In an earlier post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you haven’t yet discovered themes and what makes themes so revolutionary in terms of website design, then make sure to check out the article here: About WordPress Themes – A Newbies’ Guide
In this article, we show you where you can look for free and paid themes for your WordPress 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 dealing with problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.
As we’ve explained in another article, a WordPress theme is a unique kind of web template used on WordPress-driven blogs and designed to work specifically with the WordPress content management system in mind.
Many professional website designers and web development companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community enjoy access to thousands of professional-quality themes covering a wide-range of uses.
Where To Find Great Responsive Themes For WordPress: Let’s Keep Things Simple!
Let’s say you were to launch Google and type key phrases like this:
- best free WP themes
- WordPress themes free
- best paid WordPress themes for musicians (enter whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)
You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in the search listings.
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 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 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, which gives you more freedom, more options and more control over your web design.
Free vs Paid Themes
Next, it’s important to know that typically, you’ll find both Free and Paid WP 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 licensed for use as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WordPress Theme Directories vs WP Theme Agencies
There are two types of places where you can find WordPress themes. The first type of place is in WP theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent WP theme shops.
Theme marketplaces and WP 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 customers search for these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
Some of the larger 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 developers typically will design both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of theme developer, to large web and 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 the best themes for your website or blog.
Finding Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – Free 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 WordPress 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 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 uses a 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 professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress 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 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 WP dashboard with a couple of mouse clicks.
Use The 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 easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with a gray colour design, with a two-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.
Note: in another article where we discuss the importance of using “responsive” themes, we explained how these allow your site to be viewed correctly on all devices (e.g. the computers, smartphones and tablets used by visitors to browse your web content) …
You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and display only themes that are “responsive” …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP 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 customizable options, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.
The downside 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 theme developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many freely distributed themes will ask you for a donation 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 one year since any updates were last 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 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 any money on paid themes. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded may just be the thing that works for you and helps to convert your site visitors into customers.
Now that we’ve seen how to find free WP themes in the WordPress.org theme directory and how to filter your search for themes that meet specific requirements, it’s time to turn our attention to finding premium themes.
Premium WP 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 responsive support, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:
WordPress Theme Marketplaces
ThemeForest
ThemeForest is one of the biggest and most popular WP theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 15,000 premium WordPress 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 directory, you will be able to browse for specific WP themes in a range of categories, such as:
- Blog/Magazine – themes for personal blogs and green living blogs, etc.
- Corporate – themes suitable for government sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, kindle book authors, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites about directory listings, holiday rentals, community resources, etc.
- eCommerce – themes for online shopping, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for celebrity blogs, restaurants, 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. commercial property, etc.)
- Retail – themes for retail stores, trades or professionals (electricians, chiropractors, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to technology, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and marriage celebrant blogs
- Miscellaneous – themes suitable for topics related to activism, 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)
Browse thousands of quality premium themes in the ThemeForest themes directory here:
Creative Market
(click on the images above to view more Creative Market themes)
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 WP themes in its marketplace, but you can easily go through all of their WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Portfolio or Photography themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …
Browse through hundreds of great WordPress themes crafted by independent WordPress theme designers in the Creative Market themes directory here:
Mojo Themes
(click on the images above to see all themes at Mojo)
Mojo is a directory for premium 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 go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium themes in the Mojo marketplace here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme directories, let’s take a look at commercial and independent WP theme design houses.
Commercial Theme Stores
SoloStream
SoloStream provides WordPress users with a selection of high quality 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 great premium themes for WordPress and offer a membership option that gives you access to their entire theme portfolio.
(click on the above images to see more WooThemes themes)
StoreFront
StoreFront Themes creates gorgeous 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 images above to view all StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress provides WordPress themes based on a framework that allows users to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, 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 prefer using this framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework frequently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest WordPress version, 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 framework and gives your site its unique look and feel.
If this all sounds way too technical, don’t worry 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 images above to browse more StudioPress themes)
Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:
What WP Theme Is That WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WordPress theme and plugin-checking tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme and plugins a site uses (including parent and child WP themes).
This is a great resource if you have come across a WordPress site that you like and would like to know what WP theme the website or blog is using.
Tip: If you don’t know if a site uses WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell if a web site uses WordPress: The Easy Way To Tell If Your Blog Runs On The WordPress CMS Platform
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 powered by WordPress software, but it will also list the theme being used by the site and list any plugins it detects.
- To use the online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That
- To learn how to use this tool go here: Tell-Tale Signs It’s A WordPress Blog And WordPress-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker - WP Plugin
We said this before and it’s worth repeating it again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we strongly recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A well-known method used by a number of hackers and syndicates that engage in cyber criminal activities is to put up websites offering “Free” WP themes all over the web and then distribute modified themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even display on search engine results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s best, therefore, to only download free themes from the official WordPress.org theme directory, or use well-known and trusted theme vendors.
If you are concerned about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could 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 scans the source files of every installed theme on your site for signs of suspicious code and outputs a report …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot: WordPress.org Plugin Page)
I hope that you have found the information on how to find the best WordPress free and premium themes useful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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