Tag: Free WordPress Themes

In a separate article, we provide a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of using themes and what makes themes so attractive to web site owners, then go here to read the article: A Non-Technical User’s Guide To Understanding WordPress Themes

In this blog post, you will learn where to browse hundreds of free and paid themes for your WP website. 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 poorly-coded themes.

As explained in another post, a theme is a unique kind of web template used on WordPress-powered websites and blogs and designed specifically for WordPress.

Many professional website designers and website development houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community can access thousands of uniquely-designed WP themes designed for many purposes and needs.

Finding Themes: Let’s Simplify Things!

If you were to go to Google and type the following:

• best WP themes
• WordPress themes free
• best paid WordPress themes for churches (type in whatever your business, search topic or blog is about)

Chances are that you are going to get an overwhelming amount of information to sort through in your search listings.

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 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 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 the design of your site.

Free vs Paid Themes

Next, it’s important to know that there are both Free and Paid WordPress themes being made available. Free WP themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they are listed as Premium (paid) themes.

WordPress Theme Marketplaces And Directories vs WordPress Theme Agencies

There are 2 places where themes can be found. The first place is in theme marketplaces and theme directories. The second place are the commercial and independent theme companies.

WordPress theme marketplaces and theme directories are big theme aggregators. 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 marketplace.

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

Many commercial theme stores 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 search for the best themes for your website or blog.

Choosing The Best Responsive Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the largest and best place to find WordPress themes for free. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress 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 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 website or blog, but it also uses a team of theme reviewers to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory meets high quality and security standards.

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

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

Find WP Themes Inside Your WordPress Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every WP theme in the WordPress.org directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and start using it directly from within your WP admin panel with only a few mouse clicks.

Use 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 Colors, Layout and Features …

This makes it easy to find themes with specific features. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly gray colour design, with a three-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 without problems on all devices (e.g. your visitors’ PCs, smartphones and tablets) …

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 up only themes that use “responsive” design standards …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free WordPress themes is that it costs nothing to download and use the theme on your site. Additionally, many free themes are professionally designed and provide a number of built-in customizable features, giving you great flexibility and choice in how you configure all of its various layout elements.

The downside to 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 theme developer to provide dedicated support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many free 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 more than a year since any changes were 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 website or blog 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 a premium theme. Who knows, the theme you downloaded for free could be exactly what 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 finding premium themes.

Paid 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, then search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

WordPress Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

ThemeForest is one of the largest and well known theme marketplaces online.

ThemeForest lets many professional WordPress theme creators showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are well over 15,000 premium themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …

(click on the above images to view all themes on ThemeForest)

If you visit the ThemeForest theme marketplace, you will be able to browse for specific WordPress themes in a range of categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for bloggers and e-magazines, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for legal sites or marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for design, writers, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes ideal for sites related to employment opportunities, classifieds, community resources, etc.
• eCommerce – themes for selling products online, event bookings and registrations, etc.
• Education – themes that suit sites related to tutoring, etc.
• Entertainment – themes for film & tv 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. rentals, etc.)
• Retail – themes for shopping, trades or professionals (repairers, chiropractors, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to hosting, landing pages, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing environmental 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 WordPress themes in the ThemeForest marketplace here:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme marketplace 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 directory, but you can easily browse hundreds of themes for WordPress and narrow your search using theme categories (e.g. Minimal or Wedding themes, etc.) from the site’s dropdown “Themes” menu …

Browse through hundreds of quality premium WordPress themes crafted by independent WP theme designers in the Creative Market themes directory here:

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to view more Mojo themes)

Mojo is a directory for premium WordPress 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 browse hundreds of WP themes and search through their theme categories (e.g. Magazine or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) by selecting the dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

Visit the site to find great WP themes in the Mojo theme directory here:

• Mojo Themes

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

Commercial Theme Development Firms

SoloStream

SoloStream provides WordPress users with a great selection of professional quality themes and the option of accessing all themes through a WordPress theme membership.

(click on above images to view all SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes designs functional themes and offer a membership option that gives you access to all themes in their WordPress theme portfolio.

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

StoreFront

StoreFront 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 images above to see more themes from StoreFront)

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 an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key 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 this framework consistently up-to-date to reflect best coding practices and to ensure that themes are 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 using 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 sounds way 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 browse all StudioPress themes)

Theme-Checking Tools

To round things up, here are some useful WP theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That? WordPress Theme Checker

What WordPress Theme Is That is a free WordPress theme search tool that lets you easily detect what WordPress theme and plugins a site 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 WordPress theme is being used on the website.

Tip: If you can’t tell whether a site runs on WordPress or not, we have posted a a great tutorial that helps you tell if a site is powered by WordPress: 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 a site is powered by WordPress software, but it will also list the WP theme being used on the site and list any plugins detected.

• To use this online tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That
• To learn how to use this tool go here: Is It A WordPress Website?

Theme Authenticity Checker - Plugin

We suggested this earlier and it’s worth repeating it again: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we highly recommend sticking with the reviewed and approved WP themes listed in the official WordPress theme directory.

A commonly-used strategy employed by many hacking groups and networks that engage in cyber-crime is to put up sites and directories offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and then distribute modified themes and plugins with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even come up on Google’s search results 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.org repository, or use established and reputable theme download sites.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme installed on your blog could be infected with potentially malicious or unwanted code, 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 injected code and then presents you with a report …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot: Plugin Site, WordPress.org)

We hope that you have found the information on how to find great free and premium responsive themes for WordPress useful.

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