Tag: Free WordPress Themes

In another post, we have written a comprehensive overview of WordPress Themes.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of using WP themes and what makes WP themes so special, then make sure to check out our article: Understanding WP Themes – A Useful Guide For Newbies

In this blog post, you will learn where you can discover many professional 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 experiencing problems like lack of product support and poorly-coded themes.

As we’ve explained in another post, a theme is a special type of web template that is used on WordPress-powered websites and designed to work specifically with the WP platform in mind.

Many web designers and website design houses create themes for WordPress. Consequently, members of the WP community have access to thousands of high quality themes covering a wide-range of uses.

Finding Responsive Themes For WordPress: How To Avoid Getting Overwhelmed

Let’s say you were to go to Google and search for the following:

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

You are probably going to get an overwhelming amount of junk to sort through in your 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 WordPress 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 explain these differences in another post. To keep things simple, let’s just focus on 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 site’s web design.

Free vs Paid Themes

Next, it’s important to know that typically, you’ll find both Free and Paid themes made available. Free WP themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be licensed for use as Premium (paid) themes.

WordPress Theme Marketplaces & WordPress Theme Stores

There are two types of places where themes can be found. The first type of place is in theme marketplaces and WP theme directories. The second type of place are the commercial and independent WP theme development firms.

Theme marketplaces and 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 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 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 theme stores typically will create both free and commercial WordPress themes, and can vary in size, from an individual theme developer or a small team of developer, to large theme design and development companies.

As you will see, most commercial theme design houses 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 search for the best WP themes for your website or blog.

Finding WordPress Themes For Your Website Or Blog

WordPress.org

(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)

The official WordPress theme directory is the biggest and best place to search for free WP themes. In fact, it’s probably the only free theme directory you should use when looking for free WordPress 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 put your computer, digital presence and even your entire business at risk.

The WordPress.org directory is not only a trustworthy and reputable place to download themes for your WP site, but it also uses a review team to review and ensure that each theme uploaded to the directory complies with their quality and security standards.

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

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

Find Free Themes Inside Your Own WordPress Dashboard

Useful Tip: You can easily browse through every theme in the WordPress theme directory and not only find what you are looking for, but also easily install and activate it directly from within your WordPress dashboard with only a couple of clicks.

Use The Theme Filtering

WordPress provides a filtering function inside the dashboard area that lets you narrow down your search for themes based on criteria like Colors, Layout and Features …

This makes it easy to find what you are looking for. For example, you could search for themes with predominantly blue color design, with a three-column layout and a full-width template, or themes that support custom menus, etc.

Note: in the post where we discuss the importance of choosing “responsive” WP themes, we explained how responsive themes allow your site to be viewed without problems across all devices (e.g. the laptops, tablets and smartphones used by visitors to browse your web content) …

It’s a good idea to use responsive themes, and the WordPress theme filter lets you search across its entire database of free themes …

… and bring up only themes that are “responsive” …

Pros & Cons Of Using Free Themes

The obvious “pro” to using free themes is that there is no cost to download and use the theme. 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 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 urgent support, especially if they are not getting paid. Many free 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 over 1 year since any updates were last made, then think twice 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, 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 theme you downloaded for free 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 themes in the WordPress theme directory and how to narrow down your search for themes that meet your specific criteria, it’s time to turn our attention to premium WordPress themes.

Paid 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 ongoing support, you can search through the WordPress theme galleries of the “Premium” theme design agencies listed below:

Theme Marketplaces

ThemeForest

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

ThemeForest allows many professional WP theme designers to showcase their designs through their online marketplace. There are over 17,000 premium WP themes to choose from (some starting from as little as $3) …

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

If you visit the ThemeForest theme directory, you will be able to browse for specific themes in various categories, such as:

• Blog/Magazine – themes for general blogs and political blogs, etc.
• Corporate – themes suitable for business sites and marketing purposes.
• Creative – themes suitable for portfolios, kindle book authors, etc.
• Directory Listings – themes that suit sites related to travel, buy & sell, 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 music and bands blogs, nightlife, etc.
• Mobile – e.g. responsive 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 beauty products, trades or professionals (repairers, legal practitioners, etc.)
• Technology – themes related to software, affiliate marketing, seo, product reviews, direct sales, etc.
• Wedding – e.g. themes for wedding sites and wedding advice blogs
• Miscellaneous – themes suitable for writing or discussing political 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 sends you theme update notifications)

Go here to discover great themes in the ThemeForest themes site:

• ThemeForest

Creative Market

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

Creative Market is another leading WP theme directory where you can search through many 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 marketplace, but you can easily find themes for WordPress and search through their theme categories (e.g. Magazine or Business themes, etc.) from their dropdown “Themes” menu …

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

• Creative Market

Mojo Themes

(click on the above images to browse more 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 WP themes, but you can easily go through all of their themes for WordPress and narrow your search with theme categories (e.g. Responsive or eCommerce themes and theme frameworks, etc.) using the site’s dropdown “WordPress Themes” menu …

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

• Mojo Themes

Now that we have looked at WP theme aggregators, let’s take a look at commercial and independent theme design houses.

Commercial And Independent Theme Vendors

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 see more SoloStream themes)

Woo Themes

Woo Themes designs eye-catching premium themes for WordPress that are very popular and highly sought after by web users and also offer a membership option that lets you access their entire WP theme collection.

(click on the above images to browse more WooThemes themes)

StoreFront

StoreFront Themes 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 above images to see all StoreFront themes)

StudioPress

StudioPress develops WordPress themes based on a framework that allows users to quickly and easily build a professional and search optimized WordPress website, and provides an auto-updating design architecture, turn-key site designs with beautiful frames for the content and unprecedented control of the framework.

Many website developers like the Genesis framework not only because it’s well-coded and well-supported (the development team at StudioPress keeps this framework regularly updated to reflect best practices for coding and to make sure that it always remains compatible with the latest WordPress version, 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 “skins” that sit on top of the theme framework and gives your site its unique design.

If this all 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

Here are a few more useful WordPress theme-related tools worth keeping in mind:

What WordPress Theme Is That? – WordPress Theme And Plugin Search Tool

What WordPress Theme Is That? is a free online tool that allows you to easily detect what WP theme and plugins a website is using (including parent and child WP themes).

This is a great resource if you ever 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 whether a site uses WordPress or not, we have published a a great tutorial that shows you how to tell whether or not a website uses WordPress: Is It A WP Web Site?

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 a site was built using WordPress software, but it will also list the WordPress theme being used by the site and list any WP plugins detected.

• To use the tool go here: What WordPress Theme Is That.com
• To learn more about using this tool go here: Is My Website Built With WordPress? Tell-Tale Signs & WordPress-Checking Tools

Theme Authenticity Checker - WP Plugin

A word of warning: When choosing FREE themes for your WordPress site, we recommend sticking with the approved themes listed in the official WordPress theme repository.

A commonly-used method employed by many hackers and cyber criminals is to put up websites offering “Free” themes for WordPress all over the web and distribute themes with malicious code embedded in their files. In fact, some of these sites even display 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 themes from the official WordPress.org directory, or use established and reputable sites.

If you are in doubt about whether a WordPress theme that you have installed on your blog could be infected with malware or unwanted code, you can 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 presents you with a report with the results …

(TAC Report Page – Screenshot Source: Plugin)

I hope that you have found the information on how to find the best free and premium themes for WordPress useful.

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