge brand that uses WordPress to showcase and sell its products to customers.

The site features a large-scale video background with overlapping calls to action followed by featured blog posts that use full screen images and enormous headlines. This is one more example that displays the most essential information in an enticing way without overwhelming users with too much to look at.

20. Team Les Chameaux

Team Les Chameaux is a French outdoor adventure team with a WordPress website that really captures what it means to be adventurous.

Watch as the images and text move in subtle ways around your screen as you scroll down or enlarge as you roll your mouse over them. The small menu on the left of the screen also has some really great mouse rollover effects.

21. Soyuz Coffee

Soyuz Coffee is a coffee roasting company that has a WordPress website built to captivate its audience.

This is another website that takes great advantage of parallax scrolling and combines it with iconic design for a browsing experience that’s truly unique. Images and text float over your screen before they slide away as you keep scrolling.

22. Trefecta Mobility

Trefecta Mobility is an e-bike company that uses WordPress to show off its innovative products.

Imagery and video are the big focus here, and clicking on Technology in the menu options on the left will trigger interactive animation of the bike that you can scroll through at your own pace. A quick browse through this site might be enough to make you want to pre-order one of these things.

23. NASA

Everyone knows that NASA is the United States government space agency, and they’re a huge fan of WordPress.

NASA has actually been using WordPress for years on several sites including open.nasa.gov, and data.nasa.gov. You’ll see large, compelling images with lots of things to click on – all of which tie in nicely with the space theme.

24. Flickr Blog

Yahoo’s big photo-sharing platform, Flickr, uses WordPress for its blog section.

Since photos are what Flickr is all about, it only makes sense that they’re the main focus of its blog. A full screen feature image and corresponding post appears at the top, followed by the most recent posts.

25. PrimeIT

PrimeIT is an international consulting company that gives us our final example of a great WordPress website.

The site incorporates many of the features we’ve covered in this list already, including large video backgrounds, parallax scrolling and clean design. Every page and everything you click on contribute to am alluring and flawless browsing experience.

Conclusion

If you’ve taken the opportunity to dive deeper into any of the websites featured above, you should have a good idea of just how versatile WordPress truly is. The possibilities really are endless, and it will be exciting to see what kinds of new and amazing things developers and designers might able to do with WordPress in the near future.

Do you know of any other cool WordPress-powered websites that are worth showing off? If you have one that comes to mind, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Article thumbnail image by vasabii / shutterstock.com