In another article, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then go here to read the post: About WP Themes – A Handy Guide
In this article, you will learn where to browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WordPress website or blog. You will also learn about the different types of WordPress theme resources and get tips on how to ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid dealing with problems like lack of product support and poor theme coding.
As explained in our previously-mentioned article, a theme is a unique type of web template used on WordPress-powered sites and designed specifically with the WordPress platform in mind.
Many skilled web designers and web development agencies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users enjoy access to thousands of excellent WP themes designed to cover a wide range of website uses.
Where To Find Responsive WP Themes: Let’s Simplify Things!
Let’s say you were to browse over to Google and search for something like the following:
- best premium WordPress themes
- WordPress themes free
- best responsive WordPress themes for business (enter whatever your business, search topic or website is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in the search listings.
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 start, you should know that WordPress offers users both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll cover these differences in a later post. To keep things simple, we’ll only be covering the topic of 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 the design areas of your blog.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you will find thousands of Free and Paid themes made available. Free themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
Theme Directories vs Commercial WordPress Theme Developers
There are mostly two types of places where themes can be found. The first is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent theme companies.
WP theme marketplaces and WordPress theme directories are big theme aggregators. WP theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and buyers shop for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
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 WordPress theme agencies typically will develop both free and premium WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual designer or a small team of designer, to large web and theme design companies.
Many commercial or independent theme design firms sell 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 WP themes for your website.
Choosing The Best Responsive 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 search for WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WP themes. The reason for this, is because –as some free software users have discovered– 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 directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WP site, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers to review and make sure that each theme in the directory meets specific quality and security standards.
To browse thousands of excellent FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Find WP Themes Inside Your Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress.org directory and not only find a great theme for your website or blog, but also easily install and start using it directly from inside your WordPress admin panel with only a few mouse clicks.
Use The Theme Filtering
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 what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly light colour design, with a 4-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display without problems across all devices (e.g. your visitors’ computers, tablets and smartphones) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and display only WP themes that have been built using “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme on your site. An added plus, is that many free themes are professionally designed and provide 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 WordPress themes are that your themes may not get updated as often with new features and bug fixes, and it’s unrealistic to expect the developer to provide personal support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most free 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 1 year since any updates were last made, then you should think twice about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.
If you’re just getting started and your site 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 or even on custom web design. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free 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 theme directory and ways to filter your search for themes that meet specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to finding paid themes.
Premium WordPress 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, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
WP Theme Marketplaces And Directories
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the largest and best-known theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme designers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 17,500 premium themes listed (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to browse all ThemeForest themes)
If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in various categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and administration sites, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for business sites and advertising purposes.
- Creative – themes for design, arts, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about employment opportunities, classifieds, community resources, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for online shopping, membership sites, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for fashion blogs, dining out, 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 catalogs, trades or professionals (plumbers, medical centers, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to apps, 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 political 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 sends you theme update notifications)
Go here to discover great WordPress themes in the ThemeForest themes marketplace:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to see all Creative Market themes)
Creative Market is another leading WordPress theme marketplace where you can search through thousands of quality premium WordPress 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 WP themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Blog or Commerce themes, etc.) using their dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WP theme developers in the Creative Market marketplace here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to see more themes at Mojo)
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 find themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium WordPress themes in the Mojo theme marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WP theme marketplaces, let’s take a look at commercial and independent WP theme vendors.
Commercial 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 above images to browse more themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs stunning premium themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by website users and also offer a membership option that gives you access to their entire theme portfolio.
(click on the above images to view all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in creating 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 view all StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress builds WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that allows you to 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 the 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 this framework frequently updated 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 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 a paint job that sits 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 themes from StudioPress is that you pay just one low price 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 all StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
To round things up, here are a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WP Theme Is That? – WP Theme And Plugin Search Tool
What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free WP theme and plugin search tool that allows you to 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 the website is using.
Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a web site uses the WordPress CMS platform: Is My Web Site 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 not only confirm if the site has been built using the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the theme being used and list any plugins it detects.
- To use this online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WP-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – WP Plugin
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.
A method that is commonly used by many hackers and networks that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and then distribute themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. 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 only download free WordPress themes from the official WordPress directory, or use well-known and trusted theme merchants.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could contain malware or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your WP theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of injected code and outputs a report with the results …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot: WordPress.org Plugin Page)
We hope that you have found the information on how to find the best free and premium responsive themes for WordPress useful.
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