Tag: Free Themes

In another post, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes WP themes so special, then go here to read the article: Understanding WordPress Themes – A Non-Technical User’s Guide

In this blog post, we will show you where you can discover many fantastic 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 avoid having to deal with problems like lack of support and poorly-coded themes.

As we’ve explained in our previously-mentioned post, a theme is a special kind of web template used on WordPress-powered blogs and designed to work specifically in WordPress.

Many professional web designers and web development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users can access thousands of professional themes covering an extensive range of applications.

Finding Great WordPress Themes: Let’s Keep Things Simple!

If you were to launch Google and search for a key phrase like this:

• best WP themes
• WordPress themes free
• best responsive WordPress themes for authors (enter whatever your business, area of interest or blog is about)

You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in the 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 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 later post. To keep things simple, let’s just be covering themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over the design aspects of your website.

Free vs Paid WP Themes

Next, it’s useful to know that you can find thousands of Free and Paid themes being made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be sold as Premium (paid) themes.

Theme Marketplaces And Directories Commercial And Independent WP Theme Design Houses

There are 2 kinds of places where you can find themes. The first place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent theme development firms.

Theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories are large theme stores. WordPress theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and buyers search for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.

Some of the bigger directories 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 design both free and premium WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of designer, to large theme development companies.

As you will see, most commercial or independent theme shops 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 great themes for your website.

Where To Find 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 search for WP themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free directory you should use when looking for free WP 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 … even your entire business at risk.

The WP theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also relies on a theme review team to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with specific quality and security standards.

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

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

You Don’t Even Have To Leave Your WP Dashboard

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

Use The WordPress Theme Feature Filters

WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard 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 a blue colour design, with a 2-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in another post where we discuss the importance of using “responsive” WordPress themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed without problems across all devices (e.g. the computers, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to browse your web content) …

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

… and find only WordPress themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WP themes is that it’s free to download and use the theme. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and offer a number of customizable options, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The ”cons” of using free WordPress themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and you shouldn’t expect the developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes ask users for donations 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 updates were made, then we advise you to think twice about downloading it, as WordPress changes quite frequently and new features can result in conflicts or 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 premium themes. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free 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 themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to filter your search for themes that meet specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to paid WP 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 ongoing 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 most popular WP theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WordPress theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …

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

If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in a range of categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and parenting blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for medical sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes for visual galleries, writers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about travel, dining out & restaurants, tourism directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for celebrity blogs, cafes, 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. rentals, etc.)
• Retail – themes for stores, trades or professionals (electricians, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice 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 great premium themes in the ThemeForest marketplace:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

(click on the above images to browse more Creative Market themes)

Creative Market is another leading WordPress 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 directory, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market theme directory here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

Mojo is a marketplace 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 WP themes and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. BuddyPress or Photography themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by selecting the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find great themes in the Mojo directory here:

• Mojo

Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial and independent theme design companies.

Commercial Theme Stores

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of professional quality 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 themes for WordPress and offers a membership option that lets you access all themes in their growing theme collection.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront creates stunning WP themes for e-commerce. StoreFront themes also integrate well with some of the most powerful e-commerce platforms and plugins available.

(click on the images above to browse all StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress designs 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 designs with beautiful frames for the 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 this framework frequently updated to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that themes are always compatible with the latest WordPress version, but because you can update themes built using the Genesis framework without losing any customizations you 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 framework and gives your site its unique design.

If this sounds too technical, there’s no need to feel concerned about it. StudioPress themes are easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing StudioPress themes 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 see more themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are a couple of useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That? – WP Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WP theme and plugin search tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme a website or blog is using (including parent and child WordPress themes).

This is a great resource if you ever come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what theme the site is using.

Tip: If you can’t tell if a site was built using WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a website is WordPress-driven: How Can I Tell If My Website Was Built Using 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 a site was built on WordPress, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any WP plugins detected.

• To use the online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn how to use this tool go here: How To Check If A Web Site Was Built With WordPress

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin

A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A commonly-used tactic employed by many hacking groups and cyber criminals is to put up websites offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and then distribute themes containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results for search 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 trusted theme download sites.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site may contain 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 malicious code and outputs a report as shown in the screenshot below …

(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

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

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