In a separate post, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes themes so attractive to web site owners, then make sure to check out the post here: An Overview of WP Themes
In this article, you will learn where to look for free and paid themes for your 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 having to deal with problems like lack of support and poor theme coding.
As we’ve explained in our previously-mentioned article, a WordPress theme is a unique kind of web design template that is used on WordPress-powered sites and designed specifically with the WP content management system in mind.
Many talented website designers and website design firms create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community have access to thousands of excellent WP themes designed to cover a wide range of website uses.
Where To Find Themes: Let’s Keep Things Simple!
Let’s say you were to open up Google and search for a key phrase like this:
- best WP themes
- WordPress themes free
- best responsive WordPress themes for musicians (enter whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in the search results.
So, to help you save time and make things easier, we’ll just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WP themes really simple.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes
Before we start, 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, 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 your site’s web design.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free WP themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be listed as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
Theme Marketplaces & Theme Design Companies
There are mostly two types of places where you can find themes. The first place is in WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent WP theme vendors.
Theme marketplaces and theme directories are big 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 marketplace.
Some of the bigger 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 theme vendors typically create both free and paid themes, and can vary in size, from an individual developer or a small team of theme developer, to large theme design companies.
Many commercial or independent theme design firms 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 directories .
Let’s now show you where to search for great WordPress themes for your website.
Where To Find A Theme Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Free Theme 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 WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason why, is because –as some free software users have learned– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can contain malicious code and put your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.
The WordPress.org directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with their standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Search For Free Themes Inside Your Own 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 WordPress dashboard with a couple of mouse clicks.
Use The Theme Feature Filter
WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard 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 dark colour design, with a four-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 choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed correctly on all devices (e.g. the laptops, smartphones and tablets used by visitors to browse your site) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you do just that …
… and display only themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that there is no cost 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 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 it’s unrealistic to expect the theme developer to provide urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free themes will ask you for a donation to help cover their 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 more than 1 year since any updates were made, then think twice about downloading it, as the WordPress software changes quite frequently and new features can result in conflicts and errors with older code.
If you’re just getting started and your website or blog is still relatively 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 a premium theme. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for your site and helps to convert 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 specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid WP 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 ongoing support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and most popular WP theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WordPress theme designers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,500 premium WP themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to view more 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 green living blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for corporate sites and advertising purposes.
- Creative – themes for creative work, ebook authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to employment opportunities, buy & sell, social directories, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for music and bands blogs, cafes, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. retina-ready 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 health products, trades or professionals (plumbers, medical practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to apps, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and romance tips and advice blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, 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 themes in the ThemeForest directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to see more themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace 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 browse hundreds of WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Photography themes, etc.) using their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great premium themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to view more Mojo themes)
Mojo is a directory for premium-quality 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 browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories from the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great themes in the Mojo theme marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s look at commercial theme shops.
Commercial Theme Vendors
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of high quality WordPress themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.
(click on images above to see more themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes creates great premium themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and also offer a membership option that lets you access all themes in their WordPress theme collection.
(click on the images above to view all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes specializes in WP 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 all StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework that allows users to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress site, and provides a self-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for your 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 coding practices and to ensure that it always remains 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 theme framework and gives your site its unique design.
If this 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 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 view more themes from StudioPress)
Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this post with some useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WP Theme Is That – WordPress Theme And Plugin Search Tool
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free web tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme a website or blog uses.
This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme is being used on the website.
Tip: If you don’t know if a site uses WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website uses the WP CMS platform: How To Check If A Site Was 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 the site is built on the WordPress CMS platform, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used and list any plugins it detects.
- To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
- To learn more about using this tool go here: Does My Site Run On WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WordPress Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the WordPress themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A tactic that is commonly used by a number of hackers and cyber criminals is to put up sites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute themes and plugins that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org theme repository, or use established and trusted theme download sites.
If you have any concerns about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog may be infected with malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WordPress theme files. The plugin scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and then presents you with a report …
(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin, WordPress.org)
We hope that you have found this information useful.
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