Tag: Free Themes

In a previous article, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of using themes and what makes WordPress themes so attractive to web site owners, then go here to read our post: A Beginner’s Guide To WordPress Themes

In this article, we show you where to look 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 having to deal with problems like lack of customer support and poor coding.

As explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a special kind of web template that is used on WordPress-powered sites and designed specifically with the WP CMS platform in mind.

Many website designers and website design agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of professional-quality themes designed to cover many purposes and needs.

Finding WP Themes: Too Much Information … Where To Begin?

Let’s say you were to launch Google and type something like this:

• best free WordPress themes
• WordPress themes free
• best paid WordPress themes for musicians (or whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in your search results.

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 WP themes really simple.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Themes

Before we start, you need to know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in another article. In this post, we’ll only be covering the topic of finding themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over your web design.

Free vs Paid WP Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that you can find thousands of Free and Paid themes 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 (paid) themes.

Theme Marketplaces vs WordPress Theme Vendors

There are two kinds of places where WP themes can be found. The first is in WP theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent WP theme vendors.

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 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 WP theme developers typically develop both free and commercial WP themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of designer, to large web and theme design and 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 directories .

Let’s now show you where to find the best WP themes for your blog.

Finding The Best Responsive Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the largest and best place to download WP themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WordPress 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 place your computer, digital presence … even your entire business at risk.

The WordPress directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also uses a review team to review and ensure that each theme in the directory meets high standards of quality and security.

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

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

Find WordPress Themes Inside Your WordPress Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress.org directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and start using it directly from within your WordPress dashboard with a couple of mouse clicks.

Use Theme Filters

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 easier to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a light colour design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in the post mentioned earlier where we present an overview of WordPress themes and discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed correctly across all devices (e.g. your visitors’ PCs, smartphones and tablets) …

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

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

Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP 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 customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” 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 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.

When downloading free themes, therefore, check to see when the theme was last updated. If it’s been well over 1 year since any changes were made, then it’s best to 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, 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 or even on custom theme design. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for your site and for converting your site visitors into customers.

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

Premium 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 responsive support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the biggest and best-known WordPress theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,500 premium WordPress themes listed (some starting from as little as $3) …

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

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

• Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and environmental blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and advertising purposes.
• Creative – themes for creative work, kindle book authors, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about employment opportunities, buy & sell, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to training, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for music and bands blogs, restaurants, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. retina-ready themes.
• NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, churches, etc.
• Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. commercial property, etc.)
• Retail – themes for shopping, trades or professionals (repairers, engineering, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to apps, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating advice 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 discover quality premium WP themes in the ThemeForest directory:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

(click on the above images to browse 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 marketplace, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Blog or Wedding themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

Browse through hundreds of quality premium themes crafted by independent WordPress theme developers in the Creative Market directory here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to browse more WP themes at Mojo)

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 WP themes, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s take a look at commercial and independent WordPress theme vendors.

Commercial And Independent WordPress Theme Shops

SoloStream

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

(click on images above to see all themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates functional premium themes and offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their WP theme portfolio.

(click on the images above to see more WooThemes themes)

StoreFront

StoreFront Themes 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 above images to browse more StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

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

Many website 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 ensure that themes are 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 themes built with the Genesis framework use something called “child themes,” which are like a paint job that sits on top of the theme 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 above images to browse more themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

Let’s finish this post with a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That WordPress Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WP 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 have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WordPress theme is being used on the website.

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site was built using WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website uses the WP CMS platform: Is It A WP Website?

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 has been built on WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used and list any plugins detected.

• To use this tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn how to use this tool go here: How To Tell If Your Site Was Built Using WordPress

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)

We said this before and it’s worth repeating again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A well-known tactic used by many hackers and cyber criminals is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress.org theme repository, or use well-known and reputable theme merchants.

If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your site 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 plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of injected code and then presents you with a report as shown in the screenshot below …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

I hope that you have found the information on how to find the best free and paid themes for WordPress useful.

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