In another post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered WP themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then go here to read our article: An Overview of WP Themes
In this blog post, you will learn where to browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WordPress site. 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 dealing with problems like lack of support and poorly-coded themes.
As we’ve explained in another article, a WordPress theme is a special type of web design template used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed specifically with WordPress in mind.
Many professional website designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users have access to thousands of high quality themes covering a wide-range of uses.
Finding Themes: Let’s Keep It Simple!
Let’s say you were to browse over to Google and type something like this:
- best premium themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best responsive WordPress themes for blogs (enter whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in your search listings.
So, to help you save time and make things easier, we’ll just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WordPress themes simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we get started, you need to know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in a separate post. For now, we’ll only be focusing 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 website.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s useful to know that typically, you’ll find both Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free themes for WordPress are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WP Theme Marketplaces & WordPress Theme Design Companies
There are mostly 2 places where you can find themes. The first is in WP theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme shops.
WP theme marketplaces and theme directories are big aggregators of themes. WordPress 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 larger theme stores don’t just sell WordPress themes. They can also sell WordPress plugins and templates for other web applications (e.g. Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
Commercial and independent WordPress theme design houses typically will develop both free and commercial WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of designer, to large web and theme design and development companies.
As you will see, most commercial 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 find the best themes for your blog.
Finding Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to find free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free WordPress theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, is because –as many free software users have discovered– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can place your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.
The WP theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WordPress site, but it also relies on a review team comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with certain quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Directory, 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 theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from within your WordPress dashboard with only a few mouse clicks.
Use WordPress Theme Filtering
WordPress provides a 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 easier to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly dark colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another article where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed without problems on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, tablets and smartphones) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and bring back only WP themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WordPress Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WP themes is that it costs you nothing to download and use the theme. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and provide a number of built-in customizable settings, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The ”cons” to 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 developer to provide personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes ask 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 over a year since any updates were made, then we advise you to think carefully about downloading it, as the WordPress software is frequently updated and new features can create conflicts or errors with older code.
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 free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for you and for converting your site visitors into customers.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to finding paid WordPress themes.
Premium 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 responsive 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 best-known theme directories online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme creators to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,500 premium WordPress themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to view all ThemeForest themes)
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 personal blogs and parenting blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites or marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for photography, kindle book authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to employment opportunities, buy & sell, business directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for fashion blogs, nightlife, 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. commercial property, etc.)
- Retail – themes for health products, 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 environmental 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)
Browse thousands of great premium WordPress themes in the ThemeForest directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to browse more Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace where you can search through many 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 marketplace, but you can easily find WP themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Magazine or Wedding themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great WP themes crafted by independent WordPress theme developers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to view more Mojo themes)
Mojo is a marketplace for premium WP 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 themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories by selecting the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium WP themes in the Mojo marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s look at commercial theme developers.
Commercial Theme Shops
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality WP themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on above images to view all SoloStream themes)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs great premium themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and also offers a membership option that allows you to access all themes in their growing WP theme portfolio.
(click on the images above to see more WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront 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 images above to see more StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress provides WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many website developers prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework consistently 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 may have made to your theme.
This is because StudioPress themes use something called “child themes,” which are like “skins” that sit on top of the framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.
If this all sounds way 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 themes from StudioPress 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 images above to view all StudioPress themes)
WordPress Theme-Checking Tools
Here are a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WordPress Theme Is That?
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WordPress theme-checking tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme a site uses (including parent and child themes).
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme the website is using.
Tip: If you don’t know whether a site was built using WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a web site was built using WordPress: Is My Website Built With WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WP-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 then not only confirm if a site is built on WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used by the site and list any WordPress plugins detected.
- To use this online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about this tool go here: Is Your Web Site Powered By WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WordPress Plugin
We suggested this before and it’s worth repeating again: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A commonly-used tactic employed by a number of hacking groups and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and distribute themes and plugins containing 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 established and reputable theme download sites.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could contain malicious or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to perform a scan of your WP theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of suspicious code and outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …
(TAC Report Page – Source: WordPress.org Plugin)
We hope that you have found this information useful.
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