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WordPress powers everything from personal blogs to large-scale community projects — but the most interesting sites aren’t always the biggest ones.
In this guide, we’ve handpicked 15 unique WordPress website examples that stand out for their ideas, storytelling, and design choices.
Some attract significant traffic, while others serve smaller but highly engaged communities. All of them use WordPress.com in thoughtful, creative ways.
Along the way, you’ll see practical design and content ideas you can apply to your own site, whether you’re starting fresh or refining what you already have.
1. Hidden Gem Animal Rescue: Foster-based rescue organization
- Website type: Nonprofit
- Theme: Custom
Logan and Murphy founded Hidden Gem Animal Rescue out of a shared love for animals.
While many animal welfare websites rely on gloomy colors and emotional imagery to drive support, this animal rescue takes a different visual approach.
Working with Automattic’s Special Projects team, the organization chose a soft pastel palette that feels optimistic and hopeful, bringing youthful energy to a serious cause.
Because the muted colors feel quieter, bolder tones stand out — the founders’ picture and mission statement catch your eyes instantly.
The playful language reframes the tough realities of pet adoption into celebratory moments.
For example, Hidden Gem Animal Rescue describes the adopted kittens as “Rescue Graduates.”
It calls to mind our college graduation, a universally joyful milestone — exactly how adoptions should be.
What we love about this website
- The Welsh Corgi separates the hero section from the remaining content. It adds adorable appeal, unlike a standard divider line or color block.
- Hidden Gem Animal Rescue deliberately chose an image of a Corgi with its head tilted. The dog’s gaze refocuses your attention to the call-to-action (CTA) button, nudging you to adopt a pet.
Tip: WordPress.com supports all types of websites. With pre-built templates, styles, plugins, and patterns, you can quickly design a personal, small business, or ecommerce site. Paid plans include managed hosting, unlimited bandwidth, and expert support.
2. Job.blog: Personal and professional blog
- Website type: Personal and business blog
- Theme: Twenty Twenty-Five
“Focus on one topic to build an authoritative blog,” — that’s the common advice to new bloggers.
Job’s blog goes against the grain.
A longtime WordPress.com user before joining the company, Job wrote about theology and culture.
These days, he blogs about technology and leadership as the Chief Customer Officer at WooCommerce. It’s rare to hear from a customer, let alone an employee deep in the ecosystem.
The website serves as a creative outlet for Job to express his opinions freely.
Fun fact: Job created his blog via the WordPress.com Site Editor with no custom code.
What we love about this website
- The masonry layout of photos is a visual feast. Despite the different heights and widths, the photo journals flow organically, creating a scrollable experience.
- The 404 page injects humor to ease frustration when users can’t access a page. The Pulp Fiction “Looking Confused” GIF acknowledges the awkwardness and lightens the mood.
Tip: Likewise, you can use humor in your 404 page to show your personality. To customize the default 404 error page template on WordPress.com, go to Appearance → Editor and edit the Page: 404 template.
3. PostSecret: Community mail art project
- Website type: Community-driven blog
- Theme: Custom
PostSecret publishes anonymous secrets that people around the world mail in on handwritten postcards. It shares these secrets exactly as submitted.
Founded by Frank Warren, the project spotlights deeply human stories from all walks of life.
The site’s minimal text and design are intentional; as you scroll, handmade postcards — from childhood memories to heartbreak — take center stage.
These unfiltered confessions keep people coming back to the point that PostSecret has attracted 881,000,000+ visitors, a rare milestone that the site footer notes.
Today, the 21-year-old community art project has grown into a global movement, raising over $1 million to support suicide prevention.
What we love about this website
- All eyes are on the postcards, thanks to the single-column layout against a plain background. Each postcard resembles a framed artwork in a modern art museum.
- PostSecret relies on its community to keep the project alive, directing you to its Patreon — a platform for recurring creator support — near the end of the page. The community’s support also keeps PostSecret free of ads, creating a pleasant user experience.
Tip: Want to sync your Patreon posts with WordPress.com? Install the Patreon plugin to connect your site in a few clicks.
4. Bedfordshire Bird Club: Birdwatching community
- Website type: Knowledge base and membership
- Theme: Custom
Bedfordshire Bird Club is an ornithological community that started in 1992. After a collaboration with the Automattic Special Projects team, the new website now boasts a striking brand identity.
Most importantly, its birding sites deserve a deeper look.
The location search bar is prominently displayed, allowing birdwatchers to easily plan their next visits.
Each birding site provides extensive information like interactive maps, GPS coordinates, viewpoints, and the bird species you can see during each season. This allows you to easily explore the birdwatching spots.
What we love about this website
- Bedfordshire Bird Club spotlights members’ photography to foster community. The credited photos instill pride and motivate continued engagement with the site.
- The homepage adapts its bird sightings to the current season. Bedfordshire Bird Club can keep its content fresh and timely all year round.
