Tag: Free Themes

In another post, we provide new WordPress users with a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to learn more about WP themes and what makes WordPress themes unique, then make sure to check out our post here: A Handy Guide To WordPress Themes

In this blog post, you will learn where to find loads of wonderful free and paid themes for your site. You will also learn about the different types of WordPress 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 poor coding.

As explained in our previous post, a theme is a unique kind of web design template used on WordPress-driven blogs and designed to work specifically with the WordPress platform in mind.

Many professional website designers and web design companies create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WordPress community can access thousands of great WordPress themes covering an extensive range of uses and applications.

Finding Responsive Themes For WordPress: Let’s Simplify Things!

If you were to fire up Google and type a key phrase like this:

• best free WP themes
• WordPress themes free
• best responsive WordPress themes for musicians (or whatever your business, area of interest or blog 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 things easier, we’ll 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 both a hosted and a self-hosted version. We’ll explain these differences in another article. To keep things simple, we’ll only be covering 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 you can find thousands of Free and Paid WordPress themes being 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.

WP Theme Directories vs Theme Shops

There are mostly two kinds of places where you can find WP themes. The first place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent theme developers.

WordPress theme marketplaces and 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 find these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software marketplace.

Some of the larger directories 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 stores typically will create both free and commercial themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme designer or a small team of theme developer, to large theme design and development companies.

As you will see, most commercial 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 WordPress theme directories .

Let’s now show you where to search for great WP themes for your website.

Choosing The Best Responsive Themes For Your WP Website

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)

The official WordPress.org theme directory is the biggest and best place to find WP themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free WP theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress themes. The reason for this, is because –as many free software users have discovered– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can place your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.

The WordPress theme directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your website or blog, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and hard working volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with high standards of quality and security.

To browse thousands of great-looking FREE WordPress themes from the official WordPress Themes Directory, go here:

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

Find WP Themes Inside Your Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WordPress theme in the WordPress.org theme 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 just a few mouse clicks.

Use The Theme Feature Filter

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 themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with a gray color design, with a two-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” WP themes, we explained how these ensure that your theme will display correctly across all devices (e.g. the PCs, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to browse your site information) …

You should use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering option lets you search across its entire database of free themes …

… and bring back 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. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and offer 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 developer to provide immediate support, especially if they are not getting paid. Most freely distributed themes ask users for donations to help cover their 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 more than a year since any change was made, then you should think carefully about using it, as the theme may have been abandoned by its developer.

If you’re just getting started and your site is still quite new, there is nothing wrong with using 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 may just be the thing that works for you and for your business.

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

Premium 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 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 biggest and most popular theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme developers to 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 view all themes on ThemeForest)

If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, 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 business sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, writers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes suitable for sites about employment opportunities, dining out & restaurants, social directories, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, membership sites, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, cafes, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. responsive themes.
• NonProfit – themes for nonprofit organizations, charities, etc.
• Real Estate – themes for real estate and real estate listings (e.g. commercial property, etc.)
• Retail – themes for specialty stores, trades or professionals (repairers, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to technology, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice 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 lots of great themes in the ThemeForest theme marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

(click on the images above to see all themes on Creative Market)

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 WordPress themes in its directory, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

Browse through hundreds of great themes crafted by independent WordPress theme developers in the Creative Market themes marketplace here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

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

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 WP themes, but you can easily browse hundreds of WordPress themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Responsive or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by choosing the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo

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

Commercial And Independent WordPress Theme Vendors

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 view more themes from SoloStream)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes creates eye-catching premium themes for WordPress and offer a membership option that allows you access to all themes in their theme collection.

(click on the above images to browse all themes from WooThemes)

StoreFront

StoreFront creates beautiful 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 view all StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress builds 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 site designs with beautiful frames for your content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many web developers like this 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 coding practices and to ensure that it is 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 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 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 images above to browse all themes from StudioPress)

Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth knowing about:

What WordPress 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 WordPress theme a website or blog uses (including parent and child themes).

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 if a site was built using WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that helps you tell whether or not a web site was built using WordPress: Does My Blog Run On 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 whether or not the site is powered by the WordPress CMS platform, but it will also list the theme being used on the site and list any plugins detected.

• To use this online tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
• To learn how to use this tool go here: How Can I Check If A Site Was Built Using WordPress?

Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) – Plugin

A word of warning: If you decide to use FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A commonly-used method employed by many hacking groups and syndicates that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on search engine results for search phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free themes for WordPress”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to only download free WP 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 may contain malicious or unwanted code, use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to perform a scan of your theme files. The TAC plugin searches the source files of every them you have installed on your site for signs of malicious code and outputs a report …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)

I hope that you have found this information useful.

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