Newspaper
tagDiv · Premium
A news and magazine theme built for high article volume and ad placements.
Da
DarkNews
by AF themes
A dark magazine theme for news and entertainment publishers.
4.8MagazineFreemium
This link may earn us a commission. It never changes our rating.
What DarkNews is
A dark magazine theme for news and entertainment publishers.
It sits in the magazine part of the theme market and is sold by AF themes on a freemium basis. A theme decides your layout, your typography and a large slice of your page weight, so it is the hardest thing on a WordPress site to change later.
Before you commit, record a speed test of your current site, then run the same test after you switch, on the same page, so you can see exactly what the new theme costs you.
What DarkNews looks like
The official screenshot from the WordPress.org theme directory, as published by the theme authors.
See it running on a live demo site at the WordPress.org preview.
Real user ratings
Score
4.8/5
Reviews
30
Active installs
1,000+
Downloads
138K
Latest version
3.5.7
Last updated
2026-08-28
Figures come straight from the public WordPress.org theme directory API for version 3.5.7. You can check them yourself on the WordPress.org listing.
Where DarkNews ranks elsewhere
DarkNews does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
v3.3.10Latest release
- Update - Customizer optimization
- Update - German language file
- Update - Arabic language file
- Update - French language file
- Update - Italian language file
- Update - Japanese language file
- Update - Polish language file
- Update - Portugese language file
v3.3.2
- Update - Default admin panel
- Update - Recommneded plugins
v3.3.0
- Update - Security improvement
- Update - Block Style improvement
- Fixed - Some styling glitch
Release notes are the developer's own words, published on WordPress.org. Read the full changelog
Pros and cons
- Dark reading experience is set up correctly out of the box.
- Rated 4.8 out of 5 by 30 WordPress.org reviewers.
- There is a free version you can trial before paying.
- Works with the block editor and the mainstream page builders.
- Colour scheme is hard to lighten without custom CSS.
- Switching themes later means rebuilding page layouts, so choose deliberately.
How to use it
- 1Activate the theme and set your homepage to a static page or the theme's news template.
- 2Map your categories to the homepage blocks so each section pulls the right posts.
- 3Configure the article template: featured image size, sidebar, related posts and share buttons.
- 4Place ad slots deliberately and reserve their height so layout does not shift.
- 5Check reading speed on mobile once the homepage is full of real articles.
How it compares
Other magazine themes we recommend, with their public WordPress.org score where one exists.
Guides that cover DarkNews
Alternatives
Other magazine themes
Jannah
TieLabs · Premium
A magazine theme with review blocks, dark mode and strong mobile reading layouts.