Category: WordPress Themes

In an earlier article, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using WP themes and what makes WordPress themes so special, then make sure to check out the article here: A Non-Technical User’s Guide To Understanding WordPress Themes

In this blog post, you will learn where you can browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your website. 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 how to avoid dealing with problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.

As explained in another article, a theme is a unique type of web template used on WordPress-driven websites and designed to work specifically with WordPress in mind.

Many web designers and web design companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of great themes covering a wide-range of uses.

Finding Great WordPress Themes: So Many Choices … Where To Begin?

Let’s say you were to browse over to Google and type the following:

• best WordPress themes
• best premium themes for WordPress
• best responsive WordPress themes for churches (enter whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in the search listings.

So, to help you save time and make your life easier, we’ll just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WordPress themes really simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we start, you should know that WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a different article. In this post, let’s just focus on finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this post, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design areas of your site.

Free vs Paid WP Themes

Next, it’s important to know that you can find thousands of Free and Paid themes being made available. Free WP themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be licensed for use as Premium (paid) themes.

WordPress Theme Marketplaces & Theme Design Houses

There are 2 places where themes can be found. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent theme shops.

Theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories are large aggregators of themes. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors search for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.

Some of the bigger directories 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 theme design companies typically will create both free and premium WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of developer, to large web and theme design companies.

Many commercial or independent theme stores sell 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 directories .

Let’s now show you where to search for great WordPress themes for your website or blog.

Finding Great Themes For Your WP Website

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to find WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WP 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 directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WordPress site, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and code-savvy volunteers to review and make sure that each theme listed in the directory complies with specific quality and security standards.

To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Repository, go here:

http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes

You Don’t Even Have To Leave Your WordPress Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and activate it directly from within your WP dashboard with only a couple of mouse clicks.

Use The Theme Feature Filter

WordPress has a built-in filtering function inside the admin area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colours, Layout and Features …

This makes it easy to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a pink colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in another post where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” WordPress themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will work on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ laptops, smartphones and tablets) …

It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you do just that …

… and bring back only WP themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it’s free to download and use the theme. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and provide a number of built-in customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” of using free WordPress 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 personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation to help cover their support costs.

When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been more than a year since any changes were made, then you should 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 relatively new, there is nothing wrong with using 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 premium themes. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what works for you and helps to convert your site visitors into customers.

Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and ways to filter your search for themes that meet specific requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid themes.

Paid Themes

If you are looking for themes with stunning design, or professional quality yet highly affordable WordPress web design themes with a distinctive look, unique customizable options and great support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

WordPress Theme Directories

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known theme directories online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme creators to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium WordPress themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

(click on the above images to browse more themes on ThemeForest)

If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific themes in various categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and political blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes for video galleries, ebook authors, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to travel, buy & sell, community resources, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for online shopping, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for gossip blogs, dining out, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching themes.
• NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, charities, etc.
• Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. rentals, etc.)
• Retail – themes for retail stores, trades or professionals (plumbers, dental practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to hosting, newsletters, 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 sends you theme update notifications)

Browse lots of great premium themes in the ThemeForest theme directory here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

(click on the above images to view all themes on Creative Market)

Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can search through thousands of quality premium 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 WordPress themes in its directory, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

Browse through hundreds of great WordPress themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market directory here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to browse all Mojo themes)

Mojo is a directory for premium 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 WordPress themes, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. BuddyPress or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by choosing the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find great premium WP themes in the Mojo marketplace here:

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial theme stores.

Commercial And Independent WP Theme Development Firms

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.

(click on images above to see more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates great themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and also offers a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their growing theme collection.

(click on the above images to browse all WooThemes themes)

StoreFront

StoreFront specializes in e-commerce themes for WordPress. StoreFront themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.

(click on the images above to see all StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many website developers like this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework regularly up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that themes remain always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework without losing any customizations you have made to your theme.

This is because themes built with the Genesis framework use something called “child themes,” which are like “skins” that sit on top of the framework and gives your site its unique design.

If this all sounds too technical, don’t worry about it. StudioPress themes are very easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing StudioPress themes is that one low price entitles 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 more themes from StudioPress)

WP Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are some useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:

What WordPress Theme Is That – WordPress Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free online tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a website or blog is using.

This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme the website uses.

Tip: If you don’t know whether a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a website is WP-driven: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And WordPress-Checking Tools

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 not only confirm whether or not the site is powered by WordPress, but it will also list the WP theme being used and list any WordPress plugins detected.

• To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
• To learn how to use this tool go here: Is My Blog WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker - WP Plugin

We suggested this earlier and it’s worth repeating again: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A well-known tactic used by many hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute modified themes and plugins that contain malicious code. 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 stick with the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and trusted sites.

If you have any doubts about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog may be infected with malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of suspicious code and then outputs a report with the results …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin, WordPress.org)

I hope that you have found this information useful.

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