Top 13 Free Parallax Scrolling WordPress Themes for 2022

WordPress allows people with zero coding skills to build an attractive and engaging website.

With the right WordPress theme, you can even add complex design effects to your site with just a few clicks of a button in your theme options panel. For example, parallax scrolling is a web design technique that makes the background move slower than the foreground when someone scrolls down your site. It creates a 3D effect that can delight visitors and create a sense of depth on your site.

Below are the best free WordPress themes that provide a smooth parallax scrolling effect for your visitors as they explore your website and consume your content. 

We'll take a closer look at these free options below. 

If you'd like to explore your best free and premium options, check out 27 Best Parallax WordPress Themes for 2021.

1. Illdy

Illdy is a free multipurpose WordPress theme designed for freelancers and agencies.

Built on the Bootstrap CSS framework, this theme is responsive and mobile-friendly so your website will look great on any device. Using the built-in WordPress Customizer, you can customize the different sections on the homepage, including the hero image, projects grid, and testimonials, to showcase your unique products and team. You can also use the parallax background header to catch your visitor's attention immediately. 

2. Himalayas

Himalayas is a highly-rated free WordPress theme that lets you add a parallax effect to your website. In addition to being fully responsive and incredibly fast-loading, Himalayas is also highly customizable. You can customize the color scheme, typography, header, footer, and other widget areas. That's why this parallax theme can be used for almost any kind of site, including business, portfolio, corporate, agency, and photography sites. 

3. Rosa Lite

Rosa Lite is the free version of the best-selling restaurant WordPress theme by pixelgrade. Its modern design combines parallax scrolling with a unique grid layout so that any small business can create a website that stands out.

This free theme comes with a full-screen parallax header, built-in menu system, and a color palette system so you can customize your website’s design with just a few clicks.

4. Moesia

Moesia is a striking theme designed to help businesses establish an online presence. With this free theme, you can choose from eleven predefined blocks to quickly and easily build a homepage that suits your brand. For each homepage block, you can set a parallax background image and a unique color scheme. You can add other cool animations and effects to delight and engage your visitors, and add social icons to encourage them to stay connected.

5. ParallaxSome

ParallaxSome is a five-star one page WordPress theme with parallax scrolling effects. Its demo site features three sections with parallax scrolling, including the Services, Facts About Us, and Clients sections. It also has a parallax menu with a floating option and a full-width slider to engage and delight visitors as they explore your site.

This highly customizable and flexible theme can be used for a wide range of websites, including business, agency, blog, portfolio, and ecommerce.

6. Shapely

Shapely is one of the best one page WordPress themes for business or landing page websites. It comes with everything you need to showcase your business, including widgets for adding a blog, portfolio, shop, blog, products and services, clients, and parallax section. Built on Bootstrap, Shapely is not only fully responsive — it also has a 12-column grid layout that’s ideal for displaying posts, projects, and products on the page.

7. Highstarter

Highstarter is one of the best WordPress starter themes that developers and advanced users can add their own code to to create a completely custom look for their site.

In addition to being compatible with the Gutenberg editor and Classic editor, this free theme offers a wide range of options in the theme customizer. You can pick between a full-width or right sidebar layout and a light and dark mode. You can use a static homepage and add parallax scrolling, a custom header image, call-to-action button, and accent colors, among other design effects and elements, to reflect your unique brand identity.

8. Enigma Parallax

Enigma Parallax is a feature-rich and modern WordPress theme that’s highly rated in the WordPress directory. This free theme features a homepage slider, contact form, and portfolio, services, and testimonials sections so you can display all the information visitors will need about your business. The homepage demo also includes a portfolio, blog, and team section — all with the parallax effect — so that visitors remain engaged as they scroll down the page.

These features make Enigma Parallax ideal for many types of business sites, including landing page, portfolio, and corporate sites.

9. Featuredlite

Featuredlite is a parallax theme specifically created for corporate and business websites. In addition to being fully responsive, this theme is highly customizable via the WordPress Customizer. You can customize the color scheme, header layout, and widget areas of the theme. You can customize any of the homepage sections — Services, About Us, Call-to-action, Team, Shop, Testimonial, Latest News, Contact Us — or hide theme with one click. Many of these sections use parallax scrolling to enhance the content and keep visitors engaged as they scroll.

10. WPparallax

WPparallax is a free one page WordPress theme that comes with over 10 pre-designed homepage demos that you can import in one click. These demos are easy to customize with the WordPress Customizer or the Elementor page builder, if you prefer. Each of these demo sites feature at least one parallax section to enhance the user experience. 

WPparallax also comes with three header layouts and multiple sidebar layouts, and supports four post formats. That means you can create a content-rich site that features multiple types of content, including blog posts, videos, audio and more.

11. VW Parallax

VW Parallax is a free WordPress theme that’s ideal for corporate and other businesses that need to stand out from competitors. VW Parallax comes with three parallax sections — Services, Testimonials, and a video section — that catch the visitor’s eye as they scroll down the page. This theme is also fully responsive and lightweight so you can focus on the design instead of the performance of your site.

12. Allegiant

Allegiant is a free multipurpose WordPress theme that's packed with modern features to make your site pop.

Ideal for agencies and freelancers, Allegiant comes with a full-width homepage slider, feature blocks, and a testimonial display. Parallax scrolling is also applied to the CTA and Services section of the homepage demo to catch the visitor's eye. 

13. Parallax Frame

Parallax Frame is a free WordPress theme designed to help businesses create websites that stand out. In addition to offering a page slider and hero content feature, Parallax Frame combines a simple and clean layout with parallax scrolling effects to enhance the user experience. It’s also fully responsive and coded with HTML5 and CSS3 to work perfectly on any device and browser.

Choosing Your Free Parallax WordPress Theme

A parallax WordPress theme can delight and impress visitors on your website. The best part? It doesn't have to cost you a thing. Use any of the free themes above to transform the look and feel of your site.  

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.