Sela Theme Review (2026): Is This Free Business Theme Still Worth It?
Our verdict: Do not start a new site on Sela in 2026. Automattic has retired it on WordPress.com, where it now gets security updates only, and its files still say it was tested up to WordPress 4.6.1. It does still work. On our test install it ran on WordPress 7.1.2 with no PHP notices, and its homepage was light at 157 KB. But it has almost no settings, loads jQuery and Google Fonts, and does not support modern block editor features. If Sela already runs your site, keep it for now and plan a move to a maintained theme.
This review covers what Sela still offers, how it behaved on a current WordPress install, what we measured, and which free themes to use instead.
A Sela homepage built with its Front Page template on a test install, version 1.0.17, October 2026.
Sela quick facts
Facts were checked on the WordPress.org listing and Sela’s WordPress.com theme page in October 2026.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Developer | Automattic |
| Latest version | 1.0.17 on WordPress.org, listing updated September 15, 2026 |
| Status on WordPress.com | Retired: security updates only, not offered to new sites |
| Tested up to (theme files) | WordPress 4.6.1 |
| Last dated changelog entry | March 3, 2018 |
| Active installs | 4,000+ on WordPress.org |
| Rating | 4.5 out of 5 from 10 ratings |
| Price | Free |
| Theme type | Classic theme, Customizer and widgets only |
| Default homepage on our test site | 157 KB, 17 requests, Lighthouse mobile score 99 |
What is Sela?
Sela is a free business theme made by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce and Jetpack. It was released in 2015. The look is bright and simple: a centered site title, a pink menu bar, a large photo on the homepage with a white text box over it, and thin, upper-case Oswald headings.
Its main feature is a Front Page page template. Pick it for your homepage and Sela shows the page’s featured image as a wide hero, the page text in a box on top, three widget areas below, and a testimonials strip if you use Jetpack’s testimonials. Other templates include Full Width Page and Grid Page.
Is Sela still maintained?
Not in any real sense. Here is what we found:
- WordPress.com has retired it. Sela’s theme page on WordPress.com says: “This theme has been retired and will only receive security updates. It is no longer available to sites that are not already using it.” A download link for self-hosted sites is still there.
- The readme is frozen in time. Sela’s readme says “Tested up to: 4.6.1”, a WordPress version from 2016. Its changelog stops at March 3, 2018.
- Small updates still appear. The WordPress.org listing shows version 1.0.17, updated September 15, 2026. Comparing it with the older 1.0.15 download, the changes were small. Sela now shows an author bio on more post formats and no longer loads an old plugin-suggestion notice. No changelog entry explains them.
So Sela gets occasional upkeep, but nobody is building it forward. It has no theme.json, no block styles and no Site Editor support, all features that most themes updated in the past few years have added.
How Sela runs on WordPress 7.1
We installed Sela 1.0.17 on WordPress 7.1.2 with PHP 8.3 and debug logging on. We then browsed the front end, the Customizer, the widget screens and the block editor. Sela logged no PHP notices, warnings or errors. For a theme last tested on WordPress 4.6, that is a decent result.
Two things did not work as smoothly as we would like.
Images uploaded before activation looked wrong. Sela adds its own image sizes, including a 1180 x 610 pixel hero size. Our test image was uploaded before Sela was active, so that size did not exist yet. The hero photo stopped short of the right edge until we regenerated the image sizes. New uploads are fine. If you switch an existing site to Sela, run a thumbnail regeneration plugin first.
Long homepage text gets cut off. The Front Page template places your page content in a box over the hero image, and the hero has a fixed height. Our first homepage had a heading, two paragraphs, an image, a button and a list. Sela cut it off at the bottom of the hero box, so the button and list never showed. A short intro of one paragraph and a button fit well, and that is what the screenshot above shows.
The block editor does not match the front end either. When editing the homepage, headings and text showed in the browser’s default serif font, not Sela’s Oswald and Source Sans Pro. You have to preview to see what visitors get.
Editing the homepage in the block editor with Sela’s Front Page template selected, WordPress 7.1.2, October 2026.
Setting up a homepage with Sela
Sela has no setup wizard, demo import, starter content, welcome screen or dashboard notice. After activation you get a blank theme and the standard WordPress tools. On our test install, building the homepage took a few minutes:
- Set a page as the static homepage under Settings > Reading.
- Give that page the Front Page template and a featured image at least 1180 pixels wide, as the readme recommends.
- Keep the page text short: a heading, one or two sentences and a button.
- Add widgets to the First, Second and Third Front Page Widget Areas.
- Create a menu and assign it to the Primary Menu location.
That is simple, and some owners will prefer it to a wizard that installs four plugins. But it also means there is nothing to start from. You need your own photos and copy before the homepage looks like anything.
Sela settings and customization
Sela adds no options of its own. The Customizer shows only the panels that WordPress provides for any classic theme.
The Sela Customizer on a test install, with only WordPress’s standard panels, version 1.0.17, October 2026.
What you can change:
- Site Identity. Site title, tagline and site icon. There is no logo upload.
- Colors. Header text color and background color only.
- Header Image and Background Image.
