In an earlier article, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes themes so special, then go here to read our post: An Overview of WordPress Themes
In this article, you will learn where you can look for free and paid themes for your WordPress website or blog. You will also learn about the different types of WordPress theme resources and get tips on how to ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid experiencing problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a special kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-driven websites and designed specifically with the WordPress content management system in mind.
Many individual website designers and website development companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community can access thousands of exciting themes designed to cover a wide range of purposes and needs.
Where To Find Responsive WP Themes: Your Time-Saving Guide
Let’s say you were to go to Google and type something like the following:
- best responsive themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best free WordPress themes for artists (enter whatever your business, area of interest or blog is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in your search listings.
So, to help you save time and make your life easier, let’s just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WordPress themes simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we start, you need to know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in another article. In this article, please note that we will only cover themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over your web design.
Free vs Paid WP Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid themes being made available. Free themes for WordPress are normally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be licensed for use as Premium (paid) themes.
Theme Directories & WordPress Theme Design Companies
There are two types of places where you can find themes. The first is in WP theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme shops.
Theme marketplaces and theme directories are large theme stores. theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and customers shop for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.
Some of the bigger theme stores don’t just sell WordPress themes. They can also sell WP plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
Commercial and independent WP theme developers typically will create both free and paid themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of developer, to large theme design and development companies.
Many commercial or independent theme developers sell their themes exclusively on their own web sites, but some will also list their themes in marketplaces and directories, or even create a free or “lite” version of their themes for free WordPress theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to search for great themes for your website or blog.
Finding A Theme Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to find free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason why, is because –as many free software users have learned– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can put your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.
The WordPress theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WordPress site, but it also uses a theme review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with certain quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official WP Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Look For Free WP Themes Without Leaving Your Own WordPress Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WordPress theme in the WordPress directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and start using it directly from inside your WordPress dashboard with only a few clicks.
Use The Theme Filters
WordPress has a built-in filtering function inside the admin area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colors, Layout and Features …
This makes it easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly blue color design, with a three-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display correctly across all devices (e.g. your laptop, smartphone and tablet) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …
… and find only themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WP themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme on your site. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of built-in customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The downside of using free themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and it’s unrealistic to expect the theme developer to provide urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes ask users for donations to help cover their support costs.
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been well over a year since any updates were last made, then think carefully about downloading it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your website or blog is still quite new, it’s a good idea to start with a free theme until you have a better idea of the kind of site design that would work best for your site before spending any money on paid themes. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for you and your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and how to filter your search for themes that meet specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to premium themes.
Paid Themes
If you are looking for themes with stunning web design, or professional quality yet highly affordable WordPress web design themes with a distinctive look, unique customizable options and ongoing support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and well known theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,500 premium themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to browse all themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and administration sites, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites and advertising purposes.
- Creative – themes for visual galleries, freelancers, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to employment opportunities, holiday rentals, tourism directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, nightlife, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. responsive themes.
- NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, charities, etc.
- Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. commercial property, etc.)
- Retail – themes for shopping, trades or professionals (plumbers, medical practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to hosting, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating advice blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing environmental issues, green living sites or blogs … even themes you can use if your site is still under-construction!
When you purchase WordPress themes from ThemeForest, you will receive email notifications when a new update is available for your theme …
(ThemeForest emails you theme update notifications)
Browse lots of great themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to view all Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can search through thousands of quality premium WP themes from independent theme creators.
As stated on their website …
“Creative Market is a platform for handcrafted, mousemade design content from independent creatives around the world.”
Creative Market doesn’t just sell WP themes in its directory, but you can easily go through all of their WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories using their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to view all Mojo themes)
Mojo is a marketplace for premium-quality WordPress themes where theme vendors are strongly encouraged to provide customers with lifetime support and upgrades.
According to their website …
“Mojo is a marketplace where anyone can find, rate and buy quality themes & templates in one trusted place.”
Like Envato and Creative Market, Mojo doesn’t focus exclusively on WP themes, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium WP themes in the Mojo themes directory here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s turn our attention to commercial and independent theme agencies.
Commercial And Independent WordPress Theme Vendors
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high quality premium WordPress themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on above images to view more themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates stunning WordPress themes that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and offers a membership option that lets you access all themes in their WP theme collection.
(click on the above images to browse all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes specializes in WordPress themes for e-commerce. Their themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.
(click on the above images to view more themes from StoreFront)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many website developers like the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework consistently updated to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update your themes without losing any customizations you may have made to your theme.
This is because themes built with the Genesis framework use something called “child themes,” which are like a paint job that sits on top of the theme framework and gives your site its unique design.
If this all sounds way too technical, don’t worry about it. StudioPress themes are easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing StudioPress themes is that one low price allows you to receive unlimited support and updates, and you can install your themes on unlimited domains.
For more details, click here: StudioPress.
(click on the above images to browse all themes from StudioPress)
Theme-Checking Tools
Here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WP theme search tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme a website is using (including parent and child WP themes).
This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what theme is being used on the website.
Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site was built using WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a web site uses WordPress: Is Your Site Built With WordPress?
Using this tool is very simple. Just enter the site’s domain name into the field and click the search icon or hit “Enter.” The tool will then not only confirm if a site is powered by WordPress, but it will also list the theme being used and list any WP plugins it detects.
- To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn how to use this tool go here: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Website Was Built Using The WordPress CMS Platform
Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A well-known method used by many hacking groups and syndicates that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute modified themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on search engine results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free WordPress themes from the official WordPress.org repository, or use established and reputable theme merchants.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog may contain malware or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. This plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and presents you with a report with the results …
(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin)
I hope that you have found the information on how to find great WP free and commercial responsive themes useful.
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