In an earlier article, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes WP themes so revolutionary in terms of website design, then make sure to check out the article here: Understanding WordPress Themes – A Useful Guide For Non-Technical WordPress Users
In this blog post, 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 WP theme resources and get tips on how to make sure that you get the right themes for your needs and how to avoid dealing with problems like lack of product support and poor theme coding.
As we’ve explained in another article, a theme is a special kind of web template that is used on WordPress-driven websites and designed to work specifically in the WordPress content management system.
Many talented website designers and website development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community enjoy access to thousands of unique WP themes covering an extensive range of applications.
Finding Themes: Too Much Information … Where To Begin?
Let’s say you were to open up Google and search for the following:
- best free themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best free WordPress themes for churches (enter whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized 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 later post. To keep things simple, please note that we will only 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 your web design.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s important to know that there are thousands of Free and Paid themes made available. Free WordPress themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be made available to users as Premium (paid) themes.
WordPress Theme Marketplaces & WordPress Theme Agencies
There are 2 places where themes can be found. The first is in WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme vendors.
WordPress theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are large aggregators of themes. WP theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and buyers find these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
Some of the larger marketplaces 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 develop both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of theme developer, to large web and theme design and development companies.
Most commercial or independent theme shops 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 themes for your website.
Choosing Responsive Themes For Your WP Website
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to search for free WordPress themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, is because –as some free software users have discovered– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can contain malicious code and put your computer, digital presence … even your entire business at risk.
The WP directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also relies on a review team to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets their standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Directory, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find Free WordPress Themes Inside Your Own WordPress Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress.org theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from inside your WP admin panel with just a few clicks.
Use WP Theme Filtering
WordPress provides a 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 two-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the article mentioned earlier where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” WP themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed correctly on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ laptops, smartphones and tablets) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …
… and bring back only WordPress themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that it costs you nothing to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and come with a number of built-in customizable options, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The downside to using free WP 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 immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation to help cover costs of providing support.
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been more than 1 year since any changes were made, then we advise you to think twice about using it, as WordPress changes quite often and this can create conflicts and errors with older code.
If you’re just getting started and your website 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 may just be the thing that works for your site and your business.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and ways to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to paid WordPress themes.
Premium WordPress 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 Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,500 premium WP themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to see all themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and political blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites or advertising purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, kindle book authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about travel, holiday rentals, community resources, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for entertainment blogs, nightlife, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. responsive themes.
- NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, churches, etc.
- Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. rentals, etc.)
- Retail – themes for specialty stores, trades or professionals (plumbers, dentists, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage celebrant blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing political issues, parenting 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)
Go here to find quality premium WP themes in the ThemeForest theme marketplace:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to view all Creative Market themes)
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 WP themes in its directory, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Portfolio or Commerce themes, etc.) using the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of quality premium WordPress themes crafted by independent WordPress theme developers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to view more themes at Mojo)
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 find WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Magazine or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find quality premium WordPress themes in the Mojo themes marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme directories, let’s look at commercial theme shops.
Commercial Theme Development Firms
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality premium themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to view more themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs great premium themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and offers a membership option that gives you access to their entire theme portfolio.
(click on the images above to browse all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes creates amazing e-commerce themes for WordPress. Their themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.
(click on the above images to see all themes from StoreFront)
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 web developers like the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework frequently up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that it is always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update your themes without losing any customizations you may have made to your theme.
This is because StudioPress themes use something called “child themes,” which are like a paint job that sits on top of the framework and gives your site its unique design.
If this all sounds too technical, there’s no need to feel concerned 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 you pay just one low price to receive unlimited support and updates, and you can install your themes on unlimited domains.
For more details, click here: StudioPress.
(click on the images above to browse more themes from StudioPress)
Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That.com
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WordPress theme-checking 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 WordPress theme the website or blog is using.
Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a site uses WordPress: Is My Site 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 not only confirm whether or not the site has been built using the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any WP plugins detected.
- To use this tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
- To learn how to use this tool go here: How Can I Check If A Website Was Built Using WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WordPress Plugin
We said this earlier and it’s worth repeating again: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A commonly-used tactic employed by a number of hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes and plugins containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and trusted sites.
If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could be infected with potentially malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to run a scan of your theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of malicious code and presents you with a report with the results …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find great free and premium responsive themes for WordPress useful.
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