What are Theme Options in WordPress?

Each theme's options offer different functionality, depending on the theme and its developer. Some have a handful of very basic settings to ensure they are beginner-friendly.

Twenty Eleven, the default WordPress theme from 2011, shows the classic pattern. Its simple Theme Options page lets you pick a light or dark color scheme, a link color, and a default layout. Newer classic themes generally use the Customizer instead: Twenty Twenty-One, a more recent default theme, keeps its background color and dark mode options under Appearance > Customize.

Premium WordPress themes often include Theme Options panels with settings spread across multiple tabs and sometimes a bundled drag-and-drop page builder. A typical panel controls the site logo, color palette, fonts, navigation, ads, SEO, and custom CSS, and many are built on a theme framework. Divi's Theme Options, for example, packs its settings into 8 tabs, from General to Updates.

Theme options vs. the Customizer

The Customizer, at Appearance > Customize, is WordPress's built-in framework for changing theme settings with a live preview of every change before you save it. The WordPress theme handbook calls it the canonical way to add options to a classic theme, and many themes that once shipped a dedicated Theme Options page have moved their settings there. Where your settings live comes down to the kind of theme you're running:

• Classic theme with an options panel: a dedicated Theme Options page, under Appearance or the theme's own menu
• Classic theme without one: the Customizer, at Appearance > Customize
• Block theme: the Site Editor and its Styles panel, at Appearance > Editor

Block themes and the Site Editor

Block themes normally have neither a Theme Options page nor the Customizer. WordPress hides Appearance > Customize while a block theme is active, unless a plugin or theme that requires the Customizer is in use, per WordPress.org's block theme documentation (last updated June 24, 2026). The built-in design controls live in the Full-Site Editor at Appearance > Editor instead, where the Styles panel sets colors, typography, and layout for the whole site. WordPress has shipped block themes since version 5.9 in January 2022, starting with Twenty Twenty-Two, the first default block theme. Our guide to full-site editing walks through that workflow step by step.

Where to find your theme's settings

Start under Appearance in the WordPress dashboard. Classic themes like Twenty Eleven put the page at Appearance > Theme Options, but many premium themes add their own top-level menu instead: Divi's panel sits under the Divi menu in the sidebar, not under Appearance. If there's no Theme Options entry anywhere, look in the Customizer (Appearance > Customize) on a classic theme or the Site Editor (Appearance > Editor) on a block theme, and check your theme's documentation to confirm. For changes no setting covers, you'll need code, and the safe place for it is a child theme. Don't edit the parent theme: an update replaces its files, edits and all. Create and activate a child theme, make the change there on a staging copy of your site, and take a backup before you edit any file. The Theme Editor lets you make those edits right from the dashboard.

What happens when you switch themes

Your theme options don't carry over. They're saved in the site's database and tied to the specific theme, so when you activate a new theme, your posts, pages, and core WordPress settings stay put, but the old theme's colors, layouts, and any custom CSS saved in its panel stop applying. Twenty Eleven's built-in help puts it plainly: if you change themes, options "may change or disappear" because they're theme-specific. Before you switch, note or screenshot the settings you care about, then test the new theme on a staging copy of your site. Moving from a classic theme to a block theme? Our switching guide covers the process.