5. Engnovate: English and IELTS resource hub
- Website type: Online courses and e-learning
- Theme: Astra
Engnovate is an online IELTS test preparation platform with over 1 million monthly learners — and over 350K in monthly traffic according to Semrush.
At first glance, Engnovate resembles most test preparation platforms: writing tasks, speaking evaluation, grammar checker, etc.
Yet as you scroll through the site, you notice a differentiating feature: interactive elements and AI.
The self-introduction exercise, for instance, assigns an AI English coach. Like one-on-one guidance in a professional school setting, it evaluates and deepens your English skills in real time.
What we love about this website
- The hero section promotes Trustpilot reviews, but the CTA is intentionally muted so it doesn’t compete with learning-focused actions.
- The site offers ungated interactive tools that help you practice. These tools function as traffic magnets that encourage you to explore and stay longer.
- Because task answers are public, learners can see real examples from others, compare approaches, and understand how their own answers measure up.
6. Cozy Grove Camp Spirit: Mobile game microsite
- Website type: A site to promote a mobile app
- Theme: Custom
Cozy Grove Camp Spirit is a cozy adventure game, and its website pulls you into that world from the start. Whimsical visuals — from character art to a hand-drawn forest landscape — evoke childlike wonder and invite exploration.
The premise is simple and intriguing: You play as a Spirit Scout helping friendly ghosts on a haunted island.
A single-column layout uses gameplay videos and screenshots to show daily quests like fishing, crafting, and rebuilding the island — moments fans recognize from the original game.
What we love about this website
- The microsite mirrors the game’s distinctive charm. It delights fans and new players alike.
- Vivid phrases like “soothe the local ghosts” position you as the hero, while playful section dividers act as Easter eggs.
7. Brodo: Bone broth ecommerce store
- Website type: Ecommerce shop
- Theme: Custom
Marco Canora founded Brodo after turning to bone broth during his own health recovery — and the website now attracts over 40K visitors monthly according to Semrush.
On the website, that personal story takes a back seat to conversion. Instead of leading with a mission or ingredient sourcing, the homepage quickly highlights a starter box with a default “Subscribe & Save” option.
For this direct-to-consumer brand built on subscriptions, this sales-first layout supports Brodo’s core revenue model.
To drive subscriptions, Brodo anchors its pricing by listing the same product at a higher one-time price. Paying 20% more for a single order makes the subscription feel like the better deal, as do the additional sign-up perks beyond delivery frequency:
What we love about this website
- There is a “Shop all broths” CTA in all customer reviews, creating a frictionless shopping experience. Spotted a review that resonates? Just click the link below to order.
- Each expert testimonial features a specific benefit of bone broth, addressing different customer segments. For example, Bobbi Brown’s testimonial about protein targets athletes who want to increase their protein intake and build muscle growth:
8. The King’s Monologue: African history resource hub
- Website type: Knowledge base and creator site
- Theme: Assembler
The King’s Monologue uniquely redefines the participation of indigenous Africans in the global history of Black people. Andrew Adetitun-King, a reconstruction artist, researcher, and YouTuber with over 100K subscribers, is its founder.
The site features thoughtful essays, such as critiques of Eurocentric interpretations of the Tomb of Seti I, offering perspectives that standard history curricula rarely cover.
Beyond the content, the activist-focused language shines.
The 1,000 book giveaway callout urges you to support Andrew’s new book, Reconstructuring Egypt:
Fun fact: Andrew created The King’s Monologue on our AI website builder in just one day. Your new website is also only a few prompts away.
What we love about this website
- The site’s visual identity and content are tightly aligned. The regal imagery, typography, and academic tone reinforce the project’s mission to reframe African history through a research-driven lens.
- By placing the full name and initials around the site icon, the circular logo reinforces brand recognition across the site and beyond.
9. ArtLesson: Illustration website
- Website type: Blog
- Theme: H4
ArtLesson offers free creative art ideas for teachers and students. The site skips a traditional top menu, instead using colorful doodles below the hero section and in the sidebar as navigation.
Clicking the green “Year 4” icon, for example, takes elementary school teachers to current lessons like color blending and pattern drawing.
What we love about this website
- Doodle-based navigation makes it easy to find popular illustration, cardboard sculpture, and lettering lessons while reinforcing ArtLesson’s visual identity.
- You can’t help but smile scrolling through ArtLesson; it feels like you’re learning from your favorite teacher.
Tip: To replicate ArtLesson’s creative approach, use graphic design platforms (e.g., Canva) or install a graphic plugin to customize images directly on your WordPress.com site.
10. Jia: Writing portfolio
- Website type: Portfolio
- Theme: Custom
Jia Tolentino’s website opens with an artistic portrait — a bold choice in a space where most writers rely on standard headshots.
The minimalist design keeps the focus on her work, stripping away distractions like subscription boxes or social feeds. The result is a clean, calm space that supports a text-heavy biography and curated writing clips.
What we love about this website
- The vertical artistic portrait resembles a magazine cover and creates a strong first impression. It suits Jia’s line of work because she’s written for magazines like The New Yorker and The Hairpin.
