In a separate post, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.
If you would like to learn more about WordPress themes and what makes themes unique, then go here to read our post: A Newbies’ Guide To WordPress Themes
In this article, we show you where you can explore loads of great 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 ensure that you get the right themes for your needs and avoid experiencing problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.
As explained in another article, a theme is a special kind of web design template used on WordPress-driven websites and designed specifically with WordPress in mind.
Many website designers and web design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, WordPress users have access to thousands of high quality themes designed to cover many purposes.
Finding Great WP Themes: Let’s Keep Things Simple!
If you were to fire up Google and type the following:
- best premium themes for WordPress
- best paid WordPress themes
- best paid WordPress themes for business (type in whatever your business, area of interest or website is about)
Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of disorganized information to sort through in your search results.
So, to help you save time and make things easier, let’s just cut through the clutter and make the process of finding great WP themes really 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 explain these differences in a different article. To keep things simple, we’ll only focus on 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 your site’s web design.
Free vs Paid WordPress Themes
Next, it’s important to know that you can find thousands of Free and Paid themes being made available. Free WordPress themes are generally distributed as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are listed as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
WP Theme Marketplaces Commercial And Independent WordPress Theme Vendors
There are 2 places where you can find WP themes. The first is in theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second are the commercial and independent theme houses.
Theme marketplaces and WP theme directories are large aggregators of themes. theme developers (both commercial and independent) list their themes (both free and paid) in the marketplace or directory and visitors find these just like they would if they were shopping for apps on an app store or software directory.
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 shops can develop both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of designer, to large theme design companies.
Many commercial theme companies 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 WP theme directories .
Let’s now show you where to find great WordPress themes for your website or blog.
Where To Find The Best Themes For Your Website Or Blog
WordPress.org
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to download free WordPress themes. 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 discovered– downloading free software, add-ons, apps, templates or themes from untrustworthy places can contain malicious code and place your computer, digital presence … even your entire business at risk.
The WordPress.org directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your site, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers comprised of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to review and make sure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets high standards of quality and security.
To browse thousands of professionally-designed FREE WordPress themes from the official Themes Repository, go here:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes
Look For Free WP Themes Without Leaving Your Own WordPress Dashboard
Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress.org theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from inside your WordPress dashboard with just a couple of clicks.
Use The WP Theme Filters
WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard 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 predominantly blue colour design, with a three-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” themes, we explained how responsive themes ensure that your theme will display correctly on all devices (e.g. your computer, tablet and smartphone) …
It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filtering function lets you search across its entire database of free themes …
… and bring back only themes that have been built using “responsive” design standards …
Pros & Cons Of Using Free WP Themes
The obvious “pro” to using free WP themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme on your site. 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 downside of using free 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 urgent 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 over a year since any changes were made, then 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 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 any money on paid themes or even on custom web design. Who knows, the free theme you’ve downloaded may just be the thing that 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 ways to filter your search for themes that meet specific requirements, let’s turn our attention to premium WordPress 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, then 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 well known theme marketplaces online.
ThemeForest lets many professional WP theme developers showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are currently over 17,000 premium themes to choose from (you can find great themes from as little as $3) …
(click on the images above to view all ThemeForest themes)
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 medical sites and marketing purposes.
- Creative – themes for creative work, arts, etc.
- Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites related to employment opportunities, buy & sell, , etc.
- eCommerce – themes for e-commerce, event bookings and registrations, etc.
- Education – themes that suit sites related to teaching, etc.
- Entertainment – themes for film & tv blogs, cafes, etc.
- Mobile – e.g. retina-ready 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 shops, trades or professionals (repairers, medical practitioners, etc.)
- Technology – themes related to apps, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
- Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and dating advice 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 emails you theme update notifications)
Go here to discover great WP themes in the ThemeForest website:
Creative Market
(click on the above images to view all themes on Creative Market)
Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can browse 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 WordPress themes in its directory, but you can easily find WordPress themes and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Landing Page or Popular 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 above images to see all 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 go through all of their WordPress themes and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. BuddyPress or Business themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …
Visit the site to find great premium themes in the Mojo directory here:
Now that we have looked at WordPress theme aggregators, let’s turn our attention to commercial and independent WP theme vendors.
Commercial WP Theme Developers
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 above images to browse all themes from SoloStream)
Woo Themes
Woo Themes designs functional themes and offer a membership option that allows you to access all themes in their theme collection.
(click on the images above to browse all themes from WooThemes)
StoreFront
StoreFront specializes in creating 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 browse all StoreFront themes)
StudioPress
StudioPress designs WordPress themes based on a framework (called the “Genesis” framework) that enables 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 the content and unprecedented control of the framework.
Many web 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 make sure that themes remain always compatible with the latest WordPress version, 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 look and feel.
If this all sounds way too technical, don’t worry about it. StudioPress themes are very easy to work with, just like all other WordPress themes. The great thing about choosing themes from StudioPress is that you pay 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 browse more themes from StudioPress)
Theme-Checking Tools
Let’s finish this article with a few more useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:
What WordPress Theme Is That WordPress Theme Checker
What WordPress Theme Is That.com is a free WP theme search tool that lets you easily detect what WP theme a website is using (including parent and child WordPress 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 is using.
Tip: If you don’t know if a site runs on WordPress or not, go here for a great tutorial that shows you how to tell if a site uses the WP CMS platform: Is It A WP Blog?
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 the WP CMS platform, but it will also list the WP theme being used and list any plugins detected.
- To use the tool visit the website here: What WordPress Theme Is That?
- To learn more about using this tool go here: Was My Website Built With WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WP-Checking Tools
Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC)
A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.
A well-known tactic used by a number of hackers and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up websites offering “Free” WordPress themes all over the web and distribute modified themes containing malicious code. In fact, some of these sites even display on Google for key phrases like “free WordPress themes“, “best free WordPress themes”” etc. It’s safer, therefore, to stick with the official WordPress theme repository, or use established and trusted theme merchants.
If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your site could be infected with malware or unwanted code, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) to scan your theme files. The TAC plugin scans 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 …
(Theme Authenticity Checker Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin)
I 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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