In an earlier post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes themes so attractive to website owners, then go here to read our article: A Beginner’s Guide To WordPress Themes
In this article, you will learn where you can search for free and paid themes for your site. 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 experiencing problems like lack of product support and poor coding.
As we’ve explained in our previous post, a theme is a unique type of web template used on WordPress-driven sites and designed specifically in the WP CMS platform.
Many talented website designers and web development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community can access thousands of uniquely-designed WP themes covering a wide-range of uses.
Finding Great Great Themes For WordPress: How To Avoid Information Overload
Let’s say you were to open up Google and type the following:
- best premium themes for WordPress
- WordPress themes free
- best paid WordPress themes for blogs (enter whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in your search results.
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 WP themes really simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we get started, you should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in a different post. To keep things simple, please note that we will only be focusing on finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this post, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over your web design.
Free vs Paid WP Themes
Next, it’s important to know that there are thousands of Free and Paid WP themes being made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WP Theme Marketplaces vs Commercial Theme Stores
There are 2 places where you can find WP themes. The first place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme developers.
Theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are large theme aggregators. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors shop for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.
Some of the bigger 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 shops can design both free and premium WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of theme developer, to large theme development companies.
Most commercial theme design houses 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 find great themes for your website or blog.
Finding Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to download free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, is because –as some free software users have learned– 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 directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WordPress site, but it also relies on a team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and ensure that each theme listed in the directory meets certain quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official 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 theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and start using it directly from inside your WP dashboard 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 easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly pink 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 present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will work on all devices (e.g. your laptop, tablet and smartphone) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and display only themes that use “responsive” design standards …
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 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 downside of using free WP themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and you shouldn’t expect the theme developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation to help cover costs of providing support and updates, bug fixes, etc..
When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been over one year since any change was last made, then you should think carefully about downloading it, as WordPress is frequently updated and new features can create conflicts or errors with older code.
If you’re just getting started and your site 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 money on premium themes or even on custom theme design. 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 WordPress themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and ways to filter your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, let’s turn our attention to paid themes.
Paid WP 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 largest and well known theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme developers 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 images above to see more themes on ThemeForest)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in various categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and e-magazines, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites or marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for visual galleries, writers, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to employment opportunities, buy & sell, social directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for photo gallery 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. home sales, etc.)
- Retail – themes for specialty stores, trades or professionals (repairers, dentists, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to technology, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage celebrant 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)
Go here to discover quality premium themes in the ThemeForest directory:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to view all themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace where you can browse many 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 themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Blog or Business themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of quality premium themes crafted by independent WP theme developers in the Creative Market themes marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the above images to browse more Mojo themes)
Mojo is a directory 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 WordPress themes, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories by selecting the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find quality premium themes in the Mojo directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme marketplaces, let’s turn our attention to commercial theme design houses.
Commercial And Independent WP Theme Developers
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 all themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs stunning premium themes that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and offers a membership option that lets you access their entire WP theme portfolio.
(click on the above images to see all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes creates stunning 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 all themes from StoreFront)
StudioPress
StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your 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 updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, 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 themes built with the Genesis framework use something called “child themes,” which are like “skins” that sit on top of the theme framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.
If this all sounds way 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 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 above images to browse more themes from StudioPress)
Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WP Theme Is That WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WordPress theme and plugin-checking tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme a website or blog is using.
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WordPress theme the website is using.
Tip: If you can’t tell if a site runs on WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a site is powered by WordPress: Is It A WP Blog?
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 a site has been built on the WordPress CMS platform, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used by the site and list any plugins it detects.
- To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn more about this tool go here: Does My Blog Run On WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin
We said this before and it’s worth repeating again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A well-known strategy used by a number of hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up sites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and distribute modified themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for 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 repository, or use well-known and reputable theme merchants.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could contain potentially malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. The plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of suspicious code and then presents you with a report …
(TAC Report Page – Screenshot Source: WordPress.org Plugin)
I hope that you have found the information on how to find great WordPress free and premium responsive themes useful.
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