- The two-column layout breaks up the long text, allowing you to pause between lengthy paragraphs. Note how the empty columns provide a natural stopping point.
It’s a simple trick with minimal layout edits — and you can easily create these columns on WordPress.com.
11. BCSP: Academic center website
- Website type: Academic
- Theme: Custom
BCSP curates its extensive psychedelic research into one compact website. Each section features bold fonts and neon headers, creating an uncluttered user experience — even a layperson can navigate with ease.
The groovy design echoes a trendy digital magazine, not a research center’s website. The varying blocks of copy are evenly distributed, maintaining your interest.
What we love about this website
- The custom clinical trial map for therapists and patients to navigate past, ongoing, and future trials. It’s intuitive to add filters like eligibility criteria and trial status thanks to the user-friendly interface.
- The menu gives a bird’s-eye view of BCSP’s content. Once clicked, it opens and displays all links in a structured panel. To highlight the researched substances, BCSP assigns each compound a unique neon color button.
12. Fit For Golf: Golf app website
- Website type: Website to promote an app
- Theme: Custom
Fit For Golf is a golf training app focused on strength and mobility. Mike Carroll, a fitness coach for PGA and DP World Tour players, founded the app. Fit For Golf’s website relies on workout GIFs to immediately show how the program works:
Mike demonstrates the workouts himself, adding a strong personalized touch. He also personally answers all training-related questions from app subscribers. This quick access to an experienced coach is a huge selling point.
What we love about this website
- The 4.9-star rating pop-up on the bottom left instills trust, but its small size doesn’t interrupt the user experience.
- The video testimonials and highly specific results customers achieved boost credibility. Pairing each golfer’s testimonial with their workout results creates an emotional connection through a relatable journey.
13. This Sweet Life: Luxury family travel blog
- Website type: Blog
- Theme: Veni
Travel blogs need to inspire exploration while making trip planning easy — and This Sweet Life does both.
Natalie Sullivan, a traveler who’s visited 40+ countries, founded the blog. It blends luxury family travel with personal experience, from five-star stays to hotel collaborations as a mom influencer.
Natalie focuses on four passion-led topics — luxury family travel, mentorship for mom influencers, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, and party planning — capturing the everyday celebrations of a vibrant life.
What we love about this website
- The clever use of negative space highlights the hero image and vivid copy in a balanced way. The beach background elicits feelings of escape, while the candid shot of Natalie’s family adds warmth. The core message is clear, triggering your wanderlust.
- The lead magnet, The Influencer Starter Kit for Moms, drives subscribers and nurtures them for a paid upgrade. It allows Natalie to build her email list and earn revenue simultaneously.
Tip: You can replicate This Sweet Life’s paid upgrade using WordPress.com’s Paid Content block. It lets you accept one-time, monthly, or annual payments for access to your exclusive content.
14. Robert Brancatelli: Personal essays
- Website type: Personal
- Theme: Hermes
Robert Brancatelli’s life as a professor, author, and taxi driver shapes the offbeat voice he uses across his blog.
His magazine-style site publishes recurring features on a set schedule, building anticipation over time.
The “Mittwoch Matinee” series, for example, ties each post to a notable event from the publication date — like an October 8, 2025, essay reflecting on Don Larsen’s perfect game in World Series history.
What we love about this website
- The sidebar display of subscriber avatars shows you that the site has an active, engaged readership.
15. Maybe It’s Just Me: Health, wellness, and self-improvement website
- Website type: Personal and portfolio
- Theme: Custom
Maybe It’s Just Me is a personal health and wellness site by journalist Kaitlin Vogel, who showcases her magazine bylines across the site. By blending professional credentials with personal storytelling, the site clearly establishes her expertise — an important signal for a creator working with wellness brands.
“Maybe it’s just me” is Kaitlin’s signature phrase, repeated throughout her writing — much like Carrie Bradshaw’s recurring “I couldn’t help but wonder” and “just like that.”
In her Summer Reading List post, for example, Kaitlin opens with it before sharing her book recommendations:
What we love about this website
- Generous spacing and simple typography make longer wellness posts easy to read, supporting a calm, distraction-free browsing experience.
- Many websites prioritize popular content to prevent newer posts from burying it, but Maybe It’s Just Me shows the newest blog posts by default to drive quick buzz.
Tip: That said, you can pin any post to the top of your WordPress.com blog by marking it as “Sticky” in the post’s Status settings.
Launch a unique website on WordPress.com today
Building a site that stands out takes more than a good idea. Design, content, and structure all play a role in how people experience and remember your website.
These 15 examples show there’s no single formula. Some stand out through storytelling, others through design, navigation, or community. What matters is choosing the approach that fits your unique story.
WordPress.com gives you the flexibility to start with a template and shape it over time, whether you’re building a personal blog, a small business site, or something more experimental.
Behind the scenes, reliable hosting matters too. WordPress.com includes managed hosting, security, and performance features to keep your site running smoothly as it grows.
