In a previous post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using themes and what makes themes unique, then make sure to check out this post: A Basic Guide To Understanding WordPress Themes
In this blog post, we explain where to search for free and paid themes for your WP 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 avoid dealing with problems like lack of product support and poor theme coding.
As we’ve explained in another post, a WordPress theme is a unique kind of web template used on WordPress-powered websites and designed to work specifically with the WP CMS platform in mind.
Many skilled web designers and website design companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community can access thousands of excellent WP themes covering an extensive range of uses and applications.
Where To Find Themes: Let’s Keep Things Simple!
If you were to browse over to Google and type key phrases like this:
- best free themes for WordPress
- best responsive WordPress themes
- best paid WordPress themes for churches (enter whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in the 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 should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a separate post. In this post, we’ll only cover themes for the self-hosted version of WordPress (WordPress.org) in this article, as these give you more freedom, more options and more control over your site’s web design.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will easily find many Free and Paid themes being made available. Free WordPress themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they will be licensed for use as Premium (paid) themes.
Theme Directories & Theme Stores
There are two places where you can find WP themes. The first is in WP theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent theme developers.
Theme marketplaces and theme directories are big theme stores. 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 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 developers can design both free and commercial themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of theme designer, to large web and theme design companies.
As you will see, 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 search for great themes for your website.
Choosing The Best Responsive Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for free WordPress 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 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 WordPress theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also uses a theme review team comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and ensure that each theme in the directory meets high quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress 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 a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and activate it directly from inside your WP admin panel with only a couple of mouse clicks.
Use WP Theme Filters
WordPress has a built-in 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 predominantly pink colour design, with a 3-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in the article where we 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’ laptops, tablets and smartphones) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and find only themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free 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 offer a number of built-in customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The ”cons” of using free 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. Many freely distributed themes ask users 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 well over 1 year since any change was last made, then we advise you to think twice about downloading it, as the WordPress software changes quite frequently and new features can create conflicts or errors with older code.
If you’re just getting started and your website 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 or even on custom web design. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded could be exactly what works for you and for your business.
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 requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid WordPress themes.
Paid 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 great support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and best-known 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 (some starting from as little as $3) …
(click on the above images to view more ThemeForest themes)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and news editorials, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for creative work, galleries, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites related to travel, classifieds, , etc.
- eCommerce – themes for ecommerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for photo gallery blogs, cafes, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. mobile-switching 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 retail stores, trades or professionals (repairers, dentists, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to software, newsletters, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage celebrant 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)
Browse lots of quality premium themes in the ThemeForest directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to browse all themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme directory where you can browse 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 WordPress themes in its marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Blog or Photography themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of quality premium themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market themes marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to browse 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 find themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Responsive or Photography themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium themes in the Mojo directory here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme directories, let’s take a look at commercial and independent WordPress theme shops.
Commercial And Independent WP Theme Development Firms
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality premium 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 and offer a membership option that allows you access to all themes in their growing theme portfolio.
(click on the above images to view all WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes specializes in 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 above images to see more StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework that lets users quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, 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 prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps the framework regularly up-to-date to reflect best practices for coding and to ensure that it is always compatible with the latest version of WordPress, but because you can update your themes without losing any customizations you 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 design.
If this all 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 themes from StudioPress 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 images above to browse more StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
Here are some useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WordPress Theme Is That.com
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free WP theme and plugin search tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins 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 theme is being used on the website.
Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a web site was built using WordPress: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Site And 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 not only confirm if a site is powered by WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any plugins detected.
- To use this tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about using this tool go here: Does My Site Run On WordPress?
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A strategy that is commonly used by a number of hackers and networks that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and then distribute themes and plugins that contain malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google 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 well-known and trusted theme download sites.
If you are in doubt 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 run a scan of your theme files. This plugin searches the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of injected code and then presents you with a report with the results …
(TAC Report Page – Source: Plugin)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find the best free and commercial themes for WordPress useful.
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