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WordPress Child Theme Generator

Lightning Child Theme
— free, instant, no coding

Generate a fully-working Lightning child theme instantly — free, with no coding required. Customize the name, author, colors and CSS, then download a ready-to-install ZIP.

Generate Lightning Child Theme →

Free forever. No signup. ZIP downloads in 2 seconds.

Lightning WordPress theme preview
100,000+
Active installs
v15.36.0
Latest version
May 27, 2026
Last updated
4.8 / 5
12 ratings

About Lightning

Lightning is a very simple & easy to customize theme which is based on the Bootstrap. It is also very friendly with custom post types and custom taxonomies. When you add a new one, the breadcrumbs will be adjusted and posts will look beautifully without editing or adding a template files.

By Hidekazu Ishikawa. Theme homepage ↗

Why use a child theme for Lightning?

Every time Lightning ships an update, any direct edits you made to its files are overwritten. A child theme isolates your changes — custom CSS, template overrides, additional functions — so the parent can update freely while your customizations stay intact.

  • Survive Lightning updates without losing your edits.
  • Override any Lightning template file by copying it into the child.
  • Add custom hooks, shortcodes, or enqueue your own scripts.
  • Roll back to the parent at any time by deactivating the child.

How to install your Lightning child theme

  1. 1

    Configure and generate

    Open the generator (already pre-filled with Lightning as the parent), enter your child theme name and any custom CSS.

  2. 2

    Download the ZIP

    The generator builds a ready-to-install ZIP containing style.css, functions.php, screenshot.png and README.txt.

  3. 3

    Upload to WordPress

    In WordPress: Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme. Choose the ZIP, click Install Now, then Activate. Make sure Lightning itself is also installed (the parent must be present).

Ready for your Lightning child theme?

No signup. No paywall. Generated and downloaded in 2 seconds.

Generate Lightning Child Theme

Frequently asked questions

What is a Lightning child theme? +

A child theme is a separate WordPress theme that inherits all functionality, design, and templates from Lightning (its parent). You make your customizations in the child so they survive updates to the parent theme.

Do I need to know code to use this generator? +

No. The generator creates a complete, valid Lightning child theme with style.css, functions.php, screenshot.png, and README.txt. You can customize via the form fields, and if you want to add custom CSS or PHP later you can edit the files directly.

Will the child theme break when Lightning updates? +

That's exactly what a child theme is designed to prevent. Lightning can be updated freely without losing your customizations, because they live in the child theme files.

Is this generator really free? +

Yes. There is no signup, no payment, and no limit on how many Lightning child themes you can generate. The zip is built on demand and downloaded directly to you.