- Menus. A Primary menu and a Social links menu.
- Widgets. A main sidebar, three footer widget areas and three front page widget areas.
- Additional CSS for anything else.
There are no font, layout, button or accent color settings. If you do not like the pink menu bar, you have to change it with CSS. There are no upsells either, because there is nothing to sell.
Sela speed: page weight and requests
We measured Sela with the same method as our fastest WordPress theme test: WordPress 7.1.2, PHP 8.3, no plugins, no page cache, the same test homepage and blog post, default settings, and the median of three Lighthouse 13.5 runs. This is a local lab measurement. It shows how much code the theme sends, not how fast a live site will be.
| Page (mobile) | Requests | Total weight | Lighthouse score | LCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sela default homepage | 17 | 157 KB | 99 | 1.66 s |
| Sela blog post | 19 | 169 KB | 99 | 1.66 s |
| Sela homepage built with the Front Page template | 17 | 158 KB | 99 | 1.66 s |
| GeneratePress homepage (from our test) | 7 | 51 KB | 100 | 1.06 s |
| Twenty Twenty-Five homepage (from our test) | 9 | 117 KB | 100 | 1.65 s |
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is when the biggest thing on screen finishes loading, in Lighthouse’s simulated slow phone.
Sela scores well because it does little. Its own stylesheet is only 9 KB. The weight comes from three places:
- Google Fonts. Sela requests Source Sans Pro, Droid Serif and Oswald from Google’s servers. The homepage downloaded about 52 KB of font files. None of the nine themes in our speed test loaded fonts from Google by default.
- jQuery and jQuery Migrate, about 36 KB, for very little theme JavaScript (three small scripts under 1.1 KB each).
- The Genericons icon font stylesheet, about 17 KB.
So Sela is light, but not as light as it looks. It sends three times what GeneratePress sends, and it is heavier than Twenty Twenty-Five, the current default WordPress theme.
Support
Sela has no paid support. Your options are the WordPress.org support forum for Sela and general WordPress help. With the theme retired on WordPress.com and its changelog stopped in 2018, we would not count on fixes for new problems.
Sela pros and cons
Pros
- Free, with no upsells or bundled plugins
- No PHP notices on WordPress 7.1.2 in our test session
- Light homepage (157 KB) with a Lighthouse mobile score of 99 on our test site
- Simple, clean business look with a hero image and widget areas
Cons
- Retired on WordPress.com and not developed further
- Theme files say tested up to WordPress 4.6.1
- Almost no settings: two colors, no fonts or layout options
- Loads Google Fonts from Google’s servers and jQuery
- No demo, starter content or block patterns
- Block editor does not show the theme’s fonts
- Front Page template cuts off longer content
Sela alternatives
Sela was a good free business theme in 2015. Today, these maintained free themes do the same job with far more control:
| Theme | Our test homepage | Why pick it |
|---|---|---|
| GeneratePress | 51 KB, 7 requests | Lightest full theme we measured, easy to keep simple |
| Kadence | 70 KB, 10 requests | Free business starter templates and a header builder |
| Astra | 68 KB, 7 requests | Large free starter template library |
| OceanWP | 182 KB, 22 requests | Many free extensions for business sites |
| Twenty Twenty-Five | 117 KB, 9 requests | Automattic’s current default theme, built for the Site Editor |
If you like Sela because it comes from Automattic and stays out of your way, Twenty Twenty-Five is its natural replacement. It ships with WordPress and is updated with it. See how all of these compare in our fastest WordPress theme test.
Verdict: is Sela worth using in 2026?
For a new site, no. Sela still installs and runs cleanly on WordPress 7.1.2, and its light homepage scored 99 in Lighthouse on our test site. But Automattic has retired it, its readme has not been touched since WordPress 4.6, and it gives you almost nothing to customize.
If your site already uses Sela, there is no emergency. It has security updates and works today. Plan a switch to GeneratePress, Kadence, Astra or Twenty Twenty-Five the next time you redesign, and try the new theme on a staging copy first.
FAQ
Is Sela still supported?
Only for security. Sela’s WordPress.com page says the theme has been retired, will only receive security updates, and is no longer offered to new WordPress.com sites. The WordPress.org version was last updated on September 15, 2026, but its changelog has no entries after 2018.
Does Sela work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes, on our test install. Sela 1.0.17 ran on WordPress 7.1.2 with PHP 8.3 and logged no PHP notices. Its theme files still say it was only tested up to WordPress 4.6.1, so you are relying on old code that happens to work.
Is Sela free?
Yes. Sela is free on WordPress.org and has no paid version. It also has no demo import or starter content, so you build the homepage yourself with the Front Page template and widgets.
Is Sela a fast theme?
It is light. Its default homepage weighed 157 KB in 17 requests and scored 99 in Lighthouse on mobile on our test site. It still loads jQuery and three Google Fonts families, so it sends about three times what GeneratePress sends.
What is a good replacement for Sela?
For a simple business site, GeneratePress or Kadence are the closest fit among maintained free themes. If you want to stay with Automattic’s own themes and build in the Site Editor, use Twenty Twenty-Five, the current default WordPress